subgenius
22nd November 2003, 08:42 AM
Much respect to the Republicans who stood up to their "leadership."
WASHINGTON, Nov. 21 — For weeks, hundreds of impatient Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill have steamed as Congressional leaders confined them to the anteroom while writing gigantic bills reshaping Medicare and energy policy.
On Friday, many of those shut out of the inner sanctum got a morsel of revenge when 40 members of the Senate succeeded in blocking the energy bill, a long-sought prize of Republican leaders and the Bush administration. By introducing the two big bills at the last minute and thus limiting debate just before the winter adjournment, those leaders had hoped to push the measures through a weary Congress, but many lawmakers suggested on Friday that the tactic might be backfiring.
...
But it was clear that the Republicans' 11th-hour strategy had its flaws. Too many senators discovered objectionable details in the energy bill that had not come to light earlier — for example, Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, was upset to learn about a uranium enrichment plant in New Mexico — and just enough of them were sufficiently angry to halt the bill's progress.
"The whole closed-door process was like a cover-up operation," said Senator James M. Jeffords, the Vermont independent, who voted to block the energy bill. "They tried to sneak things in there that shouldn't be in the bill, and members realized something was wrong."
Mr. McCain said that the more closely members examined the bill, the more unsavory it became.
"I never believed that it was accidental that we didn't receive this bill until a very short time ago, 1,200 pages," he said. "Because it will not bear scrutiny."
The strategy on the Medicare bill has angered even more lawmakers from both chambers. Those members of the House-Senate negotiating committee who were not invited to the real meetings where the bill was written were given a copy of the 1,100-page measure less than an hour before being asked to vote on it on Thursday.
"Believe it or not, members like to know what they're voting on," said Representative Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic leader, complaining to the Republican leaders of the Rules Committee on Friday about the limited amount of debate on the bill. Representative David Dreier of California, the panel's chairman, said the committee would agree to double the allowed amount of debate time to two hours. But by scheduling such a crucial House vote well after midnight, Republican leaders seemed again to be counting on exhaustion as a pressure tactic.
The anger at the process was hardly confined to liberal Democrats. Forty-one of the most conservative House Republicans, many of whom have grave doubts about expanding the government's role in health care, wrote a letter to House leaders demanding at least three days to read the entire Medicare bill before the vote was scheduled. (Three days' advance notice is the usual rule in the House, but the rule is often waived.) Their request was denied, and some Republicans were left shaking their heads at the way legislative business was conducted by their own leadership. Beyond the influence and deal-making skill of Mr. Frist, they expressed bewilderment about the direction and effectiveness of the entire Republican leadership team from the House and the Senate.
"Here we've got a bill that's over a thousand pages, some of them extremely technical," said Representative Jeff Flake, Republican of Arizona. "Even the members of the Ways and Means Committee, who worked on it, took hours to digest the various changes. It's something we really needed more time to digest."
But it was clear that the Republicans' 11th-hour strategy had its flaws. Too many senators discovered objectionable details in the energy bill that had not come to light earlier — for example, Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, was upset to learn about a uranium enrichment plant in New Mexico — and just enough of them were sufficiently angry to halt the bill's progress.
"The whole closed-door process was like a cover-up operation," said Senator James M. Jeffords, the Vermont independent, who voted to block the energy bill. "They tried to sneak things in there that shouldn't be in the bill, and members realized something was wrong."
Mr. McCain said that the more closely members examined the bill, the more unsavory it became.
"I never believed that it was accidental that we didn't receive this bill until a very short time ago, 1,200 pages," he said. "Because it will not bear scrutiny."
The strategy on the Medicare bill has angered even more lawmakers from both chambers. Those members of the House-Senate negotiating committee who were not invited to the real meetings where the bill was written were given a copy of the 1,100-page measure less than an hour before being asked to vote on it on Thursday.
"Believe it or not, members like to know what they're voting on," said Representative Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic leader, complaining to the Republican leaders of the Rules Committee on Friday about the limited amount of debate on the bill. Representative David Dreier of California, the panel's chairman, said the committee would agree to double the allowed amount of debate time to two hours. But by scheduling such a crucial House vote well after midnight, Republican leaders seemed again to be counting on exhaustion as a pressure tactic.
The anger at the process was hardly confined to liberal Democrats. Forty-one of the most conservative House Republicans, many of whom have grave doubts about expanding the government's role in health care, wrote a letter to House leaders demanding at least three days to read the entire Medicare bill before the vote was scheduled. (Three days' advance notice is the usual rule in the House, but the rule is often waived.) Their request was denied, and some Republicans were left shaking their heads at the way legislative business was conducted by their own leadership. Beyond the influence and deal-making skill of Mr. Frist, they expressed bewilderment about the direction and effectiveness of the entire Republican leadership team from the House and the Senate.
"Here we've got a bill that's over a thousand pages, some of them extremely technical," said Representative Jeff Flake, Republican of Arizona. "Even the members of the Ways and Means Committee, who worked on it, took hours to digest the various changes. It's something we really needed more time to digest."
