Special: CongressDaily's Update
ShareBelow, the full text of a very special edition of National Journal's CongressDaily, recapping the day's events on the Hill.
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Saturday, December 17, 2005
BUDGET: Deals Close On Katrina Aid, Avian Flu And Reconciliation
Senate Majority Leader Frist failed to get the House to agree to
President Bush's request for $7.1 billion over two years to
prepare for avian flu. But he secured $3.8 billion, more than
enough to cover the first year of implementation, along with
liability protections for vaccine makers, aides said. Frist also
won $3.75 billion in spending on the reconciliation bill to
bolster math and science education, said House Education and the
Workforce Chairman Boehner, noting he was "ordered" to do so.
House Budget Chairman Nussle said negotiators were close to
final agreement as early as tonight on reconciliation, pending
deals on agriculture and Medicaid. But Sen. Gordon Smith,
R-Ore., appears to be balking at agreeing to the scope of the
Medicaid cuts. Nussle said House-proposed welfare overhaul
provisions and cuts in child support enforcement programs were
likely to be dropped, as well as a provision splitting the 9th
U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Other sources said repeal of
anti-dumping subsidies to U.S. manufacturers -- known as the
Byrd Law -- was still in play, as well as how to offset the $7
billion cost of freezing Medicare physician payments at their
current rates for one year.
The outlook was still cloudy for a $142.5 billion FY06 Labor-HHS
spending bill, and divisions over drilling in the Artic National
Wildlife Refuge could complicate final approval of FY06 Defense
appropriations. House Speaker Hastert won agreement from Senate
Defense Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Ted Stevens,
R-Alaska, to let the reconciliation bill go through after House
approval of the Defense bill. "As you know, at this stage of the
game, anything can go wrong everything is on track so far,"
Hastert said. "We just have to know that that bill's going to
come over here" before signing the reconciliation conference
report, Stevens said.
A handful of House moderates are meeting today to discuss their
response to Stevens' insertion of the provision to allow ANWR
drilling, although it is expected to pass the House. They could
vote against the Defense bill or reconciliation, which will
follow the Defense measure. "The shameful conduct of the gang
that brought us the $225 million 'bridge to nowhere' personifies
this Congress," said ANWR opponent Rep. Sherwood Boehlert,
R-N.Y., who said he might vote against reconciliation. In the
Senate, GOP aides were unwilling to declare victory yet on
achieving the 60 votes necessary to cut off debate on the
Defense bill. Democrats and moderate Republicans were
considering options for stripping ANWR from the bill or delaying
the underlying measure.
The current stopgap continuing resolution expires at midnight,
and the House is preparing to vote later today on a CR to last
through Feb. 15, as Hastert wants to send a signal that the
House will finish its work this weekend and not return until
late January. The Senate was considering amending the CR to
change its date to Dec. 31, however, and talks were ongoing.
With the Senate unable to round up votes for the Labor-HHS
measure, House Appropriations Chairman Lewis expressed concern
that bill might have to funded under a CR, although others said
it might hitch a ride on Defense. The Defense spending bill will
come to the House floor Sunday carrying hurricane aid and avian
flu funds, along with possibly a smattering of unrelated
legislation. It also will carry a 1 percent across-the-board cut
affecting all spending except veterans' medical care, Lewis
said, saving $8.6 billion in FY06, in part offsetting Katrina
relief and bird flu funds.
DEFENSE : Campaign Finance Add-On Derails
Defense Authorization
The campaign finance language is similar to a bill sponsored by
Reps. Christopher Shays, R-Conn., and Marty Meehan, D-Mass.,
that would subject 527 organizations to the same reporting and
expenditure restrictions as political committees outlined in the
Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971. House Republicans
inserted additional language contained in a separate measure
introduced by Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., that repeals limits on
the amount parties can spend on the behalf of candidates in
general elections, a senior GOP aide said today. House leaders
are "thinking something like this would be better off hitching a
ride to a fast-moving train rather than putting it on the track
itself," the aide said. "They anticipate more explosions if they
do it as a stand-alone." And, with another congressional
election cycle starting up, members who have been targeted by
ads financed by 527s have been pressuring leadership to clamp
down on those organizations, the aide said.
Agreeing with Warner, Meehan argued that the defense
authorization bill is not the place for his bill's language.
Adding the 527 provisions to that "would have been
inappropriate," said Meehan, a senior member of the Armed
Services Committee, adding, "527 legislation should be debated
on its own We shouldn't be adding it on a weekend when nobody
knows what's in the bill." In 2002, Meehan and Shays championed
the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act in the House. House Armed
Services Chairman Hunter said he planned to speak with Warner
about the 527 issue later today. Asked if he supported including
it on defense authorization, Hunter said "I'm not sure that it
is" going to be on the bill.
