The most prominent conservative activist group called on those running for the House Republican leadership in the wake of Speaker John A. Boehner’s resignation to continue fighting to defund Planned Parenthood, repeal the Affordable Care Act, maintain strict spending limits, and use the debt ceiling as leverage against President Obama and Democrats.
Heritage Action for America said in a memo released Wednesday that new leaders should be chosen based on “policy and process,” not by personalities and power politics: “Which candidates will promote a conservative policy agenda that advances opportunity for all and favoritism to none? Which candidates will fight for those policies and seriously challenge President Obama? Which candidates will reform the internal workings of the House to ensure a more open and deliberative process with less top-down management, and end the culture of punishment and retribution?”
The memorandum also offers a blueprint for the demands conservatives in the House are likely to make from candidates — including leading speaker candidate Kevin O. McCarthy — in return for their support.
Those demands could play out as soon as Wednesday afternoon, when the House takes up a stopgap funding bill that does not include Planned Parenthood defunding language that conservatives have demanded. The Heritage memo calls the vote a “key test” and says, “Those seeking a leadership position should fight his plan using every tool at their disposal.”
The memo also calls for future GOP leaders to hold strong against Democratic demands to bust budget caps in the negotiations that are expected to occur ahead of the Dec. 11 deadline set out in the stopgap. “A near-term spending increase would further undermine the party’s claim to fiscal responsibility,” the group says.
Heritage also demands that new leaders use the budget reconciliation process to repeal the Affordable Care Act, treat the debt ceiling as “a legitimate tool to control spending and enact major pillars of the GOP budget,” and resist calls to reauthorize the Export-Import Bank, federal highway funding and the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.
In an interview Sunday, Boehner has said he intends to “clean the barn up a little bit” before leaving on Oct. 30. While he has not detailed what he hopes to accomplish in his final weeks, there has been much speculation that he will seek to pass a highway bill, reauthorize the Ex-Im Bank and perhaps extend the debt ceiling in that time.
Also in that interview Sunday, Boehner had harsh words for groups like Heritage, saying they held “unrealistic” expectations: “We got groups here in town, members of the House and Senate here in town, who whip people into a frenzy believing they can accomplish things that they know — they know! — are never going to happen.”
The memo in full:
To: Interested Parties
From: Heritage Action for America
Date: September 30, 2015
Subject: Conservative Expectations on House Leadership RacesThe upcoming leadership races should not be driven by personality, quid pro quo committee assignments and fundraising prowess. Instead, those races should be determined by policy and process. Which candidates will promote a conservative policy agenda that advances opportunity for all and favoritism to none? Which candidates will fight for those policies and seriously challenge President Obama? Which candidates will reform the internal workings of the House to ensure a more open and deliberative process with less top-down management, and end the culture of punishment and retribution?A Real Governing Vision. The complete absence of a conservative agenda by the Republican-controlled Congress must change. In evaluating leadership candidates, members should demand clarity as to how each one would put forward a positive conservative agenda that promotes opportunity for all and favoritism to none. For example:Significant Internal Reforms. More often than not, process and personnel are policy. As things stand, the House and GOP conference rules concentrate power in the hands of a few individuals, thus marginalizing conservatives and rank-and-file members. In evaluating leadership candidates, members should demand key reforms that decentralize power in the House and empower members to better represent their constituents.Near-term Trust Building. In evaluating leadership candidates, members should demand clarity as to how each one would fight the numerous legislative battles that will emerge over the remainder of the year. Members should evaluate the next Speaker and his or her leadership team on the following issues:The opportunity for a change in leadership should empower rank-and-file lawmakers. The Republican-controlled House should embrace this as an opportunity to align itself with the conservative grassroots and increase the likelihood the party will actually fight for conservative policy priorities. That will not happen through inertia, though. It will take a concerted effort to ensure the meaning of the moment is not lost.No one should need an army of lawyers, lobbyists and accountants to succeed in this great nation. We have a chance to take back America, but it will require the Republican Party to fight for all Americans, not the powerful and well connected.