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By Boddington Posted in Republicans — Comments (12) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

Representative Jerry Lewis (R-CA) was supposed to be different. When he was newly installed as Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee at the start of the 109th Congress, he was supposed to be the candidate most willing and likely to clean up the excesses of the outgoing chair, Bill Young (R-FL). He met with conservatives, brought a bat Crazy Joe Clark-style as part of his presentation, and insisted things would be different.

For a time, things were. In his maiden year, Lewis reorganized the subcommittee structure to make it easier to pass all the bills and forestall an unwieldy and bloated “omnibus” bill. He brought in his own staff and showed certain key Young staff the door, namely Jim Dyer, the former staff director. Lewis then proceeded to pass his bills “on time and under budget.” But as today’s Wall Street Journal Editorial notes, Jerry Lewis is proving to be just as big a problem as his predecessors. More below.

If Republicans lose control of Congress in November, they might want to look back at last Thursday as the day it was lost. That's when the big spenders among House Republicans blew up a deal between the leadership and rank-in-file to impose some modest spending discipline. Unlike the collapse of the immigration bill, this fiasco can't be blamed on Senate Democrats. This one is all about Republicans and their refusal to give up their power to spend money at will and pass out "earmarks" like a bartender offering drinks on the house. The chief culprits are the House Appropriators, led by Committee Chairman Jerry Lewis of California and his 13 subcommittee chairmen known as "cardinals." If Republicans lose the House -- and they are well on their way -- Mr. Lewis deserves the moniker of the minority maker.

What went wrong? In March, Lewis acted on the President’s request for additional funding for the War on Terror and hurricane relief in the Gulf Coast. He ignored calls from conservatives to offset the “emergency” spending and to separate out the main components into two bills so that it would be easier to thwart inappropriate requests by Members seeking to attach riders to a must-pass war supplemental. He then made matters worse by attaching an expensive rider of his own, $746 million in additional LIHEAP funding (home heating subsidies).

To add insult to injury, Lewis then insisted that Leadership not allow the House to even vote on an amendment to offset the bill’s cost to the taxpayer. Majority Leader John Boehner (R-OH), in his new position in large part because of the support of committee chairman, sided with Lewis, and 29 conservatives responded by trying to bring the rule down. Rule votes are typically procedural in the House and set up the debate and amendment process for a given piece of legislation; they are typically voted on party line. Not to be outdone, Lewis reached across the aisle and grabbed enough Democrats to pass the rule.

Fast forward a month. Last week, Lewis informed his Committee Members that he was voting against this year’s budget resolution because it contained a “rainy day” fund, a common-sense attempt to budget for emergencies and one of the key process reforms conservatives had been negotiating with Leadership. Besides the fund itself, Lewis could not handle the Budget Committee being given any say in whether the fund would be increased down the road—even though it hardly seems inappropriate for the Budget Committee to weigh in when the budget needs amending because of an emergency. Lewis is also opposing the President’s key contribution to the budget process debate, a “legislative” line item veto that allows for an up-or-down vote by Congress (thus solving the Constitutional defect) on a package of pork sent by an Administration.

More troubling is Lewis’ opposition to earmark reform. And let’s be clear. No one is talking about banning earmarking—not even Rep. Jeff Flake (R-AZ). The issue is whether earmarks should be identified by project and by the requesting Member and whether there should be an opportunity to challenge an individual earmark at every stage of the legislative process, including conference reports. It’s about sunshine and accountability. To their credit, House Leaders are committed to passing this sort of reform this year, and it would seem to be consistent with the claims of those appropriators who are proud of the earmarks they bring home to their districts. The message to appropriators is, “Have your earmarks. Just tell us about them and let Members vote on them.” But Lewis is saying no and is threatening to bring the budget resolution down over this. What to do?

It is time for House Leadership to roll Jerry Lewis after the Easter recess. Boehner may owe his position to chairman like Lewis, but Speaker Hastert most assuredly does not. The Speaker has 5 votes on the Steering Committee, the GOP body that decides who chairs and who serves on what Committee. Boehner has two votes, and the rest of the 28-man Committee have one vote a piece. Most of the other Steering Members vote with the Speaker. It is time to put Lewis and all the other subcommittee cardinals on notice. Change the way the you do business, change the earmark process to be more accountable, and change your hardball tactics—or be removed.