The curtain has closed on the first act of the 106th Congress with some progress, but with many important issues that Americans care about still unresolved. From the Patients' Bill of Rights to minimum wage to campaign finance reform, this Congress has delayed tackling some of the major issues that dominated the session.

While the "big ticket" items such as gun safety, minimum wage or prescription drug benefit for Medicare made little progress, this session finally came to an end with the passage of a gigantic Omnibus Budget Bill that wrapped $396 billion of spending into one bill.

There were some important accomplishments in this gigantic budget bill. After a seven-week delay in passing a budget, Congress finally agreed to provide money for 100,000 new teachers, additional funding so we can work towards hiring 50,000 new police officers, funding for the Wye Island Peace Accords for the Middle East, and money to help pay off our debt to the United Nations.

Locally, I am extremely pleased that several important initiatives I had proposed became law. We were able to continue funding for Baltimore Medical Systems for at least two more years. This Medicare pilot program provides 12,000 low-income East Baltimore seniors with health care, including prescription drugs and eyeglasses which are usually not covered by Medicare.

I am also very pleased that the final bill included $250,000 in funds I had requested for Baltimore Reads' after-school tutoring program for children who need extra help. Federal support for successful local initiatives like the Baltimore Reads program is one of the ways the federal government can be a valuable partner to local education.

As leading Democrat on the Human Resources Subcommittee, I worked with Rep. Nancy Johnson, R-CT, to make it easier for states to access welfare-to-work funds for those who are moving off welfare. My bill will allow states better access to welfare-to-work funds so that the hard-core unemployed can receive job training and counseling in order to enter the workforce.

Congress also approved legislation I sponsored for additional funding for foster care children who are aging out of the system. In the future, foster care children between ages 18 and 21 will get "life skills" support so they can learn such basic skills as how to balance a checkbook or rent an apartment. Without this help, many will have difficulty becoming productive, contributing citizens.

One of the most important accomplishments of this session was to undo some of the unintended consequences of the 1997 Balanced Budget Act. In 1997, Congress approved a number of changes designed to reduce Medicare costs. Those changes resulted in significantly greater reductions in Medicare spending than had been anticipated, or intended.

For instance, one of the changes placed a $1,500 cap on outpatient rehabilitation services per patient per year, placing a burden on many patients who suffer from debilitating illnesses. This year, Congress approved a two-year moratorium on the $1,500 outpatient rehabilitation caps until a plan can be developed that is more sensitive to patients' needs. Another unintended consequence was a serious reduction in payments to skilled nursing homes. Congress also restored funding so that frail elderly patients in nursing homes can get the appropriate level of care.

When Congress resorts to passing an Omnibus Bill to keep government running, it means that members have failed to work together and the result is legislative failure. Next year will be an election year with the potential for legislators to be more preoccupied with scoring political points rather than developing public policy initiatives. But issues such as Social Security, gun safety, campaign finance reform, Patients' Bill of Rights, prescription drugs for Medicare recipients and the minimum wage will not go away.

The American people want Congress to set aside partisan concerns and tackle the issues that they care about.