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January 2, 2007 in Nation/World
Democrats to cut GOP clout in new Congress
WASHINGTON – As they prepare to take control of Congress this week and face up to campaign pledges to restore bipartisanship and openness, Democrats are planning to largely sideline Republicans from the first burst of lawmaking.
House Democrats intend to pass a raft of popular measures as part of their well-publicized plan for the first 100 hours, including tightening ethics rules for lawmakers, raising the minimum wage, allowing more research on stem cells and cutting interest rates on student loans.
But instead of allowing Republicans to fully participate in deliberations, as promised after the Nov. 7 Democratic victory, Democrats now say they will use House rules to prevent the opposition from offering alternative measures, assuring speedy passage of the bills and allowing the Democrats to trumpet early victories.
Nancy Pelosi, the Californian who will become House speaker, and Steny Hoyer, the Marylander who will become majority leader, finalized the strategy in a flurry of conference calls and meetings with other party leaders over the holiday recess. A few Democrats, worried that the party would be criticized for reneging on an important pledge, argued unsuccessfully that they should grant the Republicans greater latitude when the Congress convenes on Thursday.
The episode illustrates the dilemma facing the new party in power. The Democrats must demonstrate that they can break legislative gridlock and govern after 12 years in the minority, while honoring their pledge to make the 110th Congress a civil era in which Democrats and Republicans work together to solve the nation’s problems. Yet in attempting to pass laws key to their prospects for winning re-election and expanding their majority, the Democrats may have to resort to some of the same hard-fisted tactics used by the Republicans for the past several years.
Democratic leaders say they are torn between giving Republicans a say in legislation and shutting them out to prevent them from derailing Democratic bills.
“There is going to be a tension there,” said Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., the new chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. “My sense is there’s going to be a testing period to gauge to what extent the Republicans want to join us in a constructive effort or whether they intend to be disruptive.”
House Republicans have begun to complain that Democrats are backing away from their promise to work cooperatively. They are working on their own strategy for the first 100 hours, and part of it is built on the idea that they might be able to break the Democrats’ slender majority by wooing away some conservative Democrats.
The Democrats intend to introduce their first bills within hours of taking the oath of office on Thursday. The first legislation will focus on the behavior of lawmakers, banning travel on corporate jets and gifts from lobbyists, and requiring lawmakers to attach their names to special spending directives and to certify that such earmarks would not financially benefit the lawmaker or the lawmaker’s spouse. That bill is aimed at bringing legislative transparency that Democrats said was lacking under Republican rule.
Democratic leaders said they are not going to allow Republican input into the ethics package and other early legislation because several of the bills have already been debated and dissected, including the proposal to raise the minimum wage, which passed the House Appropriations Committee in the 109th Congress, said Brendan Daly, a spokesman for Pelosi.
For clues about how the Democrats will operate, the spotlight is on the House, where the new 16-seat majority will hold absolute power over the way the chamber operates. Most of the early legislative action is expected to stem from the House.
“It’s in the nature of the House of Representatives for the majority party to be dominant and control the agenda and limit as much as possible the influence of the minority,” said Ross Baker, a political scientist at Rutgers University.
In the Senate, by contrast, the Democrats will have less control over business because of their razor-thin 51-to-49-seat majority and the fact that individual senators wield substantial power. Senate Democrats will allow Republicans to make amendments to all their initiatives, starting with the first measure – ethics and lobbying reform, said Jim Manley, spokesman for the incoming majority leader, Harry Reid, D-Nev.
In the House, Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y., who will chair the Rules Committee, said she intends to bring openness to a committee that used to meet in the middle of the night. In the new Congress, the panel – which sets the terms of debate on the House floor – will convene at 10 a.m. before a room full of reporters.
“It’s going to be open,” Slaughter said of the process. “Everybody will have an opportunity to participate.”
At the same time, she added, the majority would grant Republicans every possible chance to alter legislation once it reaches the floor. “We intend to allow some of their amendments, not all of them,” Slaughter said.
House Republicans say their strategy will be to offer alternative bills that would be attractive to the conservative “Blue Dog” Democrats, with an eye toward fracturing the Democratic coalition. They hope to force some tough votes for Democrats from conservative districts who will soon begin campaigning for 2008 reelection.
“We’ll capitalize on every opportunity we have,” said one GOP leadership aide.
Several Blue Dog Democrats said they don’t think the Republicans will be able to pick up much support from their group.
“If they’ve got ideas that will make our legislation better, we ought to consider that,” said Rep. Allen Boyd Jr., D-Fla., leader of the Blue Dogs. “But if their idea is to try to split a group off to gain power, that’s what they’ve been doing for the past six years, and it’s all wrong.”
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