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CNN Live At Daybreak
Wacky Legislation in Congress
Aired August 17, 2001 - 08:36 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
COLLEEN MCEDWARDS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, Capitol Hill is almost always about serious business. Just think about a patient's right to sue health insurers. But sometimes the serious starts to look a little bit absurd. Consider this: a resolution to make August 3rd National Court Reporting and Captioning Day. Or proposed legislation giving the United States an official national dance.
Well, David Silverberg is managing editor of the Hill. He joins us with some more off-the-wall legislation this morning.
David, thanks for being here.
DAVID SILVERBERG, MANAGING EDITOR, "THE HILL": Thank you very much. My pleasure.
MCEDWARDS: I want to start with one of your favorites: refurbishing the statute of the Vulcan. What's that all about?
SILVERBERG: Well, that's down in Birmingham, Alabama. There's a major statue of the Roman god Vulcan holding up a torch. And he was built in 1904 and he's getting a little old. He needs to be refurbished.
And that's all well and good. It's a very nice statue, but they want to put 1.5 million federal dollars to that purpose, and Senator John McCain called this and said it's absurd. I mean, if Birmingham wants their statue, let Birmingham pay for it. That's the kind of thing goes on.
MCEDWARDS: I guess it's when the money gets involved that people start to listen up, too, isn't it?
SILVERBERG: That's when it starts to get serious. We've got that 1.5 million for the god, Vulcan, we've got $176,000 going to a reindeer herders association out in Alaska. There's a lot of little things, but when they start to add up then you've really got to take notice and pay attention.
MCEDWARDS: Well, I have to tell you my personal favorite is the National Railroad Hall of Fame. And it's been driving me crazy all morning, because I know I've seen or heard of this somewhere because I remember thinking, I wonder who's going to be in that hall of fame. What's that about? SILVERBERG: That's to honor railroaders and everything that they've done. And they want to build this museum and they want federal dollars to help them do it. There's a whole other -- there's all kinds of honoring going on. There's an Airborne Day that Senator Strom Thurmond introduced. He wanted to honor the airborne troops. There's one for dog teams in the military to honor them. These don't necessarily involve money. These are little things that, you know, just make people happy and win points with constituents. But there's a lot of them, and there's also naming things. And one of my favorites, of course, is the making the square dance the national dance of the United States.
MCEDWARDS: Yes, tell us who's behind that.
SILVERBERG: Well, that's from Representative Jim Saxton, a Republican of New Jersey. And I guess the Square Dance Association came to him and they wanted that -- that dance made the national dance. We've gone 200 years without a national dance. I suppose we could go another 200, but he dropped it into the legislative hopper.
MCEDWARDS: Well, I guess he can count on the votes from the National Square Dance Association.
SILVERBERG: Let me tell you, that's a lot of people. I think he -- it was a good political move, if not the most sober thing that Congress has done all year.
MCEDWARDS: Well, that's the thing about this. I mean, we're chuckling about it, we're having some fun with it this morning. But you've already said, I mean, this is about pleasing constituents, this is part of the process. And as you cover it and you see this kind of goofy legislation, how does it make you feel about the institution of government?
SILVERBERG: Actually, I -- the more contact I have with Congress, the more respect I have for it, because it continues to function despite this occasional goofiness. It's when they get into money and when they start doing things that are really serious that you start to take pause. Last year Representative Bop Barr of Georgia wanted to change all the signs in the District of Columbia because they were going to National Airport and it had been renamed Reagan National Airport, and that would have cost the District a half a million dollars that it didn't have. And fortunately he was prevailed upon to withdraw that before it got serious. So you've got to keep an eye on both the serious and the silly.
MCEDWARDS: David Silverberg, we'll count on you to do that. Appreciate your time this morning. It's been a pleasure.
SILVERBERG: My pleasure.
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