by Alexis Simendinger & Kristina Karisch | The Hill
Congress is back in session this week, but what lawmakers can accomplish will be complicated by internal politics and events overseas.
The House is increasingly chaotic, as Republicans juggle a razor-thin majority and lawmakers struggle to find consensus on issues from spending to international aid.
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) faces a moment of truth on Ukraine aid this week as he prepares to decide on how to address long-requested assistance for the embattled U.S. ally — a question that has bedeviled his tenure in the job, and one that could spark a challenge to his gavel. For months, Johnson has said the House would consider foreign aid in due time, pushing back the timeline for other must-pass matters, like government funding. But The Hill’s Mychael Schnell reports the Speaker narrowed in on a schedule last weekend, announcing that the House would consider Ukraine aid “right after” the two-week Easter recess.
But what the bill will look like — and who will support it — remains unsettled due to fractures among Republicans and Democrats over both aid for Kyiv and related assistance for Israel (The Wall Street Journal).
THE ISSUE FOR JOHNSON is that any Ukraine aid will need many Democratic votes to pass the House, and creating legislation that could attract enough Democratic support to get Ukraine across the finish line and included funding for Israel could be difficult. Following an Israeli strike that killed seven aid workers in Gaza, more Democrats have signaled they are open to attaching conditions to aid, a dynamic that could complicate future efforts to approve Israel aid through Congress (CNN).
Johnson’s tiny majority is shrinking, as more and more lawmakers are heading for the exits. Forty-three members, almost evenly split between both parties, won’t return to the House next year. While the retirements are on par with previous years, examining which Republicans are retiring and how soon tells a more complex story (The Washington Post).
This is a dysfunctional place, and I’m not making an observation that others haven’t made,” said Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.), who resigned after condemning how unserious his party has become.
▪ The Hill: House Intelligence Committee Chair Mike Turner (R-Ohio) told CNN Sunday that it’s “absolutely true” that Russian propaganda has infected the U.S. Congress.
▪ The Hill: Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.) said on NewsNation’s “The Hill Sunday” that the U.S. is “not abandoning Israel” as U.S. leaders increase pressure on Israel to do more to protect civilians in Gaza.
OVER IN THE SENATE, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) is staring down a tricky to-do list as he looks to navigate the political winds of the November elections and secure bipartisan wins on several key items that have proven elusive.
With government funding for fiscal 2024 out of the way, the Democratic leader is turning his attention to what he hopes will be some bipartisan work and to the ongoing churn of executive and judicial nominations. The Hill’s Al Weaver writes that Schumer’s bipartisan wish-list is extensive and ambitious, with much of it carrying over from the year-end agenda he released in August. Complicating completion of that work is a series of must-pass items — including renewal this month of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization in May — and an expected supplemental package to deal with the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore last month.
“It’s about that time in the cycle when everything is filtered through the prism of what’s best for those up in 2024,” said Jim Manley, who served as a top aide to former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and former Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.). “How it all plays out, I don’t know yet. But I can assure you that’s what the leadership is spending a lot of time trying to work through.”