The House Rules Committee's schedule for next week consists entirely of a half dozen bills to 😮prohibit the Energy Department from setting energy use standards for home appliances.😮
The Liberty in Laundry Act, the Refrigerator Freedom Act and the Stop Unaffordable Dishwasher Standards, or SUDS, Act😂 are among the bills.
There is no sign, however, of legislation to provide military aid to 🇺🇦Ukraine, 🇮🇱Israel or 🇹🇼Taiwan, which some lawmakers have said they expect to come up for a vote next week.
"With any material vote, we've relied predominantly on Democrat[ic] votes. And then we want to pass messaging bills, that have no future in the Senate, to show what we stand for," Rep. Bob Good (R-Va.) told Axios.'
Good, the chair of the right-wing Freedom Caucus, said that dynamic is "not really doing anything for the American people."
Rep. Max Miller (R-Ohio) told Axios he is "really #sick of these #messaging #bills," adding, "Yeah you support Israel, yeah you support Ukraine ... but what are you actually doing to help them by putting a piece of paper on the floor that's expressing the sentiment of Congress?"
Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) said House Republicans are "just #dallying with our time." "This country's got issues here – security, we've got debt, we've got all kinds of issues we've got to address," he said.
Asked if there should be consequences for House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and others GOP leaders, Good said, "Well, I don't think that's a sustainable future, to do what we've been doing now."
Good is among a handful of #right-#wing #hardliners who have declined to say whether they would throw their potentially decisive support behind Rep. Marjorie Taylor #Greene (R-Ga.) if she forces a vote to remove Johnson.
For some lawmakers, it's not just about next week or even the 118th Congress, but an indictment of the nature of modern politics.
"Those post offices aren't going to name themselves," 😂Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) quipped ruefully when asked about the appliance votes.
Burchett added: "I have bills in committees that don't get heard. Up here, there are two ways to get ahead: raise money and kiss a**. And I don't do a good job at either one of them ... it's the system, man. It's the system."
Some GOP lawmakers said the appliance-related bills are worth their time, even if 🔹they don't stand a chance in the Senate.
Rep. John Duarte (R-Calif.) said he would "like to get a lot of things done," but "we're going to protect Americans' choice on their home appliances."
Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) said he has no issue with the bills but wants "a strategy for how we're going to deal with the rest of this Congress."
"It almost seems like [Senate Democratic Leader] Chuck Schumer is in charge of Congress," Nehls said.
https://www.axios.com/2024/04/12/house-republicans-anger-messaging-votes
