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Reeling from the defeat of their health care proposal last week, Republicans in Congress are regrouping and planning for the coming months. There are budget deadlines to meet and policy issues to tackle, ranging from tax reform to infrastructure .

But prospects for achieving major victories in the coming months looks dim. Many lawmakers are concerned that divisions in its ranks between conservatives and moderates will make it difficult to notch any major achievements in the coming months.

Things that you assumed could happen automatically, youd better now spend a lot more time on and make sure they occur, said Republican Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma.

Many have advocated looking beyond the partys own ranks and finding common ground with Democrats.

Weve got a lot of work to do, said Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona. One of the things we need to do and its going to be harder now, because we just failed is theres got to be bipartisanship.

Here are the five issues Republicans will have to work out.

How to defund Planned Parenthood

The government is set to partially shut down on April 28 unless Congress approves a spending package first. Republicans are deciding how many of their policy priorities to squeeze into the proposal without risking a government shutdown.

Planned Parenthood is one measure many Republicans want to see in the spending package due by the end of April. But Democrats could filibuster the government funding bill in the Senate, thereby forcing Republicans to decide whether they want to shut down the government.

That has made House Speaker Paul Ryan wary about defunding it through the April spending package, leading him to suggest defunding the womens health organization through a budget reconciliation measure instead.

The budget reconciliation will head off the risk of Senate filibuster from Democrats, as it only requires a simple majority to pass the upper chamber.

We think reconciliation is the tool, because that gets it into law, Ryan told reporters, responding to a question about Planned Parenthood funding. Reconciliation is the way to go."

If conservatives in the Republican conference object to Ryans delay, however, there could be a fight on the partys hands.

Whether to pay for a border wall

Another measure that some want to see in the government funding bill next month is funding for President Trumps proposed wall on the border with Mexico. It is a major campaign promise by the president, and one that galvanized many voters in Republican Congressional districts.

Does that need to be a presidential priority? Well hes made it one, said Randy Weber, Republican from Texas. Is there support for getting it in there? Unequivocally yes. Can they get it in? I dont know, well have to see.

Democrats have firmly objected, with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer saying border wall funding would be a poison pill that would lead to a filibuster.

Whether to pursue the border adjustment tax

Tax reform is the next big item on the Republicans agenda. But rewriting the tax code is notoriously difficult, and there are strong divisions among Republicans about what would work best.

Republican leaders in the House have insisted that the best method would be through a 20% border adjustment which would tax goods consumed in the United States and slash the corporate tax rate. Its a revolutionary plan that would likely help domestic manufacturers like Boeing and hurt importers like Walmart , but it has enough skeptics in the Senate that it might be a pipe dream.

The conflict is setting up the GOP for another fight.

Whether to end the filibuster on the Supreme Court

It is looking increasingly likely that Democrats will have the votes needed to block the confirmation vote for Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court, with Democratic senators from across the political spectrum saying they will oppose President Trump's nominee. That will force Senate Republicans to either back down, or trigger the so-called nuclear option , which would abolish the filibuster on Supreme Court nominees, and force Gorsuch through.

It is a difficult choice for Republicans. Many longtime senators are traditionalists and do not want to change the rules of the Senate. Abolishing the filibuster requires a majority in the Senate, so just two Republicans would need to get cold feet for the effort to fail, and thus sink Gorsuch's confirmation.

Still, even moderate Republicans with a longstanding respect for the Senate's rules are adamant that Gorsuch will get confirmed one way or another. "He will be confirmed," said McCain.

"We will confirm him. So whatever it takes, were going to have to do," Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah told National Journal .

Whether to try repealing Obamacare again

Republicans are not done with their effort to repeal Obamacare. After Fridays defeat, the House Republicans held a rousing conference meeting, where members committed again to finding a way to repeal Obamacare and replace it with a law that repeals certain regulations and reduces federal expenditures.

What shape that law will take is hard to know, and Republicans have not started drafting new ideas. The old, deep divisions in the party have not disappeared, and the hard-right members of the Freedom Caucus will still want a plan that looks very different from what moderates want.

Still, despite the difficulty of health care and all the other pressing matters President Trump promised to address, many members want to repeal Obamacare first .

If we just sit up here and play diddly-winks, itll hurt us, said Republican Rep. Morgan Griffith of Virginia. I think you need to do health care first.

The fact that we did not pass a bill next week doesnt mean we are not going to pass a billId love to see it pass next weekbut if its not next week, then its next month, said Republican Rep. Austin Scott of Georgia.

Until we decide what were doing with health care, everything is going to be a stumbling block, Republican Rep. Dennis Ross of Florida.

The rest is here:
5 Big Decisions Republicans in Congress Have to Make Soon - TIME

NEW YORK Republicans mostly blame the U.S. Congress, and not President Donald Trump or party leaders, for failing to pass their party's healthcare overhaul, according to a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll released on Wednesday.

