Rowan County’s  two Republican U.S. representatives say next year’s majority in both the U.S. House and Senate could be a positive indicator of coming productivity, but say that the coming lame duck session could be exactly what its name implies — uneventful.

Congress returns to Capital Hill this week for the first time since the midterm elections, which saw a number of Democrats across the country defeated and Republicans take a majority in the Senate. North Carolina’s U.S. Senate race was perhaps the most prominent, but certainly the most expensive, with more than $100 million spent. In the race, North Carolina House Speaker Thom Tillis upset incumbent Kay Hagan by 1.64 percentage points statewide and a much larger margin in Rowan County.

Both Rep. Virginia Foxx, who represents the 5th District, and Rep. Richard Hudson, who represents the 8th District, said the Republican wins across the U.S. are positive for productivity in 2015, but added that no significant bills are likely to pass in the remaining weeks of 2014.

“I was encouraged by the results election night because I felt like the voters rewarded house Republicans for actually doing work and voters showed their displeasure with senate members who weren’t doing their work,” Hudson said. “We have 380 to 390 bills sitting on (Senate Majority Leader) Harry Reid’s desk and we can’t even get a hearing when there’s a lot of big issues the American people expect us to be addressing. I saw it as a sign that we need to get things done, solve problems, but we also need to change direction.”

Foxx said the House of Representatives has been extremely productive, despite frequent talk of gridlock in Washington. She added that the only work she expects to be accomplished are routine matters and non-controversial bills.

“It hasn’t been that they just didn’t want to take tough votes, but no votes at all,” Foxx said about previous productivity in the U.S. Senate. “Hunkering down is a bad strategy. In the House, we are going to continue to do the things we believe the American people have elected us to do. We will continue to pass bills in the House as we have for the last four years.”

A specific example of a bill that passed is the Gerardo Hernandez Airport Security Act of 2014, which was created in response to a 2013 shooting at the Los Angeles International Airport. The bill addressed preparedness for security incidents and terrorist attacks.

“We saw when that shooting happened that there were a lot of breakdowns in communication,” Hudson said. “While the men and women who responded were heroic, there were some issues. A lot of these issues we discovered and uncovered and wrote a bipartisan piece of legislation that sailed through the House unanimously and yet the Senate hasn’t had a hearing yet.”

Hudson said he’s hopeful about potential productivity in 2014, specifically saying a spending bill should be passed. For years, Congress has passed a continuing resolution instead of a new spending bill, Hudson said. A continuing resolution keeps spending levels identical from year to year.

“Are the senate Democrats, who didn’t win re-election, willing to work with us to get a spending bill done?” Hudson asked. “I hope so.”

Foxx said Congress could quickly start passing bills when newly elected Republicans start their terms in 2015. Though not a Republican, Alma Adams, a Democrat who will represent North Carolina’s 12th District, will also start a new term in January 2015. Adams, who will represent a stretch of Rowan County, will serve out the remainder of former Rep. Mel Watt’s term. Adams will be sworn in Wednesday before starting her two-year term in 2015.

An example of a major issue that could come up quickly in the next congressional term, according to Foxx, is the Keystone XL Pipeline. If approved, the pipeline would carry oil from the Canadian Province of Alberta through the Great Plains region and down to Port Arthur, Texas.

“Things will move very quickly,” Foxx said. “We’ve worked very closely with the Republicans in the Senate. I know that we are going to be prepared when the session opens to move bills in both houses.”

 

Contact reporter Josh Bergeron at 704-797-4246