Johnson Scores a Win With Vote To Reopen House Floor, Paving Way for Major Bills To Advance

Speaker Mike Johnson has succeeded after two days of arm-twisting with conservatives within his own caucus to simply bring a raft of controversial measures to the House floor for debate.The measures, the subject of weeks of intense negotiations, include a warrantless surveillance reauthorization, a farm bill, ethanol sales regulations, and funding for the Department of Homeland Security. By Wednesday afternoon, conservatives felt they had won enough concessions to be able to swallow parts of the bargain they disliked in order to move forward. One of the stickiest issues was an attempt by Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna, to amend the farm bill to remove language protecting pesticide companies from potential liability for their products.“I have now been accosted by two Republican members of Congress for trying to remove pesticide liability protections. Both of which claim to be ‘God-fearing’ Christians, but are shilling for cancer causing pesticide companies,” Ms. Luna wrote on X Wednesday. She had threatened to vote against the measure to open the House floor — known as a rule — if a crackdown on pesticides was not included in the farm bill. “Yikes. One even claims to be pro-life, but is cool with pesticides killing kids,” Ms. Luna wrote. The Florida congresswoman had several GOP members on her side as she pushed for the Rules Committee to allow a vote on her amendment onto the floor. When the committee refused to do so, several other conservatives backed up Ms. Luna. Congresswoman Lauren Boebert, who represents a vast swath of rural eastern Colorado, announced she would not vote for the rule if her own amendments to the farm bill, mainly affecting her state, were not brought to the floor. A Democrat on the Rules Committee, Congressman Joe Neguse, who is also from Colorado, introduced Ms. Boebert’s amendments during the committee hearing, though they were all voted down. “The Republicans on the committee unanimously voted against them and they will not even be considered for a floor vote,” Ms. Boebert wrote. “Farmers and ranchers in my district are counting on me to be their voice in DC and our ‘leadership’ is not letting me do my job. I am a NO on the Rule.”Despite the rule eventually passing on Wednesday afternoon, the farm bill will not receive a vote this week. Ms. Luna announced on X that Mr. Johnson and his leadership team pulled the bill after other conservatives raised concerns about regulations on ethanol sales. A reauthorization of warrantless surveillance is also causing a great deal of consternation. Conservatives and progressive Democrats have banded together to try to add a warrant requirement for surveillance of Americans, who may be swept up in electronic surveillance of foreign individuals. According to one recent finding by a surveillance court judge, the queries to access information on Americans and non-citizens alike have been misused more than 275,000 times. In an act of what one Republican lawmaker called “gamesmanship,” whenever the warrant requirement amendment came up in the Rules Committee Tuesday, conservative members of the committee would leave the room, allowing the GOP to kill the amendment without their votes. A three-year extension of the surveillance measure then went through.“I mean, really? Goes for a walk?” the top Democrat on the committee, Congressman Jim McGovern, told The New York Sun on Tuesday. One of those conservatives, Congressman Chip Toy, had voted for the warrant amendment on Tuesday. “The Fourth Amendment is the Fourth Amendment,” Mr. Roy said, before skipping subsequent votes so the amendment could be voted down. The rest of the bills were due to receive floor votes either late Wednesday night or early Thursday. On the warrantless surveillance issue, conservatives are going along for one reason and one reason only — Mr. Johnson plans to attach a ban on a central bank digital currency. Libertarian-minded lawmakers say they don’t want the government getting involved in issuing digital tokens. The Senate, however, has made clear that no such measure will pass there. On Tuesday, the Senate majority leader, John Thune, told Politico that the CBDC ban is “not happening” and will be stripped from the Senate version of the bill if it is included. Any changes to the House bill will require that the legislation returns to the House, where conservatives will have another crack at twisting the speaker’s arm.

Johnson Scores a Win With Vote To Reopen House Floor, Paving Way for Major Bills To Advance

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