Emerging from a meeting with party leaders, House Republicans cited potential defense cuts as a top concern in the bipartisan debt ceiling agreement.
Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL), who sits on both the Armed Services Committee and Homeland Security Committee, said he was a definite “no” over a provision in the bill that would trigger reductions in defense and Medicare spending if a bipartisan group failed to reach an agreement on cuts elsewhere.
“This vote by itself could cut national defense by 20% in Fiscal Year ’13 with no further votes in the United States Congress,” he told reporters, a risk that was too much for him to take.
Another member of the Armed Services Committee, Rep. Tim Griffin (R-AR), told reporters that while there was a “diversity of views” among his fellow committeemen on the defense cuts, he felt comfortable voting “yes.”
“I think in this case we would only get to significant cuts in that area if others parts of the process failed, so it’s not a sure thing,” he said.
The point of the triggered defense cuts is to force both parties to reach a broader deficit reduction agreement, so the worse Republicans feel about them, the more effective they should function as an incentive. Members, for their part, made it clear that no one was excited about setting off the trigger.
“It’s going to get the attention of both sides, our side for sure,” Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-FL) told reporters. He added that he felt concerns over the cuts had subsided among members since the agreement was first reached as leadership addressed their questions in conference calls and meetings.
Few predicted the bill would face significant hurdles en route passage, however, so long as a modest number of Democrats sided with the majority in backing the plan. Several participants described the meeting as calm and informative — a stark contrast to the raucous gatherings that forced Boehner to modify his own proposal last week to appease hardline members. One confirmed “no” on the final deal, Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT), actually stood up in Monday’s meeting to tell the caucus that he “could not be more proud of how our leadership has handled this.”
“I am a bigger supporter now of John Boehner then I’ve ever been,” Chaffetz told reporters afterwards. “I haven’t seen anyone who’s been overly upset.”
Some of the most conservative members of the House, including Reps. Phil Gingrey (R-GA), Louis Goehmert (R-TX), and Joe Walsh (R-IL), indicated they were still on the fence, if still highly skeptical of the bill. Freshman Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-TX), a tough sell on the Boehner plan last week, told TPM that he was leaning yes but wanted to check in with local Tea Party activists in his district before making a final decision.
Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), the House budget chair, flatly predicted the bill would succeed.
“I think it’s a good agreement,” he said. “It’s going to pass.”
Ryan Reilly contributed to this post.
