CHUCK SCHUMER

U.S. Sen. John Thune elected as next majority leader for Republicans

Jennifer Shutt and Ariana Figueroa / South Dakota Searchlight — Wed, 13 Nov 2024 18:35:36 GMT

WASHINGTON — U.S. Senate Republicans on Wednesday, Nov. 13, elected South Dakota Sen. John Thune as that chamber’s next majority leader during a closed-door, secret ballot election.

When Thune takes over in January, it will mark the first time since 2007 that Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell hasn’t held the top GOP slot after choosing to retire from leadership.

Thune defeated Texas Sen. John Cornyn and Florida Sen. Rick Scott during the vote.

“I am extremely honored to have earned the support of my colleagues to lead the Senate in the 119th Congress, and I am beyond proud of the work we have done to secure our majority and the White House,” Thune said in a written statement. “This Republican team is united behind President Trump’s agenda, and our work starts today.”

Wyoming’s Sen. John Barrasso, who ran unopposed, will become the majority whip next Congress, holding the No. 2 slot in the Senate.

President-elect Donald Trump had made demands of the next Senate Republican leader ahead of the election, writing on social media that whoever is chosen should recess the chamber early next year so he can appoint whoever he wants without having to go through the confirmation process.

Cornyn, Scott and Thune all quickly got in line with social media posts of their own about what are called recess appointments.

Thune wrote: “We must act quickly and decisively to get the president’s nominees in place as soon as possible, & all options are on the table to make that happen, including recess appointments. We cannot let Schumer and Senate Dems block the will of the American people.”

Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, is the Senate majority leader.

South Dakota veteran lawmaker

Thune, 63, was elected to the Senate in 2004 after spending six years in the U.S. House of Representatives.

He currently holds the title of Republican whip, but has done stints as Republican Conference vice chair, Republican Policy Committee chair, Republican Conference chair, and chairman of the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.

Thune has given dozens of floor speeches and press conferences during his time in the Senate, but highlighted his support for bipartisanship in April 2021, applauding Democrats, who were in the majority, for working with the GOP on legislation.

“The Senate was designed to promote moderation and consensus. It was intended to be a check on the more partisan — or as the founders would put it, factious — House of Representatives,” Thune said during a floor speech. “The Senate fulfills its constitutional role best when it engages in serious, bipartisan consideration and negotiation and ensures that members of both parties are heard.”

He then pressed lawmakers from both parties to adopt that framework to negotiate infrastructure legislation in the months ahead.

Thune will have to break from those beliefs a bit during the next two years as Republicans use what is expected to be unified control of government to move through as much conservative legislation as they can via the complex budget reconciliation process.

That legislative pathway will allow Republicans to get around the Senate’s 60-vote legislative filibuster, which typically forces bipartisanship on major legislation.

The GOP used the process to try to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, during the first Trump administration, but were unsuccessful. Republicans were able to use it to enact the 2017 tax law.

Democrats used budget reconciliation to approve a $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package and their signature climate change, health care and tax package called the Inflation Reduction Act, or IRA, during the first two years of President Joe Biden’s term.

Thune expressed frustration during his April 2021 floor speech that Democrats had used the process to avoid negotiating with Republicans senators on those two laws.

“Our Founders established a democratic republic instead of a pure democracy because they wanted to balance majority rule with protection for minority rights. They knew that majorities could be tyrants, so they wove protection for minority rights into our system of government,” he said at the time. “The Senate was one of those protections. That is why we should be preserving rules like the filibuster, which ensures that the minority party and the many Americans it represents have a voice in legislation.”

U.S. House Republicans are expected to hold their leadership elections later Wednesday.

The House GOP was expected to nominate Louisiana’s Mike Johnson to return as speaker, though he’ll need to secure the votes needed on the floor in January to continue in that role.

Majority Leader Steve Scalise of Louisiana and Whip Tom Emmer of Minnesota were both expected to stay in those roles next Congress.

Shauneen Miranda contributed to this report.
This story was originally published on SouthDakotaSearchlight.com
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‘Her day one was 3.5 years ago’: Minnesota Rep. Stauber slams Kamala Harris

Cathy Wurzer, Gracie Stockton and Megan Burks / MPR News — Fri, 23 Aug 2024 21:30:39 GMT

After the close of the Democratic National Convention, U.S. Rep. Pete Stauber, who represents Minnesota’s 8th Congressional District, is eager to hear about policy on the campaign trail.

“We have to tell the American people and show the American people the difference in the policies. And it’s a stark difference in the policies,” Stauber told Morning Edition host Cathy Wurzer Friday, Aug. 23.

