House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) is pushing Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to take a harder line with the Senate after a trio of Republican senators forced Congress to trim billions from the $787 billion economic stimulus package. | John Shinkle/POLITICO Hoyer to Pelosi: Stand up to Senate

House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) is pushing Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to take a harder line with the Senate after a trio of Republican senators forced Congress to trim billions from the $787 billion economic stimulus package.

It’s not clear how far Pelosi is willing to go in standing up to the Senate — or, realistically, what effect Hoyer and Pelosi combined could have in the face of the 60-vote hurdle Senate Democrats face.


But after last week’s stimulus votes, Hoyer called on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to force Senate Republicans to mount actual filibusters if they want to stand in the way of bills “so that the American people can see who’s undermining action.”

And in a private conversation with Pelosi, aides say Hoyer reminded the speaker that they’d talked previously about tolerating Senate strong-arming on the stimulus and on children’s health insurance — two Democratic priorities — but then holding their own on future legislation.

Pelosi expressed some agreement, aides said, and she has asked her staff to perform an after-action report about negotiations over the massive package of spending and tax cuts.

But at the same time, Pelosi has voiced public sympathy for the plight Reid faces in the Senate; with just 58 members caucusing with the Democrats — 59 if Al Franken prevails in Minnesota — Reid is always going to need some Republican support to overcome GOP filibuster threats.

“This is the legislative process,” Pelosi told MSNBC last week. “We act. They act. We reconcile. And in order to get their votes, they had to make certain changes in the legislation.”

“The speaker and Mr. Hoyer know that Sen. Reid shares their beliefs and is doing all he can,” a Democratic aide said. “It is hard not to achieve all [that Pelosi and Hoyer] wanted, and everyone is frustrated by the 60-vote requirement. But they are realists, and they each know we will never get anywhere without 60 votes.”

In making his case with Pelosi, Hoyer is echoing the complaints he’s heard from rank-and-file Democrats steamed that Republican Sens. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania and Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine were able to trump their desires on the stimulus. Some of those rank-and-file members believe that Reid and other Senate leaders aren’t doing enough to push back against the Senate Republicans — and that, in fact, they’re using the threat of Republican filibusters as a way to increase their own power in negotiations with the House.

“It gives them clout to push around the House and the president,” said a frustrated Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.), one of seven Democrats to oppose the stimulus package.

Democrats in the House are also concerned that a knee-jerk deference to the Senate will force them to continuously water down legislation to make life easier for Reid, who is up for reelection next year.

Democrats complained repeatedly about this dynamic as negotiators finalized the stimulus package last week, stripping billions for state aid and school construction at the request of Specter, Snowe and Collins.

One House Democrat, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said colleagues are “furious” about those changes.

“Think about the precedent this sets: You have Specter, Snowe and Collins dictating terms to 250 [House Democrats],” the lawmaker said. “We can’t let it happen again. We have to stop it now.”

“I’m all for bipartisanship, but I don’t consider three Republican senators bipartisan,” said Missouri Rep. Emanuel Cleaver II, who oversees economic recovery issues for the Congressional Black Caucus. “Let’s not deny who we are legislatively for three senators.”

But Pelosi knows that that’s easier said than done. The speaker was upset that Reid announced a deal with the moderate Republicans before the details were finalized. But she has also relented to the realities facing her Senate counterpart.

Democrats in the House allowed the Senate to strip language from the children’s health care bill that would have banned any new construction of specialty hospitals — the smaller, physician-owned facilities that typically cater to a more upscale clientele than do the larger community hospitals. To pay for the bill, they also swallowed a much larger tax increase on individual cigar sales.

On the stimulus, the Senate stripped $40 billion in state aid and nearly $20 billion in school construction funds to make room for a $69 billion provision shielding most middle-income and upper-income households from the alternative minimum tax this year, an annual exercise that always creates heartburn for fiscally conservative Democrats in the House.

Negotiators eventually reinstated some of that money in a $53.6 billion stabilization fund for states and local governments after the CBC and other caucuses joined forces to push for those funds.

Democratic aides in the House suggest this was an important exercise for the different factions in their party to coordinate their demands and negotiate collectively, strengthening their leverage with the Senate.

House Democrats acknowledge the challenges Reid faces, both in Washington and back home in Nevada. The majority leader needs legislative achievements to bolster his approval ratings with Nevada voters. But they’re also worried about the price to be paid with their base if they’re seen as “coddling” Reid.

The Senate majority leader needs 60 votes to proceed with debate on any bill, but Hoyer and other Democrats in the House would like to see him call the Republicans’ bluff on a filibuster threat by forcing them to embark on an open-ended debate to oppose priority legislation.

One top Democratic aide predicted that big issues on the president’s wish list — such as expanded health care coverage and an overhaul of the country’s energy and climate policy — would attract “shifting coalitions” of Senate Republicans, making it harder for the minority to oppose these bills en masse during future debates.

“There are a lot of variables out there,” the aide said. “It will be situation by situation, bill by bill.”