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Zelensky planning to visit US Capitol in person on Wednesday

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is expected to visit the U.S. Capitol in person on Wednesday, a Senate aide confirmed to The Hill. 

It would mark the first time the Ukrainian president has left his country since before Russia launched its invasion on Feb. 24.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) sent a letter to lawmakers on Tuesday encouraging them to “be present for a very special focus on Democracy Wednesday night.”

Punchbowl News first reported on the possible historic visit, citing several sources familiar with the plans. 

The visit comes as Zelensky, his top military officials and aides have warned that Russia is planning to renew a large-scale ground invasion, and as the country suffers under devastating aerial attacks that have destroyed its energy and electricity infrastructure entering winter.

Congress on Tuesday proposed to provide Ukraine with $45 billion in military, economic and other assistance related to Russia’s war on the country, as part of the omnibus spending package lawmakers hope to pass by the end of the week.

Source: TEST FEED1

Pelosi urges Democrats to support massive spending bill: ‘Urgent and necessary’

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is urging her troops to get behind a massive bill to fund the government through most of next year, touting new funding for Democratic priorities and citing an urgency to get the package to President Biden’s desk before a potential shutdown at week’s end.

In a letter to fellow Democrats, the outgoing Speaker cited a number of Democratic victories in the package, including provisions to hike nutrition funding for low-income children, provide a huge increase in money for veterans health care, and lend assistance to the victims of natural disasters around the country. 

“It is urgent and necessary that we enact this omnibus package, so that we may keep government open and delivering for America’s families,” Pelosi wrote. 

Uniting House Democrats behind the proposal could be crucial, since House Republicans have been highly critical of both the substance of the funding package and the process that led to it.

Republicans are set to take control of the lower chamber in January, and they’ve been urging GOP senators to oppose a long-term spending bill in favor of a short-term patch that would grant the incoming House Republican majority more leverage in the negotiations. 

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), who is vying for the Speaker’s gavel next year and needs the support of conservatives to get it, has joined the chorus of critics, breaking with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who is supporting the legislation, and putting more pressure on Pelosi and Democrats to rally behind it. With a thin House majority, they can likely afford few defections. 

Highlighting those dynamics, only nine House Republicans had voted earlier this month for a one-week stop-gap bill to prevent a shutdown last Friday. And a coalition of conservatives is already warning of retaliation against GOP senators who support the package — a tactic McCarthy quickly endorsed. 

“When I’m Speaker, their bills will be dead on arrival in the House if this nearly $2T monstrosity is allowed to move forward over our objections and the will of the American people,” McCarthy tweeted. 

Released just after 2 a.m. Tuesday morning, the $1.7 trillion spending package — known in Washington as an omnibus — would fund the federal agencies through the remainder of fiscal year 2023, which runs through September. Without congressional action, large parts of the government are scheduled to shutter at the end of the day on Friday. 

The legislation arrived after weeks of tense, post-midterm negotiations between three top appropriators: Sens. Pat Leahy (D-Vt.) and Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), and Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Ct.), a close Pelosi ally. The absence of DeLauro’s counterpart, Rep. Kay Granger (R-Texas), reflects the opposition of House GOP leaders to the process. 

The package features $858 billion for defense programs — almost $80 billion over current levels — and $773 billion for other domestic initiatives, including $119 billion for veterans health care, a 22 percent increase over this year’s spending. 

Pelosi and other Democratic supporters were quick to promote the bump in health care spending, as well as other provisions they secured as part of the talks. At the top of that list was new medical funding for low-income families under Medicaid; an increase in money for mental health services; and almost $45 billion in new assistance — both military and humanitarian — to help Ukraine weather Russia’s long-running invasion.

Pelosi is also cheering the inclusion of the Electoral Count Act, which is designed to ensure the smooth and peaceful transfer of power between administrations — a bill that came as a direct response to President Trump’s refusal to acknowledge defeat in 2020, and the rampage at the U.S. Capitol that followed. 

That, Pelosi wrote, “will help thwart future attempts to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power like we saw on January 6th.”

Still, the bipartisan nature of the package ensures that neither side gets everything it wants. And there were a number of Democratic priorities that were excluded from the legislation. 

Among the most high-profile of those items were proposals to provide parity between defense and non-defense spending; allot more funding to fight COVID-19; grant new rights to young, undocumented immigrants; and establish sentencing parity between crimes involving crack cocaine and its powder alternative.

Liberal groups are also decrying the absence of a bipartisan reform bill designed to rein in Big Tech monopolies. And environmentalists are howling that a provision aimed to helped lobster fisheries in the northeast will lead to the potential extinction of North Atlantic right whales, which are highly endangered. 

