BIDEN IMPEACHMENT AUTHORIZATION
As Congress prepares to go on its holiday vacation, lawmakers have a few legislative items left to handle.
First, House Republicans today hope to pass a resolution formalizing the impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden. Despite their razor-thin majority—they can only lose three votes on the measure—the resolution looks poised for passage.
Republicans in districts Biden won in 2020 have indicated their support for the push, distinguishing it from an actual impeachment vote. So far, only Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.) has publicly come out against the resolution.
The measure is the culmination of nearly a year’s worth of investigations into first son Hunter Biden, whose foreign business dealings have raised concerns that the president may have been involved in influence peddling while vice president and after leaving office.
The probe began months ago on the unilateral order of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) in one of his final acts as speaker.
But it’s faced questions of legitimacy from the White House, which has refused to fully cooperate with the probe so long as it doesn’t have the approval of the full House.
Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), at a Rules Committee hearing on Tuesday, said that the vote is “one of the gravest and most consequential responsibilities of the House of Representatives” and “is an occasion I do not relish.”
Democrats, meanwhile, claimed that the measure was made only to satisfy former President Donald Trump, who they accused of being out for “revenge” over his two impeachments by House Democrats during the 116th and 117th Congresses.
“Joe Biden is a man of decency and integrity who respects the law and this impeachment charade is an extreme political stunt designed to help Donald Trump win,” Rules Committee Ranking Member Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) said in his opening remarks.
The floor vote today is an important one for House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), who kept the probe open after McCarthy’s ouster by GOP rebels: if it fails, it will threaten the legitimacy of the entire probe.
Either way, the measure is expected to come to the House floor today, where its fate will likely be determined by the votes of a handful of Republican lawmakers from districts Biden won in 2020. Still, several of these have indicated their support for the push, distinguishing it from an actual impeachment vote.
Johnson also plans to push off consideration of a controversial spying authority until lawmakers return after the holiday break.
Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) allows intelligence officials to collect data on both foreigners outside the U.S. and citizens within the U.S.
Under current law, the authorization to use it will expire at the end of this calendar year in a matter of days.
However, a series of abuses of the program by the FBI and others have prompted concerns about extending the program without substantial reforms.
To that end, the House Judiciary Committee, led by Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), and the House Intelligence Committee, led by Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio), have each proposed solutions to extend FISA while providing for reforms.
The bills are different in scope: the Judiciary Committee’s version would require a warrant for nearly all queries of Americans’ data, while Turner’s bill would grant more leeway to intelligence officials in querying Americans’ data.
While the proposals were originally headed toward a showdown on the House floor, Johnson instead made the decision to push the issue off until after the break.
Johnson will rather seek a roughly 4-month extension of the program through the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), a must-pass military funding bill that has to be passed before lawmakers leave Washington.
The extension in the NDAA, Mr. Johnson said, would allow lawmakers “the time to work not only in our own chamber, but with the other chamber as well, and come forward with a compromise provision that will not only keep us safe but will also safeguard our civil liberties.
The decision sets up another key fight when lawmakers return in January: one on funding, which will run out on Jan. 19 and Feb. 2, and the other on FISA, which will expire in April if the current plan is adopted.
—Joseph Lord and Jackson Richman
ZELENSKYY IN WASHINGTON
Ukrainian President Zelenskyy made a crucial visit to the nation’s capital to meet with members of Congress and Biden. His visit comes at a key juncture as his war-ravaged country grapples with the ongoing conflict with Russia, which has now persisted for 656 days.
Zelenskyy met with Biden at the White House. And prior to that, he went to Capitol Hill to speak with lawmakers and make a last-ditch plea for American assistance.
It is unclear whether Zelenskyy’s visit would be helpful in breaking the current impasse this week before Congress leaves for the holidays.
Biden didn’t hold back during a joint press conference with Zelenskyy at the White House. He blamed Republicans for the current standoff, saying that “holding Ukraine funding hostage in an attempt to force through an extreme Republican partisan agenda on the border is not how it works.”
The Biden administration requested nearly $106 billion in supplemental funding from Congress, with about $60 billion allocated to support Ukraine’s defense against Russia.
Republicans in both chambers are seeking comprehensive immigration reform as a condition for additional funding for Ukraine.
“Putin is banking on the United States failing to deliver for Ukraine. We must, we must, we must prove him wrong,” Biden said. “It’s stunning that we’ve gotten to this point.”
