Performance art

Daniel Desrochers

After a tumultuous first week consumed by the 15 votes required to elect House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, Republicans in Congress this week were able to start putting forward some of their top priority legislation for the new year.

On Tuesday, the House passed legislation creating select committees to investigate the “strategic competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party” and the “weaponization of the federal government.” On Wednesday, Republicans passed two abortion bills, one that would denounce “attacks on pro-life facilities, groups and churches” and one sponsored by Rep. Ann Wagner, a Republican from the St. Louis suburbs, to protect “born-alive abortion survivors.” On Thursday lawmakers passed a bill to prevent the U.S. government from selling oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to companies owned by the Chinese Communist Party.

“That’s just the first five days and we’re just getting started,” McCarthy said in a press conference Thursday, after a nostalgic speech about how he was speaking near where Abraham Lincoln sat as a Congressman. “We made a commitment to America and we’re going to keep it.”

Some of legislation picked up some bipartisan support — many Democrats voted for the legislation targeting China and a few Democrats crossed the aisle on the abortion votes — but it’s unlikely any of them will be able to pass the Senate.

Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, a Democrat from Kansas City, scoffed at the legislation.

“It’s performative, it’s for the media.” Cleaver said. “Because everybody who’s been in Congress two days understands how the system works. Which means unless Chuck Schumer has a nervous breakdown, there’s no way any of this stuff is going to pass.”

Republicans aren’t the only ones who pass messaging bills.

When Democrats controlled the House last Congress, they passed bills that had little chance of getting through the Senate. Legislation like the Equality Act — which would provide non-discrimination protections for LGBTQ Americans — or the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act — which attempted to restore parts of 1965 Voting Rights Act that were eliminated by the Supreme Court — passed the House even though members knew neither had the 60 votes necessary to make it through the Senate.

But Cleaver said he would have preferred if the House was attempting to address issues like immigration, an issue that has caused a crisis at the southern border and is a frequent talking point for Republicans aiming to whip up their base in election season.

Some senators, too, appear to hope Congress addresses immigration. Sen. Jerry Moran, a Republican from Kansas, was part of a bipartisan group that visited the southern border this week, led by Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, an Arizona independent who recently left the Democratic Party. Their trip came shortly after Biden made his first visit to the border for the first time in his presidency.

Any attempt at a bipartisan solution crafted by the Senate would be difficult to get through the House, where Republicans have a narrow majority and ultra conservatives have already proven their ability to disrupt business as usual.

Political observers are expressing concern that Congress will be unable to even pass time mandated legislation — like raising the debt ceiling — let alone attempt to craft big, bipartisan solutions to some of the problems the country faces.

Already, there has been some sniping between the two chambers. During his press conference Thursday, McCarthy responded to reports that some Republican senators are concerned the House won’t be able to pass bills necessary to keep the government running by criticizing the Senate for not working this week.

The House adjourned Thursday and won’t be back in session until January 24.

More from Missouri

This week, Reps. Sam Graves and Jason Smith were named chairmen of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and Ways and Means Committee respectively. The positions on two of the most powerful committees in the House will give Missourians newfound influence in the Republican majority for the next two years.

Here are headlines from across the state:

And across Kansas

Last year, Panasonic announced that it would build a $4 billion electric battery plant that is supposed to bring around 4,000 jobs to De Soto, a town that teeters on the edge of rural and suburban Johnson County. The announcement notched a big win for Gov. Laura Kelly’s economic development team. But it has brought a mixture of trepidation and excitement to De Soto.

The latest from Kansas City

In Kansas City …

Have a news tip? Send it along to ddesrochers@kcstar.com

Odds and ends

Strange bedfellows

Sen. Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican, and Rep. Cori Bush, a St. Louis Democrat, are from opposite sides of the political spectrum. But on Wednesday, the two Missouri lawmakers teamed up to write a letter to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, asking the corps to test properties in the Hazelwood School District for radioactive material.

The schools are located near Coldwater Creek, was contaminated with radioactive waste from the Manhattan Project — the U.S. government’s effort to develop a nuclear bomb — in the 1940s. A 2022 report by Boston Chemical Data Corp found radioactive waste in and around one of the elementary schools in Hazelwood.

Bush has pushed for additional signage along the creek warning people about radioactive material and Hawley has called on President Joe Biden to declare a federal emergency.

“It is crucial that the results of the testing be made available to the public and that any necessary remediation efforts be carried out with the utmost care, urgency, and expertise, all while keeping parents thoroughly informed,” they wrote.

Faith in elections

A poll commissioned by the Center for Election Innovation and Research found that Republican voters were more confident in the security of the 2022 elections than they were in the 2020 election, with their confidence nearly doubling from 32% to 57%.

But there was still a noticeable split between people who voted for former President Donald Trump and people who voted for President Joe Biden. Only 58% of Trump voters said the elections in 2022 were run somewhat or very well across the country, compared with 90% of Biden voters.

Those numbers get even worse for 2020. Only 28% of Trump voters said that election was run somewhat or very well across the country, compared to 86% of Biden voters.

There is also a difference between how Trump voters viewed how the election was run across the country compared to how it was run in their own communities. While still lower than Biden supporters, 74% of Trump supporters said the 2020 election was run somewhat or very well in their own community and 81% said the same about the 2022 election.

The difference could be a sign of how national narratives take hold, particularly as Trump and some of his allies attempted to sow doubt on the integrity of the 2020 election.

Letter writing campaign

Attorney General Merrick Garland on Thursday appointed Robert Hur as special counsel to investigate President Joe Biden’s handling of classified documents, after his aides found documents in an office he used at the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement in Washington, D.C. and in his garage in Delaware.

The appointment came after Republicans spent the week accusing the Department of Justice of hypocrisy over how it handled Biden and how it handled former President Donald Trump’s refusal to turn over documents to the National Archives.

Biden said his lawyers turned the documents over to the archives as soon as they were discovered, attempting to paint a contrast between himself and Trump, who went through a back and forth with the archives over his documents. After returning 15 boxes to the archives, Trump signed a statement saying he didn’t have any more classified documents in his possession. The FBI then searched his property and more than 20 additional boxes.

Republicans, however, said they didn’t see differences between the two cases given the fact that they both had the same underlying problem — a president mishandling classified documents.

“The double standard here is astounding,” Sen. Josh Hawley, a Republican from Missouri, wrote in a letter to Garland. “The underlying behavior at issue—a President’s retention of old classified documents dating back to a past presidency—is materially the same in both cases.”

Freshman Rep. Mark Alford, another Missouri Republican, also signed a letter to Garland, along with around 40 other House lawmakers, urging Garland to appoint a special prosecutor. He then appeared to take credit for Hur’s appointment, despite the fact that he was one in a chorus of voices calling on Garland to appoint counsel to look into Biden’s handling of classified documents.

“Hours after I sent the letter demanding @TheJusticeDepartment appoint a special prosecutor AG Garland announced the appointment of Robert Hur,” Alford wrote on Twitter. “We need answers now.”

Happy Friday

Here’s an article about the fierce world of book publishing. This weekend I may make chicken and dumplings. Here’s Lea Michele singing Don’t Rain on My Parade.

Enjoy your weekend.

Daniel Desrochers is the Star’s Washington, D.C. Correspondent
Daniel Desrochers is the Star’s Washington, D.C. Correspondent

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