Tough votes loom

Tough votes loom for GOP under Ryan plan

He vowed to empower the rank-and-file. Now some are facing blowback. 

By Rachael Bade

Paul Ryan vowed when he took the speaker’s gavel last fall that the era of top-down, get-in-line leadership was over: Rank-and-file members would have their say, even if it meant a slower and messier legislative process.

He’s made good on that promise, refusing to jam his conference on a budget they did not support, or a Senate-passed Zika virus package his members hated because it wasn’t paid for.

But now the speaker’s commitment to “regular order” is being tested.

Last week, conservatives twisted Ryan’s (R-Wis.) arm into allowing panel hearings on impeaching the IRS commissioner, a move GOP leadership has never supported. Then, a gay rights amendment to a spending bill blew up on the House floor, forcing Republicans to run a last-minute whip operation to switch a handful of GOP votes and defeat the measure.

Three of those Republican vote switchers, who are facing tough reelections this fall, are already getting blowback: Democrats have vowed the make the vote a key election issue, calling those who changed their votes “cowards” who “can’t stand up to party leadership.”

It’s a reminder just how risky “regular order” can be. On the one hand, empowering committees and allowing House votes on even controversial amendments affords lawmakers more independence and leeway to advance their own ideas, promoting good will. But it also means tough votes that can embarrass the party or trip-up lawmakers trying to survive re-elections in November.

That’s the very reason why Ryan’s predecessor John Boehner (R-Ohio) preferred to keep power centralized at the top, blocking hot-button amendments that could produce heartburn for individual members or even the entire conference.

Ryan thus far seems to think the benefits of regular order outweigh the consequences. And on tough votes, he has one message to lawmakers: Get used to it if you want regular order.

“If we're going to have open rules in appropriations, which we have, which is regular order, people are going to have to take tough votes, and I think people are acknowledging this,” Ryan said at a press conference last Thursday, just minutes after the House's chaotic gay rights vote. “This is the kind of conversation we have had all along with our Members, which is tough votes happen in open rules, people have got to get used to that fact. That's the way regular order works.”

Still, the mayhem that broke out on the House floor last week is likely just the opening act in a summer of headaches that will follow Ryan’s management overhaul. Conservatives may still demand a floor vote on the IRS impeachment effort, which would leave more centrist Republicans caught between their GOP base and independents they may need to win in the fall. And while Ryan is unlikely to bring the most controversial appropriations bills to the House floor, including spending bills for labor, housing and foreign operations,Democrats in the upcoming weeks will force votes when they can on additional gay rights issues Republicans would prefer to avoid altogether.

Those will further test Ryan’s vow to empower his conference, a promise he made in part as a way to break from Boehner’s more autocratic approach to running the House Republican Conference.

Under Boehner, leadership kept a tight leash on committee activities, blocking, for example, Oversight Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-Calif.) from doing an investigation of Hillary Clinton's email scandal. Another idea that never saw the light of day on the House floor: impeaching the IRS commissioner John Koskinen for obstructing a congressional investigation, a red-meat issue to the right that leadership thought would just turn into a political circus.

Ryan in recent months has demonstrated he’s moved beyond Boehner’s tight grip.He didn't force his conference to vote on a budget laying out spending levels negotiated between Boehner and the Obama Administration just weeks before the Ohio Republican left office. Instead, he delayed appropriations until May 15 in accordance with House spending rules. He also didn’t force his conference to vote immediately on a Puerto Rico rescue package, listening to their concerns and rewriting the package in hopes of garnering more conservative support. And on Zika, he didn’t turn to Democrats to rubber-stamp a Senate-passed bipartisan deal because his conference felt new funding should be offset by cuts elsewhere.

Last week alone, he took on two issues Boehner refused: He compromised with conservatives on the impeachment matter, blessing Judiciary Committee hearings rather than seeking to punish the two conservatives who put pressure on him by threatening to force a floor vote on the issue. And he allowed for the first time a House vote on an amendment banning the Confederate flag in national cemeteries — language that last year torpedoed the entire appropriations process because Boehner feared litigating the racially-charged issue on the floor would hurt his party.

