Budget Hits an Unexpected Snag
as Unlikely Alliance between
Tea Party Republicans, Democrats Emerges in House

Tensions Rise on House Floor as Disaffected Republicans, Democrats Team Up to Derail Budget Process

 

After spending the earlier part of the week engaged in complex negotiations over budget expenditures and individual House and Senate members' budget requests, the House on Thursday morning convened its regularly-scheduled floor session expecting to consider and adopt its agreed-upon appropriations bill to fund the state budget for the next year.  However, as rumors started to surface that a minority far-right contingent within the House Republican Caucus, still clamoring for relevance after their unsuccessful bid to halt passage of the IMPROVE Act, had formed an unlikely alliance with House Democrats, expectations for a swift and orderly budget approval process quickly evaporated and were replaced by widespread confusion and frustration within the chamber.

 

As it became clear to House leaders that their anticipated majority coalition to approve the budget had dissolved, Speaker Harwell abruptly gaveled the body into what was to become the first of several lengthy recesses for Republican members to meet separately and privately hash out their disagreements as a caucus.  Behind the closed doors of the caucus meetings, exchanges between members and leaders reportedly grew heated at times, with defecting Republican members combatively defending their decision to break ranks with their party and join the Democrats in mutually supporting a litany of particularized pork projects and hastily-conceived, unaccountable state funding programs for their districts back home.  For their part, Republican leaders pleaded with caucus members not to allow themselves to be used as "pawns," as one leader called it, in Democrats' efforts to control the budget process.

 

Meanwhile in their own caucus meeting, House Democrats voiced disappointment that their earlier gesture of good faith in supporting the IMPROVE Act had not been rewarded with Republicans' reciprocal support for Minority Leader Craig Fitzhugh's proposed $150 million state block grant program for local school districts.  All but two House Democrats voted in favor of Gov. Haslam's IMPROVE Act, helping it secure passage in that chamber, and many Democrats perceived Republicans' refusal to adopt Fitzhugh's appropriations amendments funding his proposed school block grant program bill as reneging on their prior unspoken agreement.  Republican leaders continue to insist that no such agreement ever existed.

 

After their initial nearly hour-long recess, Speaker Harwell reconvened the body to consider some sixteen late-breaking surprise amendments filed at the last permissible minute that morning before gaveling in.  As each amendment was called up for consideration, tempers spilled into the open and flared on the floor as several amendments filed by defecting Republican Reps. Jimmy Matlock, Matthew Hill, Sabi Kumar, and Judd Matheny securing funding for a number of favored parochial projects were narrowly adopted over the objections of leadership.  Likewise, Minority Leader Craig Fitzhugh, with support from those same Republicans, successfully attached his $150 million school block grant funding to the budget bill.

 

The surprise amendments authored by Republican defectors ranged from securing grant dollars for local district airports and veterans and community service organizations to a whopping $300 million slush fund ostensibly for schools to pay down capital debt.  Perhaps one of the more heated debates unfolded over an amendment from Rep. Matthew Hill to provide more medical care for drug-addicted newborns with neonatal abstinence syndrome, a medical epidemic he says is occurring with increasing frequency in his district.  While there was near-unanimous agreement among members for the underlying goal of the amendment, several leaders, including Reps. Gerald McCormick and William Lamberth, questioned the fiscal wisdom of inserting a last-minute funding expansion without input from the Department of Health or specific guidance on how the money should be spent, opening the door for potential waste.  Debate between McCormick and Hill broke down into an open shouting match on the floor, with McCormick questioning why Hill had not brought his amendment earlier at the appropriate time in the budget process and Hill objecting to the implication that his motives for the timing of his amendment were less than authentic.

 

Between the various recesses and secret leadership huddles scattered across the House floor and clerk's offices throughout the afternoon, it became apparent by roughly 3:00 PM that there would be no agreed-upon solution for the day's discord on the floor.  Veteran budget crafter and House Finance Committee Chairman Charles Sargent expressed his dissatisfaction that the string of surprise amendments had been added to an otherwise balanced budget proposal, throwing the appropriations bill significantly out of balance and potentially threatening to violate Tennessee's constitutional requirement that budget expenditures cannot be greater than available state revenues and reserves.  With unrest mounting and support for passing any budget bill quickly dissipating, Rep. Bill Dunn, a longtime member of the legislature and renowned rules expert, urged calm and reminded his colleagues of the potential hazards of outright voting down the budget bill on the floor, warning that such a move would procedurally leave the body "in a world of hurt."  Majority Leader Glen Casada seemed to suggest simply letting the amendments be added onto the bill, then sending the measure over to the Senate for them to bring it back into fiscal balance.

 

 

You can read more about today's unexpected events in this report from Tom Humphrey.