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White House: No signs of 'aliens or extraterrestrial activity' with shot-down objects

The White House on Monday shot down speculation that there may be an extraterrestrial component to recent aerial objects shot down in U.S. airspace in recent days. 

“There is no indication of aliens or extraterrestrial activity with these recent takedowns,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters at a briefing.

“It was important for us to say that from here, because we’ve been hearing a lot about it,” she added.

The U.S. military shot down three separate aerial objects over the weekend, roughly one week after shooting down a Chinese surveillance balloon near the South Carolina coast after it had traversed some of the country. 

Glen D. VanHerck, the commander of the Pentagon’s Northern Command, made waves on Sunday when he was asked if officials had ruled out the possibility that the objects taken down over the weekend were connected to extraterrestrials. 

“I’ll let the intel community and the counterintelligence community figure that out. I haven’t ruled out anything at this point,” VanHerck said. 

Biden administration officials have provided limited details about the three objects taken down over the weekend, in part because the weather and the way they were taken down have made it difficult to recover the objects. 

The U.S. on Friday shot down an object at 40,000 feet over Alaskan airspace after it posed a “reasonable threat” to civilian flight safety. 

The military on Saturday shot down another unidentified, cylindrical object over frozen territory in northern Canada.  

On Sunday, the military shot down an unidentified object over Lake Huron, which stretches from Michigan to Ontario, Canada. The object was first detected over Montana. 

John Kirby, a national security spokesperson for the White House, said officials are still trying to learn more about the objects. He noted that it’s possible there is nothing nefarious about the objects, and they could be connected to a private company or research institution. 

Officials have said the three objects shot down over the weekend differed from the Chinese spy balloon that was shot down over the water earlier this month. The three most recent objects were flying at lower altitudes, Kirby said, and were noticeably smaller than the balloon taken down near the coast of South Carolina. 

Source: TEST FEED1

What we know and don’t know about the latest objects shot down by the US

Three more objects were shot down by the U.S. military over the weekend after officials said they posed a threat to civilian airspace. 

The remarkable development came roughly one week after the U.S. shot down a Chinese surveillance balloon off the coast of South Carolina days after it was first reported to be hovering over the continental United States.

President Biden and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Saturday authorized the mission, and Biden ordered the U.S. military to send an F-22 fighter jet to take the object down in Canadian territory.

While U.S. officials have disclosed some information about the latest objects taken out of the sky, there are still major gaps in what even the government has learned about them and communicated publicly. 

Here is what is known about the objects shot down over the weekend, and what is still unknown.

Known

Friday over Alaska

The U.S. military took down an object off of the northern coast of Alaska on Friday afternoon. 

The “high-altitude object” was over Alaska at 40,000 feet and it was shot down at Biden’s direction on Friday afternoon, national security spokesman John Kirby confirmed at a press briefing that day. 

The object, which was described as much smaller than the Chinese spy balloon, landed in U.S. waters after a F-22 fired an AIM-9X Sidewinder missile to take it down. Officials have not said where the object originated from.

Saturday over Canada

The military on Saturday then shot down an unidentified, cylindrical object over frozen territory in northern Canada. 

Trudeau on Saturday authorized the mission and Biden ordered the U.S. military to send a F-22 fighter jet to take the object down in Canadian territory.

Officials said this object also did not resemble the Chinese spy balloon and avoided calling it a balloon. However, a Canadian defense official on Saturday did refer to it as a balloon, saying the instructions were that “whoever had the first, best shot to take out the balloon had the go-ahead.”

Sunday over Lake Huron

On Sunday afternoon, the military shot down an unidentified aircraft over Lake Huron, which stretches from Michigan to Ontario, Canada. 

The object was first detected over Montana on Saturday and was shot down with a F-16 fighter jet.

The Federal Aviation Administration briefly closed some airspace over Lake Michigan earlier on Sunday “to support Department of Defense activities,” the agency said in a statement to The Hill. The airspace has since been reopened.

Unknown

Where are these coming from and who is responsible? 

Some of the most basic information about the objects shot down over the weekend is still unknown, including who was operating them and what their purpose was.

Part of the issue is that officials have not been able to recover the debris yet from the objects shot down in recent days.

“We are going to continue to share as much information with the American people as we learn more about these objects,” Kirby said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Monday. 

“The truth is that we haven’t been able to gain access to the three that were shot down Friday, Saturday and yesterday, in large part because of the weather conditions, and the third one yesterday was shot down over Lake Huron, so it’s underwater.”

Glen VanHerck, the commander of the Pentagon’s Northern Command, made waves on Sunday when he was asked if officials had ruled out the possibility that the objects were connected to extraterrestrials.

“I’ll let the intel community and the counterintelligence community figure that out. I haven’t ruled out anything at this point,” VanHerck said.

Are objects flying in our skies a new phenomenon? 

It does not appear that balloons or other objects entering U.S. airspace is a brand new development, though the response of shooting them down has been.

A Pentagon official told reporters after the first surveillance balloon was shot down on Feb. 4 that Chinese spy balloons had transited U.S. airspace “at least three times during the prior administration and once that we know of at the beginning of this administration, but never for this duration of time.”

Former senior Trump administration officials have said they were unaware of the objects while they were in office, raising questions about whether they previously went undetected or if spottings were not communicated up the chain of command for some reason. 

Officials said on Saturday that because of the Chinese spy balloon shot down last week, “we have been more closely scrutinizing our air space at these altitudes, including enhancing our radar, which may at least partly explain the increase in objects that we’ve detected over the past week.”

Lawmakers over the last week have been raising questions over why this is the first time they are learning about balloons or other objects over U.S. airspace.  

“I think our military, our intelligence is doing a great job, present and future,” Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) told ABC News. “I feel a lot of confidence in what they are doing. But why as far back as the Trump administration, did no one know about this?”

Does the US fly objects over other countries?

China on Monday claimed more than 10 U.S. controlled balloons flew into Chinese airspace in the last year, an assertion White House officials forcefully rejected.

A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson did not provide any details about the incursions or how China responded.

Kirby on Monday said China’s claim was “absolutely not true.”

Adrienne Watson, a spokeswoman for the White House National Security Council, called it “the latest example of China scrambling to do damage control.” 

“It has repeatedly and wrongly claimed the surveillance balloon it sent over the US was a weather balloon and has failed to offer any credible explanations for its intrusion into our airspace, airspace of others,” Watson tweeted.

