Dems On GOP Complaints About Rules: You Started It!

Democrats are pushing back against Republican indignation over the potential path the House will use to pass health care reform this week. Despite Republicans insisting the "deem and pass" tactic is totally unprecedented, it's a maneuver the GOP should actually be familiar with.

The Democratic National Committee sends over a 2006 article from Roll Call with stats showing how the Republicans actually "set new records" for writing House floor rules that allow leadership to pass their bills with an easier path.

The article shows that this year Democrats are actually using a smaller percentage of rules that fall into this category than Republicans used when they were in charge under former President George W. Bush.

Rank-and-file members are being told not to engage with Republicans on debates about process. Democratic leadership sent members a memo obtained by TPMDC warning that procedural tactics are "inside baseball" and defending against them won't help them politically.

But to get down to basics, House leadership is considering several options in hopes of giving their members the easiest route to pass health care reform. They haven't made a final decision yet, but as Brian detailed here earlier Rules Committee Chair Louise Slaughter and Speaker Nancy Pelosi would prefer to use what's known as a "self-executing rule."

Simply put, that would allow the Democrats to take just one vote instead of two on the Senate health care bill and a reconciliation fix passage that makes changes to the things the House doesn't like in the Senate measure. Leadership aides tell TPMDC the House does not have the votes to pass the Senate plan, so this complicated rule might actually help them get health care over that final hurdle.

Still, the Republicans are crying foul, with conservative bloggers calling the process "wreckonciliation" and portraying the possibility as without precedent. But the facts prove that wrong.

Democratic leadership aides sent around this piece from Time's Karen Tumulty about Rules Committee ranking Republican Rep. David Dreier complaints. Tumulty crowns Dreier (R-CA) the king of using the procedure, dubbing it in fact, the "Dreier Doctrine."

That hasn't stopped Republicans from giving the potential tactic to consider the Senate bill as having passed without a vote the scary name of the "Slaughter Solution."

From the Roll Call piece, written June 19, 2006:

Former House GOP Rules Committee Chief Of Staff Don Wolfensberger: Republicans "Set New Records" For Using Self-Executing Rule.

Self-executing rules began innocently enough in the 1970s as a way of making technical corrections to bills. But, as the House became more partisan in the 1980s, the majority leadership was empowered by its caucus to take all necessary steps to pass the party's bills. This included a Rules Committee that was used more creatively to devise procedures to all but guarantee policy success.

The self-executing rule was one such device to make substantive changes in legislation while ensuring majority passage. ... When Republicans took power in 1995, they soon lost their aversion to self-executing rules and proceeded to set new records under Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.).

There were 38 and 52 self-executing rules in the 104th and 105th Congresses (1995-1998), making up 25 percent and 35 percent of all rules, respectively.

Under Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) there were 40, 42 and 30 self-executing rules in the 106th, 107th and 108th Congresses (22 percent, 37 percent and 22 percent, respectively). Thus far in the 109th Congress, self-executing rules make up about 16 percent of all rules."

The Democrats also point to Thomas Mann of the Brookings Institution, telling the Washington Post the "deem and pass" move isn't so unusual. For example, it was used to ban smoking on domestic airline flights, Mann told the Post.

Ed. note: This post has been edited from the original.