What to expect if the Democrats win Congress

By Richard E. Cohen

updated 12:44 p.m. ET Sept. 14, 2006

This is the first of an ongoing series examining the potential impact that a Democratic takeover in Congress would have on key policy issues.

WASHINGTON - Given the unhappy electorate, the Republican self-doubts and infighting, and the bullish reports from Democrats on the campaign trail, it's no wonder that many members of the long-suffering minority have been wistfully turning their thoughts to wielding control of at least one chamber of Congress next year. "I am very confident," Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., a rising star in her party, said recently. "All of the momentum is going our way."

What seemed like a pipe dream for many Democrats back in January, when National Journal did a cover story looking at a potential Democratic takeover of the House and Senate, has become, two months before Election Day, a serious possibility -- all too serious, in fact, for the comfort of Bush administration officials, GOP lawmakers, and many of their K Street allies.

At the beginning of the year, Democratic lawmakers and their aides had few concrete ideas about their prospective agenda in the majority. But now they have far more specific plans for bills that they would like to enact and investigations that they hope to pursue.

The two party leaders, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., are promoting a six-prong "New Direction for America" agenda -- their so-called "Six for '06."

Pelosi has also promised that within 100 hours after taking control of the House on January 3, Democrats will pass legislation to increase the minimum wage, mandate the negotiation of Medicare prescription drug prices, fully implement the recommendations of the 9/11 commission, and repeal tax benefits for big oil companies.

FREE VIDEO Archive Video: Meet the Press May 7, 2006: House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., speaks with Tim Russert of NBC's "Meet the Press" about what the party will do if it takes control of Congress. Meet the Press

And that would be only the start. Other Democrats -- especially prospective committee chairmen eager to gain, or regain, control of the gavels -- are bubbling over with possible initiatives across the public policy spectrum.

For instance, Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., in line to chair the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, wants to push legislation to reduce greenhouse gases, while Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., who may lead the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, is looking to cut interest rates on student loans. On the other side of the Capitol, Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., the prospective House Ways and Means Committee chairman, wants a more bipartisan policy on international trade, including better protections for U.S. workers.

Notwithstanding their grand hopes of reviving a liberal activism that has been stifled for a dozen years, even the most committed Democratic partisans are realistic about the constraints they would face in the majority. Many openly acknowledge that they would be limited in what they could achieve legislatively in the 110th Congress, because their House or Senate majority would likely be razor-thin and because the GOP might retain control of one chamber. George W. Bush will remain president for another two years, and he may well be prepared to thwart the Democrats' every move. Moreover, as the calendar draws closer to November 2008, gridlock may set in as presidential campaign politics become all-consuming.

"If we take back the House, we ain't going to take it back by much," Rep. Pete Stark, D-Calif., a senior member of the House Ways and Means Committee, told NJ. "I would love, of course, and the Democratic Party would agree, to move toward universal [health care] coverage. But that's not going to happen with a five-vote majority, and no one in the White House pushing."

For many key Democrats, the emerging strategy -- should they win some congressional control this November -- appears to be to try to score legislative victories where possible, thwart GOP initiatives, and wage an aggressive oversight campaign to expose what they see as Bush administration shortcomings and neglected national problems. They hope that the high-profile hearings and investigations they plan to hold as part of their 2007-08 oversight effort will lay the groundwork for more-sweeping legislative changes after the presidential election, when they may have widened their congressional majorities and perhaps captured the White House.

Already, many Democrats are making clear that they are eager to use their prospective oversight authority. They have long complained that oversight of the Republican-controlled White House by the Republican-controlled Congress has been abysmal.

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