How much of a threat is it?  

It’s unclear if the three objects shot down over the weekend had a connection to China or the Chinese surveillance balloon from a week prior.

In the case of Friday’s object, Kirby said it posed a reasonable threat to civilian flight. 

He acknowledged on Monday that the objects may be “completely benign,” and that they could belong to tech companies or research institutions.

The objects shot down on Saturday and Sunday also raised a threat to civilian aircraft, officials have said, but officials haven’t pointed to immediate military threats.

Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio), the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said that there is an inherent threat considering there are multiple objects being shot down.

“What I think this shows, which is probably more important to our policy discussion here, is that we really have to declare that we’re going to defend our airspace. And then we need to invest,” he said on CNN.

Source: TEST FEED1

Georgia judge orders limited release of grand jury report on Trump election interference

A Georgia judge on Monday ordered the release of limited portions of a report from a grand jury tasked with reviewing election interference in 2020 as former President Trump sought to reverse his loss in the state.

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney, who is overseeing the grand jury’s work, declined to fully release the grand jury report, which is expected to include charging recommendations. 

Instead, he ordered the release of three portions of the report on Thursday.

McBurney’s decision largely sided with an argument from Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis (D), who pledged to soon make charging decisions and said the report’s release could create challenges for future defendants to get a fair trial. 

Jurors involved in crafting the report had previously determined it should be released to the public.

“There were no lawyers advocating for any targets of the investigation,” McBurney wrote in the eight-page decision, noting the process is “entirely appropriately – a one-sided exploration.”

“Potential future defendants were not able to present evidence outside the scope of what the district attorney asked them. They were not able to call their own witnesses who might rebut what other State’s witnesses had said and they had no ability to present mitigating evidence. Put differently, there was very limited due process in this process for those who might be named as indictment-worthy in the final report.”

The release will include the introduction and conclusion of the report as well as a section discussion concern that some witnesses may have lied under oath. That section of the report does not identify any witnesses.

McBurney noted the delay ahead of the release is designed to allow Willis to advocate for redactions in any of the sections.

Willis’s case is seen as one of the most promising pathways for an eventual prosecution of Trump, who in a phone call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) asked him to “find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have.”

In a January hearing on the matter, Willis stressed multiple defendants could have their right to a fair trial implicated by the report’s release.

“We have to be mindful of protecting future defendants’ rights. And so what the state does not want to see happen — and don’t think that there’s any way that the court would be able to guarantee — is that if that report was released, there somehow could be arguments made that it impacts the right for later individuals — multiple — to get a fair trial, to have a fair hearing, to be able to be tried in this jurisdiction,” Willis said at the outset of the hearing.

“Decisions are imminent,” she added.

The case could impact a number in Trump’s orbit as well as the former president himself.

The known targets in Georgia include former Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani and 16 Republicans who held a meeting to carry out the fake elector plot by voting to certify the election for Trump.

Trump’s attorneys did not attend the January hearing and noted that Trump was never subpoenaed or asked to voluntarily appear before the grand jury. 

“We can assume that the grand jury did their job and looked at the facts and the law, as we have, and concluded there were no violations of the law by President Trump,” Trump attorneys Drew Findling, Marissa Goldberg and Jennifer Little said in a joint statement at the time.

Source: TEST FEED1

Lawyer says Trump used 'Classified Evening Summary' empty folder to block light in bedroom at night

Lawyer Timothy Parlatore said on Sunday that former President Trump, whom Parlatore represents, used an empty folder that said “Classified Evening Summary” to block a light in his bedroom at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida. 

“He has one of those landline telephones next to his bed, and it has a blue light on it, and it keeps him up at night. So he took the manilla folder and put it over so it would keep the light down so he could sleep at night,” Parlatore told CNN.

“It’s just this folder. It says ‘Classified Evening Summary’ on it. It’s not a classification marking. It’s not anything that is controlled in any way. There is nothing illegal about it.”

The folder was reportedly turned over to the Justice Department in December, months after the FBI executed a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago, along with more materials with classified markings and a laptop belonging to a current Trump aide. 

Classified materials had reportedly been electronically copied onto the laptop.

“What … you’ve seen here and also in the Biden and Pence investigations is that the White House does not have proper procedures for handling classified information. And these documents, when they get packed up and sent out when people leave office, they do keep showing up, if you will,” Parlatore said. 

Hundreds of classified materials were recovered from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home last summer.

In the fall and early this year, President Biden’s team turned over to the DOJ a handful of classified documents from Biden’s time as vice president and as a senator kept in an old office and in Biden’s Delaware home. A small number of classified documents were then found at the home of Trump’s former Vice President Mike Pence.

The DOJ has been locked in a long-running effort to recover classified materials and records from the former president, kept after his tenure in the White House came to a close.

The document discoveries have sparked scrutiny over the leaders’ document handling, and a special counsel has been appointed to probe both the Biden and Trump instances.

Source: TEST FEED1

US tells citizens to leave Russia immediately

The U.S. on Monday issued a top-level advisory telling American citizens to leave Russia immediately and cease travel to the country as Russia’s war against neighboring Ukraine continues, citing risks of harassment and wrongful detention for Americans specifically. 

“Do not travel to Russia due to the unpredictable consequences of the unprovoked full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russian military forces, the potential for harassment and the singling out of U.S. citizens for detention by Russian government security officials, the arbitrary enforcement of local law, limited flights into and out of Russia, the Embassy’s limited ability to assist U.S. citizens in Russia, and the possibility of terrorism,” reads the alert. 

“U.S. citizens residing or travelling in Russia should depart immediately. Exercise increased caution due to the risk of wrongful detentions.”

The warning marks the highest level, Level 4, of alerts issued by the State Department, which ranges from exercising precaution to ceasing all travel. 

It comes as the Russia-Ukraine war nears its first anniversary on Feb. 24 and amid concerns that Moscow is amassing troops for an offensive that could coincide with that one-year mark. 

The U.S. urged its citizens to leave the country just days after the invasion and again with a security warning in September, as Moscow ordered a call-up of reservist forces to renew its advances against Ukraine.

Reuters reported Monday that Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed the U.S. warning, saying it’s “not a new thing.”

