Senators break bread, but not deadlock

Leaders of the two parties in the Senate savaged each other Thursday afternoon over another partisan blockade on key legislation. Then the red-meat rhetoric gave way to a rare bipartisan lunch.

The powwow, presided over by Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), was an effort to build on the tenuous accord struck earlier this month that advanced several stalled nominees and averted a drastic change to procedural rules known as the “nuclear option.”

{mosads}But looming large over the meet and greet was what happened on the Senate floor just minutes before, when Republicans blocked a Democratic effort to advance an appropriations package that would have boosted funds above spending caps set in 2011. Only one Republican, Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), backed the measure, leaving Democrats six votes short of the 60 they needed.

The lunch seemed to be brief — the room in the Russell Senate Office Building where it was held was largely empty shortly after Senate leaders spoke to reporters following the contentious floor vote. But Wicker nonetheless hailed the informal social gathering, light on policy talk, as a “good step” and insisted he would continue to hold similar meetings.

“We can get to know each other on a human basis and just find out what makes us tick,” he told The Hill. “If I have to pay for it myself, we will do it again.”

He described the lunch as an effort to simply allow senators to get to know each other better on a personal level. The thinking goes that the more members know about each other, the more commonality they might find that could grease the wheels in future legislative haggling — especially in the clubby Senate where personal relationships are a priority.

“There are a handful of senators that were born in Missouri, for instance. In the House, I might not know that,” said Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.). “I know who they are, and you’re always looking for something that gives you the ability to reach back and get together in the future on something you agree on.”

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) downplayed the significance of a single lunch but maintained there was a shift in Senate spirit following the hours-long private meeting senators held in the Old Senate Chamber that resulted in the agreement to disarm the nuclear option.

“Today we sat down for lunch for half an hour. I’m not sure that fundamentally changes the dynamics … but that caucus did,” he said. “Hopefully we’ll do more of those, because if you really sit down and talk substances across the aisle … it can change things.”

That accord appeared to be put to test this week, first when Senate Democrats had to push hard to muster 60 votes to advance and confirm Byron Todd Jones as the first Senate-confirmed director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in seven years.

Any new spirit of bipartisanship was weakened Thursday after Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) was able to foster broad GOP opposition to the spending package, driving up Democratic tempers in the process.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and his fellow Democrats were visibly angry at the outcome when they spoke to reporters. Democrats accused McConnell of pushing Republicans to reject the bill because he was fearful of a primary challenge from the right as he pursues reelection in 2014.

“It’s sad that Mitch McConnell is in a position where he feels he must whip against a bill like this one,” said Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.).

Reid’s tirade was followed by a rebuttal from McConnell, who accused Democrats of being interested in little else other than hiking taxes and spending, and of trying to renege on a promise to the American people by trying to advance spending above sequester levels. And it was clear he was aware of the juxtaposition between what he was saying to reporters and his next destination.

“We’re going to, believe it or not, a bipartisan lunch,” he said.

Both Reid and McConnell were seen leaving the lunch. But not together.

— Bernie Becker contributed to this report.