U.S. House Speaker Promises Tough Love

In a move designed to head off a revolt from conservatives and moderates within his own party, new U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert has promised his own brand of "tough love" in order to get his chamber to enact new legislation. Frustrated by the six-seat net margin his party holds in the House and the GOP's weak unity in the face of Democratic initiatives, Hastert is struggling to build majorities to deal with controversial issues such as education, health care, the budget, gun control, and taxes. The Republican decision dramatically to raise spending on the military is forcing the party into difficult spending decisions about domestic policy matters.

In recent weeks, the Speaker's laid-back leadership style has been questioned by Republican conservatives who want Hastert to take a tougher line in dealing with Democrats. Many of them are worried that the Speaker is eyeing a more moderate agenda on budget issues and gun control in order to soothe voter worries about his party being too extremist in the wake of impeachment and Newt Gingrich. In their eyes, caving in to Democrats on budget matters is not going to play well in their conservative districts.

At the same time, party moderates have defected to the Democratic side on a few key votes to protest inaction on issues such as campaign finance reform. Representing more suburban and Northern districts, these House members fear their party could be in for big losses in 2000 unless it compiles a respectable governing record.

Protests from both sides of the GOP spectrum forced a delay in House consideration of several spending bills in the period leading up to Memorial Day. This embarrassed the House leadership and generated a number of negative press stories about whether anyone actually was in control.

On June 7th, according to the Washington Post, Hastert met with House Republican leaders and told them "he intends to lay down the law when he meets [on June 8] with the full Republican conference." Recognizing that party control of the House is at risk in the 2000 elections, Hastert must prove that Republicans can govern the House and pass legislation that addresses things people care about. Unless Republicans can come together and deal with pressing policy matters, the GOP will end the fiscal year on September 30 with few budget bills passed. This would raise serious concerns about Republican leadership in Congress just as the 2000 elections are getting underway.