Sen. Cruz launched an initiative last week to have the House GOP continue a resolution that funds the government, unchecked, until the next Congress is sworn in.
Speaking to the House GOP Cruz said, “Americans cannot trust politicians they can no longer hold accountable at the ballot box. The Continuing Resolution should, at a minimum, fund government operations until after the new Congress is sworn in next year; House and Senate Republicans should both insist on this basic principle.”
This statement came after Cruz and Lee sent a letter to Majority Leader Harry Reid vowing to object to consent requests to move on more contentious proposals.
In the letter the 2 conservatives stated, “Lawmakers in Washington have recently suggested that significant legislative matters would deliberately not be addressed during the 113th Congress until after the elections,” the two Republicans wrote to Reid. “Presumably, a lame-duck session would be used to try to pass partisan, unpopular bills in November or December that might be indefensible before the federal election on November 4th.”, and added, “if a lame-duck session is deemed necessary this year, we urge you only to consider emergency legislation requiring immediate, unforeseeable action or noncontroversial housekeeping measures.”
The issue of the current stopgap bill’s duration came up at a meeting with House conservatives that Cruz held last Tuesday.
House Republicans delayed consideration of the currently proposed continuing resolution. That decision came in light of a request by President Barack Obama for additional funding and authority related to training and equipping opposition rebels in Syria; part of the broader fight against the terror group ISIS/ISIL.
In it’s current draft, that CR would fund the government through Dec. 11, setting up the potential for an omnibus appropriations package before the end of the year.
“I’m a total March 1st person,” Minnesota Republican Michele Bachmann said after the gathering with Cruz. “Listen, we’re not done, because I think the media needs to know that Harry Reid has a plan. He’s got a plan, he’s committed. He wants to make sure that we’re going to have a brand new, never-before-seen Internet tax. The American people are going to go crazy when they find out that that’s his Christmas gift to America”.
The continuing resolution unveiled Tuesday evening by the House included the shorter extension of the moratorium on Internet access taxes.