Democrats Try to Punch Back at House GOP

It was a long week on Capitol Hill for House Democrats, as the chamber’s Republicans hammered President Barack Obama for agency misconduct under his watch, then topped things off with a House vote to repeal his 2010 health care law.

Democrats, however, tried to fight back on Thursday afternoon, looking to beat their GOP counterparts at their own game.

House Republicans scheduled the up-or-down vote to dismantle Obamacare, they said, in part to give the GOP freshman class a chance to go on the record against it.

In that vein, 45 freshmen Democrats argued Thursday, they should be able to have a chance to vote up-or-down on legislation to replace the sequestration with a “balanced solution.”

“This week, the House will vote on a bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act, which it has already done thirty-six times,” they wrote in a May 16 letter to Speaker John A. Boehner, R-Ohio. “Your justification for another unnecessary repeal vote has been that it allows freshmen members their first formal opportunity to let their constituents know where they stand on repeal. However, you have not allowed freshmen the same opportunity to vote on a balanced alternative to replace sequestration.”

Meanwhile, House Administration Committee member Gregg Harper, R-Miss., continued his crusade this week to pass legislation that would terminate the Election Assistance Commission.

Created when Congress passed the Help America Vote Act in 2002, the EAC was given more than $3 billion to dole out to states for improved election administration and is intended to be a clearinghouse of sorts to help facilitate the electoral process.

Harper, however, along with fellow House Administration Committee Republicans, contends that the EAC has outlived its usefulness and has not had any meaningful impact for a long time. Though the House passed his bill in the 112th Congress, it went on to die in the Senate.

On Thursday, panel Democrats introduced legislation that would do the opposite of Harper’s bill: it would reauthorize the EAC and make “substantive improvements” to reinvigorate the commission.

Of course, both Democratic efforts are symbolic ones. In a Republican-controlled House, they are all but dead on arrival – or, dead on press release.

Boehner Wants Debt Limit Talks With Obama

Speaker John A. Boehner, R-Ohio, said Thursday that the White House should be prepared to negotiate with House Republicans on the debt limit – despite President Barack Obama’s insistence that he wants to extend it later this summer without strings attached.

“It’s easy to make a statement to that effect,” Boehner said of Obama at his Thursday morning news conference ,”but it’s just not reality.”

Of course, Boehner himself does not appear to have settled on exactly what he would be negotiating for, considering House GOP members emerged from Wednesday’s debt limit brainstorming session without a consensus on what to fight for.

Still, Boehner indicated that House Republicans would likely be seeking deeper spending cuts. “The fact is, that if the Treasury Department needs to pay the bills, the debt limit has to be dealt with, and should be dealt with in a responsible way,” he said. “[Obama] can’t continue to increase the debt limit without doing something about what’s driving the increase in the debt limit, and that is out of control spending.”

Boehner also took the opportunity to tout the House’s vote, set for later in the day, on a bill that would fully repeal Obamacare, the third of its kind since the GOP gained control of the chamber in 2011.

Standing beside the now-infamous, seven-foot “Red Tape Tower,” he gestured to the thousands of pages stacked on top of the other, tied with a red ribbon and balanced on a red hand-cart.

“These are the thousands and thousands of health care regulations,” Boehner explained. “And if we want jobs, we need to get rid of this, because this is getting in the way of employers hiring workers around the country.”

Boehner’s news conference also included mention of the two major scandals that have wreaked havoc on the Obama administration this week, namely revelations that the IRS inappropriately targeted conservative nonprofits seeking tax-exempt status and that the Justice Department seized records from Associated Press phone lines.

“Nothing dissolves the bonds between people and their government like the arrogance of power here in Washington,” Boehner said. “And that’s what the American people are seeing today from the Obama administration: remarkable arrogance.

“This house will stop at nothing to get to the American people the answers that they expect,” he continued. “But the best way to repair this damage is for the Obama administration to come forward with the truth — the whole truth — so that the American people will have all the facts.”

House GOP Still Struggling for Consensus on Debt Limit

They talked about balancing the budget in 10 years, repealing Obamacare, slashing spending and overhauling the tax code.

In other words, the House Republican meeting Wednesday afternoon to brainstorm a path forward for dealing with the debt limit basically consisted of “a laundry list of everything imaginable,” in the words of Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah.

That isn’t to say it was a surprise, or a disappointment. Leading up to the GOP leadership-convened conference, lawmakers said that they expected it to be a listening session rather than a strategy meeting on what demands they should bring to the negotiating table as a condition of raising the debt ceiling.

