Mike Lee lays out demands for McConnell successor
The Utah Republican is looking to influence the election of the next Senate GOP Leader.
The leader of a conservative effort to influence the race for the next Senate GOP Leader — and push that chamber further to the right — has finally put his ideas on paper.
Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, on Monday night outlined a number of proposals aimed at decentralizing power within the Senate Republican Conference. This would take the position that the outgoing Leader Mitch McConnell occupied for almost two decades.
In a letter he sent to Senate Republican offices on Monday night, obtained by Playbook and obtained by Playbook’s website, Lee does not refer to his demands as such. In the context of an intensely contested race between Sens. John Cornyn, R-Texas; John Thune, R-S.D. The list is clearly a guide to winning over the conservative senators who Lee is believed by many to represent, including Rick Scott (R.-Fla.).
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Lee wrote: “We have a chance to strengthen and empower the Senate. We can ensure that voices of Americans are heard again.”
These proposals are mainly about Senate and GOP Conference procedure, not specific policies. In this respect, the proposals are similar to those made by the House Freedom Caucus last year before Kevin McCarthy was elected as speaker of the House.
McCarthy gave in to these demands, including granting conservatives de facto power over the House Rules Committee through coveted spots, but he found it hard to govern. Nine months later, a small group of hardliners forced his resignation.
The Senate is known for its collegiality and respect of the rights of each legislator. Over the last two decades, frustration has increased as power has been increasingly centralized within the party leadership suites. Conservatives blame this centralization on the bipartisan deals they dislike. Lee calls it “uniparty rule”.
Scott’s support in the race to replace McConnell is limited. It is more likely that the conservative block will be able to influence a race for the second ballot between Cornyn, Thune and other candidates who are more like McConnell in their leadership style.
Lee’s ideas can be viewed as an attempt to gain leverage in a situation like this. His ideas include:
A majority leader is increasingly using this procedural trick to effectively block potential amendments. This would allow individual members to have more input and return the Senate to a place where there is genuine discussion and negotiation, said Lee. He has been pushing for an open amendment process along with other senators from both parties.
Four weeks is required for debate and amendments for omnibus bills. These are the catchall bills that leaders usually hash out in secret, then rush through the House or Senate without much time to review and debate. Lee wrote, “We set the funding deadlines. We know them.” We should not have any problem setting up a schedule of consideration four weeks before the deadline.
Establish a floor schedule for the appropriations at the beginning of the legislative session and adhere to it. This will allow the chambers to fully discuss and amend the spending bills, rather than rushing through them during the holiday season.
Limit the GOP whip’s ability to influence votes for only positions with majority support in the Republican Conference. Lee stated that such a rule “would prevent Republican leadership from being forced to whip legislation advancing Democrat priority, as it happens sometimes when must-pass legislation is close to a deadline.”
Last, Republicans should propose “policy objectives” and “specific strategy” to achieve these goals during high-stakes negotiation. This is a nod towards conservatives’ beliefs that they are too often rolled over on issues such as debt ceilings and spending caps. He wrote that laying out those goals in advance “would give us an agreed-upon vision around which we can rally.”
