Democrats boast of actions of first 100 days

WASHINGTON – As congressional Democrats prepare to celebrate their first 100 days in the majority, they boast that they have worked more hours, passed more bills and held more oversight hearings than Republicans did when they were in charge.

But when it comes to how many of their top legislative priorities have become law, a different number stands out: zero. None of the six bills that House Democrats passed in their initial legislative juggernaut has made it to the president’s desk.

Still, Democrats say they are proud of the steps they have taken to chart a new course after 12 years of GOP rule, such as stepping up the pressure on President Bush to end U.S. involvement in Iraq and toughening congressional ethics rules.

The 100th-day milestone, which arrives April 13 while the House is still on a two-week spring break, amounts to an opening act in a political drama that probably will become even livelier. Congressional Democrats are headed toward confrontations with the White House over many issues, from the war to domestic spending.

“We are just getting warmed up,” said Illinois Rep. Rahm Emanuel, chairman of the House Democratic Caucus.

Democrats took control of Congress on Jan. 4 after campaigning against “do-nothing” Republicans. To show they were different, Democrats rushed through the House six popular bills in what party leaders calculated was 42 hours, 13 minutes and 28 seconds of legislative time. House Democrats boast they have passed nearly twice as many bills in their first three months as did each of the previous three Congresses.

Scores of bills and resolutions have passed one chamber, often with bipartisan support, including a resolution that would grant honorary posthumous citizenship to Casimir Pulaski, a Polish-born hero of the American Revolution, and a measure that would establish a commission to study creation of a museum in Washington, D.C., dedicated to the art, history and culture of Latinos.

But a major obstacle threatens the Democrats’ ambition of racking up an impressive list of legislative achievements: the closely divided Senate.

In its first two days, the House adopted tough new ethics rules to end the secrecy behind earmarks, ban lawmakers from budget-rate flights on corporate jets and retire the practice of lobbyist-paid meals in response to the scandals Democrats highlighted in the fall elections. It took the Senate two weeks to approve its version.

Because of Senate rules on the minority party’s rights, Republicans have the power to block any legislation that they overwhelmingly oppose. Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., who has gone from the majority to the minority, remarked, “I spent my first 12 years in the House cursing the Senate, and now I love it.”

A number of the House-passed bills – such as those to cut student-loan interest rates, repeal oil industry tax breaks and lower Medicare drug prices – have stalled in the Senate. Just how many of the measures will become law is unclear.

One – the first federal minimum wage increase in a decade – has passed both chambers, but remains snagged in Congress over disagreements on coupling it with tax breaks for small businesses.

President Bush also could prove to be an obstacle. Bush vetoed only one bill during his first six years in the White House, but he has issued 12 veto threats in the first three months of the new Congress. It takes a two-thirds vote of both houses to override the president.

Bush has objected to a war-funding measure that would establish dates for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq and a bill that would expand whistle-blower protections, among others.

Nonetheless, Democrats are pleased with their record, which includes 16 bills that are now the law of the land. Most rename federal facilities, including a courthouse in Cape Girardeau, Mo., which acquired the name of Rush Hudson Limbaugh Sr., a noted lawyer and grandfather of the conservative provocateur.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said: “There was no budget last year. There’s a budget this year. There was no minimum wage legislation last year, the Congress before, and the Congress before. There is minimum wage legislation now.”

Congressional scholars say that not too much should be expected in the first 100 days. “It’s very, very unusual for even a highly motivated, energized Congress to run up a real score of bills signed into law, particularly when Congress is one party and the president is in another,” said Ross Baker, a political scientist at Rutgers University.

Separate from legislative action, the Democrats have wielded their investigative powers.

They have held more than 100 hearings on issues such as inadequate care for injured soldiers at Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington, D.C., the firing of eight U.S. attorneys and the FBI’s misuse of its investigative authority.

“If you look at actual bills enacted by both houses, the record isn’t very impressive,” Baker said, “but it’s been the national oversight pageant.”