In Context: Small Things

On Tuesday, 5/3, there was a curious entry in the daily Senate floor log of Senator floor speeches:

3:52 p.m. Senator Durbin spoke on abortion and microchips.

In his speech, he noted things on the two separate topics such as:

• Last December, a report from Harvard warned that China is now a "Full-spectrum peer competitor" when it comes to advanced technology like AI and quantum computing.
• We have become dangerously dependent on China and other competitors when it comes to securing our supply chain with microchips.
• The Supreme Court found the right to privacy by combining the rights of several other different amendments.

There's much that can be said on both topics, and much has. Abortion has become an unusually frequent topic in the Congressional Record for the last two weeks.

Both unborn children and microchips are small and of large value. One is a precious tiny human being made by God. The other is a tiny calculator made by man.

Weekly Congress Update

Daily Digests – House • Senate — Prayers — Committee Reports

Senate — Daily Leader Remarks • Actions begun, passed, declined

McConnell criticizes protests outside justices' homes (Full Speech) • Senate passes security bill for Supreme Court family members, as protesters harass their homes

Bipartisan Majority Rejects Radical Abortion Bill Pushed By Senate Democrats (S. 4132) • Democrats fail to codify Roe • radical abortion bill would go far beyond Roe, risks health of baby and mother • Senate GOP, Manchin block abortion rights legislation • 49 Senate Democrats Vote for Extreme Abortion Bill • Democrats' bad math • What comes next • The weird media-Democratic disinformation campaign on the Senate abortion vote •

Rand Paul objection delays $40 billion Ukraine aid package (H.R. 7691—Debate) • Rand Paul was right to insist on fiscal accountability for Ukrainian aid bill

Confirmations: Powell to second term as Fed chairman • Fed nominee Lisa Cook • FTC nominee boosting Biden anti-Big Tech agenda

House — Weekly Leader Colloquy • Bills • Actions passed

House passes bill awarding Congressional Gold Medal to chief US prosecutor at Nuremberg Trials — H.R. 6015

$40B emergency funding bill for Ukraine passes House (H.R. 7691—368-57) • 57 Republicans vote ‘no’ • What's included in the Ukraine aid bill? • billions for Pentagon, arms makers • Zelensky thanks Pelosi, House for passing Ukraine aid measure

House passes four bills rebuking Russia and Belarus, supporting Ukraine despite some GOP opposition (H.R. 6891, H.R. 7081, H.R. 7066, H.R. 6899) • two Republicans voted against

House passes bill to protect seniors from scams — H.R. 5914

House passes bill to improve working conditions for TSA employees — H.R. 903

House votes to allow staffers to unionize, approves resolution — H.Res. 1097

In Context: Preparing for Mourning

Much of the oxygen in Washington this week has been consumed by the firestorm from the Supreme Court of the United States that it is possibly set to find that Roe (1973) and Casey (1992) were wrongly decided. One side is angry. The other side is waiting. Both sides need to prepare for mourning the needless loss of so many millions of lives.

In war, even in victory, there is the loss of those who do not make it home. After World War II, the magnitude and scale of The Holocaust took time to be understood. If ever there were a need for empathy today, it's to understand the scale of a half-century tragedy that is now an order of magnitude larger than that.

Majority Leader Schumer has announced his intention for the Senate to vote on continuing the current legal status of abortion in this Nation next week. He said, “Next week's vote will be one of the most important we ever take…” This may be more true than he knows. What if it's important, not just because it's about “personal and difficult decisions,” but because it's one of the last moment's God is giving this Nation to turn away from the evil of shedding innocent blood in the womb?

Weekly Congress Update

Daily Digests – House • Senate — Prayers — Committee Reports

Senate — Daily Leader Remarks • Actions begun, passed, declined, summarized

Related Headlines:

Senate votes to overturn Biden rule masking 2-year-olds — S.J.Res. 39, 55-41

U.S. lawmakers to open formal chips, China bill negotiations (H.R. 4521) • U.S. Congress edges toward massive China competition bill with votes on Iran, energy (Debate) • 62 senators, including 16 Democrats, vote to oppose nuclear-only Iran deal (62-33) • Senate agrees to motion blocking a climate national emergency declaration (49-47) • Senate passes motion to stop gain-of-function research funding in China • Joe Manchin joins with Tom Cotton to reroute $8 billion in climate funds to weapons systems (50-44) • Senate Democrats join with Republicans to vote down Bernie Sanders' effort to stop outsourcing (6-87) • Senate Defeats Effort to Scrap Second HLS (17-78) • Senate Conferees Get Marching Orders for USICA/COMPETES Negotiations

In Context: Spending as Leverage

Annual appropriations requests are under consideration in committee and talks have begun on fiscal year 2023 spending levels.

