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Tag: house majority leader
Republican Party Infighting Threatens Renewal Of Export-Import Bank

Republican Party Infighting Threatens Renewal Of Export-Import Bank

By Michael A. Memoli, Tribune Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON — The House Republican leadership shakeup has revived a conservative-led push to terminate the nation’s Export-Import Bank, testing the GOP’s traditional alliance with business groups.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), who lost his seat earlier this month in a major primary upset, was a key backer of a 2012 compromise that staved off a push by his party’s small-government conservatives to block renewal of the bank’s charter.

The current authorization for the bank — which helps finance U.S. exports with government-backed loan guarantees — expires in September.

Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), in his first major interview after replacing Cantor as the House’s second-ranking Republican, told Fox News he would allow the bank’s authority to expire, arguing that it performs a function that should be handled by the private sector.

McCarthy’s view is in line with a vocal faction of the House GOP, including many lawmakers elected since the Tea Party wave of 2010. They view the 80-year-old institution as a relic of a “crony capitalism” that favors special interests over the needs of ordinary Americans. The chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, Jeb Hensarling of Texas, called the bank the “poster child of the Washington insider economy and corporate welfare” in a speech to the conservative Heritage Foundation last month.

Prominent business groups like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce are mobilizing to support reauthorization of the bank, which they say still plays a crucial role in boosting the nation’s manufacturing sector.

“We’ve had easy (reauthorization) votes and hard votes, and we’re going to stay after this,” Chamber President Thomas J. Donohue told reporters Monday. “The basic question we’re going to be asking members of Congress (is), ‘Where are the jobs?'”

Asked Tuesday if he would support reauthorizing the bank, House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio), indicated he would defer for now to Hensarling, whose committee will discuss the issue Wednesday.

“My job is to work with our members to get to a place where the members are comfortable,” said Boehner, calling it a “thorny issue.” “Some people believe that we shouldn’t have it at all. Others believe that we should reauthorize it with significant reforms. And we’re going to work our way through this.”

A Republican leadership aide, granted anonymity to candidly discuss the issue, said that the bank’s failure to implement reforms agreed to under the 2012 authorization have made renewing the charter more difficult.

In addition, a recent Wall Street Journal report found that bank employees have been suspended or removed amid allegations of kickbacks. The reports have bolstered outside conservative groups lobbying members against the bank.

“It’s time for Congress to shut down this corporate welfare slush fund once and for all,” Club for Growth President Chris Chocola said after the report.

There are political risks to Boehner and McCarthy should they allow a vote to reauthorize the bank. Though Hensarling declined to run for a leadership position after Cantor’s defeat, he has not ruled out a potential bid for speaker or majority leader in November when the conference will choose its leaders for the next full congressional term.

The White House is again urging Congress to move quickly to reauthorize the bank, as are its allies in the Democratic-controlled Senate.

“The Tea Party is moving the Republican Party so far to the right on important issues like the Export-Import Bank, that the business community is now farther from the Republican Party and closer to Democrats,” Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), said Tuesday.

AFP Photo/Win McNamee

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Rep. Kevin McCarthy Elected House Majority Leader

Rep. Kevin McCarthy Elected House Majority Leader

By Michael A. Memoli, Tribune Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON — House Republicans elected Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) as their next majority leader Thursday, continuing the California congressman’s rapid rise through the ranks of Congressional leadership.

McCarthy, 49, will be the first Californian and youngest person ever to serve in the House’s second-ranking position when he formally assumes the role in July. First elected in 2006, he has served since 2011 as the House Majority Whip.

His rapid climb is taking place at a time of significant turnover in Congress. McCarthy has served less time in the House than any of the chamber’s committee chairs. John A. Boehner (R-Ohio), now Speaker of the House, had served for 15 years before he became majority leader in 2006.

McCarthy comes to the new post during a turbulent period in which Republican leaders have struggled to find consensus among their members on major policy issues, often leading to setbacks in fights with Democrats, who control the Senate and the White House.

McCarthy’s promotion came a little more than a week after the unexpected primary defeat of Eric Cantor (R-Va.), the current majority leader. Cantor announced the next day that he would step down from the leadership job, and Boehner set a quick election schedule to replace him.

In part because of that speedy schedule, more conservative factions of the party were unable to mount a successful challenge to block the well-liked McCarthy from moving up. His lone opponent, Rep. Raul R. Labrador (R- Idaho), was backed by some of the House’s most conservative members, but started far behind McCarthy.

McCarthy’s victory in the leadership race immediately triggers another election to replace him as Majority Whip. Three candidates — Peter Roskam of Illinois, Steve Scalise of Louisiana, and Marlin Stutzman of Indiana — were battling for the job.

McCarthy served for four years in the California Assembly, including two years as Minority Leader, before he was elected to Congress from a district that includes his hometown of Bakersfield and most of the Antelope Valley. He played a key role in recruiting a class of candidates in 2010 that helped Republicans win back control of the House, and has raised millions to help keep the party in power.

Cantor had sought to use the Majority Leader job to shape policy designed to broaden the GOP’s appeal, though at times he faced resistance on key issues like immigration reform. McCarthy is seen as more of a political strategist than policy wonk, and one of his pledges to colleagues this week was to give committee leaders greater say over the legislative agenda.

