WASHINGTON — More than two months before he is sworn in, Barack Obama already is facing a Congress busily asserting itself on the timing and details of the president-elect's agenda, including major issues like healthcare and economic policy.
Committee chairmen are unveiling legislation to expand health insurance coverage and curb global warming. Democratic leaders have called a lame-duck session next week to consider an auto industry bailout. And other economic stimulus measures may be enacted even before Obama is inaugurated.
The activity is in part a measure of the pent-up demand among Democrats who have had little legislative power for more than a decade. Obama, by contrast, has been constrained in an awkward limbo by his assertion that the country has "only one president at a time."
But the congressional clamor raises a question that will loom larger after inauguration day: Will Congress be leading or following the Obama administration as it gets its sea legs?
Congressional leaders say they will take their cue from the new president and are consulting with the Obama transition team even as they step out on their own. But after cowering for eight years under President Bush's veto authority, many Democrats are champing at the bit.
"Congress is filled with people who have been working on these questions for a long time, and they're not constrained," said William A. Galston, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and a former advisor to President Clinton.
Amid concern that economic problems may prompt Obama to delay action on healthcare reform, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) unveiled his own plan Wednesday and called for immediate action.
"The need is so great we have to act now with dispatch," Baucus said, adding that he wanted Congress to send Obama legislation before summer. "We have no choice."
Obama has been working to build strong relations with Congress by choosing lieutenants who are well known on Capitol Hill, including former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.), who is advising the president-elect's team, and Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.), picked as White House chief of staff.
Obama has consulted with party leaders Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid. And he has spoken with House Ways and Means Chairman Charles B. Rangel (D-N.Y.) about upcoming economic stimulus legislation.
