Senate repeats gridlock on border bill
Supreme Court delivers big win to GOP on redistricting lines
Also in today’s edition of ‘Regular Order’ for May 24, 2024:
House votes to block any ‘digital’ dollars.
52 Dems vote to repeal DC law that allows non-citizens to vote.
House panel approves Farm Bill after partisan spat.
BORDER THEATER. For the second time this year, the Senate failed on Thursday to muster 60 votes to start debate on a bipartisan border security deal reached back in February. The vote was 50-43 against advancing the bill, once more derailing plans for more border agents, resources, and policy changes. But there was no drama involved - as everyone knew this move would be defeated.
DEMS. "For years, we have heard that if you want to fix the border, then Congress needs to act," said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. But the pleas of top Democrats did nothing to change the political calculus on illegal immigration, especially with Donald Trump opposed to this plan.
GOP. Republicans were in no mood to be lectured. "This vote is purely a political maneuver," said Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC). "The American people are not fooled by these show votes," added Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK).
SINEMA VERITE. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ), who helped cut the original border security deal, thrashed both sides as she voted against her own plan. “It turns out my Republican colleagues were all talk and no action,” Sinema said. “Today though, my Democratic colleagues have chosen more political theater.”
WHAT'S NEXT. This Senate failure does two things. 1) It gives Democrats another way to argue that Republicans are to blame for a lack of action on border security, and 2) Makes it easier for President Biden to now take a series of executive actions in coming weeks to deal with the border.
ACHILLES HEEL. There is probably no other issue facing Democrats this election year which has been such a self-inflicted wound. The Biden White House has fumbled repeatedly on the border, as it remains a major weak point with voters - no matter what the Senate tried to do this week.
GOP. And just to be clear - don’t just dump on Democrats. Republicans could have easily taken this border deal and made needed changes - but Donald Trump told them not to do that. The GOP is unlikely to be punished by the voters for that completely cynical political response.
SOUTH CAROLINA. Conservatives on the U.S. Supreme Court delivered a clear victory for Republicans on Thursday in the never-ending fight over Congressional redistricting, as the Justices allowed South Carolina to use a contested district map for 2024, tossing out lower court findings that it was an unconstitutional example of racial gerrymandering.
OPINION. In a 6-3 ruling, the majority opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito basically carved out a new way for controversial redistricting maps to be upheld by the Supreme Court - by saying that the map was designed with partisan goals in mind, not because of racial discrimination.
POLITICS VS. RACE. "Thus, as far as the Federal Constitution is concerned, a legislature may pursue partisan ends when it engages in redistricting," Alito wrote for the majority, setting out fresh legal guidelines for any future court challenges.
"First, a party challenging a map’s constitutionality must disentangle race and politics if it wishes to prove that the legislature was motivated by race as opposed to partisanship. Second, in assessing a legislature’s work, we start with a presumption that the legislature acted in good faith."
VOLUNTEER. It didn't take long for Republicans to take notice. In Tennessee, lawyers for the Governor immediately submitted the Alito opinion to counter a lawsuit by the NAACP which argues that the latest redistricting map in that state broke apart districts in the Nashville area with 'discriminatory purpose.’
D.C. VOTING. In a last vote before leaving on a Memorial Day break, the House easily approved a GOP bill which would repeal a law in Washington, D.C. which lets non-citizens vote in local elections. The final tally was 262-143 as 52 Democrats broke ranks to vote for the measure, which is unlikely to advance in the Senate.
GOP. "Noncitizen voting, whether one vote or one million votes, dilutes the voting power of the citizen voter," said Rep. August Pfluger (R-TX). "Only citizens should be voting in elections," added Rep. Debbie Lesko (R-AZ).
CRITICS. Democrats ridiculed the GOP effort. They have nearly a half million registered voters in the District of Columbia," said Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD). "512 of them are non-citizens."
UNFORCED ERROR. But let's face it. I'm sure there are a lot of Democrats who would like to strangle the D.C. City Council about this law - because it just feeds into what the GOP argues, that Democrats want illegal immigrants to vote in U.S. elections.
CRYPTO. A day after a strong bipartisan vote in the House to establish new federal regulatory plans for cryptocurrency, the two parties went to their separate partisan corners on a different GOP bill, as the House voted to specifically say the Federal Reserve can’t issue any 'digital' dollars - unless Congress approves the idea.
OPPOSITION. "The creation of a digital dollar authorized and controlled by the Federal Reserve would invite serious overreach by the federal government and threaten Americans’ financial privacy," said Rep. Randy Feenstra (R-IA).
SWITCH. Just three Democrats voted with 213 Republicans: Rep. Jared Golden (D-ME), Rep. Mary Peltola (D-AK), and Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-WA). (They may represent three of the Trumpiest districts held by Democrats in Congress.)