Policy Committee Chairman James Lankford, R-Okla., said Tuesday that he didn’t anticipate consensus around a single idea, but that perhaps “instead of 10 options, maybe we’ll come out with three or four.”

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WH Email Dump Proves GOP Case on Benghazi, Boehner’s Office Says

A spokesman for Speaker John A. Boehner said late Wednesday that White House emails just released by the Obama administration bolster the findings of a House Republican investigation into the Sept. 11 terrorist attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya.

The White House released 100 pages of emails in a beefed up effort to prove false the GOP charges that the administration attempted to cover up the true nature of the Benghazi attack, which resulted in the death of U.S. Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens and three others. Here is the full statement from Boehner spokesman Brendan Buck:

“The House interim report found that ‘senior State Department officials requested the talking points be changed to avoid criticism for ignoring the threat environment in Benghazi’ and that those changes were ultimately made. Those findings are confirmed by the emails released today, and they contradict statements made by the White House that it and the State Department only changed one word in the talking points. The seemingly political nature of the State Department’s concerns raises questions about the motivations behind these changes and who at the State Department was seeking them. This release is long overdue and there are relevant documents the Administration has still refused to produce. We hope, however, that this limited release of documents is a sign of more cooperation to come.”

Issa Schedules IRS Hearing

The Oversight and Government Reform Committee has scheduled a hearing for next week on allegations of misconduct within the IRS, the panel’s chairman, Darrell Issa, confirmed Wednesday.

The California Republican announced the May 22 hearing date to a small group of reporters following a weekly meeting of the House GOP Conference.

It will come just days after the hearing the Ways and Means Committee has set for this Friday.

However, Issa stressed that the two panels would ultimately be seeking answers to different questions relating to charges that the IRS disproportionately targeted the applications of conservative groups with certain signifiers, such as “tea party,” in their names.

“There are a number of various ways in which Ways and Means has unique jurisdiction,” Issa explained of the committee responsible for overseeing the nation’s tax policies, among other things, “but I think for the American people, they want the facts of transparency.

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House GOP Investigating IRS Focus on Tea Party Groups

Updated 5:52 pm | House Republicans are seizing on the IRS admission that personnel improperly targeted tea party groups for scrutiny, with Speaker John A. Boehner drawing a connection to abuses of the past.

“The admission by the Obama administration that the Internal Revenue Service targeted political opponents echoes some of the most shameful abuses of government power in 20th-century American history,” Boehner said in a statement Friday.

Rep. Charles Boustany Jr., is leading the push through his role as chairman of the Ways and Means Subcommittee on Oversight. The Louisiana Republican has already sent a letter to acting IRS Commissioner Steve Miller seeking all agency correspondence relating to the exact terms “conservative,” “tea party” and “patriot.”

Boustany noted that the Ways and Means panel already has an investigation under way.

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GOP Leaders Refuse to Name Obamacare Board Members

Speaker John A. Boehner, R-Ohio, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., notified the president today that they will not participate in one of the more controversial parts of the health care law, known as Obamacare.

In a letter, the two GOP leaders said they would not submit Republican appointees to the Independent Payment Advisory Board, which was created to try to rein in the costs of Medicare. Critics worry the board has too much power to possibly cut payments to doctors or limit the types of care seniors can get.

Full letter after the jump:

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GOP’s Back-Bench Benghazi Critics Step Up Calls for Special Panel

Wolf is pushing to create a bipartisan special committee to investigate last year’s attack on a U.S. consulate in Libya. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call File Photo)

Pressure is mounting on House Republican leaders to form a special committee to investigate the September attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, that resulted in the death of U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens.

Proponents of a special panel maintain that the five committee chairmen currently leading the House GOP’s ongoing Benghazi investigation are too concerned with protecting their turf.

Rep. Frank R. Wolf, R-Va., has been calling for the House to create a bipartisan special committee to investigate the Benghazi  attack since November. Wolf introduced a resolution earlier this year which has attracted 134 GOP co-sponsors, including 14 who signed on last month immediately after the release of a progress report on the current investigation. Five more co-sponsors signed on this week. No Democrats support the bill.

Even so, it doesn’t appear that Speaker John A. Boehner or the committee chairmen feel enough heat to abandon their opposition to a special panel. “The speaker has confidence in the chairmen, members and staff at the committees of jurisdiction,” Boehner spokesman Michael Steel said Thursday.

Supporters of the existing investigatory framework argue privately that a special committee would have to start from scratch, impeding the goal of getting to the bottom of what happened.

