Massive To-Do List Grows As Senate Health Debate Stalls

President Obama has made health care reform his top legislative priority on Capitol Hill. But several time-sensitive and controversial measures are threatening to derail the Democrats' plans for health care by year's end unless the Senate can quickly pass reform legislation and attend to at least a dozen other looming bills within the next several weeks.

From appropriations bills that must pass by Dec. 18 to contested portions of the USA Patriot Act, which expire on Dec. 31, to the estate tax, which will drop from 45 percent to zero on Jan. 1, the items remaining on the Senate's agenda would be a crushing workload in any year. But Democrats' insistence that they'll work on health care -- and only health care -- until the Senate passes the bill has left Republicans senators and Senate experts scratching their heads about how it will all get done.

"I'm concerned about the amount of pent up work," Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) said Wednesday in the Capitol as debate on health care slowed to a crawl. "I think we need to have more of a focus on the economy. There are a lot of appropriations bills that need to be debated, a lot of tax bills that need to be extended, so it is a concern of mine how this is all going to be completed in time."

The White House is heavily courting Collins for her support on the health care bill, but the Democrats' New Year's deadline worries her. "It's a mistake in my judgment to try to rush the health care bill through," she said. "It's extraordinarily complex and important legislation and there's no legal deadline or other compelling reason for us to try to complete it in the next three weeks." Collins said health care is critically important, but "the other bills have immediate consequences if they're not dealt with."

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) agreed. "We've got a lot of work left to do," Hatch said. "The way they're going, I'm tremendously concerned about it."

Norm Ornstein has studied Congress for decades and wrote "The Broken Branch, How Congress is Failing America and How to Get it On Track." He called the idea of the Senate getting its work done "dicey."

"I think we're going to end up limping through this, but the usual endgames become much more complicated because of the all-consuming health care debate," he said. In his view, passing the estate tax extension, the Patriot Act, and the appropriations bills are the highest priorities because of their looming deadlines, but he said that health care is clearly the highest priority for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. "Moving anything through both chambers, given the priority of the health issue, makes it tricky," he said.

Among the items on the Senate's to-do list are:

-- The Patriot Act. Three controversial provisions of the Bush-era bill expire at midnight on Dec. 31. Although candidate Barack Obama voiced concerns about the measures' effect on civil liberties, Attorney General Eric Holder recently asked Congress to renew them before the end of the year. House and Senate committees have passed two different bills, which means floor debates and a contentious conference committee must happen before Dec. 31.

-- The Estate Tax. Also at midnight on Dec. 31, the tax on inheritances goes from its current 45 percent rate to zero for one year, when it will revert to 55 percent. The schedule was created by President George W. Bush. The House will vote Thursday to extend the current rate permanently, but House Democrats worry that the Senate's packed schedule may let the tax lapse to zero.

-- COBRA Extensions. Special assistance to help pay up to 65 percent of health insurance premiums for recently laid-off workers expired Tuesday. House Minority Leader John Boehner called another extension of benefits with deficit spending "laughable." Without a Senate vote, it's also impossible.

-- The Pentagon Budget. Embedded in the funding bill for the military is the hot-button issue of spending levels, and therefore troops levels, for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. With Democratic heartburn over the way forward in Afghanistan, a debate over the budget is at the heart of progressives' worst fears of another unending military commitment.

-- Six other appropriations bills. More than half of the 13 federal spending bills expired on Oct. 1 and have been extended through Dec. 18, when Congress must either temporarily extend the current funding levels, pass news ones, or risk 1993 flashbacks by letting the government shut down.

-- Raising the ceiling on the national debt. To pass those appropriations bills, Congress is legally obligated to vote to raise the debt ceiling, taking the federal budget deeper into debt. By law, that uncomfortable moment for deficit hawks must happen in the next three weeks. With concern about the debt rising among voters and senators alike, approving an increase in deficit spending will likely require a contentious debate.

-- Federal judges. Republicans have waged filibusters against several of Obama's judicial picks, but the Senate's full plate means the nine pending nominees will have to wait their turn to get on Harry Reid's calendar. A senate aide predicts judges who are not already confirmed will not get a hearing in the Senate until 2010.

-- Oh, and Jobs. After House Speaker Nancy Pelosi passed health care through the House, she identified her new top priority as "jobs, jobs, jobs." But her plans for sending a second stimulus, or jobs package, through Congress will have to wait.

With so much to do, Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) floated an idea for the Senate schedule on Sunday. "This may be an audacious suggestion," Lugar told CNN. "But I would suggest we put aside the health care debate until next year, the same way we put cap and trade and climate change aside and talk now about the essentials: the war and money."

Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, a member of the Senate Democratic leadership, acknowledged that the Democrats have a full plate, but said that health care reform is a priority that's already waited too long. "A lot of good people are working really hard to try to get it all done," she said.