House easily approves bipartisan tax bill
Speaker calls for executive actions on border security
Also in today’s edition of ‘Regular Order’ for February 1, 2024:
A very unusual situation in the U.S. House.
Will Congress ever do anything about social media?
Republicans still fighting for the Lost Cause.
TAX CUTS. The House last night easily approved a bipartisan $78 billion election year package of tax cuts, combining one plan popular with Democrats (an expansion of the child tax credit) with a series of business tax breaks favored by Republicans. The vote was 355-70 in favor, as the bill now heads to the Senate.
DEAL MAKING. This measure was a reminder that even in very partisan times, you can still forge bipartisan deals when you actually draw up bills to gain support from both parties. "Politics is the art of the possible," said Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA). "In a divided Congress, that is the best we can do.”
HORSESHOE. The opponents were a combination of conservative Republicans and more liberal Democrats - that's how you get Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) both voting against the same bill.
FREEDOM CAUCUS. Maybe the most interesting part of this vote was that conservatives claimed the bill would help illegal immigrants - but that argument fell absolutely flat and didn't scare anyone. "This bill will be a huge expansion of welfare to illegals," said Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA).
DEFICIT. Under this plan, the tax benefits would mainly be available for 2024 and 2025. The deficit would go up by $155 billion total in those two years. Then, the plan brings in about $155 billion over the next five years to offset the cost, by doing away with the Employee Retention Tax Credit.
SENATE. Can this get to the President's desk before Election Day? "The Senate must take up the bipartisan tax cut deal quickly and pass it into law," said Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), who has championed the child tax credit provisions.
LEGISLATIVE NERD NOTE. For most of you, this is just a bill passed by the House. Actually, this represents an absolutely unbelievable legislative situation in the House - where the GOP is in charge - but Republicans need the votes of Democrats to get things done. I’ve never seen anything like it.
SUSPENSION. Since the end of September, this is the fifth important bill to be approved under ‘suspension of the rules,’ which requires a two-thirds supermajority for approval. That means the bill must be bipartisan, and that the Speaker can only win with the help of Democrats.
PROGRESS. This process has been used to gain bipartisan approval for the tax cut, three different short-term funding plans and a major Pentagon policy bill. (The first CR led directly to the ouster of Speaker Kevin McCarthy.)
RULES. Normally, a bill like this tax cut would go through the powerful House Rules Committee first. But Speaker Johnson doesn't have a working majority on that committee - because of several Freedom Caucus lawmakers - so, Johnson has to go around that panel.
POWER. "Republicans aren't a functioning majority," said Josh Huder, a Congressional expert at Georgetown University, citing how the Speaker can't rely on the Rules Committee to set up bills he wants on the House floor. "It's turned the House into a supermajority body."
SPEAKER. The morning after a House panel approved two articles of impeachment against the Secretary of Homeland Security, Speaker Mike Johnson made a rare speech on the House floor, again setting out his criticism of the White House on border security, and making clear what he won't accept in terms of changes. "We have to stop this now," Johnson said.
POLICY. Johnson rattled off a series of executive actions taken by Biden, many of which rolled back Trump-era border policies. "64 BIDEN ACTIONS TO WEAKEN THE BORDER," read the poster board next to the Speaker, as he said President Biden has all the tools needed to stop a migrant surge. "He has all this authority but he refuses to act."
H.R. 2. There was a heavy dose of irony in the remarks of the Speaker. He is correct that policy changes were made by President Biden - and clearly they haven't worked. But Johnson did not mention how just a few weeks ago, Republicans were saying the only answer was their big border security bill.
ANSWER. Like most things, the answer on the border and illegal immigration probably lies in between what the two parties want, but that's not as politically convenient as demanding what your side wants.
SENATE. As Senators get ready to head home for the weekend, we still don't have any text of a bipartisan border security deal. Both parties met behind closed doors yesterday to talk about the situation - which doesn't look good from our vantage point in the hallways, mainly because of the stated opposition of Donald Trump and House Republicans.
JUST WAIT. GOP Senators tried again to argue that critics of the bipartisan deal should just wait to see what it actually says. "I do think that we owe it to the process to have the text published, and then come to some sort of resolution," said Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC).
MCCONNELL. "Senator Lankford has done an extraordinary job trying to represent the various points of view of Republicans," said Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell, who is still trying to keep his GOP flock together. "I think we're going to continue to try to get to an outcome here."
CHICKEN AND EGG. But it's not going to be easy. I get the sense that we're at a moment where Democrats probably just need to release the text of the deal, even if there is the risk that it goes down in flames. Republicans can stay on the sidelines right now by saying that they haven't seen the details.
