Senate approves bipartisan Ukraine aid bill
Speaker Johnson declares opposition to Senate aid plan
Also in today’s updated ‘Regular Order’ for February 13, 2024:
House GOP will try again to impeach Mayorkas.
Long Island voters to replace Santos today.
Lindsey Graham does a 180 on Ukraine aid.
UKRAINE AID. After opponents of extra aid to Ukraine kept the Senate in session all night in protest, the Senate voted 70-29 early this morning to approve a $95 billion military aid package for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan. The bill now faces an uphill fight in the House, where Speaker Mike Johnson declared his opposition on Monday, demanding that Congress also act on domestic border security matters.
BIPARTISAN. "Today we witnessed one of the most historic and consequential bills that have ever passed the Senate," said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, as he quickly moved to pressure House GOP leaders to act on the bill. "I believe that if Speaker Johnson brought this bill to the House floor, it will pass with the same strong bipartisan support.."
TALLY. 22 Republicans joined with 48 Democrats to provide the big Senate majority in favor of the package, which had been delayed for months by GOP Senators - who had demanded changes in border security policies.
TWENTY TWO. The GOP Yes votes: Boozman AR, Capito WV, Cassidy LA, Collins ME, Cornyn TX, Cramer ND, Crapo ID, Ernst IA, Grassley IA, Hoeven ND, Kennedy LA, McConnell KY, Moran KS, Murkowski AK, Risch ID, Romney UT, Rounds SD, Sullivan AK, Thune SD, Tillis NC, Wicker MS, and Young IN.
AID. "There are no guarantees that Ukraine will defeat Russia, but that does not mean that we should stand back and let Putin have his way with Europe," Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) said before the final vote. "Helping a free people defend their freedom is simply the right thing to do," Romney argued on the Senate floor.
LATE NIGHT. GOP opponents made one final rush of speeches against the aid plan, but were outnumbered. "I did everything I possibly could to stop it," said Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), who anchored the final speaking slot, ending his remarks at 5:12 am. "Only the House can stop it now," the Utah Republican said just off the Senate floor. The House won’t pass the current bill," added Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH).
OPPOSITION. Maybe the most surprising 'No' vote came from Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who has traveled repeatedly to Ukraine. Graham wants border security provisions added to the bill - he voted against that last week - as he also echoed Donald Trump's call to make the Ukraine aid into a loan. "Until that day comes, I will be voting no," Graham said.
JET FUMES. It was almost a stampede out the door before sunrise. The Senate was supposed to be on break this week, so many Senators were more than ready to vote and leave town. By 5:23 am - 10 minutes after the vote began - 33 Senators had already voted. The Senate is not due back for business until February 26.
PARLIAMENTARY NERD NOTE. Five GOP Senators had voted to filibuster this bill on Monday night - but when the final roll call vote took place before sunrise, they voted for the Ukraine aid package: Boozman AR, Cramer ND, Crapo ID, Hoeven ND, and Risch ID.
SPEAKER. The next stop for this Ukraine/Israel aid package is the House, where Speaker Mike Johnson last night aligned himself with Donald Trump, and declared his opposition to the bipartisan Senate aid bill. The Speaker joined with many other Republicans in demanding the addition of border security provisions to go along with the aid to Ukraine and Israel.
JOHNSON. "The mandate of national security supplemental legislation was to secure America's own border before sending additional foreign aid around the world," the Speaker said in a written statement issued last night. "It is what the American people demand and deserve."
WHAT'S NEXT. While Johnson registered his opposition to the Senate bill, it seemed like he left the door open to a possible compromise where Ukraine and Israel aid could still be combined with border security matters. "The House will have to continue to work its own will on these important matters," the Speaker said. (There could also be an effort to force a vote without his support - stay tuned.)
BORDER LOGIC. It won't surprise you to know that Democrats were flabbergasted. "The Speaker said he wouldn’t pass Ukraine funding without a border deal and we got a deal and then he killed the deal because he said we didn’t need a deal and now he says he won’t pass our Ukraine funding bill (because) it doesn’t include a border deal," tweeted an exasperated Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT).
HOUSE. Obviously, this aid package faces a difficult next step in the House - especially with Donald Trump lined up against the plan. Republicans in the House could bring up a bill with border provisions that they like, and send it back to the Senate. Or House GOP leaders could do nothing. Stay tuned.
DEBATE. After a fairly quiet weekend of debate, the Senate floor was a much more lively place on Monday, as GOP Senators hit the floor with a vengeance, again demanding votes on amendments related to border security, and carrying the debate past midnight. But it was more show than anything else.
PROCESS. Critics of the bill do have one very accurate criticism of the process, as they decried their inability to offer amendments to the Ukraine/Israel aid package. "We're all being held hostage here," said Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO) at one point.
AMENDMENTS. Republicans were right - it was yet another example of how the Senate has fallen short over the past 20 years. That's the subject of today's Jamie Dupree 3.0 podcast about the ‘World’s Greatest Deliberative Body.’
MAYORKAS. With House Majority Leader Steve Scalise back on Capitol Hill to give Republicans an extra vote, the House is expected to try again today to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. That GOP move failed last week by one vote - as Scalise may provide the margin of victory to make Mayorkas just the second Cabinet member ever to be impeached.
GOP. "It is clear he is willfully undermining the safety and security of the United States," said Rep. Greg Steube (R-FL), as GOP lawmakers criticized the border work of Mayorkas. "He has lied, defamed, and abandoned his duty as Secretary of Homeland Security," said Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-MT). "He must be impeached."
ATTENDANCE. As we saw last week on the impeachment vote, it sometimes can be tricky to figure out which lawmakers might miss a vote. It gets even trickier if there is bad weather causing airline delays - and that could well be a factor today for Republicans.
