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Post by Webster on Nov 28, 2023 15:14:15 GMT -5
note: past 118th Congress threads: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3(The Guardian) House Democrats call up George Santos expulsion resolution, force vote within 48 hoursTwo House Democratic lawmakers have moved to force a vote within 48 hours on a resolution to expel Republican congressman and admitted fabulist George Santos from the chamber. California’s Robert Garcia introduced the resolution earlier this year, and together with New York’s Dan Goldman have called it up as a privileged resolution, meaning it must be voted on within the next two days. While it will need a two-thirds majority vote of the chamber to pass, momentum to oust Santos has increased in the past weeks following the release of an ethics committee report that found “grave and pervasive campaign finance violations and fraudulent activity” by the New York Republican. “The time has finally come to remove George Santos from Congress. If we’re going to restore faith in government, we must start with restoring integrity in the U.S. House of Representatives,” Garcia said in a statement. Added Goldman: “George Santos is an admitted liar, fraud, and cheat, and the recent Ethics Committee report confirms what we’ve long known: George Santos is wholly unfit for public office.”
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Post by Webster on Nov 29, 2023 15:15:29 GMT -5
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Post by Webster on Nov 29, 2023 15:16:27 GMT -5
(The Guardian) House Democratic whip Katherine Clark’s office has sent its members notice of what legislation the chamber will be voting on today, and the George Santos expulsion resolution is not mentioned. That could change if the House Republican leadership decides to bring the proposal up for a vote today. They still have time – the privileged motion called up by two Democratic lawmakers has until tomorrow to be voted on. There is also a chance the GOP will instead decide to vote on a separate expulsion resolution introduced by Republican Michael Guest, the chair of the ethics committee.
Politico reports that Republican speaker of the House Mike Johnson will not whip the expulsion vote against George Santos – meaning lawmakers won’t be feeling formal pressure from leadership as they decide whether to remove the New York lawmaker from office.
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Post by Webster on Nov 29, 2023 15:18:21 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Speaker Johnson says House will vote on Santos expulsion on ThursdayRepublican House speaker Mike Johnson said the chamber will vote on whether to expel George Santos on Thursday, and he is leaving it up to lawmakers to decide whether the New York congressman should be removed from office for embellishing his résumé and allegedly breaking federal law. “What we’ve said as the leadership team is we’re going to allow people to vote their conscience. I think it’s the only appropriate thing we can do. We’ve not whipped the vote and we wouldn’t. I trust that people will make that decision thoughtfully and in good faith,” Johnson told reporters. “I personally have real reservations about doing this, I’m concerned about a precedent that may be set for that. So, everybody’s working through that and we’ll see how they vote tomorrow.”
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Post by Webster on Nov 29, 2023 15:19:16 GMT -5
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Post by Webster on Nov 29, 2023 15:20:24 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Rightwing congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene again proposes impeaching DHS secretary MayorkasOn the House floor, Marjorie Taylor Greene, a leader of the far-right GOP bloc, again proposed impeaching Alejandro Mayorkas for his handling of security at the southern border and the inflow of migrants into the United States: Republicans have made Mayorkas into the public face of what they call the “Biden Border Crisis”, and earlier this year were mulling impeaching the secretary. However, impeachments of cabinet secretaries are exceedingly rare – the last time one happened was 1876 – and party leaders appear to be focusing instead on their slow-moving impeachment inquiry of Biden for alleged and thus far unproved corruption. Last month, a small group of Republicans joined with Democrats to halt an earlier attempt by Greene to impeach Mayorkas, who would likely be acquitted in the Democratic-controlled Senate anyway. Tom McClintock, one of the eight GOP lawmakers who opposed the attempt, said he did so because it could backfire on the party: If Greene is successful in redefining impeachment, then the next time Democrats have the majority, we can expect this new definition to be turned against the conservatives on the Supreme Court and any future Republican administration. And there will be nobody to stop them, because Republicans will have signed off on this new and unconstitutional abuse of power.
