News : Senators brace for long lame duck

After the first week of a post-election session that saw both parties struggle to find unity on central policy questions, Democrats and Republicans are training their sights on each other for a post-Thanksgiving, eleventh-hour legislative marathon to close out the 111th Congress.

Senators spent much of this week huddled in separate closed-door meetings to chart their parties’ course for the final weeks of this Congress and begin to shape the agenda for the 112th Congress leading up to the 2012 elections.

Democrats discussed how to deal with expiring tax rates, while Republicans debated a moratorium on earmarks.

While internal dissent still simmered at week’s end, senators emerged from those meetings prepared for partisan battles during the remainder of the lame-duck session over taxes, spending, defense, gays in the military, immigration and nuclear arms policy.

It now appears possible that the session will extend as long as three weeks into December after Congress returns Nov. 29 from its Thanksgiving break.

One partisan standoff played out Thursday as Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., struggled to finish work on food safety legislation (S 510). Tom Coburn, R-Okla., pushed for a vote to add a moratorium on earmarks. Reid opposes the ban, placing him at odds with President Obama on the issue.

On the leading policy issue of the session — how to deal with the expiration at the end of the year of tax rates enacted in 2001 and 2003 — Reid said he would like to arrange a vote on Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s proposal to permanently extend all the current tax rates, as well as a vote on the Democratic preference to extend the cuts for only income below $250,000 a year.

Such votes would allow each side to stake out its ideal position, but the leaders would then have to negotiate a compromise before the end of December to prevent workers from seeing the taxes withheld from their paychecks rise in January.

On spending, McConnell announced his opposition to a catchall, $1.1 trillion omnibus spending bill Senate appropriators have been assembling. With the current stopgap spending law (PL 111-242) expiring Dec. 3, Congress will have to act to prevent a government shutdown.

If Democrats decide to put off a fight over spending levels and offer another continuing resolution to keep the government running, they can expect to do battle next year, when Republicans have vowed to push billions of dollars in spending rescissions.

Further crowding the agenda, Reid plans a vote after Thanksgiving on the fiscal 2011 defense authorization bill (S 3454), which includes a controversial provision that would repeal the “don’t ask, don’t tell” law (PL 103-60) that bars openly gay people from serving in the military. Joseph I. Lieberman, I-Conn., said that vote would probably come the week of Dec. 6.

With McConnell and Armed Services ranking Republican John McCain of Arizona opposed to the repeal, the debate sets up a tug of war for the votes of Republicans who say they support a repeal of the law but who also want to be able to offer a variety of amendments to the underlying annual bill that renews defense programs.

Reid has said there is insufficient time for a freewheeling amendment process on any legislation. But if he does find a way to cobble together 60 votes to bring up the defense bill, its consideration could take a week or more.

Adding to the potential workload, the White House this week launched a full-court press for Senate ratification of a nuclear arms treaty with Russia (Treaty Doc 111-5), even though Republican negotiator Jon Kyl of Arizona, the minority whip, said consideration should wait until January.

“We’re going to do our best to get a vote on the START treaty,” Reid said Thursday. A lengthy floor debate on the treaty could consume even more time.

On top of that, Reid also kept immigration advocates’ hopes alive by saying he will seek a vote on a bill (S 3963) that would provide legal status to some adult children of illegal immigrants. Republicans have by and large said they would not vote for such a measure.

And a bipartisan fiscal commission set up by Obama could add another to-do item if it makes recommendations that Reid has promised to bring to the floor in December.

Obama will meet with congressional leaders in both parties Nov. 30. When Democratic leaders met with Obama at the White House on Thursday, they discussed another agenda item: settlements in discrimination suits involving American Indians and black farmers.

Three-Week Calendar

Democrats could shorten the post-election session by reaching a short-term agreement with Republicans on extending federal spending and dealing with the expiring tax rates, essentially pushing those issues into next year. But senators said they expect the post-Thanksgiving session to last three full weeks.

“Of course, we could always stay over, but nobody really wants to be in there the week before Christmas,” Lieberman said.

Several senators said they would be willing to work weekends to complete the defense authorization bill, if that’s what it takes.

“Christmas Eve? I’ll go through Christmas Eve,” said Mark Udall, D-Colo. “The eighth day of Hanukkah,” Lieberman said. “The seventh,” joked Al Franken, D-Minn. “I’m not giving up my eighth day.”

-- Brian Friel, CQ Staff

This story first appeared in CQ Today. Request a free trial.

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