Congress has wrapped up its work prior to the election and members of Missouri’s delegation are home or will soon be back in the state. Senator Jim Talent is both pleased and disappointed with the just concluded session. Talent is particularly happy with the approval of tax cut extensions and the prescription drug benefit for senior citizens. But he’s disappointed so many bills that sailed through the House of Representatives died in the Senate because of filibusters. Talent says in addition to denying judicial nominees up or down votes, filibusters stood in the way of important pieces of legislation, including an energy bill to help the country deal with those ever-rising pump prices. Talent says the U.S. Senate has become the Roach Motel of legislative ideas because they check in but they don’t check out.
