Homeland Security Dept. bill deadlocked

WASHINGTON, Oct. 1 (UPI) -- A motion that would have ended the legislative deadlock over the Homeland Security Department failed in the Senate Tuesday, in a development that lawmakers said could set back the creation of the agency until next year.

The failure of the motion to limit debate on the bill -- the fifth such failure -- was critical because it comes so close to the end of the Senate term. With a full calendar ahead, including upcoming debate on an Iraq resolution, key senators doubted there would be time to reach a compromise on the legislation before the November elections.

Frustrated by five weeks of inconclusive debate, Democratic and Republican senators hurled blame at one another Tuesday for the delay, which both sides said will endanger national security. The two sides are in agreement on most aspects of the proposed new department, which will bring together 170,000 workers in the largest government reorganization in more than half a century.

But they remain deadlocked over the issue of labor union rights for thousands of the employees in the new agency.

Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D. threatened that the Senate would remain in session until the bill is passed, even if it meant calling for a special Senate session after the November elections. But Republican senators said they doubted the measure would pass at all this year, unless a compromise could be found soon.

"This bill is on a life support system. Unless something happens in the very near future, there will not be movement on the bill this year," said Sen. Fred Thompson, R-Tenn.

"We're going to have to ask the American people which side they stand on. I can't believe it has come to this, but it has," Thompson said.

President George W. Bush has asked that Congress grant him broad flexibility in hiring, firing and moving employees in the agency. In July, the House of Representatives passed a bill with the powers the president requested.

Leaders in the Democratic-controlled Senate, however, have insisted that employees have the right to remain in unions unless the president can prove before a government committee that to do so would harm national security.

Sen. Phil Gramm, R-Texas, has introduced a bill with Sen. Zell Miller, D-Ga. that would give the president the labor flexibility he requests. It was a motion to limit debate on this bill that failed Tuesday 45-52, in a development that led Gramm to accuse Democrats of being unduly beholden to labor union interests.

"They are so tied to these public employee labor unions that they are not willing to cross them on this issue," Gramm said.

Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., a key supporter of the union provision, responded that the Republicans had shown no desire to compromise.

"This Republican intransigence leads me to wonder if this is just a question of politics on the floor before the election," he said.

A bipartisan group of lawmakers planned to continue to meet on the bill Tuesday evening and Wednesday. If progress is made, the bill could move back to the floor Wednesday, Senate leaders said.

But staffers on the Democratic-led Senate Governmental Affairs committee said they could not foresee a quick compromise on the bill, which will likely be put aside Wednesday to make time for debate on a resolution authorizing the president to use force in Iraq.

With an election five weeks away, both sides also expressed concern Tuesday about how the deadlock will play to voters.

Miller said he thought Democrats were making "a horrible mistake, not just policy wise, but politics-wise."

But Daschle said that Democrats were committed to seeing the bill through, and that Republicans would take the fall if they refused to return for a special session.

"They can drag it out, they can attempt to blame it on the Democrats, but the fact remains that five times they have tried to block the bill. We are going to stay on the bill. We will come back and back until we are finished," he said.