http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0311/51209.html#ixzz1GWgIuCoV
Conservatives impatient with stopgap bills
House conservatives have a new object of ire in their war on spending: the short-term spending resolution Republican leaders hope to pass this week.
It’s not so much the bill itself as what it represents: the prospect of Republicans spending the rest of the fiscal year squabbling with Democrats on piecemeal spending cuts that neither make a true dent in spending nor show long-term progress in their No. 1 priority.
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ListenIn the House Republican Conference, freshmen and conservatives warn that there must be resolution soon on a budget funding measure that extends through the end of the fiscal year, so that the lawmakers can move on to bigger targets: the fiscal year 2012 budget and the tricky vote on the debt ceiling.
“I don’t think a lot of people have the stomach to do this ad infinitum,” said freshman Rep. Raul Labrador (R-Idaho), predicting that the debate on a short-term funding measure wouldn’t go on much longer.
Another GOP freshman, Rep. Allen West of Florida, said it isn’t playing well back home and that constituents “are tired of half-measures.”
At least one new Republican, Kansas Rep. Tim Huelskamp, a member of the Budget Committee, said he’s voting against the short-term bill because he wants to put in place longer-term cuts embraced last month by House Republicans.
“The priorities ... are too critical to ignore for another three weeks — things like defunding the [Environmental Protection Agency], the pro-life provision [defunding Planned Parenthood] and Obamacare,” Huelskamp said in a statement.
The discontent is coming from all corners of the conference, from freshmen to appropriators to rank-and-file GOP lawmakers. Arizona Rep. Jeff Flake, a fiscally conservative budget hawk turned appropriator, said, “Patience is wearing a little thin over here.”
The critics said it’s a matter of policy.
“I really hope there’s not an endless [continuing resolution]. The reason for that is that the federal offices, the Defense Department, FBI and on and on, they can’t advance,” said GOP Rep. James Lankford of Oklahoma, a freshman on the Budget Committee. “So I’m going to push to get that resolved. ... We need a budget. We need this year’s piece done, so we can focus on 2012.”
The CR released last week, which is expected to come to a vote Tuesday, would fund the government for three weeks, cutting $6 billion from federal accounts. Supporters of that measure argue that as long as spending is being cut, Republicans are winning. Leadership aides said they also hope that this is the last CR, and they’re laying blame squarely on the Senate for not getting a more substantial bill passed.
Asked by POLITICO whether the GOP intends to pass a third short-term spending bill, Speaker John Boehner’s spokesman, Michael Steel, said, “The House has done its work by passing a CR for the rest of the year. Our hope is that the Democrats who run Washington will offer a realistic plan to fund the government and cut spending to help the private sector create more jobs.”
On Sunday, House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) predicted the new three-week stopgap measure to fund the federal government would pass the House, though he cautioned against the trend.
“We’ll get it through,” he said on CNN’s “State of the Union. “We will pass the stopgap, but this is not the pattern we are going to continue down in the future.”
For conservatives, it’s not just a numbers game. Social conservatives loved the long-term CR passed last month, which slashed $61 million and embraced policy riders defunding Planned Parenthood, health care reform and EPA. They’re concerned enough about the absence of those provisions from the next CR that members of the conservative Republican Study Committee are already threatening to stall the legislation in an attempt to get the social policies addressed.
RSC Chairman Jim Jordan, whose Ohio district borders Boehner’s, is wary both of the absence of social-conservative riders and of short-term measures.
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“Look, there’s nothing wrong with making first downs,” Jordan said. “But at some point, you want to get to the end zone. So we’re evaluating this one, but we are very concerned about the pro-life, pro-family things aren’t there.”
There’s also a political subtext. Conservatives think that they have the upper hand in the spending cut debate, and they want to force a conclusion rather than risk losing ground as the debate goes on.
“There’s some ideas about these permanent temporary CRs,” Huelskamp said. “That just kind of shows that it’s not a serious proposal. It’s time to force the Senate to act. We won the first round. HR 1 is over there. It’s time to force them to act.”
Another fear, detailed by Flake and quietly seconded by other conservatives, is for the government to operate on CRs while Congress is grappling with the debt ceiling weakens the Republicans’ hand.
“This stuff that we’re dealing with now is a rounding error,” Flake said. “And what I don’t want is for this to get entangled with the debt limit increase, where we have some real leverage to get some real cuts and some real caps. If this gets bundled up with that, I worry that there will be more focus on CR than long-term debt.”
For that reason, Flake and others are wary about the prospects for advancing this week’s bill.
“It’s going to be tough enough to do this one,” Flake said, predicting difficulty passing the spending measure. “We’re going to have a tough time on this one, so I think another would be impossible.”
Adding to the political calculus is the House calendar. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) devised a schedule that has lawmakers in their districts at least one full week a month. This month, that week falls just after the current CR runs out, giving constituents time to voice frustration about the funding process.
“It’s confusing,” West told POLITICO. “So we do this thing for a few weeks, and the next thing people are saying, ‘well I thought this was over.’ And then we do it again for another few weeks. We need to sit down and cut the spending, fund the government for the rest of FY 2011, move on and tackle this thing with the debt limit, and then look, we’re within a month of having to put out a budget resolution on 2012.”
Even as Republican leaders look for an endgame, some in their conference acknowledge that the handling of government funding is hardly a science.
“Obviously, we would like to get a full-year CR done,” said Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho), an appropriations subcommittee chairman. “That’s why we passed a full year CR. But whether that’ll happen or not, who knows. We’re kind of playing it by ear.”
But the next one won’t be nearly as easy.
“It will be a tough vote, and there will be a clear message that, even if this CR passes, the next one will probably not,” Labrador said.
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