Congress races to avert shutdown amid conservative anger

The heavy responsibility comes as House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) weathers growing anger at a news conference over his handling of spending issues as Congress rushes to fund the government before Friday's deadline for a partial shutdown. It is inevitable that it will become even heavier.

The crazy move comes after Congressional leaders struck a bipartisan deal to avert a weekend government shutdown and settled on two sets of stopgap bills to keep the government funded through March. . The Senate is scheduled to take its first procedural vote on the bill later Tuesday.

But House conservatives have already voiced their opposition to the move, making it a challenge for Mr. Johnson, who is trying to keep the lights on in Washington before midnight on Friday while also running a war-torn convention. The reality is sure to cause even more headaches.

The House is also currently scheduled to vote this week on a resolution to hold Hunter Biden in contempt of Congress after the president's son ignored a congressional subpoena last month, but the younger Biden If the team submits the bill, the penalty could be taken off the schedule. An agreement with House Republicans to testify in private depositions.

And the second of four impeachment hearings focused on Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas is scheduled for this week as the House Republican Conference moves forward to replace the embattled secretary. has been done.

Congress eyes government funding deadline

The Senate is scheduled to take a procedural vote on the continuing resolution (CR) around 5:45 p.m. Tuesday, formally starting the process to avoid a shutdown by the midnight Friday deadline.

The vote came after Congressional leaders released a two-part continuing resolution on Sunday, unveiling another version of an unusual stopgap bill meant to avert a shutdown.

The bill would extend funding for programs in the Departments of Agriculture, Energy, Veterans Affairs, Transportation, and Housing and Urban Development through March 1, and for other government departments until March 8. Become.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York acknowledged in a statement Sunday the rapid pace at which Congress must consider and approve stopgap measures to avoid a shutdown and emphasized the need for bipartisan action. .

“To avoid a government shutdown, we need bipartisan cooperation in the House and Senate to quickly pass the CR and send it to the President's desk by Friday's funding deadline,” he wrote.

But this bipartisan cooperation is expected to fall far short of unanimity in the House, with the bill using the same two-part framework that many conservatives supported during the last shutdown threat in November. Despite its adoption, conservatives have already voiced opposition to the stopgap bill. Efforts to avoid a large government-wide omnibus funding bill at the end of the year.

Hard-liners have traditionally opposed continuing resolutions because they do not result in spending cuts from the previous year, and many on the right are now demanding that border security be included in government funding struggles, but the proposed stopgap This does not apply to the bill.

“The @HouseGOP plans to pass a short-term spending bill that continues Pelosi's level with the Biden policy to buy time to pass a long-term Pelosi-level spending bill with the Biden policy. This is what capitulation looks like,” House Freedom Caucus said. The group spoke. I wrote to Xreferring to former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).

Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), former president of the conservative group, said: I wrote to X: “Enough of the continuing resolutions,” he added, later adding, “We are doing the American people a disservice.”

This Conservative opposition means Johnson will likely have to bring an interim bill to the floor under suspension of the rules, an expedited process that circumvents initial approval of the rules. It is.

Rules votes are usually a routine procedure in which the majority party votes in favor and the minority party votes against, but conservatives have repeatedly used procedural votes this Congress to demonstrate their opposition to leadership decisions. , thereby halting legislative business.

However, if the bill were to operate under the rule suspension, a two-thirds majority would be required for the bill to pass. That means the interim bill would require significant support from Democrats, a reality that is sure to further infuriate House conservatives., As has happened in the past.

In October, eight House Republicans worked with Democrats to remove former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), who had worked with Democrats to avert a government shutdown, and hardliners voted to remove Johnson from office in November. criticized him after he took similar action.

If Congress passes the preliminary proposal in its final stages by Friday, it would be the third continuing resolution Congress has had to pass since fiscal year 2024 began in late September.

Indeed, Mr. Johnson's support of the continuing resolution marked a reversal of sorts for him. The newly appointed Speaker of the House of Representatives said in November that “the short-term CR is over,” but now supports CR after it became clear that MPs needed more time to complete the spending process. are doing.

Congressional leaders reached agreement on major spending numbers earlier this month, but lawmakers need more time to iron out the details of the 12 spending bills.

