House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) abruptly announced his resignation from Congress last week, just one day after Pope Francis came to Washington and delivered an historic speech to officials on Capitol Hill. Boehner explained in an interview that the Pope’s visit had helped “clear the picture” for his decision to resign; however Boehner also said this in his resignation statement:
“The first job of any Speaker is to protect this institution that we all love. It was my plan to only serve as Speaker until the end of last year, but I stayed on to provide continuity to the Republican Conference and the House. It is my view, however, that prolonged leadership turmoil would do irreparable damage to the institution. To that end, I will resign the Speakership and my seat in Congress on October 30.”
For those unfamiliar with the political clashes happening in Congress and the GOP, elected officials have until September 30 to strike a budget deal to avoid a shutdown, and Republicans are divided on how to handle it. Budget negotiations have been stymied by Republican presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), Sens. James Lankford (R-OH) and Jeff Sessions (R-AL), and several far-right House representatives who are refusing to support spending bills that include federal funding for Planned Parenthood clinics. These conservative officials have been very critical of Boehner’s compromising approach with the Obama administration and their Democratic peers in general, and have made federal Planned Parenthood funding a non-starter for negotiations (i.e., they won't even come to the table to negotiate unless Planned Parenthood is defunded). Meanwhile, Boehner and other moderate Republican senators and representatives did not want to risk a government shutdown on the GOP’s watch, so they advocated to create a committee to review the Planned Parenthood issue separately and not tie it to the overall federal budget.
However, anti-abortion constituents and their House and Senate representatives were not appeased by the solution, believing it didn’t go far enough. In response, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) introduced a short-term continuing resolution (CR) bill last week to fund the government through December 11 which included a provision to defund Planned Parenthood. Immediately, Democratic officials blocked it and the White House issued a veto threat on any bill proposing defunding the clinics; the CR was defeated, 52–47. Officials on both sides anticipated the bill would fail and be “an exercise in futility,” but Boehner and McConnell knew they had to do something, since their far-right peers were already considering voting them out of office if things didn’t go their way.
By announcing his resignation, Boehner effectively removed any leverage that the far right had in the budget negotiations process. In the short-term, this provides some wiggle room to push forth a “clean” CR (with no Planned Parenthood policy riders) to keep the government open through December 11. This will grant Congress some extra time to devise a bipartisan budget deal that will hopefully remove the sequester caps and allow for more federal education spending in FY2016. McConnell jumped on this opportunity Monday afternoon by introducing a clean CR to the Senate, which passed Wednesday, 78–20. Now the CR will go to the House, where representatives can choose to accept it and keep the government open, or reject it and take the blame for a federal shutdown. Fortunately, insiders are optimistic the House will pass the bill, making a shutdown unlikely.
Congress’ Future and ESEA Reauthorization
In light of Boehner’s resignation and the ongoing turmoil in the GOP, what does this mean for the 114th Congress? How will the House Speaker’s vacancy affect K–12 policy such as the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA)/No Child Left Behind (NCLB)? The answer to both of these questions depends on who replaces John Boehner.
The New York Times summarizes the uncertainty of the situation quite well: “The right flank of John A. Boehner’s party may have pushed him out of the House speaker’s chair, but it will take members of every faction of the House Republicans to choose his successor. As the scramble to replace Mr. Boehner—and fill the leadership posts beneath him—begins in earnest this week, a few dozen members who spent several years tormenting the speaker feel deeply empowered in determining the outcome. But while they may have effectively deposed Mr. Boehner, their own authority is in no way assured.” If the new Speaker is positioned even further to the political right than Boehner was, this may make it more difficult for bipartisan compromises in all policy areas, not just education.
However, since all House representatives must agree on the new Speaker, it won’t be easy for one particular faction to take charge. The Alliance for Excellent Education notes that this is a crucial moment though, as the Speaker alone decides which legislation will be introduced to the floor for a vote and under what rules or circumstances such legislation will be considered. While no replacement has been chosen yet, the far-right is pushing for Rep. Daniel Webster (R-FL) (who ran unsuccessfully against Boehner for House Speaker), whereas other representatives are lining up behind Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) as their favorite.
As for ESEA specifically, Boehner was a principal architect of the 2001 version of the education law, and has played a major role in the negotiations process for the new House and Senate ESEA bills. Plus, Rep. John Kline (R-MN), another one of the “old-guards” in Congress and an ESEA expert, announced he will be retiring at the end of this Congress’ session. Time is against education advocates who would like to see a new ESEA this year, so the best we can hope for is to finish the final bill before Boehner and Kline leave. Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) hopes to have a final bill for the president to sign by Thanksgiving, so we will have to cross our fingers and wait.