By: Susan Ferrechio 12/12/10 8:05 PM
Chief Congressional Correspondent
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Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nev. gestures during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington Wednesday, Dec. 8, 2010. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)As the 111th Congress enters what could be its final workweek before adjourning, chances grow that Democrats will have to leave without passing two of their most critical agenda items and will have to abandon those initiatives until they can regain a substantial majority, perhaps years down the road.
The Senate last week served as a roadblock, and perhaps a graveyard, for both the Dream Act, an immigration reform initiative, and a provision repealing the "don't ask, don't tell" ban on gays serving openly in the military. Both measures are nearly universally opposed by Republicans, who, for a few more days, are in the minority but control enough Senate seats to block legislation by filibustering.

The House last week passed the Dream Act, which would provide a path to citizenship for people who arrived in America illegally as children and who attend college or join the military. But the legislation stalled in the Senate. Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said he may take up the bill again this week, but few expect it to pass.

An equally dismal fate awaited the House-passed "don't ask" measure, which was attached to the defense authorization bill but failed to garner the 60 votes it needed to advance. Sens. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., and Susan Collins, R-Maine, have since introduced a new bill to repeal the ban and say they will have 60 votes needed to pass it, perhaps this week.

But there are just days left before the 111th Congress is supposed to adjourn for the last time and advocates of ending the ban need to find three additional Republicans to support the bill. As a result, the clock may run out, leaving Democrats 0-for-2 on two agenda items seen as critical to the party's rank-and-file.

"The Democrats' problem is explaining to their constituency groups how they failed to bring these key pieces of legislation to a vote when they had overwhelming majorities in Congress for two years," said University of Virginia political science professor Larry Sabato.

Democrats blamed Republicans for blocking the two measures, but the GOP responded that Democrats were playing political games by bringing up major initiatives with little chance of passing in the limited lame-duck session just to appease their core supporters.

"This is what happens when you build up people's hopes," said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. "You play to groups who are desperate to get relief. This is just not the way to get big things done."

The Dream Act will be virtually impossible to pass next year when Republicans take control of the House and increase their number in the Senate. GOP leaders, who say the Dream Act provides "amnesty" for lawbreakers, plan to focus their efforts to deal with illegal immigration on beefing up border security instead.

If Democrats fail to repeal the military's ban on gays, the issue would likely be resolved by the courts, which have already ruled the ban unconstitutional. The courts are more likely than Congress to require that the ban be repealed immediately, which the Pentagon fears would make implementation more difficult.

"My greatest worry will be that we're at the mercy of the courts and all the lack of predictability that that entails," Defense Secretary Robert Gates said.

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