The March 25-28 poll asked who should take responsibility for the failure of the American Health Care Act (AHCA), which Republican leaders pulled from consideration last week without a vote.

Besides Trump, who backed the bill, and House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan, who was expected to shepherd it through Congress, the poll asked if people blamed House Republicans, House Democrats or the media.

Republicans were most likely to blame Congress. Some 26 percent said House Democrats were most responsible and 23 percent blamed House Republicans. Another 13 percent blamed Trump and 10 percent blamed Ryan. Only 8 percent blamed the media. (Graphic: tmsnrt.rs/2nhOmjI PDF link: tmsnrt.rs/2nhtM30)

Their assessment appeared to align with Trump's criticism of Democratic leaders and the conservative Freedom Caucus, whom he blamed for the bill's failure.

Overall, nearly one in four Americans, including Democrats and independents, blamed Trump. Ryan, Congress and the media received less criticism.

The Republican reform was widely criticized after estimates by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office showed 24 million people could lose their health insurance over the next 10 years.

Trump said on Tuesday he still thinks healthcare reform can happen "very quickly" in Washington, but he did not offer any specifics on how it could get done, or what would be changed from the previous bill.

Nearly half of all Americans said they would like to see that happen, though the response was split along party lines. Some 80 percent of Republicans said they would like to see their party take another swing at a bill, compared with only 25 percent of Democrats.

In a separate poll conducted between Jan.7-23, 46 percent of Americans wanted to keep Obamacare, the popular name for President Barack Obama's healthcare reform, while fixing problem areas, and another 8 percent wanted to keep it exactly as it is.

The Reuters/Ipsos poll was conducted online in English in all 50 states. The March 25-28 poll included 1,332 people, including 456 Republicans and 558 Democrats. It has a credibility interval, a measure of accuracy, of 3 percentage points for the entire group and 5 percentage points for Democrats and Republicans.

(Reporting by Chris Kahn, editing by Ross Colvin)

WASHINGTON Ivanka Trump said on Wednesday she would work in the White House in an unpaid, informal advisory role to the president as she sought to allay ethics concerns about working there.

WASHINGTON The U.S. Interior Department said on Wednesday that it would form a new committee to review royalty rates collected from oil and gas drilling and coal mining on federal lands to ensure taxpayers receive their full value.

Read the rest here:
Exclusive: Republicans mostly blame Congress for healthcare reform failure - Reuters/Ipsos poll - Reuters

Today, the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology held a heated hearing on the assumptions, policy implications, and the scientific method of climate science. In fact, the hearing was just an excuse to pretend theres uncertainty within the scientific community on whether human-made climate change is real.

Four witnesses were asked to testify before the committee; only one of them Michael Mann, a climate scientist at Penn State University agreed with the other 97 percent of scientists who believe that human activity, like the burning of fossil fuels, is causing our planet to heat up. The other witnesses testified that we dont really know how much people are contributing to climate change, and theres too much uncertainty to consider global warming a threat.

For a balanced panel, we need 96 more Dr. Manns.

The witness panel does not really represent the vast majority of climate scientists who have concluded that there is a connection between human activity and climate, Rep. Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR) said at the hearing. For a balanced panel, we need 96 more Dr. Manns.

In fact, Manns views arent only representative of pretty much the entire science community; they also represent the views of the majority of Americans. Data released last week by the Yale Program on Climate Communication shows that 70 percent of Americans believe that climate change is happening; 53 percent believe that global warming is caused mostly by human activities. And 75 percent want the US government to regulate heat-trapping carbon dioxide as a pollutant. (More than 70 percent of Americans also trust climate scientists on global warming.)

Bonamici said that the hearing was a waste of time. Yet, the committee chairman Lamar Smith (R-TX) commented in his opening statement that much of climate science today appears to be based more on exaggeration, personal agendas, and questionable predictions than on the scientific method. He added, Alarmist predictions amount to nothing more than wild guesses.

Alarmist predictions amount to nothing more than wild guesses.

Some members of Congress went on by asking some ridiculous questions and targeting the only climate scientist in the room who seemed to take climate change seriously. Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL) asked the witnesses whether its true that sea levels are actually going to fall, not rise as a result of global warming. (Melting glaciers and land-based ice caps are already causing sea levels to rise.) Rep. Daniel Webster (R-FL) asked whether we know what caused the ice ages just to make the point that the ice ages occurred naturally and so we cant claim with certainty that climate change is human-made. (Again, within the scientific community, theres basically no disagreement that by pumping heat-trapping gases like CO2 into the atmosphere, people are warming up the planet.)

