GOP tries to salvage foreign surveillance bill

Next week is evidently ‘Appliance Week’ in the House.

Also in today’s edition of ‘Regular Order’ for April 12, 2024:

• Top General: US has a ‘long-term’ Russia problem.

• Speaker Johnson to meet with Trump.

• The ‘Yabba-Dabba-Do’ speech to Congress.

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HOUSE GOP. Two days after a group of GOP rebels derailed a bill to reform foreign intelligence surveillance laws, House Republican leaders will try today to rescue their work week - hoping to avoid yet another embarrassing legislative setback on Capitol Hill. The House will convene at 8 am to start work on a revised FISA bill - the fourth attempt by the GOP to pass this legislation.

• FISA. Searching for GOP votes, House leaders agreed to shorten the renewal of certain surveillance authorities to just two years instead of five years in the original bill. "This might be enough to garner support from those of us concerned about abuses of FISA," said Rep. John Rose (R-TN).

• DEMS. "I like five years better, but look, we've got to reauthorize the program," said Rep. Jim Himes (D-CT), the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee. "It can't be switched off," Himes said of the FISA powers. "It is our single most important collection tool."

• RULE VOTE. 19 GOP lawmakers broke ranks to defeat the FISA rule on Wednesday. It wasn't clear last night if this deal would satisfy all nineteen or not. Republicans have such a thin majority that any defections could spell defeat.

AMENDMENT. If Republicans can get the bill up for debate, then the key vote on the House floor will be on an amendment offered by Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ), which would require a warrant for certain surveillance requests which touch on data gathered on U.S. persons. That's opposed by both the FBI and the White House. "Get a warrant," Biggs said.

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PEANUT GALLERY. Democrats on Thursday were more than happy to take the opportunity to mock the Republicans over their continuing legislative troubles, which have repeatedly sidetracked major bills in the 118th Congress. "These guys are so bad at legislating, they're even bad at not legislating," said Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA). "They're incompetent."

• SCHEDULE. Just wait until Democrats get a look at the legislative schedule for next week. If they were hoping to see a bill about aid for Ukraine on the list, that’s not there at this point. Instead, the agenda looks more like a trip into the appliance section of an old Sears department store.

• NOT JUST HOOHAA. These bills are real. They will go before the House Rules Committee next Monday:

• H.R. 6192 – Hands Off Our Home Appliances Act

• H.R. 7673 – Liberty in Laundry Act

• H.R. 7645 – Clothes Dryers Reliability Act

• H.R. 7637 – Refrigerator Freedom Act

• H.R. 7626 – Affordable Air Conditioning Act

• H.R. 7700 – Stop Unaffordable Dishwasher Standards Act

BILLS. "Sadly this is not a joke," Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA) said last night. "The House GOP is more focused on household appliances than supporting our Ukrainian allies in their fight for freedom and to defeat Putin's army."

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MAR-A-LAGO. House Speaker Mike Johnson is expected to meet later today with former President Donald Trump at his Florida estate. The visit comes as Johnson has refused to move forward on aid for Ukraine, as Trump continues to exert an outsized influence on the GOP agenda in Congress.

• VOTING. Reports indicate that Johnson and Trump will use their meeting to voice their support for legislation to ban illegal immigrants from voting - even though that's already the law.

• LAW. "It shall be unlawful for any alien to vote in any election held solely or in part for the purpose of electing a candidate for the office of President, Vice President, Presidential elector, Member of the Senate, Member of the House of Representatives," states the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996.

MESSAGING. It's no surprise that the parties would bring up bills in Congress for messaging purposes in an election year. But the House GOP is doing a lot of that, with non-binding measures on immigration, Israel, and other matters. We've seen that the GOP House is not about making laws.

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UKRAINE. There was no discernible public progress this week when it comes to the fate of a Senate-passed aid bill for Ukraine, which has been on hold now for months, as House Speaker Mike Johnson refuses to schedule a vote. Will that finally change next week? It's not clear.

• DEMS. This week, the calls continued for the Speaker to just allow the vote. "Enough with the delays, the obstruction, the gamesmanship," said House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries on Thursday. "The House should quit stalling," added Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.

• DISCHARGE. Meanwhile, three more House Democrats signed onto a special discharge petition on Thursday, which would force a House vote on that Senate-passed aid bill. There are now 194 signatures - but 24 are still needed to get to 218. Many of them would have to be Republicans.

• VACATE. Democrats continue to float the idea that if Speaker Johnson allows a vote on aid for Ukraine, then they would step up to protect the Speaker from any GOP effort to boot him out. "If the Speaker were to do the right thing," Jeffries told reporters, "there are a number of Democrats who would not want to see the Speaker fall."

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EUCOM. In a Senate hearing on Thursday, the top U.S. military commander in Europe had a blunt assessment about the Russian invasion of Ukraine. "It is clear that we have a long-term 'Russia problem,' and the war in Ukraine is but an example," said Army Gen. Christopher Cavoli.

• AID. Cavoli told Senators that there is no way the West can expect Ukraine to defeat Russia without outside help. "Ukraine cannot sustain this fight alone," Cavoli testified. "The United States, our allies, and partners must continue to provide Ukraine with munitions, weapons, and materiel."

