Want to run away, the pussies...

House GOP rushes to adjourn by Friday

Republican lawmakers want to be home campaigning for an increasingly challenging midterm, but Trump could be a wild card in their plans.

By JOHN BRESNAHAN and RACHAEL BADE

With the Supreme Court drama dominating the headlines, House Republican leaders are quietly preparing to adjourn at the end of this week until after the midterm elections, giving rank-and-file GOP lawmakers nearly 40 days at home to try to save their endangered majority.

That is, if President Donald Trump doesn’t do something to derail their plans.

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) has made no official announcement on the schedule yet, but key Republican lawmakers and aides say they expect that this will be the last week the House is in session before Election Day.

“That’s the plan,” a senior House Republican leadership aide said. “Fingers crossed.”

The Senate, on the other hand, may stay in session for several more weeks. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has vowed to push through Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation to the Supreme Court, despite a sexual assault allegation hanging over the nominee’s head, as well other executive-branch picks sought by Trump, before adjourning.

That also keeps vulnerable red-state Senate Democrats in town instead of back home campaigning.

But with Democrats now favored to take the majority, House Republicans are desperate to spend the final six weeks back home campaigning. Democrats have significantly widened their lead in surveys, now holding a 12-point advantage in congressional preference among voters, according to an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released Sunday.

That bad news for Republicans comes despite a booming economy, a top talking point for the GOP on the trail. Increasingly, however, independent voters say they want Democrats to control Congress as a check on Trump’s power. And Republicans on Capitol Hill have given little reason to believe they’ll ever stand up to the president, despite a White House that has bounced from chaos to crisis and back again.

House Republicans in swing districts face the difficult task of trying to motivate their Trump-loving GOP base while also keeping the unpopular president at a distance to avoid alienating the women and swing voters they need to win. Trump’s approval numbers remain in the upper 30s, a huge problem for Republicans.

With a Friday adjournment as their target, House GOP leaders plan to pass a “minibus” spending bill this week that funds the Pentagon, as well as the departments of Labor and Health and Human Services. Trump has already signed into law another minibus that covers military construction, energy and water programs, and Congress’ own funding.

GOP leaders then plan to temporarily extend funding for the remaining federal agencies through Dec. 7 via a “continuing resolution,” or CR. At that time — a month after Election Day — House and Senate GOP leaders have promised Trump they will push for his border wall with Mexico, even if it triggers a partial government shutdown.

The House is expected to approve the CR this week, which has already been adopted by the Senate.

Should Trump go along with the plan, as he has promised, GOP leaders would breathe a huge sigh of relief.

Yet the president has intermittently threatened to trigger a shutdown fight over the border-wall project. His unpredictability scares GOP leaders and campaign strategists, who fear that a shutdown now would be the final nail for the 8-year-old House Republican majority and could cost them the Senate.

But Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), McCarthy and other congressional leaders said they had received assurances Trump won’t shut down the government before Election Day, a move that would be a political disaster for the party.

Still, GOP leaders have devised a backup plan to make it more difficult for Trump to veto the CR: They’re linking the short-term bill with this week’s long-term boost for military funding, a strategy they believe will get Trump to sign it. Rebuilding the military was, after all, a central component of Trump’s 2016 campaign for the White House.

McCarthy’s office declined to comment on whether the House will adjourn Friday.

“There are no changes to the legislative calendar to announce,” said Erin Perrine, McCarthy’s press secretary.

With time running out, a short-term reauthorization of the Federal Aviation Administration’s authority is turning into a “last train leaving the station” as lawmakers seek to add their own provisions to the bill. Nearly $1.7 billion in disaster aid for the Carolinas in the wake of Hurricane Florence has been added to the measure. Both parties are supporting the funding.

“Congress stands with our neighbors affected by this terrible storm, and we extend our deepest sympathies to those who have lost their homes, their livelihoods, and their loved ones,” Appropriations Committee Chairman Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-N.J.) said in a statement. “This legislation will provide a first round of assistance for the residents who must rebuild their homes, businesses, and lives in the wake of this disaster.”

Rep. Nita Lowey of New York, the top Democrat on the committee, added in a statement: “I am pleased that there has been bipartisan agreement on the urgent need to help families affected by Hurricane Florence and other natural disasters across our nation, and that this funding has been included in the FAA reauthorization bill.”