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/22/politics/22MEMO.html?th
WASHINGTON, Nov. 21 — For weeks, hundreds of impatient Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill have steamed as Congressional leaders confined them to the anteroom while writing gigantic bills reshaping Medicare and energy policy.
On Friday, many of those shut out of the inner sanctum got a morsel of revenge when 40 members of the Senate succeeded in blocking the energy bill, a long-sought prize of Republican leaders and the Bush administration. By introducing the two big bills at the last minute and thus limiting debate just before the winter adjournment, those leaders had hoped to push the measures through a weary Congress, but many lawmakers suggested on Friday that the tactic might be backfiring.
...
But it was clear that the Republicans' 11th-hour strategy had its flaws. Too many senators discovered objectionable details in the energy bill that had not come to light earlier — for example, Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, was upset to learn about a uranium enrichment plant in New Mexico — and just enough of them were sufficiently angry to halt the bill's progress.
"The whole closed-door process was like a cover-up operation," said Senator James M. Jeffords, the Vermont independent, who voted to block the energy bill. "They tried to sneak things in there that shouldn't be in the bill, and members realized something was wrong."
Mr. McCain said that the more closely members examined the bill, the more unsavory it became.
"I never believed that it was accidental that we didn't receive this bill until a very short time ago, 1,200 pages," he said. "Because it will not bear scrutiny."
The strategy on the Medicare bill has angered even more lawmakers from both chambers. Those members of the House-Senate negotiating committee who were not invited to the real meetings where the bill was written were given a copy of the 1,100-page measure less than an hour before being asked to vote on it on Thursday.
"Believe it or not, members like to know what they're voting on," said Representative Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic leader, complaining to the Republican leaders of the Rules Committee on Friday about the limited amount of debate on the bill. Representative David Dreier of California, the panel's chairman, said the committee would agree to double the allowed amount of debate time to two hours. But by scheduling such a crucial House vote well after midnight, Republican leaders seemed again to be counting on exhaustion as a pressure tactic.
The anger at the process was hardly confined to liberal Democrats. Forty-one of the most conservative House Republicans, many of whom have grave doubts about expanding the government's role in health care, wrote a letter to House leaders demanding at least three days to read the entire Medicare bill before the vote was scheduled. (Three days' advance notice is the usual rule in the House, but the rule is often waived.) Their request was denied, and some Republicans were left shaking their heads at the way legislative business was conducted by their own leadership. Beyond the influence and deal-making skill of Mr. Frist, they expressed bewilderment about the direction and effectiveness of the entire Republican leadership team from the House and the Senate.
"Here we've got a bill that's over a thousand pages, some of them extremely technical," said Representative Jeff Flake, Republican of Arizona. "Even the members of the Ways and Means Committee, who worked on it, took hours to digest the various changes. It's something we really needed more time to digest."
But it was clear that the Republicans' 11th-hour strategy had its flaws. Too many senators discovered objectionable details in the energy bill that had not come to light earlier — for example, Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, was upset to learn about a uranium enrichment plant in New Mexico — and just enough of them were sufficiently angry to halt the bill's progress.
"The whole closed-door process was like a cover-up operation," said Senator James M. Jeffords, the Vermont independent, who voted to block the energy bill. "They tried to sneak things in there that shouldn't be in the bill, and members realized something was wrong."
Mr. McCain said that the more closely members examined the bill, the more unsavory it became.
"I never believed that it was accidental that we didn't receive this bill until a very short time ago, 1,200 pages," he said. "Because it will not bear scrutiny."
The strategy on the Medicare bill has angered even more lawmakers from both chambers. Those members of the House-Senate negotiating committee who were not invited to the real meetings where the bill was written were given a copy of the 1,100-page measure less than an hour before being asked to vote on it on Thursday.
"Believe it or not, members like to know what they're voting on," said Representative Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic leader, complaining to the Republican leaders of the Rules Committee on Friday about the limited amount of debate on the bill. Representative David Dreier of California, the panel's chairman, said the committee would agree to double the allowed amount of debate time to two hours. But by scheduling such a crucial House vote well after midnight, Republican leaders seemed again to be counting on exhaustion as a pressure tactic.
The anger at the process was hardly confined to liberal Democrats. Forty-one of the most conservative House Republicans, many of whom have grave doubts about expanding the government's role in health care, wrote a letter to House leaders demanding at least three days to read the entire Medicare bill before the vote was scheduled. (Three days' advance notice is the usual rule in the House, but the rule is often waived.) Their request was denied, and some Republicans were left shaking their heads at the way legislative business was conducted by their own leadership. Beyond the influence and deal-making skill of Mr. Frist, they expressed bewilderment about the direction and effectiveness of the entire Republican leadership team from the House and the Senate.
"Here we've got a bill that's over a thousand pages, some of them extremely technical," said Representative Jeff Flake, Republican of Arizona. "Even the members of the Ways and Means Committee, who worked on it, took hours to digest the various changes. It's something we really needed more time to digest."
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/22/politics/22MEMO.html?th