July 25, 2022

CALENDAR:
The Senate will return Monday and stay in session through Thursday. The House will return
Tuesday and stay in session through Friday.

LAST WEEK IN THE HOUSE:

The House came back to work on Monday, and voted to pass a bill under Suspension of the
Rules.

On Tuesday, the House took up and passed the Rule governing floor consideration of H.R. 8294,
Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act,
2023; H.R. 8373, the Right to Contraception Act; and H.R. 8404, the Respect for Marriage Act.
Then the House took up H.R. 8294, the appropriations minibus bill. After considering six
amendments – of which three were adopted – the House set the bill aside and took up H.R.
8404, the Respect for Marriage Act, which would repeal the Defense of Marriage Act. For those
keeping score at home, the Defense of Marriage Act passed the House of Representatives in
1996 with 342 votes, of which 224 were cast by Republicans, and 118 by Democrats. (In the
Senate, the bill passed by a vote of 84-15, with 52 votes coming from Republicans, and 32 from
Democrats.) A quarter century later, a bill to repeal that legislation passed by a vote of 267-157,
with 47 Republicans voting with all 220 Democrats. Then the House passed a whole bunch of
bills under Suspension of the Rules.

On Wednesday, the House returned to H.R. 8294, the minibus appropriations bill. After
considering three more amendments – two of which were adopted – the House voted on the bill
as amended. The bill passed by a vote of 220-207.

On Thursday, the House took up H.R. 8373, the Right to Contraception Act. The House passed it
by a vote of 228-195.

And then they were done.

THIS WEEK IN THE HOUSE:
The House will return on Tuesday, with the first votes scheduled for 6:30 PM. At that time, the
House is scheduled to take up 27 bills under Suspension of the Rules.

On Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, the House is scheduled to consider H.R. 3771, the South
Asian Heart Health Awareness and Research Act of 2022; H.R. 5118, the Wildfire Response and
Drought Resiliency Act; H.R. 6929, the Susan Muffley Act of 2022; H.R. 4040, the Advancing
Telehealth Beyond COVID-19 Act of 2022; and H.R. 263, the Big Cat Public Safety Act. In addition,
the House will consider two more bills under Suspension of the Rules – H.R. 7283, the STREAM
Act, as amended, and H.R. 5093, the Wind River Administrative Site Conveyance Act, as
amended.

Further, there may be consideration of legislation related to investing in the domestic

semiconductor supply – that is, the latest version of the China competitiveness bill – and there
may be consideration of H.R. 1808, the so-called “assault weapons” ban. We’ll talk more about
both of them in a moment.

As always, additional legislative items are possible.

LAST WEEK IN THE SENATE:

The Senate came back to work on Monday and voted to invoke cloture on the nomination of
Nina Nin-Yueng Wang to be a U.S. District Judge for the District of Colorado.

On Tuesday, the Senate voted to confirm her to that position. Then the Senate voted to invoke
cloture on, and then to confirm, the nomination of Nancy L. Maldonado to be a U.S. District
Judge for the Northern District of Illinois. Then the Senate voted to confirm Julianna Michelle
Childs to be a U.S. Circuit Judge for the District of Columbia Circuit.

Then the Senate took up the Motion to Proceed to the House message to accompany H.R. 4346,
the vehicle for the CHIPS-plus bill. That was agreed to by a vote of 64-34.

On Wednesday, the Senate voted to invoke cloture on, and then to confirm, the nomination of
Gregory Brian Williams to be a U.S. District Judge for the District of Delaware. Then the Senate
voted to confirm Bernadette M. Meehan to be Ambassador of the United States of America to
the Republic of Chile. Then the Senate voted on a Motion to Proceed to S.Con.Res. 43, Indiana
Republican Sen. Mike Braun’s budget resolution that would balance the budget in ten years
while cutting taxes by $2 trillion. The Motion to Proceed was defeated by a vote of 34-63.

On Thursday, the Senate voted to confirm Reuben E. Brigety II to be Ambassador of the United
States of America to the Republic of South Africa, and Shereef M. Elnahal to be Under Secretary
for Health of the Department of Veterans Affairs. Then, by voice vote, the Senate voted to
confirm Adair Ford Boroughs to be U.S. Attorney for the District of South Carolina; Enix Smith, III
to be a U.S. Marshal for the Eastern District of Louisiana; and Leslie N. Bluhm, Lisette Nieves, and
Deborah R. Coen to be Members of the Board of Directors of the Corporation for National and
Community Service.

And then they were done.

THIS WEEK IN THE SENATE:

The Senate will return Monday, with the first votes set for 5:30 PM. At that time, the Senate will
proceed to a roll call vote to invoke cloture on the Schumer motion to concur in the amendment
of the House to the amendment of the Senate to H.R. 4346, which is the legislative vehicle for
the so-called “CHIPS plus” legislation, which has grown to become a $250 billion behemoth of
corporate welfare and government picking winners and losers.

