Bipartisan buds won't survive a frost: Column

This is what comes of low expectations: a flurry of articles proclaiming, with beguiling but limited evidence, that bipartisanship in Congress has awakened from its long sleep.

In mid-April, a series of articles appeared heralding what was billed as a new day in Congress. An Associated Press story ran under a headline proclaiming, "Don't look now, but Congress is actually doing its job." The same day, a piece in The Hill announced, "Republican Congress moves into deal-making mode." USA TODAY was a bit more guarded with the headline, "100 Days of Congress: Stumbles but signs of progress." You can't help thinking about the rosy predictions surrounding the "Arab spring" and, with Congress, hopefulness must always be tempered by a generous dose of caution.

It is important to note that bipartisanship never completely disappeared in Congress. Especially in the Senate, where bipartisanship is less a virtue than a necessity because of the frequent need to muster 60 votes when neither party enjoys that level of strength.

Much of the evidence gathered by commentators to make the case for a kinder, gentler Congress has been based on optimistic reports coming out of congressional committees. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and the committee's senior Democrat, Ron Wyden of Oregon, recently introduced an agreement to give President Obama authority to close the deal on the Trans-Pacific Partnership without a congressional sign-off.

There is also a bipartisan deal on the Senate Intelligence Committee between panel leaders Richard Burr, R-N.C., and Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., on improving cybersecurity measures in the wake of a number of serious hacking attacks.

Add to those a bipartisan proposal to revamp No Child Left Behind on the Health, Education and Labor Committee, and you have an impressive display of political harmony. None of these legislative packages, however, has experienced the partisan ordeal-by-gotcha-amendment that typically takes place when a bill hits the floor.

It would be incorrect to argue that nothing of importance has reached fruition. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee has accepted Obama's surrender on the role of Congress in lifting the sanctions on Iran, but this measure could yet endure amendments offered by GOP presidential hopefuls such as Sens. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., Rand Paul, R-Ky., and Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who view the nuclear weapons negotiations dimly and will need to fire up their supporters with amendments that, if adopted, would derail the deal.

The most tangible accomplishment for both houses has been the acceptance of a mechanism for reimbursing physicians for their treatment of Medicare patients. But that problem had dragged on for so many years that members just got sick of having to come up with 11th-hour fixes.

All these signs of congressional bipartisanship involve legislation and not the equally important constitutional role for the Senate on presidential nominations.

The lengthy delay of the confirmation vote of Loretta Lynch to be attorney general was only the most egregious symptom of this problem. The nomination got tangled up with President Obama's use of executive action to defer the deportations of certain illegal immigrants but also more inexplicably in an anti-sex trafficking bill that appeared to Democrats to broaden the scope of the anti-abortion Hyde Amendment that has long barred the use of taxpayer money to fund abortions. While Lynch was ultimately confirmed, there remain scores of other nominees cooling their heels awaiting either committee action or a vote on the Senate floor.

A Politico report suggests that this logjam is the GOP's revenge for the use of the "nuclear option" by Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., in 2013 that removed the threat of filibuster on certain nominees and permitted confirmation by a simple majority vote.

It might be gratifying to spot a robin or a daffodil after a harsh winter, but those are a surer harbinger of mild weather than the signs of budding partisan cooperation in Congress. Our desperation for good news could lead to excessive optimism.

Ross K. Baker, a political science professor at Rutgers University, is a member of USA TODAY's Board of Contributors and the author of a new book,Is Bipartisanship Dead? A Report from the Senate.

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