SOCIAL MEDIA. Once again, the leaders of major big tech companies got an earful at a hearing on Capitol Hill about the online risks that their websites present, especially to kids. It was a familiar refrain from Senators. But let’s be honest - will it actually lead to any kind of legislative action? I’m not so sure about that.
FRUSTRATION. The Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), wrapped up the hearing by accurately pointing out the bipartisan anger at Big Tech. "You heard all the Senators - every spot on the political spectrum was covered," Durbin said.
VIRAL MOMENTS. There were the expected exchanges which quickly hit social media, like when Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) ripped Meta/Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg. "It appears you're trying to be the premier sex trafficking site in this country." Zuckerberg called that 'ridiculous.'
ZUCK. Maybe the biggest moment came when Zuckerberg stood up, turned around, and apologized to family members in the hearing room audience, many who say social media led to the deaths of their loved ones. A number carried large photos to drive home that point.
REGULATION. The idea of passing new laws to govern social media sounds so simple - and yet, we all know it would be very difficult to implement. The only other option is relying on the companies, which doesn’t seem to work either. "Big Tech executives have been making the same hollow promises about youth safety for years," said Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT).
SALTY. During the tax bill vote that I wrote about earlier, you could see a huddle on the House floor involving Speaker Mike Johnson and a group of New York Republicans, who have been demanding action on the state and local tax deduction (SALT). That produced a new bill, which goes before the House Rules Committee this morning.
DETAILS. Under the plan from Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY), if you are married and filing jointly on your federal tax return, and your Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) is less than $500,000 in 2023, then you would get up to a $20,000 deduction for SALT as opposed to the current $10,000 max.
FUTURE. I don't expect anything like that to become law, but Lawler and other Long Island Republicans have been demanding a vote on something that they can take home in an election year. This might be the bill they can talk about in their reelection campaigns.
JOHNNY REB. House Republicans in the past year have repeatedly tried - and failed - to roll back the Pentagon name changes for military installations once named after Confederate military figures. Now GOP lawmakers are changing course, demanding an official review by Congress on how the Pentagon decided on the new base names.
REVIEW. "Congress should conduct a thorough review to determine the true nature of the efforts to remove historic statues and memorials," said Rep. Bob Good (R-VA). Good, whose district includes Appomattox Court House, also asked the Oversight Committee to hold hearings on the 'Naming Commission.'
SECDEF. In a letter to the Secretary of Defense, Good and six other Republicans asked for all documents, meeting records, and other communications related to the Confederate name changes. The other lawmakers were Clyde GA, Duncan SC, Norman SC, Ogles TN, Burlison MO, and Brecheen OK.
PRESS DINNER. There was a black tie event for the news media and lawmakers last night. Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) was totally on brand, shown here with his wife.
RAP SHEET. A Kentucky man who assaulted multiple police officers on Jan. 6 has been sentenced to 30 months in prison, and fined nearly $50,000 for his actions that day. Clayton Ray Mullins was also ordered to pay $30,000 to one officer to pay for his medical expenses, and another $2,000 to repair damage to the Capitol building.
MONEY. I've written a lot of these nuggets about Jan. 6, and I have to say that I don't recall seeing anyone hit with this type of financial penalty in other cases. Mullins will owe nearly $81,000 in fines and restitution.
MUSE OF HISTORY. February 1, 1894. On this date, the House approved a plan to cut tariffs on imported goods, while imposing a flat tax of 2 percent on income over $4,000. The vote was 204-140. It would take another six months to work out a final agreement with the Senate, which would set tariffs on thousands of items. The tax plan was temporary - from 1895 to 1900 - but it did not survive a Supreme Court challenge a year later.
LEGISLATIVE PROGRAM:
The House convenes at 9 am.
The Senate meets at 11 am.
Check President Biden’s schedule.
Follow me on Twitter @jamiedupree.
Email me at jamiedupree@substack.com
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Sen. Hawley certainly created a powerful viral moment on Wed by publicly shaming Facebook’s founder into apologizing to the grieving parents present. But if we’re going to make people publicly apologize for placing children in harm’s way, why stop with Zuckerberg? When will Sen. Hawley apologize to the parents of the school children being senselessly slaughtered weekly as he blatantly ignores common sense gun reform while raking in more than a million dollars in campaign donations from the NRA? For that matter, when will Sen. Hawley apologize to the families of the members of the Capitol Police he helped put in harm’s way on Jan. 6?
Then again, Hawley is probably too preoccupied presently getting his dress shoes fitted for cleats so he can try and outrun his flagpole-wielding voters the next time they invade his workplace.
Nice report this morning. All kinds of informative nugs.