Boehner, Reid compete to set agenda

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker John Boehner are competing to set the order in which votes will be taken on a bill to fund the United States federal government for the next few months. According to an article from CNN, Boehner has threatened to revise the Senate’s version of the bill - which got rid of a controversial provision to remove all funding for the President’s healthcare law - and send it back to the Senate. This would make the government shut down while the bill was in the Senate, making him look less responsible. Reid then tried to make Boehner look responsible by announcing that, if the House rejects this current bill, the Senate has a very slow procedure that will cause the bill to not be passed in time.

Since we can assume that the Senate and House are both split with a large liberal faction, a large conservative faction, and a group of moderates from both parties in the middle, the leader who gets to set the agenda can decide what bill gets passed. Each leader wants the other chamber to have to vote last. If Reid gets to choose, he will force Republicans in the House to choose between shutting down the government or passing a funding bill that allows the President’s healthcare law to go through. If Boehner gets to choose, he will force Democrats in the Senate to choose between shutting down the government and passing a budget bill that does not fund the President’s healthcare law. Just as our model suggests, being the agenda setter in a divided voting body allows the leader to get the outcome they want.

John Boehner, 61st Speaker of the United States House of Committees.

Following this month's midterm elections, the predictions and opinions about what is to come of it are rolling out like Model Ts from Highland Park. This piece by Bruce Bartlett is interesting because of its relevance to our discussion about the Committee System.

Bartlett highlights the prominence of the Committee System in lawmaking and sees it as coming very much to the forefront under new republican leadership - especially as opposed to its diminished role under Newt Gingrich's Republican congress. He does not think that House Minority Leader John Boehner (should he be elected Speaker in January) will be able to be as heavy handed as Gingrich was when he took much of the Committee System's clout after powering the Republicans to victory with his unique strategy.

Bartlett further offers this resurgence of the Committees as one in a series of reasons to fear for the real effectiveness of the newly elected legislators. This is a legitimate concern whenever different parties hold the executive and legislative branches, but Bartlett sees the enthusiasm of republican Committee Chairs-to-be as but one of a several issues specific to the 112th Congress. As we have learned, an increase in the strength of the Committee System will help congressman to serve their own and their electorate's interests and therefore gain re-election. It is however, as Bartlett proposes, unlikely to help the Republican Majority as a whole really take control and accomplish what it sets out to.