Two leaders pivotal to economic stimulus

The chairman saw red.

"Some of us can't stomach the way the Senate operates, because it doesn't," he told a quickly convened press conference. "Since the Senate can't deal with reality, we thought perhaps it might be able to deal with virtual reality."

Thomas proposed setting up a "virtual conference." "Let's pretend [the Senate] passed a bill," he said. The deal would then be put up for a vote in both houses, with a commitment from the leadership that amendments would not be allowed.

Some congressional analysts were stunned by the new arrangement. The closest precedent is the first hundred days of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's term, when enormous legislative packages sailed through the Congress with virtually no scrutiny, except by a handful of committee chairs and House and Senate leaders.

"That was an emergency situation, as this is," says Larry Sabato, a political scientist at the University of Virginia. "On the stimulus package, most members of Congress realize that the public expects them to produce, and if the normal mechanisms are not working, they may have to resort to extraordinary measures," he adds.

The final procedural agreement came only after hard negotiation, and was still evolving as the participants prepared to meet yesterday. On the eve of the first meeting, House Democrats warned that they agreed to participate only "because we believe so strongly in the need for passing worker relief stimulus" this year, but that their support "cannot be assumed."

On the Senate side, Mr. Daschle has a tougher assignment. Not only does he need to rally Democrats around key issues that will determine whether they hold onto the Senate, but he also needs to demonstrate statesmanship and support for the president at a time of national emergency.

In his early years in the Senate, Daschle made a study of then-Democratic leader George Mitchell, who managed to combine a softspoken style with knife-edged partisanship. Admirers and critics say that Daschle has managed the same.

Early in the 107th Congress, he lost a big vote on the tax cut after centrist Democrats endorsed President Bush's plan without consulting him. Since Democrats won control of the Senate, he has kept the caucus in tighter line and managed victories on issues like healthcare.

But the stimulus fight could be his toughest battle to date. The House stimulus plan is heavily weighted to tax cuts for business, and Senate Democrats are determined to see more spending for health benefits and unemployment insurance for workers. These will be defining issues in the 2002 elections.

"Neither side wants to be viewed as losing face or unengaged in the effort to come up with the stimulus package," Mr. Wittmann says.

Page: 1 | 2