'Divided House GOP Conference' Failing the American People

The House Republican Conference – under the former GOP Budget Chairman, Speaker Ryan – blew their budget deadline last Friday.  Par for the course for House GOP, really, because they are failing to take action to confront crises facing American families across the country.

POLITICO:

Paul Ryan has had a tough couple of months.

The House GOP's response to Puerto Rico's debt crisis is stuck, with a big May 1 deadline looming.  The leadership's 2017 budget plan is stalled.  And legislation to overhaul the Federal Aviation Administration hasn't left the runway.

Almost six months into the job, Ryan and his top lieutenants face questions about whether the Wisconsin Republican's tenure atop the House is any more effective that his predecessor, former Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio).  Ryan has flattered the House Freedom Caucus and pursued promises to empower rank-and-file Republicans with reforms to how the House operates — yet it's yielded little in the way of actual results.

Democrats are openly mocking their GOP counterparts, and Republicans grumble — in private so far — that nothing is getting done under Ryan.  Like Boehner, Ryan is finding out that becoming speaker is easier than being speaker, at least in the still badly divided House GOP Conference.

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"I think Boehner would have listened to it for a little bit, given everybody a chance to chew on it and swallow it and spit it out, and then he would have just taken it to the damn floor," said one Republican on condition of anonymity, contrasting Ryan's style with Boehner's. "I think [Ryan] has underestimated the opposition to getting anything done."

Another Republican said the GOP Conference "is unwhippable and unleadable. Ryan is as talented as you can be: There's nobody better.  But even he can't do anything.  Who could?"

Ryan's difficulties have come into sharp relief this week.  With federal taxes due Monday, he and House Republicans dubbed it "IRS Week."  GOP leaders set up a series of votes to bash the troubled tax agency, including a bill to prevent the IRS from hiring new employees until it could certify no one working there owed back taxes.

But it's all been overshadowed by the failure to make headway on the GOP's larger agenda.

A House bill to address the Puerto Rico crisis is bogged down in committee after some Republicans cried "bailout," despite Ryan's insistence the measure is no such thing.  The GOP-drafted budget has been stalled for weeks because of objections from conservatives still upset over last year's spending deal with President Barack Obama and Democrats.  That's led to a delay taking up the dozen annual appropriations bills until mid-May.

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Only 40 legislative days remain before the House adjourns for the national conventions, and nothing substantive is expected to happen until a projected lame-duck session in November…

Republicans also pin blame for their problems on Obama, even when the president has no direct role in provoking squabbles among congressional Republicans.

"Paul is trying to define what the Republican Party is for the public out there, but sort of reassure us up here," said Rep. Tom Rooney (R-Fla.). "I feel like I'm a good Republican, yet you just don't know anymore.  If you read your Facebook page, you get called all these names and stuff like that…I feel like I'm a good Republican; at least I haven't gone back on what I ran on. But I don't know."

National Journal:

Puerto Rico Crisis Tests Ryan's Willingness to Work With Democrats

House Speak­er Paul Ry­an has prom­ised to em­power com­mit­tees, pass ma­jor­ity-Re­pub­lic­an bills, and avoid for­cing le­gis­la­tion on his mem­bers, but his core ten­ets of hands-off lead­er­ship may soon be tested as Pu­erto Rico spir­als fur­ther in­to a debt crisis.

If con­ser­vat­ive op­pos­i­tion to a GOP-au­thored Pu­erto Rico meas­ure en­dures, Ry­an and House Nat­ur­al Re­sources Com­mit­tee Chair­man Rob Bish­op may be forced to give more con­ces­sions to Demo­crats to lure their votes.  Wheth­er they do—and how far across the aisle they go—will be in­struct­ive in show­ing when Ry­an deems it ap­pro­pri­ate to break his own rules.

Ry­an may find, much like pre­de­cessor John Boehner, that when faced with a crisis point—an in­transigent con­fer­ence and a com­mit­tee that can­not find a middle ground—it may be bet­ter to bear the near-term polit­ic­al costs of con­ced­ing to Demo­crats rather than the long-term, real-world costs of al­low­ing a dis­aster like the melt­down of Pu­erto Rico's eco­nomy to hap­pen.

