By Congressman Joe Pitts
Guest columnist
I’m
glad for that, but Reid’s strategy left a mess in Congress that had to
be cleaned up before Christmas. Not a single appropriations bill was
taken up this year in Senate. Under the standard
Congressional budget process, each chamber should take up a dozen of
these bills to fund government departments.
That
meant that House and Senate negotiators had to work out all government
funding in a single, large bill. That is a terrible way to do things,
but that is the way Senate Democrats chose
to operate. The House can’t simply send bills to the President on its
own. Bills have to go through both chambers.
Working
together, Democrat and Republican members of the Appropriations
Committees put together an omnibus appropriations bill. It narrowly
passed the House by a vote of 219-206.
This
bill was far from ideal. It contains funding for many programs I
disagree with. It does not represent a win for conservatives, but it is
not a win for liberals either. In fact, legislators
on both ends of the political spectrum were upset with the outcome.
Elizabeth Warren, senator from Massachusetts, cried loudly for Democrats
to oppose it. Ted Cruz, senator from Texas, lobbied Republicans to vote
it down.
When
both ends of the political spectrum have something to be upset about,
then you can be reasonably sure that a bill is a fair compromise. I
voted for the bill because I thought it was the
best we could get given the circumstances. In divided government you
have to take solace in small victories.
First
of all, this bill allows the new Republican-led Congress to immediately
deal with President Obama’s immigration order next year. The Department
of Homeland Security is only funded through
February 27.
I like to use a military analogy: we have reinforcements on the way,
but they are not here yet. If Republicans charge up the hill right now,
we simply won’t win against the Reid Senate and Obama Presidency.
Republican
control of the Senate will not mean that we get our way on everything.
Senate filibuster rules still require 60 votes to bring up most pieces
of legislation. The President can still
wield his veto pen and we are not likely to find 67 Senators to
overrule him. The difference will be that Republicans dictate what bills
come up for a vote and when they come up for a vote.
Second,
there were lots of small wins on important issues. The bill forces the
administration to reveal Obamacare plans currently covering abortion, a
first step in stopping the federal government
from subsidizing the procedure. The bill also insists that the
Department of Health and Human Services protect the conscience rights of
people in California. In that state right now bureaucrats are forcing
all plans regulated by the state to cover elective
abortion, which is a violation of federal law.
The
overall funding for the bill is actually less than what Republicans
proposed in our own budget after we took back the House from Nancy
Pelosi. This is far short of balancing the budget,
but represents real progress considering that Democrats want to spend
more and tax more.
A
1,700-page spending bill totaling $1.1 trillion is a bad way to
legislate. When Republicans control the agenda next year, we have to
insist on regular order. We have to pick through the spending
bills and find real savings. We will have an opportunity to run the
Congress according to conservative principles.
Congressman Joe Pitts is a Republican who represents Pennsylvania's 16th Congressional District.
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