Thompson helps get security bill passed By Noelle Straub For The News-Chronicle WASHINGTON - Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson played an unexpectedly pivotal role in helping his boss to victory in the Senate's final showdown over Department of Homeland Security legislation. As Thompson accompanied President Bush on his flight to Europe last week, the administration was still working to find enough votes to defeat a Democratic amendment that could have delayed the Homeland Security bill. Any changes made to the legislation by the Senate would have also required approval by the House, but most members of the House had already left town for the year. Thompson helped lock in the vote of Independent Sen. Dean Barkley of Minnesota, who is filling out the term of the late Sen. Paul Wellstone. Barkley had told the White House one of his top priorities during his few weeks in the Senate was to get a federal waiver needed for Minnesota to keep its welfare system intact. Before 9 a.m. the day of the vote, Thompson called Barkley from Air Force One and assured him Minnesota would be given the waiver. Barkley says he didn't trade his vote for the favor, insisting he was going to vote against the amendment anyway. "I would've voted the same way whether or not I got my call at quarter to nine or not," Barkley said. "But I'm very appreciative that they actually broke through the bureaucratic mumbo jumbo and actually got what the state needed. I may have kept how I was going to vote secret a little longer than I planned just to keep a little pressure on them." The Democratic amendment, defeated 52 to 47, would have stripped out several controversial provisions that House Republicans had added shortly before the House passed the bill. Some of the provisions protect pharmaceutical companies from some lawsuits, give a research project to Texas A&M University, and allow U.S. companies that move offshore to bid on government contracts. Besides Barkley, the Bush administration won over some wavering Republican moderates by promising to take another look at those controversial additions next year. The Homeland Security legislation ultimately passed the Senate 90 to 9. Wisconsin Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold voted against it because of concerns over privacy and government intrusion into citizens' private lives. "The measure which the Senate passed potentially allows the federal government to maintain extensive files on each and every American without limitations," he said. "It also weakens important safeguards on government access to our e-mails and information about what we do on the Internet without the need for a court order." OTHER BUSINESS - During its final week of work this year, Congress approved legislation under which the government will help insurance companies cover possible future terrorism-related claims. - The Senate confirmed one of Bush's most controversial judicial nominees, Judge Dennis Shedd of South Carolina, to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. - Congress failed to extend unemployment benefits for nearly a million Americans who will lose the coverage on Dec. 28. - The list of unfinished business, which lawmakers will tackle next year, includes an energy bill, a prescription drug benefit for seniors, bankruptcy reform, and 11 of the 13 appropriations bills for fiscal year 2003, which began Oct. 1. - Lawmakers passed a resolution that will keep the government funded at fiscal 2002 levels until January 11. - Democrats kept control of the entire post-election "lame duck" Senate session, but Republicans will take over when the chamber reconvenes on Jan. 7. - The last few days of the session were filled with tributes to the 10 senators who are retiring or lost their reelection bids. - Senators of both parties agreed to let Sen. Strom Thurmond, R-S.C., who turns 100 in December and is retiring after 48 years in the Senate, preside over the chamber as the 107th Congress adjourned.