‘The M-word’: Nebraska’s Flood plots new lane for dealmaking Republicans

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The News

The Main Street Caucus has a bit of a misleading reputation in the House: It’s known as more moderate among Republican groups, but that’s largely by comparison with the hardline Freedom Caucus. And its new chair, Rep. Mike Flood, wants to demolish that assumption for good.

Flood, who took over as Main Street chief last month after just three years in office, told Semafor that the group is “more conservative than we’ve ever been,” while getting tighter than ever with key players like President Donald Trump and the Freedom Caucus.

With Flood at the helm, Main Street is poised to play a pivotal role headed into Congress’ fall fight over government funding. Its 83 members are already making the case to GOP leaders that the best-case scenario is passing a budget — and, if that proves elusive, a lengthy stopgap that includes spending for district- or state-specific priorities known as earmarks.

Flood said the caucus’ close ties to leadership, plus the president and hardliners, could position Main Street to be as influential as possible in the policy fights to come.

And when it comes to priorities in the party’s tax and spending cuts bill that Trump muscled through this summer, he positioned them squarely on the right flank of the GOP.

“We have pretty tense discussions about the direction of the conference,” Flood told Semafor. “And anytime I hear somebody use the M-word [moderate], I’m like, ‘I wish people could see where our members are.’ We are very conservative.”

“The men and women of Main Street are the ones that are making things happen,” Flood added.

The View From Mike Flood

Eleanor Mueller: How are you seeking to build on the Main Street Caucus’ past wins headed into the rest of this Congress?

Rep. Mike Flood: When Speaker [Kevin] McCarthy was ousted, a lot of those conversations that happened to get us back on our feet, happened with Main Street. We’ve got folks very much in favor of making sure the government is funded and willing to vote to do that — and that gives us a lot of credibility.

You’ve said a priority for the caucus when it comes to the looming fight over government funding is making sure any continuing resolution includes earmarks. How will you guys make that happen?

We’re raising it with leadership. A lot of those frontline members are ready to deliver for their districts, and I’d much rather have a member of Congress help direct that funding than a bureaucrat in a Washington agency.

We’ve communicated that to both the speaker, the majority leader and the White House — and one of the things that I don’t know that’s come out is, our relationship with the White House is very strong. President Trump sees us as allies. We’re there; he’s inviting our members to the White House. He says, “I know you’re there when we need you.”

What do you think that engagement from Trump shows you about the role of moderates within the GOP more broadly?

What’s changed with Main Street is, we are more conservative than we’ve ever been, and I think the fact that we’ve gotten more conservative has drawn more members.

Do you think frustrations over the hardline Freedom Caucus have attracted more people to the Main Street Caucus?

Our relationship with the Freedom Caucus is greatly improved. I meet with them once a week for breakfast. In fact, they agree with us that community project funding should be included in the bill. Now, their preference is a CR with community project funding; our preference is a budget with community project funding.

But yes, Main Street Caucus has realized that we will put ourselves in the room when we want to be there. And the White House knows it; the White House wants us in the room. The White House invited a great number of our members to meet with the president minutes before they met with the Freedom Caucus [on the reconciliation package].

What are your group’s priorities for a second reconciliation package?

A lot of what happens in a second reconciliation package will depend on how we work with the Democrats on the budget. If the approach from Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries is to refuse to come to the table — expect a second reconciliation to get bigger and bigger and bigger. Expect rescissions, expect other things like that.

You also chair the panel that oversees housing and insurance on the House Financial Services Committee. Can we expect the House to move soon on housing legislation?

The chairman has communicated to me directly that housing is going to be a priority when we get back. The Senate version has some value to it, but we have bipartisan support in the House to address what I call the four horsemen of the housing apocalypse, and that is environmental reviews, prevailing wages, hiring requirements, and Build America Buy America provisions.

We want to talk about that, and we have bipartisan support. Mr. Cleaver and I have been working on this.

What about flood insurance?

I’m hopeful that we can hold a hearing on it towards the end of this year. [But] I don’t know that there’s any consensus on our side about what we would change.

Who do you expect to replace your fellow Nebraska Republican, retiring Rep. Don Bacon?

There are folks out there that say, “No way this will be a Republican seat. It’s going to flip.” But as Don Bacon has demonstrated, there is a district there that is willing to listen, despite having voted for Kamala Harris in the last election. We have two excellent candidates, and I would put either one of them up against whoever the Democrats pick.

There are like five or six people on the Democratic side; they’re going to have a slugfest; and it’s going to be a race to the left, which is not where Nebraskans are.

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