CONGRESS

The Week on the Hill

by Jill Smallen and Jason Dick

Sat. Jun 28, 2008


Congress to Send War Bill to Bush

Amid a tangle of floor maneuvering in the final hours before the July Fourth recess, the Senate at press time on June 26 was prepared to send President Bush a supplemental spending bill to fund the Iraq war through next June. As wrangling continued over other high-profile bills addressing housing assistance, intelligence sur-veillance, and Medicare payments, the war-funding package enjoyed broad bipartisan Senate support and was expected to garner Bush’s signature. The supplemental, approved by the House on June 19, provides about $162 billion for the Pentagon to keep U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, along with billions of dollars more for a variety of foreign and domestic programs. The biggest addition was a $62 billion expansion of college aid for military veterans, which supporters dubbed the 21st Century GI Bill. Sens. Jim Webb, D-Va., and John Warner, R-Va., the program’s sponsors, on June 26 heralded it as the biggest boost to veterans’ education support since World War II. “I think this is one of the finest hours in the history of our military,” Warner, who is retiring at the end of this year, said at a press conference. “I leave here with a sense of accomplishment.” The war bill also included an $8.2 billion boost in unemployment benefits and a moratorium on six unpopular Medicaid regulations proposed by the Bush administration. Additional money was also slated for international food aid, disaster relief, military construction, and scientific research. —Brian Friel/National Journal

Ensign Slows Housing Package

Senate passage of a major housing-rescue proposal was held up late this week because of demands by Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., that he be allowed to offer his amendment providing $8.3 billion in renewable-energy tax credit extensions. Senate Democrats vowed that they would not allow a vote on Ensign’s amendment, which the chamber adopted on another measure in April, because the cost was not offset under the “pay-as-you-go” budget rules, as House Democrats have insisted. The spat overshadowed the fact that Congress appeared very close to clearing the housing legislation, which would revamp the oversight of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac; overhaul the Federal Housing Administration’s mortgage insurance program; and allow the agency to guarantee up to $300 billion in new loans for at-risk subprime borrowers. The Senate on June 25 voted 79-16 to pass the gist of the package. But because it is comprised of various amendments requiring three separate votes, Ensign has two more cracks at the bill, which could force debate into next month. As the Senate action continued, negotiators were working behind the scenes to reconcile differences between the Senate package and a House-passed version, including finding additional budget offsets. The White House had threatened to veto the Senate version, but focused specifically on its opposition to $4 billion for communities to buy foreclosed properties and rehabilitate them. —Bill Swindell/CongressDaily

Senate Takes Up FISA Overhaul

The Senate voted overwhelmingly on June 25 to begin debating a controversial bill to overhaul the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, but immediately bogged down over procedural issues. Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said that the chamber would aim to finish the legislation—which the House passed 293-129 on June 20—before the July Fourth recess and send it to President Bush, who is expected to sign it. Two ardent opponents, Sens. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., and Russell Feingold, D-Wis., sought to offer an amendment to strike a provision giving telecommunications companies legal protections for participating in the National Security Agency’s warrantless surveillance program. Under the bill, lawsuits against the companies would be dismissed if they could show a federal District Court that they received written directives that the warrantless surveillance program was legal. Critics say that the companies received such directives, which essentially ensures they will be given immunity. Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., also sought to offer an amendment that would require the district courts to determine the constitutionality of the administration’s warrantless surveillance program before granting immunity to the companies. —Chris Strohm/CongressDaily

Medicare Physician Fix Advances

Congress this week was rushing to finish legislation that would prevent a 10.6 percent cut to fees that doctors collect from Medicare. Although President Bush has threatened to veto the measure, the House passed it on June 24 by a 355-59 vote, a veto-proof margin. The lopsided House vote was unexpected, prompting Senate Democrats to abandon an effort at bipartisan compromise and focus on the House-passed bill. Senate floor action was pending at press time, and Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., was threatening that work could drag into the weekend unless an agreement could be reached to move the Medicare bill quickly. Republicans were under pressure to drop their opposition because the physicians’ pay cut is slated to take effect on July 1. The bill would increase Medicare doctors’ payments 1.1 percent in 2009 and includes a host of other provisions. For instance, it requires that physicians adopt electronic prescribing systems or face docked Medicare reimbursements. —Anna Edney/CongressDaily

