**CQ TODAY**\
March 11, 2005

## House GOP Leaders Facing Dissent on Budget

By Susan Crabtree, CQ Staff

The opening round of the budget process in the House continues to be a
test of wills between Republican leaders and rock-ribbed conservatives
distressed by the deficit and what they see as their party's failure to
rein in spending.

Twenty current members of the Republican Study Committee, an
increasingly prominent caucus of about 100 fiscal conservatives, broke
with the GOP leaders to vote against the Medicare prescription drug law
([PL 108-173)]{.underline} in 2003. Many of them now say they are ready
to vote against the leadership again when the fiscal 2006 budget
resolution reaches the House floor next week. GOP leaders cannot afford
to suffer more than a dozen or so defections and expect to win adoption
of their budget.

Although senior lawmakers are betting that the conservatives cannot
prevail, the increasingly outspoken bloc is demanding that the budget
resolution include mechanisms that would make it more difficult for the
House to ignore spending caps.

"We're simply trying to have a budget that is not a mirage," said Jeff
Flake of Arizona, one of about a dozen Republican Study Committee
members summoned Thursday by Majority Whip Roy Blunt, R-Mo., for
impromptu hallway negotiations.

Encircled by the rank and file, Blunt looked like a coach about to send
his team onto a playing field. But that appearance was deceiving.

"I'm sick of all this talk that we need to be team players," one of the
conservatives said later. "What they've been telling us for years is
that we've busted the budget and there's nothing you can do about it."

The hallway gathering was Blunt's second of the day with the group or
its leaders. Neil Bradley, the majority whip's deputy chief of staff and
formerly the Republican Study Committee's executive director, was
playing a major role in the talks.

By early evening, GOP leaders had offered the conservatives "greater
transparency" in the budget process, promising to provide more
information, including Congressional Budget Office scoring, on the cost
of legislation considered on the House floor.

"We want to make more information available," said a GOP aide. "CBO
would be one source, but it is not the sole source."

# Seeds of Discontent 

The conservatives did not immediately accept the offer, and expressed
frustration that the leadership was using Blunt as its middleman.
Republican Study Committee members said Blunt and Majority Leader Tom
DeLay, R-Texas, have been sending mixed messages about their commitment
to reducing federal spending.

During a House Republican Conference meeting in December, for instance,
some conservatives pushed for House rule changes that would have
required enforceable spending limits. DeLay, two Republican lawmakers
said, went so far as to suggest that fiscal conservatives vote against
rules providing for floor action on appropriations bills if those bills
would violate the budget resolution's spending ceiling.

But votes on resolutions setting ground rules for floor debate are
usually considered tests of party loyalty, and defections are not taken
lightly.

"It's now known as the Blunt rule," explained one House Republican. "You
vote against the rule and you're \[kicked off\] the whip team."

According to those present at the December session, when DeLay suggested
voting against the rules for action on offending appropriations bills,
Blunt shook his head in disagreement.

At that point, Republican Study Committee members now say, they decided
that the best way to convince GOP leaders to take a hard line on
spending would be to threaten to oppose the budget resolution.

Led by Mike Pence of Indiana and Jeb Hensarling of Texas, the
conservative group earlier sought to change House rules to require a
three-fifths majority vote to waive procedural objections to spending
bills that exceed spending limits. After GOP leaders warned that such a
change could permit Democrats to wield too much power when
appropriations bills are debated, the conservatives changed course.

The group now wants a rule that would permit them to block, with the
support of a simple majority, bills that exceed spending ceilings.

The conservatives have also tempered their rhetoric. "We were having a
monologue, we are now having a dialogue and I hope there will soon be an
epilogue," Pence said.

But senior Republicans said the Republican Study Committee is unlikely
to score any significant victory in a confrontation with a leadership
team that has shown little tolerance for dissent.

"My prediction is, after the dust settles, they'll be voting for the
budget next week," said Ray LaHood, R-Ill. "Just like last year."

A year ago, Republican leaders defused a conservative rebellion against
the budget resolution by promising that the House would vote later on
budget enforcement legislation. Months later, that measure was defeated
by a wide margin.

*Jonathan Allen contributed to this story.* © 2005 Congressional
Quarterly Inc.