Senior House leadership aides describe the intensifying battle for chairmanship of the Appropriations Committee as a “jump ball” and the 76-year-old ranking Republican, Jerry Lewis of California, Tuesday jumped into the spending-cut debate with both sneakers.
Lewis delivered a slick, five-section battle plan, complete with a companion zip drive featuring a slide show and three-minute video to the 34-member Republican Study Committee which will elect the new committee chairman, likely sometime next week, no later than December 8.
Lewis promised to lead the committee toward at least $100 billion in non-defense/non-veterans spending cuts this year—in addition to repeated vows to enforce an earmark ban, revive anti-abortion policies, block funding to “enforce or implement” the health care law, and, surprisingly, reduce the Appropriations Committee staff.