WASHINGTON — Lawmakers waited in a quiet Capitol on Monday as party leaders worked to craft a budget deal to avoid an automatic tax increase at year’s end.
As the clock ticked toward midnight on New Year’s Eve, it also inched closer to another marker: the brink of the so-called fiscal cliff - a combination of tax increases and spending cuts that many economists warn will devastate the nation’s fragile economy.
“This is the session that wouldn’t end,” said U.S. Rep. Mike Ross, a Democrat from Prescott who is stepping down after 12 years in Congress.
Like other short-timers (his term ends Thursday), he’s been stripped of his government office space.
So Monday, Ross set up shop in a room in the Senate basement, where he made phone calls, wrote thank you notes to constituents and waited for Senate leaders to hash out a compromise.
He said the final deal has to be palatable to just two of Congress’ 535 members: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
“The other 533 of us are just waiting,” Ross said.
Ross said he didn’t cancel any fancy plans back in Prescott to be in Washington. He and his wife, Holly, usually watch New Year’s Eve festivities on television.
Sen. John Boozman, too, said his New Year’s Eve plans consisted of watching television with family.
As Vice President Joe Biden, a Democrat, and McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, attempted to reach an agreement early Monday, Boozman attended a meeting with Sen. Debbie Stabenow, a Michigan Democrat who chairs the Senate Agriculture Committee, and other members of the panel.
The group, Boozman said, was working to attach an extension of the farm bill, which expired in October, to the broader budget deal.
He was optimistic that over the next several days lawmakers would agree to extend the previous farm bill until Oct. 1. But Boozman did not express confidence that Congress could reach a broader deal on taxes and spending before midnight.
“The time is running out,” he said.
Sen. Mark Pryor, a Democrat, spent part of Monday afternoon pushing for a deal, supported by Republican U.S. Sen. John McCain and Sen. Carl Levin, a Democrat, that would make it harder for senators to filibuster legislation.
With Congress at a standstill, Pryor had plenty of time to promote the piece.
If a budget deal is reached, Pryor said, it is likely to make only temporary tax changes and would most likely avoid “sweeping changes” to government spending.
“The big reforms have taken a back seat to avoiding the fiscal cliff,” he said.
In the House and Senate chambers, there wasn’t confetti to throw or champagne to pour.
But the heater was working and the lights were on.
Rep. Tim Griffin, a Little Rock Republican, said his family lost power for three days after the Christmas Day ice and snowstorm. With no electricity to run his refrigerator, Griffin put his family’s food out in the snow in tubs to keep it from going bad.
By the time the lights came back, it was nearly time to head to Washington.
On Monday afternoon, Griffin sat in his office, where he sleeps when Congress is in session. Three scented red candles burned on a coffee table, and Griffin sat watching President Barack Obama make a speech on television.
Gesticulating at the screen, Griffin said Obama had “misled” voters by suggesting that raising taxes on upper-income individuals - those making more than $250,000 a year - would make a dent in the federal budget deficit.
“I think there will be a nasty deal,” Griffin said. “It will be timid and it will be short-term, and we need bold and long-term.”
While senate leaders huddled, the House debated Animal Welfare Act modifications that will make it easier for extras in movies to handle animals.
Rep. Rick Crawford, a Jonesboro Republican, served as a bill manager, making sure that his Republican colleagues had plenty of time to debate the merits of the legislation. It passed on a voice vote.
Crawford said there were plenty of rumors floating in the Capitol regarding the fiscal cliff talks.
“You hear something from one side, and then you hear something from another,” he said.
Crawford was awaiting an early evening briefing on the Biden-McConnell talks, but he didn’t sound confident. Crawford and other House Republicans would prefer the talks to focus on aggressive spending cuts.
“What they’re talking about and what we have to pass in the House may consist of two different things,” he said.
As Arkansas’ lawmakers waited, members on the Senate floor slammed the behind-the-scenes, end-of session deal making.
“No deal is better than a bad deal,” said Sen. Tom Harkin, an Iowa Democrat.
South Dakota Republican Sen. John Thune said the nation was in a budget crisis because the legislative process was “grossly mismanaged.”
“We have twiddled our thumbs on this for month after month after month,” he said.
Outside of the Senate chamber, reporters clustered in a hallway near McConnell’s office. Two staff members balancing stacks of pizza boxes wove their way through the crowd and made the delivery into the office suite, where McConnell and Biden and their staffs were attempting to reach a deal.
Sen. Ben Cardin, a Maryland Democrat, ambled to the cafeteria in the Capitol basement and bought a sandwich.
“I don’t think we’ll be here too late,” he said, as he waited in line.
He paused.
“But no one knows for sure.”
Front Section, Pages 1 on 01/01/2013