House easily approves aid for Israel, Ukraine
Speaker's legislative gamble pays off with big wins
Also in today’s edition of ‘Regular Order’ for April 21, 2024:
Marjorie Taylor Greene doesn’t pull the trigger.
Senate to vote next week on aid bills.
Congress on collision course with TikTok.
FOREIGN AID. After all of the outrage, after all of the threats from Republicans to depose their own Speaker of the House, after all of the delays by GOP leaders - the fate of a major foreign aid package was never in doubt on Saturday in the U.S. House, as strong bipartisan majorities approved a $95 billion plan to send military assistance to Israel, Ukraine, and Taiwan.
VOTES. There were four bills in the package put before the House by the Speaker - all of them received more than 300 votes on Saturday.
SPEAKER. "The House has worked its will," Speaker Johnson told reporters after the votes had ended, as he defended his support for extra military support to Ukraine. "It's an old military adage, but we would rather send bullets to the conflict overseas than our own boys, our troops, and I think this is an important moment and important opportunity to make that decision."
BIDEN. At the White House, President Biden thanked lawmakers in both parties. "At this critical inflection point, they came together to answer history’s call, passing urgently-needed national security legislation that I have fought for months to secure," the President said.
KYIV. The leader of Ukraine was watching as well. "I am grateful to the United States House of Representatives, both parties, and personally Speaker Mike Johnson for the decision that keeps history on the right track," said President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
SENATE. Next stop for this package is the Senate, and a first procedural vote is expected there on Tuesday afternoon. “I applaud the House for stepping up,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. “Our allies across the world have been waiting for this moment, and I assure them the Senate is on the path to pass the same bill soon.”
GAMBIT. Let's be honest, when the Speaker announced this foreign aid plan last Monday, it wasn’t clear if he could win. But by the end of week, Johnson not only prevailed, but with large majorities on all four of the bills he brought to the floor. Even though he needed a lot of help from Democrats, it was a big victory for him, and one which might shore up his standing with some in the GOP.
PRAISE. Key Republicans saluted the Speaker for not listening to the loud voices inside the GOP opposed to help for Ukraine. "He showed true leadership by what he did. It took a lot of guts," said Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX). "He knows that if we didn't do this, the consequences would have been severe."
GOP. 112 Republicans voted against the Ukraine aid, while 101 supported it, a reminder of how Republicans have moved so far away from Ronald Reagan - and inexplicably moved so much closer to Moscow and Vladimir Putin.
UKRAINE. "Putin must be stopped now, or American soldiers will have to stop him later," said Rep. Lloyd Smucker (R-PA). "It is clear to me that there are moments in time where we must do the right thing and today we did that," added Rep. Mark Molinaro (R-NY).
BIPARTISAN. Democrats joined in that assessment. "It's been said that it's never too late to do the right thing," said Rep. Mike Quigley (D-IL), as Ukraine backers bemoaned the lengthy GOP delays on aid for Kyiv.
DELAY. While Johnson prevailed, it shouldn’t have taken this long. There was talk about the need to act on aid for Ukraine back when Kevin McCarthy was still Speaker. By delaying and delaying, Johnson lost control of the situation for a time, and allowed the Freedom Caucus to generate a lot more public pressure on him.
RETREAT. What did not happen on Saturday after the easy approval of aid for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan? There was no motion put forward by any GOP rebels to try to push Speaker Mike Johnson out. In other words, after all of that talk by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) about getting rid of Johnson if aid for Ukraine was approved by the House - she backed down.
LAME DUCK. Out on the steps of the Capitol, Greene acknowledged that she was not going to trigger a ‘motion to vacate’ the Speaker’s post. But she told reporters that Johnson won’t be Speaker for long. “Mike Johnson is a lame duck,” Greene said.
TRANSLATION. Let me translate that for you - Greene blinked. She didn’t have the votes to oust Johnson. Several weeks of scorched earth attacks on the Speaker didn’t work outside of her comfort zone in conservative media. She had to retreat back to Georgia.
ATTACKS. Don’t get me wrong - the Greene attacks have definitely hurt Johnson. I wouldn’t bet on him right now to be the GOP leader in the next Congress. But he might have a better chance to survive the rest of 2024 after his legislative victories this week.
JOHNSON. "I don't walk around this building being worried about a motion to vacate," the Speaker told reporters after Saturday's votes. "I've done here what I believe to be the right thing and that is to allow the House to work its will."
TABLOID JABS. You can tell who didn’t have a good week on Capitol Hill. This is the Sunday cover of the New York Post - which is no liberal newspaper.
FREEDOM CAUCUS. This past week was yet another big loss for the members of the House Freedom Caucus. There is no way to sugarcoat it. They act like they have the support of the vast majority of GOP voters - and then they get run over. I will say it again - I have never seen a group in Congress which is more legislatively inept than the Freedom Caucus. They are great at outrage - but terrible at tactics.
