Congress remains stuck in neutral
No shutdown as lawmakers postpone funding deadlines
Also in today’s edition of ‘Regular Order’ for March 1, 2024:
Democrats again provide the key votes in the House.
Trump casts shadow over new Senate GOP Leader.
5,000 hours of Jan. 6 tapes due out today.
DO NOTHING CONGRESS. As I sit here typing away in the attic of the U.S. Senate, I can't help but think about how much time has been wasted in this Congress. Little has changed since late September. Government funding bills still aren’t finished. Aid for Ukraine and Israel remains in limbo. Evidently, nothing is going to get done about the border - despite it being a top election year concern. Lawmakers lurch from shutdown deadline to shutdown deadline. We'll do it again next week. And probably again two weeks after that.
BORDER. The only real achievement since Labor Day was the bipartisan Senate border security deal, which Senate Republicans filibustered, and House Republicans refused to consider. Meanwhile, a House-passed GOP border bill (H.R. 2) won only 32 votes last night in the Senate.
OUTLOOK. “At this point, I’m hearing most folks just say we should do nothing,” said Sen. James Lankford (R-OK), who failed to convince his GOP colleagues to accept a bipartisan border agreement.
LAWS. While Lankford says President Biden can fix many things unilaterally about the border, the Oklahoma Republican argues only Congress can pass laws to spend more money, add extra border agents, and change asylum policies.
BIDEN. At the border in Texas yesterday, President Biden made that exact point. “They desperately need more resources,” Biden said of border agents. “We could answer that with our bipartisan border security deal.”
HOUSE. There was no sense of urgency from Republicans on anything as the House left town yesterday - after a very brief two-day work week. The House had 13 days off, worked two short days, and now isn’t due back again until Tuesday.
REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK. None of this is normal.
STOPGAP. The House and Senate kicked the can again on government funding yesterday, setting new government shutdown deadlines of March 8 and March 22 - giving lawmakers extra time to finally complete a dozen annual spending bills in the next three weeks. The House voted 320-99 for the temporary funding plan. The Senate followed with a vote of 77 to 13.
VOTES. It was the fourth time in five months that House Democrats had provided the votes to keep the government running: September 30, November 14, January 18, and now February 29. Democrats will probably do the same later this month to pass the 12 government funding bills.
JEFFRIES. "Once again, Democrats have demonstrated our willingness to work together, do the right thing by the American people and provide the overwhelming majority of votes necessary to get things done," said their House leader, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY).
DEBATE. There were a lot of grumpy Republicans. "We all promised we wouldn't do this crap when we got up here," said Rep. Eric Burlison (R-MO). "Last I checked, the Republicans actually have a majority in the House of Representatives," said Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), “but you wouldn't know it.”
NEXT WEEK. Six of the 12 government funding bills are expected on the House floor next week - maybe rolled up into one larger bill. That prospect didn't sit well with some GOP lawmakers. "Gone is any semblance of regular order from this process," fumed Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY).
MARCH. Today is March 1, which means Congress is now five months into the new fiscal year, and still hasn't finished the FY 2024 bills. "We are too late in the cycle to be doing what we're doing, although it's better late than never," said Rep. Steve Womack (R-AR), who chairs a House spending subcommittee.
SUNDAY SUNDAY SUNDAY. We were told to expect the text of six funding bills to be released on Sunday night. Then again, we were told to watch for legislative text last Sunday - and it didn’t happen.
SENATE LEADER. I told you yesterday that I thought the biggest wild card in the race to replace Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell would be former President Donald Trump. And that already seems to be playing out within Republican circles, which is certainly a major departure from historic norms in the Senate.
TRUMP. Asked about the Senate GOP race on Thursday, Trump made clear he's hearing about it. "A lot of people are calling me to ‘politic’ for that particular job," Trump said, refusing to tip his hand about whom he might support. "It's all going to work out - we're going to have a great leader."
THUNE. Trump is certainly getting mentioned here on Capitol Hill. Sen. John Thune (R-SD), the GOP Whip in the Senate, endorsed Trump after his primary win last Saturday in South Carolina. "I worked closely with him when he was President last time," Thune told reporters.