The word of caution about wrongful detentions follows the high-profile prisoner swap of Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout for U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner, who had been sentenced to nine years in a Russian penal colony on drug possession charges. Griner’s trial and sentencing were decried by U.S. and elevated the plight of former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, who is being held by Moscow on suspicion of spying. 

Updated at 9:08 a.m.

Source: TEST FEED1

The Hill's Morning Report — Mystery grows on objects shot down by US

Editor’s note: The Hill’s Morning Report is our daily newsletter that dives deep into Washington’s agenda. To subscribe, click here or fill out the box below.

If the U.S. government knows the purpose and origin of the objects that fighter jets have shot down over Alaska, Canada and Michigan since Friday, federal officials have been mum with the public and with most members of Congress.

Shrouded in mystery, the events involving the shootdown of a Chinese spy balloon as well as the destruction of smaller, as-yet-vaguely described high-altitude objects now involve three governments, at least four U.S. states and leaders of the House and Senate.

▪ Global Times, Bloomberg News and Business Insider: Chinese authorities said on Sunday they were preparing to shoot down an “unidentified flying object” spotted near the Yellow Sea. They complain that U.S. balloons passed over China more than 10 times since the start of 2022 (Bloomberg News).

▪ ABC News: The Navy and Marine Corps on Sunday held drills in the South China Sea at a time of heightened tensions with Beijing.

▪ The New York Times: Theories but no answers in shootdowns of mystery craft.

The 10-story Chinese surveillance balloon first noticed over Montana on Feb. 3 as well as subsequent smaller objects that drifted between Alaska and the Great Lakes have aggravated tensions between two superpowers, sparked second guessing of President Biden as well as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada, heaped doubts on the work of NORAD, the North American Aerospace Defense Command, and encouraged members of Congress to argue that defense spending cuts should now be off the table, reported The Hill’s Alexander Bolton.

“We should take every step we can to try to reduce our dependency on China [and] try to build stronger military deterrence against them,” saidSen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), following an administration briefing. “I do not think that we should be talking about cutting the defense budget at all right now. If anything, substantial defense increases.”

On Sunday, the U.S. military shot down an unidentified object over Lake Huron, a body of water that stretches from Michigan to Ontario, Canada (NBC News). On Saturday, fighter pilots downed an unidentified, cylindrical object over frozen territory in northern Canada a day after another object had been shot down over Alaskan airspace by a U.S. F-22. Days before that, a U.S. Sidewinder missile off the coast of South Carolina sent China’s giant orb hurtling with its payload of sensors and other equipment into the ocean to be hauled out in pieces by the Navy, Coast Guard and other specialists (CNN).

It remains unclear if the military is now spotting objects that have been present but not noticed, or if there are new aerial objects that were not present before, NBC reported Sunday’s shoot-down over North America was the third in as many days, and the fourth this month. NORAD — which says it has now fine-tuned monitoring to close gaps and detect aerial intrusions it previously might have screened out — uses “a network of satellites, ground-based radar, airborne radar and fighters to detect, intercept and engage” aerial threats to Canada and the United States.

Biden has not addressed the American people about the UFOs, leaving it to lawmakers to advise their constituents using the news media and social media, drawing on new information gleaned from closed-door military briefings.

On Sunday, Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said the president’s national security adviser told him that the objects intercepted in U.S. airspace were all “balloons,” albeit of different sizes and detected at different altitudes (ABC News).

It’s essential for lawmakers to learn more, Schumer added, noting efforts made by Montana Sen. Jon Tester (D).

“I think our military, our intelligence is doing a great job, present and future,” Schumer added. “I feel a lot of confidence in what they are doing. But why as far back as the Trump administration did no one know about this?”

The Hill: On Sunday, the Federal Aviation Administration shut down airspace over Montana for “defense activities” and then lifted the restrictions. NORAD said there was a radar anomaly. Tester said it might have been a “false alarm” over his state — or an actual aerial object.  

Meanwhile, Washington’s simultaneous mano-a-mano battle over the debt ceiling and federal spending has been impacted, at least temporarily, by China’s spying and public pressure from the president and Democrats in Congress. The GOP, sensitive to public opinion ahead of the 2024 elections, is suddenly back peddling against using proposed defense, Social Security and Medicare reductions as leverage to raise the federal borrowing limit to avert default, The Hill’s Julia Manchester reports. 

Taking entitlement programs and defense spending off the negotiating table greatly narrows GOP options to achieve budget balance into the future, especially without tax hikes or other revenue raisers. Defense, Social Security, health, income security and Medicare combined account for 77 percent of all federal spending (The Washington Post).

▪ The Hill: Can these lawmaker proposals save Social Security?

▪ NPR: Republicans say they won’t cut Social Security or Medicare, so why does it keep coming up?

2024 watch: Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, a Republican who served in former President Trump’s Cabinet, is poised to take a leap into the unknown on Wednesday when she becomes the first Republican to challenge Trump for the GOP’s 2024 nod, report The Hill’s Max Greenwood and Julia Manchester. Some Republicans have floated Haley as a potential running mate for a GOP nominee as her national profile emerges with a campaign. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is seen by many in the party to be the potential candidate best positioned to challenge the former president based on 2023 polling and enthusiasm among party leaders. Haley, meanwhile, is pulling a fraction of support seen in recent surveys for Trump and DeSantis.

Related Articles

▪ The Hill’s Memo by Niall Stanage: Former Vice President Mike Pence has hit speed bumps along the 2024 road as another classified document was found at his Indiana home on Friday and special counsel Jack Smith subpoenaed Pence last week as part of the Justice Department’s ongoing investigation into a range of former President Trump’s activities (ABC News).

▪ MSNBC legal blog: Smith should win any privilege fight over the Pence subpoena.

▪ The Hill: Here’s a look at seven issues that will shape the 2024 elections, including abortion, education, LGBT rights, international affairs, immigration, and federal entitlement spending.

▪ The Washington Post: After helping the rise of a Saudi prince, Trump and son-in-law Jared Kushner benefit from Saudi funds.

LEADING THE DAY

➤ POLITICS

Schumer on Sunday repeated on ABC’s “This Week” that Democrats will not bow to Republicans over the debt ceiling.

“Four times Democrats, even when Trump was in power, even two times when Trump and the Republicans had the House and Senate, we could have blocked it,” Schumer said. “We did not play brinkmanship.”

