Congressional Delegation Debate Moves To End Recession WASHINGTON, D.C. (wypr) - Democratic leaders recently gathered high-profile economists and experts to get their advice on how to move forward; for a sense of where the economy is, Baltimore Congressman Elijah Cummings tunes in the voices from home.

TAPE: (20 SECONDS)
IC: When they can't go on vacation - not necessarily from Maryland to Disney World but from Maryland to Kings Dominion or Ocean City, that's a problem. When they have to worry not that they can get steak, but whether they can even have hamburger for dinner, that's -- those are problems.

On the heels of the President's news conference this week on the economy, Maryland Congressman and House majority leader Steny Hoyer took the podium alongside fellow Democrats. America is not a nation of whiners, he said.

TAPE: (10 SECONDS)
IC: We believe that America is a nation of winners, but even winners need sound leadership and honest policies.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke spent two days on the Hill this week, detailing an interconnected morass of turmoil in the financial, housing and energy markets. Democrats place blame squarely on Bush Administration policies. Hoyer and others are becoming increasingly specific in outlining plans of their own.

TAPE: (9 SECONDS)
IC: We're going to pursue, as we did, extended unemployment if it's needed: benefits for workers who've lost their jobs.

Democrats - including Cummings - are also talking up the possibility of a second stimulus package. It would include things like road and bridge projects to create jobs for laid-off workers.
For speedy relief at the pump, Maryland's Chris Van Hollen dismissed calls for off-shore drilling. He says it's time to tap into the country's emergency supply.

TAPE: (10 SECONDS)
IC: To reduce some oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve is the one thing that could have some immediate impact. And the President has the authority TODAY.

Democrats say the oil would hit the market in less than two weeks.
When it comes to energy policy, Maryland lawmakers don't always toe party lines. Hagerstown Congressman Roscoe Bartlett is quick to confront his Republican colleagues:

TAPE: (8 SECONDS)
IC: I have ten kids, sixteen grandkids and 2 great-grandkids. And if we drill ANWR tomorrow, what do we do the day after tomorrow?

That said, Bartlett disputes the Democrats' claims that oil companies are sitting on unused leases in order to keep prices high. He DOES favor aggressive conservation as a way to buy time to further develop alternative sources.

So far this year, more than 15-thousand Maryland households face foreclosure. Over the weekend the government took emergency steps to temporarily extend federally-backed credit lines for the nation's biggest mortgage lenders. Bartlett, for one, is critical of that approach.

TAPE: (13 SECONDS)
IC: I think trying to bail out (maybe that's not the right word) Fannie May and Freddie Mac - is the equivalent of the housewife continuing to remove the cobwebs and never going out of the spider that makes them.

In the waning months before an election, Congress is doing business in a climate of open partisan name-calling and closed back-room negotiations. What lawmakers likely will do in the days and weeks ahead: come to terms over increased regulation of mortgage lenders and energy market speculators. Any sweeping changes in legislative direction will have to wait until a new Administration takes office.

That part is largely up to voters.

I'm Elizabeth Wynne Johnson reporting in Washington for Capitol News Connection on 88-1, WYPR.

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