Congress races to avert shutdown amid conservative anger

Congress is racing to fund the government by Friday’s partial shutdown deadline, a heavy task that is bound to get weightier as Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) navigates growing anger in his conference over his handling of spending matters.

The mad dash comes after congressional leaders rolled out a bipartisan deal to avert a shutdown over the weekend, settling on another two-set stopgap bill that would keep the government funded into March. The Senate is scheduled to hold the first procedural vote for the legislation late Tuesday.

House conservatives, however, are already coming out against the move, a reality that is sure to worsen headaches for Johnson as he works to keep the lights on in Washington before midnight Friday while also managing his warring conference.

Also this week, the House is set — for now — to vote on a resolution to hold Hunter Biden in contempt of Congress after President Biden’s son defied a congressional subpoena last month, though the punishment could be pulled from the schedule if the younger Biden’s team reaches an agreement with House Republicans to testify during a closed-door deposition.

And the second of four impeachment hearings focused on Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas is slated for this week, as the House GOP conference barrels toward trying to oust the embattled secretary.

Congress stares down government funding deadline

The Senate is scheduled to hold a procedural vote on the continuing resolution (CR) proposal Tuesday afternoon at around 5:45 p.m., officially kicking off the process to avert a shutdown by Friday’s midnight deadline.

The vote comes after congressional leaders announced a two-part CR Sunday, unveiling another version of the unconventional stopgap bill to avert a shutdown.

The legislation would extend funding for programs at the departments of Agriculture; Energy; Veterans Affairs; Transportation; and Housing and Urban Development through March 1, and the rest of the government until March 8.

In a statement Sunday, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) acknowledged the quick pace that Congress has to consider and approve the stopgap to avert a shutdown, underscoring the need for bipartisan action.

“To avoid a shutdown, it will take bipartisan cooperation in the Senate and the House to quickly pass the CR and send it to the President’s desk before Friday’s funding deadline,” he wrote.

Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) addresses reporters following the weekly policy luncheon on Tuesday, January 9, 2024.

That bipartisan cooperation, however, is expected to be far from unanimous in the House, where conservatives are already voicing their opposition to the stopgap bill, even though it uses the same two-part framework many of them backed during the previous shutdown threat in November in an effort to avoid a massive end-of-year, whole-of-government omnibus funding bill.

Hard-liners traditionally oppose CRs because they do not cut spending from the previous year, and many in the right flank are now demanding border security be included in the government funding fight, which is not the case with the proposed stopgap bill. 

“The @HouseGOP is planning to pass a short-term spending bill continuing Pelosi levels with Biden policies, to buy time to pass longer-term spending bills at Pelosi levels with Biden policies. This is what surrender looks like,” the House Freedom Caucus wrote on social media, referring to former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). 

Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), a former chair of the conservative group, wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter: “Enough with the continuing resolutions,” later adding “We are doing the American people a disservice.”

That conservative opposition will mean that Johnson will likely have to bring the stopgap bill to the floor under suspension of the rules, a fast-track process that bypasses first approving a rule.

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Rule votes are typically routine procedures, where the majority party votes in support and the minority party votes in opposition, but conservatives have voted against the procedural vote — and therefore shut down legislative business — several times this Congress to showcase their opposition to leadership decisions.

But when operating under suspension of the rules, legislation requires two-thirds support for passage — meaning the stopgap bill will require heavy support from Democrats, a reality that is sure to incense House conservatives even more, as it has in the past.

Eight House Republicans voted with Democrats in October to oust then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) after he worked with Democrats to avert a shutdown, and hard-liners criticized Johnson in November after he did the same.

If Congress gets the stopgap proposal over the finish line by Friday, it will mark the third CR Congress has had to pass since fiscal 2024 began at the end of September.

Johnson’s backing of the CR, to be sure, did mark something of a reversal for him. In November, the newly minted Speaker said “I’m done with short-term CRs,” but he is backing one now, as it becomes clear that lawmakers need more time to complete the appropriations process.

Congressional leaders reached a deal on top-line spending numbers earlier this month, but lawmakers need more time to hash out particulars in the 12 spending bills.

Hunter Biden contempt of Congress vote hangs in limbo

The House is scheduled to vote on holding Hunter Biden in contempt of Congress on Thursday — but the vote could be yanked if the president’s son strikes a deal with Republicans to testify.

The chance of canceling the vote comes after days of public back-and-forth between Hunter Biden’s team and House Oversight and Accountability Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) and House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), which has led to a potential agreement between the two sides.

