Norton Warns of Security Gaps With Park Police Furloughs

When lawmakers head home to their districts for the Memorial Day recess next week, they’ll likely face questions from constituents about the sequester, efforts on Capitol Hill to mitigate its effects and what could happen if the arbitrary spending cuts are not re-evaluated from agency to agency.

The latest sequestration nightmare scenario to be floated to the American people comes from Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C.

Following the bombings at the Boston Marathon last month, Norton announced that she would make the rounds to the Capitol Police, United States Park Police and the Federal Protective Services to determine whether they had the resources necessary to protect the thousands of people who attend myriad outdoor events in the nation’s capital each summer during “tourist season.”

Her concerns that budget cuts could result in fewer law enforcement resources to police such events have been validated, Norton said in a press release  Wednesday night: The Capitol Police and Park Police, she confirmed, “have been significantly affected in ways that could compromise public safety.”

The Park Police, Norton said, expect 112-196 furloughed hours per officer. The Capitol Police appear to be struggling to operate at maximum effectiveness with limited resources.

The solution, she said, is for the chairmen and ranking members of the legislative branch appropriations subcommittees of the House and Senate to “examine authority to reprogram funds for the current fiscal year and to make adjustments if necessary, considering the clear public safety concerns this year.”

In a letter to the chairmen sent Wednesday, Norton wrote: “While I am not requesting an increase in the number of police, I am asking that the Park Police and the Capitol Police be funded so as to avoid furloughs and the highly disruptive changes in tours of duty, which are highly disruptive.”

Congress has already made an exception for the Federal Aviation Administration, which was under the duress of sequester-driven furloughs causing hour-long delays at airports nationwide. It is also now considering an adjustment to the spending cuts causing mass furloughs within the Defense Department.

Though Norton might have a compelling case for a third carve-out, it might be a tough sell, especially in the Republican-controlled House where fiscal conservatism rules and bigger plans to replace the sequester might have precedence over piecemeal efforts.

House Passes FAA Fix

Despite a vigorous debate on the House floor prior to the vote, a bill to prevent flight delays from sequestration-related budget cuts passed the House with a large bipartisan majority.

Minority Whip Steny H. Hoyer, D-Md., decried the bill and voted against it “because it fails to address the whole impact of sequester.”

He was one of only 29 Democrats to vote against the bill, which passed 361-41 and secured the necessary two-thirds majority it needed under suspension of the rules.

During the House debate, Republicans mocked the protestations on Twitter, with David Popp — a spokesman for Financial Services Chairman Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas — likening Democratic dissenting voices to indiscriminate “loud noises,” a reference to a recent comedic movie.

The bill will explicitly allow the Federal Aviation Administration to shift funds from other areas to avoid furloughs for air traffic controllers, preventing further flight delays.

Earlier Friday, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., sought to build support for the measure by saying that Senate Democrats “caved” to public pressure when that chamber passed its bill by unanimous consent with no debate on Thursday evening.

Mike Turner Broadens Campaign Against ‘Monuments to Me’

Turner has focused on eliminating “monuments to me” for several years. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call File Photo)

Following a successful bid to ban the naming of facilities authorized in the National Defense Authorization Act after sitting members of Congress, Ohio Republican Rep. Michael R. Turner is broadening his push to ban the practice across the federal government.

Turner introduced a bill Tuesday to ban “monuments to me” and may seek to include language in individual appropriations bills, he said in an interview. He has been leading the charge for several years.

“We all understand acknowledging the service of those members who are retired or have, perhaps, passed on. But sitting members of Congress — it’s a clear conflict of interest for a facility to be named after them,” Turner said. “These are not member of Congress dollars that build these facilities, they’re the taxpayers’ dollars.”

Lawmakers, particularly in the Senate, have had dozens, perhaps hundreds, of new buildings, roads and other projects named after themselves in past years. In many cases, those things are private institutions. But in other cases, they are government-funded projects authorized in legislation the lawmakers help enact.

