McMorris Rodgers voted for trigger

U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, a Spokane Republican, is among those who voted for the 2011 budget bill that set in motion the deep, looming spending cuts that she and others are now warning could be disastrous to the nation’s military.

“Like a majority of Republicans and Democrats in both Houses, she supported the Budget Control Act, with the understanding the so-called Super Committee would find a more effective way to carry out the cuts required by the bill,” said her spokesman, Todd Winer.

That committee, whose leadership included U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., failed to deliver the bipartisan budget fix that was envisioned.

McMorris Rodgers also supported the May proposal assembled by House Republicans to blunt the extent of the military spending cuts. It died in the Senate amid partisan feuding over extending Bush-era tax cuts for households earning more than $250,000 a year.

Among the lawmakers who opposed the 2011 budget bill was U.S. Rep. Raul Labrador, a Republican from the Boise area whose congressional district stretches through the North Idaho Panhandle.

Labrador said at the time that the cuts didn’t go far enough.

In the Senate, Murray and Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., supported the 2011 measure. So did Idaho’s senators, Republicans Mike Crapo and Jim Risch.

Staff report