House pledges bold election-year agenda, health care plan

“Our presidential candidates are out there beating each other up at the moment – that’s going to solve itself at some point here in the process”, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told reporters but said Congress is already busy doing “issue development to try to get ready for 2017”.

He insisted that crafting agenda that could greet the party’s presidential nominee isn’t an attempt to head off whoever leaves the 2016 Republican convention in Cleveland in July as the GOP standard bearer.

Speaker of the House Paul Ryan blasted President Barack Obama administration’s coal mining lease ban Friday, telling reporters the president has made clear his intent to reduce coal mining.

But the presidential race loomed large at the retreat, as lawmakers privately debated what impact the nomination of Trump or Cruz, the two top-polling candidates, would have on their own fortunes given their divisive rhetoric directed at immigrants and others. “I know everybody typically in the media is watching the presidential contest, but we’re anxious about Congress working…we’re not sitting here anxious about who the nominee is going to be”.

Instead, House Republicans are plowing forward with setting an agenda for the coming year, hoping that by establishing a clear set of policy prescriptions, they can shape the conversation leading up to November’s election. Ted Cruz of Texas and Marco Rubio of Florida were in SC for a debate.

The House GOP agenda will include proposals on national security, jobs and economic growth, health care, poverty and opportunity, and restoring the Constitution, he said. “He’s not as sensational in his comments as the others, but there’s a good quality to that, and I think that’s also something you look for in a president”, Chaffetz said.

That 13-percentage-point lead is up from the five-point edge Trump had over Cruz in the same poll a month ago.

In the unwieldy and slower-moving Senate, the focus will be on processing the 12 annual spending bills to fund government – a project McConnell acknowledged Thursday “is not going to titillate the public”. “We want to unite and that means listening to all voices – those that are frustrated, those who are inspiring, all of the above”.

“If Republicans are afraid to bring their standard-bearer’s policies up for votes, Democrats will hold Republicans accountable by seeking floor votes on Trump’s policies ourselves”, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said in a release Thursday. “Because it’s the Republican primary voter who makes that decision and that’s who we respect”, Ryan stated.

On the House side, Republicans would likely still keep their majority if Cruz or Trump are the nominees, but it could cost them more seats.

“At least Democrats are saying the right things”, McConnell said.

Afterward, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) – who in 2010 led a GOP task force that produced a detailed 21-page platform called the “Pledge to America” – declined to say whether the new agenda would be produced in that form. McConnell said he’d tried to avoid “turning the Senate into a studio” for the presidential campaign, but added, “What’s good for the goose is good for the gander”.

None of the GOP contenders was present, as Sens.