Congress moves past Ukraine fight
GOP finally starts releasing Jan. 6 video from inside the Capitol
Also in today’s edition of ‘Regular Order’ for April 29, 2024:
House GOP focuses on the West.
Greene resumes attacks on Speaker Johnson.
Polling shows big shift on abortion.
THIS WEEK. The House and Senate are back, but it's a short week in both chambers.
HOUSE. After a contentious last two months which saw strong bipartisan majorities in Congress approve a major foreign aid package for Israel and Ukraine, an extension of foreign intelligence surveillance laws, and two packages of government funding bills, lawmakers in the House return to work this week without much that *has* to be done before the November elections.
RESET. The first item needing attention is a reauthorization bill for the Federal Aviation Administration, which governs programs related to commercial air travel. A temporary extension runs out on May 10. The House approved its own five-year FAA plan way back in July of last year. The Senate still has not acted.
SPENDING. Other than the FAA reauthorization, the only other *must-pass* legislation would be avoiding a government shutdown on September 30 at the end of the current fiscal year. Everyone knows the House and Senate won't be able to get the 12 funding bills done by then - it hasn't happened on time since 1996.
INSTEAD. What will the House be focused on this week? It's not 'Appliance Week,' as those bills are still on the shelf. Instead, the GOP theme this week is all about the West and pesky government regulations - starting with the 'Western Economic Security Today Act of 2024.'
BILLS. The House Rules Committee today will meet to set the rules of debate for these bills focused on the West:
H.R. 3397 – Western Economic Security Today Act of 2024
H.R. 6285 – Alaska’s Right to Produce Act of 2023
H.R. 3195 – Superior National Forest Restoration Act
H.R. 2925 – Mining Regulatory Clarity Act of 2024
H.R. 615 – Protecting Access for Hunters and Anglers Act of 2023
H.R. 764 – Trust the Science Act
GRAY WOLF. What's the 'Trust the Science Act' about? Probably not what you might guess. The plan would force the feds to remove the gray wolf from the 'List of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife.' The Trump Administration took the wolf off - the Biden Administration put the wolf back on.
MRS. GREENE OF GEORGIA. The return of the House to Capitol Hill today also means a return of the ongoing GOP soap opera in the 118th Congress, as Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) spent much of Sunday teeing off again on House Speaker Mike Johnson.
MTG. "Mike Johnson has betrayed Republicans so badly, if he remains Speaker he will cost us the House majority," Greene tweeted on Sunday. "He bowed to Biden giving him everything he wanted and now no one trusts him to stop the Democrat’s destruction of America."
UKRAINE. Greene and other opponents of aid to Ukraine are still furious over the approval of new military assistance last week by Congress. "Permanent funding for Ukraine is exactly what they want and Mike Johnson will give it to them," the Georgia Republican said Sunday.
ANTI-JOHNSON. But for all of Greene's very public attacks on the Speaker, she has few public allies. "Taking out McCarthy was a bad move for sure," Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) acknowledged. "But what Johnson has done is beyond the pale," Massie said, one of the few on board with Greene. "The Ukraine-first bill was a middle finger to the United States," said Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY).
ZELENSKYY. Ukraine's leader was on the phone on Sunday with the top Democrat in the House, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), thanking him for helping with the approval of new military assistance. Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also put in a plug for more specific aid against Russian attacks.
PATRIOTS. "I also informed him about the urgent need to strengthen Ukraine's air defense with "Patriot" systems in order to protect Ukrainian cities and communities, as well as the economy and critical infrastructure, from Russian air terror," Zelenskyy said.
AIR DEFENSE. I know of one Patriot missile system which doesn't get used very much and might be available. It sits just a couple of minutes from my house, theoretically protecting Washington, D.C. from incoming air threats.
THURSDAY. The House is only working three days this week. It's a short work week in the House for a reason, as no votes will be held on Thursday to allow members to travel to New Jersey for the funeral of Rep. Donald Payne, Jr., who died last week.
WHOLE NUMBER. With the death of Payne and the resignation of Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI), the House is currently at 217 Republicans to 212 Democrats. The Democrats should add back one seat this week, with a special election on Tuesday to fill a seat in the Buffalo, New York area.
RFK JR. Recent polls have confirmed what I have long believed about the bid for President by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. - he is going to take more votes away from Donald Trump than Joe Biden. After months of claiming the opposite, Trump seems to be realizing that all of a sudden.
TRUTH SOCIAL. In a screed on his fake Twitter website, Trump unloaded on Kennedy, calling a vote for RFK Jr. a 'wasted protest vote.' "RFK Jr. is a Democrat 'Plant,'" Trump fumed. "Junior is totally Anti-Gun, an Extreme Environmentalist who makes the Green New Scammers look Conservative, a Big Time Taxer and Open Border Advocate," Trump added.
JUNIOR. Kennedy was happy to exchange barbs with Trump. "President Trump’s rant against me is a barely coherent barrage of wild and inaccurate claims.” A Quinnipiac poll out last week asked Kennedy voters who their second choice was - 47 percent said Trump. Just 29 percent said Biden.
POLLING. I wanted to take one other piece of that Quinnipiac poll and shine some light on it. It was about abortion, and really demonstrates the trouble that Republicans are having right now when it comes to the post-Roe v. Wade political environment.
