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Rule for debate on war supplemental heads to House floor

David Lerman and Paul M. Krawzak, CQ-Roll Call on

Published in News & Features

The three GOP defections on the Rules panel meant Democratic votes were needed to advance the rule, which presages a similar outcome on the floor Friday.

“There’s nothing the speaker can do to get the votes of the extreme members of the Republican Party,” said Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon, D-Pa., a Rules member. “It’s time to stop negotiating with legislative terrorists.”

Top Democrats hinted earlier Thursday they were likely to lend their votes on the House floor so as not to sink long-stalled aid to key allies.

“We’re going to do what we’ve done throughout the entirety of the Congress, which is to make sure we take care of the business of the American people,” said Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y.

Greene, ironically, secured one of the seven amendments allowed under the rule. It would simply eliminate all funding in the $60.8 billion Ukraine aid bill.

Other amendments that will be considered include one to prevent any of the $7.9 billion in direct economic aid to Ukraine from being used to pay the pensions or salaries of government officials in that country, and another to eliminate all of the nonmilitary funding in the Ukraine package.

 

The need for bipartisan support was clear Thursday when the Freedom Caucus, made up of 30 to 40 rebellious conservatives, announced its opposition to the rule for the aid package because it doesn’t include border security legislation. Republicans control the House with only a two-vote margin so Democratic support is required to offset dozens of GOP defections.

“To secure the border, we must kill the rule,” the Freedom Caucus said in a statement.

While Democrats appear willing to back the aid package rule, they will not do so for a separate border bill, which contains key provisions of an earlier, House-passed measure that Democrats uniformly opposed, including tougher asylum restrictions and resuming construction of a border wall.

Facing GOP defections and no Democratic support, the Rules Committee was unable to advance a rule for that measure Wednesday night, instead scrapping the meeting altogether. House leaders agreed Thursday to take up the bill on the floor under suspension of the rules, which requires a two-thirds majority vote that clearly doesn’t exist.

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