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GOP Battles to Save Legislation on Patriot Act, Arctic Drilling

By Shailagh Murray and Jonathan Weisman
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, December 16, 2005; A10



House and Senate Republican leaders struggled yesterday to salvage major legislative priorities and spare President Bush embarrassing setbacks at a low point in his presidency.

Efforts to renew the USA Patriot Act and to allow oil drilling in an Arctic refuge hung by a thread in the Senate last night as the White House and GOP leaders implored rank-and-file Republicans to stand with them. A fiscal 2006 spending bill to fund health and education programs also stalled, with Republicans protesting an array of cuts.

In the House, meanwhile, an immigration bill designed to demonstrate the GOP's resolve to tighten border security instead revealed deep party divisions. The two chambers remained unable to agree on budget cuts that are intended to signal a new era of fiscal restraint. And Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) said pending tax-cut legislation would be shelved until next year.

The scramble by Republican leaders highlights the growing nervousness of GOP lawmakers who see Bush battling low approval ratings as an election year approaches, and who are increasingly showing independent streaks. It also reflects the increasing effectiveness of the Democratic opposition, especially in the Senate, where the minority party is leading the revolt against the Patriot Act and Alaska drilling.

A major test of Republican mettle will come today when the Senate attempts to renew the Patriot Act, which Congress enacted after the 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The law makes it easier for the FBI to conduct secret searches, monitor telephone calls and e-mail, and obtain bank records and other personal documents in terrorism investigations. Key provisions of the law expire Dec. 31.

But a number of senators from both parties said the proposed four-year renewal does too little to protect civil liberties and privacy, and they are backing a filibuster that would prevent a vote on the extension unless 60 of the 100 senators agree to halt the stalling tactic. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and others urged Republicans to oppose the filibuster. But those pushing for another three months to negotiate the bill -- while the current law would stay in place -- expressed growing optimism last night .

On immigration, Bush and several House Republicans favor what they have called a balanced approach, with tough new provisions to secure the borders and clamp down on the hiring of illegal immigrants, as well as new avenues for foreigners to obtain work legally. But most House Republicans oppose such a guest-worker provision, which they maintain will turn into an amnesty program for illegal immigrants.

The dispute burst into public yesterday on the House floor when some Republicans threatened to scuttle the immigration bill unless they are given a chance to vote for a guest-worker program, while others said they would torpedo the legislation unless they are assured there would be no such vote.

Supporters of a guest-worker program threatened to side with Democrats on parliamentary votes scheduled for today that could derail the bill. But Republican leaders said they would stand firm against a guest-worker vote.

"I think we have to do this in steps," House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) said. "And first, we have to convince the American people we can secure the borders."

Hastert got support for the House bill from a surprising source yesterday, the White House. Just weeks ago, Bush used a major policy address near the Mexican border to reiterate his call for a border security bill with a guest-worker program. Yesterday, in an official policy statement, the White House said it "strongly supports" the House bill.

"The Administration remains committed to comprehensive immigration reform, including a temporary worker program that avoids amnesty, and believes this bill is a positive step toward that goal," the statement said.

But the nation's business lobby, usually a close ally of the administration and GOP leaders, is pressing to kill the House measure because it would require businesses to verify that all of their workers are in the United States legally and would increase penalties for hiring illegal employees.

Adding a new twist, Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) said he would renew a long-standing bid to allow oil drilling in his home state's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Stevens has informed colleagues that he will add the drilling measure to the 2006 defense bill, produced by the Senate Appropriations subcommittee that he chairs.

Opponents of Arctic drilling include Democrats and some moderate Republicans, but Stevens hopes to win their support by stuffing the defense bill with Iraq war money, hurricane recovery aid, investments in pandemic flu research and subsidies to help low-income people pay their heating bills.

House Budget Committee Chairman Jim Nussle (R-Iowa) said that shifting the Arctic drilling provision to the $453 billion defense spending bill from pending budget cuts could help to break a logjam on that measure. Senate negotiators said yesterday that Stevens would not allow the budget bill to move forward until the Arctic issue is resolved, a decision that could doom for the year around $45 billion in mandatory spending cuts, including to Medicaid, food stamps, the student loan program and agricultural subsidies.

But Senate Minority Leader Harry M. Reid (Nev.) said Democrats would filibuster the defense spending bill if necessary, to block the drilling provision. "The defense appropriations bill -- the bill to take care of the fighting men and women of the United States -- is being held up because they can't figure out a way to grovel and satisfy the oil companies," Reid said.

Stevens conceded last night he was well short of the 60 votes needed to cut off a filibuster. He and other GOP allies predicted that support ranged from about 52 to 55 votes. "We'll just have to build from there," Stevens said.

Reid said he would urge Democrats to align against Stevens's maneuver as an affront to Senate rules.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) also sharply criticized Stevens's effort as "disgusting." But asked how he would vote on such a bill, McCain said: "That's the dilemma. I'd have to look at the whole bill. I think it's disgraceful that I have to be put in that position."