They're Baaack!

The 118th Congress is in town -- And the painted pony goes up-and-down

Speaker Johnson dusts off the gavel

The House of Representatives returns today from its July 4 holiweek, and will be in session until Thursday afternoon. Then it’s off again for another ten days. Fortunately, they’re scheduled to return on July 22, because that will allow for eight full legislative days before leaving for Summer Break — all of August and the first week of September. If you haven’t been counting along, that’s a total of twelve days in session between now and September 9.

So surely we can conclude that either (a) there’s not much important to do right now, or (b) everyone will be working very hard to make sure that essential legislation moves smoothly through the system to passage. Nope, neither one.

• (a) There is very much still to do in the coming days, and it’s important.

• (b) MAGA extremists will be doing all they can to obstruct and delay the process, while so-called “traditional” Republicans are complicit in their efforts.

National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA)

The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) funds our military forces and its passage every year is essential. With this in mind, the House Armed Services Committee worked to craft a bill free of divisive “culture war” provisions. On May 22 the Committee passed the NDAA by a vote of 57-1.

But once it was on the floor of the House, the far-right faction introduced one amendment after another, hitting all the usual targets: abortion, race, trans-gender, environment. In the end, the final version passed the House on June 14 with almost exclusively Republican support.

Meanwhile, the Senate Armed Services Committee passed their version of NDAA by a similarly bipartisan vote of 22-3. Since Democrats control the Senate, this bill is likely to pass in the next several days relatively unchanged. Had the House done the same, the two bills could be reconciled quickly, then passed and sent to the President for signature.

But as it stands, there will first have to be be another round of time-wasting performative outrage by House Republicans. Only then will that now somewhat wobbly de facto bipartisan coalition headed by Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) step in to pass a bill that can become law.

Sound Familiar?

This process may sound familiar to those who watched a similar parade of amendments be tacked on to the debt ceiling bill a year ago. Then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) literally begged more moderate Republicans to vote for the bill while acknowledging that it would never pass in the Senate (which it didn’t of course). But the charade managed to waste valuable legislative days, while a potential US default drew ever nearer. The same thing happened a couple months later as the threat of a government shutdown loomed.

And indeed we are about to take another whirl on the carousel of cowardice. Republicans on a subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee have begun their effort to use 2025 appropriation bills as vehicles to demonize public servants who are already doing the hardest jobs in government. On June 26, they advanced legislation that would cut funding for the Justice Department (and specifically the FBI) by 20 percent. This is an attempt to punish the DOJ for prosecuting cases against the January 6 insurrectionists and former President Donald Trump.

In the next few weeks we can expect to see similar symbolic measures included in spending bills for the State Dept. and the Dept. of Homeland Security. These include proposals to lower the salary of cabinet officials to $1, and cut off funding for Ukraine military assistance. NONE of these will ever even get consideration in the Senate, but they will help to pass the time during those otherwise boring twelve legislative days.

The fiscal year ends on September 30. Remember Continuing Resolutions?

Yeah, that again.

What can we do?

This is the question we here at Feathers of Hope always have in mind. Last year at this time we were urging House members to join in a bipartisan alliance to remove then Speaker McCarthy and form a bipartisan coalition to govern responsibly. The results were mixed, to say the least. But ultimately, a bipartisan spending agreement was reached, the United States did not default on its debt, and there was no government shutdown. That’s a success by anyone’s count. (Tallying the W’s and L’s)

In the process, the Republican Party has split into factions (Fractures Are Becoming Chasms) which, while temporarily patched together for the election, will likely result in its ultimate collapse — unless we fail to defeat them in November.

In other words, to meet our “commitment to diminishing the power and influence of MAGA extremists in the House of Representatives” this year, there’s one thing we really need to do: help to elect a Democratic majority and a Democratic President.

At the moment, it’s easy to get caught up in the ongoing drama surrounding President Biden. The predictable reaction to what was undeniably a weak debate performance has dominated media coverage of the campaign every day since.

But however that plays out, it’s now even more important that both Houses of Congress be held by Democrats — and that we work tirelessly to that end.

