Congress likely to end quietly

WASHINGTON – Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., wants legislation on President Bush’s warrantless wiretapping program. Rep. Christopher Smith, R-N.J., is sure the time has come for Congress to declare that aborted fetuses feel pain. And Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., still insists that the District of Columbia should be granted a vote in the House while the Republicans control Congress.

They shouldn’t count on it.

Congress will convene on Tuesday for what some fear will be the lamest of lame-duck sessions, and GOP leaders have decided to take a minimalist approach before turning over the reins of power to the Democrats. Rather than a final surge of legislative activity, Congress will probably wrap up things after a single, short week of work. They have even decided to punt decisions on annual government spending measures to the Democrats next year.

“There is a lot of battle fatigue among members, probably on both sides of the aisle,” said Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., usually a reliable conservative firebrand.

Before the midterm elections, GOP leaders had dismissed the Democrats’ “do-nothing” label for the 109th Congress as political posturing, promising that a robust post-election session would put the accusation to rest. Instead, Republican lawmakers will have met for one week in November, devoted almost exclusively to leadership elections for next year, and one week in December, largely to pick committee assignments, move offices and pass a measure to keep the government operating through February.

That will mean this Congress will have spent the least time in session of any in at least half a century, according to Thomas Mann and Norman Ornstein, congressional historians and the authors of “The Broken Branch,” a critical look at recent Congresses. In the time they did meet, lawmakers will have failed to approve a budget resolution or pass at least eight of the 11 annual spending bills.

Other significant pieces of legislation will be hard to find. Bush’s push for a comprehensive overhaul of immigration laws produced a partially funded measure to build a border fence. His calls to restructure Social Security, rewrite the tax code and ease the cost of health insurance went unheeded.

To be sure, Congress will do something this week. Lawmakers have routinely extended a number of business tax breaks every year or so. But that routine was broken this year when GOP leaders decided to link those business tax-cut extensions to a deep and permanent cut to the estate tax, a link that Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., had declared inviolable.

This week, the inviolable link will be broken. The tax extensions will be passed on their own after all, according to legislative aides, perhaps with a multibillion-dollar provision staving off scheduled cuts to physician reimbursements under Medicare.

The House has scheduled a vote on Smith’s fetal-pain bill, which, among other things, would require that abortion providers inform patients of the controversial assertion that the procedure may cause pain. Providers would also have to offer anesthesia for the fetus. But GOP leaders put the measure on the fast track to passage, which means it will need the vote of two-thirds of the House. Even if the bill wins that much support, it will go nowhere in the Senate, Republicans concede.