House Republicans made it just 100 days before revoking their promise to restore regular order to the legislative process and have bills debated in committee before coming to the floor.
GOP leadership is set to circumvent the standard committee process on its proposal to slash spending and raise the federal debt limit. The legislation is set to be assembled within the House Rules Committee rather than the appropriations or budget panel.
A senior Republican aide defended the move, saying GOP leaders were working on a tight timeline to pass the legislation before Congress leaves town at the end of April for a weeklong recess.
“It’s still going to be debated within [the] House Rules [Committee] and on the floor, where almost everyone will have an opportunity to weigh in,” said the aide. “We’re just skipping a few steps for the sake of timing.”
While campaigning last fall, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and other GOP leaders pledged to decentralize the legislative process. That largely was described as requiring every bill to go through the committee process, wherein lawmakers would hold hearings and vote on amendments.
At the time, Republicans said the change was needed because then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi centralized power within the Democratic leadership to the detriment of rank-and-file lawmakers. GOP lawmakers specifically cited Mrs. Pelosi’s stacking of the House Rules Committee with leadership allies.
SEE ALSO: McCarthy rips Biden’s refusal to negotiate debt ceiling hike
“Instead of following regular order, where bills receive public hearings in committee, Pelosi has centralized power in her office, where massive legislation is written behind closed doors,” Mr. McCarthy said in March 2021. “The result? The interests and opinions of millions of Americans are not properly heard or represented.”
When Republicans won the majority and began the process of electing leaders and passing a rules package, restoring regular order was a top priority for conservative lawmakers. Dozens of members from the House Freedom Caucus delayed Mr. McCarthy’s ascension to speaker this year over the issue of regular order.
The rebels eventually relented after securing concessions from Mr. McCarthy on regular order and the makeup of the House Rules Committee. On the latter, conservatives secured three of the panel’s nine GOP seats.
House Freedom Caucus Chairman Scott Perry cited those concessions when defending the process slated to be used for consideration of the debt ceiling bill.
“This is regular order,” said Mr. Perry, Pennsylvania Republican. “If we have consensus, I’m not sure we need to go through a committee markup.”
House Republicans are proposing to raise the debt limit until spring 2024 in exchange for capping nondefense spending and limiting future budget growth to 1% annually over the next decade.
SEE ALSO: Biden to escalate rhetoric over debt ceiling plan, rebuke Republicans
They further want to rescind President Biden’s student loan forgiveness program, new green energy tax credits and $90.5 billion in unspent COVID-19 relief. GOP lawmakers are also pushing to institute work requirements for social welfare programs, including Medicare and food stamps.
Beyond cutting spending and restructuring the social safety net, GOP lawmakers want to overhaul the nation’s energy-permitting laws and pass legislation requiring congressional approval for new regulations with an economic impact of more than $100 million per year.
Mr. McCarthy wants to pass the bill before Congress adjourns at the end of April. Republicans recognize the proposal is not a final product, but hope its passage will force Mr. Biden to kick-start negotiations in earnest.
“That is our first offer in this debt ceiling negotiation,” said House Financial Services Committee Chairman Patrick McHenry, a North Carolina Republican. “We’ll see if the president’s willing to come to the table and negotiate as previous presidents have.”
Mr. Biden has refused to negotiate with House Republicans for months, arguing that because Republicans and Democrats have contributed to the more than $31 trillion national debt, both parties should come together to raise the debt limit.
In calling for a clean debt ceiling hike, the White House cites prior instances during the Reagan and Trump administrations where Democrats and Republicans opted to raise the borrowing cap in a bipartisan fashion.
“They’re putting our economy in jeopardy by threatening to refuse to pay America’s bills that took 200 years to accumulate by the way,” said Mr. Biden. “Not this year, last year, [but] 200 years.”
• Haris Alic can be reached at halic@washingtontimes.com.
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