“What a horrific legacy to leave to one’s grandchildren,” said Brett Hartl, government affairs director at the Center for Biological Diversity. 

Pelosi, who has led the House Democrats for the last two decades, is the first to acknowledge that the package isn’t everything her party fought to achieve. But in her final weeks at the top of the party, she’s promoting the package as the last best chance for the Democrats to maximize their leverage before the House changes hands.

The omnibus, she said, would conclude a “most consequential” 117th Congress “on a strong note.” 

Source: TEST FEED1

Greene and Boebert trade public barbs over McCarthy, ‘space lasers’

Tension between conservative firebrand Reps. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) has spilled into public view, with the two trading barbs over House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s (R-Calif.) Speakership ambitions, controversial and fringe statements Greene has made and Boebert’s narrow reelection.

A comment from Boebert about Greene during an interview on Monday alongside Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) launched the testy and public back-and-forth between the two lawmakers.

“You know, I’ve been aligned with Marjorie and accused of believing a lot of the things that she believes in,” Boebert told conservative commentator Charlie Kirk at a Turning Point USA conference when asked about Greene’s support for McCarthy. “I don’t believe in this just like I don’t believe in Russian space lasers – Jewish space lasers and all of this.”

Boebert’s comment was a reference to a 2018 Facebook post from Greene in which she floated that a “laser beam or light beam” from “space solar generators” could be to blame for wildfires in California, also mentioning the “Rothschild Inc.” Greene later said she did not know the Rothschilds have long been at the center of antisemitic conspiracies theories.

Greene fired back at Boebert on Twitter Monday evening, noting Boebert’s slimmer-than-expected reelection win and accusing her of being childish.

“I’ve supported and donated to Lauren Boebert. President Trump has supported and donated to Lauren Boebert. Kevin McCarthy has supported and donated to Lauren Boebert. She just barely came through by 500 votes,” Greene said. “She gladly takes our $$$ but when she’s been asked: Lauren refuses to endorse President Trump, she refuses to support Kevin McCarthy, and she childishly threw me under the bus for a cheap sound bite.”

Boebert responded to Greene in comments to the Daily Caller on Monday, saying she supports Trump and that he is the leader of the Republican Party.

Greene and Boebert were both elected to the House for the first time in 2020 and won reelection in 2022. The two are members of the confrontational right-wing House Freedom Caucus, and have been vocal allies of Trump. In one notable moment, they both chanted “build the wall” during President Biden’s State of the Union address this year. 

But they have taken very different stances on whether McCarthy should be Speaker. 

Boebert has withheld support for McCarthy, saying that her “red line” is restoring any member’s ability to make a “motion to vacate the chair” to force a vote on ousting the Speaker. 

Greene, on the other hand, has emerged as one of McCarthy’s most vocal supporters, warning that a more moderate alternative could win the Speakership if House Republicans do not unify around him.

McCarthy has pledged to put Greene back on committees after she was stripped of her assignments over social media interactions, but Greene has said McCarthy has not made any promises regarding which committees she might sit on.

In comments to the Daily Caller on Monday, Boebert dug in on her criticism of Greene and expressed frustration about being tied to her fringe statements and actions.

“I’ve been asked to explain MTG’s belief in Jewish space lasers, why she showed up to a white supremacist’s conference, and now why she’s blindly following Kevin McCarthy and I’m not going to go there,” Boebert said.

Greene earlier this year spoke at a conference hosted by white nationalist Nick Fuentes. Last month, after Fuentes attended a dinner with Trump and rapper Kanye West, Greene condemned Fuentes. She said that she would not have spoken at the conference had she known his views, but did not regret her message.

“The only person who can answer for Marjorie’s words and actions is Marjorie. Let me be very clear, I support President Trump. Period. President Trump is a friend and the leader of the Republican party,” Boebert said. 

Boebert’s “space laser” dig echoed a similar quip from Gaetz last month.

“Whatever Kevin has promised Marjorie Taylor Greene, I guarantee you this: At the first opportunity, he will zap her faster than you can say Jewish space laser,” Gaetz, who is among a small group of House Republicans vocally opposing McCarthy’s Speakership bid, said on former Trump adviser Steve Bannon’s “War Room” show in November.

But Gaetz, who went on a speaking tour with Greene last year, soon made clear that he is an “admirer” of Greene’s and praised her for “inspiring our patriotic fellow Americans.”

