THE FREEDOM CAUCUS
HOUSE FREEDOM CAUCUS:
RESTORING THE PEOPLE’S VOICE IN CONGRESS (don't piss on my leg and tell me it's raining!)
TOPLINE:
Between now and January, the House Freedom Caucus will work with likeminded colleagues to demand aggressive reforms to return the People’s House back to the American people and make it function again.
The leaders of both political parties have consolidated so much power that most Members of Congress have no meaningful role in the legislative process beyond voting up or down.
The result is that the “People’s House” is serving everyone in Washington except the American people: politicians, connected lobbyists, and entrenched bureaucrats.
Republicans ran to fix Washington so we should not continue the same system that broke it. It’s time to restore real republican government and give elected representatives back their rightful role in lawmaking to implement the will of their voters.
REFORM THE HOUSE REPUBLICAN CONFERENCE: RECLAIM LEGISLATIVE IMPACT FOR THE PEOPLE’S REPRESENTATIVES
To fix the House of Representatives, we must first put Republicans’ own house in order. The governing rules of the House Republican Conference must be reformed to give all Members the power to fix Washington with a united front and to hold our own party leaders accountable.
1) Enact a “Majority of the Majority” Rule. Legislation passed in a Republican House should be supported by a majority of House Republicans.
Our constituents did not elect us to cut deals with Democrats that cannot win the support of most Republicans.
Not only will this force more unity and consensus among House Republicans by requiring us to tackle the tough issues together, but it upholds Republicans' commitment to voters that we will remain faithful to the promises we make.
2) Restore the Independence of Committees. To balance the power between committees and party leaders so that Members can meaningfully participate in the legislative process on behalf of their constituents, committees need to reclaim independence and authority.
Instead of being selected based on loyalty towards and fundraising for party leadership, committee chairs should be elected by the members of their committee based on their qualifications and effectiveness.
Furthermore, committees need the ability to defend their jurisdiction from being ignored. Republicans should prohibit legislation from coming to the floor unless each committee of jurisdiction has acted on it, unless waived by the Republicans in the relevant committees.
Committees are supposed to be the workhorses of the House and where most Members are most impactful in the legislative process – not sidelined as party leaders handcraft legislation behind closed doors and rush it to the House floor so that individual representatives cannot provide input.
3) Diversify the Steering Committee. The Steering Committee makes nearly all decisions on committee assignments for House Republicans, but its makeup does not reflect all House Republicans and instead it is packed with party leaders and their close allies. As a result, decisions are made based on who is loyal to leadership and who delivers the most fundraising – not who is best qualified.
To level the playing field and better reflect House Republicans (and the voters they represent), Steering needs a significant increase in seats for “Regional Representatives,” roles to which any Republican can be elected by colleagues. Capping the number of Members covered by each Regional Representative to 7 would effectively double the representation on Steering Committee and ensure its not merely the “strong arm” of the Speaker.
4) Open the Legislative Process. For Members of Congress to represent the will of their constituents in lawmaking, they must have the ability to actually participate in making laws. No Member of the “People’s House” has been allowed to offer an amendment in an open process to change legislation being considered on the floor since May 2016. The Republican 115th Congress broke the record for the most bills considered without amendments. Americans expect more from Republicans than to be mere rubber stamps, blocked from having any impact on legislation beyond voting for or against a final product.
Republican Conference rules must be changed to require all legislation considered on the floor to allow amendments. If amendments must be limited to some degree, then any Republican amendment supported by at least 10 percent of the Republican Conference must be allowed to be offered, debated, and voted on.
5) Enforce Responsibility in Spending. Restoring fiscal responsibility requires being responsible with spending decisions. We will never rein in out-of-control spending if we continue governing with kick-the-can-down-the-road continuing resolutions and massive omnibus spending bills crafted in secret at the eleventh hour and rushed to the floor for a vote.
The House is supposed to pass all twelve regular appropriations bills to fund the government by June 30 – in time for the Senate to consider them and the President to sign them into law by the start of the fiscal year on October 1. This schedule hasn’t been met in over two decades.
