"Pelosi readying a pre-emptive House agenda"

San Francisco Chronicle:

House Speaker-to-be Nancy Pelosi made clear Tuesday she's not willing to cede the public spotlight to President Bush in the weeks before his State of the Union speech.

Pelosi plans to start the 110th Congress with a bang on Jan. 4 -- when the House holds its ceremonial swearing in and elects her as speaker -- by immediately setting off on a sprint of several weeks to enact the Democrats' ambitious 100-hour agenda.

Lawmakers usually return home between the swearing-in ceremony and the president's speech, but analysts say the hurried schedule gives Democrats a chance to show instant results. It could also put Bush on the defensive, forcing him to sign or veto a host of popular initiatives.

"Given the well-earned do-nothing reputation of the 109th Congress and its record-setting minimal number of days in session, Pelosi is right to get a quick and sustained start to the 110th Congress," said Thomas Mann, a congressional scholar at the Brookings Institution. "Forget the vacation time -- better to move quickly to set an expectation of more time and serious work in Washington."

Pelosi, in a statement, said the rapid start is needed to tackle a lengthy to-do list that includes everything from passing new ethics rules to raising the minimum wage to $7.25 an hour.

"It is imperative that we waste no time in addressing the pressing needs facing our nation," the San Francisco Democrat said.

Tactically, the move has several advantages: January is usually a slow news month that the president dominates by leaking tidbits from his State of the Union speech and his proposed budget a few days later. Instead of waiting for Bush's agenda, Democrats could have a half-dozen bills waiting for his signature or veto by the time he makes his primetime speech.

After her election as House speaker, Pelosi's first moves will be on ethics, a reminder to voters of the scandals that plagued the GOP Congress and part of her pledge that Democrats will run a more ethical Congress.

Democratic leaders signaled this week they will break up their package of ethics reforms to allow separate debates and votes on proposals -- including a ban on gifts, meals and travel paid for by lobbyists -- and earmark reforms to require lawmakers to own up to federal money they secure for pet projects. They also will push "pay-as-you-go" budget rules requiring that any new spending be offset by cuts in other spending cuts or tax increases.

The strategy would force Republicans to take tough votes on ethics measures that, in essence, are a rebuke to the way the House has conducted its business in recent years. GOP leaders may seek a party-line vote against the entire package, but members who just went through close races in which ethics was a big issue may be loathe to vote against the reforms.

Norman Ornstein, a congressional scholar with the American Enterprise Institute who has lobbied for changes in ethics rules, said he was pleasantly surprised to see the shift in strategy. He and other congressional watchdogs were angry when Pelosi backed Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., for majority leader -- a lawmaker with a checkered ethical past who told colleagues in a recent meeting that ethics reforms were a "bunch of crap."

"I'm actually encouraged now for the first time," Ornstein said. "The idea of having this not as a package, but as a series of issue areas with debate and showcasing these areas and getting a lot of publicity that comes with it -- it's the way I hope Congress will be run."

Pelosi also is considering the idea of an independent ethics board that would act as a grand jury and vet ethics complaints before referring them for action by the House Ethics Committee. Some lawmakers oppose the idea, preferring to police themselves, but it's backed by many of the reform groups.

Pelosi's promised "100-hour" agenda probably will stretch out over at least two to three weeks, and some initiatives may take longer. The agenda is almost a reverse image of former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich's "Contract with America," which he maneuvered through Congress in early 1995 after Democrats were ousted from power, also following a series of ethical lapses.

The media's focus on Democrats' first weeks in power also will give Pelosi a chance to provide high-profile roles to her old allies and newly elected Democratic members. For example, Rep. George Miller of Martinez, the likely chairman of the House Education and Workforce Committee, is expected to take the lead on a proposal to cut interest rates on student loans. Newly elected Rep. Zack Space of Ohio, who won the open seat vacated by disgraced Republican Rep. Bob Ney after Ney's indictment in the Abramoff influence-peddling scandal, could be handed a prime role in introducing one of the ethics measures.

Pelosi's thorniest task will be setting committee assignments for longtime members and the new freshman. Those decisions are handled by the Democratic Steering Committee, but the panel is stacked with Pelosi's allies, including its chair, Connecticut Rep. Rosa DeLauro. Capitol insiders are already speculating that Pelosi will deny Rep. Jane Harman of Venice (Los Angeles County), the ranking member of Intelligence Committee, the chairmanship of the panel because the two Californians have clashed in the past.

Decisions on committee posts could come as soon as the week of Dec. 4. Pelosi said she has scheduled a Dec. 5 forum for Democratic members on the future of Iraq, with former National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski, former Ambassador to the United Nations Richard Holbrooke and retired Army Major Gen. John Batiste.