Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

WEEK IN REVIEW: WASHINGTON, D.C.

WASHINGTON - Talk about a cram session. In the next few days Congress will try to:

This is the final week before the Memorial Day recess and Congress will be working in its trademark style by jamming through difficult legislation at the last possible minute.

It's not like Congress hasn't been busy lately. Last week saw plenty of action with milestone votes on Iraq, passage of a budget blueprint and a water bill with goodies for Nevada that moved closer to becoming law.

But Democrats are pushing hard to keep their agenda on track as Republicans stepped up complaints that the new party in power has not been able to accomplish much. Republicans were trumpeting a new Fox/Opinion Dynamics poll May 15-16 that put public approval of Congress at 32 percent, less popular than the unpopular president.

Nevada's lawmakers will face a series of tough decisions. On Monday the Senate is scheduled to begin the immigration debate, a policy that affects thousands of Nevadans and their families, as well as the pocketbook of Nevada's No. 1 industry, gaming.

Republican Sen. John Ensign has said the system needs to be fixed, but does that mean he can support offering citizenship to those in the United States illegally, a provision most conservatives oppose, in exchange for the new temporary worker program his party wants?

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has voiced his displeasure with the proposed temporary worker system that would create what immigrant rights' groups call a second-class citizenry. Reid also doesn't like the proposal's new strategy of allowing immigrants into this country based on their skills rather than their desire to reunify with their families.

How far will Reid compromise?

The House is not likely to take up immigration reform until after the recess, but Nevada's delegation will be pressed to explain where they stand, especially after last year's debate saw Republican Rep. Jon Porter struggling on the issue. (Porter supported a narrow border clampdown bill, but when advocacy groups disapproved, he became interested in a path to citizenship for the 12 million illegal immigrants already in the United States. Congress reached an impasse in large part over the citizenship issue, and the legislation died.)

Republican Rep. Dean Heller dismissed the new plan as nothing more than amnesty for those who are here illegally.

Ensign will also face tough questions next week on Gonzales. Ensign remains the only member of the Nevada delegation unwilling to call for the attorney general's resignation over last year's unusual firing of nine U.S. attorneys, including the one in Nevada.

The Senate is expected to hold a no-confidence vote on Gonzales, who had been weathering the storm over the firings until information emerged last week about his role in the Bush administration's controversial surveillance program.

Ensign's office could not immediately say Friday how he would vote.

As always, the war in Iraq looms large over Congress. The day after Reid led senators in a largely symbolic vote last week to cut funding for the troops, protesters called him a "surrender monkey" outside his Nevada office.

Iraq will continue to dominate Congress next week as Reid joins negotiators trying to forge a bill to fund the troops but also expresses Congress' desire to begin to draw down operations.

Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi have already said Democrats are willing to work through the Memorial Day recess if necessary to reach an agreement. On that, Republicans concur.

But judging by the news conference following the first round of talks Friday morning, it's going to be a long week. Democrats are still pushing for a withdrawal deadline, albeit one that Bush could waive, and Republicans call that disappointing.

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