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Union Busting GOP
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H.Res. 5: Adopting the Rules of the House of Representatives for the One Hundred Eighteenth Congress, and for other purposes.
Vote taken 01/09/23; Passed 220-213; PA MoC Party line vote - all PA GOP voted YES and all PA Dems voted NO The first step every new Congress must take after a Speaker of the House is elected is to establish the rules of the chamber. This affects issues as mundane as the placement of C-Span cameras in the House to issues as major as dictating what issues the Congressional Budget Office must consider when determining the potential price tag for any legislation. But aside from the actual rules, it is significant that this bill is named “Adopting the Rules of the House of Representatives for the One Hundred Eighteenth Congress, and for other purposes” because those final three words are carrying a lot of weight. Tucked deep in this resolution was a provision (Section 3[b]) that killed the efforts of congressional staffers to unionize. It was only the last Congress that passed a measure to allow the nascent labor movement among the mostly young, mostly low-paid congressional staffers to get off the ground. The passage of this rules package ended unionization of staff until a Democratic majority takes back the House. |
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GOP: All socialism is horrible! Hitler and Nazis? Not so much.
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H.Con.Res. 9: Denouncing the horrors of socialism
Vote taken 02/02/23; passed 328-86 Messaging bills are nothing new in Congress, both parties do them. They provide red meat for the base as well as potential ammunition for the majority party to use against the minority party come election time. What makes this messaging bill unusual is both the poor quality of its composition as well as one heinous and notable omission from its content. |
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In 1952, then-President Truman observed that “Socialism is a scare word they have hurled at every advance the people have made.” Instead of taking that as criticism, the Republicans pinned it to their inspiration board when writing up this mess of a resolution. Without making any mention of all of the United States allies that are thriving socialist nations (many of whom are members of NATO and might take exception at this characterization of their countries), this resolution proclaims that “the greatest crimes in history were committed by socialist ideologues” and goes on to list Lenin, Mao, Stalin, leaders of North Korea, Venezuela and Cuba and the awful outcomes of their rule, seemingly oblivious that it is the authoritarian rule that is the root of the “horrors” they recount in their screed.
It was Rep. Maxine Waters who called out the GOP for the glaring omission from this list, an omission that one of her Democratic colleagues attempted to remedy. Rep. Waters questioned the Republicans from the floor:
It was Rep. Maxine Waters who called out the GOP for the glaring omission from this list, an omission that one of her Democratic colleagues attempted to remedy. Rep. Waters questioned the Republicans from the floor:
“Do you know which dictator my extremist colleagues refuse to condemn? Oh, they didn't say anything about Hitler… My colleague, Mr. Gottheimer noticed that somehow the Republicans just forgot to condemn Hitler and offered an amendment to denounce [Hitler’s] atrocities and mass murder. But Republicans rejected it. And I think we know why. It is because Donald Trump--your true leader, the true leader of the Republicans and North Star for House Republicans--was reported to have frightened his own staff by saying that Hitler had done some good things.”
Many Democrats, especially those in competitive districts, did not take the bait of this messaging bill. They had the foresight to know that their vote in defense of socialism would be paired with horrible newsreel images from authoritarian regimes for campaign ads by Republican challengers in their districts. Not wishing to face such disingenuous tactics for no real benefit, most Democrats voted YES alongside all of the Republicans.
GOP handcuffs Biden’s response to rising fuel costs… unless he opens federal lands to extractive uses
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H.R. 21: Strategic Production Response Act
Vote taken on 01/27/23; passed 221-205, PA MoC Party line vote - all PA GOP voted YES and all PA Dems voted NO Last year, when the gas price crisis was at its heights, the Biden Administration decided to reduce the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, and sold off 180 million barrels.. This introduction of additional supply in the market was a tool used to address rising costs and inflation overall. The GOP voted to keep presidents from doing that in the future… unless they were willing to open up federal lands to additional drilling and other extractive uses. As per the Library of Congress bill summary, “This bill limits the drawdown of petroleum in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve until the Department of Energy develops a plan to increase the percentage of federal lands leased for oil and gas production.” |
MAGA extremists enact revenge on a Squad member
H.Res. 76: Removing a certain Member from a certain standing committee of the House.
Vote taken 02/02/23; passed 218-211 (with 1 vote for “Present”);
PA MoC Party line vote - all PA GOP voted YES and all PA Dems voted NO
In February 2021, the previous Congress voted to expel Marjorie Taylor Greene from her committees for various anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim statements, as well as advocating for political violence. At that time, then-Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy called the move a “power grab” and said it was a "dangerous new standard that will only deepen divides."
