Legislative Debate

Following a raucous debate among House members on how two delinquent Republicans (Pete Sessions [Texas] and Mike Fitzpatrick [Pa.]) should be reinstated after missing the swearing-in ceremony, Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) settled into a respectful exchange over rules changes and next week's schedule.

Cantor, who controls the schedule along with other Republican leaders, said the House will reconvene at noon on Tuesday and open legislative business at 2 p.m. Cantor said debate on H.R. 2, which would repeal last year's healthcare law, would begin Tuesday.

On Wednesday, the House will convene at 9 a.m. and is expected to finish its work by 7 p.m. Cantor said he expects votes on H.R. 2 and H.R. 9 to finish Wednesday. The resolution instructs committees to consider changes to the healthcare law and is the "replace" element in the Republicans' "repeal and replace" strategy.

Cantor said the House will be out of session Thursday and Friday to accommodate House Republicans' annual retreat.

Hoyer expressed "disappointment" in Republicans for naming their healthcare repeal bill the “Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act,” and for arranging the rules in such a way that amendments to the repeal will not be allowed.

The resolution was approved over Democratic objections but more than two dozen Dems voted for it.

The House just approved the rule for considering two healthcare repeal measures, in a largely partisan vote of 236-181. A handful of Democrats voted for the rule, which we will list here shortly.

Debate on the two measures, H.R. 2 and H.Res. 9, is expected next week.

The measure is aimed at addressing problems related to two GOP members who missed being sworn into office.

The House convened Friday morning at 9:00 a.m., and is now taking up H.Res. 26, the rule governing debate on two healthcare repeal measures. The two measures are H.R. 2, which would repeal last year's healthcare law, and H.Res. 9, which instructs relevant committees to explore ways to improve healthcare coverage.

Today's debate on the rule will last one hour.

The rule was approved last night, in a marathon 12-hour session in which Republicans rejected 30 Democratic amendments, drawing hours of criticism from Democrats. Democrats have also criticized Republicans for drafting a rule that will not allow consideration of any Democratic amendments to H.R. 2. Only one amendment will be found in order for H.Res. 9.

Rules Committee Chairman David Dreier (R-Calif.) said this morning that the rule is closed because "elections have consequences," and that Republicans promised voters to hold an up-or-down vote on the healthcare bill.

Assuming the rule is approved, it will allow for one hour of debate for H.Res. 9, and seven hours of debate for H.R. 2. Click here for a copy of the rule.

The House adjourned before 7:00 p.m. Thursday evening, and released a schedule for Friday. The House will meet at 9:00 a.m., and take up a resolution providing for consideration of healthcare repeal legislation, H.R. 2. A vote on that bill in the House is now expected Wednesday.

The House Rules Committee, meanwhile, wrapped up its day-long hearing on the repeal bill at around 10:20 p.m. Committee Chairman David Dreier (R-Calif.) allowed dozens of Democrats to testify before the committee on the bill and the resolution. Late this evening, the committee approved a single rule for considering the bill and the resolution. That rule allows for seven hours of debate, which will be lead by the leaders of various committees.

Democrats offered 30 amendments to the rule, all of which were rejected in speedy, partisan votes. One amendment to the resolution was made in order.

—Updated at 10:30 p.m.

House Rules Committee Chairman David Dreier (R-Calif.) said his committee will write a rule to address potential problems relating to Reps. Pete Sessions (R-Texas) and Mike Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) having missed taking their oaths of office on Jan. 5.

Dreier said on Thursday afternoon that both members took the oath of office and signed the Oath Book, but were not in the proximity of the House Speaker when he swore in members of the House. Dreier said both members were in the Visitor Center and took the oath along with Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) when he swore in members, but because they were not in the chamber, they are technically not seen as having been sworn in.

This problem interrupted a daylong Rules hearing on a rule to consider healthcare repeal legislation. When the committee returned at around 5 p.m., Dreier said his committee would write a rule to address the problem. Dreier indicated that the rule would essentially nullify any votes that Sessions and Fitzpatrick have taken so far, and said Republicans are working with "experts" to write the rule correctly.

It was not immediately clear whether this would satisfy Democrats. Ranking Rules Committee member Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.) said Democrats are "anxious" about how to fix the problem, and suggested that the committee be adjourned and that it start again once the two members are sworn in.

The error has a particular significance for the Rules Committee, since Sessions is a member of the committee and was presiding over some portions of the hearing Thursday. Rep. James McGovern (D-Mass.) asked if it was "OK" for Sessions to be doing this, and Dreier said the rule would consider House floor votes and his leadership on the Rules Committee on Thursday.

However, Dreier said, the incident in no way causes any other problems in the committee, saying that "nothing has been violated." The committee has moved back to its discussion on the healthcare bill.

