There are legislative sessions that end with a bill and there are legislative sessions that end with 13 Republicans blocking the defense bill, the House floor frozen by a Florida congresswoman demanding voter ID, the Senate on a 19-day recess, and the Speaker sending everyone home for Independence Day, which is what the current session of Congress has produced before its July 4 break.
Speaker Mike Johnson, per Fox News, decided to send House lawmakers home early for the Independence Day recess after 13 Republicans blocked a procedural rule on the National Defense Authorization Act, preventing votes on the NDAA, appropriations bills, and the SAVE Act. Johnson defended the decision to send members home, telling reporters he “wants to fully review” the Supreme Court’s birthright citizenship opinion before deciding on a legislative response, a statement about the court opinion that explains approximately none of the NDAA situation.
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna had separately frozen the House floor for a week, demanding the Senate pass voter ID legislation the Senate has voted down three times, while a federal court blocked the executive order version. Luna confirmed to Fox News she has the votes to maintain the freeze indefinitely and will keep it in place until the Senate, which left on a 19-day recess on Wednesday, returns and reconsiders. The Senate is not expected to reconsider.
The NDAA is the annual defense authorization bill that has passed every year for 63 consecutive years. The streak is now in question because 13 House Republicans refused to move it forward in the same week that the House was also frozen by a different group of Republicans demanding the Senate do something, the Senate left for 19 days, the Supreme Court handed down four major rulings, and the Speaker sent everyone home.
Johnson told reporters he “will continue to work through this recess,” which is something speakers say when the session has ended and work has not been done.
The NDAA has passed 63 consecutive years. The House has been frozen, sent home, and will return in three weeks to a Senate that just voted no three times on the thing that froze it.
When the defense bill that has passed every year for 63 years is in jeopardy because 13 Republicans blocked it, the floor is frozen by a different group of Republicans, and the Speaker sent everyone home, who exactly is running the House?
Sources
Fox News live: SCOTUS rulings, Johnson on recess
Raw Story: Mike Johnson’s attempt to appease Trump collapses in humiliating fashion: MS NOW