During his meeting with Zelenskyy, Biden announced another $200 million in aid for Ukraine.
House Speaker Mike Johnson also met with Zelenskyy. After the meeting, Mr. Johnson again appealed for border security alongside Ukraine aid. He also voiced frustration about not receiving a response from Senate Democrats and the White House.
To win, Ukraine needs a clear strategy, and the White House’s response has been insufficient, Johnson told reporters.
“I have also made it very clear from day one that our first condition on any national security supplemental spending package is about our own national security first. The border is an absolute catastrophe,” he said.
—Emel AkanRESETTING RELATIONS WITH CHINA
Cooperating with China for mutual benefit had been the predominant thinking on Capitol Hill for decades. But no more.
A bipartisan group of lawmakers says it’s time for a “reset” of relations with China.
In a 53-page report released Tuesday that includes 150 recommendations, the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) warned about China’s “multidecade campaign of economic aggression.”
While China has become less dependent on the United States since its ascension to the World Trade Organization, the United States has gotten more dependent on the communist country.
“The status quo is not working,” Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.), the committee chairman, told reporters in a press call. “We shouldn’t have wasted a day, let alone a decade on that old bet.”
Gallagher said he’s not calling for a complete decoupling.
“I have no problems with Wisconsin farmers selling soybeans to China. Honestly, I have no problems with Americans buying cheap textiles or toys in China—as long as they’re not made with slave labor,” he said. But “I don’t think we should assume that enhanced economic interaction is somehow going to make the CCP less repressive internally, and less aggressive externally.”
Gallagher, and committee ranking member Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill), said that the United States now faces a choice: to “accept Beijing’s vision of America as its economic vassal or stand up for our security, values, and prosperity.”
Their recommendations include forcing a ban or divestment of Chinese-owned social media app TikTok, imposing tariffs on legacy Chinese semiconductors, and directing the Federal Reserve to stress test their resilience to a potential loss of access to the Chinese market.
Financial entanglement with China could come at “tremendous costs to the United States,” the report said.
That’s a finding from a tabletop exercise the committee hosted over a potential Taiwan conflict.
The lesson from it is that “the United States must act now to build an economic contingency plan and reduce its dependence on [China] in critical sectors, address [China’s] penetration of U.S. capital markets, and build greater collective resilience with allies and partners,” the report said.
—Eva Fu
WHAT’S HAPPENING
- Former President Donald Trump holds a campaign rally in Coralville, Iowa.
- Hunter Biden is due to appear for a closed-door interview by House lawmakers. The full House is on the same day expected to vote on whether to authorize the continuation of the impeachment inquiry into President Biden.
- The House Select Committee on the CCP holds a hearing on how the Chinese Communist Party silences and coerces its critics overseas.
BOOKMARKS
Eminent domain is the next frontier in the battle over climate change. Kevin Stocklin files this report on how the Biden administration is angling to convert more private land for green energy production. The Kansas Reflector reports on how citizen groups are fighting the use of eminent domain for solar and wind projects.
Claudine Gay will keep her job as president of Harvard despite failing to affirm that calling for the genocide of Jews does not automatically violate the university’s code of conduct. The Epoch Times’s Aaron Pan details the board’s rationale for retaining Gay. The embattled exec was also cleared of plagiarism charges, The New York Times reports.
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said House Republicans will take legal action to compel witnesses to appear at hearings in the Biden impeachment inquiry. Zachary Stieber of The Epoch Times reveals why that may be necessary. GOP representatives are whipping the votes they’ll need to formally open the inquiry, according to Axios, which will give them a leg up in enforcing subpoenas.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.) have reintroduced the mother of all gun control bills. The Epoch Times’s Michael Clements has a rundown of what’s in the bill and what it says about the Democrats’ true aims in legislating on guns. New American speculates on the reason Warren would reintroduce the bill, which is almost certain to fail.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. lashed out at states that restrict ballot access to third-party candidates, calling, saying that amounts to “the worst forms of voter suppression,” Jeff Lauderback reports for The Epoch Times. NewsNation breaks down a new poll showing that 1 in 5 people would consider voting for RFK Jr.
It’s time for Republicans to unite around Trump, according to South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem. Jack Phillips of The Epoch Times reports on Noem’s rationale and the new poll that supports it. Trump also got a boost from former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), who will leave Congress at the end of the month. Politico reports that McCarthy will support Trump’s reelection bid and details what it would take for him to consider a cabinet post in a Trump administration.
