New Congress stumbles through its first month
Theyâre battered, bruised and beaten down by their members â and itâs only the end of January. The first month of 2015 hasnât been easy on any of Capitol Hillâs leaders, with casualties ranging from Harry Reidâs broken facial bones to the GOPâs circular firing squad on abortion, immigration and border security. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell beat back Democratic tactics on the Keystone XL pipeline, only to pass a bill that is highly unlikely to become law. House Speaker John Boehner faces rebellions from both moderates and the right, and members of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosiâs shrunken caucus are complaining that the partyâs messaging stinks. Story Continued Below Asked how he thinks the new Republican-led Congress is doing right now, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) grinned broadly and said, âNot as good as they thought.â âTheyâre just tied in knots,â Schumer said of the Republicans who had vowed to run the Capitol responsibly. âTheyâre learning that being in charge isnât so easy and isnât so much fun.â But matters arenât much better for Democrats, whose House minority is the smallest itâs been since the 1940s. Even in the Senate, where Democrats have flexed their muscles to stymie the GOPâs agenda, they risk looking like the old just-say-no Republican minority that they spent years criticizing. And McConnell (R-Ky.) picked up the support of nine Democrats in passing the Keystone XL pipeline bill, showing how he will target centrist Democrats throughout the Congress and pit them against President Barack Obama. âDemocrats are still trying to figure out: How do they slow us down and present obstacles without being blamed for being obstructionist?â Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas) said. Congressional leadersâ early troubles are all the more notable given how seasoned a group this is: Pelosi, Boehner, Reid and McConnell have now led their parties for an unbroken string of more than eight years, all of them serving as leaders in both the majority and minority. And yet Congress is set to end January with exactly one new law on the books: an extension of terrorism insurance for commercial buildings that would have passed in December if the Senate had been willing to stay later into the year. That tally will double in the next week when the Senate takes up a popular House-passed bill aimed at preventing veteran suicide. The most visible symbol of Congressâ brutal January is Reid, whose injuries occurred when an exercise band snapped in his bathroom on New Yearâs Day, sending him barreling into cabinets. The accident happened soon after he had moved from his hometown of Searchlight, Nevada, to the suburbs of Las Vegas. Since then, Reid has undergone eye surgery and facial reconstruction and been left with partial blindness, though heâs expected to return to the Senate on Tuesday. Senate Democratic leaders have yet to hold their traditional weekly news conference in the Capitol in his absence, wary of setting off palace intrigue, and canceled their weekly caucus meeting on Tuesday. Reid also might need another surgery. Yet even working from his apartment in Washingtonâs Ritz-Carlton, Reid frustrated efforts by McConnell to swiftly approve the Keystone XL oil pipeline, a bill that was on the Senate floor all month as Democrats pushed a flood of amendments. The Senate finally passed the legislation Thursday after a successful Democratic filibuster on Monday, but it still needs to be reconciled with the Houseâs version before the bill can go to Obama â who has vowed to veto it. That process will take time. Across the Capitol, Boehner has had to pull two bills because of discord within his ranks: one restricting abortions after GOP women rose up in opposition, and a border security bill that was scuttled as a snowstorm barreled down on Washington. The speaker is facing a squeeze from both his partyâs center and his right. Moderates donât much want to vote for conservative bills, as two dozen of them showed when they voted against gutting Obamaâs immigration actions. Conservatives, meanwhile, are starting to oppose bills they once supported. Right now, Boehnerâs House Republican Conference canât even agree if the Department of Homeland Security needs to be funded before its end-of-February deadline. The hardline DHS bill the House passed this month, with language blocking Obamaâs immigration actions, is set to be rejected by the Senateâs mischievous Democratic minority next week. No one seems to know how Congress will make its first deadline of the year, let alone looming deadlines on Medicareâs âdoc fix,â transportation funding and the debt ceiling. As for Pelosi, the California Democrat has finally lost an intraparty fight, her caucus is restive and some are hungering for new leadership. House Democrats are now regrouping at a retreat in Philadelphia, attempting to chart a steep hill back to power. In the gatheringâs early moments, they released survey results in which their own members slammed the partyâs midterm election messaging, saying they need a broader focus on jobs, economic growth and the middle class. The House has been shipping plenty of bills over to the Senate. But the legislation will take months for the deliberative upper chamber to process, so many of the Republicansâ early victories have instead been procedural: For example, McConnell has allowed votes on more than 30 amendments just in January, compared with the 15 amendment votes that Democrats had allowed in all of 2014. McConnellâs significant procedural milestone has already become an incredibly popular talking point among Republican senators â and itâs beneficial to plenty of Democrats as well. Take Gary Peters, the Senateâs lone freshman Democrat. The Michigan Democrat received a vote on one of his amendments Wednesday after less than a month as a senator. Former Sen. Mark Begich (D-Alaska) couldnât get one in six years in Congress. âItâs certainly been an improvement from the House,â admitted Peters, a former House member. After a rocky first month, House Republicans say theyâll soon get back to legislative basics: passing spending bills and allowing the institution to snap back into some semblance of regular order. And the pent-up amendment demands in the Senate and the lack of coordination between the chambersâ majorities on the DHS bill will eventually come to an end, Republicans insist. House Republicans are slowly becoming accustomed to how long it takes the Senate to process a bill thanks to McConnellâs pledges to open up the floor. Senate Republicans say they will get in better sync with the House as their committees crank up. âAt first theyâre going to take a while, but I donât think by the summer every bill will take a month,â said Sen. Roy Blunt of Missouri, a member of Senate GOP leadership and former House leader. But in February, Republicans are going to have to adjust to a new factor: Reidâs return to the Capitol. Aside from guiding the Keystone filibuster, the wily Democratic leader also has Democrats ready to block the Houseâs Homeland Security bill from even being debated on the Senate floor â so members of both parties are preparing for his arrival next week. âHe is really chomping at the bit,â Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said.