The newly elected Democratic majority of the US House of Representatives, expected to convene in Washington, D.C. on Thursday, January 3rd, expects to make a difference with Republicans and President Trump.
The First order of business for the new Democratic majority in the House of Representatives will be electing Representative Nancy Pelosi (D-CA 12th District) as speaker of the house, expects to make a quick difference with Republicans. One of the first things on her agenda will be to reinstate a special committee focusing on climate change that was shuttered by Republicans in 2011 — also, the introduction of H.R.1 which will be the first legislative vote of the 116th Congress. The Focus on three main Democratic priorities — the first legislation would be to strengthen voting rights protections. Second to reduce the influence of money in politics and third to restore ethics and integrity to government.
“It’s three very basic things that I think the public wants to see,” said Rep. John Sarbanes (D-Md.), who heads the campaign finance and government ethics efforts for the House Democratic Caucus. He said H.R. 1 would “demonstrate that we hear that message loud and clear.”
Democrats will likely face robust resistance to all those new reforms in the Senate, where Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has shown no appetite for moving such legislation. Making it have zero possibility of introducing such legislation on the Senate Floor given that President Trump would never sign it.
Federal Funding of “The Wall” on the southern border
However, this new 116th Congress will be confronted immediately with another priority: finding a way to ending the government shutdown since December 22, 2018, due to the $5 billion dispute with Donald Trump about the Funding of the “The Wall” that he promised to build on the southern border with Mexico. Democrats previously have offered to put $1.6 billion toward border security
After a White House meeting, Representative Steve Scalise (R-LA 1st District) since 2008, stated to reporters- “The President has been very clear that he needs $5 billion to properly secure the border,” Steve said. “We need to be there for him and make sure this gets signed.”
Democrats, who will be taking control of the House on Thursday, flatly say they will not fund the president’s proposed $5 billion border wall. Challenging the relevance and effectiveness of building such a wall. While continuing to oppose President Trump’s demand for wall funding, Representative Pelosi has called the wall immoral, ineffective and expensive. This continued dispute has caused the shutdown of approximately a quarter of the federal government comprising of nine departments – Agriculture, Commerce, Justice, Homeland Security, Interior, State, Transportation, Treasury and Housing and Urban Development – as well as several smaller agencies. Affecting some 800,000 federal employees, out of a federal workforce of 2.1 million. Of those, about 380,000 had been furloughed, while the rest are still on the job without pay. On Monday, December 31, 2018, Federal employees union filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration, alleging that the partial government shutdown is illegally forcing more than 400,000 federal employees to work without pay.
President Trump’s surprise decision, A complete reversal for which he had seemed ready to give up on his $5 billion wall funding demands. He was expected to agree and sign the short-term continuing government funding resolution, before changing his mind at the last minute after a flood of criticism from his go-to show “Fox and Friends” The morning show on the Fox News Channel. That Wednesday morning, the several hosts of the morning show had blasted Trump’s seeming capitulation on the border wall funding. Also, the pressure of Freedom Caucus members who took to the House floor on Wednesday night to urge Trump not to sign the continuing resolution without his border wall money included. The president’s temperamental stance only encouraged the Democrats not even to bother to negotiate with him before taking start and control of the 116th Congress. On its opening day of Congress, the Democrats plan to vote on a bipartisan package of six Senate spending bills and a stopgap measure to re-open the Department of Homeland Security at its current funding levels until February 8, 2018. It will not include the $ 5 billion requested by Donald Trump to begin work. The temporary measure would only maintain the current $1.3 billion in border security money, which would be for fencing and repairs of current barriers. By passing these spending bills, the 116th Congress will be showing their spirit of responsibility.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders late Tuesday said that House Democrats’ plan to reopen the government was a “non-starter,” calling the proposal “the Pelosi plan” and saying that it “fails to secure the border and puts the needs of other countries above the needs of our own”
The Presidents increased frustration, with his inability to obtain his wall funding. Originally $25 billion at the beginning of his presidency and now down to $5 billion, during the past two years during which Republicans controlled both Congress and the Senate. But lacked a 60-vote majority in the Senate, has now left President unwilling to compromise, and is resolved not to sign any legislation or deal that does not include the $5 billion for “The Wall” he has been asking.
While John Kelly, his outgoing chief of staff, stated during a two-hour interview, to the Los Angeles Times, that the administration had “abandoned the idea of ??a solid and concrete wall” to the fencing.
“To be honest, it’s not a wall,” Kelly said.
He added that pushing for a “solid concrete wall” was left behind “early on in the administration.” “The president still says ‘wall’ — often times frankly he’ll say ‘barrier’ or ‘fencing,’ now he’s tended toward steel slats,” Kelly said.
President Trump disputed Kelly’s’ claim on Monday that he has not given up on fulfilling his signature campaign promise of building a concrete border wall, pushing back on his outgoing chief of staff’s admission in a weekend interview that the administration long ago abandoned the idea.
“An all concrete Wall was NEVER ABANDONED, as has been reported by the media,” “Some areas will be all concrete but the experts at Border Patrol prefer a Wall that is see through (thereby making it possible to see what is happening on both sides). Makes sense to me!” Trump tweeted.