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The Legislative News-Dailyfrom Congressional Quarterly

Finish in Sight for Stimulus Effort

'Transformational' $789 billion package could clear Congress on Friday
By

DAVID CLARKE, JOSEPH J. SCHATZ

CQ STAFF WRITERS

Congress is set to clear as early

as Friday an enormous spending and tax cut measure aimed at
stemming a deep recession that
promises to dominate the agenda
in Washington for the foreseeable
future.
Democrats hit potholes along
the way while rapidly negotiating the $789 billion measure (HR
1), but party leaders are on track
to deliver the bill on their stated
schedule, handing an early political victory to President Obama.
Lawmakers who back the plan
have high expectations for its historic size and scope.
"The legislation that will come
to the floor tomorrow, the recovPelosi said school construction was a priority for House Democrats,
ery package, is transformational
though some in her caucus were not happy with the compromise.
in what it will do," said House
Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. "TransBut the glow Democrats enjoy from
formational in that it will create millions
getting the bill enacted may not last
of jobs, and do so in a way that will bring
long. The size of the bill alone will have
stability to the economy."
Stimulus continued on page 18

Partisanship Threatens Democratic Agenda

CATHARINE

RICHERT,

CQ STAFF WRITER

The difficulty in rounding up Republican

votes for the economic stimulus package
could signal a long, tough road ahead for
Democratic leaders as they seek to expand
health care coverage, pass climate-change
legislation and overhaul entitlement programs.
"There are issues that are going to be
equally if not more controversial," said
Sen. Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, the top
Democrat in charge of courting and counting votes. "The Republicans have to decide
if they want to be part of this discussion. If
their idea is to say no to everything, then it

PULSE OF
CONGRESS
With Eye on Middle Class Issues,
Populist Caucus Sets Up Shop

AND PAUL M. KRAWZAK

By

More on the stimulus, pp. 15-21

GOP warning on nominees, p. 5

will be very difficult to achieve the goals the

American people want."
Not only will Democratic leaders such
as Durbin need a few Senate Republicans
to end procedural roadblocks on divisive
measures, they will also have to hold on to
moderate Democrats, some of whom might
not be eager to back big-ticket spending
given the staggering cost of the economic
stimulus and financial bailout.
President Obama has said he hopes his
effort to reach out to Republicans will lead
to successful collaborations down the road.
Democratic leaders are preparing to forge
Agenda continued on page 22

By ALAN K.OTA
CQ STAFF WRITER

House Majority Whip James E.Clyburn

likes to joke about the difficulty of his
job by pointing to the eight factions
within the Democratic Caucus.
ow
he can add one more to the list.
The Populist Caucus, which declared itself open for business earlier
this week, is somewhere in the middle,
wedged between the Congressional
Progressive Caucus on the left and the
centrist New Democrat Coalition.
The main difference
between
House Democratic progressives and
populists: The progressives focus on a
broader range of issues including the
war in Iraq, the environment and poverty; populists are more tightly focused
on middle-class economic issues.
Populism has a checkered history
in American politics, but it's being revived by the House Democrats' freshman class of2006, which Speaker Nancy
Pelosi, D-Calif., dubbed her "majority
makers."
BruceBraleyofIowa has been leading efforts to raise the profile of his classmates,
who account for about two-thirds of the
23 Populist Caucus members. They are
Pulse continued on page 10
People: Rep. Hill promotes
Volume 45, Number

