Pelosi flexes muscle in budget meeting

With the government set to shut down in a week, Nancy Pelosi is flexing her muscles.

In a closed Democratic whip meeting Thursday morning, the House minority leader warned Democrats not to rush to support the Republican efforts to fund the government until they see what’s in the bill.


“If we stay together, we have leverage,” Pelosi said in the small session. She also told her colleagues that if the GOP goes “further to the right” to garner Republican support, Democrats will drop off.

“If you think it’s a good idea to tell them, ‘Oh, I’ll be with you no matter what,’ then you destroy our leverage,” Pelosi said, according to sources in the room. “And if they have the votes, then it’s a nonsituation. If they have 218, if it isn’t too brutal, the president will have to make a decision. But we don’t have to vote against our interest if they have the 218. We’re willing to compromise if they want to do that to one of us.”

The House is getting ready to fund most of the government until September 2015 while extending Homeland Security funding only until February. Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) will need Democratic votes to pass this government funding bill, as conservatives have not rallied around the bill.

The hard line behind the scenes stands in stark contrast to Pelosi’s public posture, which has been quiet and measured. But the whip meeting, described to POLITICO by multiple sources present, represents the clearest view into Pelosi’s thinking one week ahead of a potential government shutdown.

Pelosi, who served on the Appropriations Committee, is most concerned about so-called policy riders — provisions that dictate or limit how the government spends its money. Appropriations negotiators — mainly Democratic Rep. Nita Lowey of New York and Chairman Hal Rogers of Kentucky — are wading through dozens of riders, and Pelosi is closely watching the back-and-forth. She’s particularly concerned about changes to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the National Labor Relations Board and D.C.’s marijuana law.

The final bargaining over the particulars in the bill will be among Pelosi, Boehner, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).

Pelosi told her colleagues she spoke to Boehner on Wednesday and that he was “noncommittal” about the contours of the bill.

“You know, it was the ‘Oh, we’ll see’ and ‘I don’t know’ and the usual,” Pelosi said to Democratic lawmakers.

She said she made an “overture to the speaker … to say: ‘Where are you now? We stand ready to help to extend the hand of friendship, to have whatever cooperation it is to move forward to get the job done.’”

Boehner, speaking to reporters Thursday, said he expects backing from both parties for the package.

“I expect that we’ll have bipartisan support to pass the omnibus appropriations bill,” Boehner said.