Off topic: How lawmakers are to blame for COVID relief confusion
Times Editorial Board | St. Cloud Times
Despite the season, some things just shouldn't be decorated like a Christmas tree. Namely, federal spending bills.
Many are criticizing the proposed $600 COVID-19 stimulus checks that are intended to shore up crumbling family finances and business as the pandemic continues its onslaught.
Even more are appalled at what else they believe was in the $900 billion COVID relief bill, part of an omnibus package that spanned 5,593 pages of legislation — the longest bill ever.
President Trump called it a "disgrace" and said the COVID-19 relief bill "has almost nothing to do with COVID." We can quibble with "almost nothing," — billions are earmarked for paycheck assistance, housing and food support, aid to hard-hit industries, and child care and broadband improvements, all of which directly related to mitigating the effects of COVID-19 on our society.
Congress signed up for this kind of criticism and is solely to blame for fomenting confusion among the public about what's going on. These lawmakers are following the ill-advised lead of innumerable statehouses and previous Congresses by their handling of the work: bundling military spending and environmental regulations, education grants and arts spending, foreign aid and who knows what else, into a package of legislation with no rhyme or reason for it to be considered as one package.
So, contrary to your neighbor's Facebook post, the COVID-19 legislation doesn't include billions for Egypt's military or the Kennedy Center. But that spending is included in a different bill that bundled with the COVID relief, like a different car in the same train barreling down the tracks.
Confusion was inevitable. In this time of heightened economic and emotional stress across the nation, knowingly creating such uncertainty about legislation as important as the COVID relief bill is unconscionable.
The pandemic relief measures need their own vote.
Omnibus packages, like consent agendas, are appropriate for routine government business. But they're overused at the state and federal levels. Too often, legislation that would stand no chance of passing on its own becomes law because it is hung like a Christmas tree ornament on a bill that simply has be passed — like the COVID stimulus bill.
And too often, these huge packages of legislation make it impossible for even the best-intentioned lawmaker to know what he or she is actually voting on.
Obfuscation is no way to run a railroad. Legislation that can't be passed as part of a topic-specific package of reasonable scale probably shouldn't be passed.
And our lawmakers should know better.
This is the opinion of the Times Editorial Board, which includes News Director Lisa Schwarz and Content Coach Anna Haecherl.