CORNYN. "I helped President Trump advance his agenda through the Senate," Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) noted in a statement announcing his bid for GOP Leader. Both Cornyn and Thune would be solid leaders - but I'm just not sure they are 'MAGA' guys for Trump.
OTHERS. The talk in the hallways yesterday was that Trump had been pushing Sen. Steve Daines of Montana to run for GOP leader - Daines is already in charge of Senate GOP election efforts. Another name getting attention was Sen. Bill Hagerty of Tennessee, who served as Trump's Ambassador to Japan.
HOUSE. Trump already put his thumb on the scale over who the GOP selected for Speaker of the House last October - remember how he deep-sixed Rep. Tom Emmer (R-MN)? So, it’s really not a stretch to see him doing the same in the Senate.
OLD DAYS. But that’s a big change from the past. “Senators really, really don’t like outsiders interfering in their internal affairs,” said Jim Manley, once a top aide for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. That’s true. But Manley knows this is not the Senate of our youth.
GOP. Donald Trump has a grip on the House and Senate GOP which defies explanation. He already said he couldn’t work with McConnell. It seems hard to believe he will let Senate Republicans pick a leader who might be like McConnell.
MEETING. Last night a group of 10 GOP Senators called for a special meeting later this month on the process to replace McConnell: Senators Johnson, Tuberville, Marshall, Vance, Hawley, Lee, Rubio, Risch, Braun, and Scott of Florida.
TRUMP LEGAL. A day after the U.S. Supreme Court put the brakes on Donald Trump's Jan. 6 trial, Special Counsel Jack Smith asked a federal judge in Florida to set Trump's trial on classified documents found at his Mar-a-Lago estate for July 8.
REPLY. As you might imagine, that trial date was much different than the schedule proposed by Trump's lawyers. They argued again that 'a fair trial cannot be held until after the 2024 Presidential election is concluded.'
BRIEF. "As the leading candidate in the 2024 election, President Trump strongly asserts that a fair trial cannot be conducted this year in a manner consistent with the Constitution," his lawyers wrote.
SCHEDULE. To drive home that point, Trump's brief lists every single primary and caucus - alongside of a variety of legal deadlines in his classified documents case. You can read that brief at this link.
REGULAR ORDER. Welcome to our new subscribers. This may be the craziest political year yet - and you may as well have an insider's view of what’s happening (or in this case, what’s not happening).
SECDEF. It was not a good day to be the Secretary of Defense, as Lloyd Austin took it on the chin at a House hearing from Republicans about his secret hospital stay earlier this year. "Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin’s blatant negligence of communication is unacceptable," said Rep. Mark Alford (R-MO).
AUSTIN. "We did not handle this right, and I did not handle this right," Austin said in his opening statement to lawmakers. "I should have told the President and my team about my cancer diagnosis. And I take full responsibility."
FLAK. "The Commander in Chief did not know that his Secretary of Defense was out of action," said Rep. Mike Rogers (R-AL), as Republicans on the Armed Services Committee pummeled Austin repeatedly.
COUNTER. With Republicans blasting Austin, Democrats decided to try to change the subject at the hearing - criticizing the GOP for not holding a House vote on more aid to Ukraine. "The biggest failure we should be talking about is the failure to support Ukraine," said Rep. Chrissy Houlahan (D-PA).
UKRAINE. At a news conference on Thursday, House Speaker Mike Johnson gave no hints on if, or when, a vote would be held on extra aid for Ukraine - again making it clear he wants action first on border security. "If we're going to fix everything around the world, we got to fix America first," the Speaker told reporters.
BIDEN. While Johnson held off on action, the White House again pressed him to move. "Every day that House Republicans refuse to hold a vote on the bipartisan National Security Supplemental, the consequences for Ukraine grow more severe," the President said late on Thursday.
TACTICS. I want to emphasize something. When it comes to Ukraine, Democrats are not all on the same page. Most simply want the Speaker to set a House vote on that Senate-passed aid package - but others are backing a compromise, which adds in elements of border security.