ABORTION. "Support for legal abortion (66 percent) is at the highest level in two decades in the Quinnipiac University polls," the survey stated. It included some head-shaking data for the GOP.
Voters by 85 - 10 percent think abortion should be legal when the pregnancy is caused by rape or incest.
Voters by 89 - 5 percent think abortion should be legal when it is necessary to save the life of the mother.
ON THE STUMP. Abortion remains a touchstone of President Biden's campaign message out on the trail. "I’ve said many times, Trump and his MAGA crowd don’t have a clue about the power of women," Biden said at a New York fundraiser. "I have news for Trump: The voters are going to hold him accountable."
NERD PROM. For those wondering, no, I did not put on my tuxedo and head to the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Saturday night. I've never made the cut for the White House dinner - only the Congressional dinner - but it's certainly a fun time as you get to drink too much and buttonhole famous people (which can sometimes lead to trouble).
BIDEN. If you missed the President's remarks, you can watch at this link. Every President I've covered has been really good at doing standup comedy in events like this, and Biden is no different.
CASUALTY LIST. It's still not clear why Rep. Bill Posey (R-FL) suddenly announced on Friday that he would not run for reelection in November - after originally filing to be on the ballot this year. Posey has represented the Space Coast in Florida since first winning a seat in Congress in 2008.
POSEY. "We were looking forward to another spirited campaign for a final term in office," Posey said in a written statement. "However, earlier this week circumstances beyond my control now require me to suspend my re-election campaign," he added without giving any details.
NUMBERS. Posey's decision means that 45 sitting House members won't be back after the next election. 27 have retired, 17 are running for another office, and one was defeated in a primary. Of the 45, 24 are Democrats, and 21 are Republicans.
OLD TIMES. The news of his retirement immediately made me think of how Posey got mad at me in 2011, after I wrote the following paragraph about how the House GOP was struggling with a budget and debt limit crisis:
"Posey...darted his way through the Speaker's Lobby, also saying as little as possible to me for a second straight day on why he was undecided, as the Florida Republican raced back to the House floor after yet another cigarette break on the balcony outside."
CIG BREAK. What I learned - and other reporters have run into the same thing - is that members of Congress don’t like being called out for sneaking cigarettes during their work day.
JAN 6 VIDEOS. After releasing hours and hours of empty stairwells, closed doors, parking garages, telephone closets, and remote hallways, House Republicans have finally started to publicly post security video from inside the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. The story it tells is no surprise - it shows Trump supporters repeatedly attacking police and forcing lawmakers to flee.
HOUSE DOORS. One of the cameras posted last week showed security video from the doors at the top of the House steps. On Jan. 6, a handful of police officers were pinned against those doors by Trump supporters, who jabbed at them repeatedly with flagpoles and then tried to muscle them out of the way. Watch the guy in the hat in the lower right.
DOCKET. The guy in the hat is William Tryon, who once spoke at a 'Back the Blue' rally in New York. He served 50 days in jail. The guy in the black hoodie on the left is Gregory Nix of Alabama. He was sentenced to 42 months in jail for assaulting officers with a flagpole.
TRYON. Lawyers for Tryon simply lied in their final submission to the judge in his case. "At no time did the defendant...assault a police officer," they wrote - seemingly oblivious to the video of Tryon doing exactly that.
NIX. Lawyers for Nix said he was 'swept up in the chaos.’ Without using Donald Trump's name - that's who they blamed. "People such as Mr. Nix were “a pawn in the game played by people who know better," saying Nix had been 'told the election was stolen when it was not.'
ROTUNDA. The internal security video from Jan. 6 being released by House Republicans is full of Trump supporters repeatedly attacking police, often with flagpoles. This video is at 3:10 pm in the Capitol Rotunda. It is not what Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-GA) termed a 'normal tourist visit.'
RAP SHEET. An Ohio woman who posed for pictures outside the Capitol on Jan. 6 with a large "Q" sign has been found guilty of five criminal charges for her actions that day. Therese Borgerding is a QAnon follower who has given interviews saying that Democrats are holding thousands of 'mole children' underground. She'll be sentenced in August.
MUSE OF HISTORY. April 29, 1888. On this date, Sen. George Hoar of Massachusetts had a simple plea - make it easier to figure out when the House and Senate meet next. "It is always declared by the Chair," Hoar said, "but on Friday if you want to know whether the Senate or House will be in session on Saturday there is no way of ascertaining but by searching through the entire proceedings." The Senate asked the official reporters to note those times in the Congressional Record.
LEGISLATIVE PROGRAM:
The House convenes at 12 noon.
The Senate is back on Tuesday.
Check President Biden’s schedule.
Follow me on Twitter @jamiedupree.
Email me at jamiedupree@substack.com
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Any chance that you can leave the word “Georgia” out when speaking of MTG? Many of would like to keep that fact out of the news as much as possible 🙄
I’ve always found all the Dem handwringing over Kennedy’s campaign to be odd. His platform and policy positions (if you can call them that) seem designed to court “Never Trump” voters and/or armchair conspiracy theorists. It’s weird this is just now dawning on 45.