Reply to “Comment on ‘Lying on the Debt Limit’” by A. J. McConnell in the House of Representatives

Lawmakers have a long list of important issues to tackle as they return to the Capitol after a two week break to deal with a number of important issues.

The Republicans are trying to force the Biden administration to the negotiating table with a plan to raise the debt ceiling in exchange for spending cuts in an effort to put pressure on them to reach a deal.

McCarthy is expected to test his leadership by how the speaker organizes his conference over the next several weeks. The House Republicans haven’t been unified in 100 days, having faced internal divisions over issues ranging from the budget to the border and there is little room to navigate competing priorities.

The goal is to get a bill on the House floor by May that can pass the narrowly divided chamber, and send a signal to President Joe Biden that any legislation lifting the debt ceiling must have strings attached.

In a statement ahead of McCarthy’s speech, however, the White House said the debt limit issue should be addressed “promptly, without brinksmanship or hostage taking – as Republicans did three times in the last administration and as Presidents Trump and Reagan argued for in office,” pointing to a quote from former President Donald Trump.

The US Senate averages 65 years old and with many members older than that, the entire chapter has served as a reminder. The reality is that Feinstein is not the first, and will not be the last, to have an extended absence from the body. Senators are cognizant that launching a fight today over this one absence could come back to haunt the other party in the future.

In order to replace her on Judiciary, Democrats will need all Republicans to agree to a vote on a resolution, or they will have a hard time getting the support of a few Republicans. It is not certain if GOP leaders will back the request, especially because it could speed the confirmation of judicial nominees they do not like.

McConnell, who has been out recovering from a fall, said that he would be back in the Senate on Monday. The office of Fetterman said that he will return to the Senate after the recess after being treated for depression.

Reply to the Leaked Pentagon Documents: State and Local Laws in the Context of the 2016 U.S. Cybercrime

As congressional leaders press the administration for more information about how the damaging leak occurred and how it will affect allies and adversaries of the US, concern and frustration from lawmakers over highly classified Pentagon documents leaked online in recent weeks will also be center stage.

McCarthy said the House committees will investigate the leak. All senators will receive a briefing on the leaked documents on Wednesday afternoon, according to a Senate Democratic aide. A classified briefing for all House members is also expected, possibly on Wednesday, sources have told CNN.

Lawmakers are continuing their review of classified documents that were located at the homes of former Vice President Mike Trump and former President Barack Obama as they assess the potential backlash from those improper stored materials.

Trump pleaded not guilty to 34 felony criminal charges, becoming the first ever president to do so, when Congress was not in session. Lawmakers, and Republicans in particular, will be getting a lot of questions from reporters about those developments back on Capitol Hill.

Among other legislative items, the House as early as Monday plans to vote on a bipartisan measure “condemning recent actions taken by the Russian military to down a United States Air Force drone.”

A GOP-led resolution will be heard by the House to block the DC bill. The Senate would take care of it if the resolution passes the House.

The Senate voted to overturn the DC crime bill after Biden signed it, which upset some Democrats who argued that the feds should not be interfering in the district’s affairs.

According to a White House official, Biden would veto the legislation if it made it to his desk.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/17/politics/congress-returns-recess/index.html

House Judiciary Committee On The Status Of Biden-Like Candidates: Political Efforts, Investigations of Crime, Innocence, and the Role Of Drunk Justice in Ukraine

The House is likely to take up the Republican-led bill on the participation of male and female athletes in sports, a measure Democrats have decried as an attack on trans youth.

A key Biden nominee, Julie Su to be labor secretary, will also face scrutiny in the weeks ahead as Republicans paint her as too liberal to head that department. The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee will hold a hearing Thursday to consider the nomination. How the nominee performs will be crucial to see if she can be confirmed.

The GOP plans to highlight violent crime in New York City during a field hearing by the House Judiciary Committee on Monday. The hearing was described as a political stunt by the spokeswoman for the office.

When Democrats return to Washington, there will likely be a focus on the issue of medication abortion. The consequences of last year’s Supreme Court decision to overturn legalized abortion will be the topic of a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing during the upcoming work period.

The Senate Judiciary Committee has also announced plans to hold a hearing on what the Democrat-led panel describes as the need to restore confidence in the Supreme Court’s ethics standards. That comes in the wake of a ProPublica report that conservative Justice Clarence Thomas did not disclose that he and his wife have gone on several luxury trips involving travel subsidized by and stays at properties owned by a GOP megadonor.

The House Oversight Committee is going to hold a hearing on the repercussions of the Biden administration’s withdrawal from Afghanistan.

The House Foreign Affairs Committee will hold a hearing the same day examining alleged Russian war crimes and atrocities in Ukraine. The prosecutor general of Ukraine will be giving testimony.

Did McConnell resign or not? How long can the Senate operate on the floor without a Republican candidate? (Although she probably wouldn’t) say no

GOP sources said on Sunday it was unlikely the leader would agree to this, but that the issue still had to be discussed, and a final decision had yet to be made on how to proceed.

If McConnell agrees to the Democrats’ demands that could cause a backlash from the right.

“Republicans should not assist Democrats in confirming Joe Biden’s most radical nominees to the courts,” Cotton, one of the only Republicans to publicly weigh in so far, tweeted over the weekend.

The tension came to a head last week when two Democrats called on Feinstein to step down. Hours later, Feinstein issued a public statement and requested to be pulled, albeit temporarily, from a committee where she cemented a decades-long legacy.

Democrats will also huddle Monday evening for a leadership meeting where another major question will play out: How long can the Senate operate on the floor without Feinstein? When will pressure build for her to just resign?

Notably, Sen. Amy Klobuchar last week told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins essentially that she didn’t back calls – for now – to oust Feinstein, saying she deserved more time to recover. But the Minnesota Democrat was clear she wasn’t offering a blank check for a blanket absence.

McConnell was a central architect of the Republican Party’s judicial gains in this country and served as a tactician in the Senate. No one gets the importance of building the courts more than McConnell. The Kentucky senator isn’t afraid of stonewalling Supreme Court vacancies, ending the filibuster on Supreme Court nominees or meticulously ushering through a strategy that remade the judicial system under Donald Trump. In other words, don’t assume he’ll make this easy for Democrats to replace Feinstein.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/17/politics/dianne-feinstein-mitch-mcconnell/index.html

The Good News: Dianne and Robert McConnell will remain with us for a few more years and their friendship and mutual support for Schumer’s request

The good news is that Dianne will remain as our colleague for two more years, which is great news for Elaine and me. Dick passed away a few months ago, but the good news is that he was such a close friend that we didn’t want to lose him.

Through their service, the two forged a bipartisan relationship that transcends some of the bitter discourse that has emerged in the last decade. McConnell himself spent the last several weeks recovering after tripping and falling at an event in Washington that left him with a concussion and a fractured rib.

Democrats would need nine Republicans and every single Democrat to approve Schumer’s request if any of them objected.