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house rules committee
'Playing Political Games,' GOP Tees Up Vote on Biden Impeachment Probe
The House Rules Committee ranking member said that "Americans will see that this impeachment sham is a national disgrace, designed by extreme Republicans to distract from their incompetence and help Donald Trump."
Dec 12, 2023
Republicans on the U.S. House Rules Committee voted 9-4 Tuesday to advance a resolution that would formalize the GOP's ongoing impeachment inquiry into Democratic President Joe Biden.
House Resolution 918, introduced last week by Congressman Kelly Armstrong (R-N.D.), directs the chamber's Oversight and Accountability, Ways and Means, and Judiciary committees to continue ongoing probes of alleged misconduct by the president related to his son Hunter Biden's business dealings and legal issues.
Although the GOP has failed to uncover any proof of presdential misconduct—which some Republican lawmakers are openly admitting—party leadership is plowing ahead. According toThe Hill, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) said that a floor vote on the resolution is expected Wednesday.
"Rather than tackling the real issues facing the American people, Republicans are playing political games with our nation's most serious checks and balances."
"Let's be clear: This impeachment inquiry is nothing more than a political stunt, and it sets a terrible precedent for our democracy," Sean Eldridge, founder and president of the progressive group Stand Up America, said in a statement after the committee vote.
"Despite months of posturing, House Republicans haven't provided a shred of evidence of wrongdoing by President Biden," he stressed. "Rather than tackling the real issues facing the American people, Republicans are playing political games with our nation's most serious checks and balances."
Eldridge added that "members of the House of Representatives still have a chance to do the right thing and vote against this sham inquiry when it hits the House floor. Voters will be watching to see if their representatives put political stunts ahead of the American people."
The president is seeking reelection next year. The GOP's current 2024 front-runner is former President Donald Trump, who after the 2020 election led an unsuccessful effort to prevent the peaceful transfer of power despite his loss to Biden.
House Rules Committee Ranking Member Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) declared Tuesday that "Americans will see that this impeachment sham is a national disgrace, designed by extreme Republicans to distract from their incompetence and help Donald Trump. This is about vengeance, retaliation, distraction, and denial."
After Armstrong unveiled his resolution last week, House Oversight Committee Ranking Member Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) similarly charged that "everyone knows that the floundering Biden impeachment probe is designed to give Donald Trump something to say when it's pointed out he has been twice impeached and is a proven fraudster, sexual assailant, and defamer of women who now faces 91 felony charges in federal and state court."
NBC Newsreported Tuesday that Michael Tyler, the Biden campaign's communications director, also pushed back against the impeachment inquiry in a new memo, pointing to Trump's remark last week that he would be a dictator only on "day one."
"The only branch of government MAGA Republicans control is following through on Donald Trump's promise to use the levers of government to enact political retribution on his enemies," Tyler said. "You know, like the followers of a dictator."
"Instead of trying to deliver results for the American people," he added, "Trump's MAGA followers in the House are using their power to pursue an evidence-free impeachment sham all to help Trump's 2024 campaign."
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Republicans Tank Amendment to Ban US Sale of Cluster Munitions Worldwide
GOP members of the House Rules Committee instead advanced an amendment led by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene that would only ban the transfer of the weapons to Ukraine.
Jul 13, 2023
House Republicans on Thursday tanked a bipartisan amendment that aimed to ban the U.S. government from selling or transferring cluster munitions worldwide, instead opting to advance a GOP-led proposal that would only prevent the delivery of the widely prohibited weapons to Ukraine.
During a House Rules Committee meeting on the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), all nine Republicans on the panel voted down a motion from Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) to allow a full floor vote on an amendment barring the U.S. from selling cluster munitions around the world—a proposal led by Reps. Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.) and Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.).
In its place, the rules panel advanced a far narrower proposal led by Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), and Thomas Massie (R-Ky.). A summary of the amendment states that "no cluster munitions or cluster munitions technology shall be sold or transferred to Ukraine."
Massie claimed during Thursday's hearing that the narrower amendment would have a better chance of passing. The House is set to debate that amendment and hundreds of others on Thursday.
The Jacobs-Omar proposal—which had initially garnered support from a handful of Republicans, including Gaetz—did not specify any country, and its authors have made clear that they want a global ban on cluster munitions as the Biden administration moves to send the weapons to Ukraine as it fights invading Russian forces.
More than 100 countries, including most NATO members, have signed the United Nations Convention on Cluster Munitions, which bans the use, sale, or stockpiling of the weapons. Neither the U.S., Ukraine, nor Russia have signed the international treaty.
"We are going down a slippery slope where either this president or future presidents will feel that it is OK to be able to send these weapons to other countries in other very dangerous situations."
McGovern, the top Democrat on the House Rules Committee, expressed bafflement over the GOP's maneuver during Thursday's meeting, noting that the chairman of the Armed Services Committee and the ranking member of that panel both said they have no problem with allowing the Jacobs-Omar amendment to reach the House floor for a vote.
"I don't understand what the controversy is," McGovern said.
The anti-war group Just Foreign Policy suggested that the Republican decision to advance an amendment spearheaded by Greene was designed to "undercut" growing bipartisan opposition to the Biden administration's move to transfer cluster bombs to Ukraine.
Some prominent Republicans in the House and Senate, including Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) and Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), openly welcomed the Biden administration's approval of the munitions transfer.
Republican war hawks, Just Foreign Policy argued, "hope that having MTG lead the vote will reduce the vote total opposing Biden's transfer. They have several strong reasons to think so: Polls show she's deeply unpopular, she just got expelled from the Freedom Caucus, she burns bridges with anti-war Dems."
McGovern, who has previously introduced legislation to restrict the use and export of cluster bombs, said the Republican alternative to the Jacobs-Omar proposal "implies that we're OK with sending cluster munitions to other countries around the world" and would likely not gain enough Democratic support for that reason.
"Let's just all be clear: By the time the NDAA is debated in the House and Senate and goes to the president, these munitions will already have been delivered to Ukraine," the Massachusetts Democrat said. "So nothing we do here is going to stop the delivery of these weapons to Ukraine in the short run."
"But we are going down a slippery slope where either this president or future presidents will feel that it is OK to be able to send these weapons to other countries in other very dangerous situations," McGovern added. "It is not just about Ukraine. It's about sending them to any conflict in any country in the world."
McGovern ultimately suggested that the Rules Committee allow a full House vote on both the Jacobs-Omar amendment and the more limited Republican alternative, but GOP members objected.
Republicans on the committee also voted against allowing a House vote on Rep. Barbara Lee's (D-Calif.) amendment calling for a $100 billion cut to the Pentagon budget.
Correction: The vote on McGovern's motion took place in the early hours of Thursday morning, not Wednesday.
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