Ryan faces big test in budget vote

Speaker-in-waiting Paul Ryan thinks the budget deal simply “stinks.”

But the man he’s poised to replace, outgoing Speaker John Boehner, said it’s only good manners to clean up the “you know what” before passing on the Speaker’s gavel.

{mosads}The diverging comments Tuesday from Speakers old and new highlighted the enormous pressure both men face as Boehner prepares to hand over the reins of power.

Boehner, an Ohio Republican who is set to leave office Friday, is racing to clear the docket of thorny legislative items — from renewing the Export-Import Bank to passing the spending deal — that could have made life difficult for his successor.

Ryan, a Wisconsin Republican and current Ways and Means Committee chairman, is hearing calls from the right to oppose those same bills.

Conservatives are closely watching how Ryan comes down on the bipartisan budget package Wednesday, a vote that will occur just hours after his fellow Republicans head behind closed doors to vote on whether to nominate him as the 54th Speaker of the House. Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), the head of the Select Committee on Benghazi, will nominate Ryan in the conference meeting.

Lawmakers will formally elect him Speaker in a floor vote Thursday.

Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), a leader of the conservative Freedom Caucus who helped push Boehner out of Congress, upped the pressure on Ryan, issuing a statement Wednesday calling for all Speaker candidates to oppose the deal.

“From what I hear, constituents are blowing up across the country on this right now,” added Rep. Dave Brat (R-Va.), an economics professor and Tea Party favorite who upset former Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) in last year’s GOP primary.

“And so it’s part of what’s wrong up here,” Brat said, “when five people are in charge of the entire budget.”

Ryan, a former House Budget Committee chairman, took to the floor Tuesday to denounce legislation renewing the Export-Import Bank, calling it “crony capitalism.” And while he repeatedly declined to say how he would vote on the budget pact, Ryan decried the secretive talks between the White House and top congressional leaders that led to the deal.

“Under new management, we’re not going to do business like this,” the Wisconsin lawmaker, 45, said in an interview that aired on CNN. “As a conference, we should have been meeting months ago to develop a strategy on this.”

Ryan didn’t share his views on the deal during two private GOP conference meetings Monday and Tuesday, but several conservative lawmakers said they expect him to vote against the agreement. Such a move would preserve the fragile goodwill between the incoming Speaker and the Freedom Caucus, 70 percent of whose members pledged to back Ryan last week.

It’s not like conservatives are threatening to abandon Ryan if he backs the agreement, however. Rep. Bill Flores (R-Texas), the chairman of the Republican Study Committee who briefly flirted with a run for Speaker himself, said there’s no “linkage” between Ryan and the budget bill.

And Rep. Matt Salmon (R-Ariz.), another Freedom Caucus co-founder and frequent critic of leadership, said he plans to back Ryan regardless of how he votes on the budget pact. However, he still is urging Ryan to oppose it.

“It would signify that he’s not just talking the talk but he’s walking the walk as well,” Salmon told The Hill.

The budget agreement would set spending levels for the next two years and extend the federal borrowing limit until March 2017.

House Republicans were whipping votes for the deal Tuesday. One member of the whip team said it could attract as many as 120 Republican votes, while two Freedom Caucus members predicted it would get 100.

Nearly all of the 188 Democrats are expected to support the package.

“The coalition would include people who want us to have a strong national defense, people who think we need to step up and fix the problems with Social Security disability and frankly people who think we should get the deficit under control,” Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.), a member of leadership, told The Hill.

“For the long haul, it’s a bill that’s designed to put the country on a better path.”

Ryan has said he played no part in the secret talks between the White House and congressional leaders. But there were signs he was taking a more hands-on approach in last-minute negotiations on Tuesday.

One Ways and Means source told The Hill that Ryan and Boehner huddled with top Agriculture Committee lawmakers, including Chairman Mike Conaway (R-Texas) and former Chairman Frank Lucas (R-Okla.), who’ve been griping about proposed cuts to crop insurance in the budget deal.

The talks have not focused on changing the bill but on better defining the jurisdiction of the Agriculture panel in the future under a Speaker Ryan.

“Maybe there’s some recognition with Paul and the chairman that they talk about territory of the committee going forward, respecting the jurisdiction,” said the Ways and Means source. “He has to be involved.”

While Boehner may have made Ryan’s life easier by “cleaning up the barn,” Democrats noted that the departing Speaker wouldn’t be able to clear everything off his successor’s plate.

The massive budget deal clears a path for an omnibus spending package at the end of the year, which represents yet another opportunity for GOP critics to attach controversial riders on anything from eliminating Planned Parenthood funding to repealing ObamaCare.

That could leave Ryan in a similar position as his predecessor, facing the same conservative pressure to fight Obama tooth and nail.

“The question you should be asking is how long is Ryan going to last as Speaker,” Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.), who like Ryan served as Ways and Means Committee chairman, told The Hill. Conservatives “will give him a pass for now, but when the other stuff starts bubbling and Paul is saying we have to be responsible, that’s when their commitment is over.

“How long can an alcoholic not take a drink? I’d say for a little while,” Rangel added. “But is he going to fall off the wagon? You bet your ass.”

Ian Swanson, Mike Lillis and Peter Schroeder contributed.