Last night, Senator McConnell filed cloture last night on a motion to proceed to H.R. 2740, which you may recall is the most expansive/expensive of all the spending packages and includes Labor-HHS, Defense, State/Foreign Ops, and Energy and Water. A successful vote on Wednesday means that the Senate floor debate could begin on this bill with new text from the Senate Republicans. The consideration would not be without a fight from Senate Democrats who want more of their priorities included in the bill and higher spending numbers for the Labor-HHS bill.
Category: 116th Congress
A Step Forward
By a vote of 92 to 2, the Senate yesterday agreed to debate a package of four FY2020 spending bills. As noted yesterday, the bundle is a Senate substitute to a set of House-passed bills and includes the following measures: Agriculture, Commerce-Justice-Science, Interior, and Transportation-Housing and Urban Development.
Even if the Senate does ultimately approve the package, what happens after that still remains a mystery, as the second set of bills that may be considered contains some of the most controversial ones, including the Defense and Labor-HHS measures.
The continuing resolution signed into law in late September runs out November 22.
Yes, But How Much Progress?
The Senate might see some thawing on the appropriations front later this week, but how much thawing remains to be seen.
In an attempt to break through on the appropriations impasse that has faced the Senate for weeks, the Republican leadership in the chamber plans to file a cloture motion on a package of four spending bills that had near unanimous support in committee. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) will file a motion to invoke cloture on a House-passed legislative package of bills. Should the vote be successful, the Senate would then seek to replace the House-approved measure with its own bundle of bills: Agriculture, Commerce-Justice-Science, Interior and Environment, and Transportation-Housing and Urban Development. If and when the Senate approves its substitute, things will likely get trickier.
Senate Republicans hope that agreement on the first package will allow for movement on a second bundle of appropriations measures, a combination of bills much more controversial because of the partisan fights on issues like funding for the border wall and language on abortion policy. After agreeing to the first “minibus” of bills, the Republican goal is to move to the floor the Defense, Labor-HHS-Education, Homeland Security, and Military Construction-Veterans Affairs measures. The Democrats have signaled that, at this point, this may be a bridge too far.
Stay tuned.
House Democrats Introduce HEA Legislation
As expected, the House Democrats introduced last week their version of the legislation to reauthorize the Higher Education Act (HEA). The 1,100-page College Affordability Act is likely to be marked up by the Education and Labor Committee next week. Unlike the Senate bill that was introduced in late September by HELP Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-TN), the House legislation represents a comprehensive look at the underlying HEA.
The legislation covers a wide-range of issues in the HEA, from an increase of $500 in the Pell Grant maximum award to proposed changes in how outcome standards are determined for accreditation purposes and topics in between, such as the elimination of loan repayment programs currently in place and the creation of two new loan repayment options for new loans.
Read more about the legislation here. We will provide further updates.
A Primer on Impeachment
In late September, Speaker of the House, Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), announced a formal impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump. Impeachment is when a legislative body levels charges against a government official. Similar to an indictment, it is the first step in the process of removing a government official from office because they have committed particularly offensive crimes, such as treason or bribery.
President Trump is accused of trying to solicit personal favors by threatening to withhold foreign aid to Ukraine. This was brought to attention through a whistleblower complaint from an Intelligence Community employee.
Only two previous Presidents have ever been impeached. President Andrew Johnson was impeached in 1868, but was acquitted in the Senate. President Bill Clinton was impeached in 1998, and was also acquitted in the Senate. Articles of impeachment were approved against President Richard Nixon in 1974 following the Watergate Scandal, although he resigned before the full House could vote to impeach him. No prior President has ever been removed from office as a direct result of impeachment.
The last government official to be impeached, found guilty, and removed from office was Judge G. Thomas Porteous Jr. Formerly a Judge in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, Porteous was found guilty of perjury by the Senate in 2010 and was removed from office.
For Congress to impeach the President, here are the steps of impeachment, in a nutshell.
- First, the House opens an inquiry. Power of impeachment rests with the House of Representatives, and is enshrined in Article II, Section II of the United States Constitution.
- One area of contention in this inquiry has been voting. Under statute, the House is not required to follow any specific procedure to conduct an impeachment inquiry. In the past, a vote in the committee was required to issue subpoenas. Now, as a result of rule changes which occurred 2015, Democratic Committee Chairpersons have unilateral subpoena power (as the majority party). A vote would give Republicans the potential to seek unilateral subpoena power for the Ranking Members of the Committees (Republicans), allowing them to call their own witnesses and potentially change the direction of the inquiry. Speaker Pelosi asserts that the House Committee Chairpersons have all the necessary tools to conduct an inquiry, making a vote redundant.
- Next, various House committees investigate. The Committees may seek evidence through calling witnesses, issuing subpoenas, and reviewing records. They will determine whether impeachable offenses occurred. The current inquiry is centered in the House Intelligence Committee, due to the nature of the whistleblower complaint, however multiple committees, including the House Oversight and Government Reform and House Judiciary Committee, are involved in the investigation.
- In this inquiry, the White House has instructed the Department of State not to turn over evidence to House investigators, and has forbidden Department of State employees from testifying before the House. State Department employees are ultimately lead by President Trump, creating a sticky legal dilemma. The House Committees would have to initiate legal action in a federal court to obtain evidence.
- Afterwards, the House Judiciary Committee reviews the findings. This is done after the various Committees have reviewed their evidence. The Judiciary Committee may recommend the entire House vote on articles of impeachment. To impeach a President, the entire House of Representatives must vote by simple majority. Voting is an involved process in and of itself, as the House must agree on voting method, when to vote, etc.
- Impeaching a President doesn’t mean they are removed from office. The Senate must hold a trial overseen by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. The current Chief Justice is John Roberts. A trial can be lengthy because the Senate will need to establish procedures, review evidence, and actually agree to hold a vote. The President would then be removed if 2/3 of Senators vote in favor of removal. In this Congress, a 2/3 vote would require 12 Republican Senators, and all Democratic Senators, to vote in favor of impeachment.
Currently, the House and Senate are controlled by opposing parties. As a result, it is unlikely the Democratic-controlled House and Republican-controlled Senate would both reach the same conclusion. The inquiry has also become highly partisan, with each side accusing the other of corruption and abuse of power. However, not all evidence has been reviewed or made publicly available. As of October 8th, the White House is refusing to cooperate with the inquiry. It is unclear what will happen next, but it is important to keep in mind impeachment is an extremely difficult and lengthy process.
Edit: This post originally stated that President Richard Nixon was impeached. While the House Judiciary Committee approved three articles of impeachment, Nixon resigned before there was a vote in the House to adopt the articles. The post has been updated to reflect this.
Edit: This post originally stated that President Andrew Jackson was impeached instead of President Andrew Johnson.