Appearing in the same interview with Boebert on Monday, Gaetz said that while he is “a fan of hers,” they do not see the Speakership battle the same way.

Source: TEST FEED1

Biden to meet with leaders of Mexico and Canada in Mexico City next month

President Biden will visit Mexico City next month for a summit with other North American leaders, the White House confirmed Tuesday.

Biden will meet with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Jan. 9 and 10, 2023, national security spokesperson John Kirby told reporters.

Kirby said next month’s summit will “build on the progress from the last one, with concrete initiatives” focused on climate and the environment, migration, diversity and inclusion and increasing North America’s economic competitiveness.

Biden is expected to meet one-on-one with López Obrador, followed by a trilateral meeting that includes Trudeau.

Next month’s gathering in Mexico City will mark just the second North American Leaders’ Summit since the Obama administration. Biden hosted the leaders of Mexico and Canada at the White House last year for the North American Leaders Summit.

Migration will likely be a top focus of the summit next month, with Biden facing pressure from Republicans and some Democrats to do more to stem the flow of migrants coming across the U.S.-Mexico border. 

The Biden administration is readying for the lifting of pandemic-era border restrictions under a policy known as Title 42, which critics worry will lead to a surge in migration that the U.S. is unready to handle. The Supreme Court on Monday ruled that the policy would remain in place for now.

Source: TEST FEED1

House GOP bloc threatens to ‘thwart’ legislative priorities of GOP senators who vote for omnibus

A group of 13 current and incoming GOP House members are calling on Republican senators to oppose the omnibus spending bill released early Tuesday morning, threatening to “thwart” any policy priorities championed by Republican senators who vote for the legislative package.

The tactic also got an endorsement from House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), who is aiming to become Speaker despite opposition from several of the letter’s signatories that threatens to keep him from the gavel. The GOP Leader pledged that bills from GOP senators who vote for the package would be “dead on arrival” if he is Speaker.

“Put aside the absurd spending and empowerment of Biden bureaucrats to continue their intentional abuse of power and dereliction of duty. It is the willingness of Senate Republicans to abandon for now the one leverage point we have – the power of the purse – to stop Biden’s purposeful refusal to secure and defend our borders that is most offensive,” said the letter sent Monday, led by Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas).

The letter called the omnibus bill an “indefensible assault” on separation of powers, fiscal responsibility and civic decency. The bill, which was negotiated between Republicans and Democrats, needs support from at least 10 Senate Republicans in order to overcome a filibuster.

“Further, we are obliged to inform you that if any omnibus passes in the remaining days of this Congress, we will oppose and whip opposition to any legislative priority of those senators who vote for this bill – including the Republican leader,” the letter said. “We will oppose any rule, any consent request, suspension voice vote, or roll call vote of any such Senate bill, and will otherwise do everything in our power to thwart even the smallest legislative and policy efforts of those senators.”

The threat marks an escalation for the House GOP members who have long called for an omnibus spending bill to be delayed until after the GOP takes control of the House.

Rep. Scott Perry (Pa.), chair of the House Freedom Caucus, also signed the letter, along with Reps. Dan Bishop (N.C.), Andy Biggs (Ariz.), Matt Rosendale (Mont.), Matt Gaetz (Fla.), Ralph Norman (S.C.), Bob Good (Va.), Byron Donalds (Fla.) and Andrew Clyde (Ga.), and Reps.-elect Anna Paulina Luna (Fla), Andy Ogles (Tenn.), and Eli Crane (Ariz.).

The letter also warns of further fracturing of the Republican Party if the legislation passes with the help of Republican senators.

“Kill this terrible bill or there is no point in pretending we are a united party, and we must prepare for a new political reality,” the letter said.

Text of the omnibus spending package, which would last through the end of the 2023 fiscal year in September, was released early Tuesday morning. Both chambers of Congress are expected to vote on the legislation this week before government funding runs out on Dec. 23.

The sweeping 4,155-page bill includes $44.9 billion in funding for Ukraine and NATO allies, $2 million in “off-campus” security for lawmakers, Electoral Count Act reform and a measure to ban the Chinese-owned social media app TikTok from government phones.

Many of the signers of the letter have withheld support from McCarthy’s Speakership bid as they push him to adopt more aggressive tactics and rules changes that would empower rank-and-file members.  Biggs, Rosendale, Gaetz, Good, and Norman have all explicitly said or strongly indicated that they would vote against McCarthy in the Jan. 3 Speaker’s vote.

On Wednesday, McCarthy tweeted an endorsement of the tactics outlined in the letter.

