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Lame-duck work faces distractions
©Associated Press © St. Petersburg Times, published November 13, 2000 WASHINGTON -- Lame-duck sessions of Congress are always unpredictable, but the one starting this week could prove even more muddled because of the unsettled presidential election. Neither party's congressional leaders know whether it makes sense to resolve budget fights quickly or try delaying a deal until the next administration -- with Republican George W. Bush or Democrat Al Gore in the White House on Jan. 20, Inauguration Day. "It's going to be a three-ring circus, between the lame-duck Congress going out, the new Congress coming in and the uncertainty over who the next president will be," said Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill. Top Democrats seem ready to settle and leave town quickly. With their ally President Clinton still in office, they appear eager to shake hands on a huge education, health and labor bill that was nearly completed before Congress left town on Nov. 3 for the elections. "There's an array of issues that have to be addressed. I don't think we can leave without having addressed them," Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., said Sunday on CBS's Face the Nation. Earlier, he said, "It will take give on both sides, but I think we can do that." Five of the 13 annual spending bills for fiscal 2001, which began Oct. 1, are hanging. They cover seven Cabinet departments, dozens of smaller agencies, congressional operations and the District of Columbia's budget. Also unresolved are a $240-billion, 10-year tax bill; an increase in the minimum wage; higher Medicare reimbursements for health care providers; disputes over immigration and workplace injuries; and an intelligence agencies' bill that Clinton vetoed because it would have criminalized the leaking of some government secrets. The Senate's top Republican, Trent Lott of Mississippi, raised the possibility on Fox News Sunday that lawmakers would "set aside those issues where we're not going to come to agreement and pass what we can." Tuesday, voters elected a new Congress that will give Republicans even narrower majorities in the House and Senate. After many months without even speaking to House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt, D-Mo., called Hastert after Election Day and tentatively arranged a meeting for this week. "I think we can get a lot of work done," Gephardt said Sunday on ABC's This Week, adding that he hoped the four leaders could all sit down. Republicans, however, seem undecided about how quickly to proceed and are unlikely to make decisions until they meet among themselves. The House returns today, the Senate on Tuesday. Some Republicans say partisan battling already has gotten so bad in Congress that the uncertainty over the presidential election will make little difference. "The undercurrent of misunderstanding and the unwillingness to bend has been so bad that I don't think it can be any worse," said Rep. Amo Houghton, R-N.Y. Whatever their strategies, leaders of both parties will have to cope with weary rank-and-file lawmakers who mostly seem ready to finish their last business and adjourn. "There are things that just have to be left to the incoming president, no matter who that is," said Rep. Judy Biggert, R-Ill., adding, "people would like to have a little time to recover." Yet there are signs that Congress will be preoccupied with the unfolding vote recount in Florida. Republican and Democratic congressional leaders jousted over the recount Sunday on the talk shows. Rep. Billy Tauzin, R-La., chairman of the House Telecommunications Subcommittee, promised hearings this week on the television networks' faulty election-night projections, which awarded Florida's 25 electoral votes to Gore, then to Bush before finally reporting that the state was classified as "too close to call." Durbin and Rep. Ray LaHood, R-Ill., had proposed legislation before Nov. 7 to eliminate the Electoral College in favor of direct election of the president. The day after the election, first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, a senator-elect for New York and the biggest celebrity among the incoming class, said she would take up the proposal as a cause. The lame-duck session will be Congress' ninth in the past half-century. The last was in 1998, when the House met for a day to vote the impeachment of Clinton. GOP leaders and the White House have agreed to enact a bill this week that will keep open until the next week those agencies whose spending bills remain unfinished. That would give Clinton time to complete a trip to Asia. Clinton has mostly insisted on daily bills keeping agencies functioning for 24 hours. "We would be willing to sign" the longer spending extension, White House spokesman Elliot Diringer said. "We do that with the understanding that they stay in town and work." Unless they work out their budget differences, lawmakers will have little to vote on. But off the chamber's floor, House Republicans and Democrats will hold separate meetings to select their leaders for the new Congress. No changes in the top jobs are expected. They also will hold orientation sessions for incoming freshmen. The Senate will not organize itself for next year or hold freshman orientation until December. - Information from the Chicago Tribune was used in this report.
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