New Realities to Confront Congress in Coming Year

Congress’ adjournment this week marked the end of a clamorous year that tested its ability to respond to political upheaval and national crisis.

From a disputed presidential election to the mid-session Democratic takeover of the Senate, from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks to the arrival of anthrax envelopes, Congress was buffeted by events that reordered its agenda and changed its tenor.

Some of those changes were transitory: The cooperative spirit that swept Capitol Hill after Sept. 11 vanished in the year-end partisan combat that torpedoed legislation to shore up the economy.

But one change will have an effect on congressional actions for some time to come. Having begun 2001 almost giddy with the prospect of huge surpluses in the federal budget, lawmakers now face sobering deficits.

The abrupt change in fiscal fortunes will hamstring both parties’ ability to pursue costly enterprises, ranging from fighting terrorism to building missile defense systems to expanding Medicare.

That compounds the problems facing congressional leaders next year, when they face growing pressure to return to some of the issues sidelined by the focus on terrorism.

“Clearly, the agenda has changed as a result of the tragedy of Sept. 11,” said Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.). “We hope to get back on the Democratic agenda sometime soon.”

But a return to the pre-Sept. 11 battle lines will not be simple for either Democrats or Republicans because the dynamics of many debates--on issues as diverse as human cloning, missile defense and health policy--have been altered in the interim.

A Transformation in Bush’s Stature

The year transformed not only the congressional agenda but also President Bush’s stature. He was sworn in after one of the closest presidential elections in history, with some embittered Democrats still questioning his legitimacy. But by the end of the year, Bush was enjoying lofty approval ratings, and nary a Democratic leader dared challenge his handling of the war in Afghanistan.

In the months between, Bush delivered on three major campaign promises. Congress gave him most of what he wanted in the $1.35-trillion, 10-year tax cut approved in May. An education reform bill with key elements of Bush’s plan cleared Congress in its waning days. And Bush opened the way for developing a missile defense system when he announced that the U.S. would withdraw from the 1972 Antiballistic Missile Treaty--and Congress was powerless to stop him.

Even more of Bush’s agenda made its way through the GOP-controlled House. It approved his “faith-based” initiative to have more federal aid go to religious institutions that provide social services; his bid for broad powers to negotiate international trade accords; and his energy plan, which includes a controversial proposal to open part of Alaska’s protected wilderness to oil drilling.

But the prospect of these proposals becoming law was dealt a major blow at midyear when Sen. James M. Jeffords of Vermont left the Republican Party to become an independent, throwing control of the Senate to the Democrats. That made Daschle the majority leader, a change of far-reaching effect.

“Having Daschle as leader has shaped politics and policy these last few months in a very significant way,” said Thomas Mann, an expert on Congress at the centrist Brookings Institution think tank.

The difference in the flow of legislation was immediate. In June, the Senate had been expected to consider Bush’s energy plan. Instead, Daschle brought up an issue Republicans had long stalled: a measure to impose new regulations on managed health care.

With their new power, Democrats also were able to block or slow Bush policies that were hurtling through the House, from the faith-based initiative to trade legislation.

But nothing did more to transform the legislative agenda than the Sept. 11 attacks. That calamity made Congress itself feel vulnerable: After three hijacked airplanes slammed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, many feared that a fourth plane, which eventually crashed in Pennsylvania, was headed to the Capitol dome. The building was evacuated, top congressional leaders were flown to a secure location and the day ended with lawmakers reassembling on the steps of the shuttered Capitol to sing “God Bless America.” Fueling the sense of crisis, just a few weeks later anthrax started turning up in the mail and office buildings of members of Congress.

Both parties rallied behind Bush in his response to the attacks, and for a time Congress seemed determined to defy its reputation as an institution where partisan battling takes precedence over action. With broad majorities and in remarkably little time, Congress passed bills to authorize Bush to wage war against terrorism, pay for the war, bail out the airline industry, expand anti-terrorism police powers and beef up airport security.

“It shows that when it’s needed, the Congress can act with remarkable dispatch,” said Ross Baker, a political scientist at Rutgers University.

One issue on the post-Sept. 11 agenda was the glaring exception: Legislation to help revive the sagging economy died this week after a long, bitterly partisan process.

The preoccupation with terrorism, the war and the economy sidelined a range of issues. Put off until next year, their prospects now have been transformed.

One topic that had been expected to ignite a fierce debate this fall was Bush’s decision in August to allow only limited research on embryonic stem cells. That debate never happened in Congress, as combatants pulled back in the wake of Sept. 11.

Instead, Senate leaders agreed to votes in February or March on stem cell research and human cloning. In the meantime, anti-cloning forces have been galvanized by the November announcement that a Massachusetts company had created cloned human embryos. And even some who support cloning research strictly as a tool for fighting disease are concerned that the announcement bolstered the case for increased regulation.

Another issue that once seemed pressing and then receded was the effort to create a prescription drug benefit for Medicare recipients. Both parties had expressed interest in the initiative, though they differed significantly on how to do it. Now the significant costs involved in any approach loom as a huge hurdle because of the return of federal deficits.

Fight Is Averted on Missile Defense System

On defense matters, Bush escaped a big fight with Congress after Sept. 11 when Senate Democrats backed down from pushing a bill that would have required him to get explicit congressional approval before conducting any test of a missile defense system that violated the ABM Treaty. Now that Bush has served notice that the United States will withdraw from the ABM Treaty, it will be harder than ever for Congress to block such tests.

Democrats hope to revive interest in legislation to regulate HMOs, but that effort will have to compete with a range of health issues that have leaped to the top of the agenda--such as coping with anthrax and other forms of bioterrorism and providing health insurance for the growing ranks of the unemployed.

On the energy front, Daschle has promised to bring up legislation early next year. But the context is far different from when Bush first unveiled his initiative.

Aiding his proposal is that the war has enabled Republicans to recast the energy debate as a matter of national security. On the other hand, the consumer energy crisis that had fueled the push for a new policy--the threat of rolling blackouts in California and gasoline prices brushing up on $2 a gallon--has faded.