“Agreed. Except no need to whip—when I’m Speaker, their bills will be dead on arrival in the House if this nearly $2T monstrosity is allowed to move forward over our objections and the will of the American people,” McCarthy said.

McCarthy had already echoed the concerns outlined in the letter and called for a continuing resolution into the new year so a Republican-controlled House could have leverage to push for spending cuts and other priorities. Some senators have chalked up his stance as a political move in order to earn support for the Speakership, though McCarthy has bushed off that assertion.

This story was updated at 11:28 a.m.

Source: TEST FEED1

What made the cut in Congress’ 4,155-page, $1.7 trillion funding bill — and what didn’t

Congress is set to vote on a 4,155-page, $1.7 trillion government funding bill within days of its release this week.

The omnibus funding package, made up of the 12 annual appropriations bills, will fund the government and its various agencies through the remainder of fiscal year 2023, which ends in late September.

Its expected passage in the days ahead will cap off months of stalemates of haggling over issues like levels of growth for defense and nondefense spending and decades-old riders.

Here are some things that made the cut — and what was scrapped:

IN THE BILL

An increase in defense spending

The package included $858 billion in defense funding, a figure in line with the dollar level set by the National Defense Authorization Act that passed both chambers earlier this month.

Negotiators say defense funding baseline saw about a 10 percent increase, above the 7.1 percent inflation rate and almost double that of the nondefense baseline, when not factoring in veterans funding – which Democrats had previously pressed be categorized in its own section in spending talks.

Ukraine aid

The funding bill includes more than $40 billion for Ukraine aid, higher than what the White House requested last month. The jump comes as there have been concerns about how such funding would fare next year in a GOP-led House where some conservatives have become critical of the aid.

The news also comes days after the Pentagon announced plans for the country to expand military training for Ukrainian troops in Germany.

“We will expand U.S.-led training for the Ukrainian Armed Forces, to include joint maneuver and combined arms operations training, while building upon the specialized equipment training that we’re already providing to the Ukrainians,” Pentagon press secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said.

TikTok ban

Legislation introduced by Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) seeking to prohibit the use of TikTok on government phones and devices made it into the package.

The measure’s inclusion comes after the Senate unanimously approved the bill earlier this month, and after Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) recently expressed support for passing the legislation. 

Electoral Count Act Reform

Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) had said prior to the package’s release that he expected the Electoral Count Reform Act to make an appearance.

The measure would reform the 1887 Electoral Count Act to clarify the vice president cannot overturn election results when Congress counts Electoral College votes and raise the number of members necessary to raise objections to a state’s electors. 

Lawmakers have been pushing for the measure since the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol while Congress was certifying the 2020 election, which followed former President Trump asserting former Vice President Mike Pence could overrule states’ electors.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) also endorsed the bill in an op-ed ahead of its release, framing it as a necessary piece of legislation to protect the Electoral College.

“In 2021, the theater act went too far and culminated in a mob disrupting the joint session of Congress to certify the presidential election,” Paul penned in an op-ed in The Louisville Courier-Journal.

Disaster relief

The bill includes about $40 billion in funding to “assist communities across the country recovering from drought, hurricanes, flooding, wildfire, natural disasters and other matters,” a legislative summary from Senate Appropriations Chair Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) said.

However, a bipartisan group of House members from California expressed disappointment following the release, after they say help for fire survivors was missing in the bill.

“Along with several California colleagues, I worked hard to pass this legislation, but nobody worked harder than Mike Thompson. I commend Rep. Thompson for the passion and dedication he brought to this effort, and I share his disappointment that Northern California fire disaster victims will not get federal tax relief in this year’s government funding bill,” Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) said. “I will keep working in every way I can to support Californians who lost property, homes, and even loved ones in the terrible wildfires that ravaged our region.”

OUT OF THE BILL

An increase in real-dollar nondefense spending compared to inflation

While defense spending was a 10 percent jump, the package includes $772.5 billion in non-defense discretionary spending, an increase that is less than the 7.1 percent inflation rate.

Child tax credit expansion

A Democratic-led push for an expansion to the child tax credit, which saw a temporary revamp under the sweeping coronavirus relief package the party passed without GOP support last year, also didn’t make the cut. 

Under the temporary expansion, Democrats removed work requirements and raised the maximum credit amount. The expansion also allowed those eligible to access half of the credit amount through monthly payments.

However, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) signaled his party’s campaign for the beefed up credit, which Democrats laud a means to help confront deep child poverty, is not over.

