With the Republicans keeping control of the House and gaining a majority in the Senate, Congress is expected to take a different look at some key issues. Some examples from the Associated Press:
AGRICULTURE
With a giant election-year increase in farm subsidies under its belt, the next Congress is expected to turn its attention to the school lunch program and other child nutrition initiatives.
While the Bush administration has transferred $750 million in funds to help drought-stricken ranchers this year, little has been done to help farmers hurt by dry weather in some areas and floods in others. Aides to Sen. Thad Cochran (news, bio, voting record), R-Miss., expected to become chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, predicted lawmakers will be looking for more ways to help such farmers.
ENERGY
Although the House and Senate have passed separate energy bills, an attempt to work out a compromise version had been on life support even before the election. Now Democrats and Republicans say Congress is almost certain to start over next year.
The legislation is likely to focus more on energy production, but don’t expect President Bush (news – web sites) to get everything he wants. Democrats, joined by a handful of moderate GOP lawmakers, still have enough clout to stop a proposal for oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. The Senate took only modest action this year to boost renewable energy sources and conservation. A bill next year is likely to do even less, environmentalists fear.
But one element of this year’s energy package — increasing the use of corn-based ethanol — is likely to re-emerge next year. With both parties courting farm-belt votes, ethanol has been embraced widely as a gasoline additive.
ENVIRONMENT
Sen. James Jeffords (news – web sites), I-Vt., will lose his chairmanship and, with it, his bully pulpit for challenging the Bush administration. Sen. James Inhofe (news, bio, voting record), R-Okla., probably will replace Jeffords as chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, committee staff say, with Jeffords becoming the senior minority member.
The shake-up will put a chill on efforts by Jeffords and Democratic senators to regulate carbon dioxide emissions as a pollutant and to resume a special tax that expired in 1995 and had helped pay for Superfund toxic waste cleanups.
It remains unclear whether the committee will continue to demand that the Environmental Protection Agency (news – web sites) turn over documents on clean air rules reviewed by the White House.
HEALTH CARE
Bush and congressional Republicans have supported a benefit to be offered mainly through private insurers, a proposal backed by the drug industry. Democrats vigorously oppose this and prefer a government-administered benefit. House Republicans were able to pass a private-insurer based benefit last year. In the Senate, neither party has managed to get the 60 votes necessary to cut off debate and get a bill to the floor.
One likely area of consensus is a package providing financial help to Medicare providers like doctors, hospitals and HMOs, who have complained that government payments aren’t keeping up with the rising costs of health care. House Republicans have been pushing a $30 billion package. A bipartisan group of senators has pushed for a $43 billion measure.
JUDGES
Senate Republicans plan to push through as many of Bush’s judicial nominees as possible next year, and even revive some of the ones that the Democratic-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee (news – web sites) voted down this year. Republicans are likely to renominate U.S. District Judge Charles Pickering of Mississippi and Texas Supreme Court Justice Priscilla Owen for U.S. Court of Appeals seats, despite their losses on party-line votes in committee, GOP aides said.
INTELLIGENCE
A change in leadership could change the tone of the Senate Intelligence Committee’s oversight of intelligence agencies.
Sen. Pat Roberts (news, bio, voting record), R-Kan., is likely to become chairman. At public hearings on the Sept. 11 attacks, Roberts’ was one of the CIA (news – web sites)’s biggest defenders, complaining that agency leaders were being put on trial. The ranking Republican under Democratic control was one of the CIA’s most vocal critics, Sen. Richard Shelby (news, bio, voting record) of Alabama.
The change in leadership could affect the final report of the Senate and House intelligence committees’ inquiry into the attacks if it is not completed by year’s end.
IRAQ
Congress has already backed Bush on the possible use of force in Iraq. Tuesday’s election will only strengthen his support if he decides military action is needed.
Democrats joined Republicans in backing resolutions authorizing the use of force. The resolutions passed the Democratic-controlled Senate, 77-23, and the Republican-led House, 296-133.
Some Democrats privately questioned the use of force, but didn’t want to take a public stand against a popular, wartime president on a matter of national security — particularly in an election year. They may be even less tempted to do so after the election, a further sign of Bush’s popularity.
LAWSUITS
Republicans will continue their efforts to limit how much businesses can pay out when they are sued for damages, or even restrict when they can be sued, a favorite topic for the GOP. They probably will push for limits on medical malpractice awards and lawyer fees. The GOP also wants to shield companies from punitive damages — monetary penalties designed to punish businesses for wrongdoing — in civil lawsuits arising from acts of terrorism, a provision that helped hold up Congress’ terrorism insurance legislation this year.
Limiting lawsuits is a hot-button issue for both parties, with Republicans accusing Democrats of trying to protect trial lawyers, and Democrats charging the GOP with looking out for businesses and doctors that are major Republican donors.
SUPREME COURT
A Republican-controlled Senate could make it much more enticing for Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist to end his 30-year Supreme Court career. Some court watchers had thought the 77-year-old would retire earlier this year, giving President Bush his first vacancy to fill on the court. But with Democrats running the Senate — and closely scrutinizing Bush’s judicial choices — the timing seemed unlikely.
The other frequently mentioned candidate for retirement is Justice Sandra Day O’Connor (news – web sites), who has served on the court since 1981. If the 72-year-old is not ready to retire, she could be a candidate for chief justice if Rehnquist leaves. There has never been a female in that job.
Democrats are unlikely to allow any Supreme Court vacancy to be filled during 2004, a presidential election year, making next year the GOP’s best chance to get any Supreme Court nominee through the closely divided Senate.
TAXES
With majorities now in both houses, Republicans will try again to make permanent the $1.35 trillion in tax cuts enacted last year and now scheduled to expire in 2010. House GOP leaders staged a series of election-year votes on measures to do that this year but none of them saw the light of day in the Democratic-controlled Senate.
A new economic stimulus package — emphasizing new deductions to help investors with losses from the plunging stock market and incentives to enhance retirement savings — also will be revived. Sen. Charles Grassley (news, bio, voting record), R-Iowa, in line to become chairman of the tax-writing Senate Finance Committee, said Wednesday his priority is to pass legislation reining in corporate tax shelters, protecting workers’ pensions from corporate wrongdoing and providing new tax incentives for alternative energy sources.
TRANSPORTATION
Both the House and Senate voted overwhelmingly to let commercial airline pilots carry weapons in the cockpit, though the two versions must be reconciled. The House has also voted to extend the Dec. 31 deadline for the Transportation Security Administration to install explosive-detection equipment to screen all airline passenger baggage, and the Senate went along with a more limited plan. It’s unclear whether they’ll work out their differences by the end of the year.
Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain (news, bio, voting record) is likely to take over as chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee from South Carolina Democrat Ernest Hollings. McCain, an ardent critic of Amtrak, will probably press for serious reforms of the railroad, an attitude shared by his counterpart in the House, Transportation and Infrastructure Committee chairman Rep. Don Young (news, bio, voting record), R-Alaska.