Catching you up. The House Republican leadership has delayed three critical markups on President Donald Trump’s reconciliation package as internal party squabbles have hobbled the GOP’s ability to move quickly.
After a White House meeting between Trump, Speaker Mike Johnson, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise and key committee chairs, the GOP leadership decided to delay markups next week in the House Energy and Commerce, Ways and Means and Agriculture panels, according to Republican lawmakers and aides.
Let’s put this in context: The Energy and Commerce and Agriculture panels are charged with finding $1.1 trillion-plus in spending cuts from Medicaid, food stamps and other social safety net programs. This has set off a bitter clash between the conservative and moderate wings of the House GOP conference.
Meanwhile, the Ways and Means Committee’s remit is the core of the Republican reconciliation process — an extension of the 2017 Trump tax cuts plus the president’s campaign priorities.
Despite working on the policy behind the scenes for nearly a year to find party consensus, the massive GOP package remains in flux. Huge disagreements over key policy issues remain:
– The White House is seeking to change the trajectory of debate around some policies, namely how House Republicans are handling Medicaid work requirements, drug pricing and the provider tax. White House officials are also intent on notching a victory on lowering drug prices and see the inclusion of this policy in the reconciliation package as a political priority.
– Energy and Commerce needs more time to work out Medicaid conflicts both internally and with the White House. This is, by far, the most serious dispute, and one that could sink the whole package.
– The Ways and Means Committee is waiting on budgetary scores from the Joint Committee on Taxation on a host of its policies.
Looking ahead. The House GOP leadership wants the trio of committees to mark up their sections of the package during the week of May 12. But that would mean that all three panels will mark up the same week as the Budget Committee. Budget is charged with stitching together one giant reconciliation package using the various pieces from all the panels.
For Johnson to meet his Memorial Day deadline, everything would have to go according to plan in the three committees. This is far from guaranteed, although Johnson remains dead set on this timeline and the leadership says they are still convinced they can hit it.
The Senate. There hasn’t been a single Senate markup yet on reconciliation – and probably never will be – yet the Byrd Rule has already come into play.
Under the arcane and hyper-complex Byrd Rule, only provisions that directly deal with spending, revenue or the debt limit can be included in the filibuster-proof package.
In response, the House Judiciary Committee ditched its plan to move the Federal Trade Commission’s antitrust enforcement authority to the Justice Department. Senators were dubious it would be allowed under their chamber’s rules.
Farm bill problems. The House Agriculture Committee looks like it will have a similar Byrd Rule problem.
House Agriculture Republicans are planning to squeeze more of the farm bill into the reconciliation package. The plan is to enact more of the farm bill through reconciliation, leaving only a small number of measures for bipartisan negotiations.
But Senate Agriculture Committee Chair John Boozman (R-Ark.) dismissed that idea Thursday.
“Most of the stuff that they’re talking about, I don’t think would survive the Byrd Rule in the Senate,” Boozman said. “Their rules are very different from ours.”
Financial Services: Two targeted agencies – the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and Public Company Accounting Oversight Board – both exist outside the normal appropriations process.
Republicans believe they can argue both changes will result in revenue for the federal government that can be used as reconciliation pay-fors. But it’s not a given that the Senate parliamentarian will agree.
Democrats are deeply skeptical that the effort will generate meaningful savings.
“House Republicans want to fire the cops on the beat who protect families from getting scammed and cheated,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said Thursday. “That doesn’t save anybody money, and the House Republicans know that.”
Natural Resources: House Natural Resources Committee Chair Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.) has said a major permitting overhaul is unlikely to be included in reconciliation because of Byrd Rule concerns. Westerman will have to show there’s a revenue impact on the policies he’s pursuing.
Westerman aims to approve some mining projects in reconciliation, specifically the Twin Metals mine in Minnesota. He’s also floated the idea of requiring more auctions for oil and gas drilling.
