Democrats outline priorities

Benjamin Grove

Monday, Jan. 24, 2005 | 11:06 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid today outlined the party's legislative priorities for the year, including plans to lower drug prices for seniors, pay for the No Child Left Behind Act and do a better job of targeting terrorists.

The Nevada senator unveiled a Top 10 list of bills Democrats aim to aggressively pursue. He outlined goals from the sweeping to the specific, including plans to increase U.S. troop strength by 30,000 soldiers and 10,000 Marines in the next two years, and legal the safe importation of Federal Drug Administration-approved prescription drugs from Canada.

Reid and four of his top lieutenants today said the 10 bills set out an agenda motivated by three Democratic values: security, federal government responsibility and opportunity -- especially to high-quality education.

"America's promise will not stay alive if America's government betrays it," Reid told reporters.

The Democrats said their agenda -- pursuing better education, health care, job growth and national security -- was more in line with mainstream America.

"We are talking about the meat-and-potato issues that people care about," Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said. "They're off on an ideological junket."

But Republicans won't cede the bully pulpit easily. Today Senate GOP leaders outlined their own agenda -- and their own list of legislative priorities.

Included was Senate Bill 1 to strengthen Social Security, "probably the most important" domestic priority in Congress this year, Senate Republican Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee said.

Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, said Congress had a duty to address future Social Security shortfalls and not "kick the can down the road" to future generations.

The GOP bills include plans to simplify and make fairer the U.S. tax code; better fight the war on terrorism and protect against chemical or biological attacks; make American healthier; reduce frivolous class-action lawsuits; strengthen American families; making a number of tax cuts passed in the last four years permanent; implement education reforms; and create a comprehensive U.S. energy strategy.

Another bill, to be sponsored by Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., would ban minors from going across state lines for abortions to circumvent parental notification laws.

The class-action legislation likely will be the first of the issues debated in the Senate, Frist said.

"These bills are aimed at what the American people expect and what they deserve," Frist said.

Reid has delegated to ranking Democrats the duty of leading the fight for nine of the Democratic 10 bills, but he plans to sponsor one called "Putting Prevention First," aimed at lowering the number of unintended pregnancies.

The bill would increase federal funding for a national family planning program and require private health plans to offer the same level of coverage for contraception as for other prescription drugs. The bill also would provide $10 million for public education about emergency contraception such as morning-after pills. It would prohibit government-sponsored, abstinence-only programs from distorting data about the effectiveness of contraception.

"We think anything we can do to prevent unwanted pregnancy is a step ahead," said Reid, who opposes abortion but is leading a caucus that supports abortion rights.

Included in the 10 Democratic bills are plans to:

The Democratic agenda may overlap the Republicans', but it also sets up some likely showdowns.

The Democratic "Standing With Our Troops" bill would create a new office to better plan for mobilizing troops so that military gear, including body armor and armored vehicles, does not run short. It also included a plan to offer survivors of fallen soldiers with a $100,000 death benefit, up from the current $12,000. Republicans already have made that proposal.

Reid today criticized President Bush on Iraq.

"Sure we won the war, but the peace we're losing badly," Reid said. "Is that poor management? I think so."

Reid opened his remarks with the story of a fifth grader who approached hi as he was eating at a Searchlight restaurant recently. Thee boy, skateboard in hand, told Reid he wanted to be just like the senator.

But today Reid said it was becoming more difficult in America to make a rags- to-riches tale a reality, in part because of the high cost of a college education put young adults deep in debt.

"I'm sorry to say these stories are becoming fewer and fewer,"Reid said.