It may not be a return to politics as usual, but the two parties' natural impulses are beginning to reemerge on almost every major issue before Congress, sending off confusing signals about lawmakers' willingness to forgo undue partisanship after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
The pressures have shown up on everything from economic stimulus (Republicans lean toward business tax cuts, while Democrats favor more spending and some payroll tax relief) to aviation security (where a possible federal takeover of airport screening raises the sticky issue of government expansion). In the Senate, Republicans have returned to holding up spending bills to press for speedier action on judicial nominations.
On some of the most urgent measures, the problem is that they touch on the most sensitive issues in politics, including tensions between security and civil liberties.
While lawmakers still appear considerably more willing to cut deals needed to pass important legislation than they were before Sept. 11, Congress has lost some of the shock-induced unity with which it first responded to the attacks.
The conflicting tendencies were illustrated by two developments in the Senate last week. Just as the Senate was plunging into a divisive struggle over the aviation bill and whether to add a worker-relief measure to it, the administration and Democrats struck a deal on the anti-terrorism bill, which once had appeared even more contentious.
"We've had an extraordinary run of bipartisanship up to this point, as sincere as I've ever seen," said the Brookings Institution's Stephen Hess. "I tend to think so far, so good. If bipartisanship could last through the year, it would set something of a record."
REMEMBRANCE: On the Sunday after the attacks on New York and Washington, Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski (D-Md.) was walking around the Fort McHenry National Monument in Baltimore when she was approached by a park ranger she had known for some time, Scott Sheads. He said the staff at Fort McHenry, where Francis Scott Key was inspired by a flag flying over the fort to write words for "The Star-Spangled Banner," wanted to give the people of New York another American flag that had flown over the historic site.
As Mikulski reported at a ceremony outside the Capitol last week, the flag -- which was flown over Fort McHenry on the 187th anniversary of the Battle of Baltimore in the War of 1812 -- arrived in her office by noon the next day. At the ceremony, with Fort McHenry Superintendent Laura Joss and two rangers looking on, Mikulski and Sen. Paul S. Sarbanes (D-Md.) presented the flag to Sens. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.).
Schumer and Clinton said they want to fly the flag when a monument is built to those who died Sept. 11 at the World Trade Center. The flag will "remind us that the nation is behind us . . . and it will help us rebuild," Schumer said.
ADJOURNMENT: Leaders of the two chambers are still wrestling with when, how, or even if Congress should adjourn for the year when it finishes its must-do list of spending, anti-terrorism and economic stimulus bills.
Many lawmakers are counting on getting out of town by the end of this month or soon thereafter. But, because of uncertainties arising out of the Sept. 11 attacks, Congress is virtually certain to abandon its normal practice of adjourning sine die (without a date for return). Congress could set up a mechanism for the leadership to call members back into session quickly, as it did for the Persian Gulf War. Or, as some have suggested, it could go into pro forma session, meeting every few days but conducting no business unless warranted.
"My expectation is that we're going to be in session in one form or another through the end of the year," Senate Majority Leader Thomas A. Daschle (D-S.D.) said last week.
QUOTE/UNQUOTE: Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), expressing concern about the anti-terrorism bill provision making it easier for law enforcement to share information with intelligence agencies: "If there is in fact anybody who can be totally surveilled and not be embarrassed by any of the information released, that person has my sympathy."
THE WEEK AHEAD: The Senate will try to break the logjam blocking the aviation bill and could consider anti-terrorism and appropriations measures, along with nominations. The House is expected to take up the anti-terrorism bill and appropriations for education, health and many other domestic programs.