While accepting her Democratic presidential nomination in a 37-minute speech Thursday, Harris broadly outlined policy priorities such as a commitment to an “opportunity economy,” middle-class tax cuts, standing up to Russia and North Korea and supporting Palestinians’ right to self-determination while defending ally Israel’s right to self-defense. But she gave few details.

Harris also pledged to revive a bipartisan border security bill that Former President Donald Trump had implored Republican lawmakers to block.

When Wurzer asked Stauber if he had supported the bipartisan border bill, he pointed to a separate bill that passed the House with only Republican votes.

“It’s been sitting on Chuck Schumer’s desk for over a year now,” he said. “That was the strongest border security package in the history of this country. It would have made our streets and our community safe. It would have stopped illegal immigration, and it would have helped our border patrol and helped our southern states and their communities.”

Stauber voiced that illegal immigration and drug trafficking of fentanyl leading to overdoses and deaths are a top issue for him this election year.

“We have to secure our southern border, and Kamala Harris has been a disaster,” Stauber said.

“As a former police officer in Duluth, the worst calls I had were to give unsuspecting parents the news that their loved one had died because of a drug overdose,” he added. “That is happening every single day, and it doesn't have to be that way. The policies need to change.”

The bipartisan border bill did include provisions to combat drug trafficking, like installing fentanyl-detecting inspection machines and the ability for the president to impose sanctions on non-citizens involved in trafficking. Despite Republican claims, the majority of fentanyl is brought into the U.S. by citizens, not illegal immigrants, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data.

Regarding Harris’ economic promises to boost middle-class families, Stauber pointed back to the Biden Administration’s economic policies over the last term, recent inflation and the high cost of living.

“If you can compare the monies in people’s pockets and middle-class pockets between the Harris-Biden and President Trump administrations, it’s night and day,” Stauber said. “I think that what she talked about is things that she should have or could have done the last three and a half years. Her day one was three and a half years ago.”

Inflation surged as the nation was coming out of the pandemic, driven by supply chain disruptions and changing consumer demands. And while consumers are still dealing with higher prices, inflation fell to its lowest level in more than three years last month. The Federal Reserve says it could begin dropping interest rates as a result.

So far on the campaign trail, the parties have focused mostly on painting the race as one of good versus evil. We’ll see in the coming weeks whether it shifts to one of good policy versus bad. Harris and Trump will debate on ABC Sept. 10.

“We’re all Americans, right? We have to understand that, and we have to respect diverse opinions, but it's okay to talk about what you believe in,” Stauber said.

Stauber, himself, is also on the ballot in November. He faces a challenge from Former DFL state Rep. Jen Schultz.

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Judge tosses Trump documents case, ruling that the prosecutor was unlawfully appointed

Andrew Goudsward and Sarah N. Lynch / Reuters — Mon, 15 Jul 2024 14:40:44 GMT

A U.S. judge in Florida on Monday dismissed the criminal case accusing Donald Trump of illegally keeping classified documents after leaving office, handing the Republican former president another major legal victory as he seeks a return to the White House.

U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, who was appointed to the bench by Trump, ruled that Special Counsel Jack Smith, who is leading the prosecution, was unlawfully appointed to his role and did not have the authority to bring the case.

The judge found that U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, who named Smith in 2022 to oversee investigations involving Trump, did not have the authority "to appoint a federal officer with the kind of prosecutorial power wielded by Special Counsel Smith."

Cannon also found that Smith's investigation has been improperly funded through a permanent and unlimited fund Congress set aside in the 1980s for independent investigations.

It marked another blockbuster legal triumph for Trump.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on July 1 that Trump cannot be prosecuted for actions that were within his constitutional powers as president - a landmark decision recognizing for the first time any form of presidential immunity from prosecution. That ruling involved charges pursued by Smith in a separate case against Trump in Washington involving his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss.

Cannon's ruling came two days after Trump was the target of an assassination attempt at a campaign rally in western Pennsylvania. Trump is set to be formally named the Republican presidential nominee in Milwaukee this week, challenging Democratic President Joe Biden in the Nov. 5 U.S. election.

Prosecutors are likely to appeal Cannon's ruling. Courts in other cases have repeatedly upheld the ability of the U.S. Justice Department to appoint special counsels to handle certain politically sensitive investigations.

Trump, in a social media post, said Cannon's ruling should be a "just the first step" and called for the dismissal of all four criminal cases against him.

"Let us come together to END all Weaponization of our Justice System," Trump wrote.

Trump was convicted in May on New York state felony charges involving hush money paid to a porn star to avert a sex scandal before the 2016 election. Trump had pleaded not guilty in the documents case and in Smith's other case, as well as to election-related charges in state court in Georgia.

A spokesperson for Smith did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In the documents case, Trump was indicted on charges that he willfully retained sensitive national security documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida after leaving office in 2021 and obstructed government efforts to retrieve the material. Prosecutors have said the documents related to U.S. military and intelligence matters, including details about the American nuclear program.

