Republicans’ go-it-alone strategy keeps hitting walls, jeopardizing must-pass bills |
Republicans’ go-it-alone strategy keeps hitting walls, jeopardizing must-pass bills
The House Republicans’ go-it-alone approach is snarling efforts to move a series of must-pass bills through the lower chamber this week.
On three major pieces of legislation — to fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), extend the government’s spying powers and set farm policy for the next half decade — GOP leaders have opted to cut Democrats from the negotiations, betting that they can rally their troops to ram the proposals through the lower chamber on largely partisan votes.
Broadly speaking, the strategy has clear advantages, eliminating the need to get buy-in from Democrats while empowering the majority Republicans to craft more conservative legislation. But in a chamber with wafer-thin margins, the tactic is running into wall after wall as Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and his leadership team struggle to unite their GOP conference behind bills that can satisfy the competing ideologies within the group.
Those dynamics forced GOP leaders to delay the rules process governing the three bills, and they raise real questions about whether any of the proposals can pass if and when they reach the floor later this week.
They also set the stage for a showdown with the Senate, where Democratic votes are needed to meet the filibuster’s 60-vote threshold.
The debate has bucked a long tradition surrounding government spending, the Farm Bill and reauthorization of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), all of which have historically passed with bipartisan support — a break that frustrated Democrats are quick to highlight.
“You have a small majority and rather than working with us, you ice us out,” Rep. Jim McGovern (Mass.), the senior Democrat on the House Rules Committee, said Tuesday during a meeting on the various proposals.
“We find ourselves in these situations where we come to the Rules Committee, we have long meetings, debates on amendments, and then we have to adjourn because the people on your side are fighting with each other.”
The push to extend FISA authority is the most pressing issue on the menu. Johnson had initially........