(cross-posted at Daily Kos)
Today marks the end of the first full week that the Democratic-controlled 110th Congress has been in business. Given that, I think it’d be a good idea to evaluate just how Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) have been performing during their first week on the job. One has to keep in mind that the House and the Senate operate quite differently, so it’s understandable that the House has been able to get more matters voted on in a quicker period of time, particularly since we are pushing through an agenda that is broadly supported by a vast majority of the American people. The Senate, though, prides itself on its style of deliberation, so it was a given that much of the legislation would not be passed right off.
Today, I’ll be taking a look at how the House has been doing. Below the fold, there’s an outline of what the House Democrats aimed to achieve in the first 100 hours of the new Congress:
Day One: Put new rules in place to “break the link between lobbyists and legislation.”
Day Two: Enact all the recommendations made by the commission that investigated the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
Time remaining until 100 hours: Raise the minimum wage to $7.25 an hour, maybe in one step. Cut the interest rate on student loans in half. Allow the government to negotiate directly with the pharmaceutical companies for lower drug prices for Medicare patients.
Broaden the types of stem cell research allowed with federal funds…
All the days after that: “Pay as you go,” meaning no increasing the deficit, whether the issue is middle class tax relief, health care or some other priority.
With that, let’s take a look at what the votes on the major issues have been like to date. Although the votes on an issue are largely due to the beliefs of an individual representative or senator, I believe that observing party loyalty on a particular matter is a good indication of the ability of House or Senate leadership in ensuring that Democratic loyalty is well-kept.
The House
Many in the netroots were skeptical of Nancy Pelosi’s ability to lead the Democrats in the House. Given that her relationship with her second-in-command, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, is allegedly chilly, many believed it’d be better to have one of her strongest backers, Rep. John Murtha, as Majority Leader instead. Hoyer ended up winning, but the supposed friction within the Democratic caucus has hardly been visible. Instead, Pelosi and Hoyer have worked together to pass almost every single piece of legislation in the ‘First 100 Hours’ program – with plenty time to complete it. Let’s examine the votes on each of the issues to date:
* Ethics reform: This wasn’t even close. The ethics measure passed 430-1, with only the loathsome Dan Burton (IN-05) voting against the measure. Here’s a brief summation of what this bill will do:
The changes would prohibit House members or employees from knowingly accepting gifts or travel from a registered lobbyist, foreign agent or lobbyist’s client. Lawmakers could no longer fly on corporate jets. In addition, congressional travel financed by outside groups would have to be pre-approved by the ethics committee and immediately disclosed publicly.
* Pay-as-you-go: Here’s a quick summation of these rules, which were one of the cornerstones of fiscal discipline during the 1990s:
An important example of such a PAYGO system in this first sense is the use of PAYGO rules in the United States Congress. The Congress’s PAYGO rules required Congress to pay for any tax cuts with offsetting tax increases or spending cuts.
These rules were in effect from 1990-2002 and are widely seen as having assisted the US Congress in maintaining budget discipline. “Those rules were allowed to lapse in the House and watered down in the Senate, which made it easier for lawmakers to approve President George W. Bush’s tax cuts and a Medicare prescription drug plan”.
As fiscal restraint was one of the themes that Democrats ran on – given the record deficits that the Bush administration has been posting during its time in office – it’s not much of a surprise that this measure was passed with a measure of bipartisan support. 48 Republicans joined all 232 voting Democrats to pass the new rules 280-152.
- Intelligence oversight: Given the complete lack of oversight of the intelligence community under this administration – which is one of the key reasons we ended up in Iraq today – it’s clear that there needs to be more action on ensuring that the intelligence community is giving Congress all of its findings and is not cherry-picking intelligence. This passed on a largely party-line vote, with 8 Republicans joining all 231 voting Democrats to pass the measure 239-188.
- Implementing 9/11 Committee Recommendations: One can debate the usefulness of whether all of the recommendations of the 9/11 panel should be implemented, but putting their advice into effect is better than doing nothing at all, which is what the GOP seems intent on doing. With the government receiving failing grades on improving national security, this is a prime opportunity for Democrats to show that we’re the ones who care about ensuring the nation’s safety. On the GOP effort to recommit with instructions, the vote failed 198-230, but two Democrats – Jim Marshall (D-GA) and Gene Taylor (D-MS) – voted with the Republicans. Nevertheless, we passed the measure on the next vote, 299-128, with 68 Republicans joining all 231 voting Democrats (including Marshall and Taylor) to provide a veto-proof majority.
- Minimum wage increase: With the minimum wage having been stagnant in nominal terms for the last decade, the purchasing power of Americans who earn the minimum wage has decreased to its lowest level in about 50 years. Bush has said he would sign such a bill – but only with more tax cuts implemented along with it. That’s an absolute non-starter, and House Democrats were good enough to put up the minimum wage increase up for a standalone vote – and the results were resounding: another veto-proof margin on the bill, this time by a 315-116 margin. An amazingly high 82 Republicans joined all 233 Democrats in voting for a wage increase.
