WASHINGTON — As expected, three highly ideological alternatives to the House GOP budget plan failed on Wednesday afternoon, including the “Back to Work” budget from Rep. Keith Ellison’s Congressional Progressive Caucus.
None of these budgets — from the liberal Progressive and Black Caucuses, as well as from the conservative Republican Study Committee— were expected to get anywhere close to enough votes to advance, but were brought to the floor by the House’s most liberal Democrats or conservative Republicans anyway. The House will vote on the main Republican budget plan, as well as the Democratic substitute, later this afternoon.
Ellison said Tuesday that he was trying to build support for the Back to Work Budget, which had gotten more praise from liberal pundits than plans offered by other Democrats. The bill failed 84-327 and was underwater with Democrats (102 of which voted against the plan). Six more members voted for the bill this year than last.
The House also voted down a version of the Senate Democratic budget, which should pass in the upper chamber later this week.
Democrats tried to procedurally trick Republicans into approving the highly-conservative Republican Study Committee budget — 171 members voted “present,” essentially declining to have their votes count in the final tally, meaning the bill only needed a majority of the up or down votes to pass. The final vote was 104 to 132 (Democrats tried such a trick last year and nearly succeeded, so Republicans were more prepared for this time around).
Devin Henry can be reached at dhenry@minnpost.com. Follow him on Twitter: @dhenry
