Posted on 03/17/2005 7:36:42 AM PST by Gipper08
Lacking votes to pass the budget, House Republican leaders struck a deal yesterday with conservative members who had demanded reforms to the spending process.
The deal is a major win for the conservative Republican Study Committee (RSC) and signaled a rare concession from powerful GOP leaders.
Republican leaders had charged that the reform demanded by members of the RSC would tie the leadership’s hands and empower House Democrats. But realizing that they would otherwise lack the votes to pass the budget this week, the GOP leaders yesterday agreed to conservatives’ demand that waiving budget rules for future spending bills require approval by a majority of the House.
The conflict reached full intensity yesterday morning at a closed-door meeting of the House Republican Conference.
After RSC Chairman Mike Pence (R-Ind.), one of the key lawmakers involved in the contentious push for budget reform, addressed the conference, House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) angrily demanded of the conservative rebels how they planned to pass the budget, an implication that reform would make it more difficult to pass budget and appropriations legislation, said a lawmaker who attended the meeting.
“DeLay got into it with some members on the budget,” another GOP lawmaker said.
Conservative proponents of reform responded that they liked the budget Republicans passed out of committee and that they simply want to enforce it, the reason they have cited for pushing budget reform.
“Our ambition was that members of the majority have an opportunity to defend the budget of the majority on the House floor,” Pence said yesterday, announcing the agreement along with conservative Reps. Paul Ryan (Wis.), Jeb Hensarling (Texas) and Jeff Flake (Ariz.). “If any one of the 10 appropriations bills exceeds the budget, any member of Congress would be able to raise a point of order and that would be subject to debate and vote.”
“I believe this is a significant step forward,” Pence said.
Ryan explained that a lawmaker would have an opportunity to raise a procedural objection against a budget-breaking spending bill after it had been amended on the House floor but before final passage.
Pence was 30 minutes late for an early-afternoon RSC meeting because he was putting the finishing touches on the deal. He outlined the deal to RSC members with Neil Bradley, an aide to House Majority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.). It was mentioned in the meeting that Hastert and Blunt helped craft the compromise, suggesting that DeLay was not involved.
A DeLay aide said that DeLay was talking with RSC members yesterday.
The so-called point-of-order protection would not apply to bills produced by conferences with the Senate. It is usually in those negotiations that spending bills are swelled beyond the levels called for in the budget resolution, making yesterday’s agreed-to reform modest in terms of its impact on discretionary spending. In the past five years, the House appropriations panel has seldom sent a bill to the floor out of committee that exceeded the budget, a GOP leadership aide noted.
But the political impact is likely much greater, as it is one of the few times that a faction of Republican House members has battled with the party’s leaders and won. It is all the more significant because the leadership conceded to give up some of its power, perhaps the reason that GOP leaders fought conservatives so hard on the issue.
One Republican RSC aide said, “This is the first time the RSC did anything,” alluding to the group’s previous reputation of buckling under pressure.
The victory belongs primarily to the RSC and its new leader, Pence, who replaced Rep. Sue Myrick (R-N.C.) at the beginning of the year. In yesterday’s meeting, Pence was “stoic” and adamant that the deal should not be portrayed as an RSC win, according to a source in the room.
Pence, who fended off numerous direct and indirect attacks from leadership and budget officials this past week, said that the past several days have been tiring and emotional, the source added. He also said Hensarling, who was Pence’s right-hand man on the budget reforms, deserves the bulk of the credit.
Republican centrists who had joined conservatives in their opposition to a budget resolution not linked to budget reform did not withstand pressure from GOP leaders to fall back into line. The centrists “caved,” in the words of one conservative.
Rep. Mark Kirk (Ill.), the co-chairman of the Tuesday Group, acknowledged that it was the RSC that forced leadership to compromise on budget reform.
“The RSC had the bulk of the troops. The centrists helped,” said Kirk, who after being asked twice whether centrists had in fact caved to leadership’s pressure, cocked his head from one side to another before answering, “We wanted to make sure we didn’t come out with nothing, and we didn’t. The leadership had a serious offer.”
Pence and his conservative allies initially demanded a two-thirds vote of the House be required to waive rules for legislation that violated the budget. They later scaled down their demand, ultimately asking for only a majority vote to waive the rules for spending bills that violated the budget.
