Copyright 2002 The Washington Post
The Washington
Post
June 10, 2002, Monday, Final Edition
SECTION: A SECTION; Pg. A19
LENGTH: 916 words
HEADLINE:
Divisive Climate Stymies Work of Conference Committees
BYLINE: Helen Dewar, Washington Post Staff Writer
BODY:
The civics textbooks make it
sound so simple: The House and Senate pass bills, and then a conference
committee composed of senior members of both chambers meets to iron out
differences. But nothing in the closely divided, quarrelsome 107th Congress is
quite that simple, especially anything requiring an accommodation between the
Republican-controlled House and Democratic-run Senate.
It's been hard
enough to get bills on such high-voltage issues as energy, trade and patients'
rights through both houses. Negotiating a compromise that can be approved in
identical form by both is proving to be even more difficult in many cases.
Sometimes even getting to the conference table can be an ordeal. The difficulty
this year is significantly heightened by the partisan split between the House
and Senate, the delicate political balance in each chamber and the already
fierce fights for control in this fall's elections.
"The political
stakes and volatile subjects like energy make it more difficult," said John
Feehery, spokesman for House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.).
The
problem is illustrated by most of the big bills that are still pending in
semi-finished form before Congress, covering issues championed by both President
Bush and congressional Democrats.
For example, the trade bill, passed
without a vote to spare in the House, took several weeks to clear the Senate,
where Democrats insisted on combining worker protections with Bush's request for
expanded presidential authority to negotiate trade agreements.
The
appointment of conferees was held up for a time in the Senate, where foes of the
deal talked about mounting filibusters in connection with three procedural steps
that the Senate must take to get a bill to conference. Senate Majority Leader
Thomas A. Daschle (D-S.D.), his legendary patience wearing thin, served notice
that he would keep the Senate in continual session -- morning, noon and night --
to clear all the hurdles and get the conference started. The bill's foes backed
off, and it now appears that both houses may appoint conferees this week.
The energy bill has taken even longer. The House passed its version last
year, but the Senate did not act until April, approving a starkly different bill
after weeks of struggle. During this time, Republicans hammered on the Senate
Democratic majority for delaying action. But now it is the Senate Democrats who
are muttering about House GOP delays.
With as many as a dozen committees
having contributed to the drafting of the House bill, Republican leaders have
had a hard time limiting the House conferees to a manageable number without
stepping on too many toes. In addition, House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Tex.)
insisted on being a conferee even though he doesn't sit on any of the
committees.
Then there is the question of who should chair the
conference: Both chambers are claiming the right to the chairman's gavel. House
leaders are hoping to name their negotiating team this week. Prospects for a
deal are in doubt.
Although legislation to tighten bankruptcy laws
passed early last year, it took awhile to get to conference and is taking even
longer to hammer out a compromise, largely because of a dispute over using
bankruptcy protections to avoid liability for violence at
abortion clinics. The conferees are still wrestling with the
clinic issue.
The bill to protect patients in HMOs, which both chambers
passed last year in significantly different forms, illustrates yet another
problem: the conference as graveyard.
The legislation died in conference
in the last Congress, and supporters of the tougher Senate version are wary of
sending it down that path again. Negotiations involving the White House, Sen.
Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) and others have been underway for months, poised on
the verge of success but never quite getting there. Barring a breakthrough,
Daschle said recently he may have no choice but to send the bill to conference.
PORK ROAST: It was late Thursday night and senators were tired, cranky
and eager to go home. All that stood between them and final passage of a nearly
$ 32 billion counterterrorism spending bill was a "managers' amendment," loaded
with dozens of supposedly noncontroversial and mostly technical changes.
Such carefully wrapped packages normally whiz through, no questions
asked. But not this time. Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Phil Gramm (R-Tex.)
smelled pork and decided to root it out. Tempers flared as McCain blocked
amendment after amendment, including one from fellow Republican Sen. Pete V.
Domenici (N.M.) on loan guarantees for small jets that had been rejected by
McCain's Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation. Domenici, furious,
chastised McCain for smiling during the exchange, and McCain angrily demanded
time to respond.
Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) and
Majority Whip Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) tried to cool things down, to no avail.
When the bill finally passed, it was without Domenici's proposal. But Domenici
put McCain on notice to expect the amendment again when the next spending bill
comes up.
THE WEEK AHEAD: The House may take up legislation to make the
marriage-penalty tax cut permanent and a proposed constitutional amendment to
require a two-thirds majority of Congress to raise taxes. The Senate is
scheduled to consider a bill to expand the federal hate-crimes law and may also
take up a bill to raise the federal debt ceiling.
LOAD-DATE: June 10, 2002 
