Two GOP Senators Wage Turf War Over Top Senate Spot

A battle is heating up between two top Republicans over the coveted chairmanship of the Senate Budget Committee, carrying implications for the ability of the new GOP Congress to govern as well as the emerging clash over immigration.

The turf war pits Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), the committee’s ranking member, against Sen. Mike Enzi (R-WY), a longtime committee member who asserts seniority over his Alabama colleague and is now seeking to reclaim it.

“Senator Enzi is seeking the Budget Chairmanship,” Enzi spokesman Daniel Head told TPM. “Under the Republican Conference rules, he has seniority for the post and it is Senator Sessions that is challenging him, not the other way around.”

Sessions’s office declined to comment on the record.

The contest is a proxy war over whether Republicans will veer toward confrontation with President Barack Obama or whether they’ll be more restrained and cautious when they assume full control of Congress in January.

Sessions is staunchly conservative and tends to march to the beat of his own drum. On immigration in particular, Sessions has a penchant for confrontation, having fought tooth and nail against reform for years, and recently preempting GOP leaders by publicly pushing for a risky strategy that would lead to a government shutdown if President Barack Obama doesn’t undo his sweeping executive actions announced Thursday.

Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Enzi has unassailable conservative credentials (as Liz Cheney learned the hard way when she tried to challenge him in the GOP primary), but he keeps a low national profile and is restrained on hot-button issues. He has a good relationship with incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who has promised there will be no government shutdown on his watch.

Conservative immigration reform foes support Sessions and are carefully watching Enzi’s moves. For good measure, Enzi’s spokesman said the Wyoming senator “has long been an opponent of executive amnesty.”

The next Budget Committee chairman will have considerable influence in developing the contours of federal policy on everything from food stamps and military funding to health care and education spending. The budget resolution, which will be passed at this chairman’s direction, will shape the debate over tax and spending laws. If Sessions wins the gavel, he could effectively shut down the regular process to wage war against Obama.

Senate Democrats are privately rooting for Enzi to defeat Sessions.

“If Senate Republican leaders are looking for someone to help rein in the tea party on budget issues, it would be about as surprising as the sun coming up if they had cold feet about Senator Sessions,” one Democratic aide said, speaking on condition of anonymity, “who votes to the right of Paul Ryan and apparently can’t say no to the chance to risk a shutdown or a default.”

Internal Senate GOP rules say committee members must elect their leader and have the choice ratified by the conference. The Republicans currently on the committee are not a very confrontational bunch and include three lawmakers up for reelection in blue or purple states in 2016: Sens. Rob Portman (OH), Ron Johnson (WI) and Kelly Ayotte (NH).

Officially, McConnell is staying neutral in the race.

“We have not taken a position and have no role in this,” a spokesman for the Republican leader said. “Under our Conference rules, only the members of the committee vote for their chairman—no one outside the committee has a say.”