WASHINGTON (AP) -- Democrats, still riding high from their election sweep, were celebrating successes with House completion of their "100 hour" legislative blitz and Senate passage of major ethics and lobbying reform.
From now, however, running Congress with small majorities and a Republican in the White House becomes a little harder.
House Democrats, eager to get going after 12 years in the minority, wrapped up their two-week, must-do agenda Thursday by voting to recoup billions of dollars in lost royalties from oil and gas companies and roll back some industry tax breaks.
The bill, passed 264-163, also sets a conservation fee on oil and gas from the Gulf of Mexico.
Also finished in the "100 hour" stretch, which took 87 hours in real legislative time, were bills to raise the federal minimum wage, implement port security measures and other recommendations of the 9/11 commission, expand embryonic stem cell research, give Medicare authority to negotiate lower prescription drug costs and cut interest rates on student loans.
"Today, Democrats stood united to say that we have kept our promise to the American people," said Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-California.
I've been watching this 100 hours program with a bit of interest here. I'm impressed that the House Democrats were able to get their legislation goals completed in 87 hours, rather than the 100 hours. The House passed the minimum wage increase, the stem cell bill, the prescription drug prices, the student loan interest rates, the 9/11 commission recommendations, and restored royalty fees on Big Oil. That is an impressive domestic agenda to be passed in 87 hours.
There is just one problem. I seriously doubt if much of this legislation will pass the Senate, or will be signed by President Bush. I do hope I'm wrong here.
The GOP in the Senate and the Bush administration will be playing defense now on this Democratic domestic agenda. And that defense will center itself in the Senate. Continuing with the CNN story:
In the coming weeks, there are certain to be confrontations with the White House over resolutions critical of President Bush's policies in Iraq. Democrats, committed to holding the line on spending while determined to bolster money for health and education, must grapple with the budget proposals the White House will deliver to Congress.
The only veto of the Bush presidency was over an embryonic stem cell bill, and he has promised to repeat that if another stem cell bill hits his desk. The prescription drug bill could also face a presidential veto.
It's uncertain whether some of the other House-passed bills will ever get that far.
Senate Republicans insisted that a minimum wage hike must be linked to an $8.3 billion package of tax breaks for small businesses. Senate Democrats are amenable, but it is unclear if House Democrats will go along.
Senate Democrats have been using delaying tactics, filibusters, and other parliamentary efforts to derail some of the most contentious Republican legislation to come from the GOP House in the past five years. The ANWAR drilling fight is one of the bigger controversial bills that Senate Democrats have been able to stall. The estate tax was another controversial item--especially after the Republicans tied the permanent repeal of the estate tax to an increase in the minimum wage. Senate Democrats were successful at blocking President Bush's attempts to nominate hard-lined conservatives to the federal bench. These were the tactics that the Senate Democrats were able to use to block some of the most hard-lined conservative legislation that the Republicans tried to shove down the Democrats' throats, while the Democrats were the minority party. Now that the Republicans are the minority party in Congress, you can expect the GOP to use these same tactics against the Democrats--in addition to President Bush's veto.
Then again, I'm not sure if the GOP could succeed in derailing the House 100 hour’s legislation in the Senate. The 2006 congressional midterm elections show a significant shift in the political climate. The Republicans were defeated in Congress due to their own corruption, their rubber-stamping alignment with the Bush administration--especially with the war in Iraq, and their own hubris in creating a permanent Republican majority in Congress. All of that has changed with the Democrats newfound control of Congress. The Democrats now have a branch of government that allows them to create their own legislation, present their own message to the American people, and take on the Bush White House regarding the more controversial issues. With the Democrats in control of Congress, this could free up Republican congressmen from their own rubber-stamping role that Bush White House has been forcing upon Congress. We've seen some of this with outgoing Senator Lincoln Chafee announcing his opposition to Bush's U.N. ambassador John Bolton. And even now, Republicans are lining up against President Bush's surge plan--moderate Republican Senator Olympia Snowe is now opposed to Bush's surge plan. So there are some interesting political dynamics taking place within Congress.
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