“We’re gonna show up every day and fight for it and particularly make it clear that this is an investment, in making sure that the number one priority of businesses – they want trained, educated workers – can be realized,” Wyden told The Hill on Monday, while citing the need to give children a “good start.”

Cannabis banking bill

A bipartisan push to tuck the popular cannabis banking bill known as the SAFE Banking Act into the omnibus failed.

The bill sought to do away with federal rules restricting banks from working with legal cannabis businesses. It had strong backing from Democrats, and Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.), a key backer, had said he was confident the bill, which had nine GOP cosponsors, would fetch sufficient bipartisan support. 

“The failure to pass my bipartisan ‘SAFE Banking Act’ means communities in Montana and across our country will remain vulnerable to crime where legal businesses are forced to operate in all-cash,” Daines said. “This bill to promote public safety would have been well positioned to pass had it gone through the regular committee process—as I called for more than a year ago. Our small businesses, law enforcement and communities deserve better.”

Sentencing reform

Advocates are in uproar over the absence of a bipartisan compromise worked out by top Democrats and Sen. Chuck Grassley (Iowa), the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, to address sentencing disparities for crack and powder cocaine offenses.

Currently, an individual can be sentenced under federal law to at least five years behind bars for possession of 500 grams of powder cocaine, and 10 years for possessing 5 kilograms. By contrast, individuals found to have possessed 28 grams of crack cocaine can be subjected to five-year sentences as a mandatory minimum under the same rulebook, and 10 years for 280 grams. 

While Democrats pushed to reduce that gap from 18-to-1 to 1-to-1, the compromise leaders worked out last week would have set the ratio at 2.5-to-1, amid resistance from Republicans to flattening the ratio entirely.

OTHER HIGHLIGHTS

On top of defense funding levels Republicans are already celebrating from the package, GOP appropriators are also highlighting the 4.6 percent raise secured for military pay.

But despite what Republicans have touted as a lack of parity in growth levels for defense and nondefense, Democrats have also highlighted a list of investments in the package in a broad overview of the package.

That includes multiple investments in health care and research, such as $47.5 billion for the National Institutes of Health, $9.2 billion for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, $1.5 billion for an initiative by President Biden aimed at fighting cancer, and $950 million for the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority.

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program saw a $13.4 billion increase, and a boost of $28.5 billion for Child Nutrition Programs, and $6 billion for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children.

Democratic negotiators also tout the $1.435 billion for the Housing for the Elderly and Housing for Persons with Disabilities program and new Section 8 Housing Choice Vouchers they say would support over 11,000 more low-income households.

They say the bill would also raise the “maximum Pell Grant award to $7,395, $18.387 billion for Title I-A grants, and $1.2 billion for TRIO to support more than 800,000 low-income first-generation students get into college and succeed when they’re there.”

Source: TEST FEED1

Congressional negotiators roll out sweeping $1.7 trillion funding bill 

Congressional negotiators unveiled a mammoth $1.7 trillion funding bill early Tuesday, as leaders scramble to quickly sort out government funding for fiscal 2023 before the end of the month.

The 4,155-page funding package, which lawmakers hope to pass later this week, includes $772.5 billion in non-defense discretionary spending, and $858 billion in defense funding, a figure in line with the dollar level set by the National Defense Authorization Act that passed both chambers earlier this month.

Negotiators say they settled on more than $45 billion in funding to support Ukraine amid Russia’s ongoing invasion, up from the $37.7 billion that the White House requested in assistance last month. 

Negotiators say the legislation also includes $38 billion in emergency disaster assistance.

“Passing this bipartisan, bicameral, omnibus appropriations bill is undoubtedly in the interest of the American people,” Senate Appropriations Chair Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) said. “It is the product of months of hard work and compromise, and I want to thank my friends Vice Chairman Shelby and Chair DeLauro for their partnership and hard work.”

Leahy, who is retiring at the end of the year, urged his colleagues to pass the massive spending package, warning that failure to do so would leave money for Ukraine and disaster assistance in limbo. 

“A continuing resolution into the New Year does not, nor would it provide assistance to Ukraine or help to communities recovering from natural disasters. The choice is clear. We can either do our jobs and fund the government, or we can abandon our responsibilities without a real path forward,” he said.  

The package consists of all 12 annual appropriations bills Congress, and would fund the government through the remainder of fiscal 2023, which runs through now until September.

Hours ahead of the package’s unveiling, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) boasted the plus-up in proposed defense funding as significant when compared to the smaller increase seen in nondefense funding levels that would be set in the omnibus.

