From Former Quigley Supporter;

Lauren Underwood Helped Republicans Win a Vote in the House on Motion to Recommit

Here’s an extended look at something that happened in the House last week which has caused at least one progressive blogger to brand Congresswoman Lauren Underwood as a member of a “pro-concentration-camp-caucus”. 

This was the result of a Motion to Recommit (MTR) during the debate on H.R. 3239 last week in the House, which Republican IL Congressman Adam Kinzinger introduced, and the procedural vote was won by the Republicans when 41 Democrats, including Underwood, supported the MTR.

Vote Grid from California Target Book, edited by McHenry County Blog

The Contents of the Motion to Recommit for H.R. 3239

So what was in the MTR?

The MTR was a parliamentary motion to amend H.R. 3239 with the addition of the following language, per the Congressional Record:

The Clerk read as follows:

       Mr. Kinzinger moves to recommit the bill H.R. 3239 to the Committee on the Judiciary with instructions to report the same back to the House forthwith with the following amendment:

       Page 18, after line 10, add the following:

     SEC. 15. SENSE OF CONGRESS.

      It is the sense of the Congress that the men and women of the U.S. Border Patrol should be commended for continuing to carry out their duties in a professional manner, including caring for the extraordinarily high numbers of family units, unaccompanied alien children, and single adults processed in United States Customs and Border Protection facilities     referenced in this Act.

During discussion, Kinzinger addressed the reason for his support of the MTR, which included the following:

“This motion to recommit today is about recognizing the men and women of our U.S. Border Patrol who carry out the very laws that we pass fortheir hard work and for their dedication.

“Without question, we are facing a crisis on our southern border.

“Without question, we are facing a crisis on our southern border, and our facilities are overcrowded and overwhelmed.

“And lacking the resources, our personnel, our CBP agents are overworked, and I can tellyou this because I saw it firsthand.”

Normally, the Republicans lose MTR votes on final floor debate prior to the passage of legislation. 

H.R. 3239 sponsor, Congressman Raul Ruiz spoke in opposition to the MTR and quoted Scripture, and included the following:

“Mr. Speaker, my bill, the Humanitarian Standards for Individuals in CBP Custody Act, honors CBP agents by giving them the assistance they have requested and so desperately need.

“This bill gives them the tools to help protect kids and families.

“You see, Mr. Speaker, this bill isn’t about political trickery. It is not about partisan gotcha politics.

“This bill is about the goodness of the American people. This bill is a call to our better angels.

“This bill, and I say this wholeheartedly, is inspired through prayer and by God’s loving grace.

“You see, it asks us to remember and heed the words of Jesus in the good news book of Matthew: “For I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat. I was thirsty, and you gave me something to drink. I was a stranger, and you welcomed me in”, and, “Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters ofmine, you did for me.””

So the sponsoring congressman, Dr. Ruiz, infers the MTR is “political trickery” and “partisan gotcha politics”?  

This is not about partisanship, since anyone who reads the actual amendment cannot detect partisanship.  

If there is any “politics” underlying in the MTR it is about ideological politics, and in particular, progressives.

Recognizing the honorable men and women at the border who have to deal with the consequences of the southern border crisis by honoring them in a “Sense of Congress” statement tears down the progressives’ argument that the border facilities are run like “concentration camps”, which would make Customs and Border Protection (CBP) personnel concentration camp guards.  

Any reasonable person visiting the border this year know CBP is doing everything possible, and the overwhelming crush of migrants seeking asylum require the transfer of northern border CBP personnel from places like Michigan to rotate into and out of the southern border in order to expand the CBP capacity.

And any partisanship was played by the Democrats for opposing this measure, which was gratifying to see Congresswoman Underwood represent her 14th district constituents honorably and voted to recognize the CBP personnel for the job they are doing under overwhelming circumstances not of their making.

But what Underwood did was direct opposition to the progressives in her party, including the 4 members of the Squad, who all opposed the MTR.  Congressman Sean Casten voted against the MTR as did nearly all of the progressives and the House Democratic leadership.

Of the 41 Democrats who backed the Republicans to pass the MTR, nearly all of them are members of the Problem Solvers Caucus, the Blue Dog Coalition or the New Democrats Caucus. 

Underwood, and 2 or 3 other Democrats of the 41 are not members of those House groups.

Why Underwood voted for the MTR only she can answer.  

Maybe Underwood’s vote was a way to atone for her “appalling accusation” of intentional deaths of children in CBP custody that she said at the May 22 House Homeland Security Committee meeting.

But whatever the reason and even on a procedural vote, Underwood did the right thing on supporting the MTR, and all of her constituents should say “thank you” for supporting the men and women of CBP.
A

nd after the MTR’s passage, the Democrats, with one Republican, passed H.R. 3239.

• H.R. 3239 Link:  https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/3239/text (MTR language added in final text, reported to the Senate)

Fallout from the MTR Vote

As POLITICO reported on July 25 on the MTR vote:

And that struggle between Democratic moderates and progressives doomed action on two pieces of legislation on immigration the House Democratic leadership was hoping to pass prior to the August recess. which began at the end of last week.

The House did pass last week, on a voice vote, H.R. 3670, the Short-Term Detention Standards Act.

The big legislation was H.R. 2203, but Underwood’s H.R. 3525 was not acted upon either, and the earliest those two pieces of legislation will be acted upon is September.

• POLITICO Immigration Link:  https://www.politico.com/story/2019/07/25/democrats-congress-immigration-1435072
• H.R. 2203 Link:  https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/2203/text
• H.R. 3525 Link:  https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/3525/text
• H.R. 3670 Link:  https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/3670/text