BREAKING: Dems To Make Procedural Move To Reopen Government
With the shutdown's first week coming to a rapid close, Democrats have finally found a little known procedural move that could force everything to reopen.and might also give John Boehner an easy escape.
Roll Call is reporting that the Democrats are getting ready to try a procedural move that will reopen the government at sequestration levels.
House Democrats are moving ahead with a plan to discharge a GOP bill that automatically funds the government, advancing a course that could eventually end the government shutdown — if enough Republicans cooperate.
Democrats announced Friday afternoon that they would file a discharge petition on a bill sponsored by Rep. James Lankford, R-Okla., that has sat waiting for action by the Appropriations Committee since March.
As CQ Roll Call reported Friday, Republicans have had a long history with the plan; many in the GOP have endorsed the idea over the years, including former Sen. Jim DeMint, Sen. Mitch McConnell and Reps Paul D. Ryan and Jeb Hensarling.
The discharge petition would not simply adopt the Lankford bill, which would give 100 percent funding for 120 days before exacting a 1 percent cut every 90 days if the government does not produce funding bills.
Instead, their discharge petition would offer language to substitute Lankford’s bill with a clean CR to Nov. 15. They think they have the votes for the plan.
A discharge forces the House leadership to bring to a vote any bill that has sat idle, so long as a majority of the members of the House sign onto it. That bill must also have been sitting idle for at least 30 legislative days. The bill in question, the Government Shutdown Prevention Act, was introduced in March and has seen no activity since then. So if a majority of the House signs this discharge, then Boehner and Cantor have no option but to bring it up for a vote.
Another interesting angle to this, that could help bring it to fruition, is the fact that this would give John Boehner a clean exit strategy from the corner he has been painted into by the extremists of his party. He just simply has to tell them that his hands are tied, regardless of his support of their position.
The only question that will remain if this does go through is how the Tea Party will react. I’m sure they will accuse Democrats and some Republicans of skirting the Constitution somehow, despite this being the exact opposite of that. Either way, the next few days should be very, very interesting.
