Senate Majority Leader Thomas Daschle (D-S.D.) said Tuesday the chamber will definitely be in session next week and he's planning votes on homeland security, conference reports and possibly nominations. But Daschle charged that Republican politicization of the homeland security debate had made it almost impossible to pass legislation reorganizing the executive branch, leading him to believe the GOP only wants an issue, not a new security department.
"They didn't want this in the first place. ... They oppose it because I don't think they genuinely want it," Daschle said at a press briefing, noting that the White House and Congressional Republicans had been opposed to a Department of Homeland Security until a few months ago.
Daschle's comments came after Director of Homeland Security Tom Ridge held a morning press conference at the White House calling on the Senate to pass the legislation before departing for the Nov. 5 elections. Daschle said that since President Bush began directly questioning Democrats' commitment to national security over the entangled homeland security bill at GOP fundraisers, passing the legislation has only become harder and is at this point unlikely.
After taking care of other legislative matters this week, Daschle will offer Republicans an up-or-down vote on their version of the legislation, written by Sens. Phil Gramm (R-Texas) and Zell Miller (D-Ga.), followed up by a vote on the Democratic draft, written by Sens. John Breaux (D-La.), Lincoln Chafee (R-R.I.) and Ben Nelson (D-Neb.).
That debate is likely to take place next week, in the Senate's final act before the elections. Daschle contends he is offering Republicans exactly what they want, up-or-down votes.
But Minority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) accused Daschle of not negotiating in good faith to get to a bipartisan bill that can pass with the large support of both parties, kowtowing to government unions seeking labor protections in the new agency. "They don't want to do anything at this point that would not be acceptable to the public service union bosses," Lott said.
Republicans are also hesitant to go through Daschle's homeland security scenario because it may ultimately lead to a GOP-led filibuster of the bill, which is what Democrats say is likely their best-case scenario politically, considering an actual compromise is unlikely at this point. With 51 votes likely in their favor, Democrats could defeat Gramm-Miller, then approve Breaux-Nelson-Chafee, forcing Republicans to filibuster the bill or allow it to go to conference with the labor-friendly provision.
While Daschle said the Senate will be session in next week, although it is unclear how much work will be on the table. (House leaders hope to adjourn this week.) On Wednesday, the Senate will take up two outstanding conference reports, one on election reform and the other being the Defense appropriations measure.
After that, Daschle will move to bring up the budget-enforcement mechanism offered by the top Budget Committee players, Chairman Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) and ranking member Pete Domenici (R-N.M.). Daschle said he was unclear how much cooperation the GOP would give him on the budget measure, which could take the rest of the week to complete.
"We'll just have to see how far we get this week to see what we do next week," he said.
But Daschle indicated he would craft the schedule as favorably as possible to incumbents in tight races, packing votes together in the middle of the week, if necessary. "I'm not going to bring people back unless we know we can get a lot of work done," he said.
Other than homeland security, Daschle said there could be votes on nominations and conference reports still being negotiated, although the three major conferences -- bankruptcy, terrorism insurance and energy -- all appear to still be in serious doubt.
In one sign of goodwill, however, the two leaders talked for 20 minutes Tuesday regarding noncontroversial items on the Senate's executive calendar awaiting floor action. Customarily, at the end of a session, such items, including nominations, can be agreed upon and passed by unanimous consent.
After Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) signaled his intention not to hold a vote on a former aide to Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.), who was hoping to elevate Judge Dennis Shedd to a circuit court position, Republicans threatened to hold up all nominations. The indirect result of such a hold-up would be to stymie Daschle's efforts to place one of his aides, Jonathan Adelstein, on the Federal Communications Commission.
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