Over at OpenLeft, Chris Bowers is kicking off his Progressive Legislation project with a very useful document. "I have looked over the 224 bills introduced to the House, and referred to committee, on Tuesday," he writes. "After removing bills introduced by Republicans, bills that only ask for commissions or studies, and bills that are hopeless parochially for a blog and an organization with a national audience, 47 remained. You can view them here." That link downloads the pdf file, and it's worth browsing through. Bowers then goes on to work through various strategies progressives should take in their congressional oversight and organizing. "At the outset of the project, I think we should aim high, rather than limiting our possibilities in advance," he says, giving particular notice to Pete Stark's Americare health reform act (which is best thought of as equidistant between Obama and single-payer). "At the same time, perhaps our best chance to pass legislation will come from small, smart, targeted bills. This includes, for example, H.R. 106, Chaka Fattah's bill to increase tax deductions on higher education expenses, or H.R. 179, Jose Serrano's bill to allow federal syringe exchange programs," he continues. The nice thing about the interwebs, of course, is that you can do both. Lots of bandwidth! But the latter is certainly likelier to result in concrete improvements in people's lives. The netroots should work hard on health care, but on that issue, they're one small voice among many loud ones. That's no reason not to join the chorus, but the impact will be subtle. On these smaller bills, though, even a bit of attention and organizing can make a huge difference in their prospects. There's a certain category of legislation that's both good and could easily pass if brought to a vote, but it never comes to a vote because it never gets prioritized. Few in Congress really care for the issue there's no strong interest group able to generate interest on the bill's behalf. The netroots could act as such an interest group, serving as mobile advocates for good legislation that would otherwise languish for lack of loud advocates, and do a lot of good.
