Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy secured approval of a 45-day stopgap package to maintain government operations and halt financing to Ukraine this week, therefore winning an unexpected victory over the deep state.
It didn’t look like McCarthy would win this morning because Democrats were ready to shut down the federal government over Ukraine funds and there were disagreements within his own party.
But when it became clear that support for a short-term continuing resolution (CR) without Ukraine funds was growing, Democrats became scared and started using tactics to slow the process. Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) gave a long speech called a filibuster.
Representative Jamaal Bowman is said to have set off a fire alarm in the Capitol building to keep the vote from happening. Capitol Police are looking into it, and Republicans in the House want to kick him out of Congress.
The bill is now in the Senate, where Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) along with Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) have been locked in a bitter fight over funding for weeks. They both want to use the fight as an excuse to keep taxpayers paying for Ukraine’s war.
Reports say that they have agreed to the House bill to avoid a shutdown. Due to the bill’s brief duration, the “Ukraine First” faction in both chambers of Congress will have more time to plan for the upcoming budget fight, in which they will surely threaten another shutdown in order to obtain further financing for the far-off conflict.
After the House vote this week, Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) said that McCarthy had won the battle against the deep state.
“Spearheads from the Pentagon are reportedly on their way to the Capitol to support Schumer and McConnell,” Lee wrote on Twitter. “Losing is not something the Military Industrial Complex enjoys.”
Senators Lee and Rand Paul (R-KY) were going to use parliamentary procedures to stall a CR vote, but they have now said they will let the bill be looked at quickly in the Senate. This shows how important McCarthy’s bill is for conservatives.
McCarthy and Republicans have reason to be happy today. But the fight for more money for Ukraine will start up again soon if the bill passes the Senate this week as planned.
