Herald of growth in future: The first 100-hour package
By Victor H. Fazio
WASHINGTON: Nancy Pelosi is on the clock. During the 2006 congressional contest that culminated with the California Democrat becoming the first female House speaker, Pelosi initially said she would take the campaign “one day at a time.” But her timeframe quickly expanded into an ambitious vision of what the new Democratic Congress would accomplish in its first 100 hours. After the ceremony and celebration on Thursday, Pelosi must not only try to make good on her promises, but she must do so amid the general confusion, power struggles and even the smell of fresh paint that prevail whenever Congress changes hands.
Pelosi has pledged that the first 100 working hours of the 110th Congress will pass measures such as lobbying and ethics reform; a minimum-wage increase; pay-as-you-go budgeting; expanded federal funding for embryonic stem cell research; lower interest rates on student loans; adoption of the 9/11 commission’s recommendations; changes to allow Medicare to directly negotiate drug prices with pharmaceutical companies; and reduced dependence on foreign oil.
But the speaker, the Democratic leadership and new lawmakers will face practical challenges in navigating this list. For a new Congress, January normally is a time for members to be sworn in, work the district or perhaps travel overseas until the president’s State of the Union address later in the month.
For freshman members, these first few weeks can be especially chaotic, as they focus on establishing offices and hiring staff in Washington and their home districts.
These 100 hours will also include the first time that some members will address the House, a moment every lawmaker recollects. That first address is rarely one’s finest performance -- even the most experienced member can be unnerved by the realisation that not only the public but also House colleagues will listen to what they have to say. (My first address was on the rice industry -- a key concern of my constituents -- and a subject I knew much more about when I left the House in 1999 than when I first took the floor in 1979.)
Not everyone will be learning anew this week. Pelosi has sought to engender some bipartisan goodwill by authorising severance pay for newly unemployed Republican staff members. Likewise, she has sought to preserve continuity by retaining existing staff in the parliamentarian’s office and other administrative positions, including the sergeant-at-arms, the clerk of the House and the House historian. In 1994, when Newt Gingrich became speaker, the leadership fired everyone except the parliamentarian. In contrast to that off-with-their-heads attitude, Pelosi has more respect for the administrative framework of the House. Pelosi’s strategy reflects an understanding that progress depends on bipartisan agreement, though it may also reveal an effort to take advantage of President Bush’s declining popularity -- and the potential willingness of some House Republicans to distance themselves from the White House.
Pelosi’s First 100 Hours initiative has drawn some comparisons with the Republicans’ 1994 “Contract With America,” a package that sought to bring about major policy change over 100 days. But for Pelosi, the effort is less about radical policy shifts than about bringing policy in line with what Democrats believe is common wisdom to Americans. Perhaps most significant, there has been bipartisan co-sponsorship of proposals for lobbying reform, the minimum-wage increase, the 9/11 commission recommendations and Medicare drug pricing.
Of course, no matter how carefully Pelosi has selected the issues for her first 100 hours, the legislation will not necessarily steamroll through Congress unquestioned. Though lobbying reform and minimum-wage proposals could pass easily, there may be differences between the House and Senate that could lead to conflict in conference committees.
However, if the speaker can shepherd her initiatives through Congress, she will have established herself and her Democratic caucus as advocates for the middle class as well as the poor -- and her party as one that keeps its word. This message will be especially important as the 2008 presidential contest unfolds and Democrats seek to campaign in opposition to the political quagmire, foreign and domestic, that has plagued the Bush administration.
Indeed, if Congress passes the bulk of the First 100 Hours proposals, Pelosi will have succeeded in laying these touchstone issues squarely at Bush’s feet. After all, it is Bush who may ultimately determine the record of the 110th Congress. It is likely that the president will dust off his once-used veto power, at least again on stem cell funding and on interest rate breaks for college tuition, attempting to repair his fragmented base. On other issues, however, there are hints that the president, perhaps harking back to his days in Austin, may meet Congress in the middle. On immigration and Social Security reform, which will require bipartisan agreement, Democrats should at least be optimistic about the prospect of presidential compromise.
Once these issues have been placed before Bush, the First 100 Hours package in many ways will have already succeeded. If faced with a small stack of bills, the president will be in the unenviable position of either signing them and making the package an unqualified success, or refusing to sign them and making himself the villain in rejecting fairly popular proposals. Even the latter option would make the First 100 Hours package a success, at least for Democrats, by contrasting the parties and portraying Bush as a slave to inflexible partisan positions. With 2008 in mind, Pelosi’s first 100 hours may prove less a personal crusade than a harbinger of greater gains to come. —The Washington Post News Service
