A Tough Week For House GOP Leaders

It's been a rough week for House GOP leadership. Of the four bills on the House floor this week, two have failed, one was pulled from the floor and just one non-controversial measure passed.

The trouble started yesterday, the first day back in Washington after a week-long district work period, when Republicans had to pull a bill from the floor that passed the House unanimously at the end of last year. The bill would have extended trade benefits for Colombia and Ecuador while also extending a program to train workers who are displaced by trade agreements.

Republicans and Democrats blamed each other for not being able to move forward with the programs that expire this weekend.

"If Republicans' inability to move a simple extension of Trade Adjustment Assistance is a preview of the Majority's jobs agenda, then it is clear America's unemployed are out of luck," said one of the top Democrats on the Ways and Means Committee, Jim McDermott.

Republicans blamed the White House. "We are working through issues." Ways and Means Spokesman Jim Billimoria said. "But the Administration's unwillingness to engage on all three of our pending trade agreements is a real problem and paralyzing the broader trade agenda."

The struggles for the GOP continued last night when Republicans brought a bill to the floor that would extend certain Patriot Act provision to December. Parts of the law that allow roving electronic surveillance authority, that allow the tracking of possible foreign terrorists acting as lone wolves, and that permit the FBI to monitor business and library records of suspected terrorists expire at the end of this month.

Republican leadership aides admit they expected it to pass. Republicans were so confident, in fact, that they brought the bill to the floor on suspension. That means the bill could bypass the rules committee and avoid proposed amendments, but it needed 2/3 of the House to pass instead of a simple majority.

The bill failed. Twenty-six Republicans, including 8 freshmen, voted against the bill because of concerns over privacy and government overreach. And 122 Democrats voted against it. Republicans blamed those Democrats for voting against a bill that their president wanted.

A GOP aide says that Republicans plan to bring the bill back to the floor in the coming days. The House Rules Committee is meeting on the measure today so it is clear it will only need a simple majority on the next go-round and should pass easily.

There was one bright spot on the House floor today when the House voted unanimously 429 to 0 to name a U.S. Courthouse after Tucson shooting victim and federal judge John Roll, who died from the wound. The bill passed the Senate last week will head to the White House for President Obama's signature.

But Republicans had one more failure when a proposal meant to get $179 million in unspent money back from the United Nations failed by a vote of 259 to 169. This cut, like the Patriot Act, was put on the floor on suspension and needed 2/3 to pass.

Now this is not as embarrassing for Republicans since it shows them voting to save taxpayer dollars while the 167 Democrats voted against it.

"If Democrats want to play partisan politics with $190 million in taxpayer dollars, I think that clearly shows they didn't learn any lessons from this fall," said GOP Whip Kevin McCarthy's spokeswoman, Erica Elliott.

But another bill going down makes their struggles seem like a trend. And the Democrats won't let them forget it. The Democratic Whip's press office put out a note to reporters this afternoon titled "Republicans' Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Week."

"In another loss for the Republican leadership, yet another suspension bill failed on the House Floor this afternoon" the email read. "This time it was their 'YouCut' bill which, oddly enough, didn't actually save any money."

Republicans don't plan to continue the trend of bills failing this week. Tomorrow and Friday, they take up a resolution to instruct committees to look at burdensome regulations that impede job creation and economic growth. A measure that will only need a simple majority and is just the sort of action that still unifies the GOP conference.