October 13th

This week in MORE POWER:

A House Without A Speaker
War In The Middle East
Transportation & Housing Budget
Upcoming Senate Business
2024 Budget Watch

A House Without A Speaker

The House still isn’t holding any legislative votes, since they have not been successful in electing a new speaker. This scenario is unprecedented. Until last week, the House had never fired a speaker in the middle of a term. And it comes at a time when Congress only has 35 days to pass a budget to avoid a government shutdown.

House Republicans met on Wednesday to select their candidate to replace former Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy, (R-CA). As the majority party, Republicans must choose a candidate for Speaker before the entire House can hold a vote. Top contenders for the role included House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, (R-LA) and House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan, (R-OH).

Scalise won the vote 113-99. A nominee generally needs to get 217 votes to win the speakership in the full House vote. After negotiating with members for 24 hours to earn more votes, Scalise saw that he did not have enough support to win and withdrew his candidacy. House Republicans are meeting today to discuss what happens next. Jordan may announce his bid in this next round of nominations. Many members have spoken out against his candidacy due to personal and professional differences, so it is unlikely that he will win the Speakership.

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War In The Middle East

In the wake of the war in Israel and Palestine, elected officials in the federal government are discussing how the U.S. will respond. Congress had previously been talking about additional military aid to Ukraine. Now there is bipartisan support for military aid to Israel and Ukraine in both chambers, but many House Republicans only want to pass aid to Israel. Congress is not discussing aid to Gaza.

Members of Congress vote on funding priorities in times of war and peace, as part of passing the annual budget. For example, in 2021, the Consolidated Appropriations Act contained $3.31B in military and economic aid to Israel (population 9.7M). In the same year, Congress approved $235M in humanitarian, economic and development assistance to Palestinians living in Gaza and the West Bank (population 5.4M).

As Congress debates how the U.S. will act now, you can contact your representative to let them know your position on the issue. Have a view you would like to share?

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Transportation & Housing Budget

Despite Republican infighting, the House has made five times the amount of progress on the budget than the Senate: it passed all five bills that have passed in one chamber so far.

Thinking that they would have elected a new speaker and resumed votes by Wednesday, House Republicans had put one bill on the voting schedule this week, the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act. This $99B bill would fund the Department of Transportation as well as the operations, staffing and modernization of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), adding 1,800 new air traffic controllers, among other road, bridge, rail, housing, and infrastructure projects.

Should the House pass it, the House will have passed 50% of the 2024 budget bills. Not an A+ grade, but better than the Senate’s 0%. Have a view on this that you would like to share?

You Can Read About The Bill & Take Action Here

Upcoming Senate Business

The Senate is at recess until Monday. When they return, they have several Biden nominations to vote on, including:

Jennifer L. Hall, of Pennsylvania, to be U.S. District Judge for Delaware
Julia Kathleen Munley, of Pennsylvania, to be U.S. District Judge for Pennsylvania’s Middle District
Karla Ann Gilbride, of Maryland, to be General Counsel of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

The Senate must also decide how to make progress on passing the 2024 budget. Time is of the essence. The government will shut down if Congress does not pass a budget by November 17th. Have a view on this that you would like to share?

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