As Congress scrambled Friday to wrap up its work for the year, lawmakers remained at odds over how to pass homeland security legislation, a terrorism insurance bill and a measure to extend unemployment insurance benefits.
Senate Democrats were furious to find a half-dozen unrelated provisions tucked into the bill creating a Homeland Security Department that the House passed earlier in the week.
Those provisions benefited businesses with offshore addresses, the pharmaceutical industry and Texas A&M University. One provision, for instance, would offer total liability protection for drug companies, such as Eli Lilly Corp., that make mercury-based vaccine preservatives.
Democrats charged that the administration was trying to protect one of its biggest campaign contributors–the pharmaceutical industry–against lawsuits by parents of autistic children. Many of those families and some scientists believe vaccinations that contain mercury may lead to the onset of autism in small children.
“Where was this negotiation and who was there?” asked Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.). “Were the families of autistic children invited to this negotiation? Were members of the Senate? The answer is no.”
House Republicans said they included the last-minute items at the request of the administration and Republicans. They also said Democrats were aware of their efforts.
GOP accuses Democrats
“It seems to me they’re looking for excuses not to pass this thing,” said John Feehery, a senior aide to House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.). “Perhaps they don’t want to give the president a victory.”
President Bush made passage of the homeland security bill a key issue in the recent campaign. After Republicans scored election victories, he said passage of the bill was the crucial issue for this lame-duck session.
Republicans also said they needed to protect the pharmaceutical companies from lawsuits because they will be providing smallpox vaccine to guard against terrorist attacks using biological weapons. Feehery further charged that the only special interest being protected is the trial lawyers who contribute to the Democrats.
Democrats are offering an amendment to strip the surprise provisions from the homeland security legislation, which would reorganize the government to better prepare for terrorist attacks. The Senate, which voted 65-29 to quash a filibuster of the bill, is expected to resume work on the measure Monday.
House members left town early Friday, with no plans to return until the new session of Congress begins in January. If the Senate makes changes to bills that the House has already passed, the legislation could die unless House Republican leaders agree to pass it by voice vote without the consent of its members.
But Sen. John Breaux (D-La.), one of the architects of a compromise on homeland security, said he did not believe the House would let the legislation die if the Senate stripped out the special interest provisions.
“Because they went on vacation?” Breaux asked. “To go home and eat turkey? I don’t think so.”
The Senate and House are also at odds over extending unemployment insurance benefits to the nation’s jobless.
The House voted to extend unemployment benefits for another five weeks, as well as retool the Medicare payment formula to keep it from slashing the rate at which doctors are reimbursed for their work.
Jobless benefits at stake
The Senate, on the other hand, late Thursday night passed a three-month extension of unemployment benefits that would be good through March 31, 2003. That version included nothing for doctors.
Unless the Senate passes the House extension, or the House passes the Senate bill by voice vote, jobless Americans will get no additional unemployment benefits. Illinois is tied with California for having the fourth-highest unemployment rate in the country at 6.3 percent.
One thing the two chambers did agree on was a bill authorizing spending on behalf of the nation’s intelligence apparatus. The measure would also create an independent commission to investigate the failure of the government to find out about and prevent the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, something the administration had strenuously fought for months.
And the Senate is expected to follow the House’s lead and pass a continuing resolution next week that would fund the federal government at current levels until the new Congress takes office in January. With an intensely partisan atmosphere during the past year, Congress was only able to pass two of the 13 spending bills to fund federal programs in fiscal year 2003, which began Oct. 1. The continuing resolution would avoid a government shutdown.
In its rush to adjourn for the year, the Senate confirmed a lengthy list of judicial nominees and administration officials, and agreed to a number of treaties with Honduras, Peru, Lithuania and other nations.
More unfinished business
The Senate has yet to pass a terrorism insurance bill, which was approved by voice vote in the House. The measure would provide for the federal government to cover up to $90 billion a year in insurance claims from terrorist attacks.
Higher insurance premiums since the Sept. 11 attacks have deterred companies from beginning new construction projects. Many insurance companies, too, have been reluctant to provide terrorism insurance.
House Republicans gave up their fight to limit punitive damages in lawsuits and agreed to pass the insurance measure at the Bush’s urging. The Senate is expected to pass the bill next week and send it to the president for his signature.
Finally, Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) declared a bankruptcy reform bill dead for the year after House Republicans removed language that could limit abortion protests by banning protesters from using bankruptcy to avoid paying court fines imposed for blocking clinics. The House passed the bill early Friday morning after it originally failed due to the abortion language.
