National Journal: Republican Study Committee bans Heritage Action over farm bill actions
August 28, 2013 | 05:33 PM
In a blowup over Heritage Action for America’s decision to oppose the farm-only farm bill last month, the Republican Study Committee — a group of 172 conservative House members — has barred Heritage Foundation employees from attending its weekly meeting in the Capitol building, National Journal reported today.
“The conservative think tank has been a presence at RSC meetings for decades and enjoys a close working relationship with the committee and its members. But that relationship is now stretched thin, sources say, due to a series of policy disputes that culminated with a blowup over last month’s vote on the farm bill,” National Journal reporter Tim Alberta wrote.
Heritage Action is the grassroots activism branch of the Heritage Foundation.
The move to effectively kick Heritage out of the weekly RSC meeting represents “a seismic shift” in the relationship between the two institutions, one high-ranking Capitol Hill aide told National Journal.
The article credits Rep. Rick Mulvaney, R-S.C., with starting the campaign to punish Heritage Action after the group called on Congress to divide the farm bill into farm and nutrition bills and then told members to vote against the farm-only bill.
“I wanted to take them to task for their inconsistency,” Mulvaney recalled to National Journal. “I wanted to draw attention to the fact that Heritage was now scoring against Republicans for doing exactly what Heritage had been espousing only a month before.”
The story details Mulvaney’s recruitment of other GOP members, of their abandoned proposal to publish an op-ed story in the Wall Street Journal and of that newspaper’s publication of a story that said Heritage had become a “handful" for the Republicans.
RSC Chairman Steve Scalise, R-La., told Heritage officials of his decision last month, the National Journal reported.
Officials from Heritage Action or Heritage Foundation declined to comment to National Journal on the article, which details Heritage’s long relationship with the Republican Party.
The article does not speculate on what ramifications the ban on Heritage could have on nutrition and farm bill votes that could come up this fall in the House.
“The conservative think tank has been a presence at RSC meetings for decades and enjoys a close working relationship with the committee and its members. But that relationship is now stretched thin, sources say, due to a series of policy disputes that culminated with a blowup over last month’s vote on the farm bill,” National Journal reporter Tim Alberta wrote.
Heritage Action is the grassroots activism branch of the Heritage Foundation.
The move to effectively kick Heritage out of the weekly RSC meeting represents “a seismic shift” in the relationship between the two institutions, one high-ranking Capitol Hill aide told National Journal.
The article credits Rep. Rick Mulvaney, R-S.C., with starting the campaign to punish Heritage Action after the group called on Congress to divide the farm bill into farm and nutrition bills and then told members to vote against the farm-only bill.
“I wanted to take them to task for their inconsistency,” Mulvaney recalled to National Journal. “I wanted to draw attention to the fact that Heritage was now scoring against Republicans for doing exactly what Heritage had been espousing only a month before.”
The story details Mulvaney’s recruitment of other GOP members, of their abandoned proposal to publish an op-ed story in the Wall Street Journal and of that newspaper’s publication of a story that said Heritage had become a “handful" for the Republicans.
RSC Chairman Steve Scalise, R-La., told Heritage officials of his decision last month, the National Journal reported.
Officials from Heritage Action or Heritage Foundation declined to comment to National Journal on the article, which details Heritage’s long relationship with the Republican Party.
The article does not speculate on what ramifications the ban on Heritage could have on nutrition and farm bill votes that could come up this fall in the House.
