Republicans Continue To Prove They Have No Idea How To Run The Government

The House Is Skulking Out Of Town

On Tuesday, a floundering MAGA Mike and his failed leadership team gave up on trying to pass the House Appropriations Committee’s Energy and Water Development Appropriations Act. Chaos inside the Republican conference was creating hours of turmoil and confusion on the House floor. The bill was meant to provide funding for U.S. Army Corps of Engineers civil works projects, including for Mississippi River and tributaries construction, operation and maintenance, flood control, Coastal Emergencies, as well as for appropriations to the Department of the Interior for the Central Utah Project and the Bureau of Reclamation, appropriations to DOE for energy programs, including

• Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy;

• Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response;

• Electricity;

• Grid Deployment;

• Nuclear Energy;

• Fossil Energy and Carbon Management;

• Naval Petroleum and Oil Shale Reserves;

• the Strategic Petroleum Reserve;

• the Northeast Home Heating Oil Reserve;

• the Energy Information Administration;

• Non-Defense Environmental Cleanup;

• the Uranium Enrichment Decontamination and Decommissioning Fund;

• Science;

• Nuclear Waste Disposal;

• Technology Transitions;

• Clean Energy Demonstrations;

• the Advanced Research Projects Agency—Energy;

• the Title 17 Innovative Technology Loan Guarantee Program;

• the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program;

• the Tribal Energy Loan Guarantee Program;

• Indian Energy Policy and Programs;

• Departmental Administration; and

• the Office of the Inspector General.

• Atomic Energy Defense Activities of the National Nuclear Security Administration,

• Environmental and Other Defense Activities, and

• the Power Marketing Administrations.

Early in the evening, the Republicans voted down 10 consecutive amendments by far right extremist Scott Perry (R-PA), with between 15 and 91 Republicans opposing Perry and his diversionary nonsense. As that bill got flushed down the toilet, MAGA Mike and Scalise decided to see if they would do any better with funding the Department of the Interior, the EPA and other agencies. The bill provides appropriations to Interior for

• the Bureau of Land Management,

• the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service,

• the National Park Service,

• the U.S. Geological Survey,

• the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management,

• the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement,

• the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement,

• the Bureau of Indian Affairs,

• the Bureau of Indian Education,

• the Bureau of Trust Funds Administration,

• Departmental Offices, and

• Department-Wide Programs.
  

The bill also provides appropriations to the EPA and the Forest Service. Within the Department of Health and Human Services, the bill provides appropriations for

• the Indian Health Service,

• the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, and

• the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry.

The bill they're unable to get passed also provides appropriations to several related agencies, including

• the Council on Environmental Quality and Office of Environmental Quality,

• the Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board,

• the Office of Navajo and Hopi Indian Relocation,

• the Institute of American Indian and Alaska Native Culture and Arts Development,

• the Smithsonian Institution,

• the National Gallery of Art,

• the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts,

• the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars,

• the National Endowment for the Arts,

• the National Endowment for the Humanities,

• the Commission of Fine Arts,

• the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation.

• the National Capital Planning Commission,

• the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, and

• the U.S. Semiquincentennial Commission.

Lauren Boebert, who has convinced herself that she will be Trump’s Secretary of the Interior, offered 5 insane amendments, all of which were defeated by an average of around 65 Republicans. Exasperated, MAGA Mike decided to send Congress home— after the Netanyahu address— until September 9— while Tennessee lunatic Andy Ogles ran around screaming that Congress had to vote on his comedic bill to impeach Kamala Harris first.

Remember, these were Republican spending bills that the Republican Party was unable to pass in a House they control but cannot run. Priority spending bills for Agriculture and Financial Services are also being left untouched while Republicans fight among themselves, adding unrelated poison pill riders that Republicans in swing districts can’t support if they hope to win reelection in November— like national abortion bans and other base-pleasing silliness than the Senate would never take up. The bill finally passed yesterday on a party line vote.

MAGA Mike and Scalise had vowed not to adjourn Congress until all 12 funding bills had passed. Another Republican promise broken. It’s absolutely crucial that President Harris doesn’t have this clown show running the House when she’s sworn in in January. Please consider contributing to slipping the House by directly contributing to these 8 progressives.

Aris Folley and Emily Brooks reported that “there is much uncertainty about the House Republicans’ chances of passing the remaining funding bills; the divisions that derailed the conference’s efforts to pass its fiscal 2024 funding plans have made a reemergence. Earlier this month, a small faction of Republicans tanked the party’s attempt to pass a bill to fund the legislative branch… [A] bill that covers funding for Washington, D.C.— including emergency planning, security costs and other programs— is also seeing resistance from some moderates over a party-backed effort to target a D.C. law aimed at protecting employees’ reproductive rights. The proposal was among the reasons the party struggled to pass the same funding bill measure last year. And if it stays as is, the bill could lose support from moderates again this time around.”

An earlier schedule floated by House GOP leadership also aimed for a vote on the annual Justice Department funding bill this week, but pressed on that measure, Cole said “that’s always tough,” noting funding for the FBI’s headquarters “has been a big bone of contention.”

His comments come months after hard-line conservatives fumed over the inclusion of dollars for a new FBI headquarters tucked into a larger fiscal 2024 government funding package that eventually passed Congress, despite immense backlash from the conference’s right flank.

But that doesn’t mean leadership isn’t facing some pressure to move forward trying to pass the measures.

Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC) said leadership ought to “hash” out agreement on the remaining funding bills in “as much time as it takes to get hashed out,” while speculating leadership is punting votes on some of the outstanding bills because they lack sufficient support.

“But that’s not how you do in the business arena. If you’ve got a problem, you face it,” he said.

What Ralph Norman and other far right, neo-Nazi ideologues don’t understand about the private sector is that ultimately there’s a boss responsible for the smooth operation of the company— a boss who would have fired freaks and degenerates like Ralph Norman, Scott Perry and Lauren Boebert the first time any of them opened their mouths.