Believe it or not, despite weeks of deception, a 4,100-page bill, and a House roll call vote on Dec. 23, Congress still missed the deadline for funding the government. .
what?
The government did not shut down early on Christmas Eve, even though Congress was able to approve the bill before the 11:59:59 PM (ET) deadline on the 23rd. Lawmakers hesitated for weeks, holding off the final vote on the total spending bill until the last minute.
The Senate approved the final version Thursday afternoon. House, Friday afternoon.
So what do you get?
Rather than end up with Staples, Congress buys a few runs of computer paper off the shelf, prints the bills on a Xerox Phaser 3610, and sends a version of it to the President to sign into law.
A large and complicated bill like an omnibus must be “hooked” and “registered”. Engagement refers to the final version of a law when passed by any body, but before it is sent to the other Congress. In other words, the Senate changed the law on the fly after passing the omnibus, adopting a number of amendments. So once it passed, the Senate sent a tweaked version to the House for passage.
President Joe Biden
(AP/Alex Brandon)
Once the House approved the bill, the two agencies were synchronized. But it will take time for the congressional registry clerk to finalize the bill for President Biden’s signature.
This is not an easy process. In fact, the registry clerk, even working Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, could take several days to get the bill into proper parliamentary form.
Federal law requires Congress to print laws on parchment. It is a practice that dates back to the beginning of the Republic. Printing bills on parchment was a way to protect Congress from forgery. Additionally, the Speaker of the House and the Speaker pro tempore of the Senate must sign the bill. So the technical process of getting the president to sign the omnibus before the Friday night deadline was out of the question. This would take until a few days after Christmas at the earliest.
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Congress punted despite the commotion and commotion about “funding the government before the deadline.” Also.
Very Quietly – Few Creatures to Sway – Both the House and Senate Still Approved another Intermediate spending bill. This just keeps the lights on for a few days and gives the registrar time to prepare the bill.
So while Congress approved the omnibus, the government has been working on the third Band-Aid bill approved by Congress since September.
“We’re just managing the risks,” said Alabama Republican Sen. Richard Shelby, the top Republican on the Senate Appropriations Committee.
Senator Richard Shelby in his Capitol Hill office in Washington, November 29, 2022.
(AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Eighteen Republican senators, including Shelby, voted in favor of the omnibus bill. Only nine House Republicans voted in favor. But this omnibus served as a case study of a growing divide within the Republican Party – between MAGA’s conservatives and the other “mainstream” faction of his GOP.
“There were 18 Republicans who joined the Democrats in the Senate and got on a fancy plane and went home. And we’re sitting here, not spending money we don’t have, but people doing their jobs.” I’m trying to do it,” the lawmaker thundered. Texas Republican Chip Roy on the House floor.
Despite the closed doors, Roy’s face turned red as he yelled and gestured in the hallways of the Capitol, a floor above the House of Commons.
“I want the members to remember that Mike that is House Rules Committee Chairman Jim McGovern (D-Massachusetts) shot Roy. “No need to shout”
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) later took the floor, denouncing Democrats and some Republicans for supporting Omnibus.
McCarthy may have opposed the bill, but it may have actually done him two benefits.
First, we will fund the government until September next year. That way, the House Republican majority won’t have to deal with government funding when it takes control next year. Second, politics always needs a foil. McCarthy is having trouble finding votes to become chairman.
“This is a monster, one of the most shameful acts I have ever seen in this institution. The appropriation process is the failure of the American people, nailed to the coffin of the greatest failure of one-party rule.” There is no better example of stabbing the House, the Senate, and the presidency,” McCarthy declared.
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Many of McCarthy’s most ardent supporters filled the seats behind him on the House floor, eager to have the camera visualize them endorsing a California Republican as a speaker. includes Rep. Stephanie Bice (R-Okla.), Rep. Clay Higgins (R-La.), and Rep. David Kustoff (R-Tenn).
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy
(AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Apparently McGovern played the roles of both Muppets characters. When Waldorf jeered McCarthy at the end of his remarks during the debate on the floor.
“After hearing that, it’s clear he still doesn’t have the right to vote,” McGovern said with a deadpan expression.
“He’s not going to be a speaker,” said McCarthy’s opponent Rep. Bob Goode, R-Va. “He doesn’t have 218 votes.
A staggering 230 lawmakers have submitted letters to the Clerk of the House to enable remote voting via omnibus. The House held a proxy vote in the House in Spring 2020 because of the pandemic. However, this system is now riddled with abuse. Technically, lawmakers are supposed to prove they’re begging and voting from home because of COVID. But that is rarely the case anymore.
McCarthy has vowed to eliminate proxy voting in his quest to grip the speaker’s gavel.
Chip Roy saved his belligerent rhetoric for remote voting.
“The American people deserve to be here for Christmas. Instead of trying to catch a plane, actually fighting for them, half of this body will vote by proxy.” is lying on its form and saying it’s voting by proxy for COVID, which is a lie, and half of this body intends to do so.”
Only one Democrat voted against Omnibus. But a fellow squad member, Michigan Democratic Rep. Rashida Talib, cast a proxy vote. Tlab did not vote for or against. Tlaib announced that her vote was “attended” despite her absence.
Ironically, Congress never hurts. The irony here is that there is no real break between the end of the 117th Congress and the start of his 118th Congress on January 3rd.
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So it might look like they’re all wrapped up in the Capitol.
No parliament is truly perfect.