TIMING. Why is the timing of this vote so important? Because if Democrats were to win a U.S. House special election in New York tonight, they could have their new lawmaker on Capitol Hill by Wednesday afternoon, which could tip the scales in favor of Mayorkas again.
SENATE. Even if the House votes to impeach Mayorkas, the talk in the hallways of the Senate is that Democrats may move to dismiss the impeachment charges immediately, squelching any talk of an actual Senate trial.
PARLIAMENTARY NERD NOTE. Don’t look for any floor debate on Mayorkas today. The House only needs to vote to reconsider last week’s failed impeachment vote - if that’s approved, then lawmakers would vote again on the two impeachment articles against Mayorkas. “Wild times in your United States Congress,” said Rep. Jeff Jackson (D-NC).
NEW YORK SPECIAL. Snow is in the forecast as voters on Long Island go to the polls today to elect someone to replace expelled Rep. George Santos (R-NY). Democrats are favored to win this race, with former Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-NY) on the ballot. He is taking on Republican Mazi Pilip, a local Nassau County legislator.
EARLY VOTE. Democrats have had a clear edge in the early vote, which might be pretty important, given that Long Island could get hit today with 4-8 inches of snow. (This is also a reminder that Republicans used to dominate the early vote - but then Donald Trump told GOP voters that voting early was bad.)
BELLWETHER. House special elections are an odd lot. Most of the time, they don't tell us very much about the overall political environment. But this one is sitting on a plate for Democrats. If they can't win the seat of Santos, that's not a good sign for November. If they win big, that could be a sign as well.
TRUMP. Lawyers for former President Donald Trump have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to put on hold a lower court ruling which says he does not enjoy immunity for his actions as President. This is all part of Trump's effort to derail his federal trial on charges related to the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
BRIEF. "President Trump’s claim that Presidents have absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for their official acts presents a novel, complex, and momentous question that warrants careful consideration on appeal," Trump's lawyers told the High Court. More at this link.
APPEAL. Last week, a three-judge panel from the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 3-0 against Trump on the immunity claim. The brief starts with a quote often attributed to baseball great Yogi Berra. "This application is 'déjà vu all over again," Trump's lawyers wrote.
JAN. 6 TRIAL. Trump's federal trial on charges related to Jan. 6 was originally scheduled to start on March 4. But that's now TBD, and must wait for the Supreme Court to deal with this matter. Read the indictment at this link.
FISA. House Republicans on Monday released the text of a proposed reform plan for the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, and how best to reauthorize what's known as Section 702 of FISA. You can find the text of the 83 page bill at this link. It's called the, 'Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act.' (RISA rhymes with FISA.)
RISA. "Republicans are working to ensure that our Intelligence Community has the tools they need to protect our nation from foreign threats while also reigning in abuses of FISA against American citizens," said House Majority Leader Steve Scalise.
FBI. What's the issue here? When the U.S. gets access to foreign surveillance, there can be emails and texts swept up from Americans. The feds then often query that database in what critics say is a backdoor warrantless search. This GOP bill imposes a series of restrictions on the FBI.
DEAL. It wasn't immediately clear whether this new bill would pass muster with a majority of Republicans. FISA 702 authorities will expire on April 19 without Congressional action. Like most things in Congress, finding a middle ground could be a nettlesome endeavor.
FUNDING BILLS. The days are ticking by to the March 1 and March 8 government shutdown deadlines, and we haven’t heard much in the hallways about the progress - or lack thereof - on the 12 government funding bills for next year. But safe to say, they aren't finished yet, and there's just a bit more than two weeks to the first deadline.
OMNIBUS. Back in November, Republicans were all excited that they avoided a pre-Christmas Omnibus funding bill. I told you back then that the most likely outcome was an Omnibus by Easter - and that's where things are headed. All of the negotiations are going on behind closed doors.
GRUMBLING. We definitely see some bubbling GOP discontent about that. "It has been 101 days since the House passed an appropriations bill," said Rep. Mike Collins (R-GA). "It's time to get to it."
WORK. That sounds like a great line from Collins, but it doesn't relate to legislative reality in any way. And just wait for the GOP reaction when those funding bill packages are dumped on Congress in a few weeks. I'm not ruling out the possibility of a partial or full shutdown in March.
RAP SHEET. A New Jersey man was sentenced to nine months in prison for his actions at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. Peter Krill was also ordered to pay $2,000 in restitution. Krill helped rioters pull away barricades from police outside the building. He also squared off with officers in the Rotunda.
SUNSHINE STATE. A Florida member of the 'Proud Boys' militia group - also described as 'an adult film actor' - will spend two years in jail for his actions on Jan. 6. Steven Miles assaulted police officers and used a wooden plank to break open a window in the Capitol, allowing rioters to enter at the Senate Wing Door.
MUSE OF HISTORY. February 13, 1862. On this date, the Senate was debating a House bill to both expand the size of the House and set the outlines of new Congressional districts for each state under the 1860 Census reapportionment. But there was one sticky situation - what should lawmakers do about the seats in the southern states? Lawmakers set aside three seats for West Virginia, which had broken away from Virginia, and otherwise kept a full roster in the South - showing their optimism about the future of the Union.
LEGISLATIVE PROGRAM:
The House meets at 12 noon.
The Senate is back for votes on February 26.
Check President Biden’s schedule.
Follow me on Twitter @jamiedupree.
Email me at jamiedupree@substack.com
If you want to say ‘thanks’ - you can buy me a cup of coffee.
Proud Boy, porn star, jail … insert joke … nevermind I can’t finish this without laughing.
Fyi this update doesn't have the purple paid badge like the original edition.