House and Senate Republicans are planning a slew of significant votes in the coming weeks on language making the individual tax cuts permanent, a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution, and a bill to reform the food stamp program, even in the face of looming fall elections that usually slow down the congressional agenda.
Consideration of a dozen fiscal 2019 appropriations measures will also begin in House and Senate committees this spring.
Republicans in both chambers are weighing whether to bring up a bill that would make permanent the individual tax rate cuts that are included in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. The bill permanently slashed the corporate rate to 21 percent, but the individual tax rate reductions expire after a decade.
Democrats have criticized the tax cut bill, in part because permanent cuts are only provided for corporations. Republicans are eager to turn the problem back on the minority party by forcing them to vote on legislation to make the individual rates permanent as well.
Texas Republicans Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady last week talked up the plan, which Brady has called a “phase two” of the GOP’s overall tax reform agenda.
While the bill would likely fail in the Senate, thanks to the filibuster rule requiring 60 votes, it would put Democrats in a painful political position before the November midterms.
“I think what we ought to do, before the end of the year, is take a vote because I know every one of the political spectrum from [Sen.] Bernie Sanders [,I-Vt.,] on the left to the most conservative folks like me believe that we ought to make those individual tax rates permanent,” Cornyn said during a visit last week to College Station, according to KBTX-TV.
Republican leadership in both chambers are considering the plan, aides said, but have not scheduled a vote.
“There are a lot of factors that will go into this decision, and one important factor will be the political ramifications,” a senior GOP aide said. “Democrats in both chambers will be in a very tough spot if this is put up for a vote, and it put an even brighter spotlight on the widening gap between the far left and the moderates.”
In the House, Republican leaders are also trying to fulfill a promise made to their conservative faction by bringing a balanced budget amendment to the floor for a vote.
It’s not likely to pass because amending the Constitution requires two-thirds support instead of the typical majority. But it will give Republican lawmakers a chance to vote to rein in federal spending after approving the $1.3 trillion fiscal 2018 spending bill that lifted federal caps by $300 billion.
Republican aides said they expect the vote next week and anticipate significant support from the GOP.
“We are expecting it will probably get higher than average support compared to past votes,” a Republican aide told the Washington Examiner. “Members are going to use this as a face-saver.”
The House last voted on a balanced budget amendment in 2011. The 261-165 vote fell short of the necessary support for passage.
The House April agenda is also likely to include a significant battle over welfare reform.
The Republican-written legislation to reauthorize agriculture and federal nutrition programs, otherwise called the Farm Bill, is set for release this month, according to House Agriculture Committee Chairman Mike Conaway, R-Texas.
The bill includes significant reforms to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as food stamps. Conaway’s changes include requiring certain able-bodied adult recipients to work or receive work training for 20 hours each week to qualify for the program.
The bill would also crack down on states that provide food stamps to people who do not meet the established federal guidelines.
Democrats are unified in opposition to the plan, which means Conaway will have to round up all Republican support to pass the measure in an election year that is likely to make many GOP lawmakers wary of wading into welfare reform. But Conaway said lawmakers will embrace the reforms once the bill is released.
“Once we are able to lay those details out to folks, they will say, ‘Wait, this kind of makes sense,’” Conaway told the Washington Examiner.