The leadership also moderated its counteroffers. Aides familiar with the negotiations said that Blunt initially offered Pence his choice of several compromise measures. The proposals included allowing Republican lawmakers to call a conference meeting on any bill that exceeded the budget and requiring the Rules Committee to explain why it had waived a budget rule on legislation in violation of the budget.
While the budget reforms, by themselves, do little to reduce government spending significantly, RSC members are hopeful other structural changes will be implemented. Pence told the RSC yesterday that GOP leadership indicated it wants more substantive reforms, adding that he believes that commitment is “genuine.”
Pence said the budget reform would be a part of the House rules. Kirk said reform would be initially implemented as a standing order of the House, something that has the power of a rule, and formally made a part of the House rules at a later date.
Victory!!!!
Good victory, good post.
Definitely a significant notch in the belt.
This is house conservatives in action!! The future of the GOP!!
DeLay the Man
#6 is my take on it.
How did I get on your ping list? I don't recall asking.
Mike Pence and his gang are the the heroes of this all. I am sure that he will be punished accordingly.
"House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) angrily demanded of the conservative rebels how they planned to pass the budget"
Amazing how time in Washington corrupts. Wasn't too long ago that Delay was a conservative rebel, now he's fighting with them.
The problem we have is that Washington either corrupts true conservatives or chases them out of town.
This story is nevertheless good news. Hope that
conservatives can gain power while holding on to their principles.
I hope you got the e-mail I sent you last night--I was so proud of Pence and Hensarling last night on the House floor.
You could also tell that Rep. Nussle was also even though he was on "the other side" sort of--
What these guys accomplished yesterday just doesn't happen, especially with powerful people like Hastert and Delay around, so I think this really bodes well for your guy Pence and my fellow Texan, Jeb Hensarling.
I am still a Pence for Prez backer, but I have to say that Jeb will be a good asset for Pence in his move up--and I have no doubt that his star is rising quickly---
Great news!
CONSERVATIVES ROCK!!!
You are not on my list.I saw that you were on FR and thought you might care about Budget reform.Sorry I ruined your day.
Yeah, we'll see about this great victory when we actually start closing down some of these useless departments like that of Education and Energy. Then and only then can we crow.
Same old same old, only the faces and names (and party) change.
You mean hopeful signs of a trend toward ultimate victory in the future sometime,
(maybe if "we" are lucky)..
Victory is a distant goal.. "Conservatives" are a minority in Congress..
Americans are still basically socialists with family values, in the majority..
The brain washing by media and academia for decades is no small wall to scale..
The largest single voting block of socialists in America are the "old" people..
The ones that SHOULD know better, DON'T... or worse don't care..
Removing that gov't check from their "cold dead fingers" (as in gun control advocates) seems to be the gist' of their voting habits.. and might be the only long term solution.
As the academics are processing more future socialists in most of the major and minor academic institutions annually.. A new crop are being brain washed.. and until that stops the future looks bleak.. Until the "academic terrorists" are assaulted in their Ivory Towers.. the siege is just an uprising by a mob of disgruntled "serfs"..
I'm impressed - and cautiously optimistic. The leadership in both the House and Senate is starting to act like they are in the majority.
Woooooooooooah now......don't start popping those champagne bottles just yet. I believe that Mr. Pence will cave eventually. After all, I consider the House GOP (& the Republican Party as a whole) to be a spineless bunch of wusses that can't handle the pressure from the liberal media, the Dims, a big-government-loving President, & the GOP leadership. The honorable Rep. RON PAUL is the ONLY member of either congressional body that sticks to constitutional principles no matter what...& how much weight does he carry?
Read it again.
Delay fought them on this.
The train that we are on has been speeding down the track towards socialism at a high rate of speed. These guys are trying to install a set of brakes.
Isn't that a good thing?
First we have to stop the train, then we can reverse it.
Throw it into reverse when you are going forward at 90 MPH is really gonna mess with the engine and transmission. We can do it, but it'll be a bloody mess.
I suggest that we help these guys by getting your rep on board or find a replacement for him who will. That's how we can achieve the goal that you and I and Pence all want.
Welcome to FR.
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