House Republicans should prove we are the party of fiscal responsibility to reforming our party’s rules to incentivize the passage of appropriations bills on time without relying on continuing resolutions or omnibus bills.
If the House fails to pass appropriations by August 1, then no other legislation should come to the floor until it does. If the House still has not acted by September 10, the Republican Speaker should be prohibited from recessing or adjourning until it has done its duty.
REFORM HOUSE RULES: LEVEL THE PLAYING FIELD FOR THE AMERICAN PEOPLE
The breakdown in the normal legislative process (“regular order”) accelerated at lightning speed under Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Not only has this deterioration helped the leadership of both political parties accumulate so much power that they now call all the shots, but it also benefits lobbyists and bureaucrats who game the system behind closed doors – all while the representatives elected by Americans struggle to even find out what legislation is being considered and then find themselves powerless to impact it.
Republicans have the opportunity to reset the rules of the House to level the playing field and once again make this institution reflect the will of the people.
1) Reset the House Rules. Republicans need to undo the damage to the institution caused by Democrats. Wiping the slate clean by restoring the same House Rules as the 115th Congress as they existed before Speaker Pelosi took control in January 2019 is step one for the new Republican Majority. This includes:
Ending the unconstitutional practice of proxy voting;
Restoring the “Motion to Vacate the Chair” procedure so any Member is once again able
to hold the Speaker accountable by offering a privileged motion to remove them;
Reimplementing the commonsense requirement that a comparative print is made available showing exactly how legislation will change existing laws before any bill receives a vote; and
Eliminating the ability to automatically suspend the debt ceiling without a standalone vote when the House adopts a budget resolution.
2) Hold Bureaucrats Accountable. Congress has the tools in its arsenal to hold the Biden Administration accountable – if we activate them. Democrats eliminated the “Holman Rule” when they took the House because it allows Members to make targeted spending cuts in appropriations funding bills by slashing the funding of specific federal programs or cutting the salaries of individual federal employees (e.g., Dr. Anthony Fauci). Republicans must reimplement the Holman Rule.
3) End Secret Deals Behind Closed Doors. House Rules require legislation be available for 72 hours before being considered on the floor. These commonsense, good government rules are easily waived, but it was previously considered a rare and significant departure from the norm.
In May 2020, Democrats gave themselves “same day authority” (also known as “martial law”) to get around these rules and force a vote on bills the same day they are introduced. Speaker Pelosi has kept this extraordinary power for over two years, using it to rush the passage of massive trillion-dollar spending deals so fast that no one can even read them.
To end this reckless abuse, the next Republican Majority must change this requirement from 72 hours to 120 hours (5 full days) and require a vote of two-thirds of the House to waive this rule.
4) Institute a Ban on Earmarks. While both parties have opted to allow earmarks under the name “Community Funding Projects,” the practice remains open for corruption, and it enables party leaders to coerce Members into supporting legislation they otherwise would oppose. Earmarks facilitate federal overreach by spending taxpayer-dollars on personal pet projects of lawmakers and lobbyists.
Earmarks also extend Congress’s power of spending beyond items genuinely connected to the nation’s welfare. In practice, they are often used to buy votes and coerce support for bills that might otherwise not pass muster. Essentially, earmarks amount to taxpayer-financed bribery. There must be a strict ban on earmarks instituted in House Rules.
Republicans hoover up earmarks in House spending bills - Jesse James is their hero!
Only Democrats in the top 100 co-sponsored collude in projects with Republicans … John Dillinger's maxim that he robbed banks because "that's where the money is". How sad "we the people" keep re-electing these crooks!
House Republicans have so thoroughly stacked the earmarking deck in their favor in appropriations bills for the upcoming fiscal year that the top Democratic recipient doesn’t even appear in the top 60 among lawmakers in that chamber.
In their first year in the majority since Congress in 2021 brought back the practice Republicans banned a decade earlier, GOP lawmakers are spreading nearly $7.4 billion among 4,714 individual projects tucked inside the fiscal 2024 appropriations bills.
While Democrats requested 65 percent of those earmarks, they are receiving less than 38 percent of the dollars at nearly $2.8 billion, a CQ Roll Call analysis found.
