Hoyer: GOP will need Dems’ help to prevent shutdown

The GOP will need Democrats’ help to prevent a government shutdown later this month, Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) predicted Tuesday.

House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and Republicans control the lower chamber with an overwhelming 44-seat advantage, but conservative deficit hawks have opposed their party’s spending bills in recent years because they’ve broken through caps established by the 2011 Budget Control Act.

Hoyer, the Democratic whip, said those dynamics haven’t changed simply because the Republicans now control the White House, too. And he’s warning Ryan and GOP leaders that they’ll need to reach across the aisle to secure a bipartisan deal if they hope to keep the government open beyond April 28, when current funding expires.  

“There is no doubt, when you look at this over the last number of years, that without the Democrats, they can’t pass bills on their own,” Hoyer said during a press briefing in the Capitol. “If they could do so then they could — as they’re doing on some other legislation — go ahead and pass them and not work in a bipartisan fashion.

{mosads}“However, they can’t, and responsible leadership on the Republican side ought to be working with us.”

To drive home the point, Hoyer’s office issued a two-page chart listing the number of times the Republicans have leaned on Democrats to fund the government since the GOP took over the lower chamber six years ago. It lists 18 votes where the Republicans failed, on their own, to get the required votes.

“They don’t have 218 votes to keep the government operating, apparently. At least they haven’t so far,” Hoyer said. “We have no indication that they have them now.”

Aside from the debate over spending levels, conservative Republicans are also pressing GOP leaders to include a series of controversial policy provisions in their spending package. The list includes language to block federal funding to Planned Parenthood facilities; provide at least a down payment on a U.S.-Mexico border wall; and exclude money for ObamaCare.

Democratic leaders have been coy about which provisions are non-starters with their party, citing the absence of specific legislation. But Hoyer on Tuesday named one such poison pill: Any GOP effort to deny Planned Parenthood Medicaid funds would be rejected by the Democrats, he said.

Hoyer stopped just short of saying Democrats would draw the same red line with provisions funding a wall — “I don’t want to hypothesize on what may or may not be in there,” he said — but suggested that would also fall into the nonstarter category.

“Everyone around this table knows what our sticking points are, and if you have 218 votes, you can tell us, ‘Go fly a kite,’” Hoyer said. “They don’t have 218 votes.”

It’s unclear what form the Republicans’ spending bill will take, or even which chamber will vote first on the legislation. Meanwhile, Congress is set to recess on Thursday for a nearly three-week spring vacation, leaving House leaders with just four days to pass a bill when they return.  

Hoyer said the bipartisan leaders of the appropriations committees in both chambers are in the midst of talks to reach a deal and prevent a shutdown.  

“And if those four agree,” he said, “I think we’ll be able to get something done.”