Congress
Rand Paul wants hemp vote to speed up shutdown endgame
Sen. Rand Paul wants a vote on his amendment to strike language from a shutdown-ending spending deal that would “unfairly target Kentucky’s hemp industry” before allowing the bill to clear the Senate, a spokesperson for the Kentucky Republican confirmed Monday.
Paul’s objection to allowing the package to proceed without the vote is slowing down Senate GOP leaders as they race to end the 41-day shutdown. Without unanimous consent from all 100 senators, it could take the Senate much of the week to move through procedural voter before sending it to the House for final approval and President Donald Trump’s signature.
Paul’s insistence on the hemp vote comes after a bruising fight with Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.) — both senior appropriators — over the language that would crack down on intoxicating hemp products. Paul’s one-page amendment would effectively preserve the status quo.
Spokesperson Gabrielle Lipsky said in a statement that Paul “affirms his commitment to reopening the government without delay” and said the hemp provision he is seeking to strike “is unrelated to the budget and the government-reopening goal.”
Paul wants a simple-majority vote on the measure, she added in response to a question from Blue Light News; GOP senators and aides granted anonymity to describe internal Senate dynamics believe it’s unlikely to garner enough support for adoption.
Lipsky added that Paul intends to “work to ensure that the final bill excludes this unrelated language in order to defend the livelihoods of Kentucky farmers, hemp processors, and manufacturing jobs.”
Congress
House Republicans eye next week for housing bill vote
House leadership is eyeing the week of Feb. 9 for a vote on a bipartisan housing package, according to four people with direct knowledge of the planning.
Senior lawmakers have also been mulling whether to consider the widely supported bill under suspension of House rules, which would expedite passage of the legislation, said three of the people who were granted anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.
However, plans for the bill are not locked in and could be subject to change as the House deals with a partial government shutdown.
The Housing in the 21st Century Act, which overwhelmingly advanced through the House Financial Services Committee in December, is part of a push by Congress to pass legislation that could address a growing housing affordability crisis. The bill includes 25 provisions that aim to increase the housing supply, modernize local development and rural housing programs, expand manufactured and affordable housing, protect borrowers and those utilizing federal housing programs, and enhance oversight of housing providers.
House Financial Services Chair French Hill (R-Ark.) said Friday that he’s pushing for the Housing for the 21st Century Act to receive a floor vote expeditiously.
”I hope that that bill can come to the House floor in just a few days. I really am pushing for that, I think it’s the right decision,” Hill said on Bloomberg Radio.
The Senate’s housing bill, the ROAD to Housing Act, passed the upper chamber as an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act but may be put to a separate floor vote. If the House is able to pass its own version by a wide margin before the Senate, it could have additional leverage for negotiations with the upper chamber for a final bill. Hill and other House Republicans have said the Senate bill, which received overwhelming bipartisan support in the Senate Banking Committee, has a number of provisions that would not be acceptable among House GOP members.
Congress
Bill and Hillary Clinton now agree to testify before Congress
Bill and Hillary Clinton have agreed to testify before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee as part of the panel’s investigation into convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, an Oversight aide said Monday evening.
It’s a remarkable reversal for the former president and secretary of state, who were adamant they would defy committee-issued subpoenas and risk imprisonment by the Trump Justice Department as the House prepared to vote Wednesday to hold them both in contempt of Congress.
After both skipped their scheduled depositions earlier this year, the Oversight Committee voted on a bipartisan basis in January to approve contempt measures for each of them.
Although both have said they had no knowledge of Epstein’s crimes, they have maintained that the subpoenas were not tied to a legitimate legislative purpose, rendering them invalid. They also complained the GOP-led exercise was designed to embarrass and put them in jail.
It is not immediately clear when they will appear and if the House will continue to pursue the contempt votes.
Congress
Top House Democrats split on funding vote
Senior House Democrats are going in different directions on a massive funding bill headed to the House floor as soon as Tuesday, underscoring the sharp divisions inside the Democratic ranks on the $1.2 trillion spending package.
Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, the Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, said Monday she would vote for the funding package when it goes to the floor Tuesday — breaking with a large swath of colleagues who oppose the measure over its extension of Homeland Security funding, including immigration enforcement operations.
“I will support this package,” DeLauro said during Monday meeting of the Rules Committee. She noted it secures funding for the five-full year, bipartisan bills and extends funding at current levels for DHS for 10 days.
DeLauro said without the DHS stopgap Democrats “won’t be able to bring the kinds of pressure” necessary to make changes to the full-year DHS bill they’re negotiating with the White House.
But Rep. Jim McGovern of Massachusetts, the top Rules Democrat, said he was dead-set against the bill due to the DHS funding.
“I will not vote for business as usual while masked agents break into people’s homes without a judicial warrant, in violation of the Fourth Amendment,” he said.
Neither leader, however, is expected to vote for a key procedural measure setting up a final debate and approval for the massive bill, which passed the Senate on Friday. That measure, known as a rule, is also expected to tee up contempt-of-Congress votes on Bill and Hillary Clinton over their decision not to fully cooperate in a Oversight Committee probe into Jeffrey Epstein. GOP leaders are scrambling to build support for that measure as some in their ranks agitate for amendments, including the attachment of a partisan elections bill.
“Republicans have a responsibility to move the rule, which, by the way, includes a wide variety of other issues that we strongly disagree with,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters Monday.
Jennifer Scholtes contributed to this report.
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