Two others, Trump personal aide Walt Nauta and Mar-a-Lago property manager Carlos De Olivera, were also charged with obstructing the investigation.

'Breathtakingly misguided'

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, said in a statement: "This breathtakingly misguided ruling flies in the face of long-accepted practice and repetitive judicial precedence. It is wrong on the law and must be appealed immediately. This is further evidence that Judge Cannon cannot handle this case impartially and must be reassigned."

At the very least, Cannon's ruling throws the future of the case into doubt. Trump's lawyers have not made a similar challenge to the special counsel in Smith's election-related case.

Trump's lawyers challenged the legal authority for Garland's 2022 decision to appoint Smith to lead investigations into Trump. They argued that the appointment violated the U.S. Constitution because Smith's office was not created by Congress and the special counsel was not confirmed by the Senate.

Lawyers in Smith's office disputed Trump's claims, arguing that there was a well-settled practice of using special counsels to manage politically sensitive investigations.

"This ruling flies in the face of about 20 years of institutional precedent, conflicts with rulings issued in both the Mueller investigation and in D.C. with respect to Jack Smith himself," said Bradley Moss, an attorney who specializes in national security, referring to an investigation conducted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller during Trump's presidency.

Moss also said the ruling raises the question of whether Smith will seek to have Cannon removed from the case.

Cannon's ruling is the most consequential in a series of decisions she has made favoring Trump and expressing skepticism about the conduct of prosecutors. The judge previously delayed a trial indefinitely while considering a flurry of Trump legal challenges.

In an unusual move, she allowed three outside lawyers, including two who sided with Trump, to argue during a court hearing focused on Trump's challenge to Smith's appointment.

Conservative Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas provided a boost to Trump's challenge to the special counsel. In an opinion agreeing with the court's decision to grant Trump broad immunity, Thomas questioned whether Smith's appointment was lawful, using similar arguments to those made by Trump's lawyers.

Garland appointed Smith, a public corruption and international war crimes prosecutor, to give investigations into Trump a degree of independence from the Justice Department under Biden's administration.

The U.S. Justice Department will appeal the ruling, a spokesperson for Special Counsel Jack Smith said in a statement.

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Trump shot in ear at campaign rally, probed as assassination attempt

Nathan Layne, Jarrett Renshaw and Daniel Wallis / Reuters — Sat, 13 Jul 2024 22:45:37 GMT

UPDATED 10:50 p.m.

BUTLER, Pennsylvania — Donald Trump was shot in the ear during a Saturday campaign rally, streaking the Republican presidential candidate's blood across his face and prompting his security agents to swarm him, before he emerged and pumped his fist in the air, appearing to mouth the words "Fight! Fight! Fight!"

The shooter was dead, one rally attendee was killed and two other spectators were injured, the Secret Service said in a statement. The incident was being investigated as an assassination attempt, a source told Reuters.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has identified a 20-year-old Pennsylvania man as the suspected shooter at the Trump rally on Saturday, a CNN reporter posted on X citing sources. The FBI is not releasing the name of the suspected shooter yet, CNN reported. Reuters was not immediately able to confirm the report.

Trump, 78, had just started his speech when the shots rang out. He grabbed his right ear with his right hand, then brought his hand down to look at it before dropping to his knees behind the podium before Secret Service agents swarmed and covered him. He emerged about a minute later, his red "Make America Great Again" hat knocked off, and could be heard saying "wait, wait," before agents ushered him into a vehicle.

"I was shot with a bullet that pierced the upper part of my right ear," Trump said on his Truth Social platform following the shooting in Butler, Pennsylvania, about 30 miles (50 km) north of Pittsburgh. "Much bleeding took place."

The shooter's motive was not immediately clear. Leading Republicans and Democrats quickly condemned the violence.

The Trump campaign said he was "doing well." Bloomberg reported he had been released from the hospital.

The shooting occurred less than four months before the Nov. 5 election, when Trump faces an election rematch with Democratic President Joe Biden. Most opinion polls including those by Reuters/Ipsos show the two locked in a close contest.

Biden said in a statement: "There’s no place for this kind of violence in America. We must unite as one nation to condemn it."

Biden spoke with Trump following the shooting, a White House official said.

PHOTOS: Donald Trump survives assassination attempt at rally on July 13, 2024

Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at the Butler Farm Show in Butler, Pennsylvania, U.S., July 13, 2024.

Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump is assisted by the Secret Service after gunfire rang out during a campaign rally at the Butler Farm Show in Butler, Pennsylvania, U.S., July 13, 2024.

Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump reacts as multiple shots rang out during a campaign rally at the Butler Farm Show in Butler, Pennsylvania, U.S., July 13, 2024.

Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump and a member of the Secret Service react as multiple shots rang out during a campaign rally at the Butler Farm Show in Butler, Pennsylvania, U.S., July 13, 2024.

Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump is assisted by guards during a campaign rally at the Butler Farm Show in Butler, Pennsylvania, U.S., July 13, 2024.

Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump is assisted by security personnel after gunfire rang out during a campaign rally at the Butler Farm Show in Butler, Pennsylvania, U.S., July 13, 2024, in this screen grab taken from a video.

snipers stand on a roof at Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump's campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, U.S., JULY 13, 2024 in this picture obtained from social media.

Republican U.S. Representative Ronny Jackson of Texas told Fox News his nephew had been wounded at the rally.

The shooting raised immediate questions about security failures by the Secret Service, which provides former presidents including Trump with lifetime protection.

Witness account

Ron Moose, a Trump supporter who was at the rally, described the chaos: "I heard about four shots and I saw the crowd go down and then Trump ducked also real quick. Then the Secret Service all jumped and protected him as soon as they could. We are talking within a second they were all protecting him."

Moose said he then saw a man running and being chased by officers in military uniforms. He said he heard additional shots, but was unsure who fired them. He noted that by then snipers had set up on the roof of a warehouse behind the stage.

The BBC interviewed a man who described himself as an eyewitness, saying he saw a man armed with a rifle crawling up a roof near the event. The person, who the BBC did not identify, said he and the people he was with started pointing at the man, trying to alert security.

The shots appeared to come from outside the area secured by the Secret Service, the agency said. The FBI said it had taken the lead in investigating the attack.

Republicans, Democrats decry violence

Trump is due to receive his party's formal nomination at the Republican National Convention, which kicks off in Milwaukee on Monday.

"This horrific act of political violence at a peaceful campaign rally has no place in this country and should be unanimously and forcefully condemned," Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson said on social media.

Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said he was horrified by what happened and was relieved Trump was safe. "Political violence has no place in our country," he said.

Biden's campaign was pausing its television ads and halting all other outbound communication, a campaign official said on Saturday.

Americans fear rising political violence, recent Reuters/Ipsos polling shows, with two out of three respondents to a May survey saying they feared violence could follow the election.

Some of Trump's Republican allies said they believed the attack was politically motivated.

"For weeks Democrat leaders have been fueling ludicrous hysteria that Donald Trump winning re-election would be the end of democracy in America," said U.S. Representative Steve Scalise, the No. 2 House Republican, who survived a politically motivated shooting in 2017. "Clearly we’ve seen far left lunatics act on violent rhetoric in the past. This incendiary rhetoric must stop."

Hardline Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene said, "Democrats wanted this to happen. They’ve wanted Trump gone for years and they’re prepared to do anything to make that happen."

Trump, who served as president from 2017-2021, easily bested his rivals for the Republican nomination early in the campaign and has largely unified around him the party that had briefly wavered in support after his supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, attempting to overturn his 2020 election defeat.

The businessman and former reality television star entered the year facing a raft of legal worries, including four separate criminal prosecutions. He was found guilty in late May of trying to cover up hush money payments to a porn star, but the other three prosecutions he faces — including two for his attempts to overturn his defeat — have been ground to a halt by various factors including a Supreme Court decision early this month that found him to be partly immune to prosecution.

Trump contends without evidence that all four prosecutions have been orchestrated by Biden to try to prevent him from returning to power.

Republican U.S. Senate candidate David McCormick, who was seated in the front row at the rally, said he had started to go up on stage when Trump said he would have him come up later.

"Within a minute or two, I heard the shots ... It was clear it was gunfire," he told Reuters in an interview. "It felt like it was an assassination attempt ... It was terrifying."

Check back for more on this breaking news story.]]>

House Republicans win impeachment of Biden's top border official

David Morgan and Richard Cowan / Reuters — Wed, 14 Feb 2024 18:33:28 GMT

WASHINGTON — The Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday narrowly voted to impeach Democratic President Joe Biden's top border official, as immigration shapes up to be a major issue in this year's elections.

By a vote of 214-213, the House approved two articles of impeachment accusing Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas of not enforcing U.S. immigration laws, which Republicans argue led to record flows of migrants across the U.S.-Mexico border, and making false statements to Congress.

The vote marked just the second time in U.S. history, and the first time in almost 150 years, that the House has impeached a member of a president's Cabinet. Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer's office said that senators would be sworn in as jurors shortly after they return from a break on Feb. 26.

The Democratic-led chamber is highly unlikely, however, to vote to remove Mayorkas from office.

A record number of migrants have illegally crossed the border from Mexico since Biden took office in 2021, and former President Donald Trump has made it a major focus of his campaign against Biden.

