John Boehner

Jobs On The Line As GOP Pushes Last-Ditch Highway Bill

Sahil Kapur | March 29, 2012, 5:51AM

Rep. John Boehner (R-OH)

With potentially millions of jobs on the line, House Republicans are advancing their last, best option Thursday to prevent scores of transportation and infrastructure programs from expiring this weekend.

Despite a strong push by GOP leadership, rank-and-file House Republicans have resisted the call to back a bipartisan transportation bill, including one that passed the Senate overwhelmingly two weeks ago.

To save face without sparking the ire of caucus conservatives, House Speaker John Boehner will instead punt, and try to pass a three-month extension of existing programs. But even that isn't a sure bet to win 218 Republican votes.

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Spending

Republicans Press Boehner Not To Get Squeamish On Spending Cuts

Brian Beutler | January 20, 2011, 5:12PM

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) and John Boehner (R-OH).

Rank and file Republicans aren't happy with House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI). They think the GOP should take a hatchet to the federal budget now, to make good on their pledge to slash spending by $100 billion "this year." And their displeasure is spilling out into the open.

"Despite the added challenge of being four months into the current fiscal year, we still must keep our $100 billion pledge to the American people," reads a draft of a letter to Boehner, obtained by TPM, being circulated by the Republican Study Committee. "These $100 billion in cuts to non-security discretionary spending not only ensure that we keep our word to the American people; they represent a credible down payment on the fiscally responsible measures that will be needed to get the nation's finances back on track."

The problem, as Boehner and Ryan have explained, is that they won't even get a whack at the budget until March, when the government's current spending authority expires. By then it will only be six months until the end of the fiscal year in September, and they're having a hard time squeezing a year's worth of promised cuts through a half-year window.

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Nancy Pelosi

House Dems Press GOP To Announce Whether They'll Accept Government Health Care

Brian Beutler | January 5, 2011, 5:47PM

Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)

The minority has almost no power in the House of Representatives, but they usually do have the prerogative to force a single uncomfortable procedural vote. These motions leave the majority to choose between voting against something popular, or voting to scuttle or complicate their own agenda. This is how Republicans managed to wrongfoot Democrats on the 9/11 health bill and other issues in the last couple Congresses.

Democrats just offered their first "motion to commit" the new House rules. The goal? To amend the package to force new members to announce whether or not they'll be taking their government health care.

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Tea Party

The GOP's New Transparency Rules Might Not Be That Transparent

Brian Beutler | December 23, 2010, 10:11AM

Rep. John Boehner (R-OH) and Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA) with members of the Republican House leadership

Ahead of the November elections, one of the House GOP's biggest promises to its base was that it would make sure legislation was publicly available online for three days before putting it on the floor for a vote. From the Pledge to America: "We will ensure that bills are debated and discussed in the public square by publishing the text online for at least three days before coming up for a vote in the House of Representatives."

However, in a draft of their proposed rules for the House in the 112th Congress, they reportedly left themselves quite a loophole: the powerful Rules Committee seemingly won't be subject to the transparency requirements and can amend and even replace any bill. As Politico reported Wednesday, "That would leave GOP leaders a significant exemption to make last-minute changes without such a long period of public scrutiny."

This does not please the Tea Party.

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Bush Tax Cuts

How Nancy Pelosi Could Win The Fight Over Bush Tax Cuts

Brian Beutler | September 17, 2010, 4:46PM

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD), Rep. Chris Van Hollen, (D-MD) House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Rep. George Miller (D-CA), and Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC)

The number of House Democrats who agree with Republicans that Bush tax cuts for the rich should be extended is growing. In fact, if you add the Democrats who support extending all the cuts to the full Republican caucus, you likely get a majority of the House who want the rich to keep more of their money.

Republicans ought to be giddy about this. So why is Minority Leader John Boehner sounding the alarms that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi might play hardball on tax cuts?

Because she has an ace up her sleeve. More precisely, she has procedural tools at her disposal that could allow her to pass just the middle-income cuts alone. In fact, she could even allow a separate vote on tax cuts for the wealthy, and set it up in such a way that it would surely fail. And Boehner knows it.

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Health Care

Hoyer: House Will Hold Straight Up or Down Vote on Senate Health Care Bill

David Kurtz | March 20, 2010, 4:19PM

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)

[ed.note: This story was reported by Brian Beutler and written by David Kurtz]

On his way into a Democratic caucus meeting a short time ago, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) announced that the House would hold a straight up or down vote on the Senate health care bill, and forgo using the more complex procedural mechanisms that had proved too politically volatile.