SUPERFECTA. 14 House Republicans voted against all four aid bills (for Israel, Ukraine, Taiwan, and the TikTok package): Biggs AZ, Boebert CO, Clyde GA, Crane AZ, Gaetz FL, Good VA, Gosar AZ, Greene GA, Harris MD, Massie KY, Nehls TX, Norman SC, Rosendale MT, and Roy TX.
OOF. Maybe the roughest vote tally was on an amendment from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) to strike out all money for Ukraine. That only received 71 votes - and yet, 112 voted against the Ukraine aid bill. Think about why that would happen.
BORDER. For many of those who opposed this week’s House process, much of the criticism from GOP lawmakers was about the absence of border security provisions in this bill. I’m going to say this again - the reason there were no border provisions was because of Republicans. They deep-sixed a bipartisan Senate deal on the border back in February.
UNFORCED ERROR. In hindsight, it’s very obvious that Speaker Johnson (and Republicans more broadly) made a tactical political error by rejecting that Senate border deal immediately. That was the point where the Speaker could have put himself in a strong negotiating position to wring concessions from Democrats.
COMBO. Remember, the goal of those Senate negotiations was to put together a combination bill which sent aid to Israel, Ukraine, and Taiwan - plus items on border security. In the end, Republicans filibustered that in the Senate, and had to abandon it in the House.
UNITY. But the other problem - circling back to the Freedom Caucus - is the lack of unity in the House GOP. The Freedom Caucus just doesn’t understand that by going rogue on their leadership, the only realistic option is to then have a bipartisan solution, which is more skewed to the Democrats.
TIKTOK. Lost in the news of the day about the aid plans for Israel, Ukraine, and Taiwan was the fact that it looks like Congress is going to threaten a ban on the popular social media app TikTok. The fourth bill approved by the House on Saturday forces the Chinese company ByteDance to sell TikTok - or face a U.S. ban.
SPYING. "This app is a spy balloon on Americans’ phones,” said Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX), as the effort encountered no notable opposition during debate. And there's been no sign of any on the Senate side, either. President Biden has already said he'll sign it into law.
CHANGE. Unlike a bill previously approved by the House, this plan would give ByteDance up to a year to sell TikTok. Obviously, this could be challenged in the courts as well. The bottom line is that a favorite social media app for many Americans might be heading for some political turbulence.
FLAGS. Speaking of turbulence, as Democrats celebrated the approval of the aid package for Ukraine, some members handed out small Ukrainian flags on the House floor. It royally pissed off Republicans. Speaker Johnson took the chair to reprimand Democrats - saying it was against the rules - and various GOP lawmakers were just spitting mad.
CENTENNIAL. Storming out of the Capitol, Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) was furious with Democrats. “America is our priority,” Boebert said on the steps. “If they want to go represent Ukraine, go the hell on and represent Ukraine.”
BADGER. “No member of the United States Congress should be waving a flag of another country on the House floor,” said Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-WI). What took place today was unacceptable.”
YOUR SUNDAY QUESTION. What’s worse? Wearing an AR-15 lapel pin on the House floor or waving the flag of Ukraine? The answer will probably depend on your personal politics.
DAVID PRYOR. Word came on Saturday of the death of former Sen. David Pryor. The Arkansas Democrat served six years in the U.S. House and 18 years in the U.S. Senate. Like former Sen. Bob Graham (D-FL) - who died just this last week - Pryor was a super nice guy, not a partisan jerk.
RAP SHEET. A South Carolina man who already served time in jail for his role in a white supremacist march in Charlottesville, Virginia may be going back to jail for his actions on Jan. 6. Tyler Dykes pleaded guilty on Friday to assaulting a police officer outside the Capitol that day.
MUSE OF HISTORY. April 21, 1924. On this date, the Senate approved a resolution which would change the name of Mount Rainier in Washington State to Mount Tacoma. "The original name, Mount Takoma, was an Indian name," Sen. Clarence Dill (D-WA) explained on the Senate floor. "The peak was later named after an English general," Dill added. The Senate passed the plan - but the name change never made it through the House.
LEGISLATIVE PROGRAM:
The House is back for votes on April 29.
The Senate returns on Tuesday.
Check President Biden’s schedule.
Follow me on Twitter @jamiedupree.
Email me at jamiedupree@substack.com
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This weekend's Congressional drama underscores the importance of American democracy in other parts of the world. We know they are clearly watching what happens in America by responses to what unfolds in Washington. At the first indication some time ago that Ukraine might be getting less US assistance the EU closed ranks to fill the gap. And within hours of the passage of bills in the House the thanks of Zelenskyy and others showed how closely he and others were paying close attention.
Thanks for the Sunday update, Jamie.