are receiving what amounts to interestfreernshort-term loans.” Sucli statements,rnwhich stand in sharp contrast to laterrnones by the Speaker and other Housernmembers, were stricken from the finalrndraft of the GAO’s report, hi addition,rnthe Speaker’s wife may have played arnpart in obstructing an earlier investigationrnof the post office’s misdeeds.rnThe abolition of congressional perks,rntrumpeted loudly last March, was quietlyrnreconsidered in May. A few perksrnhave been eliminated or modified, allowingrnmembers to claim broadlv thatrnaction has been taken on the perk issue.rnBut according to staff members of thernHouse Administration Committee, “notrnmuch has happened.” Een cosmeticrnlegislation to reform the House patronagernsystem largely responsible for thernscandals has languished. Passed in timernfor members to face their constituentsrnover the last Easter recess, it has still notrnbeen acted upon. Neither of the newrnpositions created by the bill, a “HousernDirector of Non-Legislative and FinancialrnServices” and a House hispectorrnGeneral, has been filled. This pattern ofrnpromises now, personal benefits later,rneerily parallels most congressional ac-rnLIBERALrntion on the budget in recent vears.rnThe House, moreover, has shown lessrnzeal for “cleaning house” than for grindingrnold political axes. While the Housernrefused to set up a probe of its own postrnoffice scandal, it approved a plan for arn$2.5 million investigation into the Reaganrncampaign of 198(1. Unable to contendrnwith the plank in its own eye,rnCongress wants to look for a sliver inrnsomeone else’s. The House ethics panelrninvestigating the check-bouncingrnscandal found that about 350 membersrnhave bounced checks oer the past threernvears, with some 50 bouncing at leastrn$100,000 each. Many members thenrnproceeded to lie about their involvementrnwith the bank once the scandal broke.rnClearly unable to manage events underrnits own roof. Congress neverthelessrnattempts to manage the lives of ordinaryrnAmericans. Congress has increasinglyrnused “mandates,” precise instructions tornstates and businesses, to accomplish itsrnends. In this wav, it claims action on issuesrnwhile avoiding the cjuestion of costsrnh’ shoving them onto others. Congressrnalso includes minutiae in its legislation,rnfrom naming the “Joseph Ralph SasserrnBoat Ramp” at river mile 752.5 in Shcl-rnARTSrnVALUE-FREE EDUCATIONrnFrom a fourth-grade spelling test celebrating Columbus Day in Chapel Hill, NorthrnCarolina:rnThcv [the Indians! were called S/VwXCl’], and because they were all killed in arnshort period of time hy disease and slavcr>, tlieir llISiORY has almost been forgotten.rnMany Native American peoples say that the early Europeans committed culturalrnGENOCIDE when they killed all of the people in a tribe or rcmo’ed |5cople from theirrnhomelands and forced them to live in unfamiliar regions with tribes whose waysrnwere very different from tlieir own.rnThe people of the small village of Miwetok awoke late at night to soaring flames.rnThe whole village was destroed in a fiery IIOLOCAUS’i and the people were tremblingrnin terror, left cold, hungry, and homeless.rnTlie cariy Spanisli CONQVIS’lADORS CONQUERED lands which were alreadyrnoccupied, and proceeded to ANN//J/LATE and SUBjUCAi’E the native peoples,rnforcing them into slavery, or taking oer their homelands.rnSometimes the early colonists called tlie Natiye American people / /FA77 /ENS becauserntheir religion was unfamiliar to them, being neither Christian, nor Jew, norrnMo.slem.rnOften, one group will spread false rumors and PROPAGANDA about another,rntrying to sway the public to their own point of vieyy.rnby County, ‘lennessee, to establishingrnnational standards for the “maximumrnnumber of cytolog}- slides that any individualrnmav screen in a 24-hour period”rnin clinical laboratories. Big Brotherrnalso has something to say about childrncare in over 300 bills introduced inrnCongress last session.rnCongressional meddling in Americanrnlives is also accomplished by micromanagingrnexecutive-branch departments.rnThis is another way Congressrnwields power while avoiding responsibility.rnCongress required 2,311 reports,rnat the cost of millions, from the Departmentrnof Defense in 1991, on subjectsrnlike “Beach erosion at Presque Isle, Erie,rnPennsylvania” and the “Des Plains yvetlandsrndemonstration project.” Yet onernmemo to the Defense Department fromrnthe House Committee on GovernmentrnOperations addressed the deceased JohnrnTower as Secretary of Defense. At thernDepartment of Housing and UrbanrnDevelopment, abuse and corruptionrnspanned years despite the oversight ofrn111 congressional committees, annualrnreports to Congress detailing abuses, andrn2,425 phone calls a month from congressionalrnoffices. Congress did not acknoyvledgcrnthe scandal until a subcommitteernchairman read about it in thernpaper. Now it has done I lUD one betterrnby increasing funds for ad-hoc grantsrnfrom $10 million at the time the scandalrnbroke back in 1989 to $260 million forrnfiscal year 1993. ‘Lhe only difference isrnthat now it’s legal: Congress is in controlrnof the money.rnAs bungling and intrusive as congressionalrnmicromanagement can be, congressmenrnfiercely protect their executive-rnbranch turf. John Dingell, chairmanrnof the House Committee on Energy andrnCommerce, wrote to a dozerr agencyrnheads following President Bush’s moratoriumrnon regulation early last year, instructingrnthem not to comply or reviewrntheir rules, nor to consult yvith “anyonernin the executive branch about this letterrnor the content of vour reply.”rnUntil it can govern itself. Congressrncannot be expected to govern the nation.rnSenator George Mitchell admonishedrnthe Bush administration in earlyrn1992 by saving, “Those yvho seek to reformrnothers should start by reformingrnthemselves.” It is time for Congress tornheed its own words.rnSteven Schwalm is a congressionalrnanalyst at the Heritage Foundation.rn50/CHKONICLESrnrnrn