As lawmakers near a June deadline to pass an increase to the debt ceiling — or risk the U.S. defaulting on its debt — Republicans have demanded that the White House and Democrats agree to spending cuts. But Democrats said they won’t commit to cuts, accusing Republicans of threatening to tank the U.S. economy if they do not meet the GOP’s demands. Debt ceiling talks are expected to continue in the coming weeks and months, as experts caution that a debt default would be catastrophic to both the U.S. and world economy (The Hill).

Abortion: Advocacy groups are braced for a looming decision by a judge in Texas that could end nationwide access to the mifepristone abortion pill (The Hill). … State attorneys general pick sides in Texas abortion pill lawsuit (The Washington Post). … Republicans clash with prosecutors over enforcement of abortion bans (Politico)

DeSantis has leaned hard into educational issues as he burnishes his national profile ahead of a potential White House bid, writes The Hill’s Lexi Lonas, and conservatives love what they see. DeSantis, who last year won reelection by the largest margin for a Florida governor in decades, has secured GOP plaudits for moves ranging from his reopening of schools during the coronavirus pandemic to his recent skirmish with the College Board over an Advanced Placement African American studies course. Now, he’s the only Republican polling alongside — or in some cases, even ahead of — Trump for the party’s presidential nomination, and if DeSantis does run, he’ll likely spend a good amount of time touting his education actions in Florida.  

The College Board, meanwhile, lashed out against DeSantis and the Florida Education Department on Saturday, saying that their disparagement of the new AP African American Studies course amounted to “slander” (The Washington Post).

The New York Times: As Trump steps up his attacks, DeSantis is avoiding conflict. But a clash is inevitable if the governor runs for president.

➤ MORE IN CONGRESS & ADMINISTRATION

As Republicans gear up for two years of aggressive oversight of the Biden administration, Democrats have quickly stood up their own response machine, drawing resources from inside and outside Congress to push back against a GOP-led House. The Hill’s Rebecca Beitsch reports that the White House has established a response organization within its counsel’s office, cobbling together a team that has been rolling out memos ahead of hearings and pushing back on committee correspondence and even subpoenas minutes after they land. 

Meanwhile, in Congress, top Democrats on panels with oversight authority say they plan to counter Republicans in real time during hearings, and outside groups have geared up their own response efforts, mimicking campaign structures to undertake opposition research on Republicans and fire off fact checks and attacks. 

“It definitely has the ethos of a campaign. It definitely has the feel of a campaign. And that’s what we’re doing,” Brad Woodhouse, a former spokesman for the Democratic National Committee who is now a board member of the Congressional Integrity Project, told The Hill. 

When House Republicans took hold of the chamber’s majority this year, they had planned to quickly pass a border bill that would allow the Homeland Security secretary to turn away migrants for any reason, write The Hill’s Emily Brooks and Rafael Bernal. But the bill hit a major snag due to GOP opposition from moderates, and the delay and disagreement highlights the challenge for House GOP leaders in managing their slim majority in the lower chamber, even for bills relating to issues that drive the party’s top messaging and attention. 

▪ Roll Call: The feud between Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) boils as Biden applies heat.

▪ Vox: The House GOP’s many, many investigations, explained.

▪ The New York Times. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has a new role leading the Senate health committee. It could be his final act in Washington.

Biden faces a tough set of choices to elect a successor to lead the Labor Department after Secretary Marty Walsh, who is leaving the Cabinet to become the top executive at the NHL Players’ Association, reports The Hill’s Alex Gangitano. Among the president’s considerations: appealing to organized labor, an important Biden constituency in any election year, and assuring that a nominee can be confirmed in a narrowly divided Senate.

Veterans who have illnesses that may be linked to contamination at North Carolina’s Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune should seek disability benefits even if filing might complicate future quests for legal recourse, according to the Veterans Affairs Department. The veterans in question are those who served at the base in the early 1950s through the late 1980s and could have been exposed to a variety of cancer-linked compounds during their service (The Hill).

IN FOCUS/SHARP TAKES

➤ INTERNATIONAL

The death toll has exceeded 34,000 in Turkey and Syria as hopes fade that survivors will continue to be found after the devastating earthquakes that shook the region last week. Bekir Bozdag, a spokesman for Turkey’s Justice Ministry, said Sunday the government opened “earthquake crimes investigation” offices to probe possible negligence or wrongdoing that left buildings vulnerable to collapse during the quakes. 

Authorities have identified some 134 suspects and arrested at least 14 people over alleged building negligence, Turkish media reported (The Washington Post and CNN).

In Syria the quakes hit hardest in the rebel-held northwest, leaving many people homeless who had already been displaced several times by a decade-old civil war. The region has received little aid compared to government-held areas. “We have so far failed the people in north-west Syria,” United Nations aid chief Martin Griffiths tweeted from the Turkey-Syria border, where only a single crossing is open for U.N. aid supplies (Reuters).

▪ The Guardian, analysis: Turkey earthquake death toll suggests lessons of 1999 quake were not learned.

▪ ABC News: The earthquake in Turkey is only the latest tragedy for refugees.

▪ Vox: Earthquake aid crisis in Syria is a “perfect storm.”

▪ The Wall Street Journal: Aid arrives in Turkey after earthquakes but anger grows.

Ukraine claims to have destroyed a prized Russian BMP-T armored vehicle, nicknamed the “Terminator,” in Luhansk. The governor of the Luhansk region, shared several aerial photos appearing to show the vehicle being blown up and destroyed on his Telegram channel, where he said that Russian propagandists had boasted the vehicle is impossible to destroy “So many beautiful words about the car being almost impossible to destroy… almost,” he wrote on Telegram (Business Insider).

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday hailed efforts to restore power generation systems damaged by Russian attacks, but warned it was too early to declare victory on the energy front. Zelensky said power workers had done such a good job repairing the damage caused by Russian missile and drone strikes on Friday that most people had not had to face too many outages over the weekend.

“The very fact that … after a massive missile strike this week, we can have such peaceful energy days proves the professionalism of our energy workers,” he said in an evening video address (Reuters).

Russian forces, meanwhile, edged closer to Bakhmut on Sunday, claiming to capture a village on the outskirts of the strategic city in eastern Ukraine as they hammered nearby settlements with tank rounds, mortar fire and artillery shells. The Wagner private military company, whose forces have helped lead the brutal and monthslong Russian campaign to seize Bakhmut, said that its “assault units” had taken the village of Krasna Gora, near the city’s northern edge. Bakhmut has emerged as a focal point of the war and an important prize for Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has poured troops into the battle for a city seen as key to his stated goal of seizing the entire Donbas area of eastern Ukraine (The New York Times).

