Dems’ handwringing overshadows inflation downturn and House GOP floor defeats
There’s still no consensus within the Democratic Caucus on the future of Biden’s candidacy. And Republican leadership still can’t count votes.
First Things First
House Republican leadership brought four measures to the chamber on Thursday morning and watched three fall in a vote series that demonstrated the party disunity we’ve come to expect under their majority.
The GOP floor disaster came after the Labor Department released new data that showed inflation cooled across several key indicators and ahead of the Republican National Convention next week, where Republicans will nominate former President Donald Trump for the third time—and promote an agenda that critics view as anti-abortion, anti-working-class, anti-immigrant and anti-LGBTQ+.
But instead of these headlines leading the news cycle, congressional Democrats again found themselves wrestling with the fallout from a split between a growing number of members who want President Joe Biden to withdraw his candidacy for reelection following his poor debate performance last month, those who believe he should remain at the top of the ticket and a leadership team in listen-only mode as lawmakers fear Biden’s drag on the ticket could cost them control of the chamber come next January.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) told me today that he didn’t believe the past two weeks of Democratic handwringing would distract voters from his group’s theory of the case for why they should hold the gavels next Congress.
“The 118th Congress has been a disaster for House Republicans. It has been characterized by chaos, dysfunction and extremism, as evidenced today,” he said. “House Republicans can’t accomplish a single thing without Democratic support and, by the way, have no interest in doing anything meaningful except for jamming their extreme right-wing ideology down the throats of the American people in the form of Trump’s Project 2025.”
Jeffries added that generic polling has consistently shown Americans trust House Democrats over Republicans and that his members could walk and chew gum simultaneously.
“We continue to both thoughtfully engage in the conversations that we've been having with each other as a separate and co-equal branch of government here in the House of Representatives and at the same time also make clear that we have to articulate a vision for the future that meets the needs of the American people building upon the transformational progress that has been led by President Joe Biden.”
But Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) told reporters before Jeffries held his weekly press conference that public calls for Biden to withdraw from the race have contributed to the party’s political challenges in the upcoming election.
“And so to me, that is something that I encourage my colleagues to think about because these things don’t happen out of thin air,” she told reporters. “It’s not just events. It’s how we respond to these events that also have their own effect. And sometimes I think people don’t always realize the effect that their actions might have on a given context or landscape.”
Ocasio-Cortez also pointed to the recent Supreme Court ruling granting former President Trump immunity from federal prosecution for official acts as an example of an opportunity to bolster arguments that a second Trump term without legal guardrails to protect against future lawlessness could be catastrophic for American democracy.
“That window is being forfeited in a disorganized public response,” she said. “It’s not to delegitimize anyone’s stances on this current situation or moment, but how we express that and how we conduct ourselves in turbulent times, is a big part of what determines our strength going into and coming out in any given situation.”
The three-term progressive, who said earlier this week that she spoke to the president and is maintaining her support for his candidacy, also acknowledged concerns from progressive voters who have their own worries about President Biden’s fitness.
“I find it is completely legitimate for a progressive person, a young person, et cetera, to have objections, reservations, concerns about President Biden,” she said. “What I'm focused on, truly, and where else I also think a lot of progressive and young people are, is that many of us are prepared to join a popular-front strategy in order to defeat the fascist threat that is Donald Trump.”
AOC framed the choice between Biden and Trump as an exercise in harm reduction.
“I think really it’s a question of scale. I think as a progressive, there are moments we’re on the offense and there are moments where we have to mitigate challenging times,” she said. “And I think my strategy has always been being as honest with people as possible. I’m not here to delude anyone in it or anything like that. What I am here to say is we got to work with what we're working with.”
On the other side of the aisle, House Republican leadership is working with an unruly conference that yet again proved its inability to perform the institution's basic functions, including funding the government.
Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) outlined an ambitious roadmap in May to pass House versions of all 12 funding bills for the 2025 fiscal year by the August recess. And while House Republicans have passed four of the dozen funding measures on mostly party-line votes, this morning’s failure to advance the bill that isn’t traditionally known to be politically perilous is a grim omen for the remaining bills.
GOP leadership defended the bill as fiscally responsible legislation that would have increased funding for member staffing, Capitol Police officer recruitment and House committees to serve as a check on the executive branch. It also would have required unspent funds from member allowances to be reappropriated for debt and deficit reduction.
