This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon (Les AuCoin), as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist.  This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.  I could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that is what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions lie.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

Wall Street Journal editorial writers had a field day when the U.S. Senate passed what was called an “omnibus” funding bill.

Here is what they wrote under this headline:  “Congress’ Omnibus Is $1.7 Trillion and 4,155 Pages:”

“With lawmakers eager to head home for the holidays, Congress unveiled an omnibus spending package that must be seen to be believed.  Besides a $1.7 trillion price tag, the bill includes changes to the Electoral Count Act, aid for Ukraine, a ban on TikTok on government devices, tweaks to Medicaid rules, and new FDA powers over cosmetics.  

“Is this really how Congress should be doing business?”

That strikes me as a good question, but I will demur from further commentary on an action in Congress that I watched from afar.

I add that the Senate-passed bill is under consideration in the U.S. House where its fate is far from certain as Republicans may choose to wait until they take control before deciding what to do.

But, in all of this, my thoughts went to behind-the-scenes – and, of course, I wasn’t there either in Washington, D.C.

But I think about the bill writers in the back rooms who had to translate the complicated piece of legislation into words that would fit within federal statutes – and had to do in a matter of just a few days, perhaps even hours.

And, what they got stuck doing consumed more than 4,000 pages.  Must have been several long nights at the keyboard.

My thoughts went in this direction because of my 25 years as a lobbyist, albeit in Oregon, not Washington, D.C.  Here, I knew that a band of lawyers in the Legislative Counsel’s Office at the State Capitol would stay up nights turning legislative action into statutory language.

Not 4,000 pages, probably, but still a lot of work.

One aside.  When I or my clients wanted to introduce a piece of legislation in Salem, we had to resort to this process:  We had to get what was called “a note from mother,” which was a note from a legislator authorizing a bill to be drafted.  The note would then to go to the Legislative Counsel’s Office.

Why this circuitous route?  The answer was the Legislative Counsel’s Office function as lawyers for legislators, not for lobbyists or their clients.  So, we had to get the note. 

Then, the lawyers in the Counsel’s Office would draft the proposed bill.  They were the only one’s authorized to do so.

Back to the federal omnibus bill.  My thoughts also went to its length.  Would senators have the time or attention span to read all of it before voting?  Probably not.

So, it stands as a comparison to the action several years ago in Congress to pass the Affordable Care Act, which came to be called ObamaCare.

The text was so long that none other than House Speaker Nancy Pelosi admitted she had not read the bill as she prevailed on House members to vote for it.

Still, wherever they are, in Salem or Washington, D.C., my sympathy rests with those who get stuck with writing the details of complicated pieces of legislation.