Republican House leaders, eager to demonstrate that the party is united after a fractious debate over the 2011 federal budget, are working to secure enough GOP votes to pass a compromise deal when it comes up for a vote Thursday. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., said GOP vote counters “indicate there is strong Republican support and we’re going to pass this bill with Republicans” despite the refusal of a growing number of conservatives to back the compromise.
Cantor, however, would not rule out possibility that Republicans may need to win over some Democrats to garner the 218 votes needed to pass the budget, and with good reason. Complaints are mounting from conservatives that the budget cuts in the bill are insufficient and include accounting tricks like including in those cuts programs already targeted for elimination.
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The bill makes nearly $40 billion in reductions to nondefense spending through September, the end of the current fiscal year. The cuts are spread across dozens of programs and agencies, according to budget details released Tuesday.
The Environmental Protection Agency, for example, would see a 16 percent budget cut, losing $1.6 billion, while funding for the departments of Transportation and Housing and Urban Development would decrease by $12.3 billion, or 18 percent. Emergency heating assistance to low-income families would be cut by $390 million, and the community health centers championed by President Obama would lose $600 million in funding.
But Republicans had pledged during the 2010 campaign to cut $100 billion from the budget and some in the GOP say House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, should have insisted on cuts of $61 billion, which would have fulfilled a parallel GOP promise to cut spending to 2008 levels.
Conservatives wanted Boehner to make sure the bill included a provision to defund Planned Parenthood, which provides health care and abortion services to women. That language was stripped out during negotiations with Senate Democrats and the White House, and instead the House and Senate will vote on the proposal separately, though there’s little chance it would clear the Democratically led Senate.
The top conservative in the House, Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, made his opposition to the deal official Tuesday.
“I believe voters are asking us to set our sights higher,” said Jordan, who heads the Republican Study Committee, a group of about 175 conservatives.
Former House Republican Conference Committee Chairman Mike Pence, R-Ind., and Tea Party Caucus Chairwoman Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., also said they would vote against the compromise budget, as did Rep. Steve Southerland, R-Fla., a Tea Party activist.
A vote on the bill was postponed from Wednesday to Thursday because Republicans want to provide three days for lawmakers to review legislation before it goes to the floor for consideration. The budget bill was released after midnight on Tuesday.
“My committee went line by line through agency budgets this weekend to negotiate and craft deep but responsible reductions in virtually all areas of government,” said House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers, R-Ky.
Republicans control 241 votes, which means they can lose only 23 votes before passage would require Democratic support. House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said Tuesday that Republicans have not asked him to seek Democratic support for the measure and that he has not made up his mind yet on whether he will vote for it.
