Congress gets an incomplete grade going into election

WASHINGTON -- Congress has wrapped up, but it hasn't crossed off everything on the to-do list.

The Republican incumbents reapplying for their jobs in the House and Senate will have some explaining to do on the campaign trail. They cannot blame all the unfinished business on Democrats. Not with one of their own in the White House. Or with 11 years of uninterrupted GOP control of the House. Or with the Senate, for all but two of those years, run by Republicans.

Bills in limbo include:

* The House and Senate could not reconcile differences over legislation allowing the warrantless wiretapping of suspected terrorists.

* Spending bills for annually funded programs other than defense and security are unfinished, delaying planned spending increases for veterans' health care.

* Congress did not renew tax breaks that expired at the end of 2005, including deductions for tuition, teachers' classroom expenses and state and local sales taxes, and a research and development credit for businesses.

* The House and Senate could not compromise on immigration and border security bills.

* Efforts to merge House and Senate bills expanding offshore drilling failed.

* The House and Senate responded to lobbying scandals by passing ethics bills, but they could not reconcile their differences.

* New York and New Jersey senators blocked Senate action authorizing $2.1 billion for victims of HIV/AIDS because the proposal would shift aid from urban to rural areas.

* Senate Democrats blocked a final vote on a bill that would make it a crime for anyone but a parent to take a girl across state lines to obtain an abortion. The bill also says physicians who performed abortions in those cases would be subject to criminal penalties.