iiI6RAND OPENING
WASHINGTON WATCH
Justice William Rehnquist and Justice
Sandra Day O'Connor, both appoint-
ed by Republican presidents, are
reportedly eager to retire; there is con-
tinued speculation that Justice Ruth
Bader Ginsberg could also leave the
Court because of health problems.
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The 108th Congress, which convenes
early next year under Republican con-
trol, will start with a hot debate on
GOP plans to expand and make per-
manent the Bush administration's
2001 tax cut and major skirmishes
over the domestic agenda of the reli-
gious right.
Most Jewish groups will stay out of
the tax fray. But privately, a wide range
of Jewish leaders say that the future of
Jewish health and social service agen-
cies could be drastically affected by the
outcome.
"Under the current situation, new
tax cuts will clearly restrain govern-
ment income in ways that will signifi-
cantly impact social programs," said
Rabbi David Saperstein, director of
the Religious Action Center of Reform
Judaism, which opposed the 2001 cuts
because of the potential impact on the
nation's social safety net. With more
programs in jeopardy and the federal
deficit burgeoning, Rabbi Saperstein
expects more Jewish organizations to
speak out against new. cuts.
But some Jewish groups hope to use
the debate over extending tax cuts to
score points in the effort to help par-
ents of parochial school students.
"We hope that when there is a dis-
cussion about taxes, we will be looking
at some new possibilities for tax cred-
its that will be of benefit to our com-
munity," said Nathan Diament, execu-
tive director of the Orthodox Union's
Institute for Public Affairs.
Specifically, he said that the
Orthodox community wants tax cred-
its for education and child care.
The new GOP Congress, Diament
said, is sympathetic. But he conceded
that big tax cuts could put new burdens
on existing social service programs. "To
the degree any new tax package uses up
money and leaves less for other things,
that's of concern to us."
Another item on the OU's to-do list
will get a boost when GOP leaders press
forward with "charitable choice" legisla-
tion, which would make it easier for sec-
tarian groups to get government grants.
"Charitable choice will be back in a
very big way," said the leader of a top
Jewish group. "The administration has
to reward the religious right for its
very active support on Nov. 5, and
charitable choice may be the most
politically practical way to do that."
Charitable choice language is likely
to be added to numerous nonrelated
bills, this activist said, and the admin-
istration will accelerate its effort to
institute new charitable choice pro-
grams through administrative action.
Liberal Jewish groups and church-
state watchdog organizations are lined
up on the other side of the charitable
choice divide.
A hate crimes bill was a top Senate
priority for a number of Jewish groups
in the 107th Congress, but most
observers say it will be dead on arrival
in the 108th.
Congress will also continue working
on reauthorization of the controversial
1996 welfare reform bill. Liberal
Jewish groups will oppose GOP efforts
to increase work requirements for wel-
fare recipients and support increased
child-care funding. Orthodox groups
will press for inclusion of charitable
choice provisions in the reauthorized
law.
Lawmakers are also expected to
move quickly on banning late-term
abortions. The House passed such leg-
islation this summer, but it was stalled
in the Democratic Senate. Most
Jewish groups have either opposed
new abortion curbs or stayed on the
sidelines.
Jewish environmentalists will fight a
rear-guard action against a new energy
bill that will likely open the Arctic
National Wildlife Refuge to oil explo-
ration, a top GOP priority. But some
pro-Israel leaders are quietly supporting
the ANWR drilling provision because
they believe it would help reduce
America's dependence on Mideast oil.
Political experts say the shift to
GOP control will boost the GOP
domestic agenda, but that there are
still major obstacles to an all-out con-
servative revolution on Capitol Hill.
"It's a boost for the GOP, but not a
quick or large one," said University of
Akron political scientist John Green.
"The margins are so small in both
Houses that the most controversial
things won't go anywhere."
Shoah Exhibit
Throughout its almost ten years in
operation, the U.S. Holocaust
Memorial Museum has tried hard to
acknowledge the other victims of the
Nazi regime without diminishing the
uniqueness of the Jewish Holocaust.
That delicate balancing act will be
evident in a exhibition that opens this