Senators Squabble, Leaving Unfinished Business

Dec. 12, 2007— -- Senators are behind on a lot of their work. Way behind.

A temporary funding fix expires Friday. Without some action, the federal government will run out of money over the weekend. The list goes on from there.

But Wednesday morning, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., was talking about swimming pools.

"The leading cause of death in 20 states in the United States for children to age 14 is getting caught in the drains of swimming pools," Reid said on the Senate floor before pointing out that Democrats want to pass bipartisan legislation -- the Pool and Spa Safety Act -- to address the issue of dangerous swimming pool drains.

But an anonymous hold has been placed on the Senate bill. Reid implied it is part of a campaign of Republican obstruction that has plagued his first year as Senate majority leader.

"It passed the house with three dissenting votes -- 418-3," Reid said of the pool drain bill. "Children are dying while we're here, not able to proceed on something like that. I say, there are over 100 issues just like that. It is not right," he said, accusing Republicans of "obstruction on steroids."

So when the Senate came to order Wednesday morning in order to illustrate Reid's point, Democrats set aside the farm bill and asked for "unanimous consent" to pass 10 or more mostly nonobjectionable bills.

Included are all the legislative pieces that Democrats and President Bush agree should be passed to address the foreclosure crisis; several bills to help veterans, including those with traumatic brain injury; a bill to create an a registry for those with ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease; and a bill, named for Christopher Reeve, to increase funding for paralysis.

Republicans are expected to object to each and every one of the bills, even though most would be expected to pass the Senate easily.

Senate Republican leaders have objected to some of the bills because they would prefer an alternative and want the chance to get a vote on it. In the case of the pool legislation, a single Republican, who in the past has usually been Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, is on a personal crusade against what he calls pork barrel spending.

By midway through the Democrats' attempt to seek unanimous consent on their bills, Republicans had caught on and offered unanimous consent requests of their own.

Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., asked for unanimous consent to move back to the farm bill. GOP Sen. John Cornyn of Texas asked for unanimous consent to move immediately to consider a troop funding bill. These requests were denied by Democrats, who were intent on asking for their own unanimous consent agreements.