"We determined that we can do this and it's a better process," Hoyer told reporters.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other leading Democrats had always insisted that no final decision had been made on whether to use the parliamentary procedure variously referred to as "deem and pass," the "self-executing rule," and the "Slaughter rule." But they had continued to prepare to use the procedure to ease the concerns of House Democrats who didn't want to vote on the Senate health care bill without greater assurance that it would be "fixed" by the Senate later using the reconciliation process.

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Health Care

Final Health Care Weekend? What To Expect From Saturday's Showdown

Christina Bellantoni | March 20, 2010, 11:18AM

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and President Barack Obama

The major vote on health care reform legislation is expected Sunday afternoon, but there is plenty of action on Capitol Hill today that will tell us a lot about whether tomorrow will yield the historic passage of a sweeping overhaul of the health care system, or be a bust without enough votes.

TPMDC is tracking all of the developments. Brian is keeping a close eye on the crucial negotiations over abortion provisions, including why Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI) indefinitely postponed a planned 11 a.m. press conference. Evan will be tracking conservatives who say an afternoon tea party rally near the Capitol is their last chance to stop the bill. I'm monitoring the Rules Committee hearing (live on C-SPAN2) which will set the framework for debate. We'll have it all for you on our Countdown to Reform Wire.

Another key event to watch today is a caucus meeting with two rare special guests - President Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Obama is expected to listen to any final concerns and rally House Democrats toward passage of the measure Sunday. But more important is Reid's presence, since wary rank-and-file members want firm assurances that the Senate will indeed pass a package of fixes to its health care legislation the House is expected to approve tomorrow.

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Health Care

Slaughter House Rules: The Truth About The Democrats' Plan To Pass Health Care

Brian Beutler | March 16, 2010, 5:20PM

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH); inset: Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY)

In their latest attempt to derail health care reform, conservatives are attacking the Democrats' preferred procedural strategy for passing the legislation. The GOP is trying to put Democratic leaders on the defensive about using what's known as a self-executing rule to push health reform through, with House Minority Leader John Boehner dubbing it, "the ultimate in Washington power grabs."

The issue, as I alluded to in this post, is Democrats' tentative decision to use a rule that would allow them to pass both the Senate health care bill and the reconciliation fix with a single vote. Republicans have dubbed this the "Slaughter Solution," and described it as an unprecedented maneuver that will allow Democrats to enact reform without casting a vote on it. The reality is that this maneuver (known more technically as a "self executing rule") has a long history, and has been used more frequently by Republicans than by Democrats.

That doesn't mean every Democrat is on board. Rep. Jason Altmire (D-PA)--a crucial swing vote on health care reform, told me and a handful of other reporters this afternoon that he disapproves of the "Byzantine" maneuver.

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Health Care

Dems On GOP Complaints About Rules: You Started It!

Christina Bellantoni | March 16, 2010, 11:16AM

Floor Of The United States House Of Representatives

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.

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Democrats

Fancy Footwork: The Many Steps Between The Democrats And Health Care Reform

Brian Beutler | March 16, 2010, 9:30AM

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)

We're less than a week away from the House vote that could seal the deal on health care reform, but a number of key procedural hurdles still stand in the way, as does the related, but more fundamental task of actually rounding up the 216 votes Speaker Nancy Pelosi will likely need to succeed.

So let's walk through all the (complicated) steps: The ultimate goal remains for the House to pass the Senate health care bill along with a series of amendments, which will be fast-tracked using the budget reconciliation process. Yesterday, the House Budget Committee approved a shell bill and sent it along to the Rules Committee, where its language will be stripped and replaced with the language of the reconciliation fix. That fix is still being tweaked behind the scenes as leadership goes back and forth with the Congressional Budget Office in search of a score that does not drastically alter the cost-estimate of the Senate health care bill.

Still with me?

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Health Care

House Rules Committee Chair: Kill The Bill And Start Over

Rachel Slajda | December 23, 2009, 2:27PM

Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY)

Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY), chairman of the powerful Rules Committee, wrote in a CNN op-ed today that the health care bill should be scrapped entirely.

"The Senate health care bill is not worthy of the historic vote that the House took a month ago," Slaughter wrote.

She listed her problems with the Senate bill: an individual mandate, no public option, no antitrust exemption and the Nelson abortion language, among other things.

"Supporters of the weak Senate bill say "just pass it -- any bill is better than no bill. I strongly disagree," she wrote. "It's time that we draw the line on this weak bill and ask the Senate to go back to the drawing board. The American people deserve at least that."

(H/T The Hill)

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