It’s been a busy year for the Kentucky Republican who heads the House spending – or appropriations – committee. Representative Hal Rogers has helped pass a lot of spending bills, but, as WEKU correspondent Matt Laslo reports, with the Senate controlled by Democrats, those bills are likely to die.
Back in June, coal protestors were in D-C and complained they couldn’t get any face time with Congressman Rogers. Whether or not the sixteen term congressman wanted to talk to those activists, he sure had a good excuse for being hard to find.
“I’d be happy to meet with them but I’m busy. We’re marking up two bills this morning in subcommittee. We’re marking up the bill on the floor – passing the bill on the floor with all these amendments. I’ve just not had the time,” said Rogers.
Those markups – a fancy term for finalizing a spending bill – involve going through dozens and sometimes hundreds of amendments. It’s a tedious process since there are four hundred and thirty five lawmakers with competing interests…each trying to protect federal spending for their regions.
When they took over in the House, Republicans decided to allow most every amendment to come before the full House for an up or down vote. It’s called an open rules process. That’s made Chairman Roger’s job that much more difficult, but he’s got no regrets.
“Well its democracy, we wanted an open rule so that everyone had a chance to have their say on these bills and we’ve worked it that way we have has several hundred amendments that we’ve dealt with, but I’m very pleased with our progress,” said Rogers.
So far Rogers has ushered half of the nation’s spending bills through the House.
But, the Senate under Majority Leader Harry Reid has yet to act on even one. Reid blames his chamber’s inaction on House Republicans… who want to enact deeper cuts than those outlined in a compromise reached last year. But Kentucky Republican Congressman Ed Whitfield says the Senate leader is just making excuses.
“The Senate hasn’t done very much for quite a while truthfully and under the leadership of Harry Reid it’s done even less, but that’s the way our system works so that’s where we are,” said Whitfield.
And don’t just take the word of a House member. Kentucky Senator Rand Paul says it’s been frustrating to be elected into office to help get the nation’s fiscal house in order, only to sit on the sidelines.
“I think the place isn’t being run very well in the sense that I think they’ve doing a better job in the House at passing appropriations bills but over here in the Senate we haven’t passed really individual appropriations bills or even a budget and I think it’s irresponsible not to have a budget and not pass bills individually,” said Paul.
As for the spending bills and the budget that did pass the House, they were controversial. The G-O-P blueprint for the nation involves revamping Medicare, cutting funds for food stamps, and slashing environmental spending. And, Hal Rogers has his name on each piece of legislation.
“That’s exactly right and we wanted it that way. We wanted the House to speak loudly and clearly, and I think we have,” said Rogers.
That ideological challenge from House Republicans pleases Kentucky Democrat John Yarmuth. The Louisville Congressman says it gives American voters a clear choice.
“Budgets are always a statement of values and I think that’s the way the Republican budget was constructed. I don’t think they are the values most Americans share, but clearly they wanted to go on record as to where they think the federal government should operate and I’m glad they did it because I think it reveals a lot about the difference between the Republican majority and those of us on the other side,” said Yarmuth.
With the Senate ignoring his spending bills, it means most of the work done by Hal Rogers is wasted. In the end, both parties will probably agree to keep spending at the same levels as the previous year. But Rogers doesn’t see it that way. He says he’s doing his job and he seems to enjoy his big wooden gavel too.
