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American Morning
Senate Opens Debate on Education Bill
Aired April 24, 2001 - 09:23 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: The Senate opens debate this week on one of President Bush's top priorities: education. But there are some key differences between what the president wants and what some Senate Democrats are pushing for.
CNN's Jeanne Meserve joins us now from our Washington bureau. She's got more on that for us now. Jeanne, good morning.
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, Leon.
Education just one of the issues that Congress will be grappling with as members return from their spring recess. And let's start there.
Joining me is John Bresnahan of "Roll Call."
Thanks a lot for coming in.
JOHN BRESNAHAN, "ROLL CALL": Thank you.
MESERVE: Big problem on education, and it's money. What's the difference now between what the White House wants and what Senate Democrats want?
BRESNAHAN: Well, as of the latest reports we've heard, Jeanne, it's about $8 billion to $10 billion.
MESERVE: Which is a big hunk of money.
BRESNAHAN: Which is a big -- it's a lot of money. There's been some movement. Both sides seem to want to come to some kind of compromise, but nobody really wants to cave. Nobody wants to look like they're caving in to the other side. So the White House came up a little bit yesterday. Senate Democrats came down.
We should have a much better sense of what's going to happen after today. This bill is expected to be on the floor tomorrow or -- that's what the schedule is -- the Senate schedule is supposed to have, and we'll see if there's some serious movement today.
MESERVE: And now the president has a lot riding on this. He's identified education as one of his top priorities. Is that effecting these negotiations in a big way? BRESNAHAN: Oh, yeah. You're going to see the president get personally involved in this. I mean, he has been already. At the end of the day, Bush wants this bill. President Bush wants this bill very badly.
So you'll see the White House willing to cut some deals, but they can't go so far that they alienate their own conservatives. That's -- that's problem that the White House faces on this.
MESERVE: Budget, the other looming issue. The House said, "OK, $1.6 trillion for tax cut." The Senate said, "$1.2 trillion." Again, there's a gap. Are they going to be able to bridge it and how?
BRESNAHAN: Well, we'll -- today, there will be an interesting meeting. The president is supposed to meet with the House and Senate leadership and the Budget -- heads of the Budget Committees in both chambers and the appropriators, the guys who actually spend the money.
We're about $450 billion apart between the House and the Senate and -- on tax cuts and another $28 billion apart on spending. So they'll try and cut the difference.
But, again, the president faces the same thing he does in education. He can't move so far -- he can't -- he can't make -- seem so willing to do deal with Democrats far to left. Can't see -- seem so willing to deal with Democrats that he alienates own base.
Now the president so far has played to conservatives in both chambers. He's been hard line on taxes. He's been hard line on spending and, you know, he's got some room to maneuver, but he's really got to -- he's got to walk a very fine line.
MESERVE: And he's got quite an opponent in the U.S. Senate in Tom Daschle.
BRESNAHAN: He certainly does. The Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, who's a very able politician. Daschle -- for instance, yesterday, at his press conference, he talked about -- he -- he's -- the president -- he's given good grades so far, but he's also -- he's been tough on him, and Daschle doesn't want to look like he's caving in. He can. He doesn't have to at this point. He's got 50 Democratic senators, and...
MESERVE: And he's been able to keep them unified.
BRESNAHAN: ... and he's been able to keep them very unified.
MESERVE: An amazing feat.
BRESNAHAN: He's only -- there's only one Senate Democrat he lost on the tax-cut fight. There's now signs that Senator Torricelli of New Jersey may be willing to go for some kind of compromise, and that would balance out the support that Daschle's picked up from Republicans.
MESERVE: We've just -- a second left, but what happened to campaign finance reform, passed the Senate, and then off the radar screen?
BRESNAHAN: Well, we're going to see some hearings in the House next week. The House Administration Committee is going to have some hearings on it. But this bill is not going to move in the House until July, and I know the House leadership wants to move something before the August recess, but it's not on the fast track in the House at this point.
MESERVE: John Bresnahan, "Roll Call," thanks so much for coming in.
BRESNAHAN: Thanks for having me.
MESERVE: Leon, we'll be watching and waiting. We may know in 24 hours what's happening with education.
HARRIS: All right. Good deal. Thanks, Jeanne. We'll see you in a bit.
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