Washington, D.C. — House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) came out swinging at Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) as Republican leaders were embarrassingly forced to pull a bipartisan veterans bill from the floor Thursday after another revolt from Johnson’s rightward flank.
“Yet again, another reckless Republican bill went down to defeat on the floor of the House of Representatives. House Democrats are in the minority but continue to control the floor, as if we were in the majority,” Jeffries told the congressional press corps Thursday.
It’s not just the veterans measure. Jeffries also pointed to the Affordable Care Act tax credits Democrats fought for and won earlier this year, along with an Iran War Powers Resolution Democrats pushed and passed recently.
But even in hyper-partisan eras, legislative proposals aimed at veterans have historically brought the two parties together, which is why Jeffries is doing a victory lap.
“Perhaps for the first time in the history of the United States of America, the majority party was forced to pull a bill relating to veterans because House Democrats, led by [Ranking Member] Mark Takano, have made clear all week that this bill doesn’t benefit hard-working veterans in the United States of America,” Jeffries said. “It would actually hurt them.”
The heart of the veterans’ measure is the Major Richard Star Act, which would hike retirement payouts for roughly 50,000 veterans injured in combat.
The measure’s $13 billion price tag has kept the effort in limbo, especially because advocacy organizations like the Veterans of Foreign Wars and Disabled American Veterans oppose the bill’s approach of paying for new benefits by reclassifying disability ratings for ailments like sleep apnea and tinnitus.
Democrats forced Johnson to hold the veterans’ vote open for roughly 30 minutes as he and other GOP leaders lobbied the far-right to get on board.
In the end, Republicans mustered the bare minimum 211-210 vote to defeat the Democrats’ Motion to Recommit — a procedural gambit the minority party always offers in the House as a way to trip up the majority party — which would have forced a drastic overhaul of the measure.
Speaker Johnson blamed the defeat on “misinformation” and has now punted the bill until the fall, after Congress returns from its annual August recess — a recess Johnson hoped would be filled with talk of Republicans helping veterans.
Johnson wasn’t the only GOP leader Jeffries dunked on Thursday.
Ahead of President Donald Trump’s primetime address on election security, Jeffries lit into the commander-in-chief.
“In advance of Donald Trump’s speech, let me also be clear about one thing: Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential election. Something’s really wrong with this guy. I think he actually needs to be checked out,” Jeffries replied when asked about Trump trying to relitigate the 2020 election. “Why does he continue to focus on a conspiracy theory related to a 2020 presidential election that every rational person in the United States of America knows he lost?”
To Jeffries, 2020 is in the rearview, as he’s focused solely on winning November’s midterms.
“House Democrats are committed to making sure that we have a free and fair election in November, and when that occurs, we’re confident that we’re going to take back control of the United States House of Representatives,” Jeffries said.
Jeffries contrasted Democrats’ focus on affordability with the president’s war in Iran, which he says is a betrayal of the president’s own “America First” mantra.
“What Republicans are doing, since they were once again neutered on the floor of the House of Representatives, is to advance an America Last budget resolution that will actually provide $60 billion in additional taxpayer money for Donald Trump’s reckless and costly war of choice in the Middle East that has left Iran in a stronger position than they were in before this reckless war started,” Jeffries said. “And the American people in a weaker position economically as a result of high gas prices.”
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