Pelosi breaks with White House on Russia oil cutoff

Senate votes to end COVID emergency

Speaker Pelosi joins the calls for a boycott of Russian oil imports. Waiting on an Omnibus funding deal. And a Texas Republican has the worst week in Washington. This is “Regular Order” for March 4, 2022.

RUSSIAN OIL. With lawmakers looking for ways to punish Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday endorsed the idea of halting U.S. imports of Russian oil and gasoline. “I'm all for that,” Pelosi told reporters at a news conference. “Ban it. Ban the oil coming from Russia.”

• MOMENTUM. Pelosi’s stance was emblematic of the rush of bipartisan support in Congress for tougher sanctions against Russia. “Putin brings everybody together,” said Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV). “She’s right,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC).

• ENERGY POLICY. For Republicans, the call to block Russian oil imports is just part of their argument that the U.S. needs to be energy independent. But you might be surprised to know that Russian oil imports dropped sharply last year. That's in my column this week for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

• GOP. While Republicans want more U.S. oil, they say the President is a big, wet blanket. "All the Biden Administration wants to discuss is how to stall American energy production," said Sen. James Lankford (R-OK). But again, I must point out that U.S. crude oil production was up 4.4 percent last year.

• GAS PRICES. Not all Republicans praised the Speaker. "If Pelosi didn't have a free car and driver, she might care a whole lot more about skyrocketing gas prices," said Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA).

WHITE HOUSE. Despite Pelosi’s endorsement, the White House was not ready to jump on the bandwagon to block Russian oil. “We don’t have a strategic interest in reducing the global supply of energy,” said Press Secretary Jen Psaki. “That would raise prices at the gas pump for the American people.”

• RUSSIAN IMPORTS. Russian oil mainly goes to refineries on the West Coast, with some to the Gulf Coast. Russian gasoline is imported mainly in the Northeast. “But again,” Psaki said, “reducing the supply out there would have an impact on prices.”

• DOMESTIC DRILLING. As for GOP criticism that the Biden Administration is making it difficult for new oil and gas exploration at home - Psaki called BS. “There are 9,000 approved oil leases that the oil companies are not tapping into currently,” Psaki said.

• FACT CHECK. It might be hard to believe for some, but the Biden Administration actually issued more drilling permits on public lands last year than during the first year of the Trump Administration.

• FORECAST. And government experts are predicting that natural gas production will be at an all-time high in the U.S. in 2022. Federal experts see an all-time high for U.S. crude oil production in 2023.

NO FLY ZONE. There continue to be calls from Ukraine - and in the U.S. Congress - for American jets to establish a no-fly zone over Ukraine, as a way to knock down the Russian invasion. "I fear if this continues, we will have to intervene in a bigger way," Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) said last night.

• NOPE. The White House remains uninterested. "It would require, essentially, the U.S. military shooting down Russian planes and causing a — prompting a potential direct war with Russia, something — the exact step that we want to avoid," said Press Secretary Jen Psaki.

OMNIBUS. A temporary funding plan for Uncle Sam runs out a week from today - and there's still no final deal on a massive Omnibus government spending bill. Making things more complicated is a move to add in emergency aid for Ukraine, plus extra COVID relief funding in what's said to be a $1.5 trillion funding measure.

• TOPLINE. Note how I wrote that last sentence - "what's said to be a $1.5 trillion funding measure." Neither party has formally announced a final topline spending number for 2022. $1.5 trillion would probably be roughly divided for defense and non-defense - but you never know until you see the details.

• UKRAINE AID. Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday that the 'fastest way' to get humanitarian and military aid to Ukraine is to add it to the Omnibus. "So we would hope that we can just come to agreement in putting it forth," Pelosi told reporters. "It's very important."

• GRUMBLING. Outside groups groaned at the late wheeling and dealing, and lack of public details about what's being stuffed in the Omnibus. "Not only is this a bad process, it’s bad policy," said Jessica Anderson of Heritage Action.

• REMEMBER. This work was supposed to be done on September 30, 2021.

COVID EMERGENCY. For a second straight day, Republicans in the Senate were able to approve a resolution overturning a Coronavirus plan from the Biden Administration. This time, it was a national emergency proclamation from the President about the COVID pandemic. The vote was 48-47.

