Democrats lame-duck agenda shrinking fast after Election Day 'shellacking'

Democratic allies are not optimistic about their legislative priorities getting done in the lame-duck session after Democratic candidates got pummeled on Election Day.

Senate Democrats had discussed as many as 20 bills up for consideration during the lame-duck session, the period between the Nov. 2 election and Christmas. In the wake of a midterm election that President Obama called a "shellacking" of his party, Democratic insiders question if anything more than a stop-gap spending measure and temporary extension of Bush-era tax cuts can pass. Don Stewart, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's spokesman, said Republicans will only allow bills with broad consensus to pass. "Nothing that has anything terribly controversial," he said, adding that the repeal of the military's "Don't ask, don't tell" policy would be considered controversial. "In a lame duck, typically we pass only things that expire at the end of the year," he said. The 2001 and 2003 tax cuts passed under President George W. Bush expire at the end of the year. A stop-gap spending measure funding government will run out on Dec. 3 and extended federal unemployment insurance benefits will begin to expire at the end of November. Lawmakers must also deal with a scheduled cut in doctors' Medicare reimbursements that will go into effect before the end of the year. Senators will return to Washington the week of Nov. 15 to hold leadership elections and a series of votes to cut off debate on three bills: the Promoting Natural Gas and Electric Vehicles Act; the Paycheck Fairness Act; and the Food Safety Modernization Act. But typically it takes at least a week to jump over all the procedural hurdles necessary to pass a bill. It's unclear how Democratic leaders plan to pass the natural gas and electric vehicles bill and paycheck bill and move immediately to food safety legislation.