“If you’re going to have a true open process you can’t prevent members from offering germane amendments on the floor,” a GOP leadership source said before the vote. “If you want an open process, and all of our members have said they do, that also enables Democrats to put up amendments as well.”

That regular order success, however, quickly soured when a few minutes later, GOP leaders had to whip against a gay rights anti-discrimination amendment that looked like it was about to pass. They convinced several lawmakers from western states, who originally voted yes, to change their votes.

That vote change is already causing trouble for three of them: Rep. Bruce Poliquin of Maine, David Young of Iowa and David Valadao of California, who are some of the most vulnerable House Republicans from toss-up districts. Newspapers in their districts are highlighting their last-minute vote change, and their Democratic challengers are calling them push-overs who won't stand up for themselves.

“Today David Young voted to allow continued discrimination against the LGBT community. This type of extreme partisanship is something we should expect from someone who has never held a job outside of Congress,” said Jim Mowrer, an Iraq veteran challenging Young. “David Young changed his vote after being pressured by his party to vote against the LGBT community… I believe so strongly in putting service to Iowans ahead of politics.”

Young's campaign manager, Charlie Szold, said in a statement Mowrer that is no threat. "You mean a potential opponent who's already gotten his butt kicked in a congressional race by 23 points is trying to turn a vote into a political opportunity? Shocking!" Szold said.

Democrats, meanwhile, have nicknamed Poliquin, whose district went twice for Present Barack Obama, “Backroom Bruce” for changing his vote at leadership’s behest.

“If Backroom Bruce made anything clear yesterday it’s that he can’t stand up to party leadership and instead shamefully folds under pressure,” said Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s northeast region spokesman Bryan Lesswing. “Mainers deserve better leadership.”

The headlines have put Poliquin on the defensive. On Thursday night he issued a statement saying he’s “outraged that political opponents or members of the press would claim or insinuate that I cast a vote due to pressure or party politics.”

“No one controls my vote,” he said. “I work hard ONLY for the people of Maine's 2nd Congressional District. I abhor discrimination in any form and at any place.”

It didn’t stop his Democratic challenger Emily Cain from jabbing him, too: "Maine people can count on me to be honest and open about my beliefs and my votes.”

Asked why leadership had to change GOP votes on the matter Friday, Ryan sidestepped: “I don't know the answer. I don't even know.”

Leadership offices later explained that the amendment had to fail if the biggerspending measure was going to pass: Republicans wouldn't vote for it with the gay rights amendment attached.

Tough votes like this will be unavoidable if Ryan is truly committed to regular order.In addition to measures conservatives may wanted litigated on the floor, Democrats will put the squeeze on Ryan — particularly in the spending measures coming to the House floor in the coming weeks, which means unlimited amendments on any relevant topic. Democrats may put up an amendment to the Justice Department spending bills that would relate to the Obama Administration’s lawsuit against North Carolina’s law banning transgender individuals from using bathrooms correlating with their new identities.

Ryan said Friday the matter is a “federalism issue” that "should be left up to the States." But will he allow a House vote on the matter when Democrats try?

Democrats may also try another vote on the gay-rights amendment that caused all the drama on Thursday. The provision essentially prevents federal contractors from doing government work if they discriminate against LGBT individuals. While it was proposed to the Veterans Affairs spending bill, it’s actually relevant to all appropriations bills.

They could also offer additional Confederate flag votes. While Ryan allowed the Confederate flag issue on the floor Thursday, it’s unclear if he would do the same for others, including those that specifically target the display of the Confederate flag at the Citadel military college in Charleston, South Carolina.

Thus far, Ryan isn’t blinking.

"The House will continue to work in an open regular order manner," said Ryan spokeswoman AshLee Strong in a statement for this story.