The Nascar Dem divide and other issues that have recently split party leaders

Policy divisions within the unified Democratic and Republican House leadership teams can be hard to find, but more than 100 votes over four days yielded a rare glimpse of daylight in the party upper ranks.

Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), for example, disagree over the Pentagon’s sponsorship of Nascar vehicles and proposed Obama administration regulations targeting for-profit colleges.

{mosads}On the GOP side, Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), co-authors of the “Young Guns” policy manifesto, broke with each other over subsidies to Brazil and the treatment of Asian carp.

The open amendment process crafted by GOP leaders for their spending bill last week allowed lawmakers to debate and vote on a startling array of federal policy issues. The result was the clearest picture yet of the political alignment of the 112th Congress, as lawmakers were forced to take a stand on policy areas covering not only general spending, but healthcare, the environment, education, defense, and social policy.

On the whole, the votes confirmed that respective members of the party leadership walk in virtual lockstep on major issues. But in certain areas, differences emerged.

Former rivals in internal leadership battles, Pelosi and Hoyer hail from divergent wings of the Democratic Party. The former Speaker’s base is with the progressives, while Hoyer has built deeper ties to Blue Dogs and business-friendly New Democrats. Over the 104 amendment votes, Pelosi and Hoyer broke 11 times.

Several of those divisions involved defense or energy issues. Pelosi supported an amendment by Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) that would cut Pentagon funding to 2008 levels, with exceptions for military personnel salaries and health benefits. Hoyer opposed the measure, which failed with just 76 votes. Pelosi backed, and Hoyer opposed, a proposal by Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) to cut an additional $18.75 million from the Defense Department. Hoyer also voted down an amendment by Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minn.) that would have prohibited the Defense Department from spending taxpayer dollars to sponsor Nascar vehicles. Pelosi backed the measure, which drew support from a majority of Democrats but failed on opposition from Republicans. A spokeswoman for Hoyer said only that he “supports the military’s recruiting efforts.”

Pelosi cast a surprising vote against the Obama administration by supporting a Republican amendment to block the Department of Education from implementing proposed regulations aimed at for-profit colleges. An eclectic coalition of 58 liberal and conservative Democrats backed the restriction, while Hoyer stood with a majority of the party in opposing it. For-profit colleges have mounted an aggressive lobbying campaign against the new regulations, saying they single out institutions serving economically disadvantaged Americans. A spokesman for Pelosi said he did not know the reason for her vote.

Cantor and McCarthy, the second- and third-ranking Republicans, differed on just seven of the amendments. Cantor rejected a bid by Rep. Paul Broun (R-Ga.) to cut off the payment of U.S. dues to the United Nations, while McCarthy supported it. The majority leader backed Democratic amendments to limit farm subsidies in the U.S. and to Brazil, which McCarthy opposed.

The issue of Asian carp, meanwhile, split both party leadership teams. The chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, Rep. Dave Camp (R-Mich.), offered an amendment to close two Chicago-area locks in a bid to prevent the fish from overrunning the Great Lakes, according to a description by his spokeswoman, Sarah Swinehart. The measure, which failed, drew support from Cantor and Pelosi but not McCarthy and Hoyer. (Speaker John Boehner [R-Ohio] did not vote on amendments or the underlying bill, following House tradition.)

Among the House rank-and-file, the broad range of amendment votes provided an early look at the members most willing to break with their party. On the Democratic side, Blue Dog Reps. Mike Ross (Ark.), Dan Boren (Okla.) and Mike McIntyre (N.C.) broke ranks on dozens of measures and particularly on those that dealt with healthcare and environmental policy. They were also the only three Democrats to join the GOP in backing a repeal of the 2010 healthcare law in January. Yet in an important show of unity with Pelosi, Ross, Boren and McIntyre all opposed the final GOP spending bill.

Ross said in a statement that the bill’s $61 billion in cuts were “drastic” and “arbitrary,” and he singled out reduced funding for border security, law enforcement and educational programs. The statement did not address his support for many amendments that deepened spending cuts, but his spokesman, Brad Howard, told The Hill: “While he supported many cuts in the final bill, including many amendments, he voted no on the overall bill because he believes drastic cuts to important investments like Pell Grants and Head Start are the wrong cuts to make and they punish hardworking Americans for the irresponsibility of their government.”

Boren and McIntyre were unavailable for comment.

Three Republicans voted against the final bill: Reps. Jeff Flake (Ariz.), John Campbell (Calif.) and Walter Jones (N.C.). Several others frequently voted against amendments adding cuts to the bill. In an analysis of proposals to cut non-security spending, an advocacy arm of the conservative Heritage Foundation gave its lowest GOP scores to Reps. Dave Reichert (Wash.), Charlie Bass (N.H.) and Steven LaTourette (Ohio), who each backed less than one-fourth of the amendments that Heritage counted.