Return to Transcripts main page

American Morning

President Bush and Congress Clear Two Major Hurdles

Aired August 03, 2001 - 10:05   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: In Washington, the story may actually be the calm after the storm. But there are some thunderheads looming still. President Bush and Capitol Hill lawmakers embark today on their summer vacations with two major bills having cleared their first congressional hurdles.

House Republicans have pushed through an energy package as well as a patients' bill of rights. But with their battle won, the war remains to be fought another day.

CNN congressional correspondent Jonathan Karl joins us with more on that -- good morning, Jon.

JONATHAN KARL, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well said, Leon.

I'll tell you, it was really remarkable back to back victories for the White House and for the Republicans in the House of Representatives, though. Last night that patients' bill of rights victory, something that Republicans had really thought was beyond their reach just a day earlier. Last night at about 10:30 at night they finally got their bill passed with every Republican supporting the president's compromise on a patients' bill of rights and just five Democrats voting along with them.

This is a patients' bill of rights that's going to grant a lot of those protections that we've been talking about since this issue first started coming up six years ago, protections like access to emergency room care, access to specialists.

But it also includes a limited right to sue, a right to sue that caps pain and suffering damages at $1.5 million, caps punitive damages at $1.5 million and something that Democrats say provides an unequal playing field. So they will continue to fight that battle as it goes on to the Senate.

And the day before it, of course, you had that victory on energy. Also another thing, the Republicans up here have privately said that they thought the whole question of drilling for oil up in Alaska's Arctic wildlife refuge was something that was dead on arrival up here. But they managed to pull out a victory with 36 Democrats signing on.

So going into this August recess, clearly Republicans in the House feeling very good. HARRIS: Well, all right, then. The guys in the House have done their job. What's happening with the folks over there on the Senate side?

KARL: Well, remember, we got Republicans in control in the House, Democrats in control in the Senate and things not as rosy over here for the Republicans. As a matter of fact, before they go on recess, we have one last major battle looming here. Right now we're, it's over to the agriculture bill. It's a supplemental spending bill for farmers that are facing some hard times right now.

The White House has said that they will veto the bill that the Democrats are now pushing. It's a $7.4 billion in agriculture spending, farm spending, and what the White House has said, and Republicans here, is they don't want to go any more than $5.5 billion.

So this is a fight that's playing out today. If the Senate goes ahead and passes the Democratic version, you face a veto down the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue at the White House. So one last major battle here where the Democrats may actually hold the upper hand.

HARRIS: All right, thanks much.

Jonathan Karl on Capitol Hill, we'll get back to you later on -- Linda.

LINDA STOUFFER, CNN ANCHOR: And speaking at the White House, President Bush does have a few housekeeping items to check off his schedule before he leaves town.

So CNN White House correspondent Kelly Wallace is joining us now for the very latest -- Kelly, I know he has a couple things on his schedule, meeting with his cabinet. He also has a Rose Garden event. What do we expect to hear from the president today?

KELLY WALLACE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, you expected to hear the president tout some of his achievements over the past six months, Linda. If you'll forgive the sports analogy here, if you compare the first four years of the Bush administration to a football game, this White House is now in the middle of the first quarter and it feels very, very good about where it is.

In fact, Nick Calio, who is the president's head of legislative affairs, is talking to reporters as we speak and he says that the White House has shown that the legislative process is working. This administration believes that Mr. Bush has had more legislative accomplishments over the past six months than the administrations of former President Clinton and former President Bush and former President Ronald Reagan during their first six months.

So we are, we'll hear the president talk about accomplishments such as signing into law a tax cut and passing in both houses of Congress an education bill and, as Jon Karl mentioned, passage in the House of an energy bill and a patients' bill of rights. He'll also, Linda, talk about challenges ahead. He will call on lawmakers to finish work on education and also to pass his faith-based agenda, which right now is sort of stalled in the Senate -- Linda.

STOUFFER: Well, Kelly, one of those challenges is, of course, the end of this patients' bill of rights issue because it's gone through the House. But now it moves to the Senate. So what's the White House strategy for dealing with all this?

WALLACE: Definitely, and as we heard Jon say, Senate Democrats are already saying that they are going to fight very hard to remove some of the restrictions in the House bill on a patient's right to sue.

The White House, Linda, believes the president has a lot of leverage and Republicans in the House have a lot of leverage going into negotiations with the passage in the House. They also are going to sort of try and put the Senate Democrats on the defensive, White House advisers saying that if the Senate Democrats don't want to compromise, well, then they will be the ones who will take the blame for not passing a bill that the majority of the American people want the president and the Congress to deal with.

So this could play out in next year's elections depending on the outcome of these negotiations.

STOUFFER: And meanwhile the president heads to Crawford, Texas for a couple weeks. He leaves this weekend.

Kelly Wallace, thank you very much for the latest from the White House. We appreciate it.

And we invite you to stay with CNN for live coverage of the president's afternoon event. It's now scheduled in the Rose Garden at 2:15 Eastern Time. That's 11:15 on the West Coast. We plan coverage of that.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com