Democrats' aggressive agenda stalls in Senate

WASHINGTON -- The aggressive agenda that Democrats pushed through with great fanfare in the House has become bogged down in the Senate, where Republicans have used various stalling strategies to thwart Democratic momentum on issues ranging from healthcare and homeland security to a resolution opposing President Bush's troop "surge."

None of the bills approved in the first 100 legislative hours in the House of Representatives last month has passed the Senate. The only one close to passing -- an increase in the minimum wage -- has consumed more than a week of floor time, and Republicans succeeded in attaching a series of small-business tax breaks favored by the White House.

On the Iraq war, Senate Republicans have so far blocked Democrats from offering a resolution that would express Congress' s disapproval with Bush's plan to send more troops to Iraq.

Republican leaders are pressuring GOP senators who have expressed misgivings about the troop escalation to nonetheless vote against a resolution, contending that non binding statements would be motivated by politics and could harm troops' morale.

"It accomplishes no constructive purpose," said Senator David Vitter , a Louisiana Republican who strongly supports the increase in troops. The Democrats' proposals amount to "nonbinding words that don't stop anything in terms of troop movement, troop funding, but that do clearly hurt our morale, turn off our allies, and embolden the enemy."

The Republicans' stalling tactics have frustrated Democratic leaders. Senate majority leader Harry Reid , a Nevada Democrat, has accused the Republicans of prolonging debate on the minimum wage mainly to keep a war resolution off the Senate floor for as long as possible.

Still, Democrats say they will eventually succeed in passing their main priorities, including a strong message of disapproval with the president's war strategy.

"It's always frustrating to watch this sort of thing, but we're working our way through it," said the Conference secretary of the Democratic Caucus, Senator Patty Murray of Washington . "We will have a debate for the first time in four years on Iraq. I think the public deserves that, and we ought to have it. So we're getting there."

Republicans counter that they are preserving the rights of the minority party, in a body that's designed to move slowly. Republicans have not yet used the ultimate Senate blocking tool, the filibuster, despite the fact that Democrats made it part of their legislative playbook when they were in the minority, said Senator John Thune , a South Dakota Republican.

"They want to get on to Iraq as soon as they can. We're reserving the right of our members to offer amendments on minimum wage," Thune said. "We know it's going to pass. It's not that we're trying to kill things, and I'd draw a distinction between [that and] the way the Democrats used the rules in the past, which is to kill, to block, to obstruct."

Late last week, Republicans told Democratic leaders that they would force a series of procedural votes on the minimum wage measure, even though both sides were certain of the outcome of those votes.

In addition, Republican members filed more than 100 amendments to the measure and said they would insist on formal votes on an unspecified number of them. That forced the Senate to consume most of this week on the minimum wage bill, and Democratic leaders had to postpone consideration of any Iraq-related resolutions until next week.

"They were trying to buy some time as they settled on a strategy for the war debate," said Jim Manley , a Reid spokesman.

Republicans' machinations in the Senate have given them time to build opposition to the Democrats' war resolutions. Despite wide Republican skepticism over the president's Iraq strategy, it's not clear that any war resolution will be able to garner 60 votes -- the threshold necessary to guarantee that a filibuster can be broken.

GOP leaders hope to prevail on rank-and-file members to avoid joining forces with Democrats, saying that a Senate-passed resolution would deliver little more than political embarrassment to the White House.

"Our hope is that some of our Senate colleagues will realize that they're being critics and not leaders," said Senator Jim DeMint , a South Carolina Republican who supports the troop increase.

The strategy has shown some signs of working. Several GOP senators who have been highly critical of the president's troop "surge" have indicated that they are unlikely to support any resolution.

Senator John E. Sununu , a New Hampshire Republican who has expressed concerns about the troop increase, said he doesn't feel the need to put his concerns into a non binding resolution that could wind up harming the US mission.

"This is more a political or a partisan exercise than anything," Sununu said. "I've always been conscious of the message that is sent by these resolutions. . . . I want to think about whether or not it's going to improve our chances for success."

The minimum-wage bill, which would raise the federal minimum from $5.25 an hour to $7.15, is expected to pass the Senate today. But the Republican-backed changes inserted in the bill will force it to go to a House-Senate conference committee before it can go to the president's desk, delaying the final passage by weeks or even months.

In any event, Senate Democratic leaders plan to move quickly to Iraq once minimum wage is off the Senate floor. House Democratic leaders have chosen to wait for an outcome in the slower-moving Senate before approving their own Iraq resolution.