Speaker John Boehner came under fire from the blogosphere Wednesday after allegedly ordering the cameras C-SPAN uses to shut down during a moment of high drama on the House floor.
As House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer attempted to bring a two-month extension of payroll relief up for a vote, C-SPAN viewers suddenly saw the feed go silent and then shift to unrelated footage of the Capitol building’s exterior. Shortly after, the cable network Tweeted that they have “no control over the U.S. House TV cameras.” Instead, the Tweet read, “the Speaker of the House does.”
The progressive news outlet The Raw Story followed up on the occurrence with the headline “Boehner’s office cuts off C-SPAN cameras as GOP takes verbal beating” and the story quickly circulated across the web.
However, Boehner’s office denies having a hand in the incident.
“The House Recording Studio, which works under the Chief Administrative Officer of the House of Representatives, operates the cameras in the House chamber,” a Boehner spokesperson told the Talk Radio News Service. “The Speaker’s office had no involvement in this matter.”
When contacted for clarification, a C-SPAN spokesperson explained that the Tweet was not intended to hold Speaker Boehner culpable. Instead, the spokesperson said, the Tweet was aimed at emphasizing that the cameras inside the lower chamber are owned and operated by the House itself, not C-Span.
Update (3:49 pm) Dan Weiser, the Communications Director for the Chief Administrative Officer, confirms that the Speaker’s office was not involved in the decision to end the live feed.
Weiser told TRNS that Hoyer’s statements on the floor came after the House was officially adjourned, which is typically when the cameras stop rolling.
“While there are seconds of live broadcast prior and subsequent to each meeting, on Wednesday, December 21, the broadcast continued for approximately 57 seconds after adjournment,” Weiser said. “That length of time is atypical and unintended and the office of the [Chief Administrative Officer] takes full responsibility for it.”
Wednesday, December 21, 2011 at 11:18AM | Benny Martinez
House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), flanked by Republican conferees selected to negotiate a final payroll tax holiday deal, again pleaded with Senate Democrats Wednesday to return to Washington, appoint conferees and “do the people’s work.”
“All we’re asking for is to get the Senate Dems over here to work with us to resolve our difference so we can do what everybody wants to do; extend the payroll tax credit for the next year,” Boehner told reporters.
Cantor said that the only item separating the two parties is the duration of a potential extended payroll package. A bill passed by the Senate would’ve extended the payroll tax holiday, unemployment insurance and doctor reimbursements for two months. House Republicans, however, disapproved of that, arguing that the extension should be lengthened from two months to an entire year.
So lies the current debate that has yet again forced Congress to work into the eleventh hour to reach consensus, this time on an issue that would directly affect more than 160 million Americans. it’s no wonder a whopping 86 percent of Americans disapprove of the job Congress is doing, according to a recent Gallup poll.
House Republicans, though, have vowed to stick around as long as it takes for a deal to get done. Considering both Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) have announced that they would not be appointing conferees, it’s not likely that the two chambers will reach a deal via conference.
“Republicans are committed to a full-year’s tax cut for families… and we’re willing to work throughout the holidays to make sure that happens,” Rep. Kevin Brady, a GOP conferree, said. “So Mr. President, Senate Democrats, vacation’s second, do your jobs first.”
UPDATE — House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) called on Senate Democrats and President Obama to remain in Washington throughout the holidays to “work out our differences” and extend a payroll tax holiday for one year rather than approving a temporary, two-month extension.
“We’ve done our job, all we need now is to resolve our differences,” Boehner said Tuesday shortly after the House diapproved of a Senate bill to extend the payroll tax holiday. “There’s no reason we can’t do this in short order.”
Boehner also made clear, that despite previous reports that the House would adjourn following Tuesday’s votes, House GOP leadership and a handful of negotiators will remain “ready and able” to finalize a year-long extensions before Jan. 1. According to the Speaker, Reps. Kevin Brady (R-Texas), David Camp (R-Mich.), Renee Ellmers (R-N.C.), Nan Hayworth (R-N.Y.), Tom Price (R-Ga.), Tom Reed (R-N.Y.), Fred Upton (R-Mich.) and Greg Walden (R-Ore.) would be on hand and in Washington through the end of the year.