A Re­pub­lic­an lead­er­ship source, gran­ted an­onym­ity to dis­cuss in­tern­al strategy, said it is clear that Demo­crat­ic votes will be needed to pass a Pu­erto Rico bill…

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Cer­tainly some in the Re­pub­lic­an con­fer­ence re­main op­posed to the bill. Re­pub­lic­an Study Com­mit­tee Chair­man Bill Flores said Tues­day he is still con­cerned the bill could lead to a bank­ruptcy-like path for Pu­erto Rico.  And a source with­in the House Free­dom Caucus, which has sev­er­al mem­bers sit­ting on the Nat­ur­al Re­sources Com­mit­tee, said the group re­mains split: Many see con­cerns with po­ten­tially set­ting a pre­ced­ent for fin­an­cially strapped states to ini­ti­ate a bail­out, but oth­ers be­lieve that if Re­pub­lic­ans do not act now, the pres­id­ent could stick them with le­gis­la­tion they hate even more un­der ad­verse cir­cum­stances.

The lat­ter point will be tested soon: Pu­erto Rico is set to miss a bond pay­ment on May 1, with fur­ther de­faults in com­ing months. The Nat­ur­al Re­sources Com­mit­tee hear­ing has not yet been res­ched­uled, but Bish­op said the dead­line will likely add ur­gency to the mat­ter, which could per­suade more Re­pub­lic­ans to vote for his bill.

On the oth­er hand, if too many Re­pub­lic­ans re­main op­posed to the bill, the ur­gent de­sire to avoid a fisc­al crisis and sub­sequent bail­out could push Ry­an to make a deal with Demo­crats.

Roll Call:

Crises Mount, House Still Won't Act

Governing by crisis has become the norm in Congress in recent years, but so far this year even that hasn't happened.

Puerto Rico is on the verge of economic collapse, an average of 78 people are dying every day from opioid overdoses, and mosquitoes carrying the Zika virus have been found in 30 states. But Congress has shown no urgency about addressing those issues.

Maybe that's not surprising from a Republican majority that can't even adopt a nonbinding budget resolution after months of "family" discussions.

"That was the first real test of whether Ryan could manage the Freedom Caucus," Kenneth Gold, director of the Government Affairs Institute at Georgetown University, said. "And the answer is a resounding no."

American University professor David Lublin said there are pretty much two ways to pass legislation in the House these days: You get Democrats to agree with a minority Republicans or you get a supermajority of Republicans.

The former is an option Republican leaders try to avoid because they know it will anger their members, who will complain that they gave up too much to the other side.  But the latter is difficult too, given the divisions among the GOP conference.

Legislation to help Puerto Rico restructure its debt and get back on sound fiscal footing is the latest victim of that dynamic.  The bill couldn't even move forward in committee as scheduled last week because it lacked support from members of both parties.

Puerto Rico is also a good example of the House's lack of urgency.  Late last year Ryan had set a goal of having the House pass legislation to aid Puerto Rico by the end of March, but that timeline has now slipped to at least May.

That is also the targeted schedule for the House to pass legislation addressing the opioid epidemic.

The Senate, which typically moves more slowly than the House, passed legislation to promote opioid treatment and prevention a month ago and senators have been critical of the House for not following suit.

"This just seems to be a Congress that just wants to say no; no to the budget, no to appropriate Zika funding, no to Puerto Rico, no to immigration, no to gun safety," House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said. "We know the votes are there for all of these initiatives."

Intra-party divisions among House Republicans is not a new phenomenon.  Speaker John A. Boehner struggled to manage the far right flank, too, but he would exert power when needed to push through legislation.

Ryan has taken a more hands-off approach in an effort to restore regular order — that is, to have bills marked up in committee and amended on the floor. But that hasn't produced much legislative action either.

NPR:

Even for an election year, 2016 is turning out to be a particularly unproductive year for Congress.  House GOP leaders are struggling to pass a budget — a modest goal at best — while other legislative items are getting punted until after the election.

Alisa Chang, NPR.  It's getting so sluggish on Capitol Hill even academics are getting bored. Sarah Binder teaches a course on Congress at George Washington University, and usually at the beginning of every class, she spends 15 minutes talking about what Congress is working on…now they're slow-walking even modest legislative goals.  Criminal justice reform keeps getting put on ice - same with emergency funding to fight the Zika virus…Democrat Dan Kildee can't believe his colleagues are still deadlocked over what to do about lead poisoning in Flint, Mich.  That's his district.

Congressman Kildee.  Here we have a major crisis, a community of a hundred thousand people, and Congress can't act to provide even the basic kind of help for this community. There's no excuse for it. This is a do-nothing Congress like nothing we've seen before.

Alisa Chang.  But there seems to be plenty of time to think about other things. Last month, one House member introduced a measure that would nationally recognized magic as an art form. Kildee was not amused.

Americans could care less about Speaker Ryan's big speeches and appearances on comedy shows.  House GOP: what the American people want is for you to #DoYourJob and address the crises that have been intensifying under the dysfunctional House Republican Congress.  Hard-working families deserve a Congress that invests in their future, protects their safety, and creates a level-playing field for them and their children to succeed.