The current Republican-led investigation, launched shortly after the incident on Sept. 11, is a joint effort of the Armed Services, Judiciary, Intelligence, Foreign Affairs, and Oversight and Government Reform committees. Their initial disclosure directly implicates former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton as culpable in the terrorist attack. Democrats have accused Republicans of playing politics.

Supporters of creating a special committee still weren’t satisfied. Their calls for such a body have increased since Fox News reported this week that President Barack Obama’s administration has blocked government officials who want to testify about Benghazi from using whistle-blower protections. The Fox News report also said that military help might have been available to respond to the Benghazi attack, had the administration ordered it.

The incident occurred at the height of the 2012 presidential campaign, and Republicans have suggested that the administration wanted to downplay the event for political purposes.

Wolf continues to field calls from relatives of those killed in Benghazi, according to his spokeswoman, Jill Shatzen, reinforcing his determination to continue pushing for the creation of a special committee. Wolf’s office contends that formation of a special panel does not require House adoption of Wolf’s resolution, just a decision by Boehner. But aides familiar with House rules told CQ Roll Call that the chamber would have to vote to create a special committee, at least one that had a dedicated staff and subpoena power.

Wolf maintains that a special committee would not have to start from scratch, but could use information uncovered by the current joint-committee investigation. He says creating the elevated panel is the only way to shine a light on what happened in Benghazi.

Former Rep. Allen B. West, R-Fla., who retains some influence inside the conservative grass roots, announced Thursday that he also supports creating a special committee.

“What the five committees are doing is not sufficient,” Shatzen said. The House chairmen in question include Armed Services’  Howard “Buck” McKeon and Foreign Affairs’ Ed Royce, both of California; Intelligence’s Mike Rogers of Michigan; Judiciary’s Robert W. Goodlatte of Virginia and Oversight and Government Reform’s Darrell Issa of California.

Also dissatisfied is Senate Armed Services ranking member, John McCain of Arizona.

McCain said he would prefer that Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., form a bipartisan, bicameral special committee to investigate what happened in Benghazi. But conceding that Reid is  unlikely to join such an effort, McCain is urging Boehner to launch a special committee in the House, and is blaming the five committee chairmen for being instrumental in blocking such a move.

“Harry Reid will not agree to it. If it has to be the House of Representatives, God speed,” McCain told conservative talk show host Hugh Hewitt. “I would like to see the pressure, pressure on Harry Reid to make it a real joint committee, because I think some of us have to, have things to contribute. But if it has to be in the House, fine with me, but let’s get going,”  

“We’ve got to have a little straight talk here,” McCain added. “Some of the people that are resisting it are the committee chairmen who see that they would be losing some of their areas of responsibility.”

Don’t Politicize Benghazi, House Democrats Say

House Democrats are accusing their Republican counterparts of trying to score political points with a multi-committee investigation that charges the Obama administration with culpability in the murder last summer of the U.S. ambassador to Libya.

In a letter to Speaker John A. Boehner, publicized on Tuesday, the ranking Democrats on the committees that conducted the investigation scolded the Ohio Republican for not allowing a progress report on the inquiry to be vetted by the full membership on each panel. The investigation is being handled by the committees on Judiciary, Oversight and Government Reform, Foreign Affairs, Armed Services and Intelligence.

The letter reads: Full story

No, Rangel Isn’t Suing Boehner … Per Se

Eyebrows raised on Capitol Hill Tuesday morning after hearing the news that Rep. Charles B. Rangel, D-N.Y., had sued Speaker John A. Boehner, R-Ohio, to vacate his censure by the House.

As Bloomberg reported, the New York Democrat is charging, in a complaint filed in federal court in Washington, D.C., that the House was “knowingly deceived” by its Ethics Committee members. The former Ways and Means chairman alleges that the panel withheld a memo prepared by a former committee staffer. That memo alleges that the investigation into his ethics violations was tainted by misconduct.

Boehner is named in the suit, but the target really appears to be the bipartisan committee.

“The suppressed material would probably have led to a different outcome,” Rangel’s lawyer, Jay Goldberg, said in the complaint, according to the Bloomberg report. Rangel alleges that “had he known the facts,” he would have “made a motion to dismiss by reason of wrongdoing.”

But the censure occurred in 2010, back when Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., was speaker, and Boehner served in her current position, as minority leader for the Republicans. A House GOP aide noted that Boehner was named in Rangel’s complaint because the New York congressman believes that the Ohioan’s position as the current speaker is integral to his bid to have the censure overturned. As the GOP aide explained in an email:

The complaint “makes clear that Rangel is not suing Boehner. Boehner is a named as a Defendant because Rangel is asking for the Congressional Record to be purged of the censure in 2010 and Boehner — as Speaker (Rangel claims) — can purge the record. Rangel explains that Boehner is necessary in his ‘prayer for relief’ to purge the Record. The other six lawmakers are alleged [to have committed] the wrongdoing. In fact, the Rangel complaint goes out of its way to explain why Boehner is named. Page 10, paragraph 11 (explanation of why Boehner is named i.e. to get relief) and page 34, paragraph 108 (Third claim for Relief, to purge the Journal) of the complaint.”

