What bills has Paul Ryan sponsored this Congress?
Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI1) sponsored nine bills from January through June of 2015, during his prior role as chair of the House Ways and Means Committee before being elected Speaker of the House. But in what could be considered Exhibit A of congressional gridlock, few of those bills have passed.
Ryan became Speaker of the House in October, the most powerful position in Congress. At 46 years old, he is the youngest person to hold the position since 1869. He is also considered by many to be the ideological leader of the Republican Party in Congress, unifying factions of the party.
What legislation has Ryan sponsored or cosponsored during the current Congress, and what could that reveal about his still-nascent leadership?
Ryan’s bills that became law (in some form)
The federal Highway Trust Fund, which includes money for repairing and maintaining roads and bridges, was about to run out. So Ryan introduced H.R. 3038, the Highway and Transportation Funding Act, in July. It passed the House on a surprisingly bipartisan 332–119 vote, even though it didn’t contain a small increase in the gas tax as some Democrats wanted.
It never received a vote in the Senate because Congress instead ultimately passed a similar measure introduced by the chair of the House Transportation Committee, Rep. Bill Shuster (R-PA9). It was H.R. 3236, the Surface Transportation and Veterans Health Care Choice Improvement Act. Negotiators subsequently reached a deal on a five-year highway bill costing $305 billion.
A similar fate occurred with Ryan’s bill H.R. 1891, a catch-all bill that would have renewed several trade programs including ones with Africa and Haiti. Though that version of the extension didn’t pass, another version did, extending the program for 10 more years.
H.R. 1890, the Bipartisan Congressional Trade Priorities and Accountability Act, contained several provisions regarding U.S. trade deals. These included approving Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) for the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement with countries in Asia, subjecting trade agreements to congressional approval and access to information requirements, and establishing a Chief Transparency Officer within the office of the U.S. Trade Representative.
Although Ryan’s bill didn’t pass, many of these ideas were incorporated into law through the passed bill H.R. 2146, originally introduced by Rep. David Reichert (R-WA8) but used primarily as a vehicle for passing TPA.
Ryan’s bills that didn’t become law
The other Ryan-sponsored bill to at least pass the House is H.R. 1831, the Evidence-Based Policymaking Commission Act. The bill would create a 15-member commission to analyze how data and policy outcomes can be better used to adapt governmental programs. As Ryan’s committee wrote, “Today, policymakers focus on inputs — like how much money they’re spending or how many people are on certain programs. What they need to do is focus on outcomes — like how many people are getting off assistance and finding jobs.”
The committee would submit reports and have no direct ability to change policy. The House passed it on a voice vote which is anonymous, so there is no way to determine how representatives voted, but it was also introduced by Democratic Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA).
H.R. 2688 would prevent new rules regarding payment of child support, introduced by the Obama Administration’s Administration of Children and Families, from going into effect. Ryan and other Republicans criticize several provisions, saying they would “overturn a number of bedrock principles of child support enforcement and welfare reform, among them that parents should be financially responsible for their children.”
(The National Parents Organization disagrees, saying the new rules do reduce a few child support expenditures but for legitimate reasons: “[M]any, many of these child support orders were set at levels obligors could never pay, that the vast majority of those behind on their payments can’t pay and have no job, that much of what they owe reflects nothing but usurious interest rates.”)
H.R. 599, the Stop Targeting of Political Beliefs by the IRS Act, would have prevented the agency from modifying their standard used to determine tax-exempt status. This was introduced in response to reports of the IRS targeting organizations affiliated with the Tea Party or Christianity for extra scrutiny (although many Democrats as well as the IRS insist this is either being misreported or exaggerated). A version of the same bill introduced in the previous Congress by Rep. Dave Camp (R-MI4) passed 243–176 but never received a vote in the Senate.
H.R. 804, the Expanding the Availability of Medicare Data Act, would have essentially done just what its title says. Currently much data and info regarding the Medicare program is tightly controlled, but Ryan’s bill would have expanded the sharing of data with “service providers, suppliers, employers, health insurance issuers, medical societies or hospital associations,” provided they met certain security requirements. (Ryan first shot to fame in 2011 with his Medicare reform proposal.)
What these bills reveal about Ryan
Since being elected in 1998, Ryan has been a steadfast small-government conservative, advocating for decreased spending, lessened regulations, and free trade. These policies are a natural extension of that philosophy. These bills aren’t much of a surprise, but more of a reflection.
(By tradition, the Speaker rarely introduces bills or even votes on them. Their power primarily comes from their ability to decide which if any bills come up for a vote in the first place, as while as their power to shape public opinion as the most visible Member of Congress.)
This post was written by GovTrack Insider staff writer Jesse Rifkin.