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Post by Webster on Nov 30, 2023 15:59:10 GMT -5
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Post by Webster on Dec 4, 2023 15:36:17 GMT -5
(The Guardian) GOP wants border concessions in return for Israel and Ukraine aidFor Congress to pass their aid package for Israel and Ukraine, the White House will need to convince the Republicans who control the House and make up a sizable minority in the Senate. In return for their support, the GOP has demanded changes to US border policies that they argue are necessary to deal with the large volume of people entering the country from Mexico. The two parties have been negotiating in the Senate to reach a compromise on their demands, but Punchbowl News reports those talks have broken down: It’s unclear what will happen next. It’s possible the negotiations could resume again, or that the two parties could break up the request made by Joe Biden and approve aid for Israel and Ukraine individually.
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Post by Webster on Dec 4, 2023 15:39:13 GMT -5
(The Guardian) According to Punchbowl News, the key point of contention in negotiations over a deal to approve aid to Ukraine and Israel was Republicans’ insistence on passing parts of their immigration plan. Earlier this year, the Republican-controlled House approved the Secure the Border Act, which would, among other things, crack down on asylum seekers by limiting their ability to remain in the United States after making their claim for refuge. It would also force the Biden administration to restart construction of the border wall Donald Trump championed. The border wall is a nonstarter among Democrats, and many in the party also oppose changes to the asylum system. The White House already threatened to veto the bill, saying it “does nothing to address the root causes of migration, reduces humanitarian protections, and restricts lawful pathways, which are critical alternatives to unlawful entry.” Punchbowl reports that the GOP nonetheless made approval of its provisions a condition of supporting a combined Israel and Ukraine aid package, causing negotiations to reach a stalemate.
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Post by Webster on Dec 4, 2023 15:56:44 GMT -5
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Post by Webster on Dec 5, 2023 15:30:05 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Ukraine's Zelenskiy to press Senate on resolving military aid logjamCongress has for months been deadlocked on approving new military aid for Ukraine, and this afternoon, the country’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy will remotely address senators at 3pm eastern time to remind them of the stakes. The White House yesterday warned that it is weeks away from running out of money to support Kyiv’s defense against Russia’s invasion, and in addition to Zelenskiy’s speech to senators, his chief of staff Andriy Yermak will be in the capitol to press lawmakers to keep up the support. Part of the reason that Congress has not approved more aid to Ukraine is that Republicans are insisting any new funding is coupled with changes to border policy that are intended to address the surge in migrants entering the country. Immigration policy is one of the most divisive issues in Washington DC, and much of what the GOP has demanded, such as restarting construction of a border wall, or changing asylum policies to let fewer people remain in the country while their case is hear, are unpalatable to Democrats. Negotiations between the two sides reportedly broke down over the weekend, and it’s unclear if they are back on. Senators snipe at each other after negotiations over border security break down, imperiling Ukraine aidFollowing reports that talks to approve a new tranche of aid for Ukraine alongside tighter border security measures had broken down, senators took to X to complain about the other sides’ negotiating tactics. The GOP is demanding tougher immigration policies in exchange for its votes to approve more military aid to Kyiv, but much of what they are demanding is unpalatable to Democrats, and the two sides reportedly stopped talking last week. Chris Murphy, a Democratic senator from Connecticut, complained that the GOP was not interested in reaching a compromise: Independent Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona chimed in to come complain about leaks coming out of the negotiations:
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Post by Webster on Dec 5, 2023 15:31:16 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Further complicating the negotiations to approve more aid to Ukraine is the fact that Joe Biden has simultaneously requested Congress approve a military aid package for Israel to help it respond to Hamas’s 7 October terror attack. While the president envisioned a large foreign aid package encompassing the assistance to both countries as well as some additional funds for border security, Republicans in the House responded by approving only the aid to Israel while cutting funding to the IRS tax authority. Democrats rejected that proposal, kicking off the negotiations on trying to find a bipartisan compromise on the more stringent immigration measures Republicans want, which appear to have stalled. From October, here’s the Guardian’s David Smith on the proposal Biden made, which is at the center of the mess in Congress: Joe Biden has drawn a direct, provocative link between Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Hamas’s attack on Israel as he urged Americans not to walk away from their role as “a beacon to the world”.
In only the second Oval Office address of his presidency, Biden said he would ask Congress to provide aid for both Israel and Ukraine and denounced the scourge of antisemitism and Islamophobia at home.
The president’s 15-minute address sought to weave the Ukraine and Middle East conflicts together to convince war-weary voters and hardline Republicans of America’s obligations. It is a conflation that will make some uneasy, especially as Israel, with vastly superior military power, prepares for a ground invasion of Gaza.
