McConnell ‘bound and determined’ to end Senate dysfunction

This month, he gets to put his theory to the test.

After eight years of Democratic rule under Nevada Sen. Harry Reid, the Kentucky Republican, 72, becomes Senate majority leader.

McConnell, in a late December telephone interview with the Washington Examiner from his home in Louisville, discussed his plans to restore order to the Senate. The leader’s goal: Use enhanced GOP power on Capitol Hill to legislate conservative reforms and show a wary American public that congressional Republicans can govern responsibly, even as they continue to battle with President Obama.

The linchpin of McConnell’s strategy is his plan to restore “regular order” to chamber operations. That means returning power to committee chairmen and an open debate process that allow the majority and minority parties to offer amendments to legislation. He is determined to have the Senate pass a budget for the first time since 2009, process all 12 agency appropriations bills, and avoid the sort of overloaded omnibus spending vehicles that Congress passed in December just in time to avoid a government shutdown. The interview is edited for length and clarity.

Examiner: Congress faces a number of important deadlines early in the year. How do you plan to keep the Senate on track?

McConnell: Your question implies the answer, which is that we have to try to deal with all of those things. Let me just say first about Keystone, that will be a full-energy debate. In other words, the bill will be open for amendment. And I expect it to develop into a full-throated energy debate, something I don’t believe we’ve had in the Senate since at least ’07.

You’re right about the other deadlines, and they will take some time in dealing with. But I think we can handle those items and still stay on schedule — and schedule means doing the budget on time and making an all-out effort to pass all of the individual appropriations bills. And, of course, the key to that is allocating enough floor time to get it done. And, the reason I think that’s particularly important is not just because institutionally that’s what we’re supposed to do, but because so much of what this administration has done to slow down the growth rate in our country has been through these overactive, bureaucratic actions, and the single best way to deal with that is in the spending process.

Examiner: Do you think people underestimate the importance of “regular order”?

McConnell: I think the single best way we have to influence policy is through the spending process. And in recent years we’ve sort of handed all the power over to the president by not functioning, by basically giving him [continuing resolutions] or omnibuses, which empower him to thwart congressional intent. So, what are the kinds of bills that have the best chance of getting on his desk — in other words, enjoying some Democratic support? Appropriations bills. And, we’d like to at least have him accept responsibility for what he’s doing by either vetoing the bill or retreating by signing it. So I think those are very important priorities.

Examiner: You have talked about the possibility of using the reconciliation rule, which protects budget resolutions from being filibustered, to pass legislation dismantling the Affordable Care Act. Is that still on the agenda?

McConnell: We’re certainly looking at the reconciliation process. It’s also important to note that to actually succeed on either repealing or taking chunks out of Obamacare, it would take Democratic votes. And the whole idea behind reconciliation is the thought that it’s going to be Republicans only. So, if we actually want to try to put something on his desk that we might be able to override the veto on, it’s going to have to be pieces of it. For example, we know the medical device tax repeal enjoys a lot of Democratic support. But we’re still looking at all the various approaches. Can you do more than one reconciliation? That’s a big thing under consideration right now.

Let me just sum up Obamacare by saying this: It’s the worst piece of legislation that’s been passed in the last 50 years; it’s done an enormous amount of damage to the country. I’d love to get rid of it. The chances of that happening with him in the White House — whether we did it through reconciliation or not — is not very good. But there are pieces of it that are really toxic, like destroying the 40-hour workweek; the medical device tax; the individual mandate. We intend to try to address all of those items, including the possibility of starting over again in the course of the coming months.

Examiner: Short-term funding for the Department of Homeland Security, left out of the omnibus to leave Republicans leverage to fight Obama’s executive order on immigration, expires Feb. 27. Have you decided how you want to proceed?

McConnell: No. All I can tell you for sure is it certainly will generate an immigration discussion, and I’ll be consulting with the speaker on how best to move forward on that.

Examiner: Obama has said he expects to use his veto pen regularly now that the Republicans are in charge. How do you feel about that?

McConnell: We’re not intimidated by the fact that the president may veto a bill. It’s noteworthy that he hasn’t vetoed but two in six years and both of them were minor bills over technicalities. He’s been protected from any kind of critical evaluation of any of the things he’s done, by the Senate. That’s going to change. So we’re going to do what we think is in the best interest of the country, and if we can put those kinds of measures on his desk he’ll have to decide what he wants to do. That’s one category.

The other category — the area where there are potential areas of agreement that he and I have discussed since the election — you’re already familiar with: comprehensive tax reform, trade agreements, and some way forward on infrastructure. Those three areas I think are the ones most likely to achieve some level of cooperation going forward. Other than that, we have a different view of what the country ought to be like. And the fact that he may veto a bill is not going to be a deterrent to us. Our goal is to try to put legislation on his desk. Clearly that’s going to require some Democratic help in the Senate. But fortunately there seem to be a pool of Democrats who are not totally enamored with the president’s performance and who are looking forward to seeing [the] Senate get back to normal where they can offer their ideas and actually get votes.

Examiner: About that. It was a challenge for Reid to find 60 votes during his time as majority leader. Why do you think it will be different for you?

McConnell: The Senate was never a place that things were easily done unless you have a very, very large majority like the Democrats did the first two years of Obama. The way forward in the Senate, going back to the founding of the country, was always a more challenging, slower process than the House. I don’t think that’s going to change. But there were two big issues in the campaign. One was the president himself. People were really unhappy with him and wanted to send him a message. But the other issue was dysfunction. Voters may have been a little confused about who was at fault on the dysfunction; we all know it was the Senate and not the House. But regardless, dysfunction was an issue. And what the speaker and I are bound and determined to do is to demonstrate to the American people that the Congress is no longer dysfunctional; that we are going to try to make progress for the country. To do that in the Senate is going to require some Democratic cooperation. But most of the time, to do anything in the Senate requires some bipartisan cooperation, because typically neither party has 60 votes or more.

Examiner: Is “regular order” the key to reaching 60 votes?

McConnell: If you honor committee work, frequently bills come out of committee supported by members on both sides. If that bill is then called up, there are people on both sides of the aisle who want to actually see it pass. By allowing more members to participate, by allowing different points of view to be heard both in committee and on the floor, I think you’re more likely to be able to pass legislation. Now, I don’t think passing legislation was something the previous majority leader had in mind. It was more a question of sort of scoring political points and trying to blame dysfunction on the House. The blame game is over. We’re going to try to get the Senate back to normal to pass legislation, which will require — in the Senate, everything except the budget will require some bipartisan support to begin to get the country moving again.

Examiner: After six years playing defense, is it a challenge for Republicans to focus on moving an agenda as opposed to fighting Obama every time he does something you disagree with?

McConnell: [Chuckling] The president in our system is always an important player. He’s the only person who can sign something into law or veto a measure. Sure, from time to time we will react to what he is doing. He’s been engaged in extraordinary executive branch overreach. And the best way to go after all of that is through the spending process, which argues for passing the appropriations bills.

Examiner: You’ve talked a lot about showing the American people that Republicans can govern. But many on the far right have said they’re less interested in governing than they are in passing bills that present a sharp contrast with Obama.

McConnell: I think we’ll be doing both — both pursuing proposals that we think make sense for the country that we may not be able to pass yet, and doing things that we think can occur because there’s enough support on both sides to achieve them. It’s not an either-or proposition. I think it’s both.

Examiner: Your plan for running the Senate calls for an open process that necessarily means Republicans are going to have to take some tough votes. Will members of your conference be willing to keep this up?

McConnell: Absolutely.