Reefer Madness hits House again

GOP slams Biden plan to release oil reserves

The House will vote today to make pot legal. Speaker Pelosi doesn’t think a gas tax holiday works. And Sen. Lindsey Graham will finally vote against a Supreme Court nominee. This is “Regular Order” for April 1, 2022.

LEGAL WEED. For the second time in 16 months, the U.S. House will vote on a bill today which would legalize marijuana nationwide. "It’s time for the federal government to catch up to the rest of the country," said Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA). Another mainly party line vote is expected.

• GOP. Most Republicans are dead set against the bill. "Congress should be focusing on real issues," grumbled Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ). The legalization bill has only one GOP co-sponsor - Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL). Gaetz was one of five House Republicans who voted for the bill in 2020.

• FUTURE. Approval of this plan seems unlikely in the Senate. Last week, Senators did pass a bill which would cut red tape when it comes to expanding medical and scientific research on marijuana. But that’s as far as the Senate seems is likely to go in 2022.

U.S. OIL. Republicans are ridiculing President Biden's plan to release one million barrels of oil per day from U.S. stockpiles for the next six months. "Releasing more oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve doesn’t produce one more barrel of American oil," said Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY).

• GAS PRICES. The goal is to increase oil supplies, and hopefully bring down gas prices. GOP lawmakers said it won't work. "Instead of renewing American energy production, Joe Biden’s answer to the crisis he created is draining U.S. oil reserves," said Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL).

• BLAME RUSSIA. "Prices at the pump right now are up almost $1 since Vladimir Putin accelerated his military buildup in January," a senior administration official told reporters on Thursday. "That’s because Russian oil now is coming off the market."

• BACKGROUND. If you ever wonder what a White House background briefing is like, you can check out the transcript of yesterday's call on the Biden petroleum reserve announcement.

CONGRESS. On Capitol Hill, Speaker Nancy Pelosi was still looking for some kind of legislative answer. She frowned on a gas tax holiday, worried that it won't really bring prices down at the pump. "The con is that the oil companies do not necessarily pass that on to the consumer," Pelosi told reporters.

• TAXES. Pelosi said the other problem with the gas tax holiday is that it drains money going to fund new infrastructure projects. She floated the idea instead of a 'rebate card or a direct payment' to consumers.

• FEES. Part of President Biden's plan is to have Congress force oil companies to pay new fees to the feds - if they aren't using their leases to drill for oil on federal lands. "We have always said, 'use it or lose it,' Pelosi added.

JUDGE JACKSON. More Republicans announced Thursday that they will oppose Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson's nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court. "Jackson's lack of a judicial philosophy provides little clarity as to how she will evaluate cases that come before her," said Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV).

• LINDSEY. Also announcing his opposition was Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who spent most of Jackson's hearings venting his frustration about the treatment of past GOP nominees. "I now know why Judge Jackson was the favorite of the radical left, and I will vote no," Graham said on the Senate floor.

• GRAHAM. In the Senate for almost 20 years, Graham has never voted against a Supreme Court nomination from either party - until now. He was one of five GOP votes for Justice Elena Kagan in 2010, and one of nine GOP votes for Justice Sonia Sotomayor in 2009.

JUDICIAL ETHICS. Speaker Pelosi said Thursday that she favors pressing ahead with a bill to require ethical guidelines for those on the nation’s highest court. "The Supreme Court at least has to have a code of ethics," Pelosi said at a news conference. "Why should they have lower standards than members of Congress?"

• BILL. The House did approve a plan for that as part of a sweeping elections reform package last year - but with that bill going nowhere, Pelosi said she wants the House to hold a hearing specifically on Supreme Court ethics, and when Justices should have to recuse themselves.

• THOMAS. That dovetails with complaints about the wife of Justice Clarence Thomas and the 'Stop the Steal' text messages she sent to Trump White House officials. It's spurred some calls for Thomas to recuse himself from Jan. 6 cases - even resign. "I don't think he should have ever been appointed," Pelosi said.

NO DEALS. Senators went home on Thursday afternoon still short of the goal line on two issues which have proved difficult to resolve: 1) a new plan to fund COVID vaccines and therapeutics, and 2) a bill to slap higher tariffs on goods imported from Russia.

• RUSSIA TRADE. While there were reports of a deal on the Russia trade plan with Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), no final bill surfaced on Thursday. Paul complained the language of the bill was too broad, and could give a President the power to levy sanctions on just about anyone in the world.

• COVID FUNDING. The bipartisan COVID deal taking shape in the Senate would be worth around $10 billion to help develop more vaccines, tests, and therapeutics for the Coronavirus. A procedural vote had been set for Thursday, but that was delayed. The original request was over $22 billion.