House Approves AMT Patch

The House on June 25 approved legislation that would shield 21 million more tax-payers from the bite of the alternative minimum tax this year. The AMT was established in 1969 to target just 155 wealthy families that had been able to evade taxes through loopholes and deductions. But the AMT was never indexed for inflation, and if Congress does not act on another patch this year, single filers making as little as $33,750 could face a higher tax bill as a result. A simple one-year patch carries a $61.5 billion price tag, however, and under the House Democrats’ “pay-as-you-go” budget rules, they had to come up with revenues to offset the cost. Democrats contended that their revenue-raisers would close inequitable loopholes in the tax code, such as a provision of law that allows wealthy investment-fund managers to pay the lower 15 percent capital gains rate on their share of the income from their funds’ gains. “Investment-fund managers should not pay a lower tax rate on their compensation for services than other Americans,” said Rep. Sander Levin, D-Mich. Republicans complained that the offsets, which also included scaling back deductions for oil and gas companies, would harm the economy; the White House issued a veto threat. “Even on legislation introduced to keep taxes the same, Democrats have the temerity to thrust yet another massive tax increase on the American people,” said Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga. The House passed the bill 233-189, with only a handful of defections on either side. In the Senate, Democrats lack the votes to break a filibuster on the bill, and they have already offered an AMT patch without offsets. —Peter Cohn/CongressDaily

Fireworks Erupt Over Gas Prices

About to go home and face voters angered over record-high gasoline prices, House Democrats this week brought forward a four-piece energy agenda that spawned bitter floor debates in which each party blasted the other for not supporting their proposed solutions. The Democratic bills, which met with varying degrees of success on the floor, targeted gasoline price-gouging, existing federal offshore oil- and gas-drilling leases, speculation in the oil futures market, and mass transit. But Republicans hammered the Democrats all week for failing to bring up proposals that would increase the domestic energy supply. At press time on June 26, Republicans were criticizing the Democrats’ “use it or lose it” proposal, which would prohibit oil and gas companies from securing new offshore production leases unless they are “diligently developing” their existing leases. GOP members disputed Democratic arguments that oil companies have intentionally sat on these leases to keep supply low and prices high. The White House threatened to veto that bill. —Darren Goode/CongressDaily

FEC Members Finally Confirmed

The Senate on June 24 confirmed five members of the Federal Election Commission, ending a partisan standoff that had left the watchdog agency without functional leadership for the past six months. The three Republican appointees and two Democratic appointees who were approved join the one sitting Democratic commissioner to rule on campaign finance disputes for this year’s presidential and congressional races. “Confirming these nominations tonight will help restore the American people’s faith that campaign finance laws will be enforced during this presidential election,” Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said on the floor. Last year, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and other Democrats objected to Republican nominee Hans von Spakovsky, whose performance handling civil-rights issues in President Bush’s Justice Department had raised the ire of liberal activists. The other commissioners’ nominations stalled amid the tussling over von Spakovsky. With the FEC unable to rule on disputes this year because it lacked a quorum, pressure built for a compromise, and Bush’s withdrawal of von Spakovsky cleared the way for the five commissioners’ confirmations this week. The Senate also confirmed two Appellate judges and one District Court judge after Bush and Democrats reached a compromise that satisfied Sens. Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow, both D-Mich., who had been blocking nominations to the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals for several years. Senate Republicans have been pressuring Democrats to confirm more Appeals Court judges, but the two confirmations this week, for a total of 10 in this Congress, could be the last of Bush’s presidency. —Brian Friel/National Journal

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