▪ The New York Times: They are Russians fighting against their homeland. Here’s why.

▪ ABC News: Neutral Austria is under pressure to get tougher on Russia after granting visas that will allow sanctioned Russian lawmakers to attend a Vienna meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

▪ The Washington Post: Protesters descend on Jerusalem as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seeks to weaken the courts.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg will not seek to extend his term, which ends in October (Reuters). NATO meets this week.

🌀 In New Zealand, schools across Auckland closed Monday as the island nation’s largest city braced for the arrival of Cyclone Gabrielle, which has left thousands without power (CNN and BBC). 

OPINION

■ Go ahead and ban my book, by Margaret Atwood, contributor, The Atlantic. https://bit.ly/3YGinvG 

■ The false choices facing the Republican Party, by Stephen Goldsmith and Ryan Streeter, contributors, Politico Magazine. https://politi.co/3jLhCmp

WHERE AND WHEN

📲 Ask The Hill: Share a news query tied to an expert journalist’s insights: The Hill launched something new and (we hope) engaging via text with Editor-in-Chief Bob Cusack. Learn more and sign up HERE.

The House will convene for a pro forma session on Tuesday at 10 a.m.

The Senate meets at 3 p.m. to resume consideration of the nomination of Gina Méndez-Miró to be a U.S. district judge for the District of Puerto Rico.

The president will receive the President’s Daily Brief at 9 a.m. Biden will speak at 1:15 p.m. to the National Association of Counties during its annual gathering at a Washington hotel, then return to the White House.   

Vice President Harris will be in Washington and has no public schedule.

The first lady will join Education Secretary Miguel Cardona and Mesa, Ariz., Mayor John Giles (D) at Mesa Community College at 12:30 p.m. local time to discuss the affordability of community college for many students.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken at 2 p.m. at the White House will chair the annual meeting of the president’s Interagency task force to monitor and combat human trafficking. The secretary will meet at 4 p.m. with Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen at the State Department.. Blinken will host a 5 p.m. reception at the department in honor of Amy Pope, the U.S. candidate for director general of the International Organization for Migration.

The White House daily press briefing is scheduled at 1 p.m.

ELSEWHERE

➤ HEALTH & PANDEMIC 

Childbirth is deadlier for Black families, even when they’re rich, according to a new study of 2 million births in California (The New York Times). Why? The best medical care for mothers and babies is not equally accessible to everyone.

The United States is facing a growing childcare crisis, writes The Hill’s Gianna Melillo, the economic impact of which has more than doubled since 2018, rising to a staggering $122 billion annually in lost earnings, productivity and revenue last year. Meanwhile, the crisis itself threatens the future of the country’s youngest and is hindering employment and educational advancement of the American workforce. In comparison to the economic impact seen in 2022, in 2018 the toll was estimated at $57 billion per year. 

The new report “is just one more finding that makes it clear that the status quo with child care is not working,” Anne Hedgepeth, chief of policy and advocacy at Child Care Aware of America, which was not involved in the research, told The Hill. “This is not just a problem for individual parents and families. It’s a problem for all of us. It’s impacting the economy, and it’s impacting our communities.”

▪ NPR: Are there places in which you should still mask forever? Three experts weigh in.

▪ The New York Times: Seniors are increasingly left to protect themselves as the rest of the country abandons COVID-19 pandemic precautions: “Americans do not agree about the duty to protect others.”

Information about the availability of COVID-19 vaccine and booster shots can be found at Vaccines.gov.

Total U.S. coronavirus deaths reported as of this morning, according to Johns Hopkins University (trackers all vary slightly): 1,114,378. Current U.S. COVID-19 deaths are 3,171 for the week, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (The CDC shifted its tally of available data from daily to weekly, now reported on Fridays.)

THE CLOSER

And finally … 🏈 The Chiefs defeated the Philadelphia Eagles 38-35 on Sunday. In front of 67,827 at State Farm Stadium in Arizona, Kansas City won its second Super Bowl championship in four seasons, cementing its status as an all-time great team. The Chiefs are multi-time champions who triumphed over a formidable foe and conquered their own limitations, all with their MVP quarterback, Patrick Mahomes, who played through the pain of a high ankle sprain (The Washington Post).

The New York Times: How Mahomes and Kansas City captured the Super Bowl LVII over the Philadelphia Eagles.

Earlier in the day, Puppy Bowl’s Team Fluff triumphed over Team Ruff 87-83 to capture the “Lombarky” trophy in a close contest promoted by Animal Planet in its 19th year featuring more than 100 adoptable rescue dogs (CNN). Here’s a photo gallery of the 2023 canine athletes (Discovery) and check out the pups still looking for their forever homes HERE. Twitter was in a swoon over Team Ruff’s MVP “Joey,” who was born without front legs. 

▪ The New York Times: Black quarterbacks will lead both teams in Sunday’s Super Bowl. But for much of pro football history, Black players were steered away from the position because of racist assumptions.

▪ Variety: Rihanna’s comeback concert (while pregnant with her second child) during halftime at the Super Bowl earned rave reviews. With an army of dancers, wild outfits and a spectacular fireworks finish, it was a triumphant return to performing after a five-year performance hiatus.

▪ CBS News: The biggest star of Super Bowl LVII commercials? Nostalgia.

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VA urges Camp Lejeune victims to press forward with disability claims

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is urging former service members whose illnesses may be linked to contamination at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina to seek disability benefits — even if doing so might complicate future quests for legal recourse. 

As of the end of last month, the VA said that it had received 102,265 disability claims related to exposure to cancer-linked compounds at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune since it began tracking such submissions more than a decade ago.

But for veterans who were exposed and have yet to submit claims, landmark legislation passed last year could complicate their decision.

The Honoring Our PACT Act, an expansive bill signed into law in August, seeks to make significant improvements to health care for veterans who were exposed to toxins during their service. Within it is a measure permitting lawsuits for those who suffered from contamination at Camp Lejeune.  

While this long-sought provision was celebrated as a victory by veterans and their families, it comes with a catch: Any legal compensation awarded in court must be “offset” by disability claims related to Camp Lejeune exposures that the individual is already receiving. 

