Early bills would assist Nevada’s kids, workers

By Lisa Mascaro (contact)

Thursday, Jan. 8, 2009 | 2 a.m.

Washington — After a fitful start, the new Congress began to move forward Wednesday as Democrats unveiled priority legislation, including bills important to Nevada, and Republicans promised to pursue aggressively their role as the “loyal opposition.”

Plans are under way for the Senate swiftly to revisit a popular bill that would expand children’s health care for tens of thousands of middle class families in Nevada, legislation that had passed Congress twice last year but was vetoed by President Bush.

Congress also expects to vote quickly on a similarly popular bill that would extend the time employees have to file pay discrimination lawsuits, overturning limits imposed by the Supreme Court. Lawmakers then plan to turn swiftly to the massive economic recovery package of tax cuts and public works spending being drafted with President-elect Barack Obama.

But first up will be a sweeping public lands bill package, a 164-bill behemoth that has several items for Nevada including a flood control project for Southern Nevada and a Carson City land transfer bill that stalled out last year.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has vowed to hold a rare Sunday session to vote on the lands bill. It will be a rematch with a Republican senator who blocked a similar package last year, objecting to various spending projects and land-use restrictions.

“There was an election that took place and it called for change,” Reid said Wednesday. The Nevada Democrat suggested that the new Washington will be “one that has some discipline, some restraint, some accountability and oversight.”

Democrats’ 10-point priority list came with a distinctly centrist message that focused on middle class mainstays of tax breaks for child care, access to affordable health care and foreclosure prevention.

The Senate’s shift into legislative business came after Tuesday’s opening day, which dealt with the messy politics of the unresolved Senate seats. With the White House soon in their hands and expanded majorities in Congress, Democrats could ill afford to squander their political moment on the sideshow that had developed around the Illinois and Minnesota seats.

By late morning Wednesday, Reid had all but embraced Roland Burris, the former Illinois official appointed to fill Obama’s seat, setting a path forward that could enable him to come to the Senate. After their 45-minute morning meeting — Burris called the majority leader “warm and charming” — Reid softened from his previous stance that any appointment made by the state’s embattled Gov. Rod Blagojevich would be tainted by federal accusations that he sought to sell Obama’s seat.

Reid expects Burris’ appointment to be resolved soon with a floor vote.

Republicans do not plan to stand in the way of appointing Burris and push for a special election in Illinois to fill the seat as had been their preference.

Now with smaller numbers in the House and Senate, Republicans have been engaged in political soul searching as they chart their way back from electoral defeat.

Republicans generally are interested in the economic recovery package, but are pushing for provisions that could lead to fierce debates in coming weeks. They are seeking steeper tax cuts and have suggested state governments should receive assistance in the form of loans rather than direct grants.

It’s unclear whether Nevada and other states hard hit in the recession would have the capacity to take on loans rather than direct aid. Most of the states are suffering steep budget shortfalls.

Foreclosure relief continues to hang over the agenda, an important issue in Nevada, which has consistently had the highest foreclosure rate in the nation for nearly two years. With the state’s rising unemployment, bad mortgages have become a gateway to other problems, such as a high rate of consumer bankruptcy.

Lawmakers are eager to include relief for homeowners. The $700 billion Wall Street bailout of last fall has been criticized for not going far enough to mend troubled mortgages.

Democrats are considering legislation that would impose new assurances that the money go to prevent foreclosures.

Republican Sen. John Ensign insisted that the next allotment of bailout funding go directly to buying bad mortgages. “The housing industry is really the underlying problem in the economy,” he said. “And that’s what we should be focusing on.”