So much for the Republicans’ Home Appliances Week
Iran’s unprecedented weekend attack on Israel and Ukraine’s depleted frontlines have all eyes on Mike Johnson as the embattled speaker governs for survival.
It was supposed to be—wait for it—Home Appliances Week in the Republican-controlled House. But a series of nerve-wracking events in the Middle East over the weekend caused GOP leadership to change course from stoking domestic culture wars to attempting to prevent an actual hot war from engulfing the region.
In case you missed the weekend drama: Iran launched an unprecedented attack against Israel on Saturday evening in response to a suspected Israeli strike against the Iranian consulate in Damascus earlier this month.
The attack immediately put the spotlight squarely on Speaker Mike Johnson as the world wonders how he’ll navigate the treacherous politics within his conference with the urgent need for US aid in war zones in the Middle East and Europe and amid rising tensions in Asia.
The House is now expected to take up 17 bills related to Israel and Iran with 11 on the suspension calendar and requiring a two-thirds majority vote to pass. The other half-dozen measures will be subject to a rule, definin the length of debate and whether amendments will be considered. (Bills passed out of the Rules Committee need just a simple majority on final passage.)
House Republicans are scheduled to meet before this evening’s vote series to discuss next steps.
President Joe Biden led a call on Sunday afternoon with the top four congressional leaders—Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) and Johnson—to discuss the attack and the need for the House to approve a $95-billion emergency national security funding bill that passed the Senate in February.
The bill includes $14.1 billion for Israel, $9.2 billion in humanitarian aid and $4.8 billion for the Indo-Pacific region. But it also allows $60 billion to support Ukraine, a red line for roughly half of Johnson’s conference.
The isolationist wing of the House GOP claims the future of Ukraine is outside of America’s interests. But supporters of the Senate bill say the international issues it addresses reflect how interconnected they are: Iran is supporting Russia’s invasion of Ukraine while Israel is at war with the terrorist group Hamas on one front and dealing with Iran on another. Meanwhile, China is watching how it all unfolds as President Xi Jinping has ordered his military to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027.
“Extreme MAGA Republicans are out of excuses. The Ukrainian people are out of time. The gravely serious events of this past weekend in the Middle East and Eastern Europe underscore the need for Congress to act immediately,” Jeffries said in a letter to House Democrats moments before this post went to press. “This is a Churchill or Chamberlain moment. House Democrats will defend democracy and do everything in our legislative power to confront aggression. Will factions within the Republican majority continue to appease it?”
Despite the House Republican opposition to additional Ukraine aid, senior members from both parties say the Senate bill would pass with overwhelming bipartisan support—a reality many say Johnson is aware of, which is why he hasn’t brought the bill to the floor.
Instead, he’s floated all sorts of alternatives—or “innovations,” as the speaker calls them—to the Senate bill that could appeal to his anti-Ukraine members. Johnson informally proposed the idea of turning Ukraine aid into loans a few weeks ago, an idea suggested by Donald Trump and reiterated by Johnson during a joint appearance with the former president at Mar-a-Lago last Friday. He also floated attaching a bill that would empower the Biden administration to seize and sell Russian assets with the proceeds going to Ukraine. The speaker has also considered legislation that would repeal a Biden administration ban on liquified natural gas export applications.
The issue is that any change to the Senate bill would require the upper chamber to reconsider a bill that passed with 70 votes—a rarity in our polarized times. It would take a week to pass in the Senate before reaching the president’s desk to be signed into law. If the House passed the Senate bill, it could be signed within hours.
Jeffries told reporters late last week the Senate bill was the only path forward for Democrats, given the urgency of the wars in Gaza and Ukraine.
“Enough with the delays, the obstruction, the gamesmanship, the obfuscation—enough. The world is on fire. American leadership is required. The entire post-World War II rules-based society on the global stage is at risk,” he said. “It’s because of inaction in the do-nothing Republican House we failed to provide Ukraine with the support that it needs to push back against Russian aggression. There’s only one path forward.”
