WASHINGTON -- Racing the calendar, Senate leaders are pushing toward congressional approval of a bipartisan compromise that reshapes how Medicare pays physicians as lawmakers return from a spring break tangled up in domestic and foreign-policy disputes.
Republican and Democratic senators are trying to influence an emerging nuclear deal with Iran. Also, President Barack Obama is awaiting Senate action on his long-delayed nomination of federal prosecutor Loretta Lynch to become attorney general.
For Senate Democrats, the two-week break proved tumultuous.
Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., announced he will not run for re-election in 2016. Reid anointed Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., to succeed him, creating uncertainty over the rest of the leadership posts.
New Jersey's Sen. Bob Menendez was indicted on federal corruption charges and relinquished his job as top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, just as it plays a pivotal role on Iran.
The Medicare doctors' legislation presents Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., with his most pressing problem. The $214 billion package would permanently retool how Medicare reimburses physicians, and it also would provide money for children's health, community health centers, low-income patients and rural hospitals.
The normally divided House rallied behind the measure last month with a 392-37 vote. McConnell said the bill would be handled "very quickly" when lawmakers return and he envisioned passage "by a very large majority."
The measure would block a 21 percent cut in physicians' Medicare reimbursements that technically took effect April 1. By law, the federal agency that writes those checks can't do so until 14 days after it receives a claim, and it plans to start making payments at the lower rate Wednesday. The federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services makes roughly 4 million Medicare payments to doctors daily.
The Senate returns to work Monday. Doctors say payment cuts make them less likely to treat patients of Medicare, which helps the elderly pay medical bills.
McConnell's biggest problem is that senators from both parties are clamoring to amend the legislation, which was a rare compromise between House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California.
Congressional aides and lobbyists say conservatives, including GOP Sens. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, Ben Sasse of Nebraska and Mike Lee of Utah, want to require savings so the measure will not add a projected $141 billion to federal deficits over the coming decade.
Democrats, including Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, want to expand the bill's two years of extra money for the Children's Health Insurance Program to four years and offer other amendments, though Wyden said Thursday that he would support the measure without changes.
Any changes would return the measure to the House, where its fate would be uncertain.
Iran legislation
On Tuesday, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee takes center stage, debating whether a push by lawmakers of both parties to influence a potential deal curbing Iran's nuclear program will hamper negotiations between Tehran and six world powers, including the U.S.
The committee plans to vote on legislation by the chairman, Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., and Menendez that for 60 days would block Obama from waiving Iran sanctions imposed by Congress. The White House wants lawmakers to hold off until the June 30 deadline for a nuclear deal passes.
The Obama administration says the measure could imperil the nuclear talks and that Obama would veto it.
Another influential force, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, is urging senators to support the legislation. The emerging deal wouldn't prevent a nuclear Iran, and the measure would preserve Congress' role in foreign policy, the group says.
Iran says its program is for civilian purposes, but the U.S. and other countries suspect it is developing nuclear weapons.
Corker's bill currently has enough backers to pass the measure, though not the 67 votes needed to override a presidential veto.
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee spent $3.1 million last year on lobbying, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a Washington nonprofit that tracks lobbying and campaign spending.
"We strongly support the Corker-Menendez legislation and we are working to build broad bipartisan support," the group's spokesman, Marshall Wittmann, said in an emailed statement.
On Saturday, Obama said partisan wrangling over the emerging deal has gone too far.
Obama said Sen. John McCain of Arizona had suggested that U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry's explanations of the framework agreement with Iran were "somehow less trustworthy" than those of Iran's supreme leader.
"That's an indication of the degree to which partisanship has crossed all boundaries," Obama said at a news conference at the end of the two-day Summit of the Americas in Panama City.
McCain returned the criticism, arguing in a statement that the discrepancies between the U.S. and Iranian versions of the deal extended to inspections, sanctions relief and other key issues.
Meanwhile, Obama administration officials are set to begin a charm offensive tour this week, aimed at talking Republicans down from seeking to override the emerging deal and persuading wavering Democrats to get on their side.
On Monday, Kerry, Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz and Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew, among others, will be on Capitol Hill to provide House lawmakers in both parties a classified briefing on the agreement, which would facilitate the nuclear disarmament of Iran over a 15-year period.
Senators of both parties are considering more than 50 amendments to the bill.
Under the bill as it is currently written, Obama could unilaterally lift or ease any sanctions that were imposed on Iran through presidential action. But the bill would prohibit him for 60 days from suspending, waiving or otherwise easing any sanctions Congress levied. During that 60-day period, Congress could hold hearings and approve, disapprove or take no action on any final nuclear agreement with Iran.
If Congress passed a joint resolution approving a final deal -- or took no action -- Obama could move to ease sanctions levied by Congress. But if Congress passed a joint resolution disapproving it, Obama would be blocked from providing Iran with any relief from congressional sanctions.
Maryland's Sen. Ben Cardin, the new ranking Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, and a few of his Democratic colleagues have proposed letting Obama waive congressionally imposed sanctions if not doing so would cause the U.S. to be in violation of a final agreement.
On the Republican side, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, a likely presidential candidate, has proposed an amendment that would require the Obama administration to certify that Iran's leaders have publicly accepted Israel's right to exist.
sex-trafficking dispute
The Senate also is trying to settle a dispute over legislation cracking down on sex trafficking. Democrats are blocking action because they say the bill would toughen restrictions on abortions. Efforts to reach a compromise have fallen short for weeks.
Lynch's nomination as attorney general is backed up behind the trafficking legislation. McConnell says the bill must be cleared before he will hold a confirmation vote. Lynch appears to have a narrow majority in her quest to succeed Attorney General Eric Holder and become the first black woman to hold the job.
On Saturday, national civil-rights activists urged senators to immediately call for a vote to confirm Lynch.
The National Action Network, the NAACP, the National Urban League and other groups announced their campaign in New York, with the Rev. Al Sharpton saying they'll go to the McConnell's Washington offices every day until he calls a vote.
"We're not asking for favors; we're not asking for backroom deals. Call the vote," Sharpton said, prompting a chant of "Call the vote" from a crowd gathered for the National Action Network convention.
Earlier this month, Republican Sen. Mark Kirk of Illinois signaled that he would vote to confirm Lynch, becoming the fifth GOP senator to support Obama's choice. Their votes, combined with support from all the Democratic senators, would give Lynch the votes she requires without Vice President Joe Biden needing to break a tie.
The chairmen of the House and Senate Budget committees said formal negotiations to resolve disputes over defense spending and complete a compromise budget-balancing plan could start this week. A deal is crucial because it would let Republicans send filibuster-proof legislation repealing Obama's 2010 health care law to his desk later this year.
With the tax-filing deadline Wednesday, the House plans votes this week on repealing the inheritance tax on large estates and other bills trimming taxes and curbing the IRS.
Information for this article was contributed by Alan Fram, David Espo, Andrew Taylor, Deb Riechmann, Chuck Babington, Julie Walker, Jonathan Lemire, Josh Lederman, Jim Kuhnhenn and Nancy Benac of The Associated Press; by Kathleen Hunter, Billy House and Justin Sink of Bloomberg News; and by Emma Dumain of Tribune News Service.
A Section on 04/12/2015