Should the unthinkable happen at the presidential level, the people’s representatives will be our most formidable bulwark against an authoritarian executive. And if, as we have every reason to expect, the Democratic candidate stands on Capitol Hill to take the oath of office on January 20, our President will be empowered with Congressional majorities ready to fulfill Joe Biden’s remarkably progressive vision: to build our economy from the bottom up and the middle out, while protecting women’s reproductive health care and the hard-won rights of all marginalized people.

Here’s What We Can Do

There are three extremely reliable sources for volunteers looking for a way to effectively direct their efforts:

1. Jessica Craven’s Chop Wood, Carry Water, a daily notification of EASY actions you can take to make a difference.

2. Robert Hubbel’s Today’s Edition Newsletter, a wise and inspiring commentary on news of the day, along with updates on the work of dozens of grass-roots election activist organizations

3. Simon Rosenberg’s Hopium Chronicles

   Mr. Rosenberg has endorsed 12 candidates running for the U.S. House in 2024. All of these races are in Republican held seats, are the most likely to flip, and they will determine control of the House.

Feathers of Hope has consistently declared that we are activists, not fund raisers. We do not solicit, accept, give or spend money. However, we will not hesitate to promote candidates whose campaigns necessarily do solicit funds.

Mr. Rosenberg’s Hopium Chronicles has established a fund through Act Blue which will be split equally among his twelve endorsed candidates. If anyone is inclined to donate, you may do so through a single donation to this fund, or give directly to each candidate via the links below.

Here are those twelve candidates, along with links that will help connect you to volunteer efforts on their behalf. (“Watch my interview with…” links refer to Simon Rosenberg’s interview.)

You can find photos and brief bios of each here: Winning the House in 2024

1. Andrei Cherny - (AZ-01) - Donate to Andrei | Volunteer | Learn more | Watch my interview with Andrei

2. Kirsten Engel (AZ-06) - Watch My Interview With Kirsten | Donate | Volunteer | Learn more

3. Adam Gray (CA-13) - Donate to Adam | Volunteer | Learn more

4. Rudy Salas, CA-22 - Donate to Rudy | Learn more

5. George Whitesides, CA-27 - Watch My Interview With George | Donate | Volunteer| Learn more

6. Will Rollins (CA-41) - Donate to Will | Volunteer | Learn more

7. Tony Vargas (NE-02) Donate to Tony | Volunteer | Learn more

8. Sue Altman (NJ-07) - Donate to Sue | Volunteer | Learn more

9. Laura Gillen (NY-4) - Donate to Laura | Volunteer | Learn more.

10. Mondaire Jones (NY-17) - Donate to Mondaire | Volunteer | Learn more.

11. Josh Riley (NY-19) - Donate to Josh | Volunteer | Learn more

12. Janelle Bynum (OR-5) - Watch My Interview with Janelle | Donate | Volunteer | Learn more

    In addition to the twelve listed above there is a race in Wisconsin that this network is supporting and is worthy of your attention. Read on to learn why.

Dr. Kristin Lyerly is running to replace Mike Gallagher in Wisconsin’s 8th district

Dr. Kristin Lyerly

In our April 2 post, Another Defeat for Maga Extremists , we noted with some disappointment that Representative Mike Gallagher (R-WI) had resigned. While Mr. Gallagher is a conservative Republican who holds policy positions which most members of the Feathers of Hope network do not support, we also noted that:

“He is a serious legislator, comfortable working with Democrats to address our country’s challenges. His successor representing the usually reliable Republican 8th district is likely to be more closely aligned with MAGA extremists. So unless Democrats can pull off an upset, we’ll have to count this resignation as a Win for them.”

But in a more hopeful vein, we added this:

An upset is not an unrealistic expectation. The 8th district includes Wisconsin’s third and sixth most populous cities: Green Bay and Appleton. Both voted 51% - 48% for progressive Janet Protasiewicz for Supreme Court last year. Also, the district went for Obama by 54% in 2008.

Democrats didn’t even field a candidate in the 8th district last cycle. This year Kristin Lyerly, an OB-GYN pro-choice activist, is likely to make the run. With access to abortion winning majority support even among Republicans, Dr. Lyerly could possibly flip the seat.

Should she be elected, Dr. Lyerly would be the only pro-choice OB-GYN in the House.

To help support Kristin Lyerly’s campaign, visit her website: www.KristinForWisconsin.com

This is a network of ordinary citizens. In a democracy, we exercise our power by raising our voices. To be silent is to be powerless.