But if Johnson allows Ukraine aid to proceed, Rep. Majorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) could trigger a vote on the motion to vacate Johnson as speaker. This development would freeze the House in the same way it was nonfunctional during the three weeks between former Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s ouster and Johnson’s election last fall.
Jeffries has indicated members of his caucus could be willing to protect Johnson if he puts the Senate bill on the House floor.
“I’ve made the observation—not a declaration—that if the speaker would do the right thing and allow the House to work its will with an up and down vote on the national security bill that I believe that there are a reasonable number of Democrats who would not want to see the speaker fall as a result of doing the right thing,” he said. “Observation, not a declaration, because we have to have a conversation amongst ourselves as House Democrats before making such a solemn decision.”
And if the bill does hit the floor, it would almost certainly be under suspension of the rules, the fast-track legislative mechanism that limits debate on specific bills, prohibits amendments and, as I mentioned earlier, requires a two-thirds majority support. This higher threshold could pose problems since several House progressives oppose the Senate bill because it provides aid to Israel without conditions.
Jeffries said he believed there were enough votes in the middle of the two parties to pass the bill if it came to the floor though.
Iran launched more than 120 ballistic missiles, 170 drones and more than 30 cruise missiles during the attack. Virtually all of the projectiles were intercepted by Israeli air defense systems with support from the US, the United Kingdom and Jordan.
Missile fragments severely injured a young girl, while a military base in southern Israel saw minor damage. The attack lasted approximately five hours, according to US officials.
“The matter can be deemed concluded,” Iran said while the attack was ongoing. But Israel is expected to respond, although the timing is unclear. President Biden has encouraged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to demonstrate restraint as his administration works behind the scenes to rein in Bibi’s scorched-earth impulses.
President Joe Biden returned from his Delaware beach home a day early to meet with his national security team in the White House Situation Room. He was briefed on the events in the Middle East ahead of his return.
The president spoke with Netanyahu Saturday night to reaffirm the US’s commitment to Israel’s security and convened a meeting of G7 leaders to coordinate a diplomatic response to the attack. He also spoke to King Abdullah II of Jordan and members of the two squadrons that helped Israel defend itself during the air assault.
Members of Congress in both parties condemned the attack over the weekend.
Republicans blamed the president for what they perceive as his appeasement of Iran, with some calling on the commander-in-chief to respond directly to the country—a move that could spark an escalation beyond the point of no return.
“President Biden must lead an international effort to impose sufficient costs on Tehran to compel an end to its aggression and terror, both on Israeli soil and around the region,” McConnell said in a statement on Saturday. “Iran’s leaders must know the things they value most are at risk.”
Democrats essentially encouraged Biden to pursue diplomacy to deescalate tensions in the Middle East and slammed former President Donald Trump for pulling the US out of the Iran nuclear deal in 2018 to pursue a so-called “maximum pressure” campaign against all countries and companies doing trade or business with Iran. Trump’s sanctions also cut off Iran from the international financial system, invalidating most of the deal’s economic provisions.
Trump, on cue, said the attack would have never happened if he were still in office. Who knows what this post would have looked like had he still occupied the Oval Office? There’s a possibility we could find out if he returns this November.
After passing a two-year extension to the government’s spy powers on Friday, House Republicans announced they would consider bills to deregulate clothes dryers, refrigerators, air conditioners and dishwashers.
These bills would likely collect dust in the Senate and generate swift opposition from the White House. But they’ll rile up the base and give House Republicans fodder to include on the campaign trail and in fundraising emails as the rail against the Biden administration’s clean-energy agenda.
Obviously, House Democrats wasted little time slamming the upcoming agenda.
“I have great empathy for many Americans who want to see the United States Congress take more steps to lower costs,” House Assistant Minority Leader Joe Neguse (D-Colo.) told me on Friday afternoon. “Fundamentally, we need the majority in the House so that we can pursue an agenda that reflects the priorities of the American people—voting on the Refrigerator Freedom Act is not the way to do it.”