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  Centrists also rebel against GOP leaders
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ContributorArmyDem 
Last EditedArmyDem  Oct 13, 2005 12:02am
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News DateThursday, October 13, 2005 06:00:00 AM UTC0:0
DescriptionBy Bob Cusack

House Republican leaders have been sparring for most of this year with the conservative wing of the party, but an increasingly restless group of centrists is presenting them with a new headache.

Soon after Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Texas) stepped down as majority leader last month, House leaders brought two energy and environmental bills to the floor that triggered strong objections from centrists.

One of them — the Gasoline for America’s Security Act — passed 212-210 last week, but only after leaders kept the roll-call vote open for more than 40 minutes as they scrambled for votes. Thirteen Republicans, most of them centrists, opposed the bill. But in a move more telling of angst in the conference, five centrists opposed the rule allowing the measure to be considered on the floor.

House leadership on both sides of the aisle view votes on rules as tests of party loyalty and have clearly communicated to members that they are expected to vote with their party on these roll calls.

The rebellion of the five on the gasoline-bill rule was the biggest against any rule in the 109th Congress and the first time that a chairman — Sherwood Boehlert (R-N.Y.), chairman of the House Science Committee — had broken ranks. Most rule votes, even for controversial bills such as the one that called for consideration of the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), fall along strict party lines.

Boehlert was so opposed to the gasoline measure that he circulated a “Dear Colleague” letter blasting the legislation, saying it would increase the deficit, harm the environment and “give charity to the oil companies while doing virtually nothing to help consumers.”
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