Republicans argue that’s only fair; Democrats gave themselves roughly the same percentage when they were in charge. But Democrats allowed Republicans the largest individual hauls in that chamber last year, and eight out of the top 10 earmarkers in initial fiscal 2023 bills were GOP members.
[Battle over parties’ share of earmarks erupts in House panel]
In the GOP’s fiscal 2024 bills, the first Democrat to appear is at No. 64 — Rep. Nikki Budzinski, D-Ill., a freshman in her party’s Frontline program for endangered members.
No. 1 on the list is Energy-Water Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Chuck Fleischmann, R-Tenn., who secured $273.3 million, mostly for the Army Corps of Engineers’ Chickamauga Lock project in Chattanooga that backers say is integral to the state’s economy.
Twenty out of the top 30 in terms of dollars secured are either members of the Appropriations Committee, other full committee chairs or members of the GOP leadership. Ten are Appropriations “cardinals,” or subcommittee chairs. The two remaining cardinals still pulled in more than Budzinski.
Other top recipients include No. 2 Randy Weber of Texas — last year’s No. 1 — followed by Rick Crawford of Arkansas.
Garret Graves of Louisiana, head of the Elected Leadership Committee and a top ally of Speaker Kevin McCarthy, and spending critic Matt Gaetz of Florida — a Freedom Caucus member whose initial opposition to McCarthy almost tanked the Californian’s speakership bid — round out the top 15.
Agriculture Appropriations Chairman Andy Harris, R-Md., a Freedom Caucus member who two years ago signed a “no earmarks” pledge, is No. 20, at $42.9 million; Ben Cline, R-Va., another Freedom Caucus appropriator, is No. 24 with $42 million.
[House GOP tops list of earmark seekers under new regime]
The fifth-ranking House Republican and chairman of the party’s campaign committee, Richard Hudson of North Carolina, is also the fifth most prolific earmarker in the chamber, with $97 million for two Fort Bragg construction projects.
Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., is 28th on the list at $40.2 million. His chief deputy, appropriator Guy Reschenthaler, R-Pa., secured $60.9 million, good for 11th place.
GOP Conference Chairwoman Elise Stefanik of New York is 49th, with $28.9 million. Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., is down at No. 90, with $22.1 million.
McCarthy doesn’t request earmarks.
There are only three Democrats in the top 100: Budzinski, fellow Illinois freshman Frontliner Eric Sorensen, and Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas, who’s running for Houston mayor. Sorensen and Jackson Lee each secured around $25 million.
Budzinski’s and Sorensen’s totals include proportional shares of a bipartisan $75 million Army Corps earmark for Upper Mississippi River construction; the other three requesting lawmakers are GOP Reps. Sam Graves and Blaine Luetkemeyer of Missouri and Darin LaHood of Illinois. Jackson Lee’s total includes a $24.8 million joint request with Wesley Hunt, R-Texas, for Houston Ship Channel expansion.
That means no Democrat cracked the top 100 without teaming up with Republicans.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., is at No. 119, with $17.9 million.
Vulnerable members
Republicans have sought accommodations for vulnerable members on their side. The lone exception is embattled Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y., who’s been shut out of his entire $36.3 million list of earmark requests.
Other GOP lawmakers with races rated Toss-up by Inside Elections with Nathan L. Gonzales that are in the top one-third of House earmarkers include New Yorkers Mike Lawler, Brandon Williams and Anthony D’Esposito, California’s Mike Garcia and John Duarte, New Jersey’s Thomas H. Kean Jr. and Oregon’s Lori Chavez-DeRemer.
Those in the top third who have slightly better odds but are ranked Tilt Republican to signify tough races include California’s David Valadao, an appropriator who’s No. 13 overall with $53.4 million, as well as Michigan’s John James, New York’s Marc Molinaro, Arizona’s Juan Ciscomani and Iowa’s Zach Nunn.
Another handful in the top echelon represent districts considered Lean Republican, or safer but not out of the woods. They include Defense Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Ken Calvert, R-Calif., No. 19 overall with $44.9 million, Nebraska’s Don Bacon, California’s Michelle Steel, Monica De La Cruz of Texas and Lauren Boebert of Colorado.
