The Continuing Resolution and the House Rules Committee's Valentine to Obamacare

Red Meat Conservative has some nice posts here and here about Republican opposition to some proposed spending cuts in the Continuing Resolution.  I've long thought someone needs to put together a group to pressure Republicans to vote for spending cuts in the way that Americans for Tax Reform has pressured candidates to sign no tax increase pledges.  Those pledges actually do seem to have some effect.

For me, the biggest dissapointment on the Continuing Resolution was the failure of the (Republican controlled) House Rules Committee in a vote on Valentine's Day to give a special rule to Representative Steve King to offer the following amendment:

"Notwithstanding any other provision of law, none of the funds made available in this Act or any previous Act may be used to carry out the provisions of Public Law 111–148, Public Law 111–152 [Obamacare], or any amendment made by either such Public Law."

Because he didn't get a rule the amendment was out of order under House Rule XXI.  

This was really a beautiful amendment, and would have been much more efficacious than the reconciliation strategy I blogged about here because it would have prevented funds to be used to enforce the law, including the guaranteed coverage provisions.  My understanding is that it would have been at least somewhat unusual for the Rules Committee to have given Representative King a special rule, but in any case I think its fair to say that there are a lot of people even in the House leadership who want to move pass Obamacare and get onto other things.  That's why we as conservatives need to keep the pressure up.

Note that this Continuing Resolution is to authorize spending, not borrowing, and this bill isn't the same thing as the debt ceiling vote I blogged about here.  That's still the point where Republicans are likely to have their greatest leverage, and I hope Representative King or someone else tries this again on that vote.

Some Good Ideas

Most of this won't make it, but we can dream.  Some of the proposed amendments to the Continuing Resolution:

1.  Amendment No. 11—Rep. Pence (R-IN):  The amendment would direct that none of the funds made available by this Act may be made available for any purpose to Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc. or any of its main affiliates.

2.  Amendment No. 25—Rep. Graves (R-GA):  The amendment would prohibit any of the funds made available by this Act from being used to implement or enforce the Report and Order of the Federal Communications Commission relating to the matter of preserving the open Internet and broadband industry practices (FCC 10-201).

3.  Amendment No. 42—Rep. Sessions (R-TX):  The amendment would prohibit funds made available by the bill to be used to implement any policy, directive, administrative regulation, circular, or action to convert from private sector to public sector performance any functions or positions that are not inherently governmental in nature.  [I don't even know what that means, but I like it.]

4.  Amendment No. 79—Rep. Gardner (R-CO):  The amendment would prohibit any funds made available in this Act from being used to pay the salary of any employee or officer of the Department of Health and Human Services who develops or promulgates regulations or guidance regarding Exchanges under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (“ObamaCare”).

5.  Amendment No. 109—Rep. Griffith (R-VA):  The amendment would prohibit funds in the bill from being used to carry out, implement, administer, or enforce any policy or procedure set forth in an EPA and Defense Department memorandum entitled “Enhanced Surface Coal Mining Pending Permit Coordination Procedures” dated June 11, 2009.   The amendment would also prohibit funding to set forth the guidance issued by the EPA entitled “Improving EPA Review of Appalachian Surface Coal Mining Operations under the Clean Water Act, National Environmental Policy Act, and the Environmental Justice Executive Order.”

6.  Amendment No. 119—Rep. Gohmert (R-TX):  The amendment would prohibit any funds made available in this Act from being used to carry out any program under, promulgate any regulation pursuant to, or defend against any lawsuit challenging any provision of ObamaCare.

7.  Amendment No. 149—Rep. Luetkemeyer (R-MO):  The amendment would prohibit any funds made available in this Act from being used for contributions to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

8.  Amendment No. 198—Rep. Poe (R-TX):  The amendment would prohibit the use of funds made available by this Act to be used by the EPA to implement, administer, or enforce (1) a cap and trade program; or (2) and requirements pertaining to the emissions of green house gases.

9.  Amendment No. 199—Rep. Poe (R-TX):  The amendment would prohibit the use of funds made available by this Act to be used by the Department of Justice, or any other Agency, to litigate the continuation of the case Untied States of America v. The State of Arizona and Janice K. Brewer regarding Arizona law S.B. 1070.

10.  Amendment No. 204—Rep. Scalise (R-LA):  The amendment would prohibit any funds under the bill from being made available to pay the salaries and expenses for the following positions and their offices:

• Director, White House Office of Health Reform;
• Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change;
• Special Envoy for Climate Change;
• Special Advisor for Green Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, and Council on Environmental Quality;
• Senior Advisor to the Secretary of the Treasury assigned to the Presidential Task Force on the Auto Industry and Senior Counselor for Manufacturing Policy;
• White House Director of Urban Affairs;
• Special Envoy to oversee the closure of the Detention Center at Guantanamo Bay;
• Special Master for TARP Executive Compensation, Department of the Treasury; and
• Associate General Counsel and Chief Diversity Officer, Federal Communications Commission. 

11. Amendment No. 255—Rep. Huelskamp (R-KS):  The amendment would prohibit any funds made available by this Act from being used by the National l.1abor Relations Board to certify the results of an election of a labor organization under section 9 (c)(1) of the National Labor Relations Act that is not conducted by secret ballot.


12.  Amendment No. 263—Rep. Broun (R-OH):  The amendment would prohibit funds from being used to pay dues to the United Nations.

13.  Amendment No. 266—Rep. King (R-IA):  The amendment would prohibit funds from being used to carry out the provisions of Public Law 111-14 or Public Law 111-152 (ObamaCare).

14.  Amendment No. 164—Rep. Mulvaney (R-SC):  The amendment would prohibit the use of funds made available by this Act in excess of the amount available for such accounts during fiscal year 2006, with certain exceptions including the Department of Defense and Israel.

Not all of the good ones, obviously, I just flipped through.  Unfortunately, I think the rule mavens may strike a lot of these as out of order because they legislate, including Representative King's.  He asked for a special rule from the Republican controlled rules committee and didn't get it.