Congressional Republicans face tough fights early next year, prompting their leadership to complete 2014 business this month rather than waiting until they assume more power in January.
Funding for the Homeland Security Department, carved out of the compromise “CRomnibus” spending bill that passed Congress earlier this month, expires on Feb. 27. A few weeks later, congressional Republicans could be forced to address a deadline to raise the debt ceiling. On March 31, “doc fix” legislation that maintains funding levels for doctors who treat Medicare patients expires. And, two weeks after that, House and Senate Republicans are supposed to agree on a fiscal 2016 budget resolution.
In the midst of all of this, Republicans, set to take control of the full Congress for the first time since 2006, are planning an expansive agenda that includes comprehensive tax reform, regulatory reform, gutting the pillars of the Affordable Care Act and confronting President Obama’s unilateral legalization of 4.1 million undocumented immigrants — a move they contend is unconstitutional. Leftover legislative items and unnecessary deadlines could only imperil these plans, GOP leaders say.
“Clearing the decks in the lame duck helps the incoming majority because it removes the backdrop of a government shutdown and provides a pathway for managing the next set of challenges through regular order,” a senior Republican Senate aide told the Washington Examiner on Wednesday.
Many conservative intellectuals and activists did not buy into this strategy. From the venerable political journal National Review to advocacy groups like Heritage Action for America, conservatives urged congressional Republicans to shun the bipartisan, $1.1 trillion CRomnibus negotiated by GOP leaders in the House and Democratic leaders in the Senate.
Conservatives lobbied Republicans to push for a continuing resolution that would keep the federal government operating for just a few months, into early 2015. They said that would enable the House and Senate that will convene in January to set more favorable spending levels for the remainder of the fiscal year. Conservatives also argued that this approach would give the Republicans more political leverage to confront Obama’s executive action.
Republicans have unanimously condemned the move as unconstitutional, but many conservative activists have criticized the GOP’s response, saying that the threat of defunding only the Department of Homeland Security as a negotiating tactic to force Obama to back down on “executive amnesty” won’t work. Immigration services are overseen by DHS, although stopping Obama’s executive legalization would require a change in the law. There is no way to halt the action by starving it of funds.
“Our preferred strategy would have been to pass a short-term CR to get it into the beginning of next year when, as [GOP leaders] constantly reminded us, they had reinforcements coming,” Heritage Action spokesman Dan Holler said. “They could have gotten the policy riders they wanted, they could have fought on immigration, they had the opportunity in January to do all of the stuff they wanted to do without interfering with their 2015 agenda.”
But most Republicans didn’t see it that way and supported the leadership’s strategy.
In addition to the several deadlines that hit the first six months of the year, Republicans have promised to return the legislative process to “regular order.” That means approving a budget resolution in the House and Senate, and then holding a conference committee to reconcile the two documents. In particular, it also means reviving the traditional appropriations process and passing a dozen funding bills, rather than one omnibus.
Republicans did not believe the legislative calendar could sustain those plans and leftover business from 2014. They also worried that they would not have the political capital to address new priorities while managing old fights.
Responding to specific complaints about the CRomnibus, Republicans pointed out that passing a CR instead would only have enabled them to set spending levels for up to eight months of fiscal 2015.
They didn’t think the payoff was worth the risk of a government shutdown showdown so early in their new majority.
“We’re going to make sure the new American Congress hits the ground running,” a senior Republican House aide said. “That means action on jobs, the president’s immigration changes and the American people’s other top priorities.”