These instructions apply to any program administered by the secretary of Veterans Affairs, Medicare or Medicaid, according to the provision.

Regardless of this caveat, however, VA officials urge veterans to move forward with their disability claims. 

“VA wants to make sure that no one is dissuaded from pursuing their VA remedies,” David Barrans, a lawyer in the VA’s Office of the General Counsel, told The Hill.

“We just want to make sure that people understand that VA is not going to reduce or deny your benefits because you pursued your other remedies under the PACT Act,” Barrans added.

The Marine Corps first discovered volatile organic compounds in the drinking water generated by Camp Lejeune treatment plants in 1982, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry.

The agency has since determined that exposure to contaminants such as trichloroethylene, tetrachloroethylene and vinyl chloride likely raised the risk of developing certain illnesses.

Veterans who were on active duty in Camp Lejeune for 30 days or more between Aug. 1, 1953, and Dec. 31, 1987, became eligible for free health care services if they suffered from any of 15 specific cancers and conditions, following the passage of key legislation in 2012. 

The VA expanded these benefits in 2017 to include veterans, reservists and National Guard members who developed any of eight illnesses presumed to be connected to their service. 

“None of that’s changed,” Jessica Pierce, a management analyst for the VA, told The Hill.

“Veterans can continue to submit claims for those presumptions of service connection or for hospital and medical care based on those other specified conditions,” Pierce added.

Camp Lejeune-related disability claims are distinct from the more than 213,000 submissions received by the VA thus far related to the broader PACT Act.

While the PACT Act does not affect Camp Lejeune disability claims, it does provide an option for legal recourse — outside the VA’s jurisdiction — to veterans and their families who spent time at the base.

“There’s essentially two remedies here, the VA benefits remedy and the tort claim or the damage claim remedy,” Barrans said, “The VA remedy has not changed.”

The Camp Lejeune Justice Act, folded into the PACT Act, allows those harmed by the toxins on base to file a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Northern Carolina. 

This measure overrides North Carolina’s restrictive “statute of repose,” which prohibits lawsuits if more than 10 years have passed since the contaminating event. 

“Congress has allowed people who were injured by the Camp Lejeune water to bring an action in court, through the administrative and then judicial process,” Barrans said.

Plaintiffs must first file an administrative claim with the Navy’s Office of the Judge Advocate General and await a settlement or denial prior to filing a lawsuit.

VA benefits and health care services are distinct from this process and “will not be impacted” if an individual files a lawsuit, according to a fact sheet issued to veterans.

The same may not true in the opposite direction, however.

If a veteran is already receiving VA benefits related to Camp Lejeune, then the court award “will be offset by the amount of any disability award,” the fact sheet warns.

“The law says you have to reduce that award by the amount of any VA benefits that the VA is paying for the same condition,” Barrans confirmed.

The role of the VA in that process is minimal — limited to providing information that the courts or the Justice Department request about the payments a plaintiff has been receiving for injuries related to Camp Lejeune, according to Barrans.

“How the courts will actually apply that to determine the offset is something that the courts will have to decide,” he said.

“I don’t think we have clear information at this point that we could provide on how that will work because VA doesn’t control that process,” Barrans added.

Quantifying how such an offset might occur is currently impossible due to all the complex factors that would contribute to such a calculation, according to Barrans.

Some such factors could involve accounting for the value of future disability payments or assessing health care services received for multiple conditions — but only some of which are related to Camp Lejeune, he explained.

“There would be some work that would have to go into determining how much of that VA benefit payment is attributable to the Camp Lejeune injury,” Barrans said.

The Department of Justice declined to comment when asked if further details are available as to how the offsetting process will occur.

Acknowledging that “there’s potential for confusion in the law,” Barrans said that the VA is encouraging veterans to apply for their disability benefits nonetheless.

“VA’s primary message is always we want veterans to apply for the VA benefits they’ve earned and the VA health care that they’ve earned,” he said.

“And at the same time, we don’t want to dissuade anyone from pursuing any other remedies.”

Source: TEST FEED1

Democrats look to squeeze GOP on Medicare, Social Security

Democrats are seeking to go on the offense against Republicans over past calls to slash Medicare and Social Security cuts, with President Biden leading the charge ahead of announcing his reelection campaign. 

Biden drew the ire of Republicans in the House chamber at his State of the Union address on Tuesday when he accused them of working to target the entitlement programs in potential spending cuts. Biden, who is preparing to launch his 2024 campaign, continued the line of attack during visits to Wisconsin and Florida this week.

The choice of states is significant, given they are represented by Sens. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) and Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), who are both at the center of the debate. But it also reflects how Biden hopes to make the message, which was used by Democrats in 2022, a key part of his reelection plan. 

“The very idea the senator from Florida wants to put Social Security and Medicare on the chopping block every five years, I find to be somewhat outrageous. So outrageous that you might not even believe it,” Biden told an audience at the University of Tampa on Thursday. 

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee echoed Biden’s message in a tweet during the State of the Union on Tuesday, accusing Senate Republicans of being “dead set on putting Social Security and Medicare on the chopping block.” 

On the House side, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) slammed the GOP’s “radical agenda.”

“No matter how much they try to lie about their plans, Republicans are going to be held accountable for their dangerous and harmful threats to cut Social Security and Medicare from millions of Americans,” said Nebeyatt Betre, a spokesperson for the DCCC.

And it’s not just congressional Republicans who are being hit with the line of attack. On Friday, the Florida Democratic Party highlighted coverage of potential 2024 Republican presidential candidates, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, and their past stances on reforming social security. 

“Every election comes down to a choice,” said Democratic strategist Antjuan Seawright. “And this presidential election, whenever it officially kicks off, will certainly be a choice between us and them.” 

“They’re differentiating us versus the Republicans and why Republicans are trying to run full-steam backward from a policy position that a lot of them flirted with and embraced at some point during the midterm election,” he added. 

The line of attack is similar to one used by Democrats in 2022, who tied Republicans up and down the ballot to Scott’s plan to sunset all federal programs after five years. 

But Republicans, including Scott, hit back at the attack from Biden and Democrats this week.

On Thursday, Scott, who is running for reelection in 2024, challenged Biden to a debate on the matter. And earlier this week, Scott rolled out an ad calling on Biden to resign in the wake of the attacks. 

