Scared....

Not The Onion: Congress set to pass bills

The Senate especially is avoiding pre-election show votes and brinkmanship, instead trying to notch a few modest bipartisan wins.

By BURGESS EVERETT

Don’t look now, but Congress is actually getting something done — in the midst of election season, no less.

Rather than another bout of budget brinkmanship or a host of votes designed to make Democrats look bad, Senate and House GOP leaders are planning a pre-election agenda to persuade voters to keep Republicans in control of both chambers. Specifically, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) are aiming to rack up bipartisan wins on government spending, defense and farm legislation.

“The more efficient the Congress when it’s in your hands, the better odds you have of keeping it,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.). “All of this helps the narrative that we’re producing.”

The linchpin of the plan is to pass a slate of spending bills — avoiding a massive catch-all package that President Donald Trump might reject, triggering a government shutdown. Those bills require Democratic support in the Senate, and a host of red-state Democrats up for reelection — and looking to bolster their bipartisan cred — is likely to provide it.

Plus, after clinching more money for domestic programs earlier this year, Democratic leaders seem inclined to go along.

“Our Republican colleagues realize that dysfunction doesn’t help them,” said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) in a brief interview on Tuesday.

In the Senate, at least, Republicans aren’t looking to stage “show” votes before the election to put Democrats on the spot — a staple of past pre-election political cycles.

McConnell has no plans to put up another tax cut bill before the election, according to senators and aides, figuring there’s no use since it would never become law. The same goes for a big funding boost for border security, a top Trump priority. Both proposals would also give conservative Democrats on the ballot a chance to side with Trump, which McConnell believes would not help the GOP’s chances of flipping seats.

“We want to get results. That’s our best argument: that we’re getting things done,” said Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, the No. 3 Republican leader. He said McConnell has no interest in votes “that would give Democrats in red states a chance to get well on some of these issues, [because] they’ll never give us enough to get a result.”

Indeed, McConnell canceled August recess largely to work on spending bills and confirm Trump’s nominees. It’s not a flashy legislative regimen, but he made the decision in part to satisfy both younger senators itching for progress and a president who’s frustrated with the Senate’s slow pace and four-day workweek.

Still, some Republicans want to draw a sharper contrast before the election to show that Republicans are on the side of the president and that Democrats are the problem. House members and outside groups would like to see the Senate vote on more tax cuts if the House passes them.

And some in the GOP want to force Democrats to vote again on the immigration policies that animate Trump and the Republican base. Earlier this year, Democrats caused a brief government shutdown in order to force a debate on immigration reform. Then, most Democrats and some Republicans rejected the president’s plan to fund the border wall, cut legal immigration and provide a pathway to citizenship to 1.8 million young immigrants.

“The Democrats shut the government down over [the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program]. We don’t talk about that as Republicans. The president made an offer stronger than even the Democrats were asking for,” said Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.), who wants to see another vote on legislation based on Trump’s proposal this fall.

Yet instead, Republicans are shying away from a confrontation on legislation while they do battle over Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and quietly confirm conservative judges. The split-screen strategy was on display Tuesday, as Schumer and Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) traded blows with GOP leaders over how much of Kavanaugh’s record should be presented to the Senate.

Then Schumer and McConnell gushed over their bipartisan agreement to avoid political “gotcha” votes on spending bills and instead collaborate to fund the government in a low-key manner.

“On the Senate side, both sides have sort of stood down,” McConnell said.

By the end of the week, the Senate will have passed seven of its dozen appropriations bills, a rate not seen since 2000, with plans to approve two more. Still, the Senate will have to reconcile those bills with the far more conservative House versions in September — all while navigating Trump’s border wall demands.

“The fly in the ointment here, of course, is the president, who keeps threatening,” Schumer told reporters. “Whenever he gets involved, he seems to mess it up.”

Wrapping up some measures will prove easier than others. Just hours before its expiration, the Senate on Tuesday extended the national flood insurance program until after the election. Later this week, the chamber will finalize a national defense bill. The Senate also plans to pass a water infrastructure bill and work with the House to send it to Trump’s desk.

The two chambers are also set to work to reach a deal on a major farm bill. Republicans in both chambers are bullish on passing a new agriculture law that will help endangered Senate Democrats and House Republicans alike, following a similar compromise on bank deregulation this spring.

After Congress spent the first year of the Trump presidency changing Senate rules to confirm Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court, trying to repeal Obamacare, jamming through a partisan tax reform law and rolling back regulations, the Republicans’ year-end agenda isn’t visionary. But lawmakers are happy with the rare bout of bipartisanship in the months before an election.

Not that they can agree on who deserves credit for a somewhat more functional Congress.

“This is just a fact: Obstruction was the name of the game [for Republican minorities]. I don’t think Democrats are about obstruction,” said Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.), who is up for reelection in a state Trump won handily.

“Mitch McConnell” should get the kudos, countered Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.). “He gets it.”