Opposing Loyalties Tug at Senators as Vote on New Clean Air Act Nears : Politics: None want to alienate either of two powerful figures, Byrd and Mitchell, who back conflicting legislation.

A growing sense of dread has overcome many senators as the day draws near when they must vote on a major revision of the 1970 Clean Air Act.

“To tell you the truth, I wish I could call in sick,” said one senator. “No matter which way I vote, I’m going to regret it.”

The source of the anxiety stems from the fact that two powerful Democratic senators whom no one can afford to alienate have taken opposing positions in the clean air debate. The intense battle between Majority Leader George J. Mitchell of Maine and Appropriations Committee Chairman Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia has left the remaining senators in a no-win situation.

A Republican staffer involved in the negotiations explained it this way: “There are 99 senators in this body who respect and like George Mitchell. But there are also 99 senators who respect and fear Robert Byrd.”

The struggle is seen by many as a test of wills whose outcome will define whether Mitchell is really in control of the leadership job he recently inherited from Byrd. For his part, Byrd has pulled out all the stops, and according to some, has engaged in old-style political arm-twisting.

Said one senator, speaking on the condition of anonymity, the “clear implication” of Byrd’s lobbying efforts was that he would remember which senators voted against him when their states came up for projects that must pass the Appropriations Committee.

“It’s subtle, but he (Byrd) lets you know how the game is played. I know a couple of senators who have caved in. They told me: ‘I admire you for holding out on principle, but I don’t know how you keep doing it,’ ” said the senator, who opposes the Byrd amendment.

The Byrd amendment would grant unemployment and retraining benefits to coal miners who lose their jobs as a result of the act’s acid rain provisions.

The Bush Administration, threatening to veto legislation that it considers too expensive, opposes the amendment on cost grounds. While Byrd said his package would cost between $300 million and $500 million, White House and Environmental Protection Agency officials fear the actual cost, in the words of one EPA source, “will be many, many millions of dollars more than what the senator suggests.”

Mitchell is fighting to hold together the delicate and complex clean air compromise he and other Senate leaders negotiated with the White House last month. More recently, he has been trying to reach an accommodation with Byrd, apparently lacking enough votes to defeat him.

Along with Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.), Mitchell drafted a compromise proposal for Byrd’s consideration Friday.

Neither Mitchell nor Byrd would comment on the details of the draft, which also received input from the Administration. But sources close to the talks said it falls considerably short of what Byrd is seeking.

While most senators are still hoping that a deal can be cut, it now seems likely that a showdown vote on Byrd’s proposal will occur this week, perhaps as early as today or Tuesday, the sources said.

The stakes are high for both men.

Perhaps more so than any other lawmaker now in the Senate, Byrd has built a reputation over the years for promoting and protecting the interests of his home state.

As majority leader before Mitchell, Byrd almost single-handedly prevented clean air legislation from reaching the Senate floor out of concern for the impact that acid rain controls would have on high sulfur coal mining jobs in West Virginia. And since grabbing the coveted appropriations gavel last year, after retiring as majority leader, Byrd has by his own unabashed estimate steered more than $400 million in federal funding West Virginia’s way.

Proud of his record and jealous of his prerogatives, the six-term senator once boasted that there were four things the people of West Virginia believed in--”God Almighty, Sears Roebuck, Carters Little Liver Pills and Robert C. Byrd.”

Now, with acid rain controls of the kind he opposed for years finally poised to pass the Senate, Byrd is waging what one Senate staffer says is a “no holds barred” battle to vindicate his voters’ faith in him.

For Mitchell, who rose to the pinnacle of senatorial power after only eight years on Capitol Hill, the stakes are perhaps even higher.

Ever since he arrived in the Senate, Mitchell has been fighting for tough legislation to cap the sulfur dioxide emissions that are generated by Midwestern utility plants burning coal, much of it from West Virginia. The pollutants drift on the northeasterly winds into Mitchell’s state and fall to the ground as acid rain.

“This is his issue, the one to which he has devoted more time than any other over his years in the Senate,” one senator said. “It’s very important to him.”

“This is his greatest test as majority leader,” added a senior Senate staffer close to the clean air negotiations. “Getting this bill passed is Mitchell’s first real attempt to put his imprint on national policy.

“If he can’t hold the Democrats together on this, if he fails because they defect to Byrd, it will be a big blow to his prestige and authority as majority leader,” the source said.

Complaining that “some people are trying to make more out of this than it really is,” a Mitchell aide said the senator does not regard his battle with Byrd as “a test of leadership.” A number of other senators apparently do, however.

The battle has created a major quandary for those who will probably be forced to take sides.

“We’re in a Catch-22 situation,” said Sen. Wendell H. Ford (D-Ky.), confirming the anxiety shared by many of his fellow Democrats.

The Mitchell-Byrd dispute was the talk of the Democratic leadership conference in New Orleans this weekend, with several senators expressing concern that a victory by Byrd could undermine Mitchell’s authority as majority leader.

That “would not be a healthy development for the party,” said Sen. Sam Nunn (D-Ga.). Despite these concerns, it looks as though Byrd’s proposal may win. “The last time we took an informal head count, it looked pretty grim,” said an aide to another Democratic senator who supports the clean air bill but opposes the Byrd amendment.

“I have personally talked to scores of senators about this amendment,” Byrd acknowledged. “I have talked with them on the telephone. I have talked with them on the floor and I have talked with them in their offices.”

Insisting he has no wish to block passage of a clean air bill, Byrd noted he had already cut back the scope of his coal miners assistance package twice, lowering the estimated cost from $1.37 billion to $500 million, in an effort to win the Administration’s approval.

But even that is too much for Minority Leader Dole, who has characterized the Byrd amendment as a “deal breaker” that would cost the clean air accord much of its Republican support. If that happens, the bill could then be filibustered--a prospect that Mitchell attempted to avoid in the first place by resorting to a compromise with the Administration.