In a particularly intense moment, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) attacked Mann for saying that Smith took part in a climate science denying conference at the Heartland Institute. From the get go, we have heard personal attack after personal attack after personal attack coming from those how are claiming to represent the mainstream of science, even to the point that our chairman is attacked, Rohrabacher said. That is ridiculous, people should be ashamed of yourselves. (The live stream then stopped working.)

Rep. Darin Lahood (R-IL) asked three of the witnesses whether they had ever been personally attacked by Mann for their views on climate science. As I understand it in the past, and this is public record, Dr. Mann has referred to you as a carnival barker and also a contrarian pundit. Are you aware of that? Lahood asked the witness Roger Pielke Jr., a professor at the University of Colorados Environmental Studies Department. I cant keep up with all of Dr. Manns epithets, Pielke responded.

climate change is only getting worse

Mann did represent the only mainstream scientist at the hearing, so the fact that he was repeatedly attacked is not that surprising. There was a lot of what one congressman referred to as a food fight among scientists. But as members of Congress hold useless hearings and President Donald Trump tries to bring back coal mining, climate change is only getting worse and were running out of time.

The consequences for this country are very grave for our citizens, Rep. Elizabeth Esty (D-CT) said at the hearing. At some point we have to go with consensus for the time being, as we continue research. She added: We cannot wait for final ultimate truth to make decisions.

See the original post here:
Republicans held a fake inquiry on climate change to attack the only credible scientist in the room - The Verge

Republicans withdrew the American Health Care Act moments before a scheduled vote on March 24, after failing to woo enough lawmakers to support it. Here are the key turning points in their fight to pass the bill. (Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post)

With the Republican effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act in tatters and President Trumps approval ratings in the 30s, Democrats are feeling pretty good about their ability to limit the damage Republicans are able to do. But another unfolding story demonstrates that the dangers of unified GOP rule come from many different directions, and dramatic change can happen almost before you realize it.

If you dont closely follow issues around technology and communication policy, you probably didnt see this one coming, but Republicans in Congress just passed a bill allowing your Internet service provider to sell your browsing history without your consent:

In a party-line vote, House Republicans freed Internet service providers such as Verizon, AT&T and Comcast of protections approved just last year that had sought to limit what companies could do with information such as customer browsing habits, app usage history, location data and Social Security numbers. The rules also had required providers to strengthen safeguards for customer data against hackers and thieves.

The Senate has voted to nullify those measures, which were set to take effect at the end of this year. If Trump signs the legislation as expected, providers will be able to monitor their customers behavior online and, without their permission, use their personal and financial information to sell highly targeted ads making them rivals to Google and Facebook in the $83 billion online advertising market.

Welcome to the world the Republicans envision, where even after you turn on incognito mode and do some private Internet exploration about an embarrassing problem, before you know it there are fliers turning up in your mailbox saying HELP FOR YOUR GENITAL WARTS IS HERE!!!

The bill passed the Senate, 50-48, with every Democrat voting against it and every Republican present voting for it (two Republicans did not vote). The result in the House was almost as divided: All 190 Democrats present voted against it along with just 15 Republican defectors, while the other 215 Republicans voted in favor.

Ive been unable to find any polling data on this question, but if you could get 5 percent of Americans to say they want their ISPs to sell their browsing history without their consent, Id be shocked. So how does something like this happen?

The simple answer is lobbying. A set of powerful corporations would love to be able to sell your information, so they invested heavily in lobbying Congress to get it done. But its not just about the Washington swamp; its also about the philosophical differences between the two parties.

Democrats put a premium on protecting consumers, and Republicans are much more interested in maintaining and expanding the prerogatives of corporations. Indeed, if youre looking for the Republicans public-spirited argument in favor of this bill, youll find it hard to discern. Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) is quoted in that article saying that privacy will be enhanced by removing the uncertainty and confusion these rules will create, which makes no sense at all, while the ISPs themselves tout all the benefits targeted ads will have for their customers.

Making this all worse, the bill was passed using a heretofore obscure law called the Congressional Review Act, which allows Congress to not only nullify recently written regulations but also forbid the agency in question (in this case, the Federal Communications Commission) from ever writing similar rules again. Since the rule guaranteeing your privacy was written at the end of the Obama administration, Republicans are taking the opportunity to undo it. In the 20 years after the CRA itself was passed, it had been used to undo a regulation exactly once. But this year, congressional Republicans have already passed 11 CRA bills to nullify Obama regulations on things such as guns, the environment and worker protections, and there are more on the way.

If youre like most people, you think the bill allowing your ISP to sell your information without your consent is outrageous, but it may not be enough in and of itself to get you to call your member of Congress. Not only that, the bill has already passed. And by the time the next election rolls around, you may have forgotten about it.

