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Crunch time for Obama agenda

November 23, 2009 — At 8 o’clock Saturday night, the US Senate cleared the highest hurtle so far in its race to complete action on health care reform by the end of the year.  On a strictly party line vote in which all the Southern Democrats sided with their party, 60 lawmakers -- enough to defeat a filibuster -- voted to proceed with the health care debate.

Besides health care, the most high-profile of the Obama-backed initiatives, other major pieces of legislation are making their way through both houses of Congress in the weeks leading up to the end of the year. “Cap and trade,” a proposal to limit carbon emissions, is already being discussed in the Senate, though it will not get to the floor until next year. And in the House, a measure to transform the nation’s financial regulatory system continues to make progress in the Financial Services Committee, with a possible vote by the full House in December.

Southern lawmakers are key figures -- some for, some against -- in all of these major items on President Obama’s legislative agenda.

In the health care debate, all seven Southern Democratic senators voted to begin debate on the measure, a tribute to the leadership of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV). The turning point came during the day Saturday when the last two holdouts, Sens. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) and Blanche Lincoln (D-AR), announced they would vote with the Democratic majority, each winning significant concessions in the process. The concession to Landrieu included extra Medicaid funds -- up to $300 million -- for Louisiana. “It’s not a $100 million fix; it’s a $300 million fix,” Landrieu, in typical Louisiana fashion, said on the Senate floor, reported the Washington Post. Lincoln obtained an extra 72 hours to review the legislation before the vote Saturday night.

Both Landrieu and Lincoln, however, made clear that they would continue to seek other concessions, including removing the “public option,” or government-run insurance company, from the bill. In a news release, Lincoln said, “Rather than create an entirely new government-run health care plan to complete with private insurers, I support health insurance reform that focuses on changing the rules of our existing employer-based private health insurance system.”

Despite concerns expressed by Landrieu, Lincoln and Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE), it remains the intent of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to pass the bill by Christmas.

The Republican minority voted solidly against taking up the health insurance legislation, arguing that its $848 billion cost -- even though less than the $1 trillion House-passed plan -- was too expensive. In a news release, US Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) said, “Most Americans wanted to see health care reform that lowers costs, but this bill actually bends the federal cost-curve UP.”

“Cap and trade,” dubbed cap-and-tax by Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and other opponents, passed the House last June. The measure imposes a system of controls on emissions of so-called green house gases. In the Senate, behind the scenes maneuvering is dominating the early deliberations on the measure. Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), John Kerry (D-MA) and Joe Lieberman (Ind-CT) are working to forge a compromise, which they plan to release in December prior to the climate talks in Copenhagen. Graham is pushing to get provisions for boosting conventional fuel production (coal, oil and gas, and nuclear) into the bill. McCain, who once supported curbs on global warming gases, has reversed his position, and is outspoken in his opposition to the measure.

On the Democratic side, Sen. Jim Webb (VA) is the latest Southerner in his party to express opposition to the House-passed cap-and-trade bill, announcing last week that he could not vote for it in its House-passed form. Landrieu and Lincoln, both of whom ended up voting with the Democratic leadership in Saturday night’s health care vote, have also expressed opposition or serious doubt about cap-and-trade. 

While no more action will be taken on cap-and-trade this year, some lawmakers are predicting at least one Senate committee will report a bill in January, leading to a vote on the Senate floor in the spring. Others, however, believe the measure -- sure to be a political hot potato -- will not come up until mid-summer, only several months before the 2010 congressional elections.

Overhauling the nation’s financial regulatory system, which came under fire after the near-collapse of the nation’s banking system last year, is a third major component of the Obama Administrations domestic agenda. House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-MA) has indicated a number of bills, either passed or under consideration by his committee, will be combined into one and probably brought to the House floor in the second or third week in December; Frank hopes to pass the legislation by the end of the year.

Earlier this month, Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-CT) introduced a major financial services reform package, which contains even more stringent provisions than the House version. The Senate will take up the financial reform legislation next year, and again, Dixie lawmakers will play key roles. Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL), the ranking Republican on the Senate Banking Committee and the GOP’s leading banking expert in the upper chamber, is likely to lead the opposition to key provisions of the legislation.