CONGRESS SCRAMBLES TO FINISH ITS WORK

Remember all the friendly unity that descended over Washington, D.C., when battling legislators and key administration officials reached a compromise on balancing the federal budget? After government was slowed down a couple of times, the budget agreement was hailed as a new era of working together to achieve ends that were good for all Americans.

Well, that sense of pulling together for the good of the country lasted -- what, several hours?

Now Congress is facing any number of deadlines in its efforts to adjourn for the year. One of those deadlines is today, when funding authority for some federal agencies expires. Another is a plan to allocate federal funds for highway programs. Still another is the urgency at least some freshmen members of Congress feel about gearing up their re-election efforts for next year's voters.

A list of issues remaining to be decided in Congress is long. Here is a sampling: Military spending, nominations to key federal posts, tax breaks for education-related expenses, nuclear waste disposal, campaign financing, fast-track trade negotiating authority, student testing standards and a proposal for census sampling (rather than an actual head count) in 2000.

In some cases, congressional negotiators are offering short-term fixes. For example, Democrats who are balking at the highway spending bill have offered a six-month plan, which means the whole issue would be back on the table next spring.

Most of the gridlock on congressional action is the result of power plays. One party uses one issue as leverage for something else. And the other party uses still another piece of legislation as hostage for something else. The holdup on judicial appointments is a contest between Republican senators who must approve confirmation and the White House, which is pushing all sorts of silly plans -- based on whatever mood Americans are in based on the latest poll.

In some respects, a stalled Congress might be considered better than lawmakers who act willy-nilly on key issues.

But in the end, Americans expect some sort of leadership that recognizes many issues that Congress must tend to cross all political boundaries. It is in these cases that congressional leaders of both parties -- and the White House -- must step up to the responsibilities of their successful election campaigns.

One good case in point: The whole nation depends on good highways. To trap the allocation of federal highway dollars in a maze of political squabbling isn't going to fix very many potholes or shore up very many bridges -- real or figurative.