One argument House Republican leaders — including Speaker John Boehner — are making about their refusal to adopt the Senate’s payroll tax cut compromise is a throwback to old times. They note that “regular order” in Congress is for the House and Senate each to pass legislation and to then convene a conference committee where members from each chamber meet to iron out the differences between the bills.
That’s “regular order” in a traditional sense, but it’s not even close to how this Congress has operated in practice. Case in point: both the House and Senate have passed legislation to reauthorize federal aviation programs on a semi-permanent basis. One key area of disagreement between the parties is a provision in the House bill that would make it much more difficult for rail and airline workers to unionize — just the sort of provision that could be the focal point of negotiations in a conference committee.
But House Republicans won’t let that happen, and have pushed a series of temporary reauthorizations instead.
Vince Morris, a spokesman for Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) notes the irony.
“Speaker Boehner says it’s important that the Senate agree to sit down and conference out the differences between the House and Senate payroll tax extension bill,” Morris says. “It’s worth noting that for nearly a year, Boehner has steadfastly refused to appoint conferees on the FAA bill. Chairman Rockefeller has asked repeatedly for the Speaker to appoint conferees. Instead he has been satisfied with a series of short term extensions. In fact, the latest short term extension expires in barely a month. If short term extensions are fine for the FAA, what’s wrong with a 2 month payroll extension?”
Even if Boehner wins this fight with Senate Democrats, don’t expect Republicans to relent on the FAA bill. But keep it in mind as an illustration of how nimbly pols will hopscotch between incompatible process arguments when it suits their underlying policy objectives.
