Cole’s bipartisan reputation gets put to the test in Trump’s partisan Washington

“We’re better off when we work together and find common ground,” he said. “I think the [appropriations committee] has a tradition of doing that. I don’t think that tradition is gone. We’ve just got to get back to our roots.”

Getting back to those roots won’t be easy. But somehow, even after the appropriations process devolved into a cascade of CRs, a spending deal that was reneged, and, finally, a partisan spending bill, Democrats told NOTUS they have hope.

The top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, Rep. Rosa DeLauro, suggested she blamed Speaker Mike Johnson, Trump and Elon Musk a lot more for the December spending deal falling apart than Cole. She said that legislation — which dissolved when Musk and some Republicans began railing against the special projects in the deal — was the product of intense negotiations between the two parties.

“Oh my gosh, heavy negotiations,” DeLauro said.

She said she’s worked “very closely” and “very, very well” with her counterpart. Ultimately, however, Trump’s grip on the conference made Cole’s work not matter all that much.

“It was hard, you know, when we were that close,” DeLauro said. “I continue to negotiate with him, but he is a good friend, and somebody who gets it.”

She said Cole doesn’t have the leeway she has to push back against the president.

Cole, for his part, said Trump is “not an insignificant player” in any negotiations on Capitol Hill — he has to sign the bill after all. But what the administration wants is not the end-all-be-all, as far as Cole is concerned.

Outside of his office last week, where the smell of cigar smoke filled the hallway, Cole held court with reporters. He talked about the tension between the president and Congress as Republicans now attempt to hammer out a reconciliation bill.

“Presidents and administrations don’t get to dictate what’s going to happen here,” Cole said. “Congress is not the Army, and the president is the president, but not the commander-in-chief of Congress.

“We’re supporting this administration, what it’s trying to do, but with all due respect to anybody, I think the members have a better understanding of what can pass and what can’t than the executive branch does,” he said.

Cole said he doesn’t think this administration has tried to dictate anything in particular, but he insisted spending bills must be “a negotiated product.”

“Leadership on both sides have to agree, and I don’t think leadership on either side was prepared to agree in December. I think that’s too bad because that was a time to make the deal,” Cole said. “Come March, clearly, we had a deal on the table, we thought, and we couldn’t quite get there. And again, I think that was pressure from leadership.”

It’s true that spending negotiations were largely taken from Cole. Republican leaders, under pressure from Trump and conservatives, seemed to think mostly extending current spending levels was the way to go. And once, somewhat miraculously, Republicans were able to advance their bill out of the House, a number of Democrats in the Senate swallowed the legislation, reasoning that it was better than a shutdown.

It wasn’t how Democrats wanted the process to play out. But Democrats also suggested they didn’t think it was how Cole wanted it to play out either.

Democratic Rep. Jim McGovern told NOTUS he respects and admires Cole, whom he worked with closely when they served as the top members of the Rules Committee for their respective parties. McGovern said Cole, “if left to his own devices,” could come up with a “decent” appropriations package. But, McGovern said, Cole isn’t steering that spending ship.

The Trump administration and the Freedom Caucus have put Cole in a “tough spot,” McGovern said.

“My fear is that he is not going to be allowed to work his will,” he added. “What we’ve seen to this point is that reasonable people like Tom Cole seem to have been kind of pushed to the sidelines.”

Yes, Democrats were unhappy with the last appropriations process. Yes, Cole oversaw the process. But Democrats don’t seem to blame him for the outcome.

While that sort of goodwill among Democrats could be a liability in the red-meat Republican conference, GOP lawmakers also suggested it was an advantage. Rep. Steve Womack, who chairs a key subcommittee on Appropriations, said Cole’s favorability in both parties is exactly what’s needed.

“He’s a very well-respected member, kind of more of an institution guy, which is what I think we need right now, in terms of being — I mean, let’s just face it, we’re in divided government. The country’s divided,” Womack told NOTUS. “Political reality is you’re going to have to have things that can attract members on both sides of the aisle for the most important work that our Congress needs to be doing, and I think Tom Cole is the ideal person to lead the effort in that regard.”

Other Republicans on the Appropriations Committee agreed.

Rep. David Valadao emphasized the “tough” political environment members are in right now. He said Cole was better positioned than anyone to be chair at the moment.

“We’re trying to reach an agreement on top-line numbers that we could actually get something to the president’s desk and be signed by the president. And [Democrats] weren’t willing to negotiate,” Valadao said. “Hopefully, moving forward, they’re willing to talk to Tom, get to top-line numbers, agree to them and start appropriations bills, but it really is going to fall on both sides to come to an agreement that can get across the desk.”

Another longtime appropriator, Rep. Mike Simpson, echoed Valadao, saying Republicans couldn’t find a better chair than Cole, “especially in these times,” with razor-thin majorities in the House and Senate.

“Leadership decided to go a different direction to do the year-long CR,” Simpson said. “It is not something that anybody on the Appropriations Committee wanted, but we had to do something, and Tom’s very good at doing that.”

“There’s not a bigger supporter of leadership in getting the job done than Tom is,” Simpson said.