Democrats’ 100-day opening act

WASHINGTON —  As congressional Democrats prepare to celebrate their first 100 days in the majority, they boast that they have worked more hours, passed more bills and held more oversight hearings than Republicans did when they were in charge.

But when it comes to how many of their top legislative priorities have become law, a different number stands out: 0. None of the six bills that House Democrats passed in their initial legislative juggernaut have made it to the president’s desk.

Still, Democrats say they are proud of the steps they have taken to chart a new course after 12 years of GOP rule, such as stepping up the pressure on President Bush to end U.S. involvement in Iraq and toughening congressional ethics rules.

The 100th day milestone, which arrives Friday while the House is still on a two-week spring break, amounts to an opening act in a political drama that will likely become even livelier. Congressional Democrats are headed toward confrontations with the White House over many issues, from the war to domestic spending.

“We are just getting warmed up,” said Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.), chairman of the House Democratic Caucus.

Democrats took control of Congress on Jan. 4 after campaigning against “do-nothing” Republicans. To show they were different, Democrats rushed through the House six popular bills in what party leaders calculated was 42 hours, 13 minutes and 28 seconds of legislative time. House Democrats boast they have passed nearly twice as many bills in their first three months as did each of the previous three Congresses.

Scores of bills and resolutions have passed one chamber, often with bipartisan support, including a resolution that would grant honorary posthumous citizenship to Casimir Pulaski, a Polish-born hero of the American Revolution, and a measure that would establish a commission to study creation of a museum in Washington dedicated to the art, history and culture of Latinos.

But a major obstacle threatens the Democrats’ ambition of racking up an impressive list of legislative achievements: the closely divided Senate.

In its first two days, the House adopted tough new ethics rules to end the secrecy behind earmarks, ban lawmakers from budget-rate flights on corporate jets and retire the practice of lobbyist-paid meals in response to the scandals Democrats highlighted in the fall elections. It took the Senate two weeks to approve its version.

Because of Senate rules on the minority party’s rights, Republicans have the power to block any legislation that they overwhelmingly oppose. Rep. Thomas M. Davis III (R-Va.), who has gone from the majority to the minority, remarked: “I spent my first 12 years in the House cursing the Senate, and now I love it.”

A number of the House-passed bills -- such as those to cut student-loan interest rates, repeal oil-industry tax breaks and lower Medicare drug prices -- have stalled in the Senate.

Just how many of the measures will become law is unclear.

One -- the first federal minimum wage increase in a decade -- has passed both chambers, but remains snagged in Congress over disagreements on coupling it with tax breaks for small businesses.

President Bush could also prove an obstacle. Bush vetoed only one bill during his first six years in the White House, but has issued 12 veto threats in the first three months of the new Congress. It takes a two-thirds vote of both houses to override the president.

Bush has objected to a war-funding measure that would establish dates for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq and a bill that would expand whistle-blower protections, among others.

Nonetheless, Democrats are pleased with their record, which includes 16 bills that are now the law of the land. Most rename federal facilities, including a courthouse in Cape Girardeau, Mo., which acquired the name of Rush Hudson Limbaugh Sr., a noted lawyer and grandfather of the conservative provocateur.

One of the bills was aimed at strengthening oversight of the congressional page program to protect the high school students from the sexual advances of lawmakers. Another funded the government for the remainder of the fiscal year.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) said that this Congress has left Republican Congresses “in the dust.”

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) added: “There was no budget last year. There’s a budget this year. There was no minimum wage legislation last year, the Congress before, and the Congress before. There is minimum wage legislation now.”

Republicans offer a more critical assessment.

“Democrats have successfully passed 16 bills into law -- 10 of which name a federal building, post office, courthouse, or national recreation area,” Rep. Patrick T. McHenry (R-N.C.) noted. “Zero make any legislative impact on fighting the war against Islamic extremists, balancing the federal budget, creating jobs, cutting pork-barrel spending, or saving Social Security. So far the only Americans experiencing ‘a new direction’ are postal workers adjusting to the new nameplates on the front of their offices.”

Senate Minority Whip Trent Lott (R-Miss.) added: “There’s been a lot of sound and fury but not much production.”

A new poll gives Democrats mixed reviews, with nearly six in 10 respondents unable to name anything important the new Congress has done. The survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press also found that, while enthusiasm for the Democratic takeover has slipped, more respondents felt the Democrats would do a better job than Republicans managing the federal government.

Congressional scholars say that not too much should be expected in the first 100 days. “It’s very, very unusual for even a highly motivated, energized Congress to run up a real score of bills signed into law, particularly when Congress is one party and the president is in another,” said Ross K. Baker, a political scientist at Rutgers University.

In 1995, under the first Republican-controlled Congress in four decades, President Clinton signed two of the GOP’s “Contract with America” bills in the first 100 days -- one limiting the “unfunded mandates” the federal government could impose on states and communities, and another requiring congressional offices to abide by the same health, safety, labor and civil rights laws that applied to other Americans.

Stacey Bernards, a spokeswoman for House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.), said that unlike those GOP initiatives, the measures Democrats have advanced “really affect people’s lives.” She cited the minimum wage, which would increase from $5.15 to $7.25 an hour over two years, and a bill to expand federal spending on stem-cell research that could help cure diseases. Separate from legislative action, the Democrats have actively wielded their investigative powers.

They have held more than 100 hearings on such issues as inadequate care for injured soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, the firing of eight U.S. attorneys and the FBI’s misuse of its investigative authority.

“If you look at actual bills enacted by both houses, the record isn’t very impressive,” Baker said, “but it’s been the national oversight pageant.”

When the Senate returns from its recess a week earlier than the House, it plans to take up a bill that would expand stem-cell research. The House has already approved its stem-cell bill, which is identical to the one that drew Bush’s only veto so far.

House and Senate leaders also hope to take up bills to dramatically overhaul immigration laws in coming months.

And congressional negotiators will return to work drafting three compromise bills from the House and Senate versions: the war-spending bill that would set target dates for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, the minimum wage bill and a bill that would implement anti-terrorism measures recommended by the Sept. 11 commission.

richard.simon@latimes.com