San Diego, CA (special) --U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore) says forthcoming negotiations over the federal budget and the composition of committees in the U.S. Senate will test how sincere Republicans are in reaching out to Democrats in the wake of George W. Bush's narrow election to the presidency.

Wyden told AIPAC members in San Diego on Dec. 14 he believes centrist senators from both parties may fashion an agreement on the next budget calling for lower tax cuts than those proposed by Bush during the presidential campaign, while proposing less federal spending than that suggested by Vice President Al Gore.

The result, he said, could be an increase in spending in such areas as education and health, along with elimination of the so-called "death tax" -- the federal levy on inheritances.

Wyden said Gore's concession speech Dec. 13 was gracious and "patriotic" and helped to create a window for the bipartisanship Bush promoted in his acceptance speech before the Texas House of Representatives. 

With the U.S. Senate split 50-50 for the first time in its history, Wyden told HERITAGE he believed that an equal number of Republicans and Democrats should be assigned to Senate committees and that each party should be given equal resources.

The senior senator from Oregon said he was "leaving open" the question of whether Democrats should also get to chair some committees. Because as vice president, Dick Cheney will also serve as the president of the U.S. Senate, he will be able to cast tie-breaking votes -- presumably for his fellow Republicans. However, said Wyden, "what people need to remember is that the magic number in the U.S. Senate is not 51, it is 60 -- because that is the number of votes you need to invoke cloture, to cut off debate."

In a question-and-answer session, Shearn Platt asked about the influence former Secretary of State James Baker III was likely to have on President-elect Bush. Platt commented that during the administration of Bush's father, Baker was not viewed as friendly to Israel.

Wyden responded he was not certain how influential Baker would be, but noted that a more pro-Israel former secretary of state, George Schulze, also was a key player in Bush's presidential campaign, and could also have influence. 

To a question from Norman Mann about whether friends of Palestinians may try to persuade the Congress to reduce foreign aid to Israel, Wyden said he did not believe there would be support for such an idea in either house of Congress. On the other hand, he said, some of his colleagues have viewed Egypt as unhelpful in trying to resolve the Israel-Palestinian crisis and might favor curtailing American military aid to Egypt.