27

top aide, p. 10

CQToday, Friday, February 13,2009

Page 22

Agenda

continued from page 1

coalitions on an issue-by-issue basis, but it

will not be easy.
'Tm worried," said Sen. Jeff Bingaman,
D-N.M., who as chairman of the Energy
and Natural Resources Committee will be
charged with drafting new energy legislation. "It's going to be hard. I think we need
to do a better job of explaining to Republicans why these issues matter to them."
Sen. Byron L. Dorgan, chairman of the
Democratic Policy Committee, said he puts
the stim ulus in a separate category and does
not think the challenge in building support
for it "says much about anything other than
this issue." He added, "We're going to deal
with issues one by one."
Democrats have a 58-41 advantage over
Republicans in the Senate, up from 51-49
in the llOth Congress. Regardless of the
outcome of the Minnesota race between
Democrat Al Franken and Republican
orm Coleman, the majority party will still
need at least one GO P vote to secure the 60
needed to limit debate in that chamber.
"You never get anything done in the
United States Senate if it isn't bipartisan,"
Sen. Charles E. Grassley, R-Iowa, warned
Democrats at the conference committee
on the stimulus.
Although Obama worked hard to line up
GOP support for the stimulus package, no
House Republicans backed their chamber's
initial version (HR 1) and only three Senate
Republicans crossed over: Arlen Specter of

Pennsylvania, and
Olympia J. Snowe
and Susan Collins
of Maine.
"What
they
could have done
was sat down with
the Republican
leadership," said
Tennessee's
Lamar Alexander,
Lamar Alexander
chairman of the
Senate Republican Conference.
More
consultation with Republicans could have
resulted in a bill that does more for the
housing sector, he said.
Alexander said Obama is going to have to
do more than engage in "a nice social visit."
He added: "If this administration wants to
get 20 Republicans, he's going to have to
lose 10 Democrats."
Meager support for the stimulus package is
not a good omen for bipartisanship on other
issues that require robust backing from both
parties, said Robert Blendon, a professor of
health policy and political analysis at the Harvard School of Public Health.
"In a vote as close as this with the stimulus, it's very hard to envision something
more controversial," he said. "You're talking about really big things."

Looking Ahead
By "really big things," Blendon is referring to the type of health care overhaul that
Obama and Democrats touted on the cam-

Lincoln's200th: President Obama spoke Thursday in the Capitol Rotunda as part of a series
of events marking the 200th anniversary of President Abraham Lincoln's birth. Flanked by
congressional leaders - and a statue of the former president - Obama recalled the role the
Capitol served in the Civil War as a makeshift hospital and barracks for Union soldiers.

paign trail, one that would greatly expand

coverage and likely require tax increases to
pay for the measure.
"As we do these trillion-dollar deficit
spending measures, Congress will be concerned about launching longstanding programs without financing," he said, citing
the fiscally conservative Blue Dogs in the
House. "The question will be, 'How do we
pay for this?' "
At the risk of alienating mem bers of their
own party, Democratic leaders should take
a piecemeal approach to health care, focusing instead on less controversialand less
expensive - proposals, such as universal
health care for children and improvements to hospital information technology,
Blendon said.
Ron Wyden, D-Ore., a Finance Committee member who has been working on a
bipartisan plan to change health care, says
he's not worried, because voters are being
hit by high health care costs and will demand action. "We'll have a bit more time,"
he said of health care. '
Legislation dealing with domestic energy
independence might have a better chance
with coastal and coal-state Republicans
eager to boost local production, said Andy
Hoffman, a professor at the University of
Michigan's School of atural Resources
and Environment.
"There has been Republican support
for these types of issues in the past," he
said, pointing to a cap-and-trade measure
sponsored in the 110th Congress by Sens.
Joseph 1. Lieberman, I-Conn., and John
McCain, R-Ariz. "There's alot of jockeying
here at the beginning to figure out the new
order ... but I don't think this is the final
period on the end of the sentence."
Senate Republicans say they want to be
brought into discussions of legislation earlier but are not seeking to be obstructionists.
"There's no connection whatsoever between the stimulus and what we'll be doing
in those other areas," said senior Republican Robert F. Bennett of Utah. "They're
priorities for the country, and we want to
do what's best for the country. I'm voting
against the stimulus because I don't think
it will work, but by no means is that part
of any grand conspiracy being hatched behind closed doors to derail anything else
down the road."
Old guard senior appropriator
Thad
Cochran, R-Miss., takes a more pragmatic
view. "We need more members," he said.
"We have to win more elections."