Lame-duck Congress unlikely to do much

WASHINGTON -- Congress probably won't finish bills creating a new Homeland Security Department or financing most of the government until next year, despite a postelection session that starts next week, Senate Republican leader Trent Lott said Wednesday.

Lott, R-Miss., made his remarks hours after the country voted to give the GOP narrow majorities in the House and Senate for next year.

The comments underlined a feeling among many Republicans that it would be best to tackle difficult issues in the new GOP-led Congress and without the time constraints of a lame-duck session that at most would run until late December. Lott said the bills most likely to be completed when the old Congress reconvenes Tuesday deal with port security and the Coast Guard.

"I am not an advocate of lame-duck sessions, whether I'm in the minority or the majority," Lott told reporters. "I've never seen one that served the American people well, and I've been through a lot of them."

Some lawmakers have nursed hopes that the budget and President Bush's proposal for a Department of Homeland Security could be disposed of during the lame-duck session so the new Congress could start with a clean slate. That work would probably take a few weeks.

But Lott has been privately telling colleagues that he hopes the postelection session will be over by the end of next week, the Associated Press reported, quoting unnamed Senate aides.

House GOP aides say House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., has told members of his chamber's Appropriations Committee that he prefers giving them several weeks to try wrapping up overdue budget bills. Hastert and Lott will meet in coming days to discuss plans for the lame-duck session.

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