BIPARTISAN. "Our bipartisan bill to secure the border and arm Ukraine is the only bipartisan vehicle moving in the House," said Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-WA). A discharge petition for that plan could start getting signatures next week - but it's not clear if it will ultimately lead to a vote.
IVF. Republicans in Congress continued on Thursday to do a bit of a dance over the issue of in vitro fertilization, after IVF treatments were thrust into legal limbo in Alabama, following a state Supreme Court ruling last week. Democrats said all they were hearing was a GOP word salad.
SPEAKER. "I support IVF and its availability," Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters, not mentioning his bill - the 'Life at Conception Act' - which doesn't ban IVF, but does give legal protections to 'preborn' humans. That would seemingly include frozen embryos created using the IVF process.
CAMPAIGN. Democrats meanwhile continued to hammer the GOP about IVF and abortion. "Make no mistake, the outrageous Alabama IVF ruling is a direct result of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade in 2022," said Rep. Joe Courtney (D-CT).
POST-ROE. This Alabama IVF mess was yet another example of how the GOP has been put on the defensive over reproductive health matters. And Republicans still don't really have any answers - as Democrats just stay on the attack. That's my column this week for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
HUNTER BIDEN. A day after his closed-door deposition before two different House committees, Republicans released a 229-page transcript of the proceedings involving Hunter Biden. You can leaf through it online at this link.
TRANSCRIPT. The takeaways from GOP lawmakers were not a surprise. "Hunter and the Bidens can’t stop lying," said Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), after the transcript was made public. "Hunter Biden said he didn't recall dropping off a laptop at a Delaware repair shop," added Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH).
NO FIRE. Democrats rolled their eyes at what they charge is nothing but a political attack on the President's son and family. "I was in the room for Hunter Biden’s deposition," said Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL). "This investigation is going nowhere."
BIG GUY. "Was that his nickname in your family, the big guy?" asked Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD). "No, I never called him that," answered Hunter Biden.
STATE OF THE UNION. One of the new Republican faces in the U.S. Senate, Sen. Katie Britt (R-AL), will give the official GOP response next week to President Biden’s State of the Union Address on March 7. In part, it's an effort by Republicans to highlight the President's age.
SPEAKER. "The American people will tune in as the youngest Republican woman ever elected to the Senate turns the page on the oldest President in history," said House Speaker Mike Johnson. Britt is 42. Biden is 81. Biden was elected to the Senate in 1972. Britt was born in 1982.
JAN. 6 TAPES. After radio silence for the past five weeks, House Republicans will finally release more internal U.S. Capitol security tapes from Jan. 6 today. Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-GA) told me that about 5,000 hours of material will be made public.
LOTS OF POPCORN. How long would it take to watch 5,000 hours of security tapes? If you watched 10 hours a day - that would take 500 days. If you watched 24 hours a day, that’s only 208 days.
RAP SHEET. A Michigan man has been sentenced to 40 months in prison for assaulting police on Jan. 6. By the entrance to the Lowest West Terrace Tunnel, Michael Foy threw a metal pole that hit one cop, and then used a hockey stick to strike other officers at least 11 times.
MUSE OF HISTORY. March 1, 1974. The Watergate scandal exploded on this date, as a federal grand jury indicted a series of top aides to President Nixon. The grand jury also gave Judge John Sirica a sealed report on Watergate, plus a briefcase stuffed with documents - and asked that it be handed over to the House Judiciary Committee's impeachment investigation. That is what’s known as the Watergate ‘Road Map.’
LEGISLATIVE PROGRAM:
The House is back on Tuesday.
The Senate returns on Monday.
Check President Biden’s schedule.
Follow me on Twitter @jamiedupree.
Email me at jamiedupree@substack.com
If you want to say ‘thanks’ - you can buy me a cup of coffee.
The House is soon going to be in 2025 budget territory. They might as well make a carbon copy of what they finally pass and make it the following year's budget, too. 🙄
I, for one, am looking forward to speaker Hakeem Jeffries after the next election. He seems to have his act together.
I'm so exhausted with Congress. Austin said he f'ed up. Ok, move on... but no, the members have to grandstand. Both parties are guilty of this.