Boebert, another Freedom Caucus member who signed the “no earmarks” pledge, won her 2022 race by just 546 votes. She’s likely headed for a rematch against Democrat Adam Frisch, who’s trounced Boebert’s fundraising so far in the cycle; the Cook Political Report on Thursday moved the race into the Toss-up category.
CQ Roll Call’s analysis allocated joint requests proportionally to each sponsor. Nonvoting members, including the five delegates and Puerto Rico’s resident commissioner, are also represented in the totals, which include 217 Democrats and 153 Republicans.
Only one Democrat hasn’t asked for earmarks: California’s Katie Porter, who’s running to replace retiring Sen. Dianne Feinstein. Two of Porter’s opponents in the race, Democratic Reps. Barbara Lee and Adam B. Schiff got $15.9 million and $12.3 million respectively. Schiff secured earmarks despite being censured recently by the House GOP.
On the GOP side, nearly one-third of lawmakers aren’t seeking earmarks. As a result of Republicans having more money to spread around to fewer members, the average GOP-sponsored project is above $2.7 million, while individual House Democratic earmarks typically end up being less than $900,000.
Unusual amounts
Republican appropriators appear to have taken pains to adhere to the split party leaders mandated.
Certain unusually specific amounts appear repeatedly in some of the bills: $963,000 for numerous Democratic projects sprinkled throughout the Commerce-Justice-Science bill; ditto for $959,752 in the Interior-Environment measure — or in other cases, $959,757.
The largest single earmark for a Democrat-only request is $7.2 million that Veronica Escobar, D-Texas, secured in the Military Construction-VA bill for a training barracks at Fort Bliss in El Paso.
Numerous GOP-only earmarks ranged into the tens of millions and some even in the hundreds of millions, the largest being Fleischmann’s $236.8 million for Chickamauga Lock. Two other Army Corps projects, sought by Weber and Crawford respectively, top $100 million.
Appropriations cardinals are well represented among the most successful earmarkers. After Fleischmann at No. 1, Tom Cole of Oklahoma, the Rules Committee chairman and leader of the Transportation-HUD panel, is fourth overall at $106 million in project funds.
The sixth- through eighth-ranked earmarkers are Commerce-Justice-Science Subcommittee Chairman Harold Rogers, R-Ky.; Interior-Environment Subcommittee Chairman Mike Simpson, R-Idaho; and Military Construction-VA Subcommittee Chairman John Carter, R-Texas, in that order. Calvert and Harris round out the top 20.
The cardinals also in some cases dominate the ranks of biggest earmarkers within their respective bills.
Fleischmann’s lock is easily enough to put him atop his Energy-Water bill. Cole secured nearly $83 million in the Transportation-HUD bill, far and away the most in that measure, the most prolific overall by far with nearly $4 billion in total earmarks. Rogers has the most earmark money in the Commerce-Justice-Science measure; ditto for Harris in Agriculture.
This year’s crop of House bills has $880 million less project funding than was included in last year’s versions, a nearly 11 percent drop, thanks to narrower eligibility rules GOP leaders instituted.
That significantly outpaces the overall 1 percent funding cut House Appropriations Chairwoman Kay Granger, R-Texas, incorporated into the fiscal 2024 bills, and it’s proportionally deeper even than the 8 percent cut conservatives want. But it’s not yet clear whether earmarks will be spared as GOP leaders are moving towards slashing the spending bills further to appease conservatives ahead of floor debate.
Among the changes: no more Labor-HHS-Education earmarks, a popular go-to in years past, and Financial Services and Defense projects were scrapped too. Earmarks have to have a “federal nexus” or previously authorized purpose.
In addition to cutting back on spending, the changes in part were designed to weed out “woke” Democratic priorities, Republicans have said. During the July 18 Transportation-HUD markup, Republicans axed three earmarks for LGBTQ-related beneficiaries that made it through the earlier vetting, drawing Democratic accusations of bigotry.
Still, the massive “THUD” measure remains more equitable to Democrats than other bills by giving them 45 percent of project funds to the GOP’s 55 percent.
