GOP leaders take gamble on doomed relief bill

The House of Representatives voted Tuesday to pass a partisan, six-month temporary budget bill early Wednesday, which includes controversial voting restriction legislation. The bill passed on a narrow party-line vote on a rule that would allow the continuing resolution and several unrelated bills to be debated in the House.

The vote on the rule was 209-206, with two Republicans opposed: Matt Rosendale of Montana and Andy Biggs of Arizona. No Democrats supported the rule.

Despite growing Republican opposition to the relief bill and the lack of a clear path to passage, Speaker Mike Johnson pledged earlier in the day to put the bill on the agenda Wednesday, in private remarks during a Tuesday morning conference call and later publicly to reporters.

“I told the conference this morning and I’ll say it again here: I am determined on this and I don’t know what more I can say to show that conviction,” Johnson said at a news conference after the meeting.

House Democrats are expected to remain united against the bill, citing legislation requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote, a six-month deadline they say is far too long.

Without Democratic help, Johnson, R-La., can afford to lose only four Republicans and still get the bill passed, barring absences from across the aisle. But more Republicans than that have already spoken out against the legislation, both anti-spending conservatives and defense-minded Republicans, leaving the chairman and his team in a whip-count deficit that will be hard to escape.

Others were still considering their positions, with several saying they had not made up their minds after the morning meeting.

Among them was Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga. — no friend of Johnson — who said tougher border restrictions and spending cuts should also be part of the bill, along with a requirement for proof of citizenship to vote. Greene seemed fairly negative about the current package in her remarks after the meeting.

“The worst thing Republicans in the House can do is create a phony fight that the base knows is lying and frustrates our voters heading into the election,” Greene said. “Just be honest. … Don’t let people like me pretend that we’re fighting for something, because I’m not going to be a part of it.”

House Appropriations Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla., said his party is not currently working on changes to the bill to win more votes. Cole said he is not sure whether Johnson will ultimately bring the bill to the floor.

“We haven’t heard that many complaints about individual things in the law that would make a difference in how someone votes,” he said. “There are people who have never voted for a CR but they really want it (the voting law), so they’re kind of going back and forth. So you just have to drop it.”

Plan B unclear

Now that it appears the current version of the bill will either fail or be withdrawn before a vote, it is not yet clear what the next step for House Republicans will be.

Johnson and some other Republicans want a six-month budget bill because they believe Republicans will be better positioned in the next Congress with a stronger congressional majority and former President Donald Trump back in the White House.

“We know that if we were to write something in December, it would be more than a Christmas tree, it would be a lot of presents and everything underneath,” said Rep. Dan Meuser, R-Pa., “So we’re going to stand firm.”

But the six-month plan has alienated Republican defense advocates, including Armed Services Chairman Mike D. Rogers, Republican of Alabama, because it would keep funding for the Pentagon relatively stable and impose limits on what it can buy.

Cole said that while he supports the chairman’s plan, he doesn’t think Congress should delay the issue this far.

“I personally think it’s not a good thing to give a new president, and we’re going to get a new president, an immediate financial crisis,” Cole said. “But again, that’s probably going to depend on who wins the election.”

13 dec alternative

Democrats in both chambers agree the six-month bill is too long. Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, the top Republican in the Senate, said she also wants a shorter bill.

According to sources familiar with the discussions, the Senate budget committees are working on a bill that will run through Dec. 13 and are waiting to see what the House of Representatives does.

Budget Committee staff have sent the “anomalies” they want included to the full committee, and the authorizing committees have until Wednesday to indicate which authorization extensions they want added.

Speaking on the Senate floor Tuesday, Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer rattled off a list of items not addressed in the House bill, attacking it as “unserious” and “crude” and with no chance of becoming law.

The White House requested the missing pieces as part of requests to lawmakers filed just before Labor Day weekend. Among the sticking points likely to appear in the Senate version:

Immigration and border control. The House bill would not extend the E-Verify program, a web-based system that allows employers to verify the eligibility of employees to work legally in the U.S. He also said the bill “destroys a critical law enforcement effort to stop drug trafficking, drug cartels and money laundering.”

That’s likely a reference to the Homeland Security Department’s expiring authority to operate joint task forces that pool the efforts of multiple DHS agencies, including Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Coast Guard. The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee introduced a bill in late July to extend the task force’s authority for two years.

Expiring health care facilities. Schumer criticized the bill for omitting an extension of a federal telehealth program that allows virtual doctor visits. “We know how important telehealth is, particularly for rural Americans,” he said. “It has made health care in rural areas much better, cheaper and more effective, but they don’t fund it.”

He said the bill would also jeopardize funding for community health centers, a vital resource for low-income people who don’t have private insurance but don’t qualify for Medicare or Medicaid. It would also jeopardize special diabetes programs.

Agricultural law “dairy cliff”. Schumer attacked the bill for failing to include an extension of the farm bill, which risked expiring subsidies for the dairy industry, which are important to Schumer’s constituents in Upstate New York. “If this were to happen, it would decimate farmers across the country, and I know farmers in my own state have told me that some of them would go out of business,” Schumer said.

In addition, the dairy program would revert to an outdated law that requires the government to buy up large quantities of milk at much higher prices, thereby increasing demand. “The cost of milk could potentially double if we were to go over that dairy cliff,” Schumer said. “It would cause seismic disruptions in our supply chains and create panic in the marketplace.”

Senate Timing

The Senate version is unlikely to be ready this week, as the two sides are still discussing what additional funding should be included.

The House bill would add $10 billion to the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s disaster fund, which has bipartisan support, but leaves out about $18 billion for additional disaster-related requests for other agencies.

And House Republicans have not included the $12 billion the Biden administration has requested to help ease the veterans health care budget shortfall, which could come as early as this fall due to higher-than-expected enrollment and claims stemming from a 2022 law expanding services for veterans exposed to toxic substances overseas.

While the exact structure and timetable of the emergency bill have yet to be determined, it is likely that an agreement between the two sides will eventually be reached to avoid a partial government shutdown at the end of the month.

“We’ve seen this happen time and time again,” Schumer said. “The answer is very simple: The House needs to stop wasting time on a CR proposal that can’t become law.”

Nina Heller contributed to this report.