• GOP. "It’s time to stop the COVID theater," said Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS), who also spearheaded an effort to repeal a vaccine mandate for workers at health care facilities that get federal dollars. But despite the success, both of those measures seem unlikely to get a vote in the House.

• NUMBERS. Why did Republicans win on both of those in the Senate? Because of absences among Democrats. Three Democrats missed Thursday’s vote, compared to two GOP Senators. That was the difference.

LUJAN RETURNS. One Democrat who had been gone for over a month returned to Capitol Hill on Thursday. Sen. Ben Ray Lujan (D-NM) had been hospitalized after suffering a stroke in late January. He was greeted by a standing ovation in the Senate Commerce Committee. “It's an absolute honor to be back,” Lujan said.

Senator Ben Ray Luján @SenatorLujan

Great to be back at work!

BOOMER SOONER. While Lujan returned from his illness, Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK) missed the entire week on Capitol Hill. We found out by accident last week that Inhofe had been diagnosed with the Coronavirus. That news emerged when Inhofe announced he would resign at the end of this Congress.

BURN PITS. Two days after a call for action by President Biden, the House approved a bill which would substantially increase disability benefits for veterans exposed to burn pits while serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. The vote was 256-174.

• CRITICS. Republican opponents of the bill mainly argued it was too expensive, and could slow aid to veterans through the VA. The Senate has passed a more limited measure. It's unclear what's next for this legislation.

• BIDEN. When the President raised the issue in his State of the Union Address - that's when he was openly heckled by Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO). Mr. Biden has long felt that his son Beau may have contracted cancer from toxic burn pits in Iraq.

BIG LEAGUES. Opening Day has already been postponed, as the owners and Major League baseball players remain at odds on a new labor deal. One Senator is ready with the logical Congressional reaction - repeal baseball's antitrust exemption. "I have a bill to do just that," said Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT).

• ANTITRUST. Congress never exempted baseball from federal antitrust laws - instead, the Supreme Court ruled that they did not apply to baseball, because baseball "is not interstate commerce." Read that 1922 ruling at this link.

SHORTWAVE. 45 years ago, I used money earned from my Detroit Free Press paper route to buy a shortwave radio. I listened to everything from Radio Moscow to the BBC World Service. The Ukraine invasion has brought it back.

• WORLD SERVICE. The BBC this week established two new shortwave radio frequencies to carry news and programming to Eastern Europe. A battery powered transistor radio can easily pick up those broadcasts.

• VOICE OF AMERICA. The VOA has not followed the lead of the BBC, preferring to disseminate Ukrainian-language news and information on the internet and through social media. But when you live in an area which doesn't have electricity or the internet - it's sort of difficult to access.

WEEK TO FORGET. Rep. Van Taylor (R-TX) certainly had the worst week in Congress. Monday, brought stories of infidelity. On Tuesday, he was forced into a GOP primary runoff. Wednesday, he gave up his re-election bid. "I had an affair, it was wrong, and it was the greatest failure of my life," Taylor said.

• NOT VOTING. I'm always interested in how lawmakers deal with their own personal scandal. Some show up to work and suck it up. Others just disappear into the woodwork. Taylor missed every vote in the House this week - even though he could have voted remotely from home in Texas.

GIFT SUBSCRIPTION. It’s an important time for news, and what better time to give someone the ‘gift of straight news’ than right now - with ‘Regular Order.’

UPGRADE. With a regular subscription, you can get the latest from Capitol Hill - and support independent journalism in the halls of Congress! Come for the news - and stay for the Muse of History…

MUSE OF HISTORY.  March 4, 1865.  On the day of Lincoln's Second Inaugural, Vice President Andrew Johnson was visibly drunk at his swearing-in, giving a rambling speech to a shocked audience gathered in the Senate chamber.  Senators wasted no time dealing with the mess, approving a resolution directing the Sergeant-at-Arms to remove 'all intoxicating liquors' from the Senate side of the Capitol.  Johnson did not return to preside over the short special session of the Senate.  Five weeks later, Johnson would become President upon Lincoln's assassination.  

LEGISLATIVE PROGRAM:

The House meets next on Monday.

The Senate returns on Monday.

President Biden’s daily schedule link.

Follow me on Twitter @jamiedupree. Email me at jamiedupree@substack.com

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