WASHINGTON — Republicans and Democrats will put goodwill to the test when Congress returns this week to potentially incendiary fights over nominations, unresolved disputes over student loans and the farm bill, and the uncertainty of whether lawmakers have the political will to rewrite the nation’s immigration laws.
The cooperation evident in the Senate last month with passage of a bipartisan immigration bill could be wiped out if Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., frustrated with GOP delaying tactics on judges and nominations, tries to change the Senate rules by scrapping the current three-fifths majority for a simple majority.
Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky has indicated it’s a decision Reid could regret if the GOP seizes Senate control in next year’s elections.
“Once the Senate definitively breaks the rules to change the rules, the pressure to respond in kind will be irresistible to future majorities,” McConnell said last month, looking ahead to 2014 when Democrats have to defend 21 seats to the GOP’s 14.
Recently elected Democrats have clamored for changes in Senate rules as President Obama has faced Republican resistance to his nominations. Two Cabinet-rank choices — Tom Perez as labor secretary and Gina McCarthy to head the Environmental Protection Agency — could be approved by the Senate this month.
The GOP also has challenged Obama’s three judicial nominees to the powerful U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
In the Republican-controlled House, some collaboration will be necessary if the House is to move ahead on immigration.
Conservatives from safe, gerrymandered House districts strongly oppose any legislation offering legalization to immigrants living here illegally.
Reflecting the will of the rank and file, House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio and other Republicans have said the comprehensive Senate immigration bill that couples the promise of citizenship for those living here unlawfully with increased border security is a nonstarter.
A more pressing concern for some lawmakers is the fate of the five-year farm bill. The House rejected the bill last month.
House conservatives wanted cuts deeper than $2 billion annually in the almost $80 billion-a-year food stamp program, while Democrats were furious with an amendment that would have added additional work requirements to food stamps.
Reid has made it clear that an extension of the current farm law, passed in 2008, is unlikely as he presses the House to pass the Senate version of the bill. That leaves Boehner to figure out the next step before the current policy expires Sept. 30.