The House Speaker questioned the willingness of President Obama to increase his involvement by demanding Senate Democrats reconvene to hash out an agreement.
“Now it’s up to the president to show real leadership,” Boehner said. “He said that won’t leave town for the holidays until this bill is done. I think President Obama needs to call on Senate Democrats to go back into session move to go a conference, and to sit down and resolve this bill as quickly as possible. We’ve done our work for the American people and now it’s up to the president and Democrats in the Senate to do their obs as well.”
This story was updated at 2:34p.m. EST…
UPDATE — Just before 1:00p.m. EST Tuesday, the House voted 229-193 to disapprove of the Senate’s two-month payroll holiday extension, calling the upper chamber back to conference to work out their differences.
The vote puts pressure back on Senate Democrats to reconvene even though Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has already said the upper chamber was done with votes for the year. Reid took to his Twitter account to respond to the House’s latest vote.
“Happy to cont. negotiations on a yearlong deal as soon as #House passes the #Senate’s compromise, & prevents tax hike from hitting mid class,” Reid tweeted.
Reid’s statement indicates that Senate Democrats will not likely return to conference with House Republicans.
According to a Democratic aide who spoke on the condition of anonymity, following the lower chamber’s scheduled votes Tuesday, House members plan to follow suit with the Senate and adjourn for the holidays, leaving no window for a conference to actually take place.
“No conference, no nothing, everything expires,” the Democratic source said.
This story was updated at 1:26p.m. EST…
WASHINGTON - The House is expected to vote Tuesday on a plan that would send a Senate-passed, two-year payroll tax cut extension into conference, a procedure that would allow Republicans to reject the upper chamber’s bill without actually voting against it.
Though House Republicans will not formally reject the Senate-passed extension with a vote, GOP leaders have said that the move to conference with the upper chamber would serve as a vote against the Senate’s bill.
House Republicans are vehemently opposed to the duration of the two-month extension drafted in the Senate. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) has said it is an attempt to “kick the can down the road for 60 days” and Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) has said the “two-month bill would do more harm than good.”
Despite an 89-10 vote in the upper chamber and approval from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), House Republicans have opted to bring the bill to a conference in an effort to reach a deal that would extend the payroll tax package for a full year rather than accept a two-month-long extension. Democrats are taking the opportunity to label House Republicans as obstructionists.
“Speaker Boehner should allow an up-or-down vote on the compromise that Senator McConnell and I negotiated at Speaker Boehner’s request, and which was supported by 89 Republican and Democratic senators,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said in a statement. “It would be unconscionable to block a bipartisan agreement that would protect middle-class families from the thousand-dollar tax increase looming on January 1. It is time for Speaker Boehner to follow through.”
Reid has indicated that he will not re-open negotiations over the duration of the payroll tax holiday until the House passes the two-month extension.
House GOP leadership Thursday announced that they expect a vote on extending Social Security payroll tax cuts next week.
House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said, at news conference, that the bill would also include an extension and reform of unemployment benefits and approval for the Keystone XL Pipeline, despite President Obama’s threat to veto any bill linked to the oil pipeline.
“Mr. President, we will have some of your ideas in this bill, but maybe it’s time to try some of ours. Do not veto this jobs bill,” said Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas).
Acknowledging that the bill does not include everything both sides asked for, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said it “does make some progress.”
“This bill does ensure that we abide by the principle that we want people to keep more of their hard-earned money, and this bill does have some incremental steps towards continued efforts of economic growth,” Cantor said.
But Rep. Sander Levin (D-Mich.), ranking member of the House Ways and Means Committee, said Republicans have “chosen a path of confrontation instead of the search for common ground.”