Boehner’s Immigration Path: Slow Walk Could Be Key

(Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call)

Unlike gun control, whether an immigration overhaul passes in the House is not reliant on first being successful in the Senate.

As Jonathan Strong reported Monday in Roll Call, the issue isn’t whether Speaker John A. Boehner backs a comprehensive rewrite of U.S. immigration law, but which legislative strategy the Ohio Republican favors. Will Boehner endorse a single vehicle modeled on a bipartisan compromise being negotiated by a working group of four House Democrats and four House Republicans?

Or, will the speaker defer to the whims of House Judiciary Chairman Robert W. Goodlatte, R-Va., and House Homeland Security Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, whose panels are set to review key portions of whatever deal the House “gang of eight” reaches? These two chairmen could exert major influence over whatever legislative product proceeds to the House floor, not to mention whether the chamber votes on one big bill or several smaller ones. Full story

Zero Pressure on House After Senate Gun Bill Disintegrates

The failure of a background check amendment Wednesday in the Senate immediately deflated any mounting political pressure on the Republican majority in the House to embrace new gun control regulations.

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Obama MIA Since ‘Charm Offensive,’ House Republicans Say

President Barack Obama was to dine Wednesday evening with about a dozen Republican members of Congress. None of his guests serve in the House.

Since early March, when Obama met with House Republicans behind closed doors for a candid question-and-answer session, the president’s communication with leadership and the rank and file has been limited and perfunctory. Interviews with House Republicans on Wednesday suggested that most don’t feel as though much has changed since Obama appeared before them last month.

“With the House, all we’ve seen is him come down and provide his charming skills for the House Republican Conference one time,” Georgia Rep. Tom Price said. “So, as I said at the time, if this is just a one-time occasion, then it won’t change the dynamic at all. If it’s a serious effort to try to work together and find common ground, then we’re all in. But we haven’t seen it.” Full story

Mad Men: Madison Avenue’s Advice to the GOP

Ask the modern day “Mad Men” on New York’s Madison Avenue about the GOP’s efforts to rebrand and they point to the recent episode involving Rep. Don Young’s use of the term “wetback” as a missed opportunity.

Speaker John A. Boehner quickly demanded that the Alaska Republican apologize, but in the following days, his spokesmen did not even respond to emailed questions about whether Young would face any concrete punishment for using the racially offensive term in a radio interview.

“When someone does something like that, it should have been a clear censure,” said Peter Hempel, CEO of DDB New York. “There has to be consequences because otherwise people don’t know what Boehner stands for.”

“You need a high-powered Republican to step forward, authoritatively, and say, ‘That is not me.’ And they really need to throw Don Young over the side. They need to throw him under the bus,” branding consultant Rob Frankel said. “He would be the representative of the old guard. That’s the beauty of this whole thing.” Full story

Goodlatte: House Could Overhaul Immigration in ‘Pieces’

Goodlatte, the Judiciary chairman, is a key player in the effort to get immigration legislation passed in the House. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call File Photo)

Judiciary Chairman Robert W. Goodlatte on Wednesday floated the possibility that the House could eschew a comprehensive approach to overhauling the nation’s immigration system in favor of a step-by-step legislative strategy.

Discussing the matter during an online telecast with Fox News’ Chris Stirewalt, the Virginia Republican appeared committed to most aspects of an immigration overhaul currently being discussed. Goodlatte said legislation must be passed to address the millions of illegal immigrants currently residing in the U.S., fill the need for more high- and low-skilled workers in the high technology and agriculture industries and to upgrade border security.

But Goodlatte, who runs the key committee of jurisdiction in the House for immigration legislation, said Republicans have “definitely left [the] option open” to addressing those and other issues through multiple bills, rather than one comprehensive piece of legislation that includes every component. He praised the bipartisan working groups in the House and Senate that are attempting to reach an agreement on comprehensive legislation.

“Whether we take pieces of this and then put them together later on, or whether we pass something that’s more broad-based remains to be seen, but it’s just going to be what the will of the House will be, this needs to come from the bottom up,” Goodlatte told Stirewalt. “It’s not how fast or slow you go; it’s getting it right.”

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