Dems bring out hardball tactics

Facing newly aggressive political maneuvering from Republicans, House Democrats are playing their own version of hardball.

Democrats successfully pushed through an expansive science re-authorization bill on Friday, less than two weeks after the GOP rebuffed their offer of a scaled-down version of the measure to address concerns about cost.

The House passed the Competes Act by a vote of 262-150, with 17 Republicans joining 245 Democrats in supporting the bill. The vote was the third the House has taken on the legislation in just over two weeks. The $86 billion legislation increases investments in science, research and training, and advocates have hailed it as a commitment to an “innovation agenda” in Congress.

“This has always been a bipartisan bill,” said Rep. Bart Gordon (D-Tenn.), the measure’s chief sponsor and the chairman of the House Science Committee. “Unfortunately it just got caught up at a partisan time.”

When Democrats first brought it to the floor on May 13, Republicans inserted an anti-pornography provision in a bid to force Democrats to vote for a broader motion to recommit that gutted the bill. The tactic worked, and the Democratic leadership pulled the legislation. Days later, Democrats tried again. They offered a compromise that cut funding for the program almost in half, reduced the duration of the bill from five to three years, and included the anti-porn measure sought by the GOP. But that attempt failed as well. Democrats brought the bill to the floor under suspension rules, and it did not garner the two-thirds vote it needed to pass.

Democratic leaders were livid at the GOP tactics, accusing the minority party of using a “cynical ploy” to torpedo a bill that had bipartisan support. When Democrats first tried to pass the bill earlier in the month, it was designed to be the centerpiece of their week and part of their effort to highlight job creation effort.

In making their third stab at the Competes Act on Friday, party leaders squeezed it into a busy day of votes that included a major tax bill and defense funding legislation. To secure passage, their divided it into nine separate pieces, in part so that members could highlight their support for the anti-porn measure, which would deny federal funds from going to “pay the salary of any individual officially disciplined for viewing, downloading, or exchanging pornography while performing official federal government duties."

Gordon also restored the five-year duration and full funding of the original bill, scrapping the compromise he had offered.

“We tried to accommodate them. When it wasn’t accepted, we were forced to go back to the original bill,” Gordon said.

Rep. Paul Broun (R-Ga.), who led efforts to stop the bill, said he was disappointed but did not regret rejecting the compromise. “Anything less than this would have been better,” he said. Broun added that he would continue trying to insert roadblock in Democratic legislation. “I’ll do anything I can to stop this outrageous spending.”

Gordon said the bill has bipartisan support in the Senate, but he had not been told exactly when it would be taken up.

Editor's note: The Congressional Budget Office's score of the Competes Act is $86 billion. An earlier version of the story included incorrect information.

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