CQ TODAY PRINT EDITION
April 17, 2009 – 9:16 p.m.
Chairmen’s Turn in Spotlight Arrives
By Edward Epstein and Alan K. Ota, CQ Staff
As Congress returns from a two-week hiatus, the main focus isn’t on what will happen on the House or Senate floor.
Rather, the real action will be in committees, where sweeping legislation dealing with contentious issues including global warming and health care will be debated over the next several weeks.
While lawmakers were away, the White House also indicated that President Obama wants to try anew to overhaul immigration laws. Congressional leaders, who have been stymied for years in their attempts to enact such a change, say they plan to bring bills to the floor as early as this year.
Democratic leaders have been trumpeting their early successes this year in passing Obama’s economic stimulus package (PL 111-5) and nearing completion of a fiscal 2010 budget blueprint (
Yet the majority party still faces a pileup of divisive legislation, raising the question of whether the 111th Congress is biting off more than it can digest. Senior Democrats remain confident that they can handle the heavy workload expeditiously.
“I can’t fault them for trying to do this stuff quickly,” said Rep. Gene Green , D-Texas, a senior member of the Energy and Commerce Committee, which will play a key role in drafting health care and global warming legislation.
House Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry A. Waxman , D-Calif., has said he expects to complete work on a climate-change bill, which will probably include a controversial cap-and-trade system to regulate emissions, before Congress leaves for its next break around Memorial Day.
Waxman and other chairmen involved in the health care issue say they expect a bill on that topic to reach the House and Senate floors before Congress leaves for its long August recess.
“I think we can walk and chew gum at the same time,” Green said. He added that the “American people, even if they disagree with us, want to see we are working.”
On immigration, Green said the sticking point in past efforts has been the Senate. But he said that with increased Democratic numbers, it might be easier to pass immigration legislation this year.
Zoe Lofgren , D-Calif., who chairs the House Judiciary panel that handles immigration, said this is the year for Congress to push through an immigration bill long sought by many in her party but vigorously opposed by some Democrats and many Republicans. “Many members hope this can be done promptly,” Lofgren said. “It doesn’t help to string it out.”
Election year politics in 2010 may dictate that Congress add immigration to its to-do list this year. “I think there’s no value added in having it hang around for months and months,” Lofgren said. “Those who oppose immigration are already gearing up to make this a nasty endeavor, so having it hang around is not preferable.”
But Rep. Luis V. Gutierrez , D-Ill., a Judiciary member who has led immigration overhaul efforts, is more cautious. He said he wants Obama to make a major statement on immigration, setting out the parameters of a bill he could sign — something Gutierrez expects in May.
“We can get it done quickly once we know the parameters,” Gutierrez said.
Some Resistance to Go-Big Plan
Republican leaders in both houses have already staked out positions of deep opposition to the Democrats’ plans on the big issues. House Republican leaders, some of whom participated in tax-day protests over the break, appear eager to tap public unease over the economy by stressing the levels of federal spending, particularly efforts to recharge the nation’s economy.
“We’re going to continue to fight the outrageous spending, taxing and borrowing going on here in Washington,” said House Minority Leader John A. Boehner , R-Ohio. “That starts with the expected budget conference report that will come up in the next week or two.”
Even with the legislative action that the 111th Congress has already completed on Obama’s agenda, some Democrats want to see more. “I’m proud of what we’ve done,’’ said Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva , D-Ariz. “But to be honest, I expected we would be further along on things like health care.”
Grijalva said he fears that the initial burst of legislative activity will give way to a slower, and potentially draining, pace as major legislation is crafted among competing interests.
As co-chairman of the House Progressive Caucus, Grijalva also worries that Obama’s plan to escalate U.S. military involvement in Afghanistan threatens to alienate the president from his liberal congressional base and divide Democrats.
“For Obama’s first 100 days, we felt there was a need that he should succeed,” Grijalva said. “Now, we may see lawmakers focus more on issues like the war in Afghanistan. And I think people will make clear where they have differences with the president.”
Anti-war liberals will get a chance to voice their dissatisfaction over the next few weeks when Congress takes up Obama’s request for $83.4 billion in supplemental spending for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The appropriations season also could get off the ground and spark clashes over spending priorities during the coming work period, although there is some talk that appropriations action could be delayed until after Memorial Day.
Floor Action
Meanwhile, the floors of the two chambers will feature debate over lower- and middle-tier matters. The Senate will return to debate Obama’s nomination of Christopher R. Hill as ambassador to Iraq. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid , D-Nev., had to file a cloture motion setting up a Monday vote to proceed to a debate on the nomination. Some Republicans led by Sam Brownback of Kansas oppose the nomination and criticize Hill for his lack of Mideast experience and perceived missteps during his previous post as special envoy for North Korea.
Reid called the delay “hard to comprehend.” He said, “We have two wars going on: one, as we know, in Afghanistan, and one that we can’t put out of our mind, in Iraq. It doesn’t look very good, but we’re going to go ahead and have this cloture vote on Monday. I think it’s unfortunate because there are a lot of other things we could work on.”
Another lingering nomination that could get quick Senate action is the choice of Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius to be secretary of Health and Human Services.
The Senate plans to take up a bill (
Reid also has moved to bring a tobacco bill directly to the floor rather than through committee. The House-passed bill (
The House’s near-term agenda features more measures involving the financial crisis. One bill (
A House floor vote on a bill of rights for credit card customers (
House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer , D-Md., said he is still trying to find a way to get a floor vote on legislation (
Hoyer said the House also expects to pass yet-to-be-finished legislation codifying Obama’s decision to lift restrictions on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. He also wants another vote on hate crimes legislation that has passed the House before but stalled in the Senate. It would make hate crimes a separate criminal charge under federal law.
Bennett Roth and Bart Jansen contributed to this story.
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