The speaker-designate wants to 'do away with the concept' of comprehensive spending bills. | REUTERS Boehner set to slice up spending bills

House Republicans are devising a plan to simplify spending decisions by considering government funding bills on a department-by-department basis in the new Congress, according to Republican insiders.

The move would facilitate cutbacks in government programs and, GOP aides say, enhance oversight and accountability for individual agencies, fulfilling promises made by Republicans on the campaign trail and in their Pledge to America. But it would also threaten to complicate an already tattered appropriations process on the House floor and in negotiations with the Senate, which is why the mechanics of the transition are still under discussion.


In a speech to the American Enterprise Institute earlier this year, Speaker-designate John Boehner (R-Ohio) outlined the idea that he, Republican transition chief Greg Walden (R-Ore.) and rank-and-file Republicans are now working to implement.

"Let's do away with the concept of 'comprehensive' spending bills. Let's break them up, to encourage scrutiny, and make spending cuts easier. Rather than pairing agencies and departments together, let them come to the House floor individually, to be judged on their own merit," he said at AEI more than a month before the midterm election. "Members shouldn't have to vote for big spending increases at the Labor Department in order to fund Health and Human Services. Members shouldn't have to vote for big increases at the Commerce Department just because they support NASA. Each department and agency should justify itself each year to the full House and Senate, and be judged on its own."

The push to reconstitute the congressional spending process comes just as Republican leaders are deciding who will win the chairmanship of the Appropriations Committee in the next Congress. The candidates' reactions to the proposal could influence whether Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-Calif.), Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) or Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.) gets the gavel.

"I would be in favor of it in cases where it makes it easier to do oversight and harder to increase spending," Kingston told POLITICO on Tuesday night, adding that determination should be made "on a case-by-case basis."

Boehner is likely to win significant support from his ranks, as omnibus legislating was a frequent target of derision from tea party activists who helped propel Republicans into power. The idea dovetails well with their mantra of promoting "single-issue bills" so that voters have a clearer idea of what their representatives are voting for and against.

GOP leaders have also indicated that spending bills will come to the floor under more open rules, allowing members to offer amendments. The once-open appropriations process has been constrained in recent years by majority-party leaders' desire to avoid contentious fights on the floor and as a reaction to minority efforts to hamstring legislation by offering countless amendments.

Republicans say Boehner's will to implement his vision should not be underestimated.

But there are serious technical and procedural challenges to any approach that would subdivide the current dozen appropriations bills.

"We have to figure out how to accomplish that goal while still allowing the Appropriations Committee to function," said one senior Republican aide. "That's what the members of the transition team and conference are working through."

Ideally, some Republicans argue, the budget for each department of the federal government would come to the floor as a unique bill produced by the Appropriations Committee. Lawmakers would amend it and then vote on the final product. So, instead of a single bill funding the Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education departments, those functions would be broken into three measures.

Another option would be to bring the bills to the floor in their current configurations but build procedural walls forcing lawmakers to consider the budgets for each department separately.

"At minimum, we want departments separated," one Republican leadership aide told POLITICO. "Freestanding agencies will be worked out as we go."

Because the Democratic-controlled Senate is unlikely to follow suit in reorganizing the structure of its bills, conference negotiations between the two chambers could be severely complicated by the passage of individual House bills that don't match up well with Senate counterparts -- or the possible failure of one or more pieces of a traditional multi-department bill.

And some of the current spending bills deal more with functions or strings of seemingly unrelated agencies rather than just departments.

Moreover, the spending process has ground to a halt in recent years, victimized by battles fought on partisan, institutional and ideological lines. The Appropriatons Committee, once proud of its role in producing a dozen laws each year, failed to send a single spending bill to the president before the start of fiscal 2011 on Oct. 1. Critics are certain to seize on the committee's recent record to suggest that doubling or tripling the number of bills would make the process harder, not easier.

A House Democratic Appropriations aide did not respond for POLITICO's request for comment late Tuesday.

For those who have paid close attention to Boehner's words, this plan should come as no surprise.

It's one of several signs that Republicans are taking seriously their pledge to make significant changes to the legislative and administrative functions of the House. Incoming Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) has discussed a massive overhaul to the House schedule -- including a halt to unsubstantive resolutions honoring various individuals and entities -- that could provide additional time for the consideration of a larger crop of spending bills. Republican leaders are also discussing significant cuts to Capitol Hill staff.

But the proposed structural changes to congressional budgeting represent the most significant overhaul that has surfaced since Republicans began their transition to power a few days after winning the majority. The system envisioned by Boehner and other Republican leaders would force lawmakers to make tough spending choices between programs in each department rather than allowing them to take money from one department and give it to another.

With Republicans in control of the House, Democrats' favorite departments, agencies and programs will likely be on the chopping block, setting up high-stakes clashes between congressional Republicans and the White House on virtually every function of government.

While it may take some House members by surprise, a Republican aide said Boehner has been making such promises clear to lawmakers in the run-up to the January start date of Congress.