• RED ARMY. The General had one warning. "The Russian military in the past year has shown an accelerating ability to learn and adapt to battlefield challenges both tactically and technologically, and has become a learning organization that little resembles the chaotic force that invaded Ukraine two years ago."

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MAYORKAS. Frustrated that Democrats are seemingly ready to cut short the impeachment trial of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, GOP Senators vented their frustration yesterday by forcing a pair of unusual procedural votes on the Senate floor. But it didn't stop Senators from heading to the airport before 3 pm.

• VOTES. First, Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) forced the Senate to vote on a motion to proceed to Executive Session, in order to put a nomination in the pipeline. Then, Republicans forced a vote on the Senate going into recess until Monday at 3 pm. Usually those would be done by unanimous consent.

• SAND IN THE GEARS. Can Republicans slow things down in the Senate this way? Sure they can. You don't have to be a rules expert to find ways to cause problems for the majority.

• SAD TROMBONE. GOP Senators have also filed special notices that they will try to temporarily change the Senate's rules - just for the Mayorkas impeachment trial - to prevent Democrats from using the 'motion to table' to kill the two charges against Mayorkas. But that needs a two-thirds supermajority vote.

TRIAL. Look for the Mayorkas articles to finally get from the House to the Senate on Tuesday. That should mean the trial wraps up on Wednesday, after a bunch of wrangling on the Senate floor. Chances are many more people will be watching for the latest on Donald Trump’s trial in New York.

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THREATS. In the wake of a violent incident earlier this month outside of the Atlanta FBI Field Office, FBI Director Christopher Wray told lawmakers on Thursday that his agents are seeing more and more danger signs. "We have seen a substantial jump in threats towards FBI personnel and facilities," Wray said.

• CUTS. In his testimony, Wray registered his frustration with budget cuts forced on the FBI by Congressional Republicans. "Candidly, this could not come at a worse time," said Wray, as he described 'an uptick in violence against law enforcement.'

• FISA. The FBI Director spent much of the hearing sparring with GOP lawmakers over foreign intelligence surveillance practices. Republicans repeatedly accused the FBI of doing 'an end run around the Fourth Amendment,' a charge that Wray rejected.

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TAX BILL. The Senate went home this week without addressing a bipartisan House-passed tax cut package, which seems to have run out of gas, as Republicans have moved the goalposts several times on what they would accept in order to pass an actual law.

• WYDEN. "Somehow, there are some senators who think you can just wait on this," said Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), who chairs the Senate's tax-writing Finance Committee. Wyden has tried repeatedly to get Sen. Mike Crapo (R-ID) to agree to changes in the House bill - but it's been like nailing Jello to the wall.

• FAIRTAX. With the April 15 tax deadline coming on Monday, this is a good time to check in on an old tax reform favorite in the GOP - the FairTax. While it got a lot of attention last year, Republicans still haven't held a vote on it. It's the same old song and dance. That's my column in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

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JAPANESE PM. I know the speech to Congress of Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida covered a lot of important subjects. But it also might be remembered as the 'Yabba-Dabba-Do' speech for all time, as Kishida recounted watching American television programs as a child.

• BAM BAM. "I remember things that were strange and funny to a little Japanese boy, like watching the 'Flintstones,'" Kishida said to chuckles. "I still miss that show. Although, I could never translate 'Yabba-Dabba-Do.'"

• BETA CAPSULE. Kishida's story made me think. About the same time he was watching Fred and Barney, I was watching 'Ultraman,' a Japanese sci-fi program which featured some of the worst English dubbing imaginable.

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OLD HOME WEEK. A familiar voice returned to Capitol Hill on Thursday to testify about the 2017 Trump tax cuts. Phil Gramm, a former Congressman and Senator from Texas gave that law a full endorsement. "The biggest beneficiary in terms of income earners was the bottom 20 percent," Gramm said in his familiar syrupy drawl.

• REAGAN. I remember when Gramm was a Democrat, and he broke ranks to vote for the Reagan tax and budget plans in 1981. He took a lot of flak and finally switched to the GOP in 1983. In fact, Gramm resigned his seat and ran in the special election as a Republican - winning easily.

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RAP SHEET. A Kentucky man now faces six criminal charges for his actions on Jan. 6. Wrapped in a blue 'Trump' flag, Daniel Harrington was seen on video stealing various items from the office suite of Speaker Nancy Pelosi - including a stapler, tape dispenser, a pair of scissors, and coasters - which he lugged out of the building.

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MUSE OF HISTORY.  April 12, 1864.  On this date, the House debated whether to expel Rep. Alexander Long of Ohio, who had angered lawmakers with a House floor speech condemning President Lincoln, the Emancipation Proclamation, and the Civil War.  "Can the Union be restored by war?" Long said.  "I answer most unhesitatingly and deliberately no, never; war is final, eternal separation."  Long was ultimately censured for his remarks.

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LEGISLATIVE PROGRAM:

The House convenes at 8 am.

The Senate is back on Monday.

Check President Biden’s schedule.

Follow me on Twitter @jamiedupree.

Email me at jamiedupree@substack.com

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