“It’s telling that Joe Biden used his State of the Union speech to lie about my plan. If Biden had a single accomplishment to speak of, he wouldn’t have to lie about me,” Scott said in a statement this week. “These lies aren’t going to work in the Sunshine State. I’m excited for the opportunity to remind Floridians that Joe Biden is a liar and tax cheat.”

Scott also pointed to a 1975 bill from then-Sen. Biden that would have sunset federal programs between four and six years after passage. Other Republicans have accused the president of lying and using the issue to campaign ahead of his reelection bid. 

“These are desperate lies from the President. House Republicans will continue pursuing reasonable limitations to rein in Democrats’ reckless spending – just like every family in America would do to manage their budget,” said Will Reinert, press secretary at the National Republican Congressional Committee. 

However, the issue is causing divisions among Republicans, many of whom have distanced themselves from Scott’s plan. 

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) told Kentucky radio host Terry Meiners on Thursday that the idea of sunsetting Medicare and Social Security is not the GOP plan. 

“Speaker [Kevin] McCarthy said Social Security and Medicare are not to be touched and I’ve said the same,” McConnell said. “And I think we’re in a more authoritative position to state what the position of the party is than any single senator.”

The use of possible cuts to Medicare and Social Security could prove to be a political tool to appeal to voters outside of the Democratic Party. A YouGov poll released this week found that 89 percent of Americans who receive Social Security benefits have a favorable view of the program while 84 percent of respondents said the same about Medicare. Additionally, the poll found that 57 percent of respondents said that Social Security should be given more funding. 

Republicans and Democrats agree that it’s likely too early to tell whether Social Security and Medicare will be the main issue in 2024, and it’s still debatable how much of an impact it had in 2022. 

“I think it was a buffet of things that gave us the outcome of the last election,” Seawright said. “But I think the common denominator in all of that was people voted against what they believe the Republican Party stood for from both a political and policy perspective.” 

Source: TEST FEED1

Weaponization? Democrats gear up a response machine to GOP

As House Republicans gear up for two years of aggressive oversight of the Biden administration, Democrats have quickly stood up their own response machine, drawing resources from inside and outside Congress to push back.

Democrats have to contend with a suite of Republican probes designed to touch on nearly every major aspect of the Biden presidency, from the pandemic to the border to the Afghanistan withdrawal.  

There’s also a new House committee set up by the GOP to review the “weaponization” of the federal government, a panel that will investigate Republican claims that the FBI and Department of Justice have been politicized.

Those high-profile panels are now colliding with Democratic efforts emerging from the background.

The White House has established their own rapid response organization within its counsel’s office, cobbling together a team that has been rolling out memos ahead of hearings and pushing back on committee correspondence and even subpoenas minutes after they land. 

In Congress, top Democrats on panels with oversight authority say they plan to counter Republicans in real time during hearings. 

Outside groups have also geared up their own response efforts, mimicking campaign structures to undertake opposition research on Republicans and fire off fact checks and attacks. 

“It definitely has the ethos of a campaign. It definitely has the feel of a campaign. And that’s what we’re doing,” said Brad Woodhouse, a former spokesman for the Democratic National Committee who is now a board member of the Congressional Integrity Project. He said the group began “relaunching” in preparation for a GOP House majority. 

“Since they’ve admitted these investigations are purely about politics, we are mounting a campaign to make them pay a political price for that,” said Woodhouse.  

The White House began expanding its oversight response team over the summer, but it’s been further bolstered since the election, with Russell Anello, the former staff director for Democrats on the House Oversight panel, brought in to help the team. 

It’s a strategy the White House believes will let the broader staff stay focused on Biden’s agenda while the response outlet goes in deep to battle investigations the Biden administration sees as being driven by the MAGA wing of the GOP. 

Much of the response coordination has been under the radar. White House counsel oversight staff have met with various agencies to prep for probes, including helping Cabinet officials who could face impeachment. Republicans have threatened to impeach multiple officials, though so far an impeachment resolution has been introduced only for Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

Over the summer the team also reviewed numerous letters sent by Republicans demanding various documents and communications. They’ve also studied up on interviews given by the two men leading the bulk of the House GOP investigations: House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and House Oversight and Accountability Chair James Comer (R-Ky.). 

Now, however, their work is becoming more public.

Ahead of a House Oversight hearing on the border this week, the White House team put out a memo attacking Republicans on the topic, arguing the GOP agenda would worsen conditions by halting Biden reforms they say limit irregular migration. 

Hours before the first meeting of the weaponization subcommittee, the team sent out links to a suite of publications that have fact checked various GOP claims relating to the Justice Department and FBI. 

Comer brushed off the memo at the outset of his hearing this week on the border. 

“The White House’s oversight spokesman just released a memo criticizing Republicans for having the nerve to have this hearing. He says why do House Republicans want to make things worse at the border?” he said.  

“I don’t understand how two front-line border patrol agents coming before this committee would make things worse. That’s what the oversight committee is about.” 

House Democrats are working on fine-tuning their own messaging and strategies.  

Rep. Jamie Raskin (Md.), the top Democrat on the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, said he’s advised other members to take notes while the fast-talking Jordan speaks so they can go back and address each point. 

But he admitted that practice can also bog Democrats down. 

“That’s a problem with political discourse today. You know, one side mixes fact and fiction freely, and the other side tries to clean it up. But it’s very hard to get your message out if you’re just cleaning up falsehoods from the other side,” Raskin told The Hill. 

Raskin said the committee should be focused on whether federal programs are “actually translating into concrete benefits” for taxpayers. 

“And that has a nonpartisan meaning to it. To the extent that they turn the whole thing into a partisan witch hunt, we will act as a truth squad to expose falsehoods and disinformation,” he said. 

Some outside groups have launched with the hopes of playing a similar role. 

Woodhouse said the Congressional Integrity Project now has a “war room” staffed with about 15 people, a group that includes Hannah Muldavin, who previously worked as deputy communications director for the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack. 

They point to comments from Jordan that he would use his investigative platforms to “help frame up the 2024 race, when I hope and I think President Trump is going to run again. And we need to make sure that he wins.” 

The comment has become the basis for many of the groups who see GOP oversight as largely illegitimate. 

“The outcome of this election was a massive disappointment for Republicans. Yes, they — by the skin of their chinny-chin-chin and by a dint of history — took the House. But look at what it’s cost them: 15 rounds of voting for McCarthy to become Speaker and in the end the deals he cut to become Speaker all revolved around investigations,” said Woodhouse.  

