WASHINGTON — Rep. Lincoln Davis, D-Tenn., was among several uncommitted superdelegates invited to a reception this past Wednesday at presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Clinton’s Washington, D.C., home.

The Democratic New York senator, like her opponent, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., has been actively courting superdelegates — party insiders and elected officials who can vote for any candidate at the Democratic National Convention in August.

Rep. Davis said he will stay uncommitted until the convention but praised Sen. Clinton’s experience.

“Sen. Clinton won a solid majority of my district in Tennessee’s Democratic primary and is a talented lawmaker with eight years experience in the U.S. Senate, in addition to her time spent as first lady of Arkansas and the United States,” he said.

“If the primary contest carries on through the Democratic convention,” he added, “this will certainly factor into my decision, but at this time I am still undecided in my choice for president.”

FRIST ENJOYING RETIREMENT

Former Sen. Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., on Thursday made his first appearance on Capitol Hill since he left office in 2006, and from the sounds of it, he doesn’t miss being in Congress.

As the Senate held a marathon day of votes on budget issues that lasted until the early morning hours Friday, Mr. Frist was in Washington urging his former colleagues to support a bill that would expand foreign aid to combat infant mortality.

“Listening to them, knowing they’re voting every 10 minutes, I know exactly what I’d be doing,” said Dr. Frist, who served in the Senate for 12 years. “I’d be sitting in the cloak room, coordinating, making decisions and at the end of the day, knowing I’d be at the same place I started.

“Whereas now, I can come here and do this for an hour, feeling like I’m making an impact, and then I get to go home tonight and sleep in my own bed in Nashville,” Dr. Frist said.

Dr. Frist is considering a run for Tennessee governor in 2010.

ENGLISH LANGUAGE BILL PASSES

The Senate this week passed one of Sen. Lamar Alexander’s long-sought bills to stop the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission from suing organizations for requiring English in the workplace.

“The purpose of civil rights laws is to unify us,” he said. “Well, if we want to be one country, we need to have a common language. And in this country, that language is English. … And the federal government ought to be consistently on the side of valuing that common language and not on the side of devaluing it.”

The measure, passed 54-44 as an amendment to a budget bill that also passed, provides $670,000 to the Department of Education to promote the teaching of English and civics to immigrants.

The funds come from allocations to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that are now being used to prosecute businesses who require their employees to speak English on the job.

WAMP URGES FITNESS GUIDELINES

Rep. Zach Wamp, R-Tenn., announced his support of a bill that requires the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to prepare and promote physical activities guidelines at least every five years.

He said recent studies indicate more than 150 million Americans over the age of 20 are either overweight or obese, and the country is using 75 cents of very dollar spent on health care to treat chronic diseases.

“Many Americans are unhealthy and we are paying a heavy price for it. Obesity has led to significant increases in health care costs, especially in chronic diseases,” Rep. Wamp said. “We need to instill a culture of healthy living, including physical activity, to combat this epidemic and work toward reducing chronic disease in America.”

Rep. Wamp is founder and co-chairman of the Congressional Fitness Caucus.

Compiled by Washington, D.C., corespondent Herman Wang.