Hunter Biden's contempt of Congress vote stalls

The House is scheduled to vote Thursday on Hunter Biden's contempt of Congress charge, but that vote could be reversed if the president's son strikes an agreement with Republicans to testify.

The possibility of vote cancellation is a dispute between Hunter Biden's team and House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio). It came after days of public back and forth. Potential agreement between the parties.

Last week, Hunter Biden's lawyer, Abby Rowell, wrote to the committee that her client was prepared to take a private deposition if the committee reissued a subpoena for his testimony. Mr. Biden has changed from his previous position of only participation. At the public hearing. Biden's lawyers had worried that Republican lawmakers would selectively leak what Biden said after his private deposition, leading to misunderstandings.

Lowell argued in the letter that previous subpoenas were invalid because they were issued before House Republicans voted to step up their impeachment inquiry into President Biden. However, Mr. Jordan and Mr. Comer rejected this request, saying in a statement: “For now, the House will proceed to hold Hunter Biden in contempt of Congress until we can confirm a date for him to appear for a personal deposition.”His legal obligations According to. ”

But on Sunday, Republican chairmen notified Lowell: letter He said he was willing to reissue the subpoena in hopes of getting Hunter Biden to answer questions.

“The committee welcomes Mr. Biden's renewed willingness to testify in subpoenaed depositions.The committee's subpoenas are legal and remain enforceable, but Mr. “In response to your request, we stand ready to issue a subpoena to compel Mr. Biden's appearance at a new date for his deposition in the coming weeks,” they wrote.

Jordan's spokesperson told The Hill on Monday that the committee is prepared to rescind Thursday's contempt of Congress vote if both parties can set a date for depositions.

“If they agree to genuinely cooperate and are able to set a date for their deposition, the chair will recommend that party leaders suspend the floor vote on contempt for the time being,” the spokesperson said.

House Republicans seek to hold Hunter Biden in contempt of Congress after he defied a congressional subpoena last month and failed to appear for a closed-door deposition as part of House Republicans' impeachment inquiry into the president. ing. Instead, the younger Biden issued a public statement about Capitol Hill, saying, “His father was not financially involved in my business.”

Last week, the Oversight and Judiciary committees introduced a resolution charging Biden with contempt of Congress and sent it to the House for consideration.

If the House approves the contempt of Congress resolution, the Justice Department will decide whether to prosecute Hunter Biden. This resolution serves only as a recommendation.

Hunter Biden also visited the Capitol last week and made a surprise appearance at the Oversight Committee's markup of a resolution to hold him in contempt of Congress.

Mayorkas Impeachment Hearing 2nd

House Republicans are scheduled to hold another impeachment hearing for Mayorkas this week, the second of four scheduled presentations as Republican lawmakers ramp up efforts to oust the Cabinet secretary. Become.

of hearing The program, scheduled for Thursday at 9:30 a.m., is titled “Voices of the Victims: The Heartbreaking Reality of the Mallorcas Border Crisis.” Rep. Mark Green (R-Tenn.), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said the hearing will include testimony from witnesses who were “impacted by Secretary Mayorkas' refusal to enforce laws passed by Congress.” Testimony is expected to be taken.

“The human cost of Secretary Mayorkas' leadership and decision-making failures is truly incalculable,” Green wrote in the paper. statement last week. “Tens of thousands of families have been devastated by his refusal to uphold his oath of office. [sic] We've lost loved ones to fentanyl smuggling across the open Southwest border, completely overwhelmed law enforcement at the border and across the country, and countless Americans and immigrants have lost their lives at the hands of vicious cartels and gang members. is dropping. ”

Thursday's hearing follows a presentation last week in which Republican lawmakers argued that Mayorkas is at the center of the influx of migrants at the border. Greene called Mayorkas “the architect of the devastation we have witnessed for nearly three years” and reiterated her claim that Mayorkas was exhibiting a “willful violation of her oath of office.”

But Democrats disputed that claim, saying Mayorkas committed no impeachable offense. Instead, Democrats argued that Republicans were targeting Mayorkas because they disagreed with the Biden administration's policies.

House Republicans are holding a series of hearings in an effort to pass a resolution formally calling for Mayorkas' impeachment. The effort follows a months-long review of Mayorkas' leadership, spearheaded by Greene.