The 109th Congress of the United States opened last week, with much of the fanfare surrounding GOP pre-session planning (particularly ethics committee rule changes) and the decision of a few Democrats (including Senator Boxer from California) to hopelessly challenge the presidential election results from Ohio during the electoral college count on Thursday. In just the first week, there is already an ambitious agenda for both chambers, and this Congress faces many unfinished priorities and issues from 2004, such as energy and highway legislation, an asbestos trust fund proposal, and tort reform. With the perennially ineffective budget process and Social Security reform looming, this Congress already has a very full plate. GOP Budgetary Rules Changes Fail In addition to the lengthy debates concerning the House Ethics committee, GOP pre-session planning meetings saw conservative members of the House submit a number of amendments to the House rules that would have large implications in how the chamber’s budget process functions. Despite much vocal dissatisfaction from conservatives, all but one of the budget-related rules changes proposed were defeated by wide margins. The one adopted amendment would have little effect on the budgetary process – it will allow House floor references to the Senate. Some of the defeated amendments would have allowed points of order requiring a three-fifths vote to increase entitlement spending without offsets; created points of order against rules for floor debate that waive certain budget points of order; required roll call votes on bills costing more than $ 50 million; established accounts to redirect spending to debt reduction or tax relief; required a "rainy day fund" for emergency spending; repealed the "Gephardt Rule" that allows automatic passage of a debt ceiling; and removed a proposed rule to allow Wednesday votes on suspension bills. New Appropriations Chairs and Immediate Supplemental Spending Bills Also last week, both the House and Senate GOP elected new chairs to the powerful appropriations committees. In the Senate, Thad Cochran (R-MS) is taking over as Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee from Ted Stevens (R-AK). Cochran was the next in line in seniority after Stevens stepped down because of Republican term limits. There was much more uncertainty and drama in the contest for chairmanship of the House Appropriations Committee. Three representatives – Jerry Lewis (CA), Ralph Regula (OH), and Harold Rodgers (KY) – all vied for the spot. The 28-member Republican Steering Committee interviewed and required each to showcase their fundraising ability, voting records, and dedication to spending restraint. California members on the Steering Committee supported Lewis and won over critics who believed he had been too close to Democrats in the past. Lewis has said one of his top priorities will be to get the annual spending bills passed “on time and under budget.” An immediate priority for these new chairmen will be to provide emergency supplemental funding to tsunami victims. The tsunami supplemental would be at least $ 350 million, although that number could change now that Secretary of State Colin Powell and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist have returned from a tour of the damaged countries. The Bush administration will also submit an emergency supplemental for funding military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Most estimates put the military supplemental between $ 80 and $ 100 billion, but the timing is much less certain. Some congressional aides have said the military supplemental may not be submitted until mid-March in order to focus on the tsunami package first. Some House members want to combine the tsunami and military supplemental, but there is resistance from the Senate, particularly Majority Leader Frist, who has said we want to complete a clean tsunami package as soon as possible. The Elephant in the Room: Social Security Reform There has been a flurry of reports, articles, analysis, rumors and speculation about the president’s number one priority in 2005: Social Security reform. But it is unclear when or even whether Congress will have the time or the will to complete such an overhaul. With the spending process perilously close to complete breakdown, and many other priorities from the 108th Congress still unfinished, the prospect of rationally and deliberately overhauling Social Security seems daunting in the least – especially since the president has yet to release any definitive details of his plan. Last week, the Bush administration worked to smooth over dissension among many Republican legislators after an internal e-mail message concerning Social Security reform from a top Bush advisor was leaked. The message cited the need for benefit cuts to accompany any plan for privatization – a position President Bush earlier said he would not support. GOP legislators are deeply divided over what vague details they have of the president’s plan. At the same time, the House has lost one of its foremost experts on Social Security as Rep. Robert Matsui (D-CA) died on New Year’s Day. Matsui was the ranking minority member of the Social Security subcommittee of Ways and Means in the House, the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, and a top Democratic fundraiser. He was expected to lead the Democrats’ fight against privatization plans. Rep. Ben Cardin (D-MD) is expected to move into the ranking member position on the committee and is equally if not more opposed to the president’s plan to create private personal accounts in Social Security. In a public appearance in October 2003, his opposition to Bush’s plan was quite clear. “The problem is that the president’s proposal will take money out of the system,” Cardin said. "Social Security is a guaranteed, lifetime, inflation-proof annuitant, and you can’t get that through a private account.” All this adds up to an extremely packed schedule for the first session of the 109th Congress, rife with contentious and controversial issues. The president has repeatedly said he will spend political capital to achieve his goals in his second term and that his re-election gave him a mandate to govern. But with most recent polls continuing to show the president with an approval rating below 50 percent, congressional Republicans may be wary of supporting the president, particularly if it is perceived he is trying to dismantle a program as popular as Social Security.