With the House and Senate looking to adjourn by Dec. 18, many questions will be answered in the next several days.
They include: Will the Senate pass a healthcare bill by the end of the year? Will the revised public option alternative being put together by Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.) attract 60 votes? Will the House pass a jobs measure this year? When will an omnibus spending bill pass, and how big will it be? How will Congress deal with expiring tax measures, including the estate tax? Will the Patriot Act be reauthorized?
{mosads}Congress has so much on its plate, including many must-pass bills (such as the spending and tax measures). But politically speaking, healthcare reform is a must-pass for Democrats. There is little or no chance that a final bill will be signed into law before 2010, which was Obama’s goal.
But getting a bill through the Senate by Christmas would be reason for Democrats to celebrate.
That is a tall task, because senators who have been talking about “threading the needle” to 60 votes acknowledge it will be even more difficult as the upper chamber deals with politically difficult amendments this week and next.
Across the Atlantic, international leaders are tackling climate change in Copenhagen, Denmark. The discussions will attract many headlines over the next week, but it’s unclear whether it will help climate change legislation to move in the Senate next year.
Meanwhile, voters in Massachusetts will decide whom they want as the Democratic nominee to replace the late Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.). Rep. Michael Capuano (D-Mass.), who has attracted the endorsements of Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and much of the Massachusetts delegation, has been closing in on favorite Martha Coakley, according to recent polls.
Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, will make his much-awaited rounds this week at a series of hearings in the Senate and House.
McChrystal will testify with the ambassador to Afghanistan, Karl Eikenberry, a former military commander there.
The Hill’s Roxana Tiron recently reported that Rep. Ike Skelton (D-Mo.), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, gave a glimpse of the weight McChrystal’s testimony is going to carry before his committee.
Speaking to a conference organized by the American Security Project on Friday, Skelton strongly endorsed Obama’s new war plan, calling it a “good way ahead” with a “good chance” of success. Skelton said he was pleased Obama listened to his commanders. He added that the most critical answer he wants is McChrystal’s definition of a successful mission in Afghanistan.
Player of the Week: Rep. Jim Oberstar (D-Minn.)
Despite resistance from the Senate and the White House, Rep. Jim Oberstar (D-Minn.) has made the case throughout this year for Congress to pass a $500 billion transportation reauthorization measure.
President Barack Obama and leaders of the upper chamber, wary of moving another bill with a hefty price tag, told the chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee: Let’s wait until after the 2010 elections.
Oberstar refused to bend, but even though he had the support of transportation groups, the political winds earlier this year suggested he was wasting his time. How would he overcome opposition from his president and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.)?
{mosads}Oberstar, who is in his 18th term, knows that political winds can shift, and they have done so.
Amid high unemployment rates, congressional Democrats are talking about new ways to trigger job growth. Transportation is an area frequently cited when Democrats discuss what could be in a measure that could clear the lower chamber by the end of this month.
While there has been no clear indication that the $500 billion highway bill will move soon, politics is the art of compromise. Oberstar may convince the White House and Senate leaders to pass some of it now as part of a jobs bill while agreeing to wait on the rest of the package until after the midterm elections.
Oberstar has shown throughout this career that he knows how to move legislation. It remains to be seen whether he will succeed in enacting major new transportation laws in the 111th Congress, but he is much closer to his goal now than he was this summer.