Charge: GOP ‘cut out of process’ by Dems

No one said adjusting to being in the minority was going to be easy for House Republicans, and yesterday they proved they will not transition quietly.

In two separate press conferences, Republicans, who are ending a 12-year reign today, blasted Speaker-designate Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and other Democratic leaders for preventing provisions of the first 100 hours of the Democratic rule from going through a normal committee process.

GOP members charged that Pelosi had broken her promise to keep the minority party enfranchised in the 110th Congress.

“We are disappointed that half of the Congress has been cut out of the process,” House Republican Conference Chairman Adam Putnam (R- Fla.) said.

Putnam and others on his side of the aisle accused the congresswoman and her team of failing to listen to voters, but Republican lawmakers acknowledged the electorate’s call for change in how the Congress was controlled.

Rep. David Dreier (R- Calif.) echoed Putnam’s comments and said, “The American people were promised a new way of doing business, promised a fresh approach and a fresh start.”

At another press conference, several other Republicans touted their introduction of the “Minority Bill of Rights,” a resolution drafted directly from a proposal Pelosi made in 2004 to outgoing Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.).

The list of rights included allowing all the bills to pass through a full committee process as well as guaranteeing the minority members 24 hours to review bills before they reached the House floor.

“Apparently, promises made on the campaign trail will not be the promises kept in the majority,” Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.) said.

Price rejected Democrats’ claim that the six items included in their 100-days package already had been vetted through the committee process, saying the new members of Congress had yet to even see the bills.

“We have 52 new members, including 39 Democrats,” he said.

“That is the reason we have the process.”