Though no calendar has been set, members want an early vote on Obamacare. Conservatives to give leaders hell

Conservatives in Congress are drawing up their wish list for a Republican Senate, including “pure” bills, like a full repeal of Obamacare, border security and approval of the Keystone XL pipeline — unlikely to win over many Democrats and sure to torment GOP leaders looking to prove they can govern.

Interviews with more than a dozen conservative lawmakers and senior aides found a consensus among the right wing of the Republican Party: If Republicans take the Senate, they want to push an agenda they believe was hamstrung by the Democratic-controlled chamber, even if their bills end up getting vetoed by President Barack Obama.


Their vision could create problems for congressional leaders who want to show they aren’t just the party of “hell no.” And while conservatives say they agree with that goal, their early priorities will test how well John Boehner and Mitch McConnell can keep the party united.

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“The excuse that we can’t get that past the Senate gets weaker. I imagine it will still be trotted out from time to time, but the whole ‘Harry Reid won’t let that go through’ argument will be put to bed,” said Rep. Mick Mulvaney of South Carolina. “That creates a really good opportunity for conservatives.”

Their plan is to pressure Boehner and McConnell into taking up bills designed to force the Obama administration to defend some of its most unpopular policies, including the 2010 health care law. And they want to increase border security without any legislative sweeteners like increases in visas for high-tech workers or allowing a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. Conservative Republicans also want to create work requirements for welfare recipients and force Obama to veto the Keystone XL pipeline.

All of these legislative priorities are top goals for Republicans broadly, but conservatives want to keep the bills “pure” rather than make deals with Democrats.

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“We’ve talked about it as a group,” Mulvaney said. “A bunch of different folks have talked [and are] … trying to get something. One of our frustrations is that we’ve never told folks what we stand for. We’ve told them that we’re not Obama, but we’ve never told them what conservatives stand for.”

It’s an ad hoc effort as of now, but staffers said members like Republican Reps. Trey Gowdy of South Carolina, Tom Graves of Georgia, Jim Jordan of Ohio, Reid Ribble of Wisconsin, Jason Chaffetz of Utah and Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee have discussed ways to highlight a more conservative agenda during the next Congress, which begins in January.

In the Senate, Ted Cruz of Texas and Mike Lee of Utah, along with likely presidential hopeful Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, intend to use a small Republican majority to push for a series of hard-line conservative bills to be sent to the president.

Lee spokesman Brian Phillips said the most important issue Republicans could implement would be to take up and pass appropriations bills that reflect Republican principles and send them to the president’s desk.

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“The solution to avoiding cliffs is not to force people to support omnibuses. That is not a solution,” Phillips said. “The solution is to get back to regular order of the appropriations process.”

Lee, the incoming Senate Steering Committee chairman, has also been in touch with GOP leadership and his allies in discussion about the Republican agenda. The Utah Republican wants to use his position to advocate forcefully for conservative policies on issues like education reform.

Ribble is expected to send a letter outlining conservatives’ goals, members said. Blackburn said that letter will be a road map of the policies conservatives will want leadership to take up — and quickly.

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Though no calendar has been set, members want an early vote on Obamacare. House members have cast more than three dozen votes to replace aspects of the 2010 health care law, but any repeal effort has hit a full stop in the Democratic Senate. Still conservatives are eager to force Obama’s hand by sending an early repeal bill if McConnell assumes the Senate majority leader seat.

“I hope we use reconciliation to do some form of Obamacare [repeal] to show this is how we would repeal it and this is what we will replace it with,” Jordan said. “Use reconciliation to get that to the president’s desk and see what he does. I mean, it will probably be vetoed.”

The push could create tension in the Senate. The responsibility for keeping the “hell no” House caucus (named for its key role in scuffling budget talks) engaged will fall on McConnell’s shoulders as he attempts to control a slim majority and keep his ideologically divergent conference aligned.

With the likelihood of a slim majority, Republicans could also face a united Democratic Caucus that is in no mood to cut deals either. And Democrats would be looking to pay back their GOP colleagues for “obstructionist tactics” during the past two years and blocking the Democratic agenda.

House conservatives said it will be easier with a GOP majority to persuade Boehner and House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) to allow votes on controversial bills.

But Senate Republicans will also have a watchful eye on the 2016 cycle, a presidential election year that will likely be tough for the GOP, with at least five purple-state Republicans on the ballot.

The drama will begin to play out quickly after the midterm elections.

Outside conservative groups are already rallying against the so-called tax extenders — a series of corporate and individual tax provisions that need to be annually renewed. The extenders were once must-pass legislation but have been caught up in political debates on tax reform and the budget in recent years.

House conservatives occasionally have been irritated by Republican leadership led by Boehner — whom they saw as too willing to strike a deal with Democrats rather than craft legislation that would appeal to the more rightward members of the party.

The relationship between the more conservative members and the party’s establishment in the House was placed on new footing when Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) won the majority whip seat in June. Scalise’s conservative bona fides and appeal among the party’s right-wing members — he previously served as chair of the Republican Study Committee — helped him defeat Rep. Peter Roskam (R-Ill.), at the time a member of leadership.

Scalise has taken pains, lawmakers said, to include the conservative members in decision making since his election. Jordan, from Ohio, pointed to the controversial supplemental bill for border funding in August as an example of the Louisiana Republican’s effort to build a larger coalition.

A vote on the funding bill, requested by the Obama administration to deal with an influx of unaccompanied minors at the southern border, was initially scuttled after conservatives protested that they didn’t have time to offer input on its language. Republican leadership ultimately pulled the bill and worked with Reps. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, Louie Gohmert of Texas and House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte of Virginia to craft new legislation.

“We sat down as a conference, discussed it, debated it, marked it up, it was basically a markup. That’s the way it is supposed to work,” Jordan said. “Now, did that move in a conservative direction? Yeah. But that’s how our conference is designed.”

That outreach has nearly guaranteed that Scalise won’t face any serious contest to be reelected as majority whip for the next Congress, members said.

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