Gridlock in Congress expected to worsen with midterm elections looming

JASON REED/REUTERS

Congressional negotiators at the U.S. Capitol (pictured) have a good chance to cut a deal early this year on a long-delayed farm bill impacting agriculture policy and food stamps, but not much else.

WASHINGTON - If you thought Congress was useless in 2013, just wait until this year.

Congress passed just 58 bills in 2013, the fewest since the institution began counting in the 1940s.

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With midterm elections looming and the two major parties at loggerheads over just about everything, the gridlock expected this year could make 2013 seem like the good old days.

'I can't imagine Congress doing much more than nominations and (annual) appropriations bills,' said Jim Manley, a former top aide to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.).

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There appears to be little chance lawmakers will enact new gun controls or pass meaningful immigration reform. And the likelihood Democrats will realize their goal of raising the minimum wage and renewing benefits for the long-term unemployed don't seem much better.

Congressional negotiators have a good chance to cut a deal early this year on a long-delayed farm bill impacting agriculture policy and food stamps.

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And a bipartisan budget agreement that President Obama signed in December is expected to ease passage of spending bills and, at least, avert another government shutdown in 2014.

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), a lead author of the Senate-passed immigration-reform bill, said he hopes recent cooperation 'will lead the way to more in 2014, including the passage of immigration reform through the House.'

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But many lawmakers privately see little chance for the passage of major immigration reform.

House Republicans are too concerned about primary challenges from Tea Party-backed opponents to support back any bill that includes a potential path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.

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Norm Ornstein, a congressional scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, said it is conceivable lawmakers will pass 'one or two' notable bills, 'but you would have to be truly outside the normal range of optimism to imagine this being a probability.'

Republicans hope to gain seats in the midterms by focusing on the botched roll-out of Obamacare.

Democrats, eyeing recent results like Bill de Blasio's populist win in New York City's mayoral election and polls that show deep frustration about economic mobility, want to campaign on economic inequality, an issue President Obama recently called his top priority.

'Issues like job creation, minimum wage and unemployment insurance are going to weigh on the minds of voters far more than Obamacare by the time the 2014 elections roll around,' Schumer said.

Within a few months, lawmakers are likely to shift fully into election mode, dropping real attempts to legislate in favor of posturing for campaign advantage in November, when the Democrats will try to keep control of the Senate and Republicans will try to retain their majority in the House.

'A lot of issues will be voted on just to make election-year attack ads,' said John Hudak, a fellow in governance studies at Brookings Institution, a center left think tank.

'You are going to see less legislation passing in 2014, if you can imagine that, and more bills being voted on just for political gain.'