north as boston. the it ll be windy and snowy. we ll talk about that too coming up. what a mess. a lot of people enjoying this day, at least, on christmas day. they ll have a tough time trying to get home. birmingham, congratulations. yeah, it s coming. thank you so much. we ll check in with her again. i want to turn here for a bit to a little politics. had a flurry on capitol hill. congress wrapping up business before the christmas break. lame duck sessions, last one for many retiring or who were voted out of office. no one sitting on their hands necessarily, though. look at the list of things they did get done. the tax cuts deal, of course, don t ask, don t tell, that repeal went through. the s.t.a.r.t. nuclear treaty went through, the health care for 9/11 first responders, also a food safety bill. did not get movement, though, on the dream act and also on a particular spending bill. the senate majority leader chalked it up to good cooperation.
of count, punt and everybody goes home. there have been exceptions including the house impeachment of president clinton in december of 1998. there were no lame duck session from 1954-1970. if congress did convene after election it was for a specific purpose like passing a spending bill. since 1998, there have been seven lame duck sessions in a row. prior to that, the record for consecutive lame duck sessions was three. during world war ii. among the legislation is deal with republicans for bush era tax cut and repeal of don t ask, don t tell. also legislation on child nutrition. nuclear arms treaty with russia. why the big push? numbers game. this is best time democrats could do what they had to do while they still had the vote. republicans take over of the house.
package, turned out to be a false alarm and clearly things are tense here and it comes two days after there was a bomb scare, on the rome subway, that happenings near the rebibbia station and nobody has taken responsibility for any of these and police say, guessing that their first guess now is italian anarchists organizations, though there is really no confirmation of that, at this time. gregg? gregg: greg burke live in rome, thanks very much. the calm before the storm on capitol hill as the beltway clears out for what could be a new era in congress. lawmakers going home, with a heap of pressing issues to chew on over the holidays. wrapping up some unfinished business, late last night, ending one of the most frenzied lame duck sessions in recent memory.
greta: how is lame duck different behind the scenes from the other part of the session? if you want my real opinion, the lame duck is awful. in my opinion it is unconstitutional. the 20th amendment passed in 1933 was meant to eliminate all future lame duck sessions. congress didn t want to see happen what is happening now. consider, we are doing all of the spending the tax bill, nuclear disarmament treaty, don t ask, don t tell, they are trying to do amnesty for illegal aliens, all in a couple weeks. a year s worth of work after the voters spoke at the polls. the people spoke, they don t want what is being passed in congress. we shouldn t be doing this. is it is the 20th amendment to the constitution. greta: because you didn t do it before the election. why aren t republicans screaming a little more? i was. greta: okay, how were you screaming?
they ll get anything done with lend see graham. bill: these people have memories, too. one fifth of the people in the lame duck session are looking for a new job, leaving voluntarily or voted out of office. as you know it s not the greatest job market in the world now. bill: trent lott used to say he hated the lame duck sessions, the professor from ruckers says it s a combination of a wedding and a funeral. i think. lame is an apt description for it. i remember when i was secretary to president bush during the 2006 lame duck we passed an energy bill. so things can get done. everything builds up. but it shouldn t work this way. one of the reasons that harry reid suffered the defeat on the omnibus, he didn t do the type of work you would do in the normal course of a year, which is have the spending bills called up and voted on, he waited, then tried to jam it and he lost. that s a really big defeat for him. bill: thank you for being patient and sitting through the signing at the whit