Congresspedia Review: Last Week in Congress (July 27–Aug. 2, 2008)

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In this final week before members of Congress head home for their August "work session" (read: campaign recess), they passed a major consumer safety bill (a delayed response to the Chinese toy scares) and slightly more help for college students borrowing to make tuition. Sen. Ted Stevens was also indicted and President Bush signed the major housing bill.

With almost unanimous support in the House, and with very strong support in the Senate, Congress this week approved a reform of the nation's consumer safety laws. The Consumer Product Safety Modernization Act would tighten regulations on a number of consumer goods, including children's toys, while providing additional resources for the Consumer Product Safety Commission to enforce them.

Under the reforms, lead would be prohibited except in the smallest measurable amounts, and a group of softening agents in plastic called phthalates would also be more closely regulated. Three phthalates are banned outright in the bill, while another three have been temporarily blacklisted pending further investigation.

Congress also has given the CPSC greater control of safety features in all-terrain vehicles. According to the commission, there were 555 ATV-related deaths in 2006, and more than 146,000 injuries.

With so much more responsibility and authority, CPSC will require additional resources. To that end, Congress authorized $626 million over five years, including funding to increase its full-time staff to 500 employees by 2013.

Congress also made a rare - but extremely modest - increase in college aid with the passage of the College Opportunity and Affordability Act of 2007 this week. The act will raise the maximum Pell Grant from $5,800 to $8,000 over the next 7 years and drastically overhauls the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, the byzantine application almost all students fill out prior to attending college.

There are a number of other provisions that would help students: a debt-forgiveness program for graduates who take on high-demand public-service jobs; more money for colleges and institutions with a large minority enrollment; and requirements for a Web site displaying tuition costs for schools across the country, highlighting those that increase costs more than five percent.

In the week's most shameful moment, Republican Sen. Ted Stevens (Alaska) was arraigned in federal district court on Thursday. Stevens, as we noted earlier this week, was indicted Tuesday on seven felony counts of making false statements. Following the indictment, Stevens stepped down as the leading Republican on several committees in accordance with Senate Republican rules.

Stevens, the longest-serving Republican in the Senate and a fixture on Alaska's political scene since 1968, said he is innocent of the crimes. He requested an expedited trial date in September, which would give him plenty of time to campaign for the November election if he a) wins the August 26 primary, and b) is acquitted of the charges.

Finally, President Bush signed the housing crisis bill on Wednesday morning. The bill creates several new programs to help homeowners at risk of foreclosure, but most estimates indicate that the housing slump will effect far more borrowers than the bill can address.