McConnell said the bill would provide “a substantial real-dollar increase to the defense baseline and a substantial real-dollar cut to the non-defense, non-veterans baseline.” He noted that, unlike the proposed defense budget, the nondefense baseline would see an increase below the rate of inflation. 

“The bipartisan government funding bill that Sens. [Richard] Shelby [R-Ala.] and Leahy have finished negotiating does exactly the opposite of what the Biden administration first proposed,” he said on the Senate floor Monday afternoon.

Negotiators say defense funding baseline saw about a 10 percent increase, compared to almost half that increase for the nondefense baseline, when not factoring the veterans funding – which Democrats had previously pressed be categorized in its own section in spending talks.

By comparison, the annual inflation rate hit 7.1 percent last month.

The package also provides $40 billion in disaster assistance and a $119 billion or 22 percent increase in spending for Veterans Affairs medical care. 

After weeks of negotiation, Democrats agreed to a bigger increase for defense programs than non-defense programs, a demand made by McConnell and other Republicans as a condition for passing a year-end omnibus instead of a stop-gap spending measure that would have punted spending decisions into 2023.  

Republicans pressed hard for domestic spending that Democrats passed in packages without GOP support, like the Inflation Reduction Act and the American Rescue Plan, to also be factored into negotiations, while pressing for a drawdown in nondefense spending.

One of the biggest battles seen in the weeks leading up to the bill brewed within the GOP over how long Congress should delay setting new government funding levels for fiscal 2023, which began in October.

Republicans in both chambers have been pressuring leaders to hold off new government funding until next early year, when the House ushers in a GOP-led majority, to give the party more influence over how agencies should be funded through next fall.

“I object to the way we run our government, the way Congress really abdicates its power of the purse,” Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said on Monday, lamenting the omnibus as “thousands of pages long created by a few people basically in secret.”

“I object to a trillion deficit being added to our total tab of $31 trillion. So I object to the entire process — to the spending, to the debt being added. How that works out this week I don’t know yet, but I promise you were going to be very loud,” he added.

However, many Republicans have pushed back on the idea, instead citing concerns about funding for national security and defense.

It’s unclear when the bill will come to the floor, but the Senate is expected to vote on the legislation by Dec. 22.

Its expected passage in the days ahead will cap off months of stalemates and haggling between both sides over issues like levels of growth for defense and nondefense spending and decades-old riders.

The legislation was held up for a few hours Monday afternoon because outgoing House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) and other Maryland lawmakers pushed to include language in the omnibus that favored Maryland over Virginia as the site of the new FBI headquarters. 

Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) helped broker a compromise by adding language to ensure the General Services Administration will conduct separate and detailed consultations with representatives from Maryland and Virginia on siting requirements for the new headquarters. 

Congress currently has until Friday to pass funding legislation to stave off a shutdown.

—Al Weaver and Alexander Bolton contributed to this report, which was updated at 8:07 a.m.

Source: TEST FEED1

How Trump is likely to be haunted by Jan. 6 panel long after its exit

The House committee that has caused former President Donald Trump problems for much of the past year delivered one more direct blow on Monday as it accused him of four specific crimes and referred him to the Justice Department for possible prosecution.

The panel established to investigate the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol is about to exit the national stage, with Republicans taking over the House and the committee’s two GOP members — Reps. Liz Cheney (Wyo.) and Adam Kinzinger (Ill.) — leaving Congress altogether.

But the committee’s recommendations of charges for Trump mean it will haunt the former president as he tries to embark on a new campaign to win the White House.

Attention will now swing from Congress to the Department of Justice, which must make decisions on whether to proceed with the high-profile panel’s work even as it conducts its own investigations under the leadership of a special counsel.

Sources close to Trump, who launched a new White House bid less than a week after the midterm elections, ultimately don’t believe his support will erode because of the panel, arguing that public views on Jan. 6 are already entrenched and the committee’s makeup – seven Democrats and two Republican Trump critics – will do little to change minds.

Yet Trump is unlikely to be fully free of the panel’s findings and its influence in the months until the Department of Justice includes its work.

In public, Trump allies responded with a mix of anger, glee and snark as the Jan. 6 panel concluded its final meeting before being disbanded under a GOP-led House.

“The sham unselect committee has adjourned today, not because the investigation reached any valid legal conclusion, but because Democrats were voted out of power by the American people. Thankfully, this marks the end of the reign of Pelosi and the Democrats—good riddance!” tweeted Taylor Budowich, head of the Trump-aligned MAGA Inc. super PAC.

