As Bob mentions in his interview with Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R., Calif.), House Republicans are planning new legislation attempting to force the Senate to come up with a long-term spending bill of its own. GOP leaders offered more details at a press conference this morning.
They are currently preparing a resolution — dubbed “The Government Shutdown Prevention Act” — that would formally scold the Senate for failing to act (some 39 days after the House passed a long-term budget resolution, H.R. 1, to cut federal spending by $61 billion) and urge them to pass a spending bill. It would also publicly reiterate the urgency of the situation — the current resolution funding the government expires on April 8.
The resolution will stipulate that if the Senate fails to pass a bill before April 6 that funds the government through the remainder of the fiscal year (September 30), H.R. 1 would become “the law of the land,” and members of Congress would stop receiving their paychecks.
“We’ve not had any indication that the Senate is interested in changing the status quo,” House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R., Va.) said. “Again and again, the Republican House has said: ‘Look, come work with us, cut spending.’”
“Perhaps this [resolution] will prod the Senate into joining us and taking care of business here, which is to get our fiscal house in order,” he added.
UPDATE: Video of House Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio) from Wednesday morning’s press conference. If Senate Democrats really have a plan, he says, they should “pass the damn thing” and stop “rooting for a government shutdown.”
For Members of Congress to stop receiving their paychecks is probably not much of a financial hardship: they do better from under the table payment and other rent-seeking. For their staff, OTOH, it could be a real shock.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThe name is great...if only they could add "...Don't Hurt Babies and Puppies". I mean, who is going to vote against the Don't Hurt Babies and Puppies Act of 2011?
GOP needs to ADD "no back pay" and "no 2011 back-funding" for any government agency affected by a shut down. In for a penny, in for a pound.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseSo if no other action is taken, HR 1 will be deemed to have passed? ;-)
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseHow can a House bill become the law of the land without a vote of the Senate?
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse@ FAR52 — It can't, unless this Act passed the Senate....which is won't. It's showmanship.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThis is nice, but I'm waiting for the "Startup Prevention Act." That's where those Delaware dopes picking up basketball poles are put to work filling vacant government offices with cement during the shutdown.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIt's odd that no one - not even the GOP - ever mentions that the hateful draconian tea-party HR 1 got more votes in the Senate than did the compassionate Democratic alternative unless I'm reading thomas.gov wrong.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseGOP leaders have been in Washington too long. They don't have a clue how to talk to normal people (the voters) any more.
Don't any of them remember how the first attempt at socialized medicine (Hillarycare) was defeated? Harry and Louise, direct, wide spread advertising discussing the real faults and dangers in the Democrats attempt to grab power.
Why do no Republican "leaders" remember that Reagan didn't get elected by using cute, poll tested, gimmicks. He spoke about his conservative principles in language the voters could understand. No "truce" on principles, no flip flopping based on the latest poll. When Reagan faced down the air traffic controllers in 1981, he didn't try to re-legislate collective bargaining agreements, he fired them.
Forget legislative maneuvers that are too cute by half. Start spending some of those millions you are saving to guarantee your personal reelection to educate the public on why this runaway explosion of spending is going to destroy our economy. Stop crying on TV to show how sensitive you are and start fighting to preserve this country.
Man up, or go home.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI don't like the House's strategy here. The Senate could get some bill that's strong enough to get, say, 53 votes, but now you have a fillibuster issue. If Senate R's fillibuster the bill, they have a problem - they are the one's now causing the hold up. So the fillibuster goes off of the table. Then you go into conference, and the House is forced to compromise.
Frankly, I think the House position is idiotic.
I'll repeat a better plan. Pass a "shutdown prevention bill" that funds essential functions through the end of the fiscal year.
Go forward with the philosophy of "First, fund essential functions. Second, fund what we agree on (for the rest of the year). Last, fight over what we don't agree on."
Add: "Let's not hold essential functions or signing on new Social Security Recipients hostage to our political debates; that is not responsible. We need to have the political debates - they are necessary - but only after we deal with everything that we agree on."
Then dare the Senate not to pass funding of essential funcitons.
Dare the Senate not to pass funding of Social Security.
Etc. etc.
Then don't compromise on NPR, Planned Parenthood, etc.
And as for Obamacare and rescinding the funding, offer to trade it for something that they want. The R's have great logic here: "This does not end the story of the President's Health care. All this does is delay the funding for the rest of the year, and in the near term, until at least we have clarity from the Courts about whether the law is Constitutional or not. It makes no sense to fund a very possibly UnConstitutional Law."
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"I'll repeat a better plan. Pass a "shutdown prevention bill" that funds essential functions through the end of the fiscal year"
That's a great plan - until you consider the fact that Harry Reid thinks funding "Cowboy Poetry" to be an essential function of the government.
Oops, so much for that plan. The fact is that Democrats don't want to cut ANYTHING and there are no areas in which they will consider cuts, so there cannot be agreement on anything at all, even just what "essential' means.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse@West:
"Essential functions" has a technical, legal meaning in federal government parlance. It doesn't mean "anything that I want it to mean." It means national security, prisons, and a little bit more, on skeleton crews. Not much HR support. No parks service. No new SSN.
"Essential functions" are the functions that *don't* shut down during a gov't shut-down. During these periods, "essential" federal employees have to come into work, but they DON'T GET PAID until after the shutdown ends.
The key to this plan is that Harry Reid and the D's CAN'T say no to agreeing to this. They'd be telling federal employees (and the Unions which fund the D's) - come to work but we won't pay you. They'd be telling the Country: we're not willing to fund "Essential" functions based on the fact that NPR and Cowboy Poetry funding is so important to us.
THEY COULDN'T SAY NO! And they couldn't say no to funding Social Security, or Patents, or OSHA, etc., one by one, even though those bills WOULDN'T fund NPR, Planned Parenthood, etc.
You pass the bill, and dare them to vote no. They'll fold.
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