Other items for additional beyond-budget spending include more Ukraine aid and coronavirus response. There is bipartisan agreement for the former, and not so much for the latter.

Weekly Congress Update

Daily Digests – House • Senate — Prayers — Committee Reports

Senate — Daily Leader Remarks • Actions begun, passed, declined

Senate confirms liberal favorite Lael Brainard as Fed’s new vice chairwoman, COVID-19 trips Democrats on Cook vote

Senate Democrats block overturning of Biden's pro-abortion Title X rule — 49-49

Sen. Tester: ‘we see the potential for food to become a serious problem in this country, and potentially even weaponized.’

House — Bills • Actions passed

House passes two Alaska bills sponsored by late-Rep. Don Young — H.R. 441, H.R. 6651

House Passes AXIS Act That Accuses China of ‘Whitewashing Russia’s War Crimes’ — H.R. 7314

H.R. 6930: Asset Seizure for Ukraine Reconstruction Act — Four Republicans, four Democrats vote 'no' on bill urging Biden to confiscate assets from sanctioned oligarchs • Lawmakers explain

S.3522: Ukraine Democracy Defense Lend-Lease Act of 2022 — 10 Republicans voted 'no' on the Ukraine lend-lease bill

Democrat admits 'unparliamentary language' after criticism of Greene — Debate

House discharge petition filed on Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act — H.R. 426, Discharge Petition 117-13

Schumer ties religious liberty to government spending

During his daily Senate floor leader remarks on Tuesday, Majority Leader Schumer made another pitch for additional COVID funding as a “must-have” and “something our Nation cannot possibly afford to go without.” He claimed, “another round of COVID funding” is “The answer to avoiding another shutdown of our communities”.

He further emphasized the point saying, “Let me say it again. If we want to keep life as close to normal down the line, if we want to keep schools and churches and businesses open if, God forbid, another aggressive variant arises, Republicans should work with us to approve more money for vaccines, testing, and lifesaving therapeutics.”

What if God doesn't forbid? If “another aggressive variant arises,” then does that mean the Democrats are ready to once again bring on “another shutdown of our communities” including closing “schools and churches and businesses”?

Senate Democrats block overturning of Biden's pro-abortion Title X rule in 49-49 vote

Senate Republicans, led by Sen.Marco Rubio, orchestrated a procedural maneuver in the Democrat-controlled Senate to force a vote on S.J.Res.41, a joint resolution of disapproval under the Congressional Review Act to overturn the Biden Administration’s 2021 final rule on the Title X Family Planning Program.

The motion failed by a tied vote of 49-49:  

• 48 Senate Republicans voted yes, joined by Democrat Senator Joe Manchin.
• 47 Senate Democrats voted no, joined by Republican Senators Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski.
• Democrat Senators Chris Murphy and Ron Wyden were absent and did not vote.

The Biden Title X rule defies the law, which states clearly that Title X funds shall not “be used in programs where abortion is a method of family planning”, and siphons tens of millions of taxpayer dollars annually in Title X funding towards abortion provider Planned Parenthood and the abortion industry.

Enactment of this resolution would have overturned the 2021 Biden rule, reinstated the Trump Administration’s 2019 Protect Life Rule, and prevented any future administration from reissuing the 2021 Biden rule.

In Context: Questions to go beyond churnalism

Screenwriter Nora Ephron told a story of a journalism class activity in which the students were assigned to write a headline and article for the school newspaper based on a dry announcement about an upcoming teacher in-service meeting. After the students rewrote the update in their own words, the teacher trashed all their articles and then announced, “Here's your headline: There's No School on Thursday!”

Many reporters today are still taking what they're given, rearranging the words, and basically posting someone else's press release with their news organization's masthead instead. This practice has a name: churnalism. An easy way to spot the difference is if quotes are “said in a statement” (churnalism) or “said in an interview” (journalism).

Weekly Congress Update

Daily Digests – House • Senate — Prayers — Committee Report

National Security

New requests bring military’s ‘unfunded priorities’ above $21 billion


Foreign Policy

Senators visiting Poland, India, Germany to rally Ukraine support

Republicans call on Blinken to reopen Kyiv embassy

Ukrainian prime minister to meet with Pelosi

McCarthy ramps up Ukraine blame game with Biden

Rubio pushes White House on bill to establish space debris sanctions — S. 3925


Immigration

Biden faces deepening Democratic rift, mutiny • Democrats pressure Biden to back off Title 42 decision • Sen. Sinema says Title 42 decision is inconsistent with mask extension • Ten Democrats joining Republicans in opposing Biden's plan • 7 More House Democrats Can Help Stop The Looming Border Catastrophe • Congress Tries Last-Ditch Effort to Keep Title 42 in Place — H.R. 7458

20 House Republicans Demand ICE Data on Arrests, Deportations Withheld by Biden