Have no doubt: Thats the whole idea. All the Republicans who voted for this had no illusions that it would be a popular thing to do. But they figured that with everything else going on, most people wouldnt notice. And theyre probably right.

Were going to be seeing this a lot in the next four years. Youll come across an article telling you about some appalling bill that just passed Congress, and youll say, Wait they did what? Itll be the first youve heard of it, and maybe the last as well. Republicans may suffer more high-profile losses on sweeping legislation that gets debated for weeks or months, but meanwhile theyll be racking up one victory after another on smaller items, many of them giveaways to corporate interests, such as the Internet privacy bill.

Is there anything you can do about this? Sure. Even though the bill has passed, it isnt too late to tell your member of Congress how you feel about it (and if that member is a Republican, you might ask them whether theyd like to share their own browsing history with their constituents, since they think your private information ought to be bought and sold). Even if that doesnt stop this bill from becoming law, it would show your representative that theyre being watched, and perhaps make them a little less willing to do the same sort of thing in the future.

Raising a stink about this bill might also make it possible that President Trump could veto it, even though the White House has already issue a statement in support of it. Trumps opinions are always subject to change, and if he became convinced that this was incredibly unpopular, you never know what he might do.

Even if that doesnt happen, this is a valuable lesson: Republicans in Congress may have suffered a huge defeat on ACA repeal, but theyre still going to be working like busy little bees, and we cant take our eyes off them for a moment.

Originally posted here:
Democrats won big on health care. But Republicans are still doing terrible things. - Washington Post (blog)

WASHINGTON Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee voted down a measure offered by Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.) to force President Donald Trump to release his tax returns to the committee.

In a party-line vote on Tuesday,24 committee Republicans voted against the measure and 16 Democrats voted for it.

This is the second time committee Republicans have voted to keep Trumps tax returns secret and the third time the House has held a vote on the subject. In February, committee Republicans sunk a prior measurefrom Pascrell, and then, on the floor of the House, Republicans beat back a resolution, also from Pascrell, to force the release of Trumps tax returns. Both votes were along party lines.

Trump has refused to voluntarily release his tax returns for public review, though every other president since Gerald Ford has released some portion of their tax returns. Trump claims he cant release his returns because theyre under a routine audit, but has provided no evidence of one. There is also no law or regulation preventing individuals from publicly disclosing their tax returns when they are under audit.

In an often-testy committee hearing, Republicans argued that Democrats were simply playing politics. Frankly, this resolution is a procedural tool being utilized, and I think abused, for obvious political purposes, committee chairman Kevin Brady (R-Texas) said.

Pascrell shot back it was entirely proper to use the law and added that the committee had a duty to ensure the presidents business interests dont conflict with his work for the American people.

It is our responsibility under the Constitution, Mr. Chairman very clear, very clear to provide oversight of the executive branch and root out conflicts of interest, Pascrell said. That is our responsibility.

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Republicans on the committee argued that Democrats were improperly using a law enacted after the Teapot Dome Scandalin the 1920s that permitted the committee to obtain the tax returns of executive branch officials under investigation at the time. The committee used the same law decades later to obtain President Richard Nixons tax returns during the Watergate scandal. Republicans, including Brady, also used the law in 2014 to investigate allegations that the IRS improperly targeted conservative nonprofits.

Rep. Jim Renacci (R-Ohio), a former tax lawyer, argued that the presidents tax returns would not reveal any items of interest.

Youre railing off on things that you would never find on a tax return, Renacci said, addingthat Democrats were instead on a political mission, not a mission of fact.

Rep. Jason Smith (R-Mo.) echoed that sentiment. This hearing clearly has showed me that this is just a bunch of political grandstanding, he said.

This was the common theme from Republicans on the committee. One after the other, they argued that Democrats were only interested in politics and that Trumps returns would contain nothing of interest beyond what was already revealed in the financial disclosures he had to file with the Federal Election Commission.

Republicansaccusations that the measure was only about politics irked some Democrats. After Rep. Kristi Noem (R-S.D.) declared that the whole exercise was about politics, Rep. Joe Crowley (D-N.Y.)replied defensively.

To impugn the integrity of [Rep. Pascrell] is irresponsible, Crowley said. He added, Our motivation is to find the truth.

In addition to blocking the release of Trumps tax returns twice on the Ways and Means Committee and once on the House floor, Republicans alsovoted to block a measurein the House Judiciary Committee requiring the Department of Justice to inform the committee about its investigation into the Trump campaigns ties to the Russian government.

Without much power in Washington to hold hearings and call witnesses, Democrats are hoping to get Republicans on the record obstructing disclosures the public supports. The majority of Americans want Trump to release his tax returns, as every other president in the modern era has done.

Read more:
House Republicans Vote To Keep Trump's Tax Returns Secret For The Third Time - Huffington Post