Tuesday's vote reversed an embarrassing legislative defeat that Speaker Mike Johnson suffered last week when a similar effort fell short. Republican Representative Steve Scalise, who missed last week's vote while he received treatment for cancer, provided the deciding vote on Tuesday.

Republicans hold a slim 219-212 majority in the House.

"Secretary Mayorkas has willfully and consistently refused to comply with federal immigration laws, fueling the worst border catastrophe in American history," Johnson said following the vote.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll last month showed that immigration was voters' No. 2 concern, following the economy.

Republican dissent

No Democrats backed Tuesday's impeachment, while three Republicans -- Representatives Ken Buck, Tom McClintock and Mike Gallagher -- defied their leadership in voting no. They also voted against impeachment last week. A fourth Republican, Blake Moore, had also voted "no" last week in a procedural maneuver in order to allow the bill to be brought back for another vote at another date.

Mayorkas has said he does not bear responsibility for the border situation, blaming it instead on a broken U.S. immigration system that Congress has not been able to fix.

"Without a shred of evidence or legitimate constitutional grounds ... House Republicans have falsely smeared a dedicated public servant who has spent more than 20 years enforcing our laws and serving our country," Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Mia Ehrenberg said in a statement.

Constitutional experts and even some Republicans have said the House investigation of Mayorkas failed to provide evidence of the "high crimes and misdemeanors" that the U.S. Constitution cites as reasons for impeachment. Instead, they cast the fight as merely "policy disputes."

"History will not look kindly on House Republicans for their blatant act of unconstitutional partisanship that has targeted an honorable public servant in order to play petty political games," Biden said in a statement.

The number of migrants arrested crossing the southern border illegally dropped by 50% in January from high levels in December, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said on Tuesday, citing seasonal trends and increased enforcement by the United States and partner countries.

Tuesday's House impeachment vote comes a week after hardline Republicans in the Senate, egged on by Trump, defeated a bipartisan deal to address border security that would have been the most sweeping border security policy change in decades, according to its supporters, including Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell.

"House Republicans are largely in this fight to secure our national borders all by ourselves," Republican Representative John Rose said on Tuesday. "Essentially, (Democrats) like the job he's doing, or should I say not doing," Rose said, arguing for Mayorkas' impeachment.

The last Cabinet secretary to be impeached was President Ulysses S. Grant's secretary of war, William Belknap, in 1876 following allegations of corruption. He was acquitted by the Senate.

Trump was twice impeached by the House, when Democrats held the majority, and was twice acquitted by the Senate, which was in Republican hands.

House Republicans are currently investigating whether any of Biden's past behavior before moving into the White House might have constituted a high crime or misdemeanor that could result in impeachment. Some Republicans have said they do not see such evidence yet.

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Trump loses challenge to gag order in New York civil fraud case

Luc Cohen / Reuters — Fri, 15 Dec 2023 15:16:01 GMT

NEW YORK — A New York state appeals court on Thursday denied Donald Trump's bid to overturn a gag order restricting the former U.S. president from publicly talking about court staff in his New York civil fraud trial.

The judge overseeing the case, Justice Arthur Engoron, issued the gag order on Oct. 3 after the former U.S. president shared on social media a photo of the judge's law clerk posing with U.S. Senate Majority leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, and falsely called her Schumer's girlfriend."

The post left the court "inundated" with hundreds of threats made by Trump supporters, Engoron said.

Trump, the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, appealed the order last month, arguing it violated his constitutional right to free speech.

On Thursday, the mid-level state appeals court, known as the Appellate Division, said the gag order did not have a major impact.

"Here, the gravity of potential harm is small, given that the Gag Order is narrow, limited to prohibiting solely statements regarding the court's staff," the order read.

Chris Kise, a lawyer for Trump, said in a statement the decision "denies President Trump the only path available to expedited relief and places his fundamental Constitutional rights in a procedural purgatory."

Testimony concluded on Wednesday in the trial over a lawsuit brought by the New York attorney general seeking to fine Trump at least $250 million and sharply curtail his ability to do business in New York - home to several of his iconic properties - for lying about his net worth to dupe lenders.

Engoron has already ruled that Trump's financial statements were fraudulent, largely limiting the trial to damages. Engoron is expected to issue a verdict in writing after closing arguments on Jan. 11.

Trump has denied wrongdoing and called the case a "scam."

The gag order was initially paused by a judge on Nov. 16 when Trump appealed, but a panel of judges reinstated it two weeks later.

The Appellate Division later on Thursday rejected Trump's request for permission to appeal the reinstatement of the order to the Court of Appeals, New York's highest court.

Engoron fined Trump a total of $15,000 for twice violating the order.

