When the foreign aid bill was held hostage by the "border crisis" and stalled in the Senate, the Biden cabinet bypassed Congress to provide a series of aid to Israel, after Biden said that closing the border required congressional authorization, which was immediately condemned by Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA-4) and many other Republicans. Faced with two contents of the same bill, Biden used two different ways to deal with it, and I have to sigh at the flexibility of Biden in dealing with the problem.
On the issue of dealing with Israel, the Democratic Party is not monolithic. When Biden bypassed Congress, four U.S. Senators, Elizabeth Warren (D-Ma), Peter Welch (D-VT), Jeff Merkley (D-Or), and Bernie Sanders (I-VT), joined 15 Democratic House members to formally question Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
The letter cites the Export Control Act (AECE), which requires the Cabinet to notify the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the House Foreign Affairs Committee of foreign assistance, and that Congress has the power to exercise oversight powers. Question: In the 50 years since the Cabinet enacted AECE, the term "emergency" has only been used 18 times, so why has the Biden Cabinet used it twice in the past month? Moreover, it is questioned that the ** invoked will seriously violate international law in the process of use, and so on.
It can be seen that although there are many contradictions within the Republican Party, there are also discordant voices within the Democratic Party, especially in terms of attitude towards Israelres.504), requiring the Biden cabinet to submit a report on Israel's human rights violations to Congress within 30 days, and Congress will suspend the cancellation or restriction of aid projects according to the report, the above picture is the voting record at that time (the first column is the senators standing on the opposite side of Israel), compared with the attack on the cabinet, it can be concluded: Sanders, Welch, Merkley and Warren, these four belong to the four Democratic senators who stand firmly on the opposite side of Israel, In the future, we can observe the changes in the positions of these four senators on various bills.
As 2024 approaches, Biden has compromised with environmentalists to suspend LNG permits in order to meet its pledge to cut climate pollution in half by 2030.
The above chart shows the situation of natural gas production in various states in the United States, the darker the color, the greater the production, and it can be seen from the figure that the top six states are: Texas, Pennsylvania, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Ohio and West Virginia, of which Texas accounts for 23 of the country's natural gas production7%, Biden and Texas have recently had some needle-to-point feelings, and the contradictions of the border crisis have not been resolved, once again suppressing Texas' natural gas exports.
In addition to Pennsylvania, the above 6 states have a certain swing in ***, and the remaining five states are all red states, which means that BIDEN suspends LNG licensing, and the above 6 states are the most hurt, so a number of Republicans jointly sent a letter to Biden and his cabinet, stating their interests, asking Biden to withdraw this policy, and we look at the list of signed federal senators (see the picture below):
Two Texas senators, John Coryn and Ted Cruz, made a move that was in the interest of their state, as were Bill Cassidy and John Kennedy of Louisiana, and J.D. Vance of Ohio and James Lankford of Oklahoma.
But it's worth noting that the Republican senators in their states have gas interests but don't make the list: Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia and Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma. And the top two Republicans in the Senate.
Neither Leader Mitch McConnell (R-ky) nor Whip John Thune (R-SD) are on the list, and Senate Republicans are indeed less concerted action.
Judging from the current statements of all parties, it is unlikely that the Biden cabinet will change the policy of suspending LNG export licenses, and if the relevant policy is to be changed, Republicans may have to expect Trump to return to the White House after November.