“We think these are entirely driven by MAGA politics, by Trump revenge. They are Trump-style political stunts. He used to refer to legitimate investigations as witch hunts. These actually are political witch hunts.” 

Other groups have also launched to counter GOP narratives, including Facts First USA, which when created last October pledged to be a “SWAT team to counter Republican congressional investigations.” 

David Brock, a Democratic strategist and the group’s founder, said he’s drawing from prior experience running Correct the Record, which was active during Hilary Clinton’s campaign in responding to accusations surrounding Benghazi and her email server. 

He stressed his organization won’t just be devoted to fact checking. 

“You have to be able to fight the Republicans on the level of narrative and storytelling. You can’t just win based on having all the facts on your side,” Brock said. 

The group has been organizing calls with Democratic surrogates, sharing its research and messaging strategies. 

“We want to stay, in this organization, in an offensive posture as possible. It’s obviously necessary to play some defense, but to the extent we can anticipate what the Republicans are going to do and get ahead of that we want to try to do that,” he said. 

But the group also raised eyebrows with a recent Twitter thread posted in response to a House Oversight hearing about Hunter Biden, posting pictures of men named Dick or Richard to mock Republicans for being concerned about the “content” on his laptop. 

Some Democrats said privately they found the response baffling and juvenile.  

Brock said the organization is still fine-tuning its pushback strategy. 

“It’s a balancing act between when you’re doing something where you’re responding to things that are very salacious and crazy where you go with it. Do you stay on the more serious side, or do you stay on the more, you know, kind of poking fun at what they’re doing? And so I think you probably need a mix of both. And we’re very early on in the process, and we’re still sort of experimenting with what will work and what won’t work,” he said. 

Republicans have largely been shrugging off the Democratic response. 

“If they want to defend the indefensible, then more power to them,” Comer said. 

But one source familiar with Democrats’ efforts said they represent a shift in how the party has traditionally responded, stressing that there were lessons to be learned from less robust coordination in the Obama era.  

“When Obama was in and the House switched to Republican control there was no outside help there,” they said. 

“Now Democrats are being what people don’t think of Democrats as being, which is aggressive.” 

Source: TEST FEED1

House GOP grapples with disagreement over border and immigration legislation

As House Republicans took hold of the majority this year, they had planned to quickly pass a border bill that would allow the Homeland Security Secretary to turn away migrants at the border. But the bill hit a major snag: opposition from GOP moderates.

The delay and disagreement highlights the challenge for House Republican leaders in managing such a slim majority, even for bills relating to issues that drive the party’s top messages.

House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) in December included the Border Safety and Security Act in a slate of 12 bills and resolutions that Republicans planned to pass in the first two weeks of the congressional session, by sending them straight to the House floor rather than through a regular process while committees were still being organized.

The border bill would allow the Homeland Security secretary to turn away migrants in order to achieve “operational control” at the border. Republicans have repeatedly accused Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas of not meeting the legal standard of “operational control” at the border by not preventing unlawful entries and contraband.

The Border Safety and Security Act calls back to the 2006 Secure Fence Act, which defines operational control as “the prevention of all unlawful entries into the United States, including entries by terrorists, other unlawful aliens, instruments of terrorism, narcotics, and other contraband.”

“This language — ‘the prevention of all unlawful entries into the United States, including terrorists, other unlawful aliens, instruments of terror, narcotics, and other contraband’ — I think it’s very forgiving to use the word aspirational, I mean, it’s unrealistic,” said Doris Meissner, a former Immigration and Naturalization Service commissioner under former President Clinton, who now heads the U.S. Immigration Policy Program at the Migration Policy Institute.

The definition has been on the books since it was signed into law by former President George W. Bush but has never been used as a real-world metric for border security.

The bill’s limitations on asylum are rankling some Republicans, most likely enough Republicans to doom the proposal.

Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas), who represents a district on the U.S.-Mexico border, has warned that the bill could prevent legal asylum claims.

“One thing that is certain, H.R. 29, the Border Safety and Security Act, is not securing the border, and that is dead on arrival,” Gonzales told “What America’s Thinking.”

“That bill is not going to go anywhere for a wide variety of reasons. And I will do everything in my power to prevent anti-immigrant legislation from getting over the finish line,” added Gonzales, a co-chairman of the 18-member strong Congressional Hispanic Conference, a Republican caucus.

A slim House GOP majority means that any bill not supported by Democrats can be blocked if just five members oppose it. Even if it did pass the House, the bill would almost certainly die in the Democratic-controlled Senate.

Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), the lead sponsor of the bill, has said there has been “misinformation” about the bill.

“Let me set the record straight. This legislation does one thing: enforce current law to say that we have to detain for the entirety of the adjudication of a claim, an asylum claim. Or, turn away, like we do under current Title 42 law during a pandemic,” Roy said on PBS earlier this month.

“Tony [Gonzales] ought to read the bill, and read current law,” Roy said. 

Roy told The Hill this week that almost everyone in the House GOP conference supports his bill. It has 64 cosponsors.

But opponents within the party will at least force Roy to negotiate the specifics of any asylum or border security bills.

“I’ll absolutely push back,” Gonzales said.

“There’s many of us in the House – and not just Hispanic members – that will push back against anti-immigrant legislation like the Border Safety and Security Act, that has a great name but fails to meet the mark,” Gonzales said.

With the Border Safety and Security Act stalled, House leadership is working with House Judiciary and Homeland Security committees on a larger border package that it hopes to release later this year.

“We’re doing a larger border security package, so the Judiciary Committee and Homeland Security Committee are both working right now … they are getting to work on a package that could secure our border,” Scalise told NewsNation last month.

And despite the intraparty split on Roy’s proposal, it’s unlikely that any faction of Republicans will cross the aisle to work with Democrats before exhausting their options in-house.

“There is a consensus, clearly, among Republicans that before we do anything else, we need to secure the border. And that’s something that we’re working on. So I feel very optimistic that we’re going to be able to reach a consensus on that issue,” said Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.), the other co-chairman of the Hispanic Conference.

The border bill is one of five stalled bills and resolutions from the initial list of 12 that House Republicans hoped to pass in the first few weeks, demonstrating how discord in the House GOP conference challenges a slim majority.

Source: TEST FEED1