LOOKING IN ON: WASHINGTON

Tuesday, July 25, 2006 | 7:46 a.m.

WASHINGTON - The stem-cell debate dominated Congress' domestic agenda last week, but Sen. John Ensign helped Republicans push other issues forward as the party continues courting voters in the run-up to the November election.

Ensign contributed a pair of bills sure to please conservatives. He introduced a school voucher plan that would offer parents tuition money for private schools. Later in the week, the Senate took up his legislation that prohibits minors from crossing state lines for abortions.

Both ideas have been around for years, without finding much support. But they have value in helping to motivate conservatives to go to the polls on Election Day.

The bills join flag burning, gay marriage and other Republican-sponsored measures that dominated agendas in the Senate and the House in recent weeks.

Democrats say Congress should focus on more pressing issues.

Ensign found mixed support for his proposals. The vouchers plan riled the public education community, with the National Education Association saying it would rob public school students of scarce federal dollars. "Lawmakers can better help students in underperforming schools by adequately funding those schools," NEA said.

Ensign said the bill gives parents a way to opt out of failing schools. The proposal would give a $4,000 voucher toward private school costs.

In Las Vegas, the $4,000 voucher may not be enough to gain entrance to some private schools. The Meadows School, founded by Carolyn C. Goodman, the Las Vegas mayor's wife, costs twice that much - for preschool. Elementary school starts at $12,900.

At Bishop Gorman High School, a sought-after Catholic campus, the voucher would cover about half the tuition .

Ensign said plenty of campuses cost less, and could be covered by the voucher.

His Child Custody Protection Act would prohibit minors from crossing state lines for an abortion to circumvent parental notification rules. Nevada has no such law requiring parental consent for abortions.

Republican Rep. Jim Gibbons switched his vote on the Marriage Protection Act, which would amend the Constitution to ban gay marriages.

The surprise was not so much that Gibbons voted for the bill, which is part of the Republicans' summer American Values Agenda, but that he had voted against a similar ban in 2004.

Gibbons' thinking has more to do with means than ends. He said he voted against the act in 2004 because he did not believe a constitutional amendment was needed if the judicial system could essentially block gay marriages.

A 2004 bill prohibited federal courts from taking up same-sex marriage cases. But the legislation failed to pass, leaving Gibbons with few options, he said. When the Marriage Protection Act came up for a vote last week, he voted yes.

"This is the only way to ensure that marriage has the protection it needs from activist federal judges," he said in a statement. "This lets the people of Nevada and every other state decide the issue for themselves."

Nevadans have decided, through the Constitution, that gay unions are not marriages.

A spokeswoman for the Nevada Democratic Party said Gibbons should focus on issues Nevadans care about.

"Gay marriage is at absolutely rock bottom at the list of issues," spokeswoman Kirsten Searer said. "It's mind-boggling that Jim Gibbons is choosing to focus on this issue when Americans are struggling to pay for college education, health care, and they're worried about the situation in Iraq."

The House measure failed to capture the two-thirds vote needed to pass.