GOP might need Democratic votes on stopgap spending bill

House Republican leaders might need to follow a well-worn path to finding the votes to pass a stopgap spending bill this week: asking Democrats for help.

With federal funding set to run out on Sept. 30, the House on Wednesday is expected to vote on a bill to keep the government running through Nov. 18. The GOP measure also includes $3.65 billion in disaster aid, with $1 billion of the relief offset by cuts to a loan program for energy manufacturers.

{mosads}Looking to avoid an all-out brawl with Democrats, the GOP leaders stuck to a spending level for fiscal 2012 that the two parties had agreed upon in the August debt deal.

Yet that decision could cost them the votes of House conservatives, who want them to continue the fight for deeper spending cuts that Republicans have pressed throughout the year.

Led by Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), more than 50 Republicans have signed on to a letter asking the leadership to abide by the $1.019 trillion spending cap for fiscal 2012 in the House-passed GOP budget, not the $1.043 trillion ceiling included in the debt deal.

Democrats, however, are not yet fully onboard. While the top Democratic appropriator, Rep. Norm Dicks (Wash.), said he would reluctantly support the bill, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi sharply criticized it as setting “a dangerous precedent” by offsetting disaster relief with cuts elsewhere.

“We have a compact with the American people in a time of national disasters,” Pelosi (D-Calif.) said last week. “We are there, the public sector is there to help them. To say that we have to offset it takes us down a different path in terms of that priority, that compact, that certainty.”

A spokesman for Pelosi said that despite her criticism, she had not said how she would vote. The No. 2 House Democrat, Rep. Steny Hoyer (Md.), has kept quiet on the legislation, and a House GOP leadership aide said it was “too early to tell” whether Republicans would need Democratic votes.

“Right now we’re trying to figure out where our conference is before we speak to Democrats,” the aide said.

Republicans hold a 242-192 majority, but because of conservative opposition, they have needed Democratic votes to pass several key measures this year, including bills to avoid a government shutdown in April. The GOP leadership signaled after returning to Washington from the August recess that it did not want to repeat the fights with the White House that nearly led to a shutdown this spring and a default this summer.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said last week that while the GOP wanted lower spending in 2012, “I think the risk of bringing about brinksmanship or another potential shutdown is not something right now that we need.”

While Republican leaders allowed an unlimited number of amendment votes on their first spending bill in February, they will bring up the 2012 stopgap bill for a single hour of floor debate with no amendments allowed.

“I get the distinct feeling that this train has left the station,” Flake said in an interview Monday. He said that while he would vote against the bill, he could not say how many others who signed his letter would oppose it.

“The votes will be there” to pass the bill, he predicted. Flake criticized the party leadership for pushing off the spending fight, saying “it’s not the right signal to send.”

The conservative Heritage Action group is urging Republicans to oppose the bill and announced that it would record it as a key vote on its congressional scorecard. 

House Republican leaders could also face consternation from conservatives over the possibility that the remainder of 2012 will be funded through an omnibus spending bill, which Republicans campaigned against. The stopgap measure is needed because the House and Senate have fallen behind schedule in approving individual appropriations bills.

Democrats appear no more eager for a drawn-out fight than Republicans.

“I think there’s enough votes on both sides of the aisle to pass it,” Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-N.Y.) said Monday. “Many of us are upset with a lot of the things being cut, but with that being said, the most important thing at this particular point is to continue keeping the government open and functioning.”

{mosads}She said she had heard from constituents upset about the partisan bickering and added that “hopefully there’ll be a thaw” between the parties in Washington.

The House legislation’s potential fate in the Senate is unclear.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has criticized the amount of disaster funding in the bill, and a Reid spokesman, Adam Jentleson, said Monday that if the funding were not increased, the Senate would consider amending the House bill and sending it back. Both the House and Senate are scheduled to be in recess next week, increasing the time pressure to reach an agreement.

The Senate has passed a standalone bill providing $7 billion in disaster relief, which the House has no plans to act on.

Kevin Bogardus contributed reporting.