After pulling the Defense authorization bill from the floor Wednesday, Senate leaders looked for ways to quickly build on their list of accomplishments for the year.

Majority Leader Harry Reid said Democratic priorities during the rest of July will be the higher-education bill (HR 2669); a draft bill reauthorizing the State Children’s Health Insurance Program; the Homeland Security appropriations bill (HR 2638); the bill implementing recommendations of the Sept. 11 commission (HR 1); and going to conference on the lobbying overhaul bill (S 1).

From Reid and other Senate Democrats, the prevailing complaint was Republican obstructionism.

“At the risk of sounding like a broken record, this is extraordinarily discouraging,” Reid said after the Homeland Security bill was temporarily blocked from floor consideration Wednesday.

“First they prevented us from acting on the 9/11 commission’s recommendations,” the Nevada Democrat said. “Then on changing the course in Iraq. And now this.”

“They’ve slowed everything down,” said Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin, D-Ill. “Very little gets accomplished. That is their goal.”

Republicans said more negotiation with the minority party was the solution that Democrats should embrace.

“The Senate is spiraling into the ground to a degree that I have never seen before, and I’ve been here a long time,” said Minority Whip Trent Lott, R-Miss., who entered the chamber in 1989. “All modicum of courtesy has gone out the window.”

“The Senate is designed to force parties and members to work together. It’s just not happening, and that’s unfortunate,” Lott said.

The pullback from consideration of the Defense bill (HR 1585) followed the same pattern as the immigration bill (S 1639), which after weeks of debate was pulled from the floor following an unsuccessful cloture vote.

Democrats have pointed to the increase in the minimum wage for the first time in a decade (PL 110-28) and the adoption of a budget resolution (S Con Res 21) as among their accomplishments so far this year.

But senators who are on the ballot in 2008 have an interest in going home in August with a longer list of accomplishments.

Mary L. Landrieu, for instance, is bristling over Republican objections that prevented action on a disaster loan bill (S 163) — no small issue for the Louisiana Democrat.

“Two months into what is predicted to be a very active hurricane season, this is not a time for partisan politics or procedural maneuvers, it is a time for action,” Landrieu said.