Less than a month after he took power, Speaker McCarthy decided to play tit-for-tat by ousting frequent GOP target Representative Ilhan Omar from the House Foreign Affairs Committee. The text of the resolution cites a number of controversial statements from Rep. Omar, many critical of Israel, and some that do have anti-Semetic undertones (nothing about Jewish Space Lasers, though). The text concludes with the proclamation that “Representative Omar’s comments have brought dishonor to the House of Representatives.”
The decision to remove Rep. Omar from the Foreign Affairs Committee was not made purely along party lines across the full House (though that was the case with the Pennsylvania delegation.. Republican David Joyce of Ohio refused to stand with his party and instead voted “present.” He issued a statement along with his vote, and after condemning Rep. Omar’s comments, added that as a member of the House Ethics Committee, “I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to allow the Ethics Committee to do its job and address any alleged violations of the U.S. House of Representatives’ rules.” Unfortunately, none of our PA GOP MoCs followed his lead (not even Brian Fitzpatrick of PA-01, who regularly decries such “Hatfield and McCoys” style politics).
Vote taken 02/02/23; passed 218-211 (with 1 vote for “Present”);
PA MoC Party line vote - all PA GOP voted YES and all PA Dems voted NO
In February 2021, the previous Congress voted to expel Marjorie Taylor Greene from her committees for various anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim statements, as well as advocating for political violence. At that time, then-Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy called the move a “power grab” and said it was a "dangerous new standard that will only deepen divides."
Less than a month after he took power, Speaker McCarthy decided to play tit-for-tat by ousting frequent GOP target Representative Ilhan Omar from the House Foreign Affairs Committee. The text of the resolution cites a number of controversial statements from Rep. Omar, many critical of Israel, and some that do have anti-Semetic undertones (nothing about Jewish Space Lasers, though). The text concludes with the proclamation that “Representative Omar’s comments have brought dishonor to the House of Representatives.”
The decision to remove Rep. Omar from the Foreign Affairs Committee was not made purely along party lines across the full House (though that was the case with the Pennsylvania delegation.. Republican David Joyce of Ohio refused to stand with his party and instead voted “present.” He issued a statement along with his vote, and after condemning Rep. Omar’s comments, added that as a member of the House Ethics Committee, “I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to allow the Ethics Committee to do its job and address any alleged violations of the U.S. House of Representatives’ rules.” Unfortunately, none of our PA GOP MoCs followed his lead (not even Brian Fitzpatrick of PA-01, who regularly decries such “Hatfield and McCoys” style politics).
Short takes on other votes of note
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Abortion votes - The GOP advanced a far-right urban legend by voting to make the murder of infants illegal (pretty sure it already was, Congressman) and supported a resolution deploring acts of violence against anti-choice activists, facilities and churches. All PA Dems voted against the first bill, with PA-06 Dem Chrissy Houlahan voting with the GOP on the second resolution. All PA GOP lawmakers voted YES on both items.
Investigations - Many campaign promises were made by Republicans across the campaign season to investigate the Biden Administration. To do so, they created a “Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government” and put Jim Jordan in charge. This revenge committee passed along party lines. The IRS - Republicans continued their crusade against the Internal Revenue Service. Despite evidence that the IRS is deploying funds to fill the positions of retired customer service agents to improve call center hold times to help folks with questions during tax season, the Republicans voted to claw back IRS funding from the last Congress. In a party line vote, the GOP voted to rescind the IRS funding. |
COVID - If voting could stop COVID, Republicans would have ended the pandemic by now. Instead, the majority party has ended protections that many vulnerable populations have relied upon. All House GOP lawmakers voted to terminate the COVID public health emergency, end the national emergency declared by Donald Trump in 2020, stop the COVID vaccine requirements for health care workers, and cease requiring COVID proof of COVID vaccines for foreign travelers. Most of these bills had party lines votes for our PA delegation, though PA-06 Dem Chrissy Houlahan voted with the GOP on the bill to end vaccine requirements for healthcare workers.
Overturning DC self-rule issues - The Congress has the right to overturn any laws passed by the democratically elected leaders of Washington DC’s city council. The Republicans flexed their muscles and disapproved two measures, one that changed the DC criminal code and modified punishments for some crimes, and another that expanded the franchise to noncitizens who meet residency and other requirements. The first measure passed with a party line vote for the PA delegations. For the second bill, PA-08 Democrat Matt Cartwright voted with the GOP. |
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Federal telework policy - The “Stopping Home Office Work’s Unproductive Problems Act” or SHOW UP Act requires all federal agencies to revert to their 2019 tele-work policies, returning millions of federal workers to the office full time. This was the one vote where several lawmakers did not vote along party lines. |
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It has been a chaotic first month of this 118th Congress. We’ve seen the Republican-led House advance messaging bills, reverse the work of the previous Congress, and wreak vengeance upon their political enemies. Congress is on break until the beginning of March, but we should all brace ourselves to see what new legislative monstrosities the MAGA-extremists leading the Republican party bring to the floor when they get back!