“Hamas and Putin represent different threats, but they share this in common: they both want to completely annihilate a neighboring democracy,” said Biden, sitting at the Resolute desk with flags, family photos, gold curtains and a darkened window behind him.
The duelling crises are providing a daunting diplomatic test for the former chairman of the Senate foreign relations committee who, at 80, is older than the state of Israel itself. That did not prevent him making a whirlwind trip to the country on Wednesday.
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Post by Webster on Dec 5, 2023 15:32:25 GMT -5
(The Guardian) The negotiations over a new aid package for Ukraine are now up in the air, and there’s no telling how they may be resolved. For an idea of how we got here, here’s the Guardian’s Joan E Greve with a look at what is at stake in the talks, and how their resolution could affect Kyiv’s ability to defend against Russia’s invasion: The White House issued an urgent warning to Congress on Monday, predicting that Ukraine will soon lose ground in its war against Russia without another infusion of financial aid from the US.
“I want to be clear: without congressional action, by the end of the year we will run out of resources to procure more weapons and equipment for Ukraine and to provide equipment from US military stocks,” Shalanda Young, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, wrote in her letter to congressional leaders.
“There is no magical pot of funding available to meet this moment. We are out of money – and nearly out of time.”
In October, the White House asked Congress to approve a $106bn supplemental funding bill that would provide assistance to Ukraine, Israel and allies in the Indo-Pacific while also strengthening border security. However, bipartisan negotiations over that bill have now stalled.
Although previous funding packages for Ukraine have won widespread bipartisan support in Congress, the issue has become increasingly contentious in the Republican-controlled House.
Given hard-right Republicans’ entrenched opposition to additional Ukraine aid, the new Republican House speaker, Mike Johnson, must walk a fine line in his negotiations with the Senate.
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Post by Webster on Dec 5, 2023 15:33:18 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Republican House speaker Johnson doubles down on demand for border security deal in exchange for Ukraine aidIn a letter to the White House sent today, Republican House speaker Mike Johnson said he would not support further military aid to Ukraine unless the White House agrees to tighten border security. While Johnson does not specify which policies he wants to see enacted, he refers to the Secure the Border Act, which would require construction of a wall on the border with Mexico first proposed by Donald Trump to be restarted, and limit the ability of asylum seekers to stay in the United States – all proposals Democrats and the Biden administration opppose. “Supplemental Ukraine funding is dependent upon enactment of transformative change to our nation’s border security laws,” Johnson writes in the letter to top White House budget official Shalanda Young, adding that he first informed her of these demands in late October. “The open U.S. border is an unconscionable and unsustainable catastrophe, and we have a moral responsibility to insist this madness stops immediately,” Johnson continued. “Rather than engaging with Congressional Republicans to discuss logical reforms, the Biden Administration has ignored reality, choosing instead to engage in political posturing. We stand ready and willing to work with the Administration on a robust border security package that protects the interests of the American people.”
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Post by Webster on Dec 5, 2023 15:43:30 GMT -5
(The Guardian) The tone of Mike Johnson’s letter is generally bad news for the White House’s effort to convince Congress to approve a bill that includes both aid to Ukraine and Israel as well as some new border security funds without the hardline measures Republicans want. Johnson starts off by saying that the House has already approved aid to Israel, and notes, “Senate Democrats, however, have refused to consider the measure”. But Democrats oppose the bill because it offsets the aid with budget cuts to the IRS tax authority, which the party will not support. He then brings up the Secure the Border act, which the GOP-controlled House has approved but, like the Israel aid bill, is full of provisions Democrats will never get behind. “Senate Democrats have refused to act on that bill,” Johnson says. But while cutting the IRS’s budget appears off the table, the GOP is pressing on with trying to get Democrats to agree to at least part of the Secure the Border Act in exchange for new Ukraine aid. Talks on doing that have stalled. Even if Johnson does eventually green-light a deal for aid to Kyiv, he makes clear he will do so skeptically. “Congress and the American people must be provided with answers to our repeated questions concerning: the Administration’s strategy to prevail in Ukraine; clearly defined and obtainable objectives; transparency and accountability for U.S. taxpayer dollars invested there; and what specific resources are required to achieve victory and a sustainable peace,” the speaker writes.
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