House Republicans are expected to unveil their must-pass spending legislation Monday — and despite conservative opposition, Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK) says he expects the measure to pass.
“I think the votes are there. The agreements have been made and it’s really very bipartisan because remember the Democrats control the United States Senate so we still have to get this through a Democratic Senate and eventually it will have to go to the president to sign it,” Cole, an appropriator and ally of House Speaker John Boehner, said during an interview on Bloomberg TV Monday.
Conservatives, angry about President Obama’s executive amnesty, have expressed concern that the funding package will not go far enough in confronting what they say are Obama’s “lawless” acts and are pushing for language to be inserted in the legislation to defund the actions.
Sen. Ted Cruz has been working with House members to accomplish their defunding goal. When asked by Bloomberg TV about whether Cruz’s effort will derail the spending measure, Cole said no.
“No, I don’t think he’s got the votes to do it. There’ll be actually bipartisan support for this. There’ll be bipartisan opposition,” he said.
Cole denied that that GOP would “need” Democratic votes to pass the bill but said he expected Democrats would vote for the measure because it was reached out of a compromise with the Democratic Senate.
“I’ve always believed this would be bipartisan. If we got into a partisan showdown, yeah I think we could get the 218 votes but that wouldn’t get you the 60 votes you need in the United States Senate and it wouldn’t get you a presidential signature,” he said.
Cole said that he is “very confident” Congress will meet its Thursday deadline to pass a spending bill and prevent a government shutdown.