All but three Democrats—frontline moderate Reps. Don Davis (D-N.C.), Jared Golden (D-Maine) and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-Wash.)—opposed the legislation due to its ban on diversity, equity and inclusion training or implementation and the return of the office responsible for promoting DEI. The members also believed it enabled discrimination against LGBTQ+ individuals and failed to address the climate crisis by removing provisions to reduce plastic waste and lease low-emission vehicles.
The House also failed to pass a resolution backed by Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in inherent contempt for his failure to comply with a congressional subpoena to turn over audio recordings of an interview between Special Counsel Robert Hur and President Biden in his investigation into whether Biden mishandled classified documents as vice president. (Inherent contempt is a procedure in which Republicans would have tried Garland on the House floor and instructed the Sergeant at Arms to the offender and detain them until they comply with the subpoena or until the end of the session.) House Republicans voted to hold Garland in contempt of Congress last month but the Justice Department unsurprisingly declined to prosecute its top official.
House Republicans defeated two Democratic attempts to kill the resolution on Wednesday, but four GOP defections and several more absences ultimately upended the whip count.
The final vote was 204–210.
Additionally, a measure to override a Biden veto of a disapproval resolution on Securities and Exchange Commission regulation on cryptocurrency failed to meet the two-thirds majority threshold in a 228–184 vote. Rep. Drew Ferguson (R-Ga.) opposed the resolution. 21 Democrats supported it.
It should be expected that the one bill House Republicans did pass was on a culture war issue.
In a 210–205 party-line vote, GOP members overruled a Biden administration regulation that expands bans on sex-based discrimination in schools that receive federal funds to include gender identity and sexual orientation.
House Republicans argue the rule threatens to destroy protections for women’s sports and put women at risk by allowing transgender women on athletic teams that align with their gender identity and in women’s locker rooms and bathrooms.
House Democrats, on the other hand, opposed the resolution because they say nullifying the rule would revert to a Trump-era regulation that enabled non-confidential employees to only report possible sex-based harassment or discrimination if they had actual knowledge of the behavior.
The White House on Monday said President Biden would veto the resolution if it reached his desk.
Inflation increased 0.1 percent in June from the previous month—the slowest pace since August 2021 that could lead the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates this fall. Core inflation—costs excluding food and energy—rose by the same figure. Gas prices dipped last month as well as electricity costs. Rent saw the smallest monthly increase in almost three years.
“Prices are still too high. Big corporations making record profits need to do more to lower prices,” President Biden said in a statement. “While Republicans side with special interests, I’ll do everything I can for the working people that built our economy.”
In the Know
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The Senate killed an effort by Sen. Ted Cruz to force a resolution out of the Foreign Affairs Committee to require the Biden administration to terminate a pier it launched earlier in the spring to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza by sea. After Cruz failed to receive unanimous consent to advance the measure, committee chair Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) raised a successful point of order to bring the matter to a close. The White House announced on Wednesday that the pier, which Biden first announced during his State of the Union in March and was completed in May, would be permanently removed by the Army and Navy as early as next week after three operational setbacks that required it to be disassembled due to inclement weather.
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Reps. Greg Landsman (D-Ohio), Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.), Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio) and Don Bacon (R-Neb.) introduced bipartisan legislation to provide college housing assistance to vulnerable college students. Specifically, the bill would allow current foster, former foster, and emancipated youth to use vouchers from the Department of Housing and Urban Development for campus housing to address housing insecurity and promote higher graduation rates and educational success for vulnerable students. According to the National Foster Youth Institute, just three to four percent of foster youth obtain a four-year degree. The organization attributes these low numbers to the historic exclusion of foster youth from the financial resources, mentorship, support, stability and guidance needed to complete postsecondary education or training programs.
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Vice President Kamala Harris traveled to Greensboro, North Carolina, to speak at a campaign event. In her remarks, she highlighted President Biden’s strength as a fighter for all Americans while criticizing Trump for weakening the US’s global standing by bowing to dictators. She also discussed the NATO Summit, the Supreme Court immunity ruling on Trump, abortion rights and Project 2025. A pro-Palestinian protester interrupted the vice president one minute into her remarks and was escorted out.
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The Biden campaign launched a new ad called “Adelante” focused on President Biden’s accomplishments for the Latino community. The 30-second spot features a testimonial from a Latino union member in Arizona who thanks Biden for understanding the priorities of the Latino community, such as family and hard work. The ad is part of a $50 million paid media blitz for July and will be shown during high-traffic TV events in battleground states. This is part of the campaign’s effort to reach Latino voters and follows previous initiatives targeting the Latino community.
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Friday happenings
The House is out.
The Senate is out.
President Biden will travel to Detroit for a campaign event before spending the weekend in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.
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