House

Key Dem: Boehner is central to fiscal deadline deals

by Mike Lillis - 10/20/15 5:14 PM ET

Outgoing House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) will be key if Congress is to meet a series of fiscal deadlines facing lawmakers this year, House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said Tuesday.

Hoyer predicted the effort to raise the debt ceiling and prevent across-the-board domestic spending cuts — known as sequestration — will get much tougher when Boehner resigns, a move the Republican scheduled for Oct. 30.

{mosads}Speaking at Howard University in Washington, Hoyer said Boehner’s imminent departure frees the Speaker to negotiate in ways his eventual successor can’t. He added that the next Speaker will face heavy pressure from conservatives to hold a line in budget talks with President Obama and the Democrats.

Hoyer lamented the fact that those formal budget talks have yet to begin, urging leaders to get cracking ahead of looming deadlines — and Boehner’s exodus.

“The clock is ticking. The window of action to stop sequestration will be more difficult — more difficult — when and if Speaker Boehner steps down as the Speaker of the House of Representatives. So we need to act now,” Hoyer said during a forum examining the effects of sequestration cuts on minorities.

“I’ve been urging the majority leader [Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.)] for the last three months to have a group that can resolve what [budget] number we’re going to use,” Hoyer added.

“You need to have that number [and] we don’t have that number right now. … Hopefully we will do that while Mr. Boehner is here, because Mr. Boehner, unlike some right now, is not going to be subject to … people [mandating] that he stay at an arbitrary, capricious number.”

The comments come as Congress faces a Nov. 3 deadline to raise the debt ceiling, and a Dec. 12 deadline to fund the federal government.

Boehner has said he’ll remain Speaker until his replacement is found, and he’s vowed to “get as much finished as possible” within that undefined window.

But he hasn’t specified what he hopes to accomplish, nor has he forecast his approach for dealing with the conservative critics who forced him out.

Amid the debate, many of those same conservatives are calling for steep spending cuts as a condition for raising the debt ceiling, while insisting that the automatic sequestration cuts remain in any government funding bill.

Both stipulations are non-starters for Obama, and Democrats have been emboldened that he’s holding the veto pen.

“President Obama has already sent a message over to Congress saying, ‘No bargaining this time. No deals this time. You’ve got to pay your bills. We’re going to raise the debt limit,’ ” Rep. G.K. Butterfield (D-N.C.), head of the Congressional Black Caucus, said Tuesday.

“Thank god the president’s not going to sign any of these bills that cut Pell Grants,” echoed Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.).

Hoyer was quick to note that both Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) have vowed to prevent defaults and shutdowns on their watch. He said economic stability should be reason enough for even the conservatives to get on board.

“Don’t the Republicans want a solvent country? Don’t the Republicans want a country that’s paying its debts? It’s not like they’re giving us something,” Hoyer said.

“And McConnell and Boehner have both said defaulting on the debt’s an unacceptable alternative,” he added. “This is not like this is [only] our objective.”

Hoyer said he’d prefer a stand-alone debt limit bill, but didn’t dismiss the possibility of combining it with a broader budget package. He said he’s ready “to urge my members … to make compromises to make sure we pay our debts, fund the government between now and Sept. 30, and hopefully pass the highway bill.”

But he also warned that the Democrats aren’t ready to swallow what they consider draconian cuts to move those proposals.

“[The conservatives want] to take the federal government hostage [to promote] to ends that you know are not going to happen,” Hoyer said. “Why do Democrats have to give anything?”

Tags debt ceiling John Boehner sequestration Steny Hoyer