Eric Cantor (left) and John Boehner are changing their tone but not their plans. | AP Photo House GOP tries to regain momentum

Their agenda remains ambitious, aggressive and utterly unchanged, but as House Republicans head back to work after a national pause for mourning, they’re trying to recapture their momentum while setting the right political tone.

The spirit that accompanied the Jan. 5 coronation of the new GOP majority dissipated as Congress and the nation turned its attention to the mass shooting in Tucson that left Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz) in critical condition. Republicans postponed everything for a week, and now they’re going to to re-launch a congressional agenda that’s largely aimed at dismantling the accomplishments of a president who just had one of his most unifying moments.


Republicans are not changing a lick of substance. They’re just talking about it differently.

Majority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.), through his spokesman on Thursday, called for the House to “resume thoughtful consideration of the health care bill next week” — a clear signal of the tenor they’re seeking for the debate.

Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.), a favorite of the conservative movement who recently dropped out of Republican leadership, said he’d prefer to call the “job-killing” health care bill a “government takeover of health care.” There are no plans to change the title of the repeal bill.

There’s a clear recognition that the rhetorical atmosphere must be different now than the day that John Boehner (R-Ohio) triumphantly grabbed the speaker’s gavel.

“Getting back to business is going to be tough, but we’ll keep [the shooting victims] in our thoughts and prayers,” said Republican Rep. Ben Quayle (R-Ariz.), a freshman member of the still grieving Arizona delegation. “I think it’s important that the discourse between one another can be one of ideas and like Speaker Boehner said at his swearing in, we can disagree without being disagreeable.”

Republicans believe it’s critical to regain that momentum that swept them into power, even using the tragedy as an impetus.

“Clearly we need to move forward on an agenda,” said Illinois Republican Rep. Peter Roskam, the party’s chief deputy whip. “The events in Arizona are a reminder that we need to focus on the nation’s agenda. And I think that members have been respectful of that, and will be in the future. But if anybody needed a reminder it was the events of Arizona.”

After they return from a three-day harbor-side retreat in Baltimore, Republicans plan to come back to Washington Tuesday to debate the bill that would repeal the health care reform law.

The GOP is planning a two-day, seven-hour debate beginning Tuesday evening and commencing late Wednesday with a vote that will likely send the bill to the Senate, where it won’t see the light of day.

And on Thursday, Republicans are planning to bring up a bill that would instruct committees to draft replacement bills for health care reform. Before the massacre, the House cleared the key legislative hurdle that set the stage for a final vote.

The House will also vote on a proposal to halt mandatory printing of bills, and allow members or committees to request a bill be put on paper — a proposal they think will save millions of dollars.

But while Republicans aren’t backing down on their substantive agenda, GOP leaders are making clear to their members that their rhetoric is under a microscope — and they plan to reinforce that message this weekend at their retreat.

Committee chairs have been told to alert their members that the debate should center on substance, leaving out some of the heated rhetoric that has colored the debate in past months.

“As the White House noted, it is important for Congress to get back to work, and to that end we will resume thoughtful consideration of the health care bill next week,” said Brad Dayspring, a spokesman for Cantor. “Americans have legitimate concerns about the cost of the new health care law and its effect on the ability to grow jobs in our country. It is our expectation that the debate will continue to focus on those substantive policy differences surrounding the new law.”

The White House, too, is sending the signal that things should return to normal.

“I think everybody in the country has had some time to reflect on this,” White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said in his Thursday press briefing. “And I think all those that were — remember, they were there to, again, see the exercising of the way we govern our country, and I think that while we will continue to celebrate the lives of those that were lost and hope for and pray for the speedy recovery of those that were injured or some that are and some that aren’t in the hospital, I think you’ll see — because they would have wanted that — us getting back to the business of, again, how do we solve those problems and how do we do it in a way that lives up to the thoughts and the aspirations of those that were involved in the tragic events.”

For their part, House Democratic leadership doesn’t plan to mount a vociferous defense to stop Republicans from getting back to work, recognizing the political peril in doing so, but also the inevitability of legislating starting again and the health care bill’s passage.

“I think Democrats would be the last people to provide advice to Speaker Boehner and his conference,” said one senior House Democratic aide. “That’s something they have to decide. The tone that has come from Democrats has focused on the impact on Americans. That’s where we have been. We’ll be prepared to discuss that when Republicans decide to move forward on this. But we cant forget the tragedies that took place. Our tone has been very focused on the impact of repeal on real Americans.”

And as they get back to a normal schedule, Republicans will once again be reminded that governing isn’t easy in divisive times.

They started off the 112th Congress with an embarrassing episode that had two lawmakers — including National Republican Congressional Committee Chair Pete Sessions (Texas) — missing their swearing in ceremony.

Then the Congressional Budget Office’s estimated that repealing the health care bill would add more than $200 billion in the next decade. Boehner also faced questions about why he was bringing the bill to the floor under a closed rule, a process that would limit amendments and debate time — even though the GOP is allowing what amounts to one minute of debate time for every lawmaker in the House.

The pivot from grieving back to politicking will once again put the spotlight back on Boehner, who has won praise from Democrats for his style so far.

Boehner, who tries to fashion himself more as a steward of the institution than a partisan figure, spoke from his hometown of West Chester, Ohio, immediately after the shooting. He returned to D.C., scheduled a bipartisan prayer forum and delivered heartfelt remarks from the House floor.

He did catch some flak from Democrats and the inside-the-Beltway crowd for holding an event for Maria Cino — a candidate for chair of the Republican National Committee — in D.C. instead of flying on Air Force One with President Barack Obama to Tucson.

Boehner felt his place was in the House, not in Tucson, his aides said – and he would’ve missed the prayer service if he jetted to Arizona with the president. He also would’ve missed the RNC event for Cino, a close friend an ally who he endorsed in the intra-party squabble.

As if things couldn’t get more complicated for the House, water began spouting from underground when Republican lawmakers were boarding a bus to Baltimore. They were forced to board a few blocks away.