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As a labor dispute threatens to shut down the National Football League next season, the two sides are moving the game to a new playing field: Capitol Hill.

The union that represents pro football players has hired a coterie of new lobbyists and public-relations officials in recent months to help make its case to Congress that the NFL owners are acting unfairly in labor talks. The NFL Players Association and its backers say lawmakers can step in because of a congressional antitrust exemption that allows the league to negotiate lucrative broadcast rights.

The lobbying efforts include visits scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday by more than 30 players and their families, who will meet with lawmakers and legislative staffers. The players plan to emphasize the potential economic impact that an NFL shutdown could have on local communities, according to union officials.

“The most important thing that can happen for us on Capitol Hill is to just level the playing field,” Domonique Foxworth, a Baltimore Ravens cornerback and a member of the NFLPA’s Executive Committee, said in a recent conference call with reporters, noting that the NFL “has been lobbying on Capitol Hill for a number of years now.”

“It’s important that they see our faces too and realize another team is also playing in the game,” Foxworth added.

But the NFL, which has its own sizable lobbying operation in Washington, says Congress should stay out of what amounts to a private-sector business negotiation.

“This deal will be reached at the negotiating table, not in the halls of Congress,” said chief NFL lobbyist Jeff Miller, a former counsel to Sen. Herbert Kohl (D-Wis.). “We don’t think a third-party intervention, whether it’s for Congress or anyone else, helps you get a deal here.”

The current labor deal between the NFL and the union expires in March, and players say they expect a work stoppage, initiated by the owners, if a deal isn’t reached. Both sides have been jockeying for leverage and public-relations points in recent weeks, with the main sticking points being a demand by owners to cut back salaries by about $1 billion league-wide and add two games to the season.

One strategy available to players is to decertify the union, which could keep them from being locked out and expose the league to an antitrust lawsuit. Under the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961, the NFL is allowed to ignore antitrust laws in negotiating a television package for the league at large, but the courts have rejected NFL attempts to broaden the exception to other areas.

Some lawmakers, including former senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, have toyed with the idea of rescinding the NFL’s exemption. But Congress in general has been reluctant to get involved in labor disputes pitting two unsympathetic parties – millionaire players and billionaire owners – against each other.

The NFL’s lobbying expenditures are expected to exceed $1.5 million in 2010, including payments to Democratic-leaning firms Elmendorf Strategies and Glover Park Group, according to records and officials. The league’s political-action committee also showered more than $600,000 in contributions to members of both parties in the 2010 cycle, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks campaign finances.

The players association does not have a PAC and only spends about a third as much on lobbying as the league. But the union has been attempting to close the gap in recent months, hiring Fierce, Isakowitz & Blalock to join its main lobbying firm, Patton Boggs. The players association has also enlisted the help of Singer Bonjean Strategies, a bipartisan public-relations firm with close ties to Congress.

Over the past year, the union has organized scores of visits to Capitol Hill by players and other representatives, and is circulating letters to be signed by lawmakers urging the league to cut a better deal for players. The powerful AFL-CIO union also weighed in with a letter last fall to team owners.

Cleveland Browns linebacker Scott Fujita said Congress has an interest in the NFL labor dispute because of the potential damage to local economies if there is a lockout. The players association claims a shutdown would cost each NFL city $160 million in lost business, a figure that the league and some outside analysts say is inflated.

Fujita said many football cities such as Cleveland are already struggling amid the economic downturn. “To lose out on the money that would come in from an NFL season, it’s going to be devastating,” he said. “So from that standpoint it is the government’s business and I think it is important for them to be involved.”

But Miller, the NFL lobbyist, said the league will push back with its own message that Congress has no business interfering with the labor talks.

“We’re not looking to ask Congress to be involved, but we can’t abdicate the playing field,” Miller said. “Our effort is going to be to make sure that members of Congress are aware of our point of view.”

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Sometimes it seems there aren’t enough hours in the day for all that members of Congress have to do: Attend committee hearings, meet with constituents, tour their districts, ride in parades and kiss babies. Not to mention raise money and win reelection.

Gallery: Readying House seats for GOP committee chairmen : Meet the leaders of House committees under the new GOP majority.

But the most basic function for any lawmaker is to stand up and be counted – to go to the House or Senate floor and cast votes. For the first month of the 112th Congress, members didn’t do much of that.

The House held 25 recorded votes in the first month of this session, compared with 53 in the same period in the 111th Congress and 73 at the start of the 110th Congress. The Senate had just 11 recorded votes in the first month, after having 36 two years ago and 43 four years ago.

What’s behind the precipitous drop? And are votes really a good barometer of how hard Congress is working? The answers are different for each chamber.

In the House, where the party in charge can do nearly anything it wants, the relatively small number of votes reflects a deliberate decision by Republicans to begin the year differently.

“This Congress, the calendar promotes quality over quantity, allowing time for substantive committee work in addition to votes on the floor,” said Laena Fallon, spokeswoman for House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.).

Fallon noted that House committees and subcommittees have been busy holding hearings, including more than 30 sessions scheduled for this week.

In a December letter to colleagues explaining the schedule for this Congress, Cantor emphasized that certain kinds of votes would happen far less often: “Gone are congratulatory resolutions. Post office namings will be handled on a less frequent basis.” Cantor added that the schedule would include at least one week of recess every month so “members could return home to listen to their constituents on a regular basis,” as they did last week.

The House further pared back its vote calendar for a few days in mid-January after the shootings in Tucson that wounded Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.).

But the House calendar also represents a choice on the part of GOP leaders to retain a relatively narrow focus in the first weeks of the session – at least compared to the last time Republicans took control of the chamber: After Republicans captured control of Congress in the 1994 election, the House held 90 recorded votes during the first month of the 104th Congress.

That flurry of activity in 1995 came as Republicans sought to keep the promises they made in the “Contract With America,” and the House voted in the first 100 days of the session on a host of ambitious bills. Similarly, in 2007 the new Democratic majority passed a half-dozen key bills in the first 100 hours of the Congress.

This year, by contrast, GOP leaders took power with a narrower list of immediate priorities, including last month’s vote to repeal President Obama’s health-reform bill and a handful of initiatives to cut government spending. Their 2010 “Pledge to America” did not include a vow to pass any bills in a certain time frame.

Overall, Republicans have been less eager to schedule floor votes than Democrats have in the past decade. While Democrats averaged 63 votes in the first month of the past two Congresses, the three GOP-controlled Congresses before that averaged just under 16 votes in the first month.

Donald Wolfensberger, director of the Congress Project at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, said he had heard Republicans say this year that they would judge their own success not based on how many laws they pass, but how few. “They’ve got a different measure of what they’re going to be doing,” Wolfensberger said.

As for the Senate, the chamber had an unusually long and busy lame-duck session in December, which explains why Democratic leaders decided to spend all but one day out of session in the first three weeks of January. Senators used that time to catch up on state activities they might otherwise have done in December.

Then the two parties commenced protracted negotiations on a series of changes to Senate rules, with the result being that the chamber didn’t hold a single recorded vote until Jan. 26. Both parties emerged from those negotiations vowing to be more bipartisan.

So, unlike in the House – where Republican leaders immediately took up a health-reform repeal bill they knew Democrats would not back – Senate Democrats have deliberately pursued bills that wouldn’t split the chamber on party lines.

“A high volume of roll-call votes sometimes says more about the amount of gridlock in the Senate than it does about the level of legislative activity,” said Senate Democratic leadership spokesman Brian Fallon, adding that Democrats “will continue to look at bills that offer potential for bipartisan cooperation as opposed to ones that get bogged down.”

After allowing the GOP to have a vote on health-care repeal, Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) moved on to a Federal Aviation Administration authorization bill supported by both parties, allowing ample Republican amendments, and then moved on to a consensus package of judicial nominations.

“I don’t think the number of votes is really a measure of productivity,” Wolfensberger said. “In some cases, the lack of recorded votes could mean they agree on things and are doing things by voice vote.”

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In Today’s Times:

–If Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi seems impervious to efforts to oust him, it could be because he has “tens of billions” stashed away that he can use to defend his power. The Times’s Jim Risen and Eric Lichtblau write, “The possibility that he could resist the rebellion in his country for a sustained period could place greater pressure for action on the Obama administration and European leaders, who had hoped the Libyan leader would be forced from power quickly.”

–Carl Hulse writes that the Obama administration and Congress are headed back into budget negotiations after Senate lawmakers rejected competing plans on Wednesday. Mr. Hulse also reports that Republicans, responding to criticism that they have focused too much on cutting spending, plan to put the focus on job creation in a forum with business leaders next week.

–Sam Dillon weighs the potential consequences of the Education Department’s estimate that four out of every five of the nation’s 100,000 public schools are likely to receive failing grades under the No Child Left Behind Act this year. President Obama is likely to use this estimate on Thursday when he meets with lawmakers to discuss revising the law.

–NPR faces a vacuum in its leadership ranks as it fights to hold onto federal funds, which prop up many of its affiliate radio stations. Elizabeth Jensen and Brian Stelter report that Vivian Schiller, the network’s chief executive, stepped down late Tuesday amid a swell of controversy over partisan statements made by one of the public broadcaster’s fund-raising executives, who resigned Tuesday. Republicans in Congress have begun fresh efforts to cut financing to NPR’s parent company, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which received more than $430 million in the current fiscal year that ends in September.

–Wisconsin’s Democratic state senators will return from their self-imposed exile today after Republicans abruptly pushed through a bill Wednesday night stripping government workers of most of their collective bargaining rights. Monica Davey explains how Republicans were able to maneuver around absent Democrats. The measure is expected to be approved Thursday by the state Assembly and signed later by Gov. Scott Walker.

Around the Web:
–The Wall Street Journal reports that a bipartisan effort that would force Congress to trim $4 trillion from the deficit over a decade is picking up support although it still faces a number of hurdles.

–Roll Call reports that some conservatives on Capitol Hill are threatening to sink a long-term budget resolution if it includes money for Planned Parenthood.

Happening in Washington:
–The president and Michelle Obama will host a summit on bullying prevention at the White House, followed by a meeting with lawmakers to discuss revising the No Child Left Behind Act. Mr. Obama also has a meeting with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.

–Hearings on the threat of homegrown Islamic terrorism begin at 10 a.m. in the House.

–Today in economics: The Department of Labor will release weekly jobless claims at 8:30 a.m., followed by regional and state unemployment for January at 10 a.m. At the same time, Freddie Mac unveils weekly mortgage rates and the Census bureau distributes its quarterly survey of the services sector. At 2 p.m., the Treasury Department releases the federal budget for February.

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LOS ANGELES – Representative Jane Harman, Democrat of California, is leaving Congress to become president of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, party officials said on Monday.

Her seat, in a Democratic-leaning district of Los Angeles County, is likely to be filled by a special election.

Ms. Harman sought, after Democrats took control of the House in 2006, to become chairwoman of the Intelligence Committee, but she was blocked by another Californian, Representative Nancy Pelosi, who had become speaker of the House.

Ms. Harman has served two stints in Congress, from 1993 to 1999 and from 2001 until now.

She is married to Sidney Harman, the owner of Newsweek and The Daily Beast.

The Wilson center is a nonpartisan organization, established by Congress in 1968, that studies national and international affairs.

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Government-subsidized health insurance – one of many perks of serving in Congress – kicked in on Tuesday for new members.

But a group of more than a dozen freshman Republicans who campaigned vigorously on overturning President Obama’s new health care law will be opting out.

Whether in direct protest of the health care overhaul, which House Republicans voted unanimously to repeal two weeks ago, or in an attempt to retain their Washington-outsider patina, about 15 members declined coverage through the Federal Employees’ Health Benefits Plan, which covers eight million federal employees and their dependents.

Among them were: Representatives Joe Walsh, Republican of Illinois, Richard Nugent of Florida, and Paul Gosar of Arizona, who was a dentist for 25 years and sold his practice to pursue politics.

The federal health care program, established in 1960, gives federal workers a variety of plans to choose from and in this respect, its structure is somewhat similar to that of the health insurance exchanges set to begin in 2014 under the new law.

For months, Democrats have challenged Republican members to forgo their federal insurance to show they are serious about dismantling the legislation. Some Republicans have countered that accepting coverage from the taxpayer-sponsored program makes them just like millions of private citizens who participate in the health insurance offered by their employers.

The symbolism of the decision to opt out of government coverage had drawn Democrats to that choice in the past, for the opposite reason.

Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio and Representative Joe Courtney of Connecticut, both Democrats, pledged to decline federal health insurance until all Americans have access to health care.

After 18 years on Capitol Hill Mr. Brown, elected in 1992, finally enrolled last year after the new health care law was passed. Mr. Courtney, however, apparently doesn’t think it’s a done deal.

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Drew Angerer/The New York Times John A. Boehner, the incoming speaker of the House, walked to the House chamber before his swearing-in ceremony on Wednesday.

The nation’s 112th Congress opened officially Wednesday, returning divided government to the nation’s capital as Republicans took over running the House of Representatives and increased their numbers in the Senate.

At noon, with the words, “the House will come to order,” the clerk opened the chamber’s new session, which will soon elevate Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio to his new role as speaker.

Officials said Mr. Boehner’s formal swearing-in would take place closer to 2:30 in the afternoon, followed by a short speech by Mr. Boehner.

But already, the signs of change were everywhere at the Capitol. A new sign with gold-colored lettering appeared over the entrance to the new speaker’s suite of offices: “Speaker of the House John A. Boehner,” it said. A similar sign proclaiming former Speaker Nancy Pelosi the Democratic Leader went up outside her new offices.

In the Senate, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. swore in the nation’s senators in brief ceremonies to the left of the rostrum on the chamber’s floor.

“Congratulations,” Mr. Biden said after reading them the oath in small groups. One by one, the new senators filed up to sign a book signifying their new status.

Senators plan to depart Washington for three weeks after Wednesday, but not before the Democratic leadership begins discussions over whether to change the rules governing the filibuster.

In the House, Mr. Boehner and his team have other ideas. Aides described a 20-day stretch between opening day and the president’s State of the Union speech in which they hope to push their agenda.

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