Trump faces a raft of other legal troubles as he campaigns to face President Joe Biden in the November 2024 election, including four criminal cases. He has pleaded not guilty in all four.

None have diminished his commanding lead in polls over rivals for the Republican nomination.

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Congress passes stopgap bill to avert government shutdown

David Morgan, Moira Warburton and Makini Brice / Reuters — Sun, 01 Oct 2023 03:07:11 GMT

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Congress passed a stopgap funding bill late on Saturday with overwhelming Democratic support after Republican Speaker Kevin McCarthy backed down from an earlier demand by his party's hardliners for a partisan bill.

The Democratic-majority Senate voted 88-9 to pass the measure to avoid the federal government's fourth partial shutdown in a decade, sending it to President Joe Biden to sign into law before the 12:01 a.m. ET (0401 GMT) deadline.

McCarthy abandoned party hardliners' insistence that any bill pass the chamber with only Republican votes, a change that could cause one of his far-right members to try to oust him from his leadership role.

The House voted 335-91 to fund the government through Nov. 17, with more Democrats than Republicans supporting it.

That move marked a profound shift from earlier in the week, when a shutdown looked all but inevitable. A shutdown would mean that most of the government's 4 million employees would not get paid - whether they were working or not - and also would shutter a range of federal services, from National Parks to financial regulators.

Federal agencies had already drawn up detailed plans that spell out what services would continue, such as airport screening and border patrols, and what must shut down, including scientific research and nutrition aid to 7 million poor mothers.

"The American people can breathe a sigh of relief: there will be no government shutdown tonight," Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said after the vote. "Democrats have said from the start that the only solution for avoiding a shutdown is bipartisanship, and we are glad Speaker McCarthy has finally heeded our message."

Democrats call it a win

Some 209 Democrats supported the bill, far more than the 126 Republicans who did so, and Democrats described the result as a win.

"Extreme MAGA Republicans have lost, the American people have won," top House Democrat Hakeem Jeffries told reporters ahead of the vote, referring to the "Make America Great Again" slogan used by former President Donald Trump and many hardline Republicans.

Democratic Representative Don Beyer said: “I am relieved that Speaker McCarthy folded and finally allowed a bipartisan vote at the 11th hour on legislation to stop Republicans’ rush to a disastrous shutdown."

McCarthy's shift won the support of top Senate Republican Mitch McConnell, who had backed a similar measure that was moving through the Senate with broad bipartisan support, even though the House version dropped aid for Ukraine.

Democratic Senator Michael Bennett held the bill up for several hours trying to negotiate a deal for further Ukraine aid.

"While I would have preferred to pass a bill now with additional assistance for Ukraine, which has bipartisan support in both the House and Senate, it is easier to help Ukraine with the government open than if it were closed," Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen said in a statement.

McCarthy dismissed concerns that hardline Republicans could try to oust him as leader.

"I want to be the adult in the room, go ahead and try," McCarthy told reporters. "And you know what? If I have to risk my job for standing up for the American public, I will do that."

He said that House Republicans would push ahead with plans to pass more funding bills that would cut spending and include other conservative priorities, such as tighter border controls.

Credit concerns

The standoff comes just months after Congress brought the federal government to the brink of defaulting on its $31.4 trillion debt. The drama has raised worries on Wall Street, where the Moody's ratings agency has warned it could damage U.S. creditworthiness.

Congress typically passes stopgap spending bills to buy more time to negotiate the detailed legislation that sets funding for federal programs.

This year, a group of Republicans has blocked action in the House as they have pressed to tighten immigration and cut spending below levels agreed to in the debt-ceiling standoff in the spring.

The McCarthy-Biden deal that avoided default set a limit of $1.59 trillion in discretionary spending in fiscal 2024. House Republicans are demanding a further $120 billion in cuts.

The funding fight focuses on a relatively small slice of the $6.4 trillion U.S. budget for this fiscal year. Lawmakers are not considering cuts to popular benefit programs such as Social Security and Medicare.

"We should never have been in this position in the first place. Just a few months ago, Speaker McCarthy and I reached a budget agreement to avoid precisely this type of manufactured crisis," Biden said in a statement after the vote. "House Republicans tried to walk away from that deal by demanding drastic cuts that would have been devastating for millions of Americans. They failed."

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Shutdown looms as US House Republicans again block own spending bill

David Morgan and Richard Cowan / Reuters — Thu, 21 Sep 2023 18:30:37 GMT

WASHINGTON — U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy's attempt to restart his stalled spending agenda failed on Thursday when Republicans for a third time blocked a procedural vote on defense spending, raising the risk of a government shutdown in just 10 days.

