Ed Feulner was a congressional aide to Republican Rep. Phil Crane of Illinois. One day in 1972, Feulner says, his boss was meeting with several fellow House conservatives, including Ed Derwinski of Illinois, John Rousselot of California, and Ben Blackburn of Georgia. The discussion turned to a club of liberal House members who convened weekly and called themselves the Democratic Study Group. “Look at what they’ve done in terms of making sure the Democrats in control of the House are always under pressure from the left,” one member said. “Why can’t we do this on the right?”
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He knew Republicans could not effectively battle Obama until they called an internal cease-fire. So when he met with the founders last November to ask them to nominate him for the chairmanship, Scalise posed a simple question. “As conservatives,” he asked, “how do we define victory?”

His message was straightforward: The RSC should focus less on preaching conservative values and more on passing conservative policy; it should emphasize actions over words. He ran for the chairmanship of the group against Rep. Tom Graves of Georgia (the founders’ choice) as the fiscal cliff, the debt ceiling, the sequester, and the continuing resolution all loomed, and he won by promising RSC members that he would work to secure a series of “victories,” giving House Republicans momentum and putting Senate Democrats and the White House on the defensive.

At the annual retreat in Williamsburg, after conservative leaders had come to terms with Boehner, Scalise lobbied skeptical RSC members to join the ideological armistice. In exchange for approving a temporary extension of the debt limit in January, Boehner’s leadership team would support a series of conservative policy solutions to the upcoming list of legislative challenges. Many RSC members doubted the durability of this agreement—since dubbed “the Williamsburg Accord”—but were persuaded to give Boehner one final chance to earn the trust of the conservative rank and file.

Four months later, both Boehner and Scalise have delivered. Consistent with the Kingsmill Resort compromise, the sequester cuts went into effect; the continuing resolution was passed with lower spending levels; and the House’s proposed budget would balance in 10 years. Meanwhile, thanks to the RSC-favored “No Budget, No Pay” provision attached to the debt-ceiling deal, Senate Democrats were forced to come up with their first budget in four years. “We’re not a think tank,” Scalise says. “We’re a group of 171 legislators who all came here to fight to pass conservative policy into law.”

The Republican Study Committee has, throughout its history, been ideologically pure yet often impotent to achieve legislative results. In the minority, it lacked power or numbers to drive the agenda; in the majority, it focused on infighting over policy. Now, for the first time in its 40-year history, the stars have aligned. Not only is the RSC still emphasizing ideology over partisanship—and passing conservative policy in the process—but it is also pulling the entire conference rightward. “We’re hitting our stride,” says Teller, who’s worked for the group since 2001.

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Republican Cantor to Headline Anti-Tea Party Conference Sponsored by George Soros & Unions

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