Steven Cheung, a former Trump White House official who is reportedly working on the 2024 campaign, argued the criminal referrals amounted to the panel carrying water for Democrats who wanted to see Trump disqualified from running for office.

The panel recommended that Justice investigate the former president on four charges: inciting an insurrection, conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to make a false statement and obstruction of an official proceeding.

“If the evidence is as we presented it, I’m convinced the Justice Department will charge former President Trump. No one, including a former president, is above the law,” Thompson said in an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper moments after the panel’s final public meeting.

The House committee has created headaches for Trump throughout the past year, as its public hearings produced new revelations about how many aides told him there was no widespread fraud in the 2020 election, about the degree to which he pressured officials to find examples of fraud, about the fringe voices he brought into the White House, and about his inaction as a mob stormed the Capitol to try and stop the certification of now-President Biden’s win.

Trump has shrugged off each new revelation, claiming he did not know witnesses who worked in his White House or dismissing it as a partisan exercise. 

The criminal referrals represent a different kind of threat to Trump, however, as he heads into 2023 facing numerous political and legal challenges.

The Justice Department will have the evidence compiled by the House committee and presented in public view, as well as potential evidence it has collected that is not in the public domain as it reviews potential charges against Trump.

That process could be drawn out well into the 2024 GOP primary cycle, hanging over Trump and forcing voters to weigh whether to support a candidate who could be indicted during the campaign.

The panel’s effect on Trump’s 2024 White House bid, which he announced in mid-November, can already be seen in some polls.

A June NBC News poll found 45 percent of Americans viewed Trump as “solely” or “mainly” responsible for the riots on Jan. 6.

An NPR-Marist-PBS Newshour poll in July found 57 percent of Americans believe Trump is to blame for the riots.

A Quinnipiac University poll released last week found 64 percent of Americans believe Trump bears a lot or some responsibility for the storming of the Capitol, and 47 percent believe he committed a crime related to Jan. 6.

And while the divide in polling largely falls along partisan lines, with Republicans opposing charges for Trump and Democrats supporting them, they underscore the degree to which the panel has hardened views about Trump that could make some in the GOP or Republican-leaning independents reluctant to put him on the ballot for a third time.

A Republican-led House likely means the attention will shift away from Trump and Jan. 6 and eliminating a key messaging platform for Democrats and critics of the former president. 

But at least two members of the House committee have already made clear they will make stopping Trump a central focus now that the panel’s work has concluded.

Kinzinger opted not to run for re-election, but he is likely to remain in the public eye through his newly founded group, Country First, which aims to close the partisan gap. Kinzinger also penned an op-ed in the aftermath of November’s midterms arguing Americans must reject Trump in 2024. He wrote that Trump’s reelection “could further erode American democracy, potentially rendering it irredeemable.”

Similarly, Cheney is ceding a megaphone to go after Trump with the conclusion of the Jan. 6 committee’s work, and she will no longer be a member of Congress come January after losing a primary to a Trump-backed challenger.

But Cheney has made it clear that when the panel’s work ends, her efforts to keep Trump out of office will go on, even if it means mulling a third-party bid of her own in 2024.

In Monday’s hearing, Cheney used her opening statement to remind viewers that not only did Trump lay the foundation for Jan. 6 through his repeated false claims about the 2020 election, but that he waited for hours to intervene as the riot unfolded despite pleas from his advisers to do so.

“No man who would behave that way at that moment in time can ever serve in any position of authority in our nation again,” Cheney said. “He is unfit for any office.”

Source: TEST FEED1

Many Senate Republicans aren’t protecting Trump after Jan. 6 panel's nod to criminal charges

Senate Republicans are stepping out of the way of the House Jan. 6 committee’s recommendation that the Justice Department prosecute former President Trump for crimes related to the 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

GOP senators, especially those allied with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), say the Jan. 6 committee interviewed “credible” witnesses and added to the historical record in a substantial way, even though they have qualms about how Democrats have tried to use the panel’s findings to score political points.  

Now they say it’s up to Attorney General Merrick Garland or Department of Justice special counsel Jack Smith to investigate or indict Trump, but they’re not waving federal prosecutors off from prosecuting the former president.  

“The entire nation knows who is responsible for that day,” McConnell said in a statement, pointing the finger squarely at Trump in response to the House Jan. 6 committee referring four criminal charges against Trump to the Justice Department.  

It was McConnell’s strongest statement blaming Trump for inciting a crowd to storm the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, since he denounced him on the Senate floor in February of that year.  

“The people who stormed this building believed they were acting on the wishes and instructions of their president,” he said in February 2021 after voting on technical grounds to acquit Trump during his second impeachment trial.  

