Spending legislation and a major transportation funding blueprint will soon test the relationship between new House Speaker Paul Ryan and his senate counterpart, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
Ryan, R-Wis., who was elected speaker last week, met with Senate Republicans in a private lunch on Tuesday as lawmakers gear up for major legislative tasks that have the potential to become big battles.
McConnell, R-Ky., called the visit, “a good, constructive discussion about our shared priorities for the country here as we move toward the end of the session.” McConnell has praised Ryan’s “extraordinary intellect,” but has little experience working with the lawmaker, who is 28 years his junior.
The first test for Ryan and McConnell will be a massive road projects bill that could split the GOP later this month, both on funding and a provision to revive the Export-Import Bank.
The House is considering the measure this week, and Ryan, who was elected speaker just a few days ago, has pledged an open process that will allow “lots of amendments considered by all members from both parties.”
And by December, just a few weeks away, lawmakers will have to write an omnibus spending bill that adheres to a sweeping budget deal President Obama signed Monday. A temporary bill funding the government expires Dec. 11.
The omnibus measure, Ryan said on Tuesday, will likely include policy riders. Ryan wouldn’t say which ones, but Democrats have warned they will block spending legislation that includes “poison pill” language they oppose, such as a provision that would take away federal funding for Planned Parenthood, a healthcare organization that provides abortions. Democrats would also oppose provisions that roll back any of Obama’s executive directives on immigration or the Affordable Care Act.
“The issue will be, we’re going have a Planned Parenthood rider, we’re going to have an immigration rider, an ACA rider, all these riders that will not become law,” House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said Tuesday. “And so they put at risk funding the government. That’s unfortunate.”
Ryan and McConnell will have to agree on a spending bill that can pass both chambers and win the president’s signature, while not alienating conservative lawmakers who support the riders and will push to include them in the omnibus.
“The power of the purse rests with the legislative branch and we fully expect we are going to exercise that power,” Ryan said Tuesday.
McConnell on Tuesday tried to downplay a face-off with Democrats over policy riders, pointing out they are included in most spending measures.
“Riders in appropriations bills are quite common,” McConnell said. “The Democrats will have some, too. Of course, there will be some riders in the appropriation bills. I’m having a hard time remembering any that didn’t.”
The highway bill is enough of a lift as it is, and that deadline is approaching much more quickly. The Nov. 20 highway funding deadline that could generate a battle among Republicans over how to pay for future road surface projects and whether to revive the Export-Import Bank.
Only three years of the six-year highway bill are funded, mostly through the existing federal gas tax and selling off barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. House and Senate Republicans hope to come to an agreement to pay for the entire length of the bill.
But Ryan wants to draw funds from corporate tax reform, while McConnell wants to use tax reform to lower the tax rate, not pay for road projects.
The GOP is also deeply split on the Export-Import Bank. Authorization for the bank expired on June 30 but many Republicans are fighting to bring it back to life. A provision to reauthorize the bank is included in the Senate’s highway funding legislation and the House may try to attach it to their version, but it will be over the objections of dozens of House conservatives.
Republicans who oppose the bank have lined up with two dozen amendments to the House highway bill that would block the bank’s revival. Hoyer told reporters Tuesday that Democrats would vote against those amendments.
