House GOP Leaders Don’t Crack The Whip To Advance Agenda Like Dems Do
House Republican leaders haven’t enforced the party’s America First agenda the same way House Democratic leaders dropped the hammer to pass their caucus’ priorities.
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Republicans frequently broke with their caucus on rules votes and legislation without the threat of serious punishments, such as losing their committee assignments, while Democratic leadership threatened to punish Democratic Reps. Jared Golden of Maine and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington for voting with Republicans to pass a rule on Tuesday. Nine rules votes have failed under House Speaker Mike Johnson’s watch, while no rules votes failed to pass under former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s leadership.
House GOP leaders have not used their powers to cut spending, ban Flock Safety cameras and other automated surveillance technologies, fight against President Donald Trump’s war against Iran or codify his immigration executive orders. Several Republican members introduced legislation to restrict Flock cameras, such as withholding funding to local municipalities that use these cameras, but not a single member introduced a bill to outright ban those technologies.
The chamber passed a $95 billion reconciliation package without including spending cuts. The national debt surpassed $40 trillion in August after members spent years passing large spending bills that contributed to the debt.
House leadership has not codified Trump’s immigration executive actions into permanent law, despite being in the majority. Republican Texas Rep. Chip Roy pushed his colleagues to codify the executive orders.
Johnson’s and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries’ offices did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s requests for comment.
Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy made several concessions in January 2023 to become speaker after House Freedom Caucus members caused delays in electing a speaker, which weakened House leadership’s power. While in talks with Freedom Caucus members, McCarthy lowered the threshold required to oust a speaker to one member.
McCarthy’s concessions gave former Republican Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz the power to file a motion to vacate the chair to oust McCarthy in October 2023.
The House voted to remove McCarthy as speaker in a 216 to 210 vote, including eight Republicans. (RELATED: House May Come To Standstill As GOP Holdouts Threaten To Shut Down Votes Over SAVE America Act)
Golden and Perez broke with their party by voting for a rule. Jeffries called their votes a “significant breach of trust” and said their actions warranted a “serious response.”
Democratic leadership released a joint statement accusing Golden and Perez of blindsiding their caucus.
“The decision by two of our colleagues to blindside the entire House Democratic Caucus and join with the Republican majority to pass a procedural rule on the brink of failing represents a significant breach of trust. It is an action that necessitates a serious response, and we have asked the Committee on Caucus Rules to take this up in short order.”
Golden said he voted for the rule to advance critical legislation for his state’s lobster industry.
Pelosi said she was “disappointed” in Golden and Perez, arguing she never had this issue as speaker.
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“I, as speaker, never — we didn’t even consider that anybody would do that,” Pelosi said. “We never had that problem, so I’m disappointed that they did that.”
Under Pelosi’s leadership, members who voted down a rule or broke with leadership’s agenda faced strict consequences. She enforced tighter floor discipline using committee assignments and procedural control against members who broke from the party.
Pelosi denied former Democratic New York Rep. Kathleen Rice a seat on the House Judiciary Committee after she voted against Pelosi for speaker. Pelosi awarded members who endorsed her leadership after previously opposing her in a November 2018 letter.
Under Pelosi’s leadership, the Affordable Care Act, the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008 and the American Rescue Plan passed.
Democratic Texas Rep. Filemon Vela initially led the effort to oppose Pelosi and signed the letter, though he flipped his position once Pelosi became speaker and got a seat on the Armed Services Committee, which was seen as an explicit reward.
Pelosi faced opposition from further left members of the caucus, known as “The Squad,” by minimizing their political influence and criticizing their focus on social media presence. She warned all House Democrats to stop publicly attacking each other on social media and held private meetings with Squad members to handle disputes.
Past House leaders were open to imposing consequences on members who voted against rules, according to Politico.
“When I came in, [Republican Texas Rep.] Pete Sessions was the chairman of Rules. He says: ‘Vote against the rules, I’ll kick your ass.’ And that’s the way it should be. If you don’t like the bill, vote no on the actual bill,” Republican Nebraska Rep. Don Bacon said. “I wish there were consequences for that kind of behavior.”
Nineteen Republicans voted with Democrats against reauthorizing Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), including Tim Burchett of Tennessee, Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Lauren Boebert of Colorado.
“That is what the current Democrat party stands for,” Johnson said on June 11. “They are willing to jeopardize the safety and the security of the American people to make a cheap political point … Their excuse is that they’re upset about a very temporary appointment that the President of the United States has already said will be very temporary, while he searches for and selects a new director of national intelligence, that is an important process, it takes some time, thought, and deliberation.”
Democrats voted against the extension over Trump’s nomination of former acting Director of National Intelligence Bill Pulte.
Senate Republican leadership also struggled to get their entire party on board with their legislative agenda. In June, Republicans Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Thom Tillis of North Carolina and Mitch McConnell of Kentucky voted against an amendment which would have added the SAVE America Act to an immigration enforcement reconciliation package that passed in June. Thune repeatedly said leadership lacks the vote to pass the SAVE America Act, although some senators, such as Republican Utah Sen. Mike Lee, disputed this claim.
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