Polls show that the gap between Republicans and Democrats nationwide has been narrowing, especially since the revelation that British and Pakistani security authorities had successfully foiled an Islamist terror plot to bomb U.S. civilian airliners flying from Europe.

Yet experts have noted that a large number of important bills widely regarded as crucial for beefing up U.S. homeland security in critical areas were left languishing in Congress for weeks and even months before the summer recess.

Before the recess, Congressional Republicans did give priority to fast-tracking the annual Defense Appropriations Bill for Fiscal Year 2007. It was Senate Democrats who objected to some of the key -- and most expensive -- provisions in that piece of legislation. And it was their opposition that delayed final work on the bill until the fall.

But GOP congressional leaders kept their sense of urgency for the Pentagon's shopping list and did not accord the same fast-track priorities to homeland security issues on their agenda.

On Aug. 3, Chris Strom noted in Congress Daily that the conflicting versions of U.S. Senate and House of Representatives legislation on at least four major homeland security areas remained unresolved. Congressional conferences to reconcile the different versions of these important pieces of legislation have been delayed until the fall and months of delays have accrued on them.

"The House and Senate have yet to go to conference on several major pieces of legislation, including port security, chemical security, reorganizing the Federal Emergency Management Agency and an authorization bill for the Homeland Security Department," Strom wrote.

"I think it's inexcusable that Congress has failed to pass this legislation and that, generally speaking, (congressional oversight) has been so spotty and ineffective," Clark Kent Ervin, who served as the first Homeland Security inspector general, told Congress Daily. "If I were to give a grade, it would be a D-minus."

The issues Strom noted are all major ones. There are more than 120 major chemical facilities in the United States where a successful terrorist attack and release of toxic materials could threaten more than a million people.

The security threat is recognized as comparable to that facing nuclear power stations. Upgrading federal standards for port security and funding the purchase, deployment and operation of far more effective detection equipment at hundreds of ports around the nation is similarly recognized as long overdue and extremely important.

But that legislation is languishing too. The 2006 hurricane season has arrived and the congressional proposal to streamline and revive the deeply troubled the Federal Emergency Management Agency is in similar condition.

But so far, this casual attitude has not hurt the GOP at the polls. A handful of prominent Democrats, most notably Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., have campaigned with it. Schumer in particular has highlighted chemical security issues in his re-election campaign. But the national media has not picked up on the issue outside New York state.

Decades ago, the legislative track record of specific Congresses could trigger national awareness and prove the critical issue in deciding national political campaigns. Democratic President Harry S. Truman campaigned against the Republican-controlled 80th Congress in 1948, blasting it as a "do-nothing" Congress. That strategy proved crucial to his come-from-behind surprise victory.

However, in recent times, despite the easy access to detailed information about congressional legislation and political developments on the Internet, and the unprecedented access to congressional debates and hearings afforded by C-SPAN, the U.S. public seems less interested in the nuts and bolts of crafting and pushing through federal legislation than ever before.

Strom in his Aug. 3 analysis noted that the odds were still good that the port security, chemical security and FEMA reorganization measures would all be passed and signed into law before the November elections.

All of those bills had already been approved by the House and Senate homeland security committees and the differences between the House and Senate versions of them in each case were very small, his report noted. Therefore the reconciliation conferences on all three of them were expected to reach agreement rapidly.

However, even if that is the case, many critics have noted major loopholes in all three pieces of legislation. The GOP majority remains extremely reluctant to impose tight, federally imposed compulsory standards on the security of chemical plants.

The FEMA bill does not restore the agency's old independent status, when it operated far more effectively before being folded into the elephantine Department of Homeland Security. Instead, it changes the status of FEMA within the DHS but it leaves that status ambiguous -- a recipe for more trouble and confusion in the future.

Previous experience suggests that none of these issues will have any real impact on the November elections provided some version of all the measures gets passed by both houses of Congress and signed into law by President George W. Bush by then. Image will continue to count for a lot more than the nuts and bolts of serious legislative achievement.

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