For example, a 2000 bill named a federal courthouse after Democratic Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg of New Jersey. Full story

Breaking Down the 10 GOP ‘No’ Votes on the Ryan Budget

Forbes was one of 10 Republicans who voted against the Ryan budget on Thursday. He said it didn’t do enough to undo the sequester cuts that are hitting his military-rich district. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call File Photo)

We explained earlier this week why most conservatives would vote for the Ryan budget despite their complaints that it largely obtained balance in a relatively brief 10 years by including past tax increases.

That proved true Thursday, when only 10 Republicans voted “no” on the plan and decided against joining their party on one of its most unified votes. Here’s why they voted against House Budget Chairman Paul D. Ryan’s blueprint.

Six of the 10 said the Wisconsin Republican’s budget didn’t cut spending fast enough, while four said it cut spending too steeply or in the wrong areas.

Reps. Justin Amash of Michigan, Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Walter B. Jones of North Carolina — all “no” votes — are in the same ideological camp of libertarian-leaning Republicans urging far bolder spending cuts. Amash and Jones, who were thrown off their plum committee assignments in December, have become almost automatic “no” votes on spending bills that come out of the House. Massie has quickly joined their ranks.

Rep. Rick Crawford of Arkansas said in a statement that he voted against the budget because he wants “permanent spending controls,” not a “non-binding resolution” that can be “changed with each new Congress.” Full story

#Sequestered

I’ve been unexpectedly called away from Washington for a couple of weeks, so blogging here might be light during that time. But my CQ Roll Call colleagues have generously offered to pick up the slack during my sequester, so please keep stopping by.

Meanwhile, feel free to examine my recap from the 40th annual Conservative Political Action Conference, which concluded on March 16 with Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul’s victory in the event’s presidential straw poll. (Florida Sen. Marco Rubio finished a close second.) There was much focus on the internal divisions that the conservative movement and the Republican Party are currently grappling with.

But it would be too simple to characterize conservatives, and the GOP, as a group at war with itself on the myriad issues currently before the country, whether it be immigration policy, same-sex marriage or how to approach fiscal matters. What I found at CPAC, more than anything else, were grass-roots conservatives trying to figure out which direction to take in the aftermath of a 2012 election cycle that was largely disappointing, and whom to follow on whatever path they choose. Full story

Perilous Debt Ceiling Debate Looms for House GOP

Boehner, right, is a target of some members of his own conference. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call File Photo)

Never mind the continuing resolution and Rep. Paul D. Ryan’s new budget. House Republicans could face an explosive intraparty showdown over the debt ceiling, CQ Roll Call’s Jonathan Strong reported Wednesday.

Despite muted grumbling by some conservatives over the past few years that the House Budget chairman’s proposals haven’t been aggressive enough, leaders have not had much trouble rounding up 218 GOP votes to pass the budget blueprints. And with the Wisconsin Republican now proposing a fiscal 2014 plan to balance the budget in 10 years, the House majority is likely to be even more unified around the bill.

But the debt ceiling is another matter.

Full story

Interview With Speaker Boehner: The Sequester Is Here to Stay (Part II)

Boehner acknowledged he likes a glass of Merlot from time to time, but he wouldn’t elaborate. (Chris Maddaloni/CQ Roll Call File Photo)

In part two of Speaker John A. Boehner’s question-and-answer exchange with CQ Roll Call, the Ohio Republican dishes on hot-button issues such as the sequester — he suggests it’s probably here to stay — immigration changes, gun control and the fiscal 2014 budget.

But we also discussed the public’s perception of the ambitious, impatient House Republican majority that he leads and how he feels about a conservative activist community that expects much and criticizes nearly every concession the Ohioan makes to the reality that House Republicans alone do not control all levers of the federal government.

During parts one and two of our Q&A with Boehner, he was reasonably more candid given our focus on the myriad problems the Republican Party faces today and what he can do to help fix them. But in response to our final question of part two — one of a slightly personal nature, the speaker obfuscated.

Read all the way through and check it out for yourself.

CQ Roll Call: Has it been a challenge to battle President Barack Obama on the sequester when your conference was divided between those who think it’s fine and those who are concerned that it will have a negative effect on national security and military readiness? Have you concluded that the sequester is here to stay?

Full story