Long To-do List During Last Week House is in Session
There are five days left with the House in session, and time is running out for action on many must-pass legislative items. As the Wall Street Journal explains, Republican leaderships’ history of partisanship and chaos does not bode well for the Republican-led House of Representatives:
“A Congress stymied by partisan divides, blown deadlines and intraparty squabbling gets a late chance this week to end the year with an elusive budget deal and to make headway on other fronts.”
“’I'm hopeful that next week we can show the people of this country that we can produce something that is smarter than the way we're going about things now,’ House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R., Va.) said on the House floor shortly before lawmakers left town last week.”
“Anagreement would mark a rare moment of bipartisan accord brokered without the specter of a government shutdown or financial chaos. However, even a deal reached by two lawmakers popular within their own parties would still have to secure the support of a GOP caucus unafraid to buck its leadership and a Democratic caucus concerned about other expiring programs.”
“Bipartisan movement is seen in other areas as well. Lawmakers indicated last week they had made progress negotiating the first new, five-year farm bill since 2008, although tentative agreements on certain programs providing federal support to farmers could be scuttled if estimates from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office show them to be too expensive. The bill lapsed in September, and lawmakers have been working for weeks to mesh legislation passed by the House and Senate before January, when the reversion to decades-old law could start to affect dairy programs, potentially leading to a surge in the price of milk.”
“Lawmakers have yet to formally agree on the politically explosive topic of how much to trim from food-stamps funding, which has traditionally been part of the farm bill. House Republicans want to cut spending on food stamps by nearly $40 billion over a decade, while Senate Democrats agreed to cut just $4 billion in their bill.”
“Before the House leaves this week, GOP leaders hope to pass legislation preventing a 24% cut to physicians' Medicare payments, a perennial patch known as the ‘doc fix,’ which the Senate hopes to tackle as well.”
Democrats are ready and willing to work until these items are completed – can Republicans end their dysfunction and work on behalf of the American people?