The House is going to vote on three bills today to fund parts of the government including the National Park Service and the District of Columbia government. Because the House wants to rush these bills through, they are going to use a procedure which will require a two-thirds vote for passage. This will put House Democrats in the position where they will have to vote for or against funding the national parks, among other things, at levels that everyone agrees are appropriate. The House Republicans are finally adopting the strategy of breaking government funding into pieces and presenting this to the Democrats for approval. They took forever to get here and they are still not doing it correctly, however.
Ten weeks ago, I wrote a piece detailing the strategy of breaking the continuing resolution into separate pieces by Department or agency. The idea was to pass appropriations bills in the House if possible or, failing that, to pass separate continuing resolutions for sections of the government. Had the House adopted this plan, it would have avoided a large part of the current problems. After all, if there were a continuing resolution to fund the Department of the Interior at the levels that both sides agree is proper, it would be extremely difficult for the Democrats to claim that the GOP was shutting down that part of the government. All that Reid and the Democrats would have to do is pass the same measure and send it to Obama to sign; at that point, Interior would be funded. If everything were sent over in that manner, it would put the onus on the Democrats to refuse to fund anything unless they got funding for everything they wanted.
It is still not too late to do this. It would require the House to move just a bit more slowly and pass continuing resolutions by simple majority for everything but HHS and send them to the senate. It would surely put the ball in the court of the Democrats. They could have their full funding from that point on without needing anything further from the GOP. Indeed, if the GOP wanted, it could even send a measure for HHS that contained the Obamacare funding restrictions. The Senate would reject that one, but the others could still go ahead.
Ten weeks ago, I wrote a piece detailing the strategy of breaking the continuing resolution into separate pieces by Department or agency. The idea was to pass appropriations bills in the House if possible or, failing that, to pass separate continuing resolutions for sections of the government. Had the House adopted this plan, it would have avoided a large part of the current problems. After all, if there were a continuing resolution to fund the Department of the Interior at the levels that both sides agree is proper, it would be extremely difficult for the Democrats to claim that the GOP was shutting down that part of the government. All that Reid and the Democrats would have to do is pass the same measure and send it to Obama to sign; at that point, Interior would be funded. If everything were sent over in that manner, it would put the onus on the Democrats to refuse to fund anything unless they got funding for everything they wanted.
It is still not too late to do this. It would require the House to move just a bit more slowly and pass continuing resolutions by simple majority for everything but HHS and send them to the senate. It would surely put the ball in the court of the Democrats. They could have their full funding from that point on without needing anything further from the GOP. Indeed, if the GOP wanted, it could even send a measure for HHS that contained the Obamacare funding restrictions. The Senate would reject that one, but the others could still go ahead.
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