Last week, Abbe Lowell, Hunter Biden’s attorney, told the committees in a letter that his client would be willing to sit for a closed-door deposition if the panels reissued subpoenas requesting his testimony, a shift from their previous position that Biden would only participate in a public hearing. His legal team had been concerned that GOP lawmakers would selectively leak and misconstrue Biden’s remarks following a closed-door deposition and instead offered to testify publicly.

In his letter, Lowell argued that the previous subpoenas were invalid because they were issued before House Republicans voted to solidify its impeachment inquiry into President Biden. Jordan and Comer, however, rebuffed the request, writing in a statement: “For now, the House of Representatives will move forward with holding Hunter Biden in contempt of Congress until such time that Hunter Biden confirms a date to appear for a private deposition in accordance with his legal obligation.”

But Sunday, the GOP chairs informed Lowell in a letter that they were willing to reissue the subpoenas in hopes of getting Hunter Biden to answer questions.

“The Committees welcome Mr. Biden’s newfound willingness to testify in a deposition setting under subpoena. Although the Committee’s subpoenas are lawful and remain legally enforceable, as an accommodation to Mr. Biden and your request, we are prepared to issue subpoenas compelling Mr. Biden’s appearance at a deposition on a new date in the coming weeks,” they wrote.

Hunter Biden is seen as his lawyer Abbe Lowell makes a statement to reporters outside a House Oversight Committee markup on Wednesday, January 10, 2024 as they consider a resolution to hold Biden in contempt of Congress for defying a subpoena last month.

A spokesperson for Jordan told The Hill on Monday that the panels are ready to pull Thursday’s contempt of Congress vote if the two parties can set a date for a deposition.

“If they agree to genuinely cooperate and we can work out a deposition date, the Chairman will recommend to Leadership that we hold the floor vote on contempt in abeyance for now,” the spokesperson said.

House Republicans are seeking to hold Hunter Biden in contempt of Congress after he defied a congressional subpoena last month, failing to sit for a closed-door deposition as part of the House GOP’s impeachment inquiry into the president. Instead, the younger Biden delivered a public statement on the Capitol complex in which he said “my father was not financially involved in my business.”

The Oversight and Judiciary committees advanced resolutions to hold Biden in contempt of Congress last week, sending them to the full House for consideration. 

If the House approves the contempt of Congress resolution, the Justice Department would then decide whether to bring charges against Hunter Biden. The resolution solely serves as a recommendation.

Hunter Biden also visited Capitol Hill last week, making a surprise appearance at the Oversight Committee markup of the resolution to hold him in contempt of Congress.

Mayorkas impeachment hearing No. 2

House Republicans are set to hold another impeachment hearing for Mayorkas this week, marking the second of four planned presentations as GOP lawmakers ramp up their efforts to oust the Cabinet secretary.

The hearing — scheduled for Thursday at 9:30 a.m. — is titled “Voices for the Victims: The Heartbreaking Reality of the Mayorkas Border Crisis.” According to Rep. Mark Green (R-Tenn.), the chair of the House Homeland Security Committee, the hearing will feature testimony from witnesses who “have been impacted by Secretary Mayorkas’ refusal to enforce the laws passed by Congress.”

“The human cost of Secretary Mayorkas’ failed leadership and decision-making is truly immeasurable,” Green wrote in a statement last week. “Due to his refusal to uphold his oath of office, tens of thousands of families have suffered the devasting (sic) loss of loved ones due to the smuggling of fentanyl across our open Southwest border, law enforcement at our borders and across the country have been completely overwhelmed, and countless Americans and migrants have lost their lives at the hands of vicious cartels and gang members.”

Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas testifies during a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing on threats to the homeland, Tuesday, Oct. 31, 2023, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)

Thursday’s hearing will follow last week’s presentation, during which GOP lawmakers argued that Mayorkas was at the center of the influx of migrants at the border. Green called the secretary “the architect of the devastation that we have witnessed for nearly three years,” and re-upped his claim that Mayorkas was demonstrating “a willful violation of his oath of office.”

Democrats, however, countered that argument, contending that Mayorkas was not behind any impeachable offenses. Instead, Democrats claimed, Republicans were targeting Mayorkas because they disagree with the Biden administration’s policies.

House Republicans are staging the series of hearings in a lead-up to a markup of a resolution that formally calls for impeaching Mayorkas. The effort follows a months-long review of Mayorkas’s leadership that Green spearheaded.