'Security' continues to dominate congressional agenda.

• Position: Federal Focus - Review of congressional activity in 2002

Although the first session of the 108th Congress will look almost the same as the first session of the 107th Congress, it will reflect a radically changed nation and political climate. President Bush began his first term with an evenly divided Senate, nominally under Republican control, and a House of Representatives with a clear, but slim Republican majority. In 2003, President Bush again faces a Senate almost evenly divided and under Republican control and a House of Representatives anxious to advance his legislative agenda. But while the political landscape has not changed greatly, the nation and the governmental mandates are radically different.

According to Election Day 2000 exit polls, a majority of Americans said that government should do less and not more. And they were pretty divided on which issues and government programs they thought mattered most. But no one issue animated voters. Since the early 1990s, the percentage of Americans concerned about major problems facing the country declined pretty much across the board. Most noticeable was the decline in the percentage of Americans who named the economy as the most important problem. Nearly two-thirds did in 1992; just before the 2000 election only 3 percent did. The trend was similar for health care. Later in the 1990s, concerns about the deficit, drugs and crime also dropped.

A confluence of events changed this calculus. The attacks of September 11, 2001, recession (albeit a brief one), and burgeoning accounting and governance scandals at several major American corporations captured the attention of Americans and focused their attention on one theme in particular: security.

2002 in Review

National security. Homeland security. Economic security. Investor security. Lawmakers, it seemed, laced their rhetoric in 2002 with "security" more than any other word. Other legislation on key issues--prescription drugs, patients' rights, energy policy, etc.--fell by the wayside in a year when Congress remained preoccupied with terrorism and the possibility of war with Iraq.

Although the second session had its own surprises, including accounting scandals at major corporations and a corresponding meltdown in the stock market, the fight against terrorism dominated the agenda. Many of the bills that passed in 2002 sought to either prevent future attacks or enhance emergency preparedness. The final list of achievements shows a federal government eager to defend against unseen threats at home and abroad. Perennial debates over health care, abortion and bankruptcy sputtered to an inconclusive end and were put on hold until the 108th Congress.

The landmark law of the year initiated the largest government reorganization in a half-century. Bogged down in a political fight over personnel policy, the measure creating a Homeland Security Department (PL 107-296) almost fell victim to a partisan standoff. But when the November elections yielded future control of the Congress to Republicans, the bill was quickly enacted as President Bush requested.

Other bills were more narrowly focused. Congress created an independent commission to investigate government failures associated with the 9/11 attacks (PL 107-36) and established a federal backstop for insurers for significant losses resulting from terrorism. The law also...