CQ TODAY ONLINE NEWS
March 5, 2012 – 10:34 p.m.
Boehner Takes Mica Off Transportation Bill
By Richard E. Cohen and Nathan Hurst, CQ Staff
House Speaker
Republican leaders are now relying on Rep.
Boehner’s effort to salvage the bill (
The Speaker’s move shows uncharacteristic willingness by Boehner to publicly rebuke a chairman and turn to other leaders on a panel when that chairman does not draft a bill that can gain the support of a majority of Republicans.
Even before becoming Speaker, Boehner warned he would have little patience for committee chairmen who do not do their homework. “Chairmen shouldn’t be content to churn out flawed bills and then rely on their leadership to bail them out,” he said in a speech to the American Enterprise Institute in fall 2010.
Shuster’s go-between role is unusual in part because he ranks 10th in the party seniority on the panel. But GOP leaders needed someone to help tap the panel’s technical expertise, and Shuster has unusual cachet for a junior lawmaker because his father, Bud Shuster, R-Pa., reigned as the panel’s powerful chairman from 1995 to 2000.
The maneuvering also betrays a drive by Republican leaders to pass the transportation measure, which has been combined with expanded energy production at Boehner’s direction.
House Republicans are expected to discuss the measure Tuesday during a gathering of the conference at the Capitol Hill Club, and it is slated to be the sole topic of discussion Wednesday at another closed-door meeting of all House Republicans. During that meeting, party leaders are expected to lay out options for getting the bill passed.
Mica’s Misstep
The delay has caused embarrassment for Boehner, who first outlined his vision for infrastructure spending last September in the hopes of securing conservative support. But he has been blocked by many of the very same conservatives who view Mica’s proposal as too costly and business-as-usual.
The leadership’s handling of the transportation bill is a sharp contrast to that of the fiscal 2013 budget proposal, which also has sparked sharp internal divisions among Republicans.
But a big difference is that Budget Chairman
Boehner and his leadership team have moved quickly to resurrect the transportation measure after an 18-month alternative failed to gain the support of conservatives. “The leadership is trying to find the votes. I have been trying to find the best policy,” Mica said last week.
Boehner Takes Mica Off Transportation Bill
Mica’s rhetorical misstep has thrust the transportation measure further into limbo and forced Boehner and other GOP leaders to quickly immerse themselves in the often arcane details of highway, rail and infrastructure projects and the formulas that fund them.
Shuster’s responsibility for the rail title of the transportation bill as chairman of the panel’s Railroads, Pipelines and Hazardous Materials Subcommittee opened the door to his role as go-between. Shuster also is a deputy to Majority Whip
Shuster has been recruited to remedy Mica’s mistake as he seeks to build support for a revised measure, GOP leadership aides said. With McCarthy, Shuster has participated in at least a half-dozen meetings in the whip’s office to educate lawmakers, especially Republican freshmen, on the often technical intricacies of transportation policy and explain the consequences if Congress does not act.
One infrastructure lobbyist said the discord between Mica and House GOP leaders has made for a particularly hard restart for the transportation bill. “You’re just getting the feeling that it’s the FAA bill all over again, and you see where that went,” the lobbyist said.
Indeed, getting the Federal Aviation Administration back under a full reauthorization (PL 112-95) was a four-and-a-half year struggle, one that started as a partisan battle under former House Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman James L. Oberstar, D-Minn., but whose denouement was an intraparty battle between Boehner and Mica.
After an embarrassing setback last summer resulted in a two-week partial shutdown of the FAA, the House passed a measure to renew the program (PL 112-30). In that battle, Boehner also took control from Mica and his staff of one of the most troublesome issues — a debate over a unionizing election rule change — leaving the panel to deal with lesser issues.
When asked about negotiations over the labor issue at the time, Mica threw up his hands and said it had been taken up “above my pay grade.” In December 2011, the chairman offered a stand-alone bill (
When the issue was resolved in January, it was Boehner and Reid who announced the deal, not Mica. Aides and lobbyists say there is lingering resentment and contend that it may have spilled over onto their work with the transportation bill.
Different Approaches
For Mica’s part, the chairman made clear last week he felt slighted by what he characterized as the leadership’s moving goalposts for what was supposed to be his committee’s signature long-term reauthorization.
Republican leaders floated reducing the timeline of Mica’s five-year bill to just 18 months, prompting Mica to tell a gathering of the American Association of Highway and Transportation Officials that he preferred longer-term legislation. By late last week, Mica managed to gather enough support from rank-and-file Republicans to sink Boehner’s latest trial balloon.
Ryan’s handling of the demands of conservatives — in his case their insistence that total discretionary spending for fiscal 2013 be set below the level prescribed by last summer’s debt limit law (PL 112-25) — could not be more different than Mica’s.
As Budget chairman, Ryan in many ways has been the most high-profile chairman in the House GOP majority and, like Mica, he has demonstrated an autonomous streak. Last year’s budget resolution, which he wrote, became a lightning rod for Democratic attacks on its call to overhaul Medicare.
Boehner Takes Mica Off Transportation Bill
But Ryan appears to have learned some lessons. As GOP leaders work this week to prepare for possible House action this month on a fiscal 2013 budget resolution, Ryan has kept in close contact with party leaders and has taken steps to educate rank-and-file lawmakers on budget issues in an effort to build unity among factions.
McCarthy has organized “listening sessions” with House Republicans to review options for the budget resolution. Aides said that Ryan has joined at least eight of those meetings, and nearly half of the GOP conference has attended at least one of them.