WASHINGTON (AP) — A gridlocked Congress failed to do the big things: overhauling the nation’s immigration
system, reforming the loophole-cluttered tax code and stiffening background checks on gun buyers. Now
it’s time to see whether it can just do the basics.
With just two weeks before lawmakers’ sacrosanct August break, progress is decidedly mixed on several
must-pass items due to Capitol Hill partisanship, heightened by midterm elections and the Obama
administration’s conflicting signals to Congress. Lawmakers must find about $10 billion to keep highway
projects on track through next spring, ease long wait times for veterans seeking health care and deal
with a humanitarian crisis of some 57,000 unaccompanied immigrant children who have entered the U.S.
along t
Save he Southern border since last fall.
Looming large is legislation to keep the government operating beyond the start of the fiscal year on Oct.
1; the House has completed seven of the 12 spending bills while the Senate has done none. A
once-promising effort to revive the appropriations process in the Senate appears to have derailed in a
test of wills between top Senate leaders over the rights of Republicans to offer amendments to
legislation.
“You have to be optimistic and you have to keep on working,” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said
Tuesday. “It’s just a stunning thing that no matter what it is, the president is for it, the Republicans
are against it ..”
The California Democrat said congressional critics are not “overstating” the severity of gridlock on
Capitol Hill.
It’s looking increasingly possible, even likely, that the warring parties won’t come together to pass
President Barack Obama’s request for $3.7 billion to help deal with children flooding into the country
from Central America. The main roadblock is whether to also change a 2008 law that guarantees these
minors, many of whom are fleeing violence, a hearing before an immigration judge.
“I doubt it,” said Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who helped craft a comprehensive Senate immigration bill
last year that remains stalled in the House.
Congressional aides in both parties say the politics over changing the 2008 law to make it easier for the
Border Patrol to immediately send back unaccompanied minors to Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras has
all but sunk Obama’s request. The administration has sent contradictory signals on whether it would be
open to toughening the law — a non-negotiable demand of Republicans. Congressional Democrats are balking
at using the emergency funding bill to advance changes to the 2008 statute.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., accused Republicans on Monday of “resorting to ransoming
children to get their way.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who also worked on the immigration bill, said he couldn’t envision a bill
emerging from the House. “No Republican is going to vote for billions of dollars without changes to the
law,” Graham said.
And in what seemed unthinkable just a few weeks ago, aides say it’s looking like negotiations over House-
and Senate-passed veterans’ health legislation have bogged down after the administration upped the ante
with a demand for almost $18 billion to hire 10,000 doctors, nurses and other health care aides, and
lease new facilities to create additional capacity over the coming three years. That request, on top of
about $30 billion to permit veterans facing long waits to seek treatment outside the Veterans Affairs
system, has unnerved GOP negotiators.
The Democratic and GOP aides spoke on condition of anonymity in order to more candidly assess the
prospects of various measures.
“We’ve got to start strengthening the VA right now,” said Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., chairman of the
Senate Veterans Committee. The panel’s top Republican, North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr, said the nearly
$18 billion doesn’t have to be part of any agreement worked out with the House, and he remained
optimistic that something could be done in two weeks.
Said Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan.: “If we can’t come together on a veterans’ bill, it certainly highlights
the problems we’ve had in getting anything done here. One would think veterans would overcome any of
those challenges.”
Things are looking more promising for legislation to “patch” the highway trust fund after an overwhelming
House vote last week. Both Republicans and Democrats predict the Senate will end up simply accepting the
House measure, which will keep highway and transit money flowing through May 2015.
Republicans eager to avert a politically disastrous partial government shutdown may try to move a
short-term spending measure to keep the government open until after the November elections. The
legislation could come as early as next week, or be put off until September, when the House is scheduled
to be in session just 12 days. Either way, GOP conservatives no longer want a shutdown showdown over
implementing Obama’s signature health care law close to the midterm elections, especially with a
legitimate shot at winning a Senate majority.
Conservatives are, however, targeting the Export-Import Bank, which helps finance exports of U.S.
companies such as aircraft maker Boeing. Establishment Republicans support extending the Ex-Im Bank’s
authority past a Sept. 30 deadline. Tea party forces are opposed, and the internecine GOP struggle may
play out in September as a backdrop to a short-term spending measure to prevent a shutdown.
The Senate overwhelmingly passed a bill last week to extend a program that helped stabilize jittery
insurance markets in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. But the bill has hit a snag in the
House and won’t pass until this fall at the earliest.
The program is designed to cushion the financial blow to insurance companies in the event of another
massive attack. Under the program, the federal government helps pay damages for attacks that cost more
than $100 million. The program is scheduled to expire at the end of the year. The Senate voted 93-4 to
extend it through 2021.
House leaders tentatively scheduled a vote last week, but the vote was delayed and it’s unclear when the
bill will be revisited. Some House Republicans want changes to limit the government’s involvement in the
insurance industry.
Pelosi made her remarks Tuesday morning in an interview on MSNBC.