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Show The Salt Lake Tribune, Congress Sel Record For Laws Do-Nothi- Bv Bill Iclersun uleiidur else The concerned laws to disease than anything WASHINGTON Lawmakers voted for 'Lupus " WASHINGTON You wont hour anyone on Capitol Hill brugg.ng about ii. bin before Congress went home lur l hr holidays. lawmakers set record of sorts They fussed more jlaws that do less than any similar year sinee 1977 Seventy percent of the 189 public laws passed by Congress in 198a were not substantive, according to a list compiled bv the Senate Democratic folicy Committee Awareness Week Benign Essential Blepharospasm Awareness" Week" "National Diabetes Month ' National Digestive Diseases Awareness Week,' "National Sudden Infant Death Syndrome Awareness Month." "Mv asthenia Gravis Week " National Downs Syndrome Month." "National Osteoporosis Awareness Week" "National Alopecia Areata Awaieness Week. "National Reyes Syndrome Week" "National Disease Month." 'National Blood Pressure Awareness Week" and "National Spina Bifida Month" such or admin-istiativ- e matters as "National Sewing Month' (September), reaffirming solidarity with Mexico, naming the courthouse in Ashland, Ky . for the late representative Carl D Perkins, D Ky , and deciding not to print the official documents recording the increase in the public debt on parchment paper By contrast. 17 percent ol the laws passed by Congress in 1977 were nonsubstantive or administrative. 27 percent in 1979. 42 percent in 1981 and 53 percent in 1983. according to the policy committee list The Senate, once considered "the world's greatest deliberative body." recorded another dubious distinction this year. According to figures compiled by Sen David IL Pryor, the body spent 367 hours this year in quorum and roll calls. This amounts to three months of 40 hour weeks of weighty" At) U.S. Comptroller: Billions in Tax Dollars Lost in Governments Accounting System ng Wjslunglun Iosi Writer December 26, l')R,j Thursday, - (AP) result in wasteful spending, poor management and losses involving billions of dollars," Comptroller General Charles A Bowsher said "The weaknesses also have made outr.ght fraud more feasible." Congres- sional investigators have found that billions of taxpayer dollars are lost or mismanaged through the failure of more than half of the government's 427 accounting systems to meet federal requirements "The major problems so far remain largely unchanged, the General Accounting Office said W ednesday, three years after Congress passed the Financial Integrity Act to curb fraud, waste and abuse in government "Widespread and often weaknesses and breakdowns in agency internal controls continue to While most of the agencies found problems with their own accounting systems, their reports to Congress and the White House often do not mention them and thus do not provide an "accurate, clear assessment" of their over-al- l status, the GAO said in the report timed for release on Christmas Day The investigators said serious in Of the 427 accounting systems e g Sen, David Prjor No Ones Fault' ternal control problems continue in a wide range of areas, including weapons procurement, Social Security and the collection of education, small business and other gov eminent loans "Overcharges for goods and ser vices, cost overruns, overpayments, the purchase of faulty equipment and a host of problems related directly Vt inadequate government internal coc S. trol and accounting systems erode the publics confidence in grs2-ernment," the GAO said by 18 federal cited agencies. 226 wo non-wor- k Lucerne Fresh "1 think we're spending a lot of time basically doing nothing, Pryor said "It's like sitting at an airport waiting for hours for a late plane "We're simply spending more and more time doing less and less. he added. Statistics appear to substantiate this. The Senate was in session 1.243 hours in 1985. or 32 weeks of 40 hours each, according to the policy committee. This is 233 more hours in session than 1983 and 166 more hours than aDDonn MiiDk 1981. . The Senate spent 367 hours. 15 minutes in quorum calls, a device once meant to bring a majority to the floor for a vote but generally used by senators when they want to stall And 140 hours, 12 minutes were spent in roll calls, with much of the time devoted to waiting for senators to arrive on the floor, consult with colleagues and then answer with a yes or no. Put another way. the Senate spent about one hour in four marking time in 1985 Pryor doesn't blame the Senate's Republican leadership. "It is no one's fault. It's the times. We accommodate one another too much and don't show any Everyone is partially to blame." Pryor said. lie and Sen. John C. Danforth, head a group of dissatisfied senators who began meeting informally in October to discuss procedural problems. "Danforth calls it the Caucus. I call it the FrusCaucus." tration or Quality-of-Strif- e Pryor said Senators, in an extraordinary private session Dec. 5, informally agreed to four procedural moves, including limiting each roll call to 15 minutes, designed to improve what has Sen. Thomas F. Eagleton. called "the state of incipient anarchy" in the body. More changes are expected next year. "Momentum is building for a significant reform movement," said political scientist Norman J. a specialist on Congress at the American Enterprise Institute. The number of laws passed each year has decreased dramatically the past four decades, Ornstein said. "It has become harder to get substantive bills through Congress, but easier to ones." get To judge by the laws it passed. Congress operated best this year in playto ing with the calendar. It seemed find a day. a week, a month or even a whole year for almost everyone. It passed one law for "Made in America Month," another for "World Food Day." another for "National Emplov the Older Worker Week" and still another for "Oil Heat Centennial Year. Congress took care of the future Month" with a "National High-Tecand the past with a "Daughters of Veterans of the Civil War day. There was a Heritage Month" law, a "Jewish Heritage Week" law and a "Baltic Freedom o Cornish Raw Large Game Hens Green Shrimp Cauliflower . Orn-stei- U S D A Grade Fresh Solid Heads 36 to 40 Court A Washington State Pears Danjou and Sweet Fresh $ lb. Extra Holiday Savings 00UBLH C0UP0W3 Everyday, now thru December 31st, 1985 18 Count Eggs AA Sliced Bread Lucerne Large Ovenjoy White or Wheat Juice Orange Frozen Minute Maid SMS S' 18 ct. 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