The House of Representatives voted 216-212 against beginning debate on an $886 billion defense appropriations bill, with five hardline conservative Republicans joining Democrats to oppose the measure.

It represented a setback for McCarthy the morning after his fractious 221-212 majority met for 2-1/2 hours seeking common ground on legislation to avert the fourth government shutdown in a decade beginning Oct. 1.

As the vote failed, McCarthy told reporters that he will pursue the "same strategy I had from January: just keep working; never give up."

Federal agencies will begin to shut down on Oct. 1 unless Congress passes either a short-term continuing resolution, known as a CR, or a full-year funding bill. So far House Republicans have failed to unify around either possibility, and the ideas they have considered have only Republican support, making them unlikely to win support in the Democratic-majority Senate or be signed into law by President Joe Biden.

"Instead of decreasing the chance of a shutdown, Speaker McCarthy is actually increasing it by wasting time on extremist proposals that cannot become law in the Senate," top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer said.

The defense bill had been scheduled for a five-minute vote that Republicans kept open for over a half hour in a vain hope of winning additional votes. The defense bill also failed in a similar vote on Tuesday and had to be pulled from consideration earlier this month, all due to hardline opposition.

Representative Dan Bishop, one of Thursday's five Republican holdouts, cited a lack of trust in McCarthy's leadership.

"Let's be honest with each other. How about a little candor, not what you think the people would like to hear," Bishop told reporters without referring to McCarthy by name.

"Just tell them squarely what you're going to do. Do that!" the North Carolina Republicans said.

Trump wades in

Donald Trump, the front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, added to McCarthy's distractions with a call to shut the government, as occurred three times during his four years in the White House.

"Republicans in Congress can and must defund all aspects of Crooked Joe Biden’s weaponized Government that refuses to close the Border, and treats half the Country as Enemies of the State," the former president said on his Truth Social platform.

Trump is awaiting four criminal trials, including two brought by federal prosecutors, over charges including his attempts to overturn his 2020 election defeat. He has claimed without evidence that all four prosecutions are politically motivated.

Political brinkmanship has begun to attract the attention of Wall Street, with rating agency Fitch citing repeated down-to-the-wire negotiations that threaten the government's ability to pay its bills when it downgraded U.S. debt rating to AA+ from its top-notch AAA designation earlier this year.

"The unpredictability is sad for the country," said Representative Rosa DeLauro, top Democrat on the House appropriations panel. "They have stopped our ability to respond to the needs of the American people."

The Republican spending agenda has run afoul of a small group of Republican hardline conservatives, who want assurances that fiscal 2024 appropriations will not exceed a 2022 top line of $1.47 trillion, $120 billion less than McCarthy and Biden agreed to in May.

Bishop criticized a McCarthy proposal to set a 30-day CR at the 2022 level but a top line for fiscal 2024 appropriations at nearly $1.53 trillion. "The only way that's possible is if something isn't genuine," Bishop said.

A bipartisan group of 64 lawmakers known as the "Problem Solvers Caucus" proposed a measure that would fund the government through Jan. 11, though without McCarthy's support it is unclear how the measure would advance.

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Republican energy package, including Stauber's mine permit reform bill, passes House

Jimmy Lovrien — Fri, 31 Mar 2023 14:29:42 GMT

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Republican energy package, which includes U.s. Rep. Pete Stauber’s mine permitting reform bill, was approved by the U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday.

H.R. 1, called the “Lower Energy Costs Act,” passed the House with a 224-204 vote. Four Democrats voted for the bill and one Republican voted against it. But it’s not expected to go any further than that.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said the Senate would not take up the bill, calling it “dead on arrival” in a news release Thursday. And President Joe Biden said he’d veto it, Reuters reported.

The bill aims to expand domestic mining and fossil fuel production, but opponents say it would weaken the National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA.

It would also reverse parts of the Inflation Reduction Act, a major piece of climate change legislation, including eliminating a fee on the greenhouse gas methane. Biden said one of the reasons he'd oppose the bill was its cuts to a rebate program for energy-efficient appliances.

Permitting reform could be one area that gains bipartisan support, particularly for clean energy projects and new transmission lines.

But the House bill was largely focused on expanding access to fossil fuels at a time when the country should be weaning off them in favor of carbon-free sources in the face of climate change, Democrats said.

“Transmission is, of course, hugely important to increasing access on clean energy, but the Republican plan hardly even mentions it,” Schumer said in the release. “So again, the way to do this, Republicans in the House, is in a bipartisan way. We have a Republican House. We have a Democratic Senate. No party is going to be able to jam its way through without consulting the other side.”

Still, Stauber, a Republican from Hermantown, celebrated the passage of the bill Thursday.