THE FED. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has repeatedly said the Fed has no plans to issue a digital currency. "We're nowhere near recommending, let alone adopting, a central bank digital currency in any form," Powell told a Senate hearing earlier this year.
TITLE. I had to chuckle at the title of this bill - because it definitely dovetails with the anti-government/conspiracy theory strain of the GOP about the Federal Reserve and cryptocurrency: It's called the "CBDC (Central Bank Digital Currency) Anti-Surveillance State Act."
NO DRAMA. As House members trotted down the Capitol steps and headed to the airport on Thursday afternoon, there was something obviously missing for the GOP - there was no internal drama on display. All those weeks of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) torturing House Speaker Mike Johnson seemed oh, so far away.
LONGWORTH. But, if you go by Greene’s office in the Cannon Building, she still has a big poster board photograph in the hallway of Speaker Johnson getting the gavel from House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries - THE UNIPARTY!!!
MRS. GREENE OF GEORGIA. I don’t expect Greene to just fade away or anything. She’ll be on the heels of the Speaker at some point in the next few months. But she’s no longer the top GOP story from Capitol Hill.
SPENDING. The House Appropriations Committee on Thursday approved the first government funding bill for 2025, a $147 billion measure for military construction and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). The plan was approved on a party line vote of 34-25. A full House vote is expected next month.
POLICY. Democrats skewered the bill over its conservative policy riders, like a provision which blocks the VA from most abortion services for veterans. "A woman has to be dying in order to have access to an abortion," said a frustrated Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL).
CONFEDERACY. During debate, Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-GA) offered an amendment to bring back a Confederate monument removed last year from Arlington National Cemetery. It included depictions of a black 'Mammy,' a slave following his owner into war, and extolled the 'Lost Cause.'
JOHNNY REB. If Clyde thought fellow Republicans would have his back, he was sorely mistaken. When it came time to vote, the Georgia Republican couldn't get Republicans to ask for a roll call vote. "Failed by voice vote," said the chair.
SORRY BOSS. When the final vote came around on the MilCon/VA funding bill, Clyde at first voted against the plan. "You're recorded as a 'No?'" asked a somewhat bemused Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK), the new Chairman of the Appropriations Committee. Clyde immediately changed his vote to ‘Yes.’
EARMARKS. That same bill included the first package of local budget earmarks for military construction projects in 2025. The measure includes 23 different home state projects totaling $547 million - 22 of them were for Republicans - to just one for a Democrat.
MONEY. Florida was the big winner with a half dozen projects valued at $151 million going to familiar bases in Jacksonville, Mayport, Pensacola, and Key West. The only earmark for a Democrat was $2.9 million for a fire/rescue station in Washington State won by Rep. Marilyn Strickland (D-WA).
BAYOU STATE. Last year, Speaker Mike Johnson won $7 million for a medical facility at Barksdale Air Force Base in his district. This time, the Speaker has a $22 million earmark for a child development center at that same base.
LEGISLATIVE BRANCH. A House spending panel took the first step on 2025 budget plans for the Congress on Thursday, approving what will be a $7.1 billion package - up 5.6 percent from 2024. "The bill supports the Legislative Branch as an essential branch of government that is open to and works for the American people," said Rep. David Valadao (R-CA).
USCP. One of the largest line items now in the Legislative Branch budget is for the U.S. Capitol Police. This House plan would spend $830 million next year, which is up $39 million.
RAP SHEET. A Georgia man who assaulted police repeatedly outside the Capitol on Jan. 6 has pleaded guilty to six charges against him. Phillip Crawford joined other rioters in attacking police in the Lower West Terrace Tunnel. He showed off video of himself knocking down an officer - that person then tipped off the feds.
MUSE OF HISTORY. May 24, 1884. The House voted on this date to let a U.S. Navy ensign receive a medal from the Government of Austria for helping to save the crew of a sinking ship. It was loudly denounced by Rep. William Robinson of New York. "Are not these men contented with the honors which America gives them?" That drew repeated rebukes. "You are dishonoring your own countrymen," countered Rep. John Kasson of Iowa.
LEGISLATIVE PROGRAM:
The House returns on June 3.
The Senate is back on June 3.
Check President Biden’s schedule.
Follow me on Twitter @jamiedupree.
Email me at jamiedupree@substack.com
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Any chance you have a picture of the outfit Sinema was wearing when she said. “Today though, my Democratic colleagues have chosen more political theater.”
“Thus, as far as the Federal Constitution is concerned, a legislature may pursue partisan ends when it engages in redistricting”
Jesus, what filth, what liars. Keeps those in power, always in power. That’s not American, that’s how the nazis did it.
The right wingers are also screwed, but they’re too damn stupid to understand that.