Biggest Challenges Still Await Congress

NAFTALI BENDAVID

WASHINGTON -- The new Congress has enacted an array of laws in its first three months, but the biggest challenges lie ahead when lawmakers return from a two-week break to tackle health care and climate change.

When Democrats took office in January with sizeable majorities in both the House and the Senate, they pledged to change the country's direction. It is too early to say whether they will succeed, but they have at least set the stage for coming battles over President Barack Obama's ambitious agenda to expand health coverage to more Americans, address climate change and improve the education system.

After pushing through a $787 billion stimulus package and a $410 billion spending bill for 2009, both chambers on Thursday passed Mr. Obama's $3.6 trillion budget for 2010. The plan aims to shift the government's priorities from the Bush era by increasing spending on health care, energy and education.

Congress has also enacted a series of less-noticed laws in its first 88 days that expand health-insurance coverage to an additional four million children; facilitate efforts by women to sue for equal pay; create 175,000 new public-service positions; and set aside two million acres of wilderness as protected areas.

Steny Hoyer

"This Congress has probably done as much as any Congress in which I have served," House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D., Md.) said in an interview. "No one can be absolutely positive that what we are doing will work. You can't guarantee success. But you can guarantee failure if you fail to act."

Some legislative success was to be expected, given the size of the Democrats' majorities, of 254 to 178 Republicans in the House and 58 to 41 in the Senate, and a Democratic White House.

"They're getting their stuff through," said Stephen Hess, a scholar at the Brookings Institution, a Washington-based think tank. "It may not be pretty. But when you start with a stimulus bill like that one, it's a big achievement."

But many measures passed over fierce Republican opposition, and Mr. Obama's hopes for a broad bipartisan coalition haven't yet materialized. That could spell trouble for his grandest plans: overhauling the health system and enacting a plan to fight global warming.

"Democrats in Congress have a big job, but thus far they've dropped the ball," said House Minority Leader John Boehner (R., Ohio). "Instead of working with Republicans to deal with the problems we face, the House Democratic leaders seem to have just one answer -- spend more taxpayer money."

Lawmakers, heading into a two-week spring recess now, plan upon their return to plunge into areas where it could be substantially harder to win support, especially from Republicans.

Time may be short. Democratic leaders want to enact most of their agenda this year, when they have political momentum and Mr. Obama's popularity remains high. As the November 2010 elections approach, the atmosphere will likely turn more political, making it more difficult to achieve compromises.

Among the first orders of business will be writing new regulations for the financial-services industry. Lawmakers from both parties expect some bipartisan cooperation over this effort.

Consensus may be harder to achieve when it comes to overhauling the health-care system. Three House committees are working together to come up with a plan. In the Senate, Sen. Max Baucus (D., Mont.) is struggling to forge a bipartisan bill.

Wide differences remain, especially over Democrats' insistence that any new system should include a publicly run health plan, to give consumers more coverage options.

Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska, a Democrat who often works with Republicans, predicted that a health bill of some sort will pass this year, but said it may not be as sweeping as some would like.

Climate change may be the toughest issue of all. Some Democrats as well as Republicans oppose Mr. Obama's proposal for a "cap-and-trade" system, which would set up a market where companies would pay to emit set amounts of greenhouse gases.

Many Republicans say such a system would affect all consumers and the broader economy. "It's also a tax on all economic activity, from factory floors to front offices," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) said on the Senate floor recently. "This tax won't just hit American households, it will cost us jobs."