“Supporters of mining, oil and gas, wind, solar energy, building transmission lines, or building infrastructure like roads and bridges, have all acknowledged the need for permitting reform, and this is why I was glad to see the bill pass with bipartisan support in the House,” Stauber said in a news release. “If the Senate is serious about the need for permitting reform, they should waste no time in bringing up H.R. 1 for a vote.”

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Kevin McCarthy elected Republican U.S. House speaker, but at a cost

David Morgan, Moira Warburton and Andy Sullivan / Reuters — Sat, 07 Jan 2023 14:30:36 GMT

WASHINGTON — Republican Kevin McCarthy was elected speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives early on Saturday, after making extensive concessions to right-wing hardliners that raised questions about the party's ability to govern.

The 57-year-old Californian suffered one final humiliation when Representative Matt Gaetz withheld his vote on the 14th ballot as midnight approached, prompting a scuffle in which fellow Republican Mike Rogers had to be physically pulled away.

McCarthy's victory in the 15th ballot ended the deepest congressional dysfunction in over 160 years. But it sharply illustrated the difficulties he will face in leading a narrow and deeply polarized majority.

He won at last on a margin of 216-212. He was able to be elected with the votes of fewer than half the House members only because six in his own party withheld their votes - not backing McCarthy as leader, but also not voting for another contender.

As he took the gavel for the first time, McCarthy represented the end of President Joe Biden's Democrats' hold on both chambers of Congress.

"Our system is built on checks and balances. It's time for us to be a check and provide some balance to the president's policies," McCarthy said in his inaugural speech, which laid out a wide range of priorities from cutting spending to immigration, to fighting culture war battles.

McCarthy was elected only after agreeing to a demand by hardliners that any lawmaker be able call for his removal at any time. That will sharply cut the power he will hold when trying to pass legislation on critical issues including funding the government, addressing the nation's looming debt ceiling and other crises that may arise.

Republicans' weaker-than-expected performance in November's midterm elections left them with a narrow 222-212 majority, which has given outsized power to the right-wingers who opposed McCarthy's leadership.

Those concessions, including sharp spending cuts and other curbs on McCarthy's powers, could point to further turbulence in the months ahead, especially when Congress will need to sign off on a further increase of the United States' $31.4 trillion borrowing authority.

Over the past decade, Republicans have repeatedly shut down much of the government and pushed the world's largest borrower to the brink of default in efforts to extract steep spending cuts, usually without success.

Several of the hardliners have questioned McCarthy's willingness to engage in such brinkmanship when negotiating with Biden, whose Democrats control the Senate. They have raged in the past when Senate Republicans led by Mitch McConnell agreed to compromise deals.

The hardliners, also including Freedom Caucus Chairman Scott Perry of Pennsylvania and Chip Roy of Texas, said concessions they extracted from McCarthy will make it easier to pursue such tactics - or force another vote on McCarthy's leadership if he does not live up to their expectations.

"You have changes in how we're going to spend and allocate money that are going to be historic," said Perry.

"We don't want clean debt ceilings to just go through and just keep paying the bill without some counteracting effort to control spending when the Democrats control the White House and control the Senate."

One of those Democrats, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, warned that the concessions McCarthy made to "the extremists" in his party may come back to haunt him, and made it more likely that the Republican-controlled House will cause a government shutdown or default with "devastating consequences."

In a sharp contrast to the battles among House Republicans, Biden and McConnell appeared together in Kentucky on Wednesday to highlight investments in infrastructure.

McCarthy's belated victory came the day after the two-year anniversary of a Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, when a violent mob stormed Congress in an attempt to overturn then-President Donald Trump's election loss.

This week's 14 failed votes marked the highest number of ballots for the speakership since 1859, in the turbulent years before the Civil war.

McCarthy's last bid for speaker, in 2015, crumbled in the face of right-wing opposition. The two previous Republican speakers, John Boehner and Paul Ryan, left the job after conflict with right-wing colleagues.

McCarthy now holds the authority to block Biden's legislative agenda, force votes for Republican priorities on the economy, energy and immigration and move forward with investigations of Biden, his administration and his family.

Concessions

But the concessions he agreed to mean McCarthy will hold considerably less power than his predecessor, Democrat Nancy Pelosi. That will make it hard for him to agree to deals with Democrats in a divided Washington.

Allowing a single member to call for a vote to remove the speaker will give hardliners extraordinary leverage.

The agreement would cap spending for the next fiscal year at last year's levels - amounting to a significant cut when inflation and population growth are taken into account.

That could meet resistance from more centrist Republicans or those who have pushed for greater military funding, particularly as the United States is spending billions of dollars to help Ukraine fend off a Russian assault.

Moderate Republican Brian Fitzpatrick said he was not worried that the House would effectively be run by hardliners.

"It's aspirational," he told reporters. "We still have our voting cards."

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