Is Congress Returning to ‘Regular Order’ In Funding?

The House of Representatives took a major step toward averting another government shutdown when it passed a funding package Thursday. 

But perhaps more importantly, House Freedom Caucus members influenced the process around the bill’s consideration in ways they say could help government spending in the future.

The House’s “minibus” package covers three of the 12 funding areas for the federal government: Energy-Water, Interior-Environment, and Commerce-Justice-Science. Appropriators have attempted to reconcile both chambers’ priorities, and the package will be considered in the Senate next week.

But fiscal hawks within the Republican party took issue with the Commerce-Justice-Science section, alleging it was full of earmarks, or lawmaker-requested funding for specific pet projects.

House Republicans agreed to end the practice of earmarks under conference rules in 2011, but both Democrats and Republicans decided to revive it in the winter of 2021.

One earmark in particular—$1 million in funding backed by Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., for a self-described “youth-led East African recovery organization”—drew the ire of caucus members.

“Earmarks are the currency of corruption, and they’re coming back in full force in these products,” Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, told reporters Wednesday.

Roy also complained that he was “without the ability to amend” the package.

Some top Republicans began to fear the collapse of the whole package due to earmarks.

“I can’t afford to have a million dollar project jeopardize a $184 billion package of bills,” top House appropriator Tom Cole, R-Okla., told reporters, per Politico.

Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., ranking member on the appropriations committee, also told the press Wednesday she wished to rectify the situation.

“It is under discussion and it will be resolved. That’s the way things go with these community projects. If there’s a difficulty, if there’s a problem, we try to work it out. Or it comes out,” said DeLauro.

Before the bill came up for a vote, the House Rules Committee worked to address fiscal hawks’ concerns, ultimately striking the Minnesota earmark through a “manager’s amendment.”

The Freedom Caucus has two members on the committee, Roy and Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C.

The ‘MIRV’ Solution

The rules committee also restructured the vote to allow for separate consideration of parts of the Commerce-Justice-Science bill, a practice sometimes known as a “MIRV.”

The process allows House leadership to hold individual votes on separate elements of one bill, before those elements are joined again into one package that goes to the Senate.

The procedure’s nickname comes from “multiple impact reentry vehicles”—ballistic missiles containing multiple warheads inside of them, each of which separates from the main vehicle and hits its target.

This maneuver for Thursday’s minibus let House fiscal hawks vote against retaining the Commerce-Justice-Science section, while leadership advanced the whole package using some Democrat votes.

The Commerce-Justice-Science division of the bill was ultimately approved by a 375-47 margin, with 40 Republicans and seven Democrats forming the opposition.

Only three Republicans and three Democrats voted against the other division of the package, which passed 419-6.

“There are some people who would like to have a separate vote. It’s not a big deal,” rules committee chair Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., told The Daily Signal Wednesday before the vote. “It’s been done before. And so we’re going to accommodate that.”

Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., told The Daily Signal Wednesday that he preferred holding separate votes.

“That’s a better situation than just, you know, jamming it all into one package,” he told The Daily Signal.

A Freedom Caucus Win?

House Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Harris, R-Md., told The Daily Signal after the vote on Thursday that he views the outcome as a victory for his caucus, which has long called for separate votes on individual appropriations bills.

“We’ve already done away with what we call the ‘Christmas omnibus’ [where] you pile all 12 bills together, you work them out in a smoke-filled room, nobody has any chance to say anything about them,” Harris said.

“What we did today for the first time ever is say, ‘oh, and by the way, we’re going to have a separate vote on some of the bills,'” he added.

Harris also praised the stripping of the “very offensive million-dollar earmark to a Somali led organization where the brother of the organizer was arrested as a terrorist.”

In Harris’ view, the process this process should be replicated in the future.

“The framework we’ve laid out, especially this past week, allows us to… return to… what we call regular order: Each bill considered separately, amendments allowed on the floor—you know, the way it was when I first came here, and the way we should return to.”

The legislation could still face headwinds in the Senate, though, where Paul is complaining of “billions in refugee money” in the bills.

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