After calling for bills to go through a regular committee process, the bill that would repeal the health care law will not go through a single committee. Despite promising a more open amendment process for guess handbags bills, amendments for the health care repeal will be all but shut down. After calling for a strict committee attendance list to be posted online, Republicans backpedaled and ditched that from the rules. They promised constitutional citations for every bill but have yet to add that language to early bills.
The promise of full debate in committees, for example, was inspired by Republican complaints that Democrats abused their power in bypassing regular debate. Republicans such as Speaker John Boehner, Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia and Rules Chairman David Dreier of California all have complained that Democrats in the last Congress didn’t bring a single bill under a process called the open rule — a mechanism that allows for nearly unlimited amendments and debate. None of the bills that will be brought to the floor this week will be brought under open rules. When asked directly whether he would bring the repeal bill to the floor under an open rule, Cantor dodged the question.
The committee attendance list — which had the potential to be used as a weapon in campaigns for those who miss meetings — never had a chance.
Behind closed doors in the Cannon House Office Building on Tuesday evening, Republicans, led by conservative Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert, swatted away the provision. Many in House leadership circles are hardly pleased that the conference dropped a plan that would have had committee attendance posted.
“Until we stop scheduling committee hearings at the same time, then its inherently unfair to say, ‘We’re going to summer fashion trends schedule all these hearings at the same time and take roll,” Gohmert said in an interview with POLITICO, defending his amendment.
Gohmert seems to brush off the suggestion that this is a bid to decrease transparency.
The first bill that will be brought to the House floor will be to repeal the health care legislation — without a hearing, without subcommittee or a full committee or testimony from all the different people around this country that have an interest,” Waxman said.
Republican leadership aides say Democrats are simply complaining, and the majority obey the rules they put forth. Furthermore, Republicans say, Democrats ran the House processes into the ground and don’t have credibility to criticize their work.
Republicans contend that it’s only spending bills that would have an open amendment process. In fact, Rules Committee Chairman David Dreier reiterated that point this week to a group of newly elected lawmakers.
And what about bypassing the committee process?
The bills didn’t go through committee because the committees aren’t totally assembled yet, and the GOP wanted to move on the legislation quickly, so they are taking the bills straight to the House floor, Republicans say.
And what about the quick work on the health care repeal bill — which also was exempted from deficit reduction rules?
“Some things you don’t need a hearing on,” Scalise said of the health care law, which his committee will delve into later in the 112th Congress.
New York Democratic Rep. Louise Slaughter, who chaired the Rules Committee for the past two years, summed it up neatly while riding to the third floor of the Capitol after Boehner was elected speaker Wednesday.
“Sure. That’s what they were going to do. Wasn’t it?” she said of the open rule pledge that Republicans made. “That’s what I’ve been hearing for the last four years. There’s even more than that. No hearing. You fancy they would let me get away with that? It’s the first day, and they’ve violated everything they said they were going to do.”
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