COVID UPDATE:
In a rather remarkable interview on FOX News’ Friday edition of “Your World with Neal Cavuto,”
former White House COVID Response Coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx acknowledged, “I knew
these vaccines were not going to protect against infection. And I think we overplayed the
vaccines, and it made people then worry that it’s not going to protect against severe disease and
hospitalization.”

Now she tells us.

SO-CALLED “ASSAULT WEAPONS” BAN:

On Wednesday, just after 10 PM, after a contentious, day-long markup session, the House
Judiciary Committee passed Democrat Rep. David Cicilline’s H.R. 1808, a so-called “assault
weapons” ban that would prohibit the sale, import, manufacture, or transfer of certain semi-
automatic weapons. The bill passed the committee by a vote of 25-18, with every Republican
voting no.

Some Democrats remember the last time Congress passed a so-called “assault weapons” ban. It
was in 1994, and it was one of the factors that led to the 1994 Gingrich Revolution, when House
Republicans netted 53 seats and recaptured control of the House for the first time in 40 years.
So it shouldn't be surprising that some Democrats in the House, worried about their own
reelection campaigns, haven’t yet signed on to this bill.

Speaker Pelosi has a four-seat margin right now. The bill only has 211 cosponsors. Jared Golden
of ME and Henry Cuellar of TX are definite “nos.” Likely nos include Ron Kind of WI and Kurt
Schrader of OR. Neither one of them is coming back in the next Congress, so there’s nothing the
House Democrat leadership can do to them OR for them.

Other undecideds include Tom O’Halleran of AZ, Vicente Gonzales of TX, Peter DeFazio of OR,
Mike Thompson of CA, and Sanford Bishop of GA.
On the other hand, there’s always the possibility that a few Republicans – check Adam Kinzinger
of IL and Chris Jacobs of NY, neither of whom is coming back in the next Congress – might vote
FOR the bill.

Of course, even if this bill were to pass the House, it would go nowhere in the Senate. Which
raises a question – why force vulnerable House Democrats to take a vote on a bill that’s going
nowhere in the Senate?

WILL PELOSI VISIT TAIWAN?

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi may or may not travel to Taiwan next month. If that were to
happen, she would be the first House Speaker to visit Taiwan since Newt Gingrich did it in April
of 1997. She was scheduled to visit Taiwan earlier this year, but had to reschedule the trip when
she got COVID-19.

The Biden White House and the rest of the senior levels of the national security establishment
are reported to be very concerned about this trip, fearing it could provoke the communist
government in the People’s Republic of China, which claims Taiwan as a province of China. Said
Biden, “The military thinks it’s not a good idea right now … But I don’t know what the status of it
is.”

Administration officials will not interfere with Pelosi’s visit out of respect for the separation of
powers. Instead, they have gone public with warnings about the grave consequences of a trip to
Taiwan by a high-ranking U.S. government official.

Of course, the communist Chinese government is very upset about the prospect of a trip to
Taiwan by Pelosi. It doesn’t help that the President of the United States has not simply declared
his support for her trip. Telling us what “the military” thinks – whoever that may be – is
inappropriate.

Pelosi should follow through with her plans and go on the trip, if only to send a signal to the
communist Chinese that they cannot intimidate the U.S. government into not sending high-
ranking officials to Taiwan.

ANOTHER TRY AT A RECONCILIATION BILL?

Following last week’s announcement by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s office that
West Virginia Democrat Sen. Joe Manchin had balked at a $1 trillion tax, climate, the vast
majority of Senate Democrats went nuts. Their counterparts in the House went even farther over
the deep end, expressing deep anger that they felt they had been lied to by Manchin. And once
again, we heard lots of talk about how “one man” shouldn’t be allowed to hold up the passage of
President Biden’s agenda. Of course, Manchin wouldn’t be able to hold things up if it weren’t for
the fact that 50 Republicans also oppose the passage of Biden’s agenda.
Nevertheless, Schumer announced after a Senate Democrat lunch that he and they would move
forward toward a smaller reconciliation bill that focused on two things – giving Medicare the
ability to negotiate drug prices, and extending for 13 million Americans the ObamaCare subsidies
that would have otherwise expired at the end of the year.

The Senate parliamentarian has to approve the legislation before it can move forward under the
rules for reconciliation. She met with senior Democrat and Republican staff last week to vet the
portions of the bill that had been drafted at that point. We’ve had no word yet on how that’s
working out, but we anticipate that we will hear something later this week, possibly as early as
today.

CHINA COMPETITIVENESS BILL, AKA CHIPS-PLUS:

As mentioned earlier, last week Sen. Schumer moved a Motion to Proceed to the legislative
vehicle for the China competitiveness bill, which has now been redubbed “CHIPS Plus.” Yes,
that’s an acronym, and it stands for “Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors.”
That bill was stripped down to a $52 billion semiconductor chips bill. Sixteen Republican senators
joined 48 Democrats to vote for the MTP. Once Schumer had gotten onto the bill, he
immediately introduced a 1,054-page amendment that broadened the bill and turned it into a
$250 billion lollapalooza of corporate welfare and government picking winners and losers. That
funding includes $80 billion for the National Science Foundation over the next five years, which
almost doubles the agency’s budget.

