HERSHEY, Pa. — House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy sketched out broad outlines of an agenda for congressional Republicans as they opened a two-day policy retreat here on Thursday.
The Californian recommended that Republicans revisit the House bills from the previous Congress that passed with bipartisan support but ended up buried in the Senate, which in 2013 and 2014 was controlled by the Democrats. With the Congress now under GOP management for the first time in eight years, McCarthy said Republicans should focus on efficient, effective and accountable governing.
McCarthy’s “100-day checklist” unveiled as part of a powerpoint presentation, included passage of a budget and individual appropriations bills. More generally, the majority leader recommended the newly-seated Republican majorities in the House and Senate focus on legislation that gets government out of the way.
One House Republican described it as “a checklist of what we have to get done this year.” Among the agenda issues and concepts McCarthy listed for Republicans to pursue:
• American energy and jobs
• Improving energy infrastructure
• Reform government permitting
• Liberty and justice
• Repealing Obamacare
• End human trafficking
• Border security
• Protecting the “unborn”
House and Senate Republicans, meeting at the Hershey Lodge resort in central Pennsylvania, are holding a joint policy retreat for the first time in 10 years as they seek to forge consensus on a governing agenda. Fissures are expected, particularly on politically-charged issues like immigration. But House and Senate Republicans are hoping to minimize disagreement.
In particular, they’re going to have to find common ground on legislation to fund the Department of Homeland Security ahead of a Feb. 27 deadline. The House this week passed legislation to finance the department while rolling back President Obama’s executive order to legalize 4.1 million illegal immigrants. That bill is unlikely to garner 60 votes in the Senate; in fact, a half-dozen Republicans could oppose it.
Coming to some sort of resolution on this is a major goal of the two-day retreat.
“We’ve already talked about it a couple of times, that you’re going to have to bring some Democrats along in the Senate to actually get some stuff to the finish line. That’s a realistic given that we should all be very aware of,” said Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee. “But the House just can’t gravitate to the lowest common denominator. We can pass out what we’re going to pass out and understand that our Constitution is set up so there is this volley back and forth.”