“The president said he’d veto it,” Levin said at a briefing on extending unemployment benefits. “So instead of reaching out…they’re trying to undercut the president.”
House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) told reporters at a press briefing Tuesday he remains hopeful that Republicans and Democrats will work in the last weeks of the year to pass economic recovery legislation, but the GOP must be willing to cooperate.
“There is no doubt in my mind that if Mr. Boehner, Ms. Pelosi, Mr. Cantor and I sat down and we could all agree that we’ll both come up with a majority, under the following circumstances…we could do it,” Hoyer said. “The issue is whether or not we’re going to do it in a bipartisan way or pursue a partisan message.”
Hoyer blasted Republicans for moving less than half the amount of legislation the Democratically-controlled Congress moved in 2007 under a Republican administration and attributed the lack of action to a complete unwillingness of the GOP to move away from political messages.
“They voted three times to end Medicare, we’re not going to do that, they continue to vote for it. [They] voted ten times on regulatory bills that do not create jobs…They voted 23 times against initiatives to create jobs…They voted 14 times to repeal patient protections and put insurance companies back in control of healthcare, they know that’s not going to pass the Senate, they know the president is not going to sign it. These are all political message bills for their base, a relatively narrow base.”
“We’ve moved a lot of legislation through the House which the speaker must have known, we knew, had no chance in the Senate, but it was their political message,” Hoyer added. “They’ve been pursuing their political message, not policy.”
When asked if he thinks House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) is responsible, he said, “Yes, I think the Speaker bears responsibility. He is, after all, the leader.”
With the current continuing resolution expiring in two weeks, Hoyer said “we are going to urge staying here until we get [the sustainable growth rate, unemployment insurance, and payroll taxes] done.”
On the legislation proposing an extension and increase of the payroll tax, Hoyer said Republicans are alienating their constituents, citing that roughly 75 percent of Americans support raising taxes on millionaires to aid the middle class.
“I frankly think the millionaires’ tax is putting a lot of heat on the Republicans,” Hoyer said.
He criticized arguments that raising taxes on the wealthy would negatively affect small-business owners, saying it “is not going to impact at all, according to any economist, job creation in America. What it will do is give us resources to protect the most vulnerable in America.”
“Every bipartisan group that has looked at it says you cannot get to where we need to get if you do not deal with additional revenues, and very frankly, almost every Republican leader that I’ve talked to agrees,” Hoyer added.
While he does not want to see sequestration take effect, Hoyer said, Democratic leadership is not working to avoid it, and he believes Democrats will support a presidential veto on any legislation with that goal.
“We need to keep the sequester in place, but realize it is an incentive, a reason, a demand, if you will, that we come to an agreement and adopt a balanced response to the fiscal challenge that confronts us…The sequester was the discipline. If you now simply spend time figuring out ‘well how can we get around the sequester,’ frankly, it eliminate the discipline.”
Boehner,
House GOP Announce Bill Extending Payroll Tax Cut, Approving Keystone Pipeline
By Andrea Salazar
House GOP leadership Thursday announced that they expect a vote on extending Social Security payroll tax cuts next week.
House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said, at news conference, that the bill would also include an extension and reform of unemployment benefits and approval for the Keystone XL Pipeline, despite President Obama’s threat to veto any bill linked to the oil pipeline.
“Mr. President, we will have some of your ideas in this bill, but maybe it’s time to try some of ours. Do not veto this jobs bill,” said Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas).
Acknowledging that the bill does not include everything both sides asked for, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said it “does make some progress.”
“This bill does ensure that we abide by the principle that we want people to keep more of their hard-earned money, and this bill does have some incremental steps towards continued efforts of economic growth,” Cantor said.
But Rep. Sander Levin (D-Mich.), ranking member of the House Ways and Means Committee, said Republicans have “chosen a path of confrontation instead of the search for common ground.”
“The president said he’d veto it,” Levin said at a briefing on extending unemployment benefits. “So instead of reaching out…they’re trying to undercut the president.”
Janie Amaya contributed to this story.