In a move that surprised outsiders, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced his intention to bring a standalone border security bill to the floor. The bill, which was originally crafted by Senators Chris Murphy (D-CT), Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ), and James Lankford (R-OK), has already been rejected numerous times by members of both parties.

The Majority Leader sent a letter to the rest of his colleagues in the Senate, criticizing the House for killing the bill when it was originally brought up. He also criticized Republican senators for flip flopping on the bill after comments by Former President Trump.

Even one of the authors of the bill, Senator James Lankford (R-OK,) now expresses his displeasure with the bill. In an interview earlier this week with conservative TV network NewsMax, Lankford complained that there were no serious attempts to try to solve the issues at the border. “this is a crisis of Biden’s own creation … and now they are trying to figure how to manage his own mistakes.”

It appears that Schumer intends to reorient some of the anger that has previously been directed at Democrats for not doing enough on the border. Republicans who are seen voting against the bill could have it used against them in the general election. However the bill will also force many Democrats to go on the record about border security, which many have been uncomfortable discussing in the past.

Schumer elaborated on this point, saying that he did not expect all Democrats to support the bill. However he still urged its passing in a bipartisan manner. While not in the letter, the political strategy behind this move could be to redirect some of the pressure onto Speaker of the House Mike Johnson. The bill could pass the House in a similar manner, however Johnson has rejected it in the past due to opposition from Former President Donald Trump.

Border security and immigration are expected to be hot topics in the 2024 election, and have already made up a large section of political ads as the 2024 cycle continues to heat up. Both Democrats and Republicans are trying to paint the others as weak on the issue of border security, with Democrats blaming Republicans for inaction, and Republicans blaming Democrats (and specifically President Biden) for failing to act through executive action.

A $95 billion dollar foreign aid package was recently passed by the House of Representatives. The legislation emphasizes increased monetary support to Ukraine and Israel, as well as a ban on the popular social media app TikTok. 

Since the inception of the app, government officials have expressed concerns that the platform poses a threat to national security. TikTok is run by ByteDance, a Chinese company that legislators believe may be involved with the Communist Party. In spite of TikTok CEO Shou Chew’s repeated assertions that ByteDance is privately owned, U.S. legislators continue to levy charges of malign foreign interference against the company.

According to Republican Senator Marco Rubio, for example, ByteDance, and every other company in China, “is controlled by the Chinese Communist Party.” TikTok, Rubio says, is dangerous because of its advanced algorithm, which “uses the data of Americans to basically read your mind and predict what videos you want to see.” 

The recently passed bill serves to force a sale of the platform to a Western developer. If the sale does not occur within a year of the proposal being passed into law, the U.S. will enforce a nationwide ban on the app. The ban would begin with the platform’s removal from app stores. Eventually, the technology would become unavailable for updates on American mobile devices, rendering the service defunct.

President Joe Biden has stated that he intends to sign the bill. With more than 170 million users in the United States alone, the President’s resolve to pass the measure into law has been the object of much contention. Many users feel that the ban infringes upon their First Amendment rights. Others fear that the TikTok ban will leave influencers without a source of primary income, and severely impact the 7 million small businesses that depend on the platform to promote development.

Early on Friday morning, Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) filed a motion to vacate against Speaker of the House Mike Johnson. This move comes as tensions rise between moderates and far-right members of the Republican party following controversy over a spending package.

Representative Greene has described the package as a “trillion dollar Democrat wish list” on X, and has reinforced that she believes that a majority of Republican voters are opposed to the bill. And this is only the final straw following a number of controversial spending bills on the right.

If this motion to vacate succeeds, it would again leave the House of Representatives without a Speaker for the foreseeable future, and the GOP caucus would need to find another option.

However Marjorie Taylor Greene and her allies have stated that they believe it is a worthy sacrifice to get rid of a speaker who is willing to pass “Chuck Schumer’s bill.”

Earlier today she appeared on Steve Bannon’s War Room and said that she is making a decision on a motion to vacate on a “minute by minute basis today”. And inside sources are now making it clear that the motion to vacate has indeed been officially launched, although it is unclear if they will be able to get the level of support that they need to finalize the removal of Mike Johnson.

This is an evolving story, check back on The Youth Insight later on in the day for updates on Mike Johnson’s status as Speaker of the House.

Image Credits: Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons