WASHINGTON - If one of the Senate's most effective moderates decides not to seek re-election, action on issues from Medicare to taxes could be in jeopardy.

Seniors might never see their prescription drug bills drop.

Workers might be without health insurance between jobs.

Welfare moms might not get training for work.

Thirty years ago, before he became president, GOP Rep. Gerald Ford of Michigan said, "Compromise is the oil that makes governments go."

Sen. John Breaux, whose third term is up next year, is skilled in the art of compromise. Other lawmakers consider him a coalition builder, known for his ability to work across party lines with pragmatic ideas to solve legislative standoffs.

That was shown when a newly sworn-in President George W. Bush called for a $1.6 trillion tax cut in 2001 and Breaux, D-La., headed a bipartisan group that forced the president to accept $300 billion less in the package.

Breaux, a co-founder with Maine Republican Olympia Snowe of the Senate Centrist Coalition, also helped broker a compromise on Bush's education bill to provide more federal money and give states and local school districts greater flexibility in determining how to spend it.

Snowe doesn't like the direction the Senate is headed now, calling it a scourge of confrontation that has hit Washington.

"There is less inclination to talk," Snowe said. "There is less inclination to work out the issues."

If Breaux decides not to run again, even fewer senators would make an effort to work across the aisle. He has "contributed so much to the process of working and bridging the partisan divide," she said.

Breaux's absence would not mean chaos in the Senate but would signal a decline in the opportunity for bipartisanship, said Larry Sabato, a political scientist at the University of Virginia.

"He's almost always one of the first approached, whether it's by his own caucus or the White House, when serious negotiations are needed between the parties," Sabato said.

Partisanship has grown

Thirty years ago, Congress members would cross party lines in their votes about two-thirds of the time.

These days, only eight of the Senate's 100 members consistently vote in a way that puts them in the political center, bucking the party position when advocating an issue or settling an impasse is important to them.

At the same time, a significant minority of the country as a whole considers itself in the moderate center. Voters nationwide roughly identify themselves as 40 percent conservative, 40 percent moderate and 20 percent liberal, said Frank Newport, editor in chief of the Gallup Poll.

Last year, Breaux voted opposite of fellow Democrats almost half the time where the majority of his party voted together. In contrast, 49 senators voted with their party nine times out of 10, according to Congressional Quarterly.

"He's one of the few members of the Senate that is a bridge between Republicans and Democrats, conservatives and liberals," Stuart Rothenberg, publisher of a Washington-based political newsletter, said of Breaux. "He's a deal maker. He's a player."

While Breaux doesn't always succeed in getting a compromise, he usually tries to develop a deal and do it in as even-handed a way as possible, Rothenberg said.

"Frankly, the Senate needs more John Breauxes rather than fewer of them," he said.

Part of the reason fewer senators seek a moderate stance is that the parties make it harder every year for members to break with them, said Merle Black, a political scientist at Emory University in Atlanta.

"The party caucus really sets the tone for the Democrats and for the Republicans," he said. "If you want to be a leader and exercise influence, it's hard to do unless you're going along."

A look at the Senate's committee chairmen in both 2002, when Democrats controlled the chamber, and this year shows that most of those leaders overwhelmingly followed their parties on votes. The exceptions: Breaux led the Special Committee on Aging last year and moderate Republicans are leading three committees this year.

Respect on both sides

Breaux, who has been elected chief deputy whip for his party for the past 10 years, has managed to rise in Democratic ranks without being overtly partisan. And respect for Breaux spans both sides of the ideological aisle.

"Whether it's class-action (lawsuit reform) or Medicare prescription drugs or tax policy - you name it - John Breaux is always looking for" bipartisan compromise, said Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D.

In 1997, Breaux was appointed by then-President Bill Clinton and Republican and Democratic House and Senate leaders to chair the National Bipartisan Commission on the Future of Medicare. Now, he is one of only two Senate Democrats invited to help the majority Republicans negotiate a compromise on Medicare prescription drug coverage for seniors this year.

Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., a former Senate Republican leader and a 30-year lawmaker known more for persuading colleagues to adopt his position, said the partisanship in the chamber "couldn't get much worse" even if Breaux left.

"John is one of the few Democrats that Republicans can talk to and work with," he said. "That is a role we will miss."

In addition to Breaux and Snowe, other Senate moderates include Democrats Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas, Zell Miller of Georgia and Ben Nelson of Nebraska. Other Republicans include Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island, Susan Collins of Maine and Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania. Their voting records bear out their self-professed middle-of-the-road stance.

With only eight true moderates remaining in the Senate, many say a Breaux retirement, coupled with Miller's already announced retirement, would torpedo future bipartisan efforts.

Re-election question

But after serving 31 years first in the House and now the Senate, Breaux, 59, sees running for a fourth Senate term as a life decision that he won't make until after Louisiana elects its governor Nov. 15.

"If you decide you want to do something else in life, there is a point at which you have got to decide to go out and try to do it," he said. "Maybe you don't want to do it. Maybe you just make a decision this will be my life career and one is enough."

Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., is among those urging him to continue for one more term, saying it would be "a real loss to the Senate and an extreme loss to Louisiana" if he doesn't.

"I am just very hopeful that he will decide to run again," she said. "If he doesn't, he's a friend and I'm going to support him."

But longtime friend and neighbor Lott said he would advise Breaux to leave. Lott maintains that the Democratic caucus is so liberal that it would not elect a moderate or conservative senator like Breaux to a higher leadership position. Lott added that he didn't think Breaux would be a committee chairman in the foreseeable future because Democrats would remain in the minority.

Why should Breaux run again when he could make millions of dollars as a lobbyist or executive in some other field, Lott said.

If Breaux decides against a run, it also would dim Democrats' hopes of recapturing a majority in the Senate, which Republicans control 51 to 48 Democrats with one independent. Democrats already are defending 19 seats - six in the Republican-trending South - compared with the Republicans' 15 next year, and Breaux is considered a shoo-in if he runs.