WASHINGTON – America’s elected leaders are once again on track to screw up even the most basic of functions they are supposed to do: keep the government’s lights on and write policies to protect the country from its enemies.
These kinds of clashes have become a familiar tradition in times of divided government. Things are no different in 2024 as the Republican-led House of Representatives insists on defying the Democratic-led Senate by inserting controversial provisions into the two most crucial measures for the current Congress, which is just over six months away.
The US House of Representatives last Friday passed the Pentagon’s annual policy bill – the National Defense Authorization Act. Although the bill is a traditionally bipartisan effort to get the green light for hundreds of millions of dollars in funding for the Defense Department, GOP lawmakers peppered the legislation with “culture war” amendments aimed at transgender health care policies, diversity programs and change initiatives. of the climate.
All of those provisions are dead on arrival in the Democratic-controlled Senate, which supports those kinds of government efforts.
Almost the exact same thing happened in last year’s version of the NDAA, when that series of Republican-sponsored amendments were dropped from the final compromise product that President Joe Biden ultimately signed into law in December.
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“It’s a waste of time,” said Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., for USA TODAY. He is the top Democrat on the House Rules Committee, the panel that determines which amendments can be placed on bills, and he accused Republicans of not being serious lawmakers.
House Republicans made a similar move earlier this month, when the lower chamber approved one of 12 spending bills needed to fund the government. Their military construction and veterans affairs funding bill passed largely along party lines as Democrats condemned the legislation for including numerous provisions aimed at abortion care, diversity programs and care for transgender people, among others.
Last year, Republicans failed to secure most of the provisions they attached to defense and spending bills, and the most conservative members of the House of Representatives relentlessly criticized House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La. They also accused the leadership of ceding ground to the Democrats.
“I hope the speaker, when he comes back from the Senate, will make a harder deal,” he said last year, said Rep. Ralph Norman, RS.C., a member of the ultra-conservative Freedom House group.
Rep. Rep. Kevin Hern, R-Okla., said in an interview that the GOP-led amendments are very much part of the negotiation process pending an eventual compromise with their Democratic counterparts on the other side of Capitol Hill.
“We don’t need to worry about what the Senate is doing. We’re a different body,” Hern said. Asked if he was confident there could be a different outcome in 2024, where Republicans would be able to secure some of those provisions in the final product, Hern said without hesitation, “No.”
Partisan fights have also caused damage to some legislators.
Rep. Gabe Vasquez, DN.M., one of the most vulnerable Democrats in the upcoming 2024 election, voted for last year’s version of the NDAA with dismay, despite the controversial culture war policy. He was in much the same position this year, but voted against the bill last week, saying he was “taking a stand.”
“This is all a pointless exercise in the same way it was last year in trying to inject partisan politics, toxic politics into the American discourse,” said Vasquez, whose district includes the southern part of his state, which has changed hands between Democrats and Democrats and Democrats. Republicans five times since 2008.
The chairwoman of the Democratic campaign wing of the House of Representatives, Rep. Susan Delbene, D-Wash., has vowed her party will follow Republicans on the campaign trail for supporting the policy’s controversial provisions. She has singled out Republican votes targeting abortion and reproductive care as key issues that Democrats will continue to attack Republicans on.
To their credit, the House is pushing the necessary bills to pass in a better time than last year and with the goal of beating the Sept. 30 fiscal year deadline for government funding.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., laid out an ambitious plan last month that would see the lower chamber pass all spending bills and the NDAA by August. The House is currently keeping pace with Scalise’s schedule, but far more controversial bills have yet to be considered.
While the House passed its version of the NDAA on Friday, the Senate just finished a week of meetings to consider how they would like to handle the legislation.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said on the Senate floor that the chamber’s Armed Services Committee will consider “hundreds” of changes to the defense policy bill.
“But a fundamental question hangs over both the NDAA and the appropriations process to come: Is Congress ready to meet our most fundamental responsibility to adequately provide for the common defense?” he asked.
McConnell argued that the White House budget proposal presented earlier this year would effectively cut national defense spending. He also blasted Senate Democrats for insisting on the same spending levels to cover both the defense and non-defense parts of the federal government, meaning identical overall funding for the Pentagon and all US programs ranging from transportation to housing. , education. , environment and social service programs.
The Senate version of the defense bill would increase Pentagon spending by $25 billion, a higher overall figure that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Friday “reflects bipartisan support to ensure robust funding for our national security.”
Schumer added that increased funding must be matched by an equal increase in spending for programs that serve everyday Americans, citing a bipartisan agreement reached last year between Biden and then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R- California, to raise the nation’s debt limit. in exchange for funding cuts.
For now, there is no sign that the Senate will face the same culture war challenges coming from the House. Sen. Kevin Cramer, RN.D., said he is not concerned that those policy additions from House Republicans will scuttle the bill in the Senate and expressed confidence that the differences will be resolved.
“That’s why there are two chambers and why our founders thought to have that kind of diversity of thought in the process,” he said. “At the end of the day, we always come together on the NDAA, and I expect this will be no exception.”
House lawmakers also agree as much, though that doesn’t convince some of the members who are pushing for their own controversial amendments. “I’ll bring them back next year,” said Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn.
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