Deeply Divided House Republicans Postpone Budget Consideration
Speaker Paul Ryan has made passing a Fiscal Year 2017 Budget a top priority, calling on Members of his party to unify around a budget resolution. But so far, he hasn’t had much success. Hardliners in his party continue to resist his call for party unity and are urging him to abandon the budget deal they agreed to last year.
“Competing with the din of a nasty presidential primary, the House speaker, Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin, has essentially been begging Republicans to unite and become the party of ‘proposition, not opposition.’” [New York Times, 2/10/16]
“House Speaker Paul Ryan has made moving a budget a top priority but has faced sharp resistance from conservatives.” [Politico, 2/22/16]
While House Republicans were expected to mark up their budget resolution this week, they have been unable to unify around a budget strategy and are now postponing their budget mark-up until March.
“The House Budget Committee has postponed consideration of a 2017 fiscal blueprint until March, as the panel's chairman and leadership try to craft a resolution that passes the muster of conservatives.” [Politico, 2/22/16]
“…The [House Budget] Committee also is postponing markup of the annual tax and spending framework until March, after earlier aiming to approve the plan on Feb. 25. A Budget Committee aide said the plan will be shared with the full GOP conference, which will have input on the proposal. The aide said House leaders do not intend to bring the first 2017 appropriations bill to the floor until April.” [CQ, 2/22/16]
Reports indicate that Republicans are considering a plan that would tie government funding levels to cuts to entitlements – even though it was their votes for unpaid-for tax cuts that exploded the deficit.
“Republicans on the House Budget Committee have agreed on a fiscal 2017 budget resolution that would offer multiple options for cutting mandatory spending programs to offset the $30 billion in additional discretionary spending passed by Congress last year…” [CQ, 2/22/16]
After promising the American people a return to regular order, the GOP is struggling to govern.
“In spite of pronouncements by McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) that they want ‘regular order’ and [will] show voters that a Republican-controlled Congress is able to govern, it’s becoming increasing[ly] obvious that the House and Senate may not, or perhaps will refuse to, adopt a budget resolution or any individual appropriations bills this year…This effectively shuts down the budget process.” [Stan Collender, Forbes, 2/21/16]
Democrats will continue to urge Speaker Ryan to honor the budget agreement he voted for last year and work with us on a bipartisan basis to responsibly fund the government.
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