Here's part of the problem. The United States just isn’t a very attractive place to set up a chip
manufacturing plant, and it hasn’t been for a long time – if it were, we wouldn’t be dealing with
this problem in the first place. With our heavy regulatory regime and high taxes, compared to
our international rivals, it just doesn’t make economic sense for some companies to do their chip
manufacturing here. Taiwan, South Korea, and China lead the world in chip manufacturing
largely because with our comparatively higher taxes and tougher regulatory regime, those
countries can do the manufacturing at a cost that’s 25-40 percent less than the U.S. That’s why
we’ve fallen from producing 40 percent of the world’s chips three decades ago to only producing
12 percent of the world’s chips now. And that’s a growing problem, because some of those chips
are things we use for military purposes and even election hardware, which we really shouldn’t be
manufacturing overseas at all because of the national security aspect of the equation.

But Democrats are in charge, and they like to regulate things and they like to spend money. in
fact, spending money is the litmus test on the left for showing that you care about something –
how much of Other People’s Money are you willing to spend on it? The spending hammer is the
only tool in their tool box, and that means every problem they see looks like a nail.

What we ought to do instead, of course, is shrink the regulatory regime even as we reduce the
tax burden across the board – that is, not for a select group of companies in one particular
industry area, but for all companies. When government gets into the business of picking winners
and losers, as it does with this legislation, it ends up creating a lot more losers – in fact,
everybody loses, because political factors come into play in what should be strictly economic
decisions. That’s a distortion, and that hurts everyone.
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DR. BIRX EXPLAINS:

FOX: Dr. Deborah Birx Says She 'Knew' COVID Vaccines Would Not 'Protect Against Infection'

Benny Johnson tweet re: Dr. Birx

STEVE BANNON CONVICTED:

Axios: Steve Bannon Convicted of Contempt of Congress Charges

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SO-CALLED “ASSAULT WEAPONS” BAN:

HotAir: Dems Don't Have The Votes To Pass A New Assault Weapons Ban In The House-Unless
Republicans Help

Hill: House Committee Advances Bill To Ban Assault Weapons

Politico: House Dems Still Wrangling The Votes For An Assault Weapons Ban

WILL PELOSI VISIT TAIWAN?

Politico: Pelosi Plans Trip To Taiwan In August

Politico: White House Clash with Pelosi Over Taiwan Spills into The Open

ANOTHER TRY AT A RECONCILIATION BILL?

WaPo: Manchin Says He Won't Support New Climate Spending, Tax Hikes On Wealthy
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Politico: Senate's Season Of Manchin Starts Winding Down

Politico: Top House Democrats Are Sounding Cool To Stalled-Out Coronavirus Aid Being Included

Politico: Republicans Ready Grenades Against Democrat's Dwindling Dream Bill

CHINA COMPETITIVENESS BILL:

Axios: How The Senate's CHIPS-Plus Bill Ballooned By Billions

WSJ: The Senate's Semiconductor Spending Trick

WSJ: Bill Aims To Block Aid For Companies That Build Advanced Chips In China

IRAN NUCLEAR TALKS:

WSJ: How To Stiffen Europe's Resolve After The Iran Nuclear Deal

JANUARY 6 COMMITTEE ACTION:

NBC News: DHS Watchdog Has Launched Criminal Probe Into Destruction Of Jan.6. Secret Service
Text Messages

Hill: Trump Accused Of 'Dereliction Of Duty' In Dramatic Jan. 6 Hearing

CNN: DHS Inspector General Tells Secret Service To Stop Investigating Potentially Missing Texts

WaPo: Even A Day After Jan.6, Trump Balked At Condemning The Violence

NYT: I Was Wrong About Trump Voters

Politico: 'Sprint Through the Finish’: Why The Jan. 6 Committee Isn't Nearly Done

MISCELLANEOUS:
WE: US Allies Think Iran Is Playing Biden For Time At Risk Of War

WT: House Passes Contraception Bill Decried By Republicans As 'Trojan Horse' For Abortion

WT: Supreme Court Rejects Biden's Bid To Revive Policy Stopping Deportations

JTN: Supreme Court Won't Reinstate Biden Immigration Policies, Pending Litigation
DailySignal: House-Passed 'Respect For Marriage Act' Isn't About Marriage, It's About Complying
With Woke Ideology

Fox News: Hunter Biden Probe Reaches 'Critical Stage’, As Officials Weigh Possible Charges

CNN: Federal Investigation of Hunter Biden Reaches Critical Juncture, Sources Say

Axios: Newly Naturalized Citizens Could Sway Elections In Key States

NRO: Biden Blasts Republicans For Failing To Recognize Climate 'Emergency', Vows To Use
Executive Action

WT: Biden Unveils Executive Action On Climate Change But Stops Short Of Declaring National
Emergency

Bloomberg: Redistricting, Suburban Flight Gut Black Congressional Districts In Michigan

Disinformation Governance Board

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NYP: Biden Is A Gaffe-Ingstock: He And The Presidency Are Declining

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