Wednesday, November 22, 2000

By DAVE HAMRICK
dhamrick@TheCitizenNews.com

With the U.S. Senate evenly divided and the House almost as evenly divided, the next two years will be difficult, admits Rep. Mac Collins.

But Collins, the Hampton Republican who represents Fayette and nine other counties, said Congress will be able to function much more effectively if George W. Bush is president.

"I would hope for more cooperation from members in both bodies," Collins said, but added that disagreements in the Senate are likely to be more rancorous than in the House. "There are more of what we call "blue dog" [moderate] Democrats in the House," he said.

"If Gore is president, then it will probably be a very difficult two years, with the minority party in Congress trying to stall and make issues out of everything for the next election," he added.

That will still be the case if Bush is president, Collins said, but the difference will be that Democrats won't have to president's veto power to use in that effort.

Many pundits have speculated that no matter who the president is, moderates in the Republican Party will be able to block deep tax cuts and other programs of their more conservative colleagues. But Collins said with the White House in Republican hands, conservatives will be able to hold out for at least some reforms.

"If we know that the White House is leaning toward coming up with a resolution to Social Security, Medicare and other problems, that's not as apt to be as much of a problem as in the past," he said.

"We could've done some things in the last two years," he added, but with a very small majority in Congress and President Bill Clinton in the White House, "it was more of a fight for the next election than an attempt to come up with solutions to issues," he said. "We did not have the cooperation from the other end of the street, and Democrats in the Congress didn't want solutions they wanted to hold out for the fall election."

There is work yet to do for the 106th Congress, Collins added. "We'll be back to work Dec. 4 and 5 to finalize the 106th Congress, handle appropriations bills and some other business. I hope that'll give everybody time to cool down, too," he said.

The outcome of the election was "a big surprise," admitted Collins, adding that most credible polls had Bush ahead by a small but comfortable margin. "The House was supposed to be iffy and the Senate was supposed to stay strong" in terms of Republican strength, he added, "but instead the House stayed solid and the Senate lost" GOP strength, he said.

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