Oct.10

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The Senate Also Has a Freedom Caucus

As long as we are on the subject of crazies, there is no official Freedom Caucus in the Senate, as there is in the House. However, a group of about a dozen senators informally function as a Freedom Caucus without the explicit label. They are now trying to exert their power.

Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is not running for reelection to the leadership, so there is a three-way battle for his job. If Republicans gain a majority in the Senate, or even 50 seats and Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) gets promoted to President of the Senate, the stakes will be enormous. If the Democrats capture the House and the Republicans control the Senate, then the Senate Majority Leader will be the most powerful Republican position in Congress and hugely important, so the "Freedom Caucusers" want one of their own on top.

One of the candidates for McConnell's job is Rick Scott, who is one of the "FCers," although not guaranteed to be reelected if Hurricane Milton interferes with the vote in heavily Republican West Florida. The others are Sens. John Thune (R-SD) and John Cornyn (R-TX). It is widely expected that no candidate will get a majority of the caucus on the first ballot and Scott will come in third and be eliminated. Note that unlike the House, where the entire House votes for the leader (the Speaker), the majority leader of the Senate is elected by the majority conference.

If Scott is eliminated on round one, how the dozen or so "FCers" vote on round two could determine who wins. For this reason, one of the other "FCers," Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), has announced a series of demands that the two remaining candidates might wish to consider if they want the votes of the "FCers." Here are their demands:

• Filling the Tree: The Senate has many arcane procedures, including one called filling the tree. When a bill comes up, the majority leader can go first and offer so many amendments that no more amendments are allowed. This reduces the power of individual senators to offer amendments the leader does not want, but that might have the votes to pass. Lee wants a Senate rule prohibiting the new leader from filling the tree unless three-quarters of the Republican Conference agree to it. If adopted, it would take power away from the leader and give conference members more power to shape bills.
  
  
• Debate Time: McConnell had the habit of staying up all night with aides to write 1,000-page tax and other bills and then demand a vote at 9 a.m. the next morning, before any of the senators could read them. Lee wants to end this practice by requiring 4 weeks for debating and amending all major bills.
  
  
• Make a Schedule: Some things come up every year, like the budget. Lee wants to fix a schedule at the beginning of the session for debating the budget and then to stick with it. This would prevent the leadership from cooking up its own budget just before midnight on the day the government's funding runs out.
  
  
• Tie up the Whip: Another priority of the "FCers" is to require the Republican Conference whip to refrain from whipping votes on bills unless those bills have majority support in the Conference. In the past, when up against deadlines and most Republicans were against some bill, McConnell would ask for and get Democratic votes in return for giving the Democrats something. In other words, he was willing to compromise and pass legislation in a bipartisan way. Lee and the others want to stop this terrible practice.
  
  
• Set Policy Goals: Lee wants the Republican Conference to set priorities and strategies and then refuse to budge. That way, when there were a few Republican holdouts (like the "FCers") on some bill, the negotiators would not have the freedom to make concessions that were in conflict with the stated policy goals.

All in all, if adopted, these changes to internal rules would hamstring the new leader and give individual senators more power. They would also prevent the new leader from working with the Democrats on anything. In effect, they would come close to giving the "FCers" a veto on the functioning of the Senate, just as the official FC has in the House.

Thune and Cornyn both want the job of conference leader, so it is possible that one of them might give Lee what he wants to get the job. Of course, neither Thune and Cornyn wants to be hamstrung, so it is possible that they have a little chat and both reject Lee's whole plan. Then Lee and the others will still have to pick one or the other, but the winner won't be their puppet. (V)