2024 is a bit late to create an “in and out” list.
It seems that baby announcement items are also appearing. Swag is also making an appearance. Press-on nails are also appearing.
out? Probably a podcast. (Really?) Mullet (I thought we already had one). Vape.
Parliament is usually outdated. That’s why it took the Capitol until the spring to compile the “in and out” list. It’s a pretty short list.
Johnson tells Republicans competing against each other in primaries to ‘calm down’: Report
Let’s start with the “petition for dismissal.”
And if you’re on the cutting edge, what could be coming soon? “Breaking the previous question.”
united states capitol (Bill Clark)
know. This requires a little explanation. Especially if you’re not a Capitol Hill creature, and even if you are a Capitol Hill creature.
But why would you consider “application for release” and “abandonment of previous question”?
These are obscure but important parliamentary tools that members of Congress could use to send money to the government or send money to Ukraine.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) remained skeptical about sending aid to Ukraine even after the Senate adopted the bill in February with 70 members voting yes.
Both “removal petitions” and “vetoes of previous questions” are means by which a majority of members of the House of Representatives bypass the Speaker and introduce bills to the floor against their will or take control of the floor. .
Both strategies are rarely successful. Only twice in the last 23 years has the House succeeded in getting a removal petition over the speaker’s head. To defeat “moving the previous question,” we have to rewind to the 1980s.
Chairman Mike Johnson remains adamant that border security measures are necessary in exchange for aid to Ukraine. (Getty Images)
We might normally ignore such arcane and mysterious parliamentary maneuvers to circumvent the Speaker. However, this is not the case in the current situation.
The House Republican majority has shrunk to just two seats. Mr. Johnson has struggled to get Republican lawmakers to pass Republican-authored legislation. The only time anything significant will happen in the House during the 118th Congress is when a group of Democrats joins forces with a smaller group of Republicans. This eccentric legislative bloc has approved multiple bills to fund the government and raise the debt ceiling in the past few months. The Democratic Party has carried most of the weight each time.
We thus found ourselves in a unique position in which there was an increased possibility that the situation could bypass the Speaker’s office.
You can break free from the idea that an expulsion petition is the only way to pass a Ukraine aid bill. An expulsion petition requires a reliable number of 218 members, regardless of the size of the House. With 218 co-signers, the bill can move to the floor without leadership’s blessing.
Mr Johnson suggests changing motion to withdraw rules at next parliament
Two dismissal petitions are currently active in the House of Representatives. One comes from Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee. His plan would force the House to act on the Senate’s foreign aid bill starting in February. The other discharge petition comes from Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pennsylvania). Fitzpatrick’s measures include a more limited spending package for Ukraine, but also border security.
Some Republican lawmakers are reluctant to consider either expulsion request. They think it’s bad to undermine Republican leadership.
But in late February, House Financial Services Committee Chairman Patrick McHenry, RN.C., told CBS there was a “40 to 45 percent chance” of steering leadership in a different direction. That’s the bet to “beat the previous question.”
House Financial Services Committee Chairman Patrick McHenry, RN.C., told CBS there is a “40 to 45 percent chance” he will take leadership in a different direction. (Nathan Howard)
“Breaking the previous question is like a nuclear device,” McHenry said. “It’s a massive act of war.”
So what does it mean to “break the previous question”?
The House often has to take a first vote to force a second vote on the issue at hand. A type of vote that agrees to vote. This often comes up when the House considers the “rules” for governing floor debate. This preliminary vote is called “Previous Question Ordering,” or “PQ” in parliamentary abbreviation. If the House of Commons adopts the PQ, it will have “voted to hold the next vote.” It almost always happens.
But if the House votes no on the previous question, things get a little weird.
The minority, or those seeking to topple the PQ, will then take control of the House of Commons for an hour. They can bring out whatever they want. In this potential case, the “rules” that set the parameters for debate on the Ukraine aid bill would apply.
This means that if the House approves the rules, consideration of the Ukraine bill will begin. And the bill will be voted on.
But “breaking the previous question” is rarely successful. The last time he won the last issue was in 1988, and before that he was in 1981. But what happened in 1981 was historically significant.
President Biden meets with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in the Oval Office of the White House on September 21, 2023 in Washington. (Evan Vucci)
In the 1980s, Democrats controlled the House of Representatives. But there was also a bloc of conservative Democrats who broke with the late House Speaker Tip O’Neill (D-Mass.) and voted with the Republican Party to bring President Ronald Reagan’s massive tax cut plan to the floor.
how did they do it? A group of leading Democrats, along with the late House Minority Leader Bob Michel (R-Ill.), voted in favor of “defeating the previous question.” Republicans and conservative Democrats worked together to bypass Mr. O’Neill and win votes for “Reaganomics.” All tax cuts passed the House with support from Democrats.
What did they call the Democrat? Weevils.
Let’s take a look at the political taxonomy.
The long-tailed weevil is an invasive pest of southern cotton. The conservative Southern Democrat was sometimes called a boll weevil in the 1930s and his 1940s. They supported many of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s economic policies. But they opposed desegregation.
The late Rep. Charlie Stenholm (D-Texas) was one of the boll weevils of the 1980s. He embraced this nickname, suggesting that it would be difficult to purge southern conservative Democrats from the party like beetles. Thus, they emerged as an important part of the Reagan coalition in Congress.
Similarly, there were moderate Republicans in the Northeast and Midwest who opposed some of President Reagan’s policies. They considered themselves “gypsy moths.”
Like the boll weevil, the gypsy moth is also an invasive species. Those creatures eat trees.
Gypsy Moths in Congress did not defect from Reagan on tax cuts. However, they attempted to exercise their independence from the White House in the run-up to the 1982 midterm elections. About 30 Gypsy Moths voted against overriding the president’s veto of the spending package.
For the record, this group of moths is technically called the “eclipse” of moths.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (center), a Republican from Louisiana, walks through Statuary Hall during voting at the U.S. Capitol on March 13, 2024 in Washington, DC. (Al Drago)
Most of these parrot weevils and gypsy moths ended up flying back to the house party later on.
But there is a reason why we write about gypsy moths and weevils when it comes to helping Ukraine. Lawmakers could also resort to “defeating the previous question” as a way to take control of the chamber and pass a Ukraine aid package.
But the chances of the PQ being defeated as a viable option in Congress for Ukraine advocates are the highest since the 1981 Reagan tax cut vote. In this case, most Democrats support the Ukraine aid bill. It’s an odd mix, with a few Republicans as well. But unlike in 1981, it is not the Democratic Party that could betray leadership. This would be a Republican. And while it is different from the coalition of Gypsy Moths that occasionally defected from Republican leadership in the 1980s, most Republicans who would support Ukraine are from the North and Midwest.
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It is unclear how or if Ukraine will be able to receive aid. One could then debate whether a “petition for discharge” or “defeat on a previous question” would be included in the “participating” or “terminating” list.
But the real question for lawmakers is whether aid to Ukraine falls on their “participating” or “participating” list.
