Senate May Face Stalemate
By Mark Preston
Emboldened by Sen. Mary Landrieu's (D-La.) win last week, Democrats are prepared to prevent the Senate from organizing in January unless Republicans agree to near-equal committee funding in the 108th Congress.
Democrats would not be able to stop Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.) from being recognized as Majority Leader on the Senate floor, but they are planning to prevent committees from reconstituting if the GOP does not meet their demands. Such a move would prevent the GOP from hitting the ground running in the new Congress and stall President Bush from scoring some quick legislative victories before his Jan. 28, 2003 State of the Union address.
"If the Republicans don't play ball, they are going to have a real problem getting the Senate organized next year," vowed a top Democratic aide. "There is no way in hell we should allow these guys to get away with demands for a two-thirds/one-third split in funding."
But that is exactly what Republicans are driving toward, after wresting control of the majority from Democrats in the midterm elections. Incoming Senate Rules and Administration Chairman Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) advised new Republican committee chairmen this week that they should not enter into any funding agreements with their Democratic counterparts until overall organizing issues are resolved.
"Only after these actions are completed should committee chairmen then turn their attention to the issue of committee funding, including authorization levels, and allocations between majority and minority," Santorum wrote in a Dec. 10 letter obtained by Roll Call.
GOP sources said that Santorum plans to strongly advocate Republican chairmen accept nothing less than a two-thirds/one-third split in committee funding.
Santorum told the incoming committee chairmen that his office would provide historical "data on committee funding levels and spending ratios over the past several Congresses, when both Republicans and Democrats were in charge, to aid your decision about resources for the minority."
Prior to the election, Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and the panel's ranking member, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), made a pact to keep funding relatively equal on their committee regardless of which party wound up in the majority. Some Republicans are trying to prevent other committees from following suit, charging that this money would be used to attack GOP policies and the president.
"Every dollar we give them is one more dollar they will use to mess around with the president's agenda," said a top Republican staffer.
If Landrieu had lost her runoff election, Democrats concede Republicans would have had a stronger hand in controlling the bulk of committee funding for the next two years. But Landrieu squeaked out a victory in her runoff election, and Democrats said Republicans need to acknowledge the chamber's near parity.
"All of a sudden they have taken control of the Senate, and all of a sudden they think they control the universe," a senior Democrat aide said. "And they don't."
Negotiations between Lott and Senate Democratic Leader Thomas Daschle (S.D.) are stalled, and there appears to be some confusion over how the issue will be worked out. A Senate Democratic leadership aide said Republicans are "slow-walking the process" without providing a reason. The aide also said Democrats are getting mixed signals as to whether Lott or the individual committee chairmen will be doing the negotiating.
"One the one hand they've got Members telling their chairmen, 'Don't cut individual deals, the leadership is going to handle this,'" the Democratic leadership aide said. "And on the other hand, Senator Lott has refused to engage in negotiations on this and is pushing this back off on the committee chairs."
At a meeting on Monday, Democratic leadership aides counseled Democratic committee staff directors not to enter into any funding agreements until there's a better understanding about the framework for the negotiations.
"The message of the meeting was, 'Just don't play dead because you are just screwing yourself,'" said a Democratic source.
If a deal is not reached before the Senate gavels into session on Jan. 7, 2003, then Democrats are prepared to offer their own organizing resolution. The Democratic proposal would mirror the resolution that governed the 107th Congress following Sen. Jim Jeffords' (I-Vt.) decision to leave the Republican Party and caucus with Democrats.
Under this scenario, Democrats would receive near-equal funding for staff and resources as dictated by Senate Resolution 8, which both parties agreed to when Republicans controlled the chamber by Vice President Cheney's tie-breaking vote in the first half of 2001.
"That is clearly what everyone thinks is precedent for a 51-to-49 Senate," said a Democratic leadership aide.
Republicans would likely reject the proposal, triggering Democrats to try to freeze the committees.
A senior GOP leadership aide scoffed at the Democratic interpretation of the parceling out of committee funding.
"The bottom line here is history and precedent argue that the majority have a healthy majority of the resources, and we are going to support committee chairmen in their effort to have more than enough resources to adequately execute the president's agenda and hit the ground running in the 108th Congress," the aide said.
The only issue Democrats and Republicans have agreed upon so far is that the GOP will hold a one-seat majority on committees. What remains unclear is whether Republicans will add two members or Democrats will trim each panel roster by one.
Should committees shrink, Democrats would lose a seat on each of the following committees: Appropriations; Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs; Budget; Energy and Natural Resources; Environment and Public Works; Judiciary; and Intelligence.
Among those who would be affected are Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.), a likely presidential candidate who prizes his seat on Judiciary, and Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), a member of Appropriations.
"It is too early to speculate about what will happen, and we will have to wait for reorganization to find out what the final outcome is," said Greg McCarthy, Reed's spokesman.
Another scenario being discussed in GOP circles is contraction on all the committees in order to reduce the number of members by one in addition to the additional cut Democrats face as a result of losing the majority.
"It is always difficult to do, but it certainly would make things run more smoothly," said a senior Republican committee aide. "We have got too many people on the committee, and it makes it difficult to operate effectively."
Officially, spokesmen for both Daschle and Lott said negotiations are ongoing.
"It is in everybody's interest to work things out in an amicable way and to resolve this before Congress convenes in January," said Daschle spokeswoman Ranit Schmelzer.
"Senator Lott will be working with Senator Daschle about how to properly budget for the new Senate Republican majority," said Ron Bonjean, Lott's spokesman.
{ MY COMMENTS, WE NEED TO LET THE DEM"S KNOW THAT IF THEY HOLD UP CONGRESS< THEY HOLD UP AMERICA!}
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