Senate Minority Whip John Thune (R-S.D.) said, “It’s up to Justice now.”  

Asked if he thought the committee had conducted a credible investigation of Trump, Thune replied, “They interviewed some credible witnesses.” 

Thune said the makeup of the panel was partisan because it comprised seven Democrats and only two anti-Trump Republicans, but he acknowledged, “They did interview a lot of folks that had a lot of knowledge of what happened and they were people who I think were very credible.”

Retiring Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), a member of McConnell’s leadership team, said the Jan. 6 committee’s final report, which will be made public Wednesday, is “important.” 

“I think the referrals are not as important as the report. The report’s important, even though it came out of a partisan process,” he said. 

“But the testimony is the testimony, and they were able to get the testimony from most of the people they wanted — not everybody but most — and I think most of the significant figures. That is the historical record,” Portman explained. “That’s very important.”  

The Jan. 6 panel on Monday made four criminal referrals alleging Trump incited insurrection, obstructed an official proceeding of Congress, conspired to defraud the United States and conspired to make a false statement.  

The referrals don’t require the Department of Justice to bring criminal charges against the former president, but they put more pressure on federal prosecutors to act.  

The panel also recommended the House Ethics Committee investigate House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and several allies — Reps. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), Scott Perry (R-Pa.) and Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) — and what they did in the lead-up to and on the day of the attack on the Capitol.  

House Republicans are expected to dismantle the Jan. 6 panel after they take control of the chamber in January.  

Trump shrugged off the criminal referrals in a statement posted to Truth Social, his social media platform.  

“These folks don’t get it that when they come after me, people who love freedom rally around me. It strengthens me. What doesn’t kill me makes me stronger,” he posted.  

Trump has announced a new bid for the White House, but it’s been clear for weeks amid a series of controversies surrounding Trump and a disappointing midterm election outcome for the GOP that a number of Republican senators would rather move on from the former president.

Only one Republican senator, Sen. Tommy Tuberville (Ala.), has publicly endorsed Trump’s 2024 presidential bid.  

Others have raised concerns about Trump’s viability in the 2024 general election or blamed him for derailing their chances of winning key Senate races in Pennsylvania and Georgia this year.  

While Republican senators speaking to the media on Monday did not entirely embrace the Jan. 6 panel, by any means, nor did most embrace Trump.

Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (W.Va.), another member of the Senate Republican leadership team, said she thought the Jan. 6 committee’s investigation “was a political process” and that she had “never seen” Congress recommend the Justice Department prosecute someone before.  

But she added that Trump “bears some responsibility” for the attack on the U.S. Capitol.  

“I don’t see that this changes anything. Let’s get the Electoral Count Act passed. That will clear up some of the ambiguity that came about that day,” she said, referring to legislation the Senate will take up this week to clarify that the vice president has a solely ministerial role when Congress convenes in joint session to certify the results of a presidential election.  

The bill is intended to eliminate the possibility that a future president tries to get the vice president to throw out slates of electors when presiding over a joint session of Congress, as Trump pressured then-Vice President Mike Pence to do on Jan. 6.   

McConnell, Thune, Portman and Capito all voted to acquit Trump after his second impeachment trial when he was charged with inciting insurrection. 

Many Senate Republicans, however, voted that way on technical grounds because Trump at the time of the trial was no longer in office.  

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), who voted to convict Trump in both of his impeachment trials, said, “There’s no question that President Trump deserves culpability for inciting the riot on Jan. 6 and for failure to act to protect the vice president and the Capitol of the United States.”

“Whether there are criminal charges associated with that would have to be determined by experienced prosecutors, and that’s what the Justice Department will determine,” he said.

Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), who also voted to impeach Trump, said he would leave it up to federal prosecutors to decide what to do. 

“I am not a lawyer and certainly not a prosecutor,” he said, adding he wasn’t surprised about the recommendation to prosecute.

“I don’t know the legal basis of it, but you know what I think of what the president did that day,” he said.  

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), who also voted to convict Trump in his second impeachment trial, said she was not surprised by the criminal referral by the House committee.  

“Obviously they spent considerable time and [went into] great detail over many months they have investigated this,” she said. “It’s really up to [the Department of Justice] where they go next.” 

“I think it’s going to be important for us to read this report that will be coming out Wednesday,” she said.  

Asked about McConnell’s statement that the entire nation knows Trump is responsible for the Jan. 6 attack, Murkowski replied, “I agree. I voted to impeach him.”   

Source: TEST FEED1