Reid, McConnell Set Vote on Short-Term Debt Bill; GOP Lines Up Amendments

January 31, 2013

Roll Call

Alan K. Ota and Meredith Shiner

Senate Republicans are seeking to send messages on the debt through amendment votes on a bill scheduled to come to the floor on Thursday that would suspend the debt limit through May 18.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., on Wednesday hashed out the details of their first real amendment agreement of the new Congress. On Thursday, the Senate is expected to proceed on a House-passed bill that would raise the debt ceiling through May while also imposing “no budget no pay” rules, making the payout of congressional salary contingent upon approval of a budget resolution in each chamber.

Chief among the Republican provisions are two amendments from Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio. One would attempt to permanently end government shutdown standoffs and another would codify the requirement that Congress find cuts commensurate with the amount spent to extend the debt limit.

The measure that passed the House this month would suspend enforcement of the federal borrowing limit until May 18 and then raise the debt limit the following day to the debt accumulated to that point.

The amendment that would prevent government shutdowns was introduced originally by Portman and Democrat Jon Tester of Montana earlier this month and would extend current law appropriations levels for 120 days after the original budget deadline, before gradually decreasing those levels as an incentive for lawmakers to act on another piece of legislation.

Democrats generally have criticized such proposals in the Senate and the House as thinly veiled attempts to perpetuate continuous spending cuts in the budget.

The other Portman amendment would permanent the so-called “Boehner rule,” after House Speaker John A. Boehner, R-Ohio. The rule says Congress cannot agree to raise the debt ceiling unless cuts in spending by an equal amount are made over the next 10 years.

House Republicans abandoned — at least temporarily — the cause they took up in the summer of 2011 by approving the temporary debt limit extension last week. The bill the House approved, which needed both Democratic and Republican votes to pass, did not include cuts in exchange for the extension, just the language that House members and Senators not get paid if their respect chambers do not approve a budget resolution.

Given that Democrats call the House approval of the short-term debt limit a GOP retreat, Senate Republicans look to be taking up the mantle of conservatism in Congress. Multiple Republican sources indicated the Senate GOP felt more leeway to be the more conservative voice in the current argument, as Republicans in the chamber are in the minority and so less burdened by having to find majority support for whatever ultimately passes Congress.

The other Republican amendments likely to get votes Thursday are a provision offered by Sen. Patrick J. Toomey, R-Pa., that would call on the Treasury Department to prioritize different payments in case of Congress’ failure to extend the debt limit, and a relatively unrelated amendment from Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., that would prohibit the sales of F-16 planes and tanks to Egypt.

James M. Inhofe of Oklahoma, ranking Republican on Armed Services, offered an amendment to give the Pentagon authority to reprogram, or move, funds from one budget account to another in response to the automatic spending cuts under the sequester, but that amendment was not included in the agreement on votes.

<- Go Back