“He knows the issues, he knows the players, he’s dealt with the Democrats. So he’s got about as good a preparation as you can have for the kind of job he’s moving into,” said Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), a top Boehner ally. “This is a job he knows well, and he’ll decide what direction he wants to move. I think members are very much at ease that he will discharge his duties competently and he will be loyal to the speaker.”

Boehner has said he intends to run for a third term as speaker if, as expected, Republicans hold the majority after November’s midterm election. McCarthy’s selection Thursday makes him the heir apparent if Boehner gives up the post after 2015.

Photo: Win McNamee via AFP

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McCarthy On Track For House Majority Leader Post

McCarthy On Track For House Majority Leader Post

Washington (AFP) – Republican Kevin McCarthy was widely expected to ascend Thursday to U.S. House majority leader, a position vacated by Eric Cantor who triggered a GOP leadership scramble last week with his shock primary loss.

McCarthy, elected to Congress just eight years ago from overwhelmingly Democratic California, was among the group of “Young Guns” shaking up the House of Representatives.

Today McCarthy, currently the number three Republican, emerges as the consensus candidate to fill the majority leader role at a time of deep divisions within the Republican Party ahead of November’s congressional elections.

The loss of establishment giant Cantor to an even more conservative but virtually unknown challenger re-opened a rift between moderate Republicans and the far-right wing that has rattled the party in recent years.

An expected win would make McCarthy the deputy to House Speaker John Boehner, who is eager to regain a sense of stability in his fractious caucus in the run up to November and the eventual presidential race of 2016.

McCarthy has the backing of several committee chairmen including the powerful Paul Ryan, according to The Washington Post, but McCarthy is being challenged for the post by fiercely conservative Raúl Labrador.

The two-term congressman from Idaho has the support of the far-right wing, which launched an unsuccessful coup against Boehner last year, but Labrador’s candidacy has not gained broader traction.

Nevertheless he appealed to fellow lawmakers in a closed-door session Wednesday in the U.S. Capitol basement, arguing that members of Congress should not have less influence on legislation than leadership staff.

“By electing me, you’re not getting rid of anyone,” Labrador said, suggesting that McCarthy would merely keep his whip position. “You’re just adding a new needed voice to the leadership table.”

A win by McCarthy would free up his majority whip position, for which the race is more wide open.

Three lawmakers are vying for that job, including moderate Peter Roskam.

But two far-right lawmakers are also in the running, and the whip position was being seen on Capitol Hill as a chance for conservatives to stake their claim to a position in Republican leadership.

Steve Scalise, who heads the caucus of House conservatives known as the Republican Study Committee, has the momentum as of Wednesday, but a third candidate, Marlin Stutzman, could throw a spanner into the vote.

A candidate will need to secure 117 votes in the 233-member Republican caucus to avoid a second ballot.

AFP Photo/Win McNamee

Tea Party Challenger To Take On McCarthy For GOP Leader

Tea Party Challenger To Take On McCarthy For GOP Leader

By Lisa Mascaro and Michael A. Memoli, Tribune Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON — Conservative Rep. Raúl Labrador of Idaho will challenge California’s Kevin McCarthy for the House leadership, a long-shot bid backed by outside Tea Party’ groups to boost a red-state Republican to majority leader.

Labrador said Friday he was jumping into the race because the message from Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s unexpected loss in his Virginia primary this week was that “Americans are looking for a change in the status quo.”

“Americans don’t believe their leaders in Washington are listening, and now is the time to change that,” said Labrador, a second-term Republican who was elected on the 2010 Tea Party wave.

“I want to create a vision of growth and opportunity for everyone and start getting to work for the American people.”

The race is McCarthy’s to lose, House vote counters agree, but some outside groups, including FreedomWorks and the Campaign for Liberty, urged Labrador to pose a challenge to the Californian, whom they view as not sufficiently conservative for House leadership. More prominent tea party groups, though, are not outwardly involved.

The House’s most conservative members have frequently expressed a desire for leadership that would more directly reflect their populist views. But although red-state conservatives make up a majority of the House Republicans ranks, they have been unable to organize themselves into a governing force. The splintering in their ranks has thwarted efforts to challenge McCarthy.

Two other Republicans, Texas Reps. Jeb Hensarling and Pete Sessions, passed on the opportunity to run, despite enthusiasm from fellow members of the large and powerful Texas delegation.

Any election battle is bound to expose fractures within the GOP. In dropping out Thursday, Sessions said a run would have created an “unnecessary and painful division.”

The four-term McCarthy is not the first choice among the most conservative lawmakers, but his affable personality and ability to foster relationships have put him on a path for a fast rise to the majority leader spot — a position never before held by a California Republican. He would be in line to be House speaker if Ohio’s John Boehner were to step down while the GOP retains a majority in the chamber.

The secret-ballot election for majority leader and other party posts is set for Thursday. Boehner has sought to avoid a protracted battle, which Democrats could use to portray the GOP as a bruised party in disarray.

The speedy election schedule plays to McCarthy’s benefit because he already holds the party’s No. 3 position, House whip, which gives him ready access to members and a network of assistants to help round up votes.

Photo: Gage Skidmore via Flickr