The debate last week in the U.S. House on the first budget bill for next year was interesting for one major reason - only a handful of newly elected Republicans were involved in any efforts on the House floor to further cut government spending.
As the House voted to trim the budget for homeland defense by just over a billion dollars, there was no blizzard of amendments by GOP lawmakers seeking deeper cuts.
In fact, even though the bill was wide open for amendment - the first time in four years that had happened on a spending bill brought up on the House floor - much of the freshman Republican class seemed to be Missing In Action.
Now granted, the process is probably unfamiliar to many of these Republican newcomers - but they did get a good view on how it works earlier this year, when the House battled over the budget for the current year.
And it's not hard to ask for help around Capitol Hill.
But of the 87 Republican freshmen who entered Congress after winning in the November 2010 elections, only four of them brought an amendment to the House floor on the homeland security budget bill, and really only one of them was truly budget related:
- Rep. Todd Rokita (R-IN) offered a 10% across the board cut; it won only 110 votes
- Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI) offered amendments on the TSA and one on FOIA requests
- Rep. Chip Cravaack (R-MN) won an amendment related to immigration law enforcement
- Rep. Todd Gosar (R-AZ) tried, but failed to block funds related to Davis-Bacon requirements
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