One of the most strident critics of former Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) sounded almost nostalgic on Friday while expressing frustration with the current GOP leadership’s handling of its ObamaCare replacement proposal.
Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.), a founding member of the House Freedom Caucus, asserted that House GOP leadership was limiting input on the legislation approved out of two committees this week.
“At the end of the day, people at home are seeing that this is run in a top-down fashion. That you have a few people who tell everyone else, ‘This is what we’re going to do.’ And that’s it,” Amash told a group of reporters off the House floor in response to a question from The Hill.
{mosads}“The place may have been more open under Speaker Boehner, sadly.”
Earlier Friday, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said it would be “very difficult” to change the bill in response to conservatives’ calls to freeze ObamaCare’s Medicaid expansion in early 2018 instead of 2020.
The legislation was unveiled Monday night and two House committees, Ways and Means and Energy and Commerce, held marathon markups on Wednesday. The House Budget Committee will take up the legislation next week before it can reach the floor for a vote.
“That is regular order. That’s as clear and transparent as it can ever get,” Ryan said on The Hugh Hewitt Show on Friday.
But Amash said that’s not the same as opening the legislation up to an open amendment process on the House floor.
“It’s possible if we had a Republican president under Speaker Boehner, he would close the whole thing down, too. In any case, regardless of who the Speaker is, Congress is a separate branch. We should have an open process. We should allow all of the members to amend legislation, within reason,” Amash said.
“The product should reflect the will of the American people. That’s how it’s supposed to work here.”
Boehner, upon taking the Speaker’s gavel in 2011, decided to reinstate a procedure known as “open rule” for individual government spending bills that allowed members of both parties to offer unlimited numbers of amendments.
Republicans kept turning to open rules until last year, when Democratic amendments regarding LGBT protections for federal contractors resulted in underlying spending bills to fail on the House floor. Ryan subsequently decided to let the House Rules Committee, which determines how legislation is considered on the floor, decide which amendments could get votes.
Amash, one of the most conservative members of Congress, added that leadership should keep in mind that open input on the healthcare bill includes Democrats.
“It’s time to start persuading people,” Amash said. “This is Congress. They need to start acting like adults.”