- Embryonic stem cell research: Since Bush’s decision to restrict federal funding of embryonic stem cell research in August 2001, the research of potential treatments for currently incurable conditions such as paralysis and Alzheimer’s has moved forward at a snail’s pace in America. The White House’s only veto has come on the same measure. Nevertheless, with a majority of the country supporting such funding, we might as well put GOP members in tough districts on the record. That being said, because this issue borders on the hot-button social issues that Democrats are sure to avoid while in power, we lost some conservative Democrats on this bill. It passed 253-174, with 37 Republicans voting with 216 Democrats, while 16 Democrats joined 158 Republicans in voting against hope. They are:
Jerry Costello (IL-12)
Lincoln Davis (TN-04)
Joe Donnelly (IN-02)
Brad Ellsworth (IN-08)
Marcy Kaptur (OH-09)
Daniel Lipinski (IL-03)
Jim Marshall (GA-08)
Mike McIntyre (NC-07)
Alan Mollohan (WV-01)
Jim Oberstar (MN-08)
Collin Peterson (MN-07)
Nick Rahall (WV-03)
Heath Shuler (NC-11)
Bart Stupak (MI-01)
Gene Taylor (MS-04)
Charlie Wilson (OH-06)
Of the above, Donnelly, Ellsworth, Shuler, and Wilson are freshmen. Wilson is somewhat disappointing; he replaced current Ohio governor Ted Strickland in Ohio’s 6th District, who was a strong advocate of embryonic stem cell research, as evidenced by this letter he co-signed to Bush in March 2001. Somewhat more surprising is that we have quite a few conservative Democrats in the Midwest/Great Lakes region. Since it’s unlikely we can flip many of the Democrats, particularly more conservative ones like Ellsworth and Taylor, we have a long way to go until we hit 290 votes, which is the veto-proof margin in the House.
* Negotiation of drug prices under Medicare: One of the big problems with the new Medicare act is that the prices of prescription drugs has risen due to Part D, which allowed for private companies to directly provide drugs to senior citizens. Here’s been the result:
Over the past five months, virtually all Medicare (Part D) plans raised their prices for the top drugs prescribed to seniors, according to a report issued today by the health consumer organization Families USA. The report, based on pricing data submitted by the plans to the federal government, contradicts the Bush Administration’s assertions that the new Medicare drug program is effectively moderating rising drug costs.
[…]
One of the most significant findings in the report is that, for 19 of the top 20 drugs, changes in the median Part D plan prices were virtually identical to the changes in Average Wholesale Price (AWP) established by the drug manufacturers. “This means,” according to Pollack, “that Part D plans are doing essentially nothing to contain the fast-rising prices by the drug industry.”
When Democrats put lowering drug prices on the agenda, Bush vowed to veto such a measure. Unfortunately, it seems like such a threat may stand up. The House voted on the measure today, and it passed 255-170, with 24 Republicans joining all 231 voting Democrats. This means that we are starting out with 257 votes to override a veto, 33 short of the required amount. It’ll be an uphill road, and it may not be a battle we win.
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Overall, one has to be pleased with the progress that Pelosi & Co. has been making to date in the House. There’s been a great deal of party loyalty, as Chris Bowers noted. The only bill we stumbled a bit on was stem cell research, but that’s to be expected when one has a caucus with such a wide-ranging view on social issues. For all the talk that the Democrats were in disarray because of the Majority Leader fight early on – it sure hasn’t added up to much. We still have to address the issue of interest rates on college loans, but the Democrats have a plan to address the cost of paying for college:
The Democrats’ legislation would phase in interest rate cuts over five years for undergraduate borrowers of new subsidized student loans – in which the federal government pays the interest on the loan while you’re in school – from a fixed rate of 6.8 percent to a fixed rate of 3.4 percent. Interest rate cuts would take effect July 1.
“When the interest rate cut is fully phased in, a borrower with $13,800 in debt would save approximately $4,400 in savings over the life of their loan, helping approximately 5.5 million undergraduate students,” Mr. Miller said.
We’ve been in solid command of the agenda, and now we’re going to be facing down Bush when it comes to Iraq. And Murtha is showing no signs of disappearing when it comes to the issue. Instead, he’ll be setting up high-profile hearings in his position as chairman of Defense Subcommittee of the House Approprations Committee. This can’t be a hearing that the Bush administration is looking forward to:
At a hearing on Iraq today convened by the Congressional Progressive Caucus, Congressman Jack Murtha offered a preview of how he plans to rein in the Bush Administration, from the perch of his chairmanship of the Defense Subcommittee on the House Appropriations Committee.
Murtha announced his intention to use the power of the purse try and close US prisons at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay, eliminate the signing statements President Bush uses to secretly expand executive power and restrict the building of permanent bases in Iraq.
And starting February 17, Murtha will begin holding “extensive hearings” to block an escalation of the war in Iraq and ultimately redeploy US troops out of the conflict. Murtha predicts that a non-binding resolution criticizing Bush’s expansion of the war would pass the Congress by a two to one vote. But he believes that only money, not words, will get the President’s attention.
So for those of you worried that Democrats aren’t addressing Iraq properly – they will be, soon. And the picture won’t be pretty. If Rep. Neil Abercrombie’s (D-HI) reaction to the escalation of the conflict in Iraq is any indication, we should give our representatives in the House a chance.
Rep. Neil Abercrombie, D-Hawaii, summed up the hostile tone of the hearings when he told Pace and Gates that the new strategy was foolhardy at best. “This is the craziest, dumbest plan I’ve heard of in my life,” Abercrombie said. “What on Earth leads you to think this plan is going to work?”