Advocacy Monthly - February 2024

Upcoming Legislative Priorities

As has been the case in the last few weeks, it is exceedingly unclear what Speaker Johnson’s plans are to fund the government, much less additional efforts to support Ukraine, Israel, and the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Republican hardliners appear to be eager to forward their policy agenda by either forcing a full year CR, which would cause automatic cuts, or, if necessary, shut down the government.

Meanwhile, others in the Republican party, particularly those on the Appropriations Committee, have suggested that either approach is bad politics during an election year and prefer to pass all 12 appropriations bills. The situation is made more challenging by the fact that the extreme right segment of the Republican party has a wide-ranging set of policy demands and addressing all of these is not only unrealistic from a policy perspective, not to mention the fact that with the three-vote majority chaos reigns. The razor thin majority is further narrowed by the reality of absence and illness, which effectively brings Republican control even narrower.

The same issues that have plagued the Ukrainian supplemental continue, specifically that while the supplemental that passed the Senate would pass the House if it ever got a vote, Speaker Johnson’s speakership would likely be in question if he moved that bill, leaving those who want to pass the supplemental exploring other ways to get the bill up for a vote, namely by defeating the previous question or through a discharge petition. Either would require Republican support, and Republicans are presently reticent to undercut the Speaker’s ability to control the floor, leaving those funds at an impasse.