• DEETS. The COVID package originally included $5 billion for global virus vaccine efforts. If that is cut out, some Democrats have threatened to vote against the plan. "We can’t end the pandemic without global vax funding - period," said Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL).

• TRAFFIC JAM. The goal is to get both of those bills done next week. But the Senate is already going to be dealing with the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson. A two week break for Easter is scheduled to start a week from today.

INTELLIGENCE. We heard a lot of questions from Congress in recent days about why U.S. Intelligence so badly over-estimated the strength and capability of Russian troops in Ukraine. But don’t forget that U.S. Intelligence was dead-on when it came to forecasting the likelihood of a Russian invasion.

• RUSSIAN INTEL. Before Congress this week, NATO’s top military commander in Europe acknowledged that ‘there could be’ an intelligence gap about Russia. It raises troubling questions not only for U.S. Intelligence and the Pentagon, but also for many experts outside government.

• INTEL. "The resilience of Ukrainian resistance is embarrassing for a Western think-tank and military community that had confidently predicted that the Russians would conquer Ukraine in a matter of days," wrote Phillips O'Brien, a professor of strategic studies at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland.

WHITE HOUSE. The U.S. has been trolling Putin on almost a daily basis by releasing new intelligence about Russia's troubles. "It is simply an effort to continue to paint the picture of what a strategic blunder this decision has been for Vladimir Putin," said Communications Director Kate Bedingfield.

• UKRAINE. Vladimir Putin has done something pretty amazing with Russia's invasion of Ukraine. He has united NATO, united Congress, and reversed Donald Trump's efforts to cut back U.S. military forces stationed in Europe. More from my column in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

INSULIN. The House approved a bill on Thursday which would cap the out-of-pocket costs of insulin for many of those who suffer from diabetes at $35 per month. The vote was 232-193. Twelve Republicans voted for the bill - all 193 'No' votes were from the GOP.

• BUILD BACK NEVER. The insulin provisions had been part of the Build Back Better package - but with that seemingly going nowhere, Democrats decided to chop off that piece and pass a standalone bill. This would apply to people with private health insurance or through Medicare Part D.

• WHAT'S NEXT. "Insulin is unaffordable for too many Americans," said Rep. Gwen Moore (D-WI), as Democrats celebrated passage of the bill. But it faces a very uncertain future in the Senate. The plan would increase government spending by $6.6 billion over 10 years.

• GOP DOZEN. The 12 Republicans who voted for the insulin bill: Bacon NE, Fitzpatrick PA, Harris MD, Herrera Beutler WA, Hudson NC, Katko NY, Malliotakis NY, Meuser PA, Miller-Meeks IA, Posey FL, Smith NJ, and Upton MI.

CAWTHORN. A rough week got worse for Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-NC) on Thursday, as Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) endorsed one of Cawthorn’s primary opponents. “The 11th Congressional District deserves a congressman who is fully dedicated to serving their constituents,” Tillis said.

• ORGIES. Cawthorn has been the target of GOP scorn all week after saying in a video that older lawmakers had invited him to orgies and done drugs in front of him. That aggravated fellow Republicans who claimed it was false, and drew mockery from Democrats.

• DEMS. "Lying about the election being stolen, supporting insurrectionists, speaking at white nationalist conferences, calling other members terrorists — those are fine," tweeted Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA). "But apparently lying about orgies & cocaine are a step too far."

Rep. Don Beyer @RepDonBeyer

We have not had confrontations between @HouseDemocrats about allegations of cocaine use or invitations to "sexual get-togethers," as far as I know. We did pass legislation that helped fuel the biggest job growth in American history. Everyone has different interests, I suppose.

ON THE FLOOR. Rep. Al Green (D-TX) took the House floor last night to again call for Congress to change the name of the Russell Senate Office Building, named for Sen. Richard Russell of Georgia, who for decades led Southern Senators in their fight against civil rights legislation. “It’s a symbol of national shame,” Green said.

REGULAR ORDER. As my daughter likes to say, “Give the gift of straight news” - give someone a subscription to ‘Regular Order’ and support independent journalism from Capitol Hill.

MUSE OF HISTORY. April 1, 1796. On this date, the House was debating plans to levy a direct tax on Americans to deal with a growing U.S. debt. It was not an April Fool's joke. Speaker of the House Jonathan Dayton took the floor to say his colleagues 'should enter upon a system of direct taxation with great caution.' Rep. John Williams of New York suggested indirect taxes on luxury items combined with spending cuts as a way to deal with the budget. Lawmakers did not act on a direct tax plan until 1798, when Congress approved what was basically a national property tax to raise money.

LEGISLATIVE PROGRAM:

The House meets at 9 am.

The Senate meets on Monday.

President Biden’s daily schedule link.

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

See the full Regular Order archive.