Monday, October 30th, 2023
House Appropriations: The House plans to vote on three measures: Legislative Branch (H.R.4364), Interior-Environment (H.R.4821), and Transportation-HUD (H.R. 4820). The new leadership plans to keep using closed rules, as opposed to open rules that were demanded back in January. That would leave four spending bills left to vote on next month, including the Commerce-Justice-Science (H.R.5893) and Labor-HHS-Education (H.R.5894) bills.
Senate Appropriations: The Senate began debate on a three bill spending package. The spending package combines the fiscal 2024 Military Construction-VA (S.2127), Agriculture (S.2131) and Transportation-HUD (S.2437) appropriations bills. The House-passed Military Construction-VA bill (H.R.4366) is being used as the legislative vehicle for the spending package.
Expelling George Santos: Rep. Anthony D’Esposito (R-NY) yesterday made a formal demand to vote on his expulsion resolution (H.Res.773), requiring Johnson to call a vote within two legislative days. The Constitution requires a two-thirds vote to expel a member, which has only been done five times. Rep. Santos (R-NY) has been indicted on charges of Conspiracy, wire fraud, false statements, falsification of records, aggravated identity theft, credit card fraud, and more.
Censoring House Members: Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) introduced a resolution to censure Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) for what she described as “antisemitic activity, sympathizing with terrorist organizations, and leading an insurrection at the United States Capitol Complex.” Rep. Greene asserts that Rep. Tlaib, a supporter of Palestinian rights, led an insurrection, referring to a protest last week calling for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war. That protest resulted in over 300 arrests.
Rep. Becca Balint (D-VT) offered a resolution to censure Rep. Greene for actions she said “fanned the flames of racism, antisemitism, hate speech against the LGBTQ community, Islamophobia, Asian hate, xenophobia and other forms of hatred.” She also mentioned conspiracy theories Rep. Greene promulgated on 9/11, among others.
Those censure resolutions, which require a simple majority vote, are privileged and take precedence when the House returns this week.
