From impeaching Mayorkas to boosting US semiconductor production, how McCaul is key player

WASHINGTON — The impeachment trial of a Biden cabinet secretary is important to U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Austin, a lead prosecutor in the case, but so is Monday’s blockbuster announcement that Samsung’s plant in Taylor is reportedly getting up to a $6.6 billion federal grant for semiconductor production.

So, when the Senate trial of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas suddenly was delayed from a scheduled ceremonial opening April 10 to Monday, McCaul balked.

“When I heard they were talking about Monday, I texted (House Speaker Mike) Johnson, and said I couldn’t do it,” McCaul told the American-Statesman. Johnson, R-La., responded and the House managers are now scheduled to instead walk over to the U.S. Senate on Tuesday to present articles of impeachment against Mayorkas. The Senate's 100 members will then be sworn in as jurors Wednesday, though Senate Democrats are pushing to dismiss the case.

The initial timing delay would have interfered with McCaul’s attendance at a big announcement ceremony by the U.S. Commerce Department at Samsung Semiconductor USA’s Taylor facility, about 35 miles northeast of Austin.

As the lead House sponsor of the CHIPS and Science Act, a multibillion-dollar program to boost domestic semiconductor production and research, McCaul wants to get credit for and share in the success of the grant for Central Texas.

More: Samsung to get at least $6 billion subsidy for Taylor facility from CHIPS Act

It's part of the Texan’s political landscape as chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee to juggle myriad interests, especially hot button issues like funding for Ukraine and Israel, both of which are in wars, as well as getting control of the U.S. southern border.

“Back home, the border is the No. 1 issue,” said McCaul, who was first elected to Congress in 2004 and whose 10th Congressional district stretches from Lake Travis to the Brazos Valley to the outskirts of Houston in Katy. But, he added, the distant foreign issues have a common thread with local issues.

“It’s all tied together,” he said.

What is McCaul most concerned about?

“The potential for World War III, if we cannot deter and stop aggression,” he said.

Without funding for Ukraine, McCaul warned that the U.S. would lose deterrence as a factor on the world stage. And deterrence, McCaul believes, is the United States' big strength against Russia in its war with Ukraine, against China with its cross-strain tensions with Taiwan and against Iran in its hostility against Israel.

And that translates to the U.S.-Mexico border. He and Republicans opposed to Mayorkas say the southern border has left the U.S. vulnerable to easy entry by foreign agents as well as cartels pushing fentanyl, leading to an alarming increase in U.S. deaths by the opioid drug.

“It’s an epidemic,” McCaul said.

By a 214-213 vote in February, House Republicans in their second try succeeded in voting to impeach Mayorkas on two counts: failing to enforce immigration laws and lying to Congress that the border was secure.

McCaul, a former federal prosecutor, is focusing, as his part of the House charges, on the secretary’s alleged failure to enforce federal laws to protect the homeland.

More: Will Central Texas semiconductor scene be rewarded with CHIPS Act funding? Experts say yes

U.S. Rep. August Pfluger, R-San Angelo, who is a descendant of the founders of Pflugerville, a small city of about 65,000 in the outskirts of Austin, is another impeachment manager.

“The recent ISIS-K attack in Europe is an extremely concerning reminder that threats of terrorism are as real today as they were when the Department of Homeland Security was created after 9/11,” Pfluger said in a statement to the Statesman.

“Secretary Mayorkas has not only ignored these threats caused by the southern border, but his willful refusal to follow the law has encouraged millions of aliens to cross the southern border illegally—including known and suspected terrorists,” he said.

It remains unclear if House Republicans will even get a chance to present their arguments if Senate Democrats, who hold a razor-thin majority due to Vice President Kamala Harris' tie-breaking vote, succeed in dismissing the case from the start.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Wednesday on the Senate floor: “Our plan over here has not changed: The Senate is ready to go whenever the House is. We want to address this issue as expeditiously as possible.

“And as I said yesterday, impeachment should never be used to settle policy disagreements. That sets an awful precedent.”

GOP senators, including Ted Cruz and John Cornyn from Texas, are working on strategies to keep Democrats — and a few Republicans who do not support Mayorkas’ impeachment — from acting quickly to dismiss the two counts.

“Under the Constitution, the responsibilities of the Senate are simple and straightforward — they are to try this impeachment,” Cruz said at a news conference. “Chuck Schumer doesn't want to do that. Instead, he wants to move to table the entire thing.”

Getting Johnson, the House speaker, to delay the start of the trial was one GOP tactic since Cruz and other Republican lawmakers warned that the pressure of starting a trial on Thursday afternoon, as was expected, would play into senators’ desire to quickly finish the week’s work and fly out on Thursday evening.

Republican senators are also planning on procedural delays by raising points of order during the proceedings.

“Secretary Mayorkas was not impeached because he is unpopular or just because he's incompetent,” Cornyn said in a Senate speech. “He was impeached for two serious offenses.”

Cornyn warned that a move by Schumer, the Senate majority leader, to table the articles and avoid a trial would be unconstitutional.

“This would be the first time in our nation's history that the Senate failed to do its duty to consider evidence, hear witnesses, and allow Senators to vote guilty or not guilty,” he said.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Rep. Michael McCaul's big week: impeach Mayorkas; boost semiconductors