The defense authorization bill overcame its most serious hurdle
earlier this week when Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., reached a deal
with the White House on an amendment that would ban torture of
detainees. That language also is in the Senate version of the
FY06 Defense appropriations bill, and Senate Defense
Appropriations Chairman Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, said this week he
did not oppose its inclusion in the conference report on the
spending bill. Before the flare-up over the 527 language, the
authorization conference report was on its way to passage. House
and Senate conferees met for just over an hour on Friday
afternoon and signed the conference report after minor matters
were resolved. House aides had hoped for a vote Friday night.
PM.OUTLOOK: Senate, House To Meet Sunday, Aim For
Monday Finish
Senate Majority Leader Frist put senators on notice this
afternoon to be prepared for "a very full day" of voting
starting Monday morning. Although the Senate met for only a
limited time today with no votes, Frist refused to rule out the
possibility of roll-call votes Sunday. He said he hopes to bring
the Defense appropriations conference report to the Senate floor
Sunday. Democrats have threatened to filibuster that bill if it
includes a provision allowing drilling in the Arctic National
Wildlife Refuge. If the conference report is filed Sunday, Frist
could file a cloture motion to set up a Tuesday vote. Despite
problems with the defense authorization bill, Frist still voiced
hope today that the Senate could adopt a conference report by
unanimous consent, if the House passes it today.
The House also is heading toward passage tonight of a two-year
extension of federal terrorism risk insurance, which would send
the bill to the White House for President Bush's signature.
House Financial Services Chairman Oxley criticized the final
deal -- reached Friday evening -- because it left out provisions
requiring full reimbursement of the government for federal
assistance triggered under the act. But the bill is nonetheless
headed for strong bipartisan approval in the House.
PM.TRADE: Proposed Draft On WTO Agenda Attracts
Little Support
Governments and lobbyists here expressed widespread
dissatisfaction with sections of the 11-page document and its
30-page annex. "Europe believes there are problems with the
draft text," said European Union Trade Minister Peter Mandelson
in a prepared statement. "It lacks balance and is not what we
hoped for. We believe it can be improved and we will continue to
negotiate." But it was unclear how much of this opposition was
substantive and how much reflected positioning to extract the
maximum concessions in late-night bargaining.
Meanwhile, Senate Finance Chairman Grassley today said he is
"very disappointed" with the draft. "The text moves us no closer
to resolving the impasse on market access that's really at the
heart of development. At the same time, the text calls for more
concessions from developed countries with few, if any,
commitments from the developing world." Grassley said he would
"seriously doubt that any agreement with this imbalance will be
acceptable to the U.S. Congress or fulfill the negotiating
objectives" of presidential trade negotiating authority.
As an attempt to artfully balance contrasting interests, the
draft had something for everyone and not nearly enough for
anyone, with major issues unresolved. No agreement existed on
whether to end farm export subsidies by Europe and the United
States in 2010 or five years after these negotiations end, which
could be 2013. After spending much of the week haggling over
food aid, the paper merely proposed resolving the issue by March
2006. And no date was set for when negotiating modalities -- the
formulas for cutting farm tariffs -- would be reached. Brazil
Foreign Minister Celso Amorin said the agricultural text shows
"modest progress," an expression of greater satisfaction than
many observers expected. "The paper that appeared today is
better than the one the day before It's much below what was
expected. But at least we have started to move."
On cotton subsidies, an issue of great interest to West African
nations and one that has become symbolic of this meeting's
commitment to the poorest of the poor, the text keeps cotton as
part of the overall agricultural negotiation, a victory for the
United States. Moreover, it ties duty-free entry of cotton into
the United States to the end of the negotiation. African
cotton-producing countries had wanted this preference to start
immediately. But export subsidies are to end in 2006, according
to the text, and in a concession to the African producers, it
says domestic cotton support will be cut on an expedited
schedule. Trade Representative Portman told reporters the cotton
provisions, especially the acceleration of cuts in domestic
support, would be difficult for the United States.
The section on non-agricultural market access, or industrial
goods, "is not too bad, given where we were," said Andrew
Stoler, a former USTR official, noting the text does not include
a tariff-cutting approach advocated by Brazil and India that
U.S. industry thought would lead to inadequate liberalization.
U.S. businesses do not share such positive sentiments. They
object to language that links the level of ambition in
industrial trade liberalization to that in agriculture. "We
could be held hostage to E.U. reluctance to liberalize
agriculture," warned Calman Cohen, president of the Emergency
Committee for American Trade, comprised of major American
international corporations. "It's a prescription for lowered
expectations."
The services proposal evoked even more conflicted opinions. "If
it emerges intact," said Robert Vastine, president of the
Coalition of Service Industries, "we are very happy with the
text. It is as good as we could expect." Not so, Mandelson said.
"This is not a mandate that points to new market access
opportunities," he told fellow trade ministers. And a number of
developing nations believed the services language would compel
them to sit down with industrial countries to talk opening their
markets, a coercion they resent.
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