In his first major move, House Speaker Mike Johnson, (R-Louisiana), is using the bipartisan goal of providing aid to Israel to pick a fight with President Joe Biden. A new bill House Republicans released Monday includes $14.3 billion in emergency funding for Israel while rescinding the same amount of IRS funding from the Inflation Reduction Act, the major climate, health care and tax law President Biden signed last year. In fact, the legislation might actually be scored as adding to the deficit, however, since the Congressional Budget Office found similar proposed cuts would reduce tax revenue brought in by the IRS. The new GOP bill is slated for consideration by the Rules Committee when the House returns Wednesday, with a vote in the full chamber expected as early as this week. If the bill passes the GOP-controlled House, the IRS provisions are all but guaranteed to be rejected by the Democratic-led Senate and White House, setting up a clash over how to approve Israel aid. It represents an early test for Johnson on navigating the demands of Republican hard-liners with the realities of divided government. Senate Republican leaders as well as Democrats are reluctant to cut federal programs to offset the cost of helping Israel. Emergency spending outside the regular appropriations bills traditionally does not count against the annual spending cap.
For today, the Senate convened at 10:00 A.M. and is expected to sped today working on the nomination of Matthew James Maddox to be United States District Judge for the District of Maryland and critically, Jacob J. Lew to be Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to the State of Israel. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved Lew by a mostly partisan vote of 12-9 last week with Senator Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) being the only Republican to vote in support of the nomination.
When the House reconvenes tomorrow, it will continue churning through appropriations bills, with three on the docket for the coming days. The chamber will consider legislation funding legislative branch appropriations; the Department of the Interior, Environment, and related agencies; and Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and related agencies. The emphasis on appropriations measures comes ahead of the November 17th government funding deadline. Johnson has said he wants to make as much progress as possible on the full slate of spending measures ahead of the looming deadline, even though a short-term funding patch will more than likely be needed to keep the lights on beyond November 17th. The House has passed just five of 12 appropriations bills.
The chamber is also set to weigh in on a resolution to expel Representative George Santos (R-New York), and measures to censure Representatives Rashida Tlaib (D-Michigan) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia) — three figures who have drawn sharp criticism from lawmakers on opposite sides of the aisle and, at times, from members of their own parties.
