The race to adjourn for the year is in full stride, and the bipartisan Senate agreement to hold a vote next March on campaign finance reform means the Senate can finish the rest of its work unimpeded by procedural skirmishes related to that controversial issue.
The House, on the other hand, faces a potentially lengthy and crippling series of procedural votes on Democratic privileged resolutions calling for an end to the investigation of the contested election of Rep. Loretta Sanchez, D-Calif., who defeated former GOP Rep. Robert Dornan by 984 votes in 1996.
But both chambers have their hands full with an ambitious legislative agenda for the final days, or weeks, of the first session of the 105th Congress. Congress still must complete the heavy lifting on four remaining FY98 appropriations bills: Labor-HHS, Commerce- Justice-State, Foreign Operations and the District of Columbia. There also may be a push in the Senate to revive the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act reauthorization, although Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., said repeatedly last week the issue was dead for the year.
And the long-simmering fast track trade negotiating authority issue is finally coming to a boil, with a cloture vote set in the Senate for Tuesday and a vote in the House scheduled for Friday. Senate sources have been virtually unanimous in predicting a filibuster-proof 60 votes.
But the fast track end game in the House is much more complex. The jockeying for support in what all expect to be a nail-biter vote is intense, pitting President Clinton and the House GOP leadership in an unlikely alliance against the labor unions. Also in the mix is last week's decision by a group of anti-abortion House Republicans to begin drawing up plans to withhold their support if language in the House version of the fiscal 1998 Foreign Operations funding bill denying funds to international organizations that promote or perform abortions fails to become law.
Business leaders say they are determined to step up their efforts too, pleading that their prior lack of visibility on Capitol Hill was due simply to the absence of a specific bill.
But the labor movement early on decided that they would oppose almost any legislation that was crafted, sources say, and began an early effort which only appears to be intensifying.
Clinton plans to make at least one speech on the subject this week, vocal chords permitting, and jawbone House members in a final push to secure passage of the measure.
Clinton also is finalizing his long-awaited proposal to expand assistance to workers and communities adversely affected by trade.
Sources say the move would consist at least in part of an expansion of the existing Trade Adjustment Assistance program, adding provisions of a comparable, but more generous, program for workers displaced by the North American Free Trade Agreement.
The White House hopes House Democrats can be lured into supporting the deal by the chance to counter labor criticism with evidence that they supported a measure favorable to workers.
However, the White House is being pressured by some members of Congress to do even more to address circumstances that have harmed workers in individual districts.
A few undecided members indicated to CongressDaily last week that the White House has not yet been as helpful in addressing their specific concerns as they had hoped.
And the latest CongressDaily survey of House members indicates that only 113 members of both parties are on record as supporting or leaning in favor of the fast track proposal, while 191 oppose or lean against the measure. That puts opponents barely 25 votes away from the number needed to kill the bill.
Appropriations
As they have for the past several weeks, appropriators will continue to search for elusive deals on legislative provisions that will allow them to complete work on the fiscal 1998 funding measures.
Appropriators and GOP leaders have been unable to reach agreement on funding for international family planning organizations in the Foreign Operations bill, census sampling provisions in the Commerce-Justice-State bill or school vouchers in the District of Columbia bill.
Conferees on the Labor-HHS bill thought they had found an acceptable compromise on national education testing provisions last week, but House Republican leaders, under pressure from GOP conservatives, rejected the plan, so negotiations may have to continue this week.
With the current continuing resolution expiring Nov. 7, appropriators are now working on a tight deadline.
Some Republicans last week began discussing the possible need for a CR that would last until Nov. 21, in an effort to give appropriators time to finish their work.
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