GOP weighs hardball response on omnibus to ‘hostage-taker’ Reid

House Republicans are weighing a hardball tactic to counter Senate Democrats who have blocked consideration of the year-end omnibus spending package.

The GOP claims that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has forbidden Democrats from signing a House-Senate conference report on the nine-bill omnibus in order to pressure Republicans into agreeing to a payroll tax bill.

Party leaders are contemplating getting around this maneuver by taking the unsigned conference report and bringing it to the House floor as a separate bill. 

{mosads}“It’s pretty clear to all of us that President Obama and Senator Reid want to threaten a government shutdown so that they can get leverage on a jobs bill,” Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said after a conference meeting where the proposal was discussed.

He reiterated that a deal had been struck on the omnibus but Obama and Reid were holding it up.

“We believe that the responsible thing to do is to move it,” Boehner said. “I’m tired of hearing what the Senate can’t do. I think it’s time to wait and see what the Senate can do. So I’m hopeful that the president and Senator Reid will allow the appropriators to sign the conference report and allow that bill to come to a vote in the House and Senate.”

Asked if the House would seek to pass the omnibus on its own with Republican votes, Boehner said no decisions had been made.

“It’s time for the Senate to do its job. It’s time for the Senate to pass their bill,” he said.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said Republicans would not waive its rule requiring legislation to be public on three calendar days before a vote. That means the GOP would have to introduce the omnibus Wednesday night for a vote to occur Friday to avert a shutdown. “We are here and our doing our business. We do not want the government to shut down, and we don’t want taxes to go up on anybody. We want to get the bills done,” Cantor said.

Several members who participated at conference told The Hill that Boehner clearly favored the omnibus option; otherwise the House may move a six-week continuing resolution.

The suggestion of a continuing resolution evoked loud groans from the packed room, according to sources in the meeting.

“Everything is under consideration,” said Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) when asked about the tactic of moving unsigned conference report.

“I think that’s a good idea,” Appropriator Jack Kingston (R-Ga.) said. “That would at least get things moving.”

Conservatives who opposed the August debt-ceiling deal’s level of spending emerged from the meeting undecided.

Rep. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) and Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) said they still prefer the spending level in the House-passed budget, authored by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.). The budget had a top-line spending level of $1.019 trillion, compared to the $1.043 trillion that resulted from the debt ceiling deal.

Scott and Gowdy said that the South Carolina delegation would be meeting as a group to decide Wednesday whether they can vote for the omnibus.

Rep. Michael Burgess (R-Texas) said that members want to see the bill before deciding. He said passing it as a House bill is one of the options and asked if GOP has the votes he said “that’s the discussion.”

He said a stopgap bill has not really been part of the discussion.

The tactic of moving the unsigned conference report has some significant downsides that need to be evaluated. 

The biggest problem is that the GOP might be unable to pass this bill just with Republican votes. If House Democrats stick together with Senate Democrats, then House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) would have to corral some of the 50 conservative members of the caucus who have vowed to oppose appropriations bills based on the August debt-ceiling deal framework. 

The GOP whip operation will talk to the rank-and-file during votes on Wednesday night to determine whether they have the votes to move the omnibus. 

A second problem is that the conference report can be brought up in the Senate quickly, while a separate bill would be subjected to amendments and a filibuster threat.

On top of this, appropriators are worried that the tactic could leave the omnibus text out in the public for too long, giving time for K Street lobbyists to attack it before it gets approved.

If the $1 trillion omnibus bill is not approved by midnight Friday, a government shutdown would happen. 

Rogers dismissed the idea of enacting a short-term continuing resolution.

“We pass this bill – that should resolve it,” Rogers said.

The Kentucky Republican also said the House would not skip town immediately after passing the omnibus, even though it has already passed its version of a payroll tax cut.

“I don’t think we’re going to wait two weeks twiddling our thumbs waiting for the Senate,” Rogers said. “But the intent is not to pass a bill and run.”

Rep. James Lankford (R-Okla.) said that he thought some of the omnibus skeptics in his conference might be more likely to fall in line because they thought Democrats were playing politics with government funding.

Lankford also said that GOP lawmakers had grown tired of passing continuing resolutions.

“CRs continue past status quo. They don’t give you new policy. They don’t give you new direction,” Lankford said. “The more you do CRs, the more you’re postponing actual direction of where we want to go. So they’re not strategic.”

Russell Berman and Bernie Becker contributed to this story.

This story was last updated at 6:19 p.m.