The 110th Congress hasn’t even officially begun, but as Justin Rood noted, several House Republicans have already taken to feeling sorry for themselves. Indeed, they’ve not only decided to embrace a victim complex, they’ve decided to put it in print.
In a “Dear Colleague” letter circulated to fellow Republicans, three House GOPers are trying to push a “Minority Bill of Rights” — based on a two-year-old proposal by then-Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA). You can read the letter here.
“Unfortunately, as you are well aware, the Democrats’ forty-year reign over the House was plagued by consistent, systematic efforts to usurp the rights and privileges of the Republican minority,” write Reps. Patrick McHenry (R-NC), Eric Cantor (R-VA) and Tom Price (R-GA).
I’m afraid on the hypocrisy-o-meter, these three just buried the needle.
Two years ago, Nancy Pelosi and other House Dems proposed some modest measures that would improve the democratic process on the Hill: bills would only come to the floor after open committee hearings, lawmakers would be able to offer amendments to bills, and members would have at least 24 hours to actually look at legislation before being asked to vote on it.
What happened in response to Pelosi’s written request? Dennis Hastert blew it off and refused to even acknowledge the correspondence.
Now, all of a sudden, the exact same ideas have been repackaged as a Republican-backed “Minority Bill of Rights”? And this is supposed to be taken seriously?
As Justin added, congressional expert Norman Ornstein characterized the GOP’s screw-the-minority tactics from 1994 to the present: “[R]eveling in the power they have, [Republicans] are using techniques to jam bills through even when they don’t have to . . . simply because they can.”
As for the McHenry/Cantor/Price reference to problems that may have existed before 1994, Kevin Drum explained very well a couple of years ago that when it comes to abuses of power, modern Republicans are in a league of their own.
For the entire 108th Congress, just 28 percent of total bills have been open to amendment — barely more than half of what Democrats allowed in their last session in power in 1993-94.
Congressional conference committees, made up of a small group of lawmakers appointed by leaders in both parties, added a record 3,407 “pork barrel” projects to appropriations bills for this year’s federal budget, items that were never debated or voted on beforehand by the House and Senate and whose congressional patrons are kept secret. This compares to just 47 projects added in conference committee in 1994, the last year of Democratic control.
The House Rules Committee frequently decides bills in hastily called, late-night “emergency” sessions, despite House rules requiring that the panel convene during regular business hours and give panel members 48 hours notice. So far in the current Congress, 54 percent of bills have been drawn up in “emergency” sessions, according to committee staff members.
Historically, bills have been given a three-day delay in between the time the Rules Committee reports them out and the House takes them up; that requirement has been waived on numerous occasions in recent years.
And we can add to that the Republican habit of keeping House votes open long past the normal 15-minute maximum. Democrats did this once in 1987 and Republicans screamed foul, even though that vote was held open for a mere extra 20 minutes and was due to an odd mix-up, not a desire to bludgeon holdouts into changing their votes. Since the Republicans took over in 1994, they’ve held votes open past the 15-minute limit over a dozen times, climaxing in the infamous 3-hour vote at 3 am on the Medicare bill last year.
And now McHenry/Cantor/Price want us to feel sorry for them? Because of abuses that haven’t actually happened? Please.