CQ TODAY ONLINE NEWS
Dec. 18, 2011 – 6:03 p.m.
2012 Agenda Aims for Less-Combative Approach
By Richard E. Cohen, CQ Staff
Even as rancor and legislative uncertainty dominate the final days of this session of Congress, House leaders have been working on an agenda for next year that is designed to portray a majority eager to find common ground on pressing national issues.
They want to maintain their focus on spending cuts and deficit reduction, which remain at the center of the party’s message of fiscal responsibility and small government. But they also want to emphasize the majority’s commitment to “a more deliberative legislative process,” Majority Leader
The 2012 legislative agenda is not set — lawmakers still must work out their differences on an extension (
“Leadership agrees that regular order is our goal. The supercommittee and debt ceiling took a lot of wind out of that. Our goal is to push small bills,” said Republican Rep.
House Republicans have scheduled a three-day retreat the week they return to the Capitol to give members an opportunity to sketch out and discuss their plans.
Some House committees have already begun to make plans for next year, and some priorities are becoming clear.
Ways and Means Chairman
“Jobs this year, jobs next year,” said a Ways and Means aide, echoing the GOP view that tax policy and job creation are closely linked.
Although the debt ceiling probably will not be an issue next year, the reduced income tax rates initially enacted during the George W. Bush administration are set to expire at the end of 2012.
On the Energy and Commerce Committee, Republicans are laying plans to legislate changes in the way the Food and Drug Administration regulates food and pharmaceuticals. They also will need to tackle expiring user fees for medical devices.
Although Energy and Commerce Chairman
Their desire to avoid a partisan stalemate is unlikely to prevent Republicans from continuing their efforts to blunt the impact of the 2010 health care overhaul (PL 111-148, PL 111-152), last year’s financial regulatory overhaul known as Dodd-Frank (PL 111-203) and the 2009 economic stimulus (PL 111-5), all measures enacted when Democrats held majorities in the House and Senate.
One of the first things the new House Republican majority did was to pass a bill (
2012 Agenda Aims for Less-Combative Approach
Although they also have called for repeal of the financial regulatory overhaul, Republicans have been cautious in moving legislation that would open them to criticism that they are allied with Wall Street and big banks.
Republicans plan to await the results of next year’s elections before pressing further repeal efforts. But they are likely to continue trying to curb funding for implementation of the health and financial regulatory laws.
Influence of Election’s Outcome
The presidential campaign is bound to influence both the agenda and the tenor of debate in Congress. Just as President Obama has been coordinating his campaign themes with his party’s legislative efforts, Republicans expect to take some cues from their presidential nominee.
And the election outcome will surely influence what Congress tackles during a widely expected post-election session, which could prove to be a busy legislative period.
The inability this fall of the joint deficit committee to produce legislation offers an added incentive for Congress to return to more bite-sized legislation. And a shift to more routine legislation could give Boehner, whose negotiations with Senate leaders or the White House often pre-empted action in House committees, a chance to deliver on his promise to allow legislation to emerge from the committees.
The Appropriations Committee expects to complete action on each of the 12 annual spending bills next year, avoiding an omnibus spending package.
Holding the minority party’s traditionally weak hand in the House, Democrats are largely powerless to influence the chamber’s agenda.
Minority Leader
“The campaign may be a convenient excuse for not acting. But it’s not a good one,” Welch said. “We should pick small things that can be done, such as on energy and health.”
Some election years have seen significant legislative accomplishments. In 1996, a Republican-controlled Congress led by Speaker Newt Gingrich of Georgia worked with President Bill Clinton to enact a welfare overhaul (PL 104-193) and a health insurance law (PL 104-191) that allowed workers to keep their insurance if they lost or left their jobs.
“Republicans that year had to give in after being hard-line on spending. Public opinion was a problem for them” after twin government shutdowns in late 1995 and early 1996, said Donald Wolfensberger, a congressional scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, who was chief of staff on the House Rules Committee from 1995 through 1996. “They knew that they would be tossed out unless they compromised and showed that they could govern.”
A similar approach next year could help advance reauthorization of the expiring aviation and highway surface transportation programs. Congress has extended those programs until January and March, respectively (PL 112-30).
2012 Agenda Aims for Less-Combative Approach
Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman
Lawmakers in both parties are pushing to renew or rewrite the education law that tied federal education aid to gains in student performance (PL 107-110). The House Education and the Workforce Committee, led by Minnesota Republican