Congressional crunch: big bills, little time

Call it the pause before the great push. Lawmakers, who are back home reconnecting with voters over the July 4 break, return next week to a long list of incompletes that could shape fall elections.

"Like last year, all will get done in July," says Ron Bonjean, a spokesman for House Speaker Dennis Hastert.

What's making that difficult is that, unlike last year, the rifts within GOP ranks on the bills yet to be completed are often as daunting as those between Republicans and Democrats.

For Democrats, the to-do list is grist for campaign speeches about the Republican "do-nothing" Congress: no lobby reform, no immigration reform, not even a budget for the fiscal year starting Oct. 1.

"This is a do-nothing Congress," says Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland, the Democratic whip. "This has also been the most complacently complicit Congress perhaps in history."

Social Security reform, the top domestic priority of the White House at the start of the 109th Congress, never got off the ground. Soaring deficits sapped what little enthusiasm existed on Capitol Hill to take on an issue long viewed as the "third rail" of American politics – an issue so charged that it endangers anyone who touches it.

But Republicans say big-ticket issues are still in play in the three critical weeks before August recess – typically the last window for legislating in an election year. And they insist that's enough time to wrap up at least some of them.

Immigration will be a major test. The two versions of immigration reform take bookend positions on an issue that is rousing strong feelings across the political spectrum. The House bill deals only with border security; the Senate bill has a security plan plus a path to legalization for millions of workers now in the country illegally.

This week, both the GOP-controlled House and Senate are launching field hearings to highlight differences in these competing approaches.

Wednesday, Sen. Arlen Specter (R) of Pennsylvania, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, convenes a field hearing on Independence Mall in Philadelphia on the need for comprehensive reform and guest workers. Hours later, a House subcommittee on International Terrorism and Nonproliferation holds a hearing in San Diego and on July 7 in Laredo, Texas, in a bid to examine the vulnerability of the US southern border, especially to entry by terrorists.

Still, there are signs that positions are softening. Last week, members of the Senate Judiciary Committee said they were open to an approach that would secure the borders first, then set a timetable for other reforms. House majority leader John Boehner (R) of Ohio says he is "encouraged" by the change in tone. Sen. John McCain (R) of Arizona, a sponsor of the Senate bill, says he is having discussions with "our House friends," and that President Bush remains committed to getting a bill.

"My hope is this summer will be a summer of solving problems, not pointing out problems in each other's bills," said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R) of South Carolina, at a bipartisan rally for immigration reform last week.

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