Senate Democrats are choosing a path of direct confrontation with the White House on virtually every issue scheduled to come before the chamber during the next six weeks.

From funding for the war in Iraq to stem cell research to the Medicare prescription drug program, Majority Leader Harry Reid is testing the limits of his party’s narrow grip on the Senate, even as the White House threatens to veto one bill after another.

Reid, D-Nev., has managed to find just enough Republican support to shepherd through the Senate a war spending bill (HR 1591) opposed by President Bush, and he is counting on GOP converts to push a stem cell measure (S 5) through the chamber, as well as a Medicare prescription drug bill still being drafted.

Reid is turning to a few Senate Republicans to help carry the Democratic agenda across the finish line, even if the issues have little chance of becoming law.

The conflict continues when the Senate returns from a weeklong recess Tuesday to take up the bill that would allow federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. The House reconvenes April 16.

Reid contends that political momentum is on his side and will force Republicans to compromise eventually, especially on the war.

“Democrats made it clear that we heard the voice of the American people last November,” Reid plans to say on the floor Tuesday, according to a draft of his remarks. “The days of a blank check and a green light for escalation are over.”

But some strategists contend that Democrats risk squandering the good will of voters who put them in power. “We are not seeing any consensus legislation in the near future,” said Brian Darling, director of Senate relations for the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. “Democrats are overreaching on a number of issues. . . . There’s a risk of alienating mainstream voters.”

Reid has a reputation for being an institutionalist, savvy in the ways of the Senate. Yet the agenda he has laid out for the weeks leading up to the Memorial Day recess could be a recipe for partisan bickering.

One issue that seems unlikely to spark confrontation is immigration, largely because the White House wants Congress to overhaul the nation’s immigration policy and so do Senate Democrats.

Even that issue is becoming more complicated. Last year the White House was largely on the same page as Senate Democrats, but the administration now has drafted legislation with several provisions, including increased fees for immigrants and higher fines for illegal immigrants, that Democrats oppose.

The stem cell legislation the Senate takes up Tuesday is similar to a bill (HR 3) the House passed in January, and it has plenty of support in the Senate.

But the open question is whether Reid can win over enough Republicans to achieve a veto-proof majority — two-thirds of those voting. Aides from both parties acknowledge that the Senate vote will approach the threshold needed to override an expected veto but could fall short. Bush vetoed a similar stem cell bill last year.

In remarks prepared for delivery Tuesday, Reid plans to challenge Bush on the issue: “This week, we will debate an even stronger version of last year’s bill, and we will fight to see that it becomes law.”

Looming in the background are conference committee negotiations still to get under way on the Iraq War spending bill, which Bush has promised to veto if it contains the troop-withdrawal language added by both the House and Senate.

Even while the Senate debates other issues, Iraq is expected to dominate the congressional agenda as Democrats and the White House test the constitutional boundaries of their authority.

Reid upped the ante on the war during the recess by signing on as a cosponsor of a bill by Russ Feingold, D-Wis. The measure, slated to be introduced this week, would limit funding to troop security, anti-terrorism operations and training Iraqi forcesby March 31, 2008. That bill, however, has not been scheduled for action.

Democrats have yet to mount challenges to a series of recess appointments Bush made last week. Democrats have criticized the appointments of the ambassador to Belgium, the administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs and the deputy commissioner of Social Security — appointees seen by Democrats as conservative political operatives.

Reid has said he plans to move quickly on a Medicare prescription drug bill that would allow the government to negotiate bulk prices with pharmaceutical companies. The White House is likely to veto this legislation as well, setting up yet another possible confrontation.

Finance Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., plans to introduce the Medicare drug bill this week, with a markup possible by the end of the week.

The measure is expected to be a step back from the House-passed legislation (HR 4), which would require the government to negotiate drug prices in addition to removing the current prohibition on such negotiations — language the White House said on Jan. 11 that Bush would veto.

Intelligence Changes

Even legislation now moving under the radar, such as an Intelligence authorization bill (S 372), challenges presidential power. The bill would declassify the total spending figure for U.S. intelligence, a move opposed by the White House. And the bill takes a jab at Republicans involved in the Valerie Plame CIA controversy by proposing an increase in the maximum prison sentence for intentionally disclosing the identity of a covert agent to 15 years from 10 years.

In his determination to push ahead with Democratic priorities, Reid is showing “just as much resolve as Bush,” said Democratic strategist Jenny Backus. “The White House has been underestimating his ability to get things done.”

The approach contrasts with the promise under which the 110th Congress convened Jan. 4, when both parties joined in a rare closed-door meeting to discuss ways to make the Senate more productive and less divided.

“There’s always a choice in a Congress between accomplishments and a fight, and right now Democrats are choosing the fight,” said Don Stewart, a spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. “This isn’t the Jan. 4 kumbaya meeting, that’s for sure.”

Daphne Retter, Drew Armstrong and Tim Starks contributed to this story.

Source: CQ Today
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