US House approves $61bn in military aid for Ukraine after months of stalling House of Representatives

Table Of Content

• Congressional delegations by state
• California
• Who controls the House? Get to know the balance of power in the 118th Congress
• Presiding officer
• Eyes on potential motion to vacate vote

In some committees like Appropriations, partisan disputes are few. In most states, major party candidates for each district are nominated in partisan primary elections, typically held in spring to late summer. Exceptions can result in so-called floor fights—convention votes by delegates, with outcomes that can be hard to predict. Especially if a convention is closely divided, a losing candidate may contend further by meeting the conditions for a primary election. The courts generally do not consider ballot access rules for independent and third party candidates to be additional qualifications for holding office and no federal statutes regulate ballot access. As a result, the process to gain ballot access varies greatly from state to state, and in the case of a third party in the United States may be affected by results of previous years' elections.

Congressional delegations by state

The House meets in the south wing of the United States Capitol. The rules of the House generally address a two-party system, with a majority party in government, and a minority party in opposition. The presiding officer is the Speaker of the House, who is elected by the members thereof. Other floor leaders are chosen by the Democratic Caucus or the Republican Conference, depending on whichever party has more voting members. The House of Representatives has voted to pass a $95 billion foreign aid package that includes funding to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.

California

The number of seats in the House has not been increased in more than a century, though, even though every 10 years the census shows the population of the United States grows. California, the nation's most populous state has 52 representatives. Wyoming, which has the smallest population has only one representative. Other states with just one representative include Alaska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont, and Delaware.

Who controls the House? Get to know the balance of power in the 118th Congress

The group ThirtyThousand.org argues that the framers of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights never intended for the population of each congressional district to exceed 50,000 or 60,000. "The principle of proportionally equitable representation has been abandoned," the group argues. In the instance when the presidency and both Houses of Congress are controlled by one party, the speaker normally takes a low profile and defers to the president. For that situation the House minority leader can play the role of a de facto "leader of the opposition", often more so than the Senate minority leader, due to the more partisan nature of the House and the greater role of leadership. When the presidency and Senate are controlled by a different party from the one controlling the House, the speaker can become the de facto "leader of the opposition". Some notable examples include Tip O'Neill in the 1980s, Newt Gingrich in the 1990s, John Boehner in the early 2010s, and Nancy Pelosi in the late 2000s and again in the late 2010s and early 2020s.

Information about voting

A convicted official is automatically removed from office and may be disqualified from holding future office under the United States. No further punishment is permitted during the impeachment proceedings; however, the party may face criminal penalties in a normal court of law. Representatives are usually identified in the media and other sources by party and state, and sometimes by congressional district, or a major city or community within their district. For example, Democratic representative Nancy Pelosi, who represents California's 11th congressional district within San Francisco, may be identified as "D–California", "D–California–11" or "D–San Francisco". Representatives and delegates serve for two-year terms, while a resident commissioner (a kind of delegate) serves for four years.

Each state is entitled to at least one representative, however small its population. The House began work on April 1, 1789, when it achieved a quorum for the first time. House were held on November 3, 2020, and coincide with the 2020 presidential election. The passed bills will be combined into a single package to simplify the voting process for the Senate, which will need to reapprove the proposal before it can go to President Joe Biden’s desk for his signature. Saturday's vote marked the first time the House had approved billions of dollars in Ukraine aid since December 2022, when Democrats still controlled the chamber.

Presiding officer

Presently, the District of Columbia and the five inhabited U.S. territories each elect a delegate. A seventh delegate, representing the Cherokee Nation, has been formally proposed but has not yet been seated.[30] An eighth delegate, representing the Choctaw Nation is guaranteed by treaty but has not yet been proposed. Additionally, some territories may choose to also elect shadow representatives, though these are not official members of the House and are separate individuals from their official delegates.

Republican Reveals Possible GOP Plan to Allow Democratic House Speaker - Newsweek

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Posted: Mon, 22 Apr 2024 14:22:36 GMT [source]

Eyes on potential motion to vacate vote

The House of Representatives on Saturday passed a more than $60 billion bill to provide military and economic aid to Ukraine. Ahead of the vote, Rep. Michael McCaul, who chairs the Foreign Affairs Committee, said, "History will judge us by our actions here today." The House-passed bills are similar to a $95 billion package that passed the Senate in February but then stalled in the House. The package contains a fourth bill aimed at implementing sanctions and policies to counter China, Iran and Russia.

Personnel, mail and office expenses

Each state gets a different number of representatives based on the total population. California is the nation’s most populous state and has 52 representatives. There are 212 Democrats officially in the House of Representatives. But that number will be 213 once Tom Suozzi is sworn in after winning the special election in New York to replace Republican George Santos. The Republican House majority leader is Louisiana Rep. Steve Scalise.

Unlike the Senate, the House of Representatives is not sectioned off so that only certain members are up for re-election each year. Instead, representatives face re-election every two years, meaning in 2024 all 435 seats will be up for election. In the 118th Congress which runs through Jan. 3, 2025, Republicans have majority control of the House of Representatives.

Rep. Mike Johnson, the newly-elected Speaker of the House, is also a Louisiana Republican. Santos' expulsion left a vacancy, which was filled in a special election that Democrat Tom Suozzi won, narrowing the Republicans' majority even more. Speaking from the Capitol earlier this week, Johnson said providing aid to Ukraine was “critically important” and “the right thing” despite the potential power of his opponents to bring him down in yet another internal party coup.