While Republicans are back home having a very unpleasant time facing angry constituents, they're facing another crisis that has the potential to make constituents even more angry at them when they return to Washington, DC, next week. That's because they'll have just a few days to pass another government funding bill or trigger a shutdown. There are plenty of issues that members could choose to draw lines in the sand over, but there's one in particular that Senate Republicans don't want to arise: a permanent fix for funding retired coal miners' health benefits. Because this fight could make a hero out of the one Democrat Republicans feel pretty optimistic about beating in 2018: Sen. Joe Manchin, the West Virginia Democrat.
The Senate has enough votes for permanently fixing miner benefits, but the House is a different story. Talk of a 20-month extension instead of a permanent fix is floating around the chamber, according to multiple sources. No one in leadership would confirm it, and the offices of neither Senate Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) nor Speaker Paul Ryan's (R-Wis.) returned requests for comment.
When asked about a possible 20-month extension, one GOP aide would only say House Republicans were "working hard for a permanent fix." […]
If Republican House leaders try to push through a government funding bill with only a 20-month extension, battle lines will be drawn by Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) in the upper chamber.
Manchin threatened to shut down the government if help for miners wasn't included in a continuing resolution last year, but conceded after McConnell and the president assured him a permanent solution would get a vote and have their support.
And you know how much promises from McConnell and the president are worth. But, Manchin isn't alone here. His West Virginia colleague Republican Sen. Shelley Moore Capito joined him in sending a letter to Ryan and McConnell pushing for a permanent fix. Both of Ohio's senators, Democrat Sherrod Brown and Republican Rob Portman would probably throw their weight behind Manchin voting against anything less than a permanent fix.
There are some 22,000 retired miners who could be losing those benefits on April 28 and no one but House maniacs want this to be a fight that Congress has to keep having for the duration of all of those miners' lives.