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GOP seeks restraint in stopgap bill
By Patrick O'Connor
Republican leaders are taking pains to demonstrate a growing commitment to fiscal restraint one week after a contentious standoff with House conservatives over federal offsets to pay for recovery efforts in the hurricane-beleaguered Gulf Coast region.
House and Senate GOP leaders plan to offer a different approach to this years continuing resolution, a measure that keeps the government funded and running past the Oct. 1 fiscal deadline.
Congress must pass a continuing resolution, known as a CR, this week because lawmakers have finished only two of the dozen separate spending bills for fiscal year 2006. The CR will fund the government until the other appropriations bills are passed.
Unlike most years, GOP House and Senate leaders will offer a continuing resolution that temporarily funds the government at the lowest of three possible levels: the current fiscal 2005 level, or the level passed in either the House or the Senate appropriations bills this year, according to knowledgeable GOP aides.
In most cases, the lowest funding level will be at the House level because the House typically passes leaner spending bills and the Senate still has a handful of bills to pass. House Appropriations Chairman Jerry Lewis (R-Calif.) has been advocating this approach since he won the gavel earlier this year, but the decision was made in consultation with Senate Appropriations Chairman Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) and House and Senate Republican leaders, according to a GOP source.
The Republican Study Committee (RSC) said it was encouraged by the leadership move.
It looks like all the attention we drew to this last week is starting to work, said an RSC aide. We only hope that the reception is as great when we go to put together some offsets.
This is the first tangible sign that GOP leaders want to work with those conservative RSC members who caused a stir last week with the rollout of their Operation Offset, a broad set of proposed cuts to the federal budget offered as a way to pay for Katrina recovery costs.
In addition, rank-and-file members not leadership will kick off this weeks Republican Conference meeting tomorrow, an unusual concession after a week of internal discord.
[Conference] Chairman [Deborah] Pryce [R-Ohio] believes its important for members to tell leadership whats on their minds and tell them what theyre hearing back in the district, said conference spokesman Sean Spicer.
While tensions have calmed considerably since last Wednesday, when GOP leaders and staff berated conservative members and their aides for criticizing government spending under Republican leadership, congressional leaders have just begun to address some of the spending questions raised last week by conference conservatives with the unveiling of Operation Offset.
Conservative Reps. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) and Mike Pence (R-Ind.), whose offices arranged last weeks press briefing, met with Office of Management and Budget Director Josh Bolten on Thursday at the White House to discuss potential offsets in the budget. Republican House leaders were expected to hold similar discussions later this week, according to leadership and conservative aides.
Many of the suggested offsets are accompanied by legislation, and in the coming weeks conservative members will start focusing on those bills that receive the most support, aides said.
The GOP is supposed to be the party of fiscal responsibility, and now its time for Republicans to live up to that label, said Matt Walz, a spokesman for Hensarling, paraphrasing his bosss intent to move forward with budget cuts.
The debate has put Republican leaders in the awkward position of defending increased government spending while trumpeting their history of fiscal restraint. Some prominent chairmen saw Operation Offset as an indictment of federal spending under Republican leadership and were upset with the tone and scope of the briefing.
My door is always open to any member who wishes to build consensus on reducing unnecessary spending, Lewis said last week in a release put out by his office. My preference is to consider any proposal in a thoughtful, deliberate manner, rather than reading about [it] in the newspaper.
Despite the harsh reviews by some leading Republicans on Capitol Hill, conservative pundits across the country have embraced many of the suggested offsets, particularly those in the highway bill.
Columnist Bob Novak yesterday wrote that Republican leaders, including President Bush, outdo Democrats on pork and are in the same ballpark on entitlements. Even Katrina and now Rita do not restrain them.
Similar comments by other pundits across the country have fed fears on the Republican side of the aisle that increased federal spending will keep conservative base voters away from the polls in 2006.
House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) answered some of those concerns in an opinion piece in yesterdays Washington Times. Citing the $4 billion that has already been cut from the federal budget so far this year and the proposed $35 billion that could be cut during the budget reconciliation process, DeLay wrote, Our positioning on this issue demands a unified and clear opposition to those whose policies and agendas are hostile to taxpayer interests: Capitol Hill Democrats.
Conference conservatives were bolstered by the positive press last week and are eager to work with leadership in coming months to cut government spending during budget reconciliation and the appropriations process.
In the meantime, House Republicans were expected to continue promoting a strong message of fiscal restraint. Inevitably, that message will be compared with the legislative record.
Said one House conservative aide: A strong message needs to be backed up by strong policy.
The conference meeting tomorrow is unusual because House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) usually starts off the weekly meeting, followed by Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas), Majority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), Pryce and a committee chairman with legislation pending. Those opening remarks often consume 20 to 30 minutes before other members are allowed to address the conference.
During this weeks meeting, rank-and-file members are scheduled to have an open 30 minutes of discussion before leadership takes over.
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