TIME
By Jay Newton-Small
May 5, 2014
House
Conference Chair Cathy McMorris Rogers talks with TIME about what
Republicans will do on some hot-button issues ahead of midterm elections
in which polls show them
enjoying a decisive advantage
Republicans
are under pressure ahead of the midterm elections to detail how they’d
replace Obamacare and what they would do on immigration reform—and now a
top House GOP
lawmaker is providing details as to what the party’s legislative
blueprint will be as election season heats up.
Republicans
might not have to do much. They have their strongest political hand at
this point in a midterm cycle in two decades, according to a Pew
Research/USA Today
poll released Monday. Republicans lead in generic congressional
match-ups against Democrats, 47% to 43%. Independent voters are leaning
toward Republicans, 49% to 33%. And both President Barack Obama and his
signature health care reform law are as unpopular
as they’ve ever been.
But
the election is still six months away and these numbers won’t stay
frozen in place. Even if they do, the party needs to figure out its
approach to these issues in
the long run. So TIME sat down with House Republican Conference Chair
Cathy McMorris Rodgers to ask her what’s coming.
On
immigration reform, McMorris Rodgers said the House is considering a
package of five-to-seven bills. Five have already been passed out of
committee: border security,
interior enforcement, visa reform, an expansion of the agricultural
workers program, and e-Verify for employers. Two remain before the
Judiciary Committee: a version of the DREAM Act, which would give immigrants brought here illegally as children a path to citizenship, and a bill that would find a solution for the rest of the
undocumented workers in the U.S.—one most likely not involving a path to
citizenship, which many Republicans deride as amnesty.
“It
is important that we get immigration right,” McMorris Rodgers said. “It
is important that we not find ourselves in the same situation 20-to-30
years from now.
Even
if the House passes all seven of those bills this year, none of them
would go to a conference committee with the comprehensive reform bill
the Senate passed last
year. House Speaker John Boehner has said he prefers a piecemeal
approach to the issue, meaning the House-passed bills would go nowhere.
Ultimately,
the House could easily pass the first five; it’s the final two that
pose the biggest hurdles. Realistically, the last two would probably
only make it out of
committee if Republicans were doing so badly with Hispanic voters that
they need a political shot in the arm, which isn’t looking likely at the
moment. Whether it’s a package of five or seven, McMorris Rodgers said
she belies the House will have a bill on
the floor before the August recess.
On
Obamacare, Republicans have begun to realize that just being against
the law isn’t going to be enough. To that end, some GOP lawmakers have
introduced replacement bills.
House Republicans are also working on their on legislation. “Now that
Obamacare’s been on the books for four years, it’s important that we are
realistic about where we find ourselves today and how we are going to
move forward,” McMorris Rodgers said
McMorris
Rodgers co-chairs the Health, Oversight and Accountability Project,
which has almost weekly produced legislation to repeal Obamacare, and/or
mitigate some of
its effects on various groups. “That’s been our focus but it is
shifting now and there’s a desire by my colleagues and myself to
communicate what is the way forward and to put together a package,
whether it’s one bill or a package of bills, that we could point
to to show the American people this is what we believe is a better way
forward on health care,” McMorris Rodgers said.
But
can a law that was enacted four years ago, has eight million enrollees
and millions more anticipated by the time Obama leaves office
realistically be repealed? McMorris
Rodgers made news last week when she told the Spokesman-Review that the
law won’t likely be repealed and that Republicans should focus on other
issues. She walked back that sentiment in her interview with TIME,
saying she still supports the full repeal of
what she calls “a fundamentally flawed bill.”
And
can it really be replaced? “We’ll see. It’s really up to the American
people. We’ll see how the elections go this fall in 2014. It’s a big
election, both in the House
and the Senate,” McMorris Rodgers said. “ Certainly the numbers on
Obamacare continue to come down, continue to slide.” McMorris Rodgers
said a bill could be ready for a vote before the elections.
As
they look at potentially taking back the Senate in November,
Republicans are increasingly looking to legislate, rather than just
block Democratic measures. But regardless
of what happens in 2014, they’ll have to contend the President’s veto
pen through 2016.
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