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Susan Young is the Bangor Daily News opinion editor.
This week was, in a word, depressing. The international news, dominated by death and destruction in Gaza and Israel, was distressing. Add in the continued fighting in Ukraine, along with reports that North Korea is sending weapons to Russia for use in Ukraine. And the attacks on both Muslims and Jews far from the Middle East are enough to make you sick to your stomach.
So what are our elected leaders doing? President Joe Biden made a brief trip to Israel and hopefully encouraged Israel to allow humanitarian aid to reach the Palestinians who are trapped in Gaza. The trip, coming days after Hamas brutally attacked, killed and kidnapped Israeli citizens, was a daring move. However, expecting much positive to come of it, as Israel pounds suspected Hamas hideouts in Gaza and apparently prepares for a ground invasion of the Palestinian-controlled territory, seems like a faint hope.
America needs a functioning Congress all the time, but it is especially important now as big decisions about U.S. support for Israel will soon have to be made, as Biden made clear in an address to the nation Thursday evening. Further support for Ukraine, as it continues to try to repel the Russian invasion, is in limbo after additional funding for the country was left out of a short-term spending agreement last month. And a showdown over federal government funding, and the potential for a shutdown, is less than a month away.
Leadership is needed now.
Instead, the U.S. House of Representatives, which is politically controlled by Republicans, has been in complete disarray. Earlier this month, a small group of firebrand Republicans moved to end the short-lived speakership of California Republican Kevin McCarthy. With votes from Democrats, whom McCarthy even now ludicrously blames for his party’s dysfunction, he was voted out as speaker.
Since then, House Republicans have been scrambling to find a new speaker. U.S. Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana didn’t get enough votes on one ballot and dropped out last week. Attention then turned to U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, a close ally of former President Donald Trump, who voted to reject the results of the 2020 presidential election and who has spearheaded dubious investigations of Biden and his family. Jordan failed to secure enough votes on one ballot early this week and did even worse a second time.
On Thursday, Jordan initially said he would not pursue a third vote for the speakership but later changed his mind.
While Republicans scramble to find a leader, U.S. Rep. Patrick McHenry of North Carolina has served as the acting speaker pro tempore. That’s a fancy title meaning he can’t do much more than preside over debates and oversee the failed votes for a speaker.
That means the House is essentially at a standstill, doing no official work despite the many challenges, foreign and domestic, facing the country.
An on again, off again proposal to allow McHenry to serve as an interim speaker, perhaps until January, is a needed way forward. Such a plan, which U.S. Rep. Jared Golden of Maine’s 2nd District called for on Wednesday, would bring some much needed stability, and functionality, to the chamber.
The longer the House is rudderless, the more it empowers the Senate, and the White House, which isn’t a bad thing but, ironically, largely runs counter to the motives of the lawmakers who prompted the House Republican meltdown.
The Senate Appropriations Committee, of which U.S. Sen. Susan Collins of Maine is the vice chair, has completed its mark-up of 12 spending bills, although they have yet to each be considered by the full Senate. The longer the House does not act on its own spending bills, the more likely it becomes that a Senate spending plan will be the basis for negotiations on federal spending.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York and Republican Mitch McConnell of Kentucky have already begun work to craft a package of funding for Ukraine and Israel, which could total $100 billion if the White House gets its way.
Such a package is likely to be opposed by many members of the House. The time is now, not days — or hours — before the Nov. 17 government shutdown deadline, to negotiate a potential alternative.
Without anyone in charge, House Republicans are abdicating their responsibility to shape policies and preventing consideration and action on critical decisions on funding and other issues.
Many have called the House Republicans mess a “clown show.” It might be, if it were funny. Instead, it is another example of dysfunction and disagreement that makes my stomach turn.
