Posted on 04/10/2024 3:27:08 PM PDT by RandFan
INCOMING — A Ukraine aid bill (details very much TBA) is expected to come to the House floor for a vote next week, multiple outlets are reporting today. If it passes, the legislation could provide a crucial lifeline for Kyiv’s war to repel Russia — and the far-right revolt against Speaker MIKE JOHNSON could boil over.
But first Johnson has a different imbroglio on his hands: A procedural vote for the reauthorization of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act is expected to fail on the House floor today, as a handful Freedom Caucus members derail the process over privacy concerns.
Reps. MATT GAETZ (R-Fla.), ANNA PAULINA LUNA (R-Fla.) and now TIM BURCHETT (R-Tenn.) have all said they’ll vote against the rule, after a monthslong debate on the Hill over the federal government’s spy powers. Three would be enough to tank it, and others have said they’re undecided.
With FISA expiration barely a week away, the congressional fight regarding warrantless national security surveillance of foreigners — which can sweep up Americans who talk to them — is coming to a head. The FBI and DOJ argue that the authorities are crucial for law enforcement.
Johnson has urged House Republicans to pass the FISA reauthorization at hand, which includes dozens of reforms. This would be the third time that House efforts to pass the bill have run aground. Johnson warned today — publicly and in the GOP conference meeting — that a failure would mean capitulation to the Senate, which would pass a clean reauthorization and force the House to swallow it.
But he was thrown a curveball from DONALD TRUMP, who weighed in vigorously this morning: “KILL FISA,” he posted on Truth Social, “IT WAS ILLEGALLY USED AGAINST ME, AND MANY OTHERS.”
Hope it’s a double whammy !
The fact that Michael is trying to pass FISA proves he’s a Uniparty plant.
That’s why they torpedoed Jim Jordan, so they could get one of theirs in.
Johnson’s time is UP.
Surprisingly, only 19 Republicans voted to kill FISA. It was mostly Democrat votes (209 of them) that against it. Considering how FISA was so abused, without any accountability when it was revealed, every member should be voting to kill it. It's obviously more a political weapon than intelligence tool.
What does this mean, and how does this work exactly?
FR thread—— Biden Admits Massively Undercounting Ukraine Aid
When conservatives in Congress pressed the Biden admin to provide the real cost of the Ukraine war in Jan 2023, the lawmakers estimated the U.S. had spent “a minimum of $114 billion.”
<><>Now, with added OMB information, Cong Vance and company estimate the current total to Ukraine amounts to at least $125 billion—$14 billion over what the OMB had previously claimed.
<><>That’s not all......the Biden administration could give Ukraine around another $4 billion in the form of weapons transfers from U.S. stockpiles under Presidential Drawdown Authority.
<><>This would bring the total amount to Ukraine to $129 billion.
When Biden’s OMB got around to responding almost eight months later, the OMB claimed, through an opaque and admittedly incomplete data sheet, that Ukraine aid totaled $111 billion.
<><>“The deficiencies in OMB’s response were numerous,” the Tuesday letter said of the OMB’s Sept 2023 response.
<><>“It did not account for hundreds of millions of dollars in base appropriations for the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative.
<><>It omitted the administration’s ‘$6.2 billion in ‘freed-up’ authority’ to send weapons to Ukraine,
<><>which meant that ‘certain numbers in OMB’s spreadsheet, as well as dollar figures the administration provided for at least some previous Ukraine-related drawdowns, are outdated.’
<><>It did not allow us to determine ‘what obligations, apportionments, and outlays the administration has undertaken for other countries in response to the Ukraine conflict.’”
Cong Vance and company concluded Biden OMB’s Sept 2023 response was “nonresponsive.” In a follow-up letter sent September 28, 2023, they added that
<><>“If OMB’s spreadsheet is to be relied on to produce such a figure—and we believe it cannot be—it is around $111 billion.
<><>It would appear likely that the data you have yet to provide would raise this figure by an indeterminate magnitude.
“Every one of these assertions has been validated,” the Tuesday letter claims. On March 8, 2024, “nearly six months after we again requested a full accounting of Ukraine spending, more than a year after our original request, and one business day before the OMB director was scheduled to testify before the Senate Budget Committee,” the letter notes, OMB finally decided to hand over “another tranche of information.” What it included was shocking.
<><>The latest OMB data dump to Congress revealed, according to the lawmakers’ letter,
<><>Biden failed to report at least another $684 million in appropriated Ukraine spending,
<><>left out another $900 million in DOD assistance connected to the Ukraine war,
<><>and a number of other pitfalls that has undercounted the total amount of Ukraine aid by a magnitude of billions.
There could be more, too, as lawmakers included a list of 14 probing questions and information requests in their latest correspondence with the OMB director.
No surprise—it’s not Joe Biden’s money at stake........ just the American people’s tax dollars.
Bradley Devlin is the political editor for The American Conservative. Previously, he was an Analysis Reporter for the Daily Caller, and has been published in the Daily Wire and the Daily Signal, among other publications that don’t include the word “Daily.” He graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a degree in Political Economy. You can follow Bradley on Twitter @bradleydevlin.
It's almost as if most Republicans are Uniparty too.
What a shock!
Good. Let that fail, too.
Tell Biden that not one single nickel for anything else will be appropriated until the border is sealed completely. Then walk away.
L
Jimmy (my congressman) was on Greta tonight!!
So long as we keep funding the unelected/no elections most corrupt in all the world puppet terrorist government over the Democratic Russian Federation, I’m good with that.
Good discussions on how the liberals and their thugs in our federal government have abused FISA and used it illegally on Americans from President Trump to Americans like us.
!. Say no now, to any FISA that involves spying/monitoring on any Americans.
2. Re elect President Trump and let him and good republicans, disable/kill FISA.
3, Then, President Trump can appoint retired Admiral Michael Brown to monitor the needed destruction/elimination of current and past illegal FISA acts and set jail terms for the past abusers.
Right now, the focus should be on opposing the FISA 702 warrantless searches, which are a grave threat to every single American citizen, who doesn’t dutifully toe the progressive line. If we turn over even an inch to the swamp, it’ll take hundreds of miles. Any reauthorization of FISA 702 is a breach of the 4th Amendment and must be stopped.
Looking back, it seems most rational people would agree that the Patriot Act and the tyrannical COVID measures were never about protecting us or the nation. They were a way to amass and wield power and control over anyone foolish enough to challenge the regime’s treason against Trump and us.
Real meaning = We own the FISA Court and the judges. Not one firing or prosecution of any of those who defrauded the FISA Courts in Crossfire Hurricane. That means justice is political influence peddling. Nothing more.
Surprised and disappointed that Green voted for it.
“” FBI and DOJ argue that the authorities are crucial for law enforcement.””
“Start keeping illegals/criminals from coming into our country, before you start lecturing us what’s crucial for law enforcement.”
For several years now, you see criminals with massive amounts of gun charges that should add up to years and years of prison get everything dismissed/dropped. And they scream for more gun control lol.
Come on far-lefties! Your Ukraine needs a GoFundMe page!
On that Ukraine vote, you didn’t mention the Mexican border linkage. Surely, the border gets sealed for more mad money for Uke corruption. Right?
If my GOP Congressman wants to vote to send money in Ukraine I might as well write-in Volodymyr Zelensky on Election Day.
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