Congress has a series of tough decisions ahead of it in the coming week as some Republicans move to oust their speaker and as a controversial anti-Semitism bill is poised to move through the upper chamber.
The most headline-grabbing of these is an upcoming vote in the House on Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s (R-Ga.) motion to vacate against House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.).
After Democrats announced in a statement that they would bail Johnson out should Greene bring her motion to the floor, Greene and Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) announced that they would force a vote on the issue next week.
“Next week, I am gonna be calling this motion to vacate. Absolutely calling it,” Greene said.
“I think every member of Congress needs to take that vote and let the chips fall where they may.”
When Greene “activates” her motion under parliamentary rules, leadership will have no more than two days to allow a vote on it.
At that point, a member will bring a motion to table the issue to the floor, averting a vote on the actual substance of the motion. This motion to table is all but guaranteed to work with Democrats’ help.
But that doesn’t mean that every Democrat plans to go along with their leaders’ plans to bail Johnson out.
“If you’re asking me, ‘Do I believe Democrats should help Mike Johnson?’ I do not,” Rep. Gerry Connelly (D-Va.) told The Epoch Times. “Nothing personal. But he’s not my candidate. He is very right-wing. I don’t know why I'd support that.”
Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.) agreed.
“Mike Johnson is absolutely against everything that I believe in,” Ramirez told The Epoch Times. “There’s no way that I would vote for someone like him to be able to stay in his seat.”
It’ll also be a tough vote for many conservatives.
Since taking the gavel, Johnson has done little to gain the trust of his conference’s right flank.
But many conservatives, even those who backed the ouster of former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) are nervous about doing the same to Johnson.
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), who led the effort against McCarthy, told The Epoch Times that he believed that at least three members of his caucus could be bribed to back House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries’ (D-N.Y.) bid for the gavel.
Reps. Bob Good (R-Va.), Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.), and Eli Crane (R-Ariz.)—each of whom backed McCarthy’s ouster—have told The Epoch Times that they have similar concerns about kicking another speaker out of the chair.
But the Senate could also have a tough vote ahead of them: the House-passed Antisemitism Awareness Act.
It’s a bill that would expand protections to Jewish Americans as protests continue to rage unchecked at colleges around the country.
But some of its language has concerned critics on both sides of the political aisle.
Democrats are nervous that the vagueness of its definition about what constitutes anti-Semitism could effectively penalize criticism of Israel or its leadership.
That was Rep. Anni Kuster’s (D-N.H.) concern.
“It’s not a perfect definition,” Kuster told The Epoch Times. “And I think we do have to be careful not to define anti-Semitism as criticism of the State of Israel or of Benjamin Netanyahu.”
Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.), the bill’s sponsor in the House, dismissed these concerns, saying that “Being anti-Zionist is anti-Semitic.”
Other Republicans, meanwhile, have expressed concerns that the bill’s definition of anti-Semitism, which includes saying that Jewish people were responsible for the death of Jesus Christ, could be used to target Christian schools.
With the bill’s passage by the House earlier this week, it’s now due for a vote in the Senate—though Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) has been evasive on if he’ll bring it to the floor.
Senators were equally cagey when asked their stance on the bill by The Epoch Times.
The bill seems almost certain to pass the upper chamber if brought to the floor—but it’s not a vote that Democrats seem enthusiastic to take.
—Joseph Lord
ARIZONA’S ABORTION BATTLE CONTINUES
A near-total abortion ban dating back to 1864 has officially been repealed in Arizona. But the state’s contentious fight over the procedure is far from over.
As Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs signed the repeal on Thursday (May 2), she said abortion proponents in her state had more work to do.
“Arizona women are still governed by a ban that leaves no exceptions for rape or incest, nor does it account for complications during pregnancy,” the Democrat said, referencing a 15-week abortion limit enacted in 2022.
The repeal won’t take effect for months. That means that the Civil War-era ban on all abortions except in medical emergencies could be enforced as soon as June 27.
In the meantime, abortion providers must abide by the 15-week limit. But a proposed constitutional amendment could soon erase that law’s restrictions, too.
The measure would establish a “fundamental right to abortion” until fetal viability and when a “health care professional” deems it necessary to protect the mother’s physical or mental health.
The professional in question would not need to be a doctor. They would also be in charge of determining the point of viability.
Opponents of the amendment say it’s deceptive and extreme.
“Voters deserve to know the truth: the abortion amendment takes away the required doctor and legalizes abortion for any reason beyond viability when the fetus can live outside the womb,” the It Goes Too Far opposition campaign said.
The group also holds that the law would roll back safety standards and eliminate requirements for parental involvement when minors seek abortions.
“This initiative would wipe out every single pro-life protection that Arizona has,” Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser said in February.
“It’s part of the master plan that the pro-abortion left has to wipe out all pro-life laws in this country. Arizona is next.”
Democrats have signaled their intention to highlight the abortion issue in upcoming elections. For Republicans, it’s become somewhat taboo.
Former President Donald Trump, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, has urged a more hands-off approach, which he views as more politically expedient.
“At the end of the day, this is all about the will of the people,” he said last month.
And the people will have their say come November, when voters in Arizona and several other states sound off on abortion at the ballot box.
—Samantha Flom
BOOKMARKS
President Joe Biden has finally broken his silence on the protests raging on college campuses across the U.S., The Epoch Times’ T.J. Muscaro reported. Biden was critical of the protestors, saying that many were breaking the law and not exercising protected speech. Biden added that they had done nothing to change his stance on the United States’ relationship with Israel.
Speaking in the Rust Belt state of Michigan, President Donald Trump vowed that he would revive American auto manufacturing, The Epoch Times’ Lawrence Wilson reported. The state is one of the most important of the 2024 election cycle.
The Republican-led House Energy and Commerce Committee has called on National Public Radio (NPR) President and CEO Katherine Maher to appear before Congress, The Epoch Times’ Ryan Morgan reported. It comes after whistleblowers alleged that the media outlet propped up by taxpayer funds has displayed a strong left-wing bias in its coverage.
The 2024 “shadow campaign” is off and running, The Epoch Times’ Austin Alonzo reported. The Tides Foundation, a progressive nonprofit organization, announced on April 30 that it would move $200 million to non-profit groups to mobilize voters, particularly “among communities of color, young people, and under-resourced communities.”