House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, speaks to the media during his weekly news conference on Capitol Hill Aug. 1 in Washington. (Photo: Mark Wilson, Getty Images)
Story Highlights House GOP leaders had to scrap a spending bill this week It was the first bill aimed at implementing tight spending limits Republicans in House balked at cuts; in Senate, they blocked a bill that would spend more
WASHINGTON - Republicans in Congress stumbled this week over their party's internal divisions on fiscal issues, leaving the party struggling for direction as it prepares for a bruising fall battle with Democrats over the federal budget.
Wednesday, GOP leaders abandoned a transportation spending bill that adhered to the budget drafted by House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis. It would have continued this year's governmentwide spending cuts known as the "sequester." The Ryan budget had been approved by the House in March with all but 10 House Republican votes, but Wednesday, GOP leaders were not able to muster enough votes to pass the transportation bill, the first non-defense spending bill that would have implemented the Ryan spending levels. Some Republicans joined Democrats in opposition to the bill because it did not provide enough money for government programs they consider crucial.
House Appropriations Chairman Hal Rogers, R-Ky., issued a blistering critique of his colleagues after the bill was pulled. "With this action, the House has declined to proceed on the implementation of the very budget it adopted just three months ago. Thus, I believe that the House has made its choice: sequestration - and its unrealistic and ill-conceived discretionary cuts - must be brought to an end," Rogers said.
But Thursday, Senate Republicans blocked a second, more generous, version of the same bill because it would have spent more money than allowed under the sequester. They blocked the bill despite the advocacy of Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, who helped write the bill and asked her GOP colleagues to support it.
House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., both face divisions among the GOP rank-and-file on the best path forward in negotiations with Democrats on how to prevent a government shutdown when the funding runs out Sept. 30.
Thursday, Boehner disputed Rogers' statement: "I just want make clear, the sequestration is going to remain in effect until the president agrees to cuts and reforms that will allow us to remove it."
The speaker acknowledged that appropriators tasked with implementing GOP budget cuts are unhappy. "Listen, the appropriators, they've had a tough job over the last couple of years. And they've taken a lot of tough votes in their committee. And so I understand the frustration that they're dealing with."
Administration officials say they are unclear who they are negotiating with or what the demands are from Republicans, considering the divisions on display this week.
"A challenge for us and a challenge for them," said Sylvia Mathews Burwell, director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), at a breakfast hosted Thursday by The Wall Street Journal. "Certainly it is much easier to think about negotiating and having deals when there is a singular represented point of view. That pretty much is a given."
Senate Appropriations Chairwoman Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., said, "This shows exactly why Washington is not working." She said Senate Democrats were open to negotiating a new spending target for the fiscal year with House Republicans. Rogers likewise voiced a willingness to reopen broad budget talks with the president and Democrats to reach a long-term solution.
"The House, Senate and White House must come together as soon as possible on a comprehensive compromise that repeals sequestration, takes the nation off this lurching path from fiscal crisis to fiscal crisis, reduces our deficits and debt, and provides a realistic top-line discretionary spending level to fund the government in a responsible - and attainable - way," Rogers said.
Without a resolution on what the funding levels should be, the federal government could shut down Oct. 1.
Adding drama to the spending fight, a group of 79 Republicans - 13 senators and 66 House lawmakers - pledged to vote against any funding bill unless it defunds the president's health care law. Neither Boehner or McConnell have embraced the pledge, and many Republicans senators, including Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., have criticized the demand for making the GOP vulnerable to political blame if the government shuts down.
The paralysis displayed this week on the annual spending bills underscores how little support there is in either party for further cuts to discretionary spending, which Washington has already cut by more than $1 trillion for the next decade.
But GOP leadership remains committed to the cuts.
Boehner continues to stake out a position that any attempt to replace the sequester with higher spending levels must be commensurate with cuts and changes elsewhere in the federal budget. The same standard applies for a fight this year over whether to raise the nation's borrowing limit, but the party has not offered specific policy proposals.
McConnell has seconded that view, making it clear that any proposal that does not keep in place sequester-level spending cuts of $1.2 trillion over the next decade will be a non-starter. "We need to keep our word on these spending cuts. We need to start living within our means," McConnell said.
