[Mb-civic] Lawmakers Plan Ambitious Agenda as Voter Anger Rises - Washington Post

[William Swiggard]

Lawmakers Plan Ambitious Agenda as Voter Anger Rises

By Jonathan Weisman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, April 21, 2006; A05

Members of Congress will return to Washington next week to face deep 
challenges including a budget morass in the House and an immigration 
quagmire in the Senate, while new polls indicate that voters 
increasingly view the legislative branch as dysfunctional.

How well Republican leaders navigate their way through the legislative 
mess could greatly influence the outcome of the midterm elections in 
November, suggests a poll released yesterday by the nonpartisan Pew 
Research Center for the People and the Press.

"The American public is angry with Congress, and this is bad news for 
the Republican Party," the authors of the poll concluded.

With a backdrop of skepticism and discontent, Republican leaders have 
laid out an ambitious agenda for the coming months, from health-care 
legislation to the most sweeping immigration changes in a generation. 
But they will have just 72 legislative days to achieve it before the 
scheduled date of adjournment. And they will have to overcome divisions 
in their own ranks to secure even the basics, such as a budget.

The House left town on April 7, having failed to pass a budget blueprint 
for the coming fiscal year. Republican moderates said the House budget 
plan would spend too little, especially on health, education and 
workforce programs. House conservatives said the plan spent too much, 
and members of the Appropriations Committee objected to new budget rules 
that they said would tie their hands and diminish their authority.

The Senate headed for its spring break under circumstances that were no 
less acrimonious. Republicans charged Democrats with obstructionism on a 
major immigration bill, and conservatives accused Republican leaders of 
capitulation on the immigration issue.

Andrew Kohut, the Pew Center's director, said voters are beginning to 
focus on congressional activities, and they do not like what they see.

"We see people engaged about Washington and not in a positive way," he 
said. "To be honest, I was surprised by these numbers."

About 41 percent of those polled said Congress has accomplished less 
than usual, compared with 27 percent who said so just before the midterm 
elections in 2002 and 16 percent who believed that in 2000.

Fifty-six percent of those polled said they would consider which party 
controls Congress when they vote in November. Previous polls back to 
1998 never cracked 50 percent on that question. And 53 percent said they 
do not want to see most lawmakers reelected this year. In 2002 and 2004, 
fewer than 40 percent responded that way.

On the positive side for Republicans, 57 percent of respondents say they 
would like to see their member of Congress reelected, but 28 percent do 
not -- a level of personal opposition not seen since October 1994, on 
the eve of the Republican congressional landslide.

House leaders are "determined to get a budget done," said Ron Bonjean, 
spokesman for House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.).

But that is only one issue on a crowded plate, leadership aides 
cautioned. Next week's priorities will be reauthorizing the law that 
governs the nation's intelligence agencies and approving changes to 
rules governing lobbying and the funding of home-district pet projects, 
known as earmarks.

There should be action the first week of May on revamping 
telecommunication laws, and the next week will be given to the annual 
defense policy bill. Sometime in May, House leaders would like to act on 
energy legislation to ease voter concerns over soaring gasoline prices, 
and changes to the nation's emergency management system ahead of the 
hurricane season, which will begin June 1.

A bill to extend some expiring tax cuts from President Bush's first term 
could come up next month as well. House and Senate negotiators have been 
at an impasse over that measure since late last year.

In June, the House hopes to take up several health-care bills that would 
allow small businesses to pool together to buy health insurance, expand 
tax-free health savings accounts and improve the portability of health 
insurance from one employer to another.

"It's a robust agenda," said Kevin Madden, spokesman for House Majority 
Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio). "There are significant challenges that 
the House is focused on."

The Senate's plate appears equally full, but Senate leaders must contend 
with an increasingly partisan atmosphere that has dragged out even 
routine procedural motions. Amy Call, a spokeswoman for Majority Leader 
Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), said Senate leaders intend to reconsider the 
immigration bill, but not immediately.

Next week will be devoted to a $106.5 billion emergency spending bill to 
fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as ongoing Gulf Coast 
hurricane relief. The measure almost certainly will not be completed 
before the Senate moves on to its "health-care week," featuring 
legislation on small business health plans and limits on medical 
malpractice suits.

Frist would like to revisit the immigration bill, complete the emergency 
spending measure and take up the tax cut extensions in May, then move on 
in June to votes on a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage 
and a permanent repeal of the estate tax, Call said. He could also bring 
two controversial judicial nominations to the floor next month: U.S. 
District Judge Terrence W. Boyle to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 
4th Circuit and White House aide Brett M. Kavanaugh to the U.S. Court of 
Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

All of those plans could be thwarted by assertive Democrats hoping to 
pursue their own agenda, Call conceded. Republicans are even braced for 
Democrats to push for a vote of no confidence on Defense Secretary 
Donald H. Rumsfeld.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/20/AR2006042001819.html
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