Harry Reid Determined To Make Life Difficult For GOP

Harry Reid, the retiring Democratic Senate Minority Leader, is not going to go out without a fight. Reid has already made clear that the Senate will need to craft a clean Zika funding bill, not one that restricts funding for Planned Parenthood that Democrats filibustered yesterday and last August before the summer recess. Republicans had difficulty crafting a bill that could even pass the House last spring and the one that did was clearly never going to make it through the Senate because of the ridiculous provisions attached. As the Zika virus spreads, the Democrats position may become a little harder to maintain but Reid is betting that the GOP will be held responsible because they do control both houses of Congress.

But Zika is the least of the GOP problems. Reid also announced on Tuesday that Democrats will use his power of blocking unanimous consent in order to make it difficult for Senate committees to actually meet until the Republicans agree to move forward on the Merrick Garland nomination to the Supreme Court. He made it clear that if Mitch McConnell, the Majority Leader, felt that a committee needed to meet in an extraordinary circumstance, he would certainly consider it. Under the byzantine rules of the Senate, unanimous consent is needed to have a committee meeting after the Senate has been in session for two hours or after 2pm in the afternoon. This consent is normally given as a matter of routine, but Reid now says that will no longer be the case. Admittedly, Reid’s move just adds to the dysfunction in the Senate but the GOP’s refusal to even consider Garland has already broken the norms of governance.

In addition, last Thursday, Reid announced that Senate Democrats would oppose any stopgap funding bill that goes beyond December.  Despite Paul Ryan’s promises, House Republicans have still not passed a majority of the spending bills that are required to keep the government operating after October 1 and the chances that they will are beyond remote. That means the government can only keep running via a stopgap spending bill that postpones a budget deal until some time in the future.  The Republicans in the House Freedom Caucus want to make sure the stopgap spending bill takes them into the next Congress early next year, allowing the budget to be crafted after Obama has left office. In addition, they feel that a lame-duck Congress with lots of legislators who will not face the voters again will create a budget deal that increases spending and feeds lots of special interests. That sets up a showdown between the Freedom Caucus and Democrats that could prevent a bill from being passed at all. So, incredible as it may seem, we may be looking at another government shutdown under Republican Congressional leadership. You have to think they wouldn’t risk this just before an election, but with the anarchists in the GOP House, you never know.