A tense vote on a failed effort to expand the gun background-check system combined with the debut of potentially transformational immigration legislation meant the Senate hogged the Congressional drama last week.
The House, meanwhile, looked on and waited. Coweta County Republican U.S. Rep. Lynn Westmoreland explains why:
“The president, he can’t blame the bad House Republicans if he can’t get the Democrats in the Senate to vote for his stuff,” Westmoreland said. “I mean, really. So what we’re doing is trying to — why give him a target?”
The year began with House Republicans in turmoil. A handful – including Athens’ Paul Broun – voted against John Boehner for Speaker, and bitterness lingered from the “fiscal cliff” measure Boehner allowed to pass with mostly Democratic votes, which allowed some taxes to rise.
That day, Westmoreland lingered in the hallway off the House floor and said: “I guess they’ll ask from input from the conference, but it’s got to be real input.”
House leaders took the advice: No more clandestine budget talks between Boehner and President Barack Obama. A return to “regular order” of subcommittees, committees and amendments – you know, real legislating – as opposed to rushing neatly packed bills to the floor. And after tossing controversial bill after controversial bill into a Senate brick wall in the last Congress, the House has worked at a more leisurely pace this year.
Some friction has remained over the so-called Hastert Rule, named for former Speaker Dennis Hastert, that a “majority of the majority” must be in favor of a bill in order for it to pass. Boehner broke it this year, allowing Democrats to carry Hurricane Sandy aid and the Violence Against Women Act.
Westmoreland said there have been Hastert-rule talks in some private House GOP meetings, but things are mostly peachy.
“We’re going back to regular order,” he said. “I think that made a lot of people happy. And you know, we’ve got some people who ain’t never going to be happy.”
Even Atlanta Democrat David Scott thinks Senate-first is a good idea when it comes to the immigration bill.
“Given this climate that we have right now and given Boehner’s challenge to build a solid coalition here, I think we may get more success by having the Senate act first on this,” Scott said. “There’s momentum. I think it strengthens Boehner’s hand, and it strengthens all of our hands that want a comprehensive immigration plan.”
Griping about the other chamber – as Atlanta Democratic Rep. John Lewis did in an impassioned floor speech on gun control Thursday – is a time-honored practice in the House.
Rep. Tom Graves, a Ranger Republican, has been among those trying to ease the tension. Graves and Wisconsin Republican Sen. Ron Johnson have been organizing get-togethers every two weeks for eight to 10 Republican lawmakers from each chamber to discuss the issues of the day.
“It’s just a way to develop those relationships with each other, understand what the concerns are with each side,” Graves said.
He added, “I think we’ve seen the fruit of that over the past three months. The House and Senate have been working together better.”
The bar for that is set pretty low, but both chambers did agree on funding the government through September with minimal strife. They could not agree on an alternative to across-the-board “sequestration” spending cuts.
Immigration reform now will provide a test of whether the two chambers can get along without a crisis-based deadline. The Senate is up first; the House is watching.
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