Senate roadblocks

WASHINGTON-If you had to name one theme for the first five months of the new Congress it would be this: The new Republican-led House passes legislation that promptly dies in the Democrat-led Senate.

Probably the most important example of this for social conservatives is the House's successful effort to cut off federal funding for abortion provider Planned Parenthood. No doubt the vote was a significant victory for the pro-life movement. But, because this measure has no chance in the Senate, it is mostly a symbolic triumph.

This string of symbolic victories will likely continue next week when the full House is expected to pass legislation aimed at slowing down the repeal of the military's long-standing policy on homosexuals serving openly in the military.

The House Armed Services Committee approved legislation this month that explicitly prohibits U.S. military bases from being used to solemnize same-sex unions. The committee also approved a measure that bars military chaplains from officiating at gay marriages. These two efforts, written as amendments to an annual defense-spending bill, come in response to a recent Navy memo that said same-sex marriages could occur at chapels in states that recognize gay marriage.

The Navy directive has since been revoked. But it highlights the wide-ranging consequences that the military and its chaplains will face in the aftermath of last year's congressional vote to overturn the Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy regarding homosexuals in the military.

But again, while the larger House is expected to pass these amendments, the Senate will surely dismiss them.

Social policy is not the only arena facing a stonewall in the Senate: A group of 34 Republican senators are fighting efforts by President Obama-appointed officials on the National Labor Relations Board to stop Boeing from opening a nonunion plant in South Carolina.

The NLRB's lawsuit against Boeing threatens economic growth in the 22 states with right-to-work laws that protect workers from being forced to join a union, said Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C.

"It hurts business in America," DeMint said, "[It] is going to encourage businesses to locate overseas so they don't have to deal with this type of intimidation and cost when the federal government attacks them."

But, without support from 60 senators, a Republican bill to protect companies wanting to open new facilities in right-to-work states faces an uphill battle in the Senate.

The federal fiscal crisis is also running up against Senate inertia: On Tuesday, Republican Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma pulled out of a bipartisan budget working group because Democrats would not agree to deeper spending cuts.

"Any honest view of our debt, deficits, size of government and demographic challenges shows we must make major changes if we are going to pass on the American way of life to our children," Coburn wrote in a Washington Post op-ed Thursday that explained his decision. "History has not been kind to republics that pretend they can borrow and spend beyond their means indefinitely."

Spending cuts gained new urgency after federal officials announced May 13 that Medicare's trust fund would run out in 2024-five years earlier than last year's prediction.

The House has passed a budget that includes Medicare reforms and cuts spending by nearly $6 trillion over the next decade. While the Senate may vote on that budget blueprint next week, don't expect it to pass. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will mainly use the Senate budget vote as a political tool heading into the 2012 elections.

Democrats are banking on the belief that voters will not approve of any changes to federal entitlement programs like Medicare. Any senator who votes for such reforms, Reid theorizes, may not make it be back to the Senate after the November 2012.

For those conservatives who are frustrated in the Senate's current incarnation as a legislative graveyard, the 2012 elections are indeed crucial. Control of the Senate chamber will be on the line.

Currently holding just a three-seat majority, Senate Democrats will have to defend 23 seats next year. Republicans are only expected to have 10 seats up for election.

In the meantime, there are a few Senate victories for conservatives to relish. For instance, the Senate on Thursday blocked the judicial nomination of Goodwin Liu for the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. It is the first outright rejection of one of President Barack Obama's judicial nominees. Liu, a law professor who does not believe the U.S. Constitution is binding and who believes foreign law should be imposed on U.S. soil, would have been positioned for a possible Supreme Court nomination from a seat on the appeals court.

But even such conservative triumphs are tempered by other defeats: On May 10 the Senate voted to confirm another judicial nominee, Edward Chen, who is pro-abortion. Three pro-life Democrats-Pennsylvania's Bob Casey, West Virginia's Joe Manchin, and Nebraska's Ben Nelson-voted for the judicial nominee in the largely partisan confirmation vote.