H.R. 1 still the star of the show in House budget debate

House Republicans and Democrats began debate on a three-week spending resolution shortly after noon, but the focus of the debate was H.R. 1, the complete FY 2011 spending bill approved by the House but rejected by the Senate. The debate was on the rule for the resolution, and debate and vote on the resolution itself will take place later in the afternoon.

Rep. Rob Woodall (R-Ga.) led the debate by saying the purpose of the three-week spending bill is to give the Senate more time to consider H.R. 1 and establish its own budget position so the House and Senate can negotiate.

"I rise today … to support this rule that will bring to the floor a continuing resolution that will give the Senate three more weeks to get its house in order to do the business that the American people sent the Senate here to do, to join us in doing the good work that we have done, and to move a bill to the president's desk," Woodall said.

But Democrats countered that H.R. 1 is a non-starter for their party.

"Their ideological and rigid loyalty to H.R. 1 is what is holding up these negotiations," said Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), who also criticized the continuing need for short-term spending measures as shoddy management. "This is no way to run a budget process. It's no way to run a government."

Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) said that by not agreeing to a more moderate bill, Republicans are essentially insisting on the passage of H.R. 1. "What I hear my colleague from Georgia as saying is, take it or leave it," Pallone said.

When Republicans insisted that the House "worked its will" when it passed H.R. 1, McGovern rejected this idea. "It was not the House speaking, it was what Republicans wanted," he said.

And when Democrats called H.R. 1 "reckless and heartless," Woodall turned that around to say it is reckless and heartless to continue the U.S. policy of deficit spending.

Rep. Robert Andrews (D-N.J.) said he was glad that the three-week spending resolution does not include language to defund Planned Parenthood and other programs supported by Democrats. But in his closing remarks, Woodall said he would continue to push for these sorts of measures, a sign that further disputes over these issues are not far off.

"If you think for a minute that I'm done fighting for life, you're mistaken," Woodall said. "If you think for a minute that I'm done working to defund Planned Parenthood and its work that it's doing with federal dollars, you're mistaken. If you think for a minute that I've given up on ripping every nickel out of the budget that belongs to ObamaCare and the nationalization of our healthcare system, you are mistaken.

"And if you think for a minute that I'm going to stop trying to repeal every single one of the job-killing, energy-price hiking regulations that the EPA is promulgating across this country, chaining our small businesses down, you are mistaken," he said.

"That fight might not be today," Woodall said. "But Mr. Speaker, that day of reckoning is coming."