Democrats pounced on the gaffe. "Republicans have spent a lot of time over the past two days proselytizing about House rules, but they don’t seem very keen on actually following the rules," the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee said in a statement earlier in the day Thursday.

Which party has a plan to reduce the deficit? It depends on whom you ask.

Just two days into their new job as House leaders, Republicans convened a Rules Committee meeting in order to approve a rule that would repeal the healthcare reform law. Republicans say that, according to estimates from the Republican-led House Budget Committee, repeal would save $701 billion over 10 years and prevent $2.6 trillion in expenditures by the time the bill is fully implemented.

Rules Committee Chairman David Dreier (R-Calif.) entered these estimates into the record of the hearing Thursday. In doing so, he dismissed a Congressional Budget Office analysis released today that said repealing the healthcare bill would increase the deficit by $230 billion through 2021.

Dreier and other Republicans say CBO's analysis is short-sighted because it ignores the reality of last year's bill, which funds six years of healthcare benefits beginning in 2014 with 10 years of revenue that the government is already starting to collect. That, they say, means deficits in the second decade of the healthcare bill, when 10 years of revenue will need to fund 10 full years of healthcare benefits.

Nonetheless, the traditional use of CBO numbers have Democrats saying Republicans are choosing to ignore what many see as a neutral arbiter of the costs of legislation. Several of the dozens of House Democrats who lined up to testify before the Rules Committee cited the CBO report in arguing that Republicans have already abandoned their pledge to reduce the deficit.

Senate Democrats took it a step further today, releasing their own report that said the Republicans' legislative goals would increase the deficit by about $1.1 trillion. In addition to healthcare repeal, Democrats cite Republican support for a permanent estate tax cut that would increase the deficit by $308 billion, permanent extension of the Bush tax cuts for the "very wealthy" that would increase the deficit by $565 billion and another $50 billion in business tax breaks.

Senate Democrats also point to Wednesday's House rule that allows the House to ignore the budgetary effects of the healthcare repeal and these other tax changes.

Since might makes right, the House Republican point of view will prevail in the House, but these deep, emerging fights in the first two days of the 112th Congress indicate Senate Democrats will not look kindly on any legislation the House sends to the Senate.

House Republicans are rejecting a Congressional Budget Office analysis that says repealing last year's healthcare reform bill would increase the budget deficit by $145 billion through 2019, $230 billion through 2021, and add to deficits in the decade after that (although CBO does not have a firm estimate for the second decade).

In Thursday's Rules Committee hearing on a pending healthcare reform bill, Chairman David Dreier (R-Calif.) said Republicans have a "response" to that CBO analysis: a new House Budget Committee report that says enactment of the healthcare law will add $701 billion to the deficit in 10 years and will cost $2.6 trillion when fully implemented.

Rep. James McGovern (D-Mass.) said Dreier's comments worry him because they imply CBO estimates will be ignored when Republicans disagree with them and will be replaced by Republican estimates. Dreier responded by saying Republicans want to look at the cost of legislation beyond a 10-year timeframe in order to ensure Congress does not pass legislation that might save money early on but lead to an "explosion" in spending in later years.

The Rules Committee hearing began at 10 a.m. and is expected to take up much of the rest of today, after which a vote on the rule for the repeal bill, H.R. 2, is expected.

Three House Republicans said Thursday morning that they support a closed rule when it considers a healthcare repeal bill next week, which would prevent Democrats from offering amendments to the bill when it is considered.

In today's House Rules Committee hearing, House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.), House Education and Labor Committee Chairman John Kline (R-Minn.), and Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), a strong opponent of last year's healthcare bill, each said they would support a closed rule.

"I don't think we need an open rule," Upton said in response to a question from Rep. James McGovern (R-Mass.). Upton argued that Republicans would like to pass the repeal bill, H.R. 2, and then spend the coming months working on a replacement bill. Upton said there would be time to work on this, since the Senate would also have to pass a repeal bill and the White House would have to sign it — events that no one expects to happen.

"I don't support an open rule," Kline said. Kline rejected McGovern's charge that Republicans were acting too quickly, and said Republicans have been very clear that they would immediately pursue a repeal bill.

King also said he supports a closed rule by saying "I'd suggest there is nothing to amend."

McGovern said he is "stunned" by Republican support for a closed rule, since Republican leaders have made a general pledge to allow the minority party to have a say in a legislative process. House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said in his first speech to the House just yesterday that Republicans would work with Democrats.

McGovern also argued that Republicans have not held any hearings or markups on the bill. On this point, King argued that last year's healthcare law is "illegitimate" because that law was not subject to any House hearings, as it was a Senate bill that the House adopted.

The Rules Committee is expected to vote on a rule today providing for the consideration of H.R. 2 and a related resolution, H.Res. 9.