House Speaker Paul Ryan is facing a dilemma: House conservatives want him to ignore the budget deal that former Speaker John Boehner negotiated before leaving Congress.
Instead, they want him to pass a budget at the spending level that existed before the Boehner deal, which is about $30 billion less. But if they do that, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., is expected to filibuster any appropriations bills that the House passes. And if Democrats stay unified, Republicans won’t be able to pass any bills that mandate the $30 billion in spending cuts. That would set the stage for yet another year-end continuing resolution that would avert a government shutdown.
Congressional Republicans met Friday morning in the Capitol’s basement to discuss the budget fight. The meeting was the scene of a back-and-forth between Ryan and House Freedom Caucus Chairman Jim Jordan, one of the ringleaders of the group that forced Boehner to resign last year, who argued that Republicans should push for spending cuts.
“[Jordan] called for less dollars and trying to do what their plan is,” one House Republican, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the Washington Examiner. “Paul stood up after and said, ‘in reality, we’re looking at a [continuing resolution] situation then,’ because we just can’t do appropriations bills that don’t match up with a budget that’s not in agreement with the [Boehner deal].” A second lawmaker confirmed that Ryan gave Jordan that reply.
Several Republicans praised Ryan for avoiding Boehner’s tendency to inform the GOP conference that they have only “one option.” Instead, he described a series of scenarios: They could stick to the Boehner spending levels, but pass a series of appropriations bills that spend the money based on conservative priorities; they could try to cut spending and fight the Senate; or they could just plan on passing another continuing resolution, which would maintain the status quo. That is the least popular idea.
Some Republicans outside of the Freedom Caucus would support a budget that cuts spending, but they’re not sure the House GOP would be able to pass the appropriations bills.
“If we pursue the lower numbers, which I think we can justify to the American people very strongly, walking away from the Boehner agreement and writing to the lower numbers — I think that would be a good thing for us,” said Rep. David Jolly, R-Fla. “But then we need every Republican to vote for the appropriations bills, because we’re not going to get a single Democrat, and I didn’t hear that commitment from the folks who are demanding the lower numbers.”
That commitment could be forthcoming. Rep. Raul Labrador, R-Idaho, one of the founding members of the Freedom Caucus, said he would vote for most of the appropriations bills. Labrador opposes any bill that includes funding from the Pentagon’s overseas contingency operations fund, an emergency defense spending account that many consider a budgetary gimmick. Otherwise, he would support the appropriations bills. “Absolutely, for most of them,” Labrador told the Examiner.
