GOP Likely to Take Shutdown Blame, Republican Appropriator Warns

The shutdown blame game is underway on Capitol Hill, and a senior Republican lawmaker is worried his side is destined to be blamed for it.

Lawmakers face a Sept. 30 deadline to fund the government and avert an Oct. 1 shutdown. GOP lawmakers aim to pass a straightforward extension, but Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) have demanded health-care policy concessions as part of any deal.

While Republican leaders aim to put pressure on Democrats by passing their own funding plan, Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho), a senior member of the Appropriations Committee, has warned GOP colleagues they’ll take heat regardless of the details. He said there’s merit to some of Democrats’ complaints about the Trump administration’s stance on the government-funding process, particularly the Office of Management and Budget deciding to withhold funds.

He echoed concerns by Democratic appropriators that it’s useless to strike a compromise funding deal if one side can retroactively block the funds they oppose.

“I don’t think the Democrats want to shut down either,” Simpson said in an exclusive roundtable interview with Bloomberg Government. “Their concern right now, and it’s a legitimate concern, is that, how can we agree to any deal when our OMB director will just impound the funds and say we’re not going to spend them there?”

Simpson added, “I will guarantee you, Jeffries and Schumer could stand on the Capitol steps and say, ‘We want to shut this government down,’ and Republicans would get blamed for it.”

The Idaho lawmaker, who chairs the subcommittee that funds the Department of the Interior and the Environmental Protection Agency, said he doesn’t expect a shutdown, though it’s possible lawmakers could “fall into one.”

House Republicans could release the text of a stopgap funding measure as soon as Monday to keep the government running into mid- to late-November. It won’t be easy for GOP leaders to whip the votes. Several conservatives, including Reps. Warren Davidson (R-Ohio), Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), Victoria Spartz (R-Ind.), and Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), have criticized the plan for a continuing resolution.

Republicans have often — but not exclusively — taken the blame for shutdowns. A 2013 shutdown was broadly pinned on Republicans, who sought to use a funding deadline in a failed bid to defund the Affordable Care Act. Trump was widely blamed for a 2018-2019 shutdown when he unsuccessfully sought more border wall money. However, Democrats largely took the blame for a brief shutdown in January 2018, when they unsuccessfully pushed for immigration measures.

Blame Game

House Appropriations Chairman Tom Cole (R-Okla.) told reporters he’s pushed back against Democrats’ expectation that Republicans will take the blame for any shutdown. Most funding lapses are pinned on the GOP for specific reasons, he said.

Schumer and Jeffries have broadly called for health-care concessions as part of funding talks, at times pointing to Affordable Care Act subsidies that are set to expire Dec. 31.

Aside from health care, Democrats have spent several months criticizing President Donald Trump’s administration for unilaterally halting federal expenditures approved by Congress. Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought has said he believes the Constitution grants the president more authority to impound funds than the 1974 law that outlines restrictions on his ability to stop spending.

Democrats on the House and Senate Appropriations Committees estimated in early September that Vought had frozen or canceled about $412 billion. Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) also called a late-August plan to rescind nearly $5 billion in foreign aid “a slap in the face.”

Simpson said he sees Democrats’ point. He echoed concerns by Democratic appropriators that it’s useless to strike a compromise funding deal if one side can retroactively block the funds they oppose.

“I don’t think the Democrats want to shut down either,” Simpson said. “Their concern right now, and it’s a legitimate concern, is that, how can we agree to any deal when our OMB director will just impound the funds and say we’re not going to spend them there?”

Vought’s comments in July that the government-funding process should be “less bipartisan” only undermine lawmakers seeking to strike a deal, Simpson said.

“Vought says some things that don’t make it very easy for us to do our job,” Simpson said. “He says the appropriations process needs to be more partisan. OK, it’s already partisan enough.”