Are Republicans ready to govern? It’s time to make that case at least in the Senate and in the House.
This is Trahant Reports.
The Senate is returning to what’s called “regular order.” In that process a spending bill works its way through committee, is passed by the Senate. The House does the same thing. The two bills are resolved and it’s sent to the president.
Textbook.
Last week at a Senate news conference Tuesday, Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican from Kentucky, said he has reached a deal with Democrats to move forward with 90 percent of the federal budget, including appropriations bills for Defense, Health and Human Services, and the Department of Labor. McConnell’s goal is to move 90 percent of the appropriations bills this way and the Senate will be done by Labor Day.
Then McConnell jopes the House will move quickly too — so common ground can be found before the fiscal year ends on September 30. (The Interior Appropriations bill that includes the the Indian Health Service and the Bureau of Indian Affairs are included in this regular order process.)
As part of the deal, Republicans have agreed to avoid policy riders that make it impossible to round up votes from Democrats. It will take 60 votes in the Senate for legislation to be passed.
That’s the governing part. Or in the language of Washington, regular order.
The House leadership would very much like to do something similar.
House Speaker Paul Ryan, a Republican from Wisconsin, said the House could pass several spending bills before that deadline. But, he added, “there will be some bills that don’t pass” and it’s likely a short-term Continuing Resolution will be needed.
One such bill that will be controversial is the House’s plan to spend $5 billion on Homeland Security. The Senate’s version spends far less, only $1.6 billion, as well as requirements that funds only be used to reinforce existing physical barriers. Democrats such as Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont call the House bill a “non-starter.”
This is where the governing part gets confusing. While McConnell and Ryan are championing the regular order and a functioning Congress, the president is saying something else.
President Trump last week said several times that Congress must pass funding for a border wall or the government will be shut down. He said he “may have to do some pretty drastic things.”
No matter what budgets come out of Congress — the House version or the Senate’s plan — the president would still have to sign the legislation into law. Most likely that will be in the form of a compromise bill that includes either spending the president does not like or less money than he would like for his border enforcement.
So it will be up to the president to close the government without help from Congress.
I am Mark Trahant
