100 days of Congress: Stumbles but signs of progress

WASHINGTON — Now that the first 100 days of the first GOP-controlled Congress in nearly a decade are in the rearview mirror, Republicans say the party is knocking the dust off its governing playbook for what could be one of the more productive legislative periods in recent years.

"When the American people elect divided government they don't expect nothing to happen," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., in an interview with USA TODAY Wednesday, the 100th day of the new Congress. "What they anticipate will happen is people on both sides will look for things they can agree on to go forward."

If it happens, it could mark a new era on Capitol Hill, where the previous four years of one party controlling the Senate and the other the House resulted in the least productive legislative era on record. Stalemates fueled partisanship and historically low ratings — the latest USA TODAY/Suffolk University poll released Monday gave the body an 11% approval.

Given where it started, there may be no place for this Congress to go but up.

Though there have been miscalculations and early setbacks, the first 100 days of the 114th Congress offered signs of progress. A rare alignment of policy goals between Republicans and the Obama administration on issues such as trade and cybersecurity combined with the party's desire to prove it can govern responsibly before the 2016 elections contribute to a political climate that could yield results.

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"What I want the American people to think about this new Congress is that we're a responsible, right-of-center, governing majority ... and if you give us the opportunity to join this right-of-center, responsible governing majority with a Republican president, we'll change the country," McConnell said.

HOPEFUL SIGNS AMID STUMBLES

The first three months also showed how Republicans could blow it.

House Republicans in particular continue to grapple with divisions that handed the GOP a string of early, embarrassing defeats on border security, abortion and education legislation when they couldn't muster the votes to pass their own bills and had to pull them from floor consideration.

Focusing on contentious social issues such as abortion right out of the gate instead of kitchen-table economic issues as they pledged in their campaigns opened the door to Democratic criticism that the GOP was a wedge-issue party.

Across the U.S. Capitol, Senate Republicans have to contend with the same minority rights they used to thwart Democrats when that party was in control.

An ill-fated GOP strategy to protest President Obama's executive orders on immigration threatened to shut down the Department of Homeland Security in February. The gambit undermined the GOP's goal to present itself as a responsible, governing party when it took full control of the legislative branch in January for the first time since 2006.

Most Americans' view of Congress hasn't changed. The USA TODAY/Suffolk University poll showed 60% view the federal government working about the same under GOP congressional control; 22% said it was working worse, 8% said it was working better and 10% are undecided.

Republicans can boast some early successes that have encouraged lawmakers in both parties on the year ahead.

Republicans are on track to approve by the end of April the first budget since 2009 and the first GOP budget since 2006. The budget is non-binding and doesn't have the force of law, but it's an achievement for a party eager to earn the public's trust.

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., reached a significant bipartisan deal in late March to fix the system that calculates Medicare reimbursements for doctors — a problem Congress had punted on for 17 years.

"It was, frankly, quite a success," Boehner said. The legislation passed with 392 votes in favor, an overwhelming show of support for a measure affecting the usually contentious and costly debate over entitlement programs. The Senate approved the deal 92-8 on Tuesday.

House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md., praised the legislation as the way "Congress ought to work, can work and should work on behalf of the American people."

Hoyer contended that the only way for Republicans to achieve real success is to work with Democrats, which they were reluctant to do when Democrats were in charge.

"The bills that were signed into law were largely signed into law because the Democratic Party supported them, in some cases with a majority of support for them," he said.

That dynamic was on display Tuesday, when legislation by Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Corker, R-Tenn., Bob Menendez, D-N.J., and Ben Cardin, D-Md., that would allow for congressional review of any international deal with Iran over its nuclear weapons program sailed out of committee with unanimous support. The White House backed off an initial veto threat, a response in part to the growing number of Democrats who jumped on board.

POTENTIAL FOR PROGRESS

There is promise on a number of policy fronts where bipartisan efforts are underway, particularly in the Senate, where 60 votes are normally required to move legislation of any depth.

For example:

• Senate Finance Committee leaders Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and Ron Wyden, D-Ore., are working on legislation that would give the president "fast-track" negotiating authority to advance a pending trade pact between the United States and 11 nations throughout the Asia-Pacific region. The measure — largely opposed by Democrats — has been a top priority of the Obama administration and Republicans. It would be one of the largest trade agreements in history.

• Senate Intelligence Committee leaders Richard Burr, R-N.C., and Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., worked together to approve out of committee on a 14-1 vote last month legislation that would enhance the nation's cybersecurity laws in the wake of a number of high-profile hackings. The administration supports the bill, and congressional action is likely this year.

• Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee leaders Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., and Patty Murray, D-Wash., recently unveiled a bipartisan framework to update the No Child Left Behind education law after two months of negotiations.

• Senate Environment and Public Works Committee leaders James Inhofe, R-Okla., and Barbara Boxer, D-Calif. — two of the Senate's most philosophically opposed duos — are working together to advance a long-term highway bill this year.

"I think the goal is to achieve some victories on things where we can work together," said Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va. "I think there's things where we have mutual benefit, not just for the country, but for all of us, to show that we can function."

Despite these opportunities for consensus, McConnell cautioned against the possibility of any "grand bargains" with the administration.

"Regretfully, I don't think this is going to a Clinton or Reagan divided-government period, tackling really huge matters," he said, citing past administration efforts to reach sweeping deals on overhauling the tax code or entitlement programs such as Medicare.

The political will between the Obama administration and Congress is simply not there, he said, but there is still "a litany of things that can get a presidential signature."

ALL EYES ON 2016

The eagerness by GOP leaders to notch legislative victories is undoubtedly fueled by the party's national ambitions to win the White House. Though voters handed Republicans control of the U.S. Senate and the largest House majority since the Hoover administration, the public's estimation of the GOP is still fairly low.

An Gallup poll in early March showed a majority, 53%, have an unfavorable view and 37% a favorable view of the GOP.

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said this week that his goal is to eliminate the culture of legislative "cliffs" in recent years that have forced congressional brinkmanship over tax cuts, government funding and protecting the nation's credit.

"Every time you get a cliff coming forward, it takes you away from all the bigger policies of what you want to do," he said. "The more cliffs we get taken away, the stronger I think the future holds for where we're going to go."

McCarthy's message was clear: If the public can't trust Republicans with Congress, voters will be reluctant to reward them in 2016. And how can lawmakers help their eventual nominee capture the White House after eight years of Democratic control?

"Show we can govern," McCarthy said.

The new Senate majority leader echoed what seems like an obvious goal, but one that has been elusive in recent years.

"We're going to make an all-out effort to do the basic work of government," McConnell said.

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