Friday, Apr 26th
Last update06:52:12 AM GMT
Congressional Glance
A narrowly divided U.S. Senate moved closer to passing a $95.34 billion aid package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan on Sunday, showing undiminished bipartisanship despite opposition from Republican hardliners and Donald Trump.
House Republicans’ high-stakes gamble to impeach Alejandro Mayorkas just barely failed on Tuesday, an embarrassing political setback for an already embattled majority.
The articles of impeachment against the Homeland Security secretary failed in an 214-216 vote, after four Republicans sided with Democrats to oppose recommending Mayorkas be booted from office. But Republican lawmakers quickly predicted they will bring it back up once Majority Leader Steve Scalise, who is undergoing treatment for blood cancer, returns.
“We’ll bring it back. The guy deserves to be impeached," said Homeland Security Chair Mark Green (R-Tenn.), who has led the effort against Mayorkas.
A week after a mistranslated clip of Ilhan Omar sparked outrage online, some far-right House Republicans are still following through with calls for the progressive lawmaker to be censured. And the repercussions of the misinformation extend beyond the country.
The Republican representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, has gone furthest in her response to the clip, calling Omar a “foreign agent in our government”. Greene, a leading supporter of Donald Trump, who also attempted to censure the Michigan Democrat Rashida Tlaib in November, called Omar a “terrorist sympathizer” on X last week, adding: “Somalian first. Muslim second. She never mentions America.”
According to the Minnesota Reformer, a Minnesota-based news outlet, which worked with two independent Somali translators, Omar said: “We are people who know that they are Somali and Muslim”, not that she was “Somalians first” as the video suggested.
Not only did he publicly back Sen. James Lankford for reelection in 2022, but he also praised the Oklahoma Republican's stance on border security.
In 2022, former President Donald Trump called Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.), one of the three main negotiators of a sweeping immigration overhaul and foreign aid bill now in the Senate, ”Strong on the Border.”
On Monday, Trump said incorrectly that he had not endorsed him and that the border bill would be bad for Lankford’s political career.
“Just to correct the record, I did not endorse Sen. Lankford. I didn’t do it,” Trump said in a telephone interview with right-wing commentator Dan Bongino.
“He ran, and I did not endorse him,” Trump said.
Except Trump actually did endorse Lankford, who won in a walkover of a reelection contest.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) introduced a resolution to censure Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) over comments she made at an event celebrating an election in Somalia, where she was born, on Jan. 27. There’s one big problem: Omar didn’t make the comments presented in the resolution.
The comments in question stem from a speech Omar gave at an event in Minneapolis, which has a sizable Somali immigration population, celebrating a regional election in Somalia. Omar is a Somali immigrant whose family received asylum in the U.S. in 1995 when she was around 13 years old. In her speech, she discussed an important issue for Somalis, the breakaway region of Somaliland, which Ethiopia has recognized as a separate nation.
The house has overwhelmingly approved a bipartisan tax package that pairs a temporary expansion of the child tax credit with business tax breaks and credits to develop more low-income housing.
The bill includes $33 billion to expand the widely used child tax credit for three years — including the tax season currently underway, provided the bill quickly passes the Senate. The changes would allow more low-income families to access the credit and would allow many families to receive a larger credit. The figures would also be adjusted for inflation in the coming years.
The deal is the result of negotiations between House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith, R-Mo., and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and has provided a rare moment of bipartisanship at a time when Congress has been paralyzed by divisions of all kinds.
Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) said Tuesday she is facing investigations by the Justice Department, Federal Election Commission and House Ethics Committee into the alleged misuse of campaign funds for personal security.
Why it matters: In addition to the potential legal ramifications, Bush could face political fallout as moderates try to knock off left-wing lawmakers in Democratic primaries.
Driving the news: The House sergeant-at-arms' office set off a media firestorm on Monday when it notified the House that an unidentified member had received a DOJ subpoena.
What she's saying: "I can confirm that the Department of Justice is reviewing my campaign's spending on security services," Bush said in a statement, adding that she is "fully cooperating in this investigation."
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