Jim Jordan suspends bid to be Speaker; endorses reforms giving powers to interim Speaker Patrick McHenry
On Thursday, Congressman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) suspended his bid to be Speaker of the House. He announced that he will now back giving powers to interim Speaker Republican Patrick McHenry.(R-North Carolina). More than 20 House Republicans have stood against Jordan’s bid to be the next Speaker of the House. A third-floor vote on Jordan’s speakership had been scheduled for midday on Thursday, but at a meeting of the House Republican Caucus, it became apparent that the mainstream Republicans opposing Jordan as Speaker were not ready to be swayed. Rep. Jim Banks told reporters that Jordan told the conference that he would not seek a third vote for Speaker knowing the outcome and would instead back a plan to give powers to interim Speaker McHenry to hold the post until January. Congressman Barry Moore (R-AL02) is the strongest supporter of Jordan. “To me, Jim Jordan being in this race is quite amazing when you figure that he was one of the founders of the House Freedom Caucus just a few short years ago,” Rep. Moore said recently. “I talked with Senator Bud the other night, and he said who would have ever dreamed that Jim Jordan would up for Speaker of the House given his conservative leanings. What I tell everybody is that there is a mass movement across this country right now. You see it with the Bud Light and Oliver Anthony with the Rich Men North of Richmond (a pop song). There is a lot of pressure on the rich men north of Richmond.” Moore expressed frustration with members who oppose Jordan. “How do you defend not voting for Jim Jordan?” Moore said. “There is not a principled stand if you are a Republican and the party of Reagan, and there is not anybody that I know of right now who can get to the 217 without working with the Democrats.” Those comments were made before Jordan suspended his campaign. If those rule changes pass, the House will be able to function so Congress can get back to work. Republicans who control the House 221 to 212. Jordan got 200 votes on Tuesday but just 199 votes on Wednesday. Some GOP Congress members who have opposed Jordan, report receiving death threats. To connect with the author of this story or to comment, email brandonmreporter@gmail.com.
Robert Aderholt leads letter to Egypt asking to allow aid to Gaza, affirms Israel’s right to self-defense
On Wednesday, Congressman Robert Aderholt (R-AL04) led a letter to the Egyptian Ambassador to the U.S., Motaz Zahran, encouraging Egypt to work with the U.S., Israel, and other allies to help innocent Palestinian refugees leave Gaza and enter safely into Egypt. Congressman Aderholt requested that Egypt establish safe zones in Southern Gaza with humanitarian corridors that would aid civilians impacted by Hamas’s brutal attack on Israel that began on October 7. The letter affirms the Congressmember’s opinion that Israel has a right to self-defense. Aderholt was joined in leading the bipartisan letter by Representatives Blake Moore (R-Utah), Dan Goldman (D-New York), and Brad Schneider (D-Illinois). 107 Members of Congress signed the letter. “Israel has every right to defend itself from Hamas’s terrorism,” Rep. Aderholt said in a statement. “Egypt has an opportunity to save lives by taking a major leadership role and help establish safe zones for non-combatants, particularly women and children, seeking refuge from Hamas. As Hamas continues to put targets on their own civilians, take hostages, use Gazans as human shields, and embed their command centers within civilian communities, Egypt has an opportunity to protect civilian life and work with the U.S. and Israel. Moreover, a productive approach from Egypt that secures temporary zones for the vulnerable and establishes secure conduits for aid that will help Israel root out Hamas and protect its national security,” the Congressman concluded. “In order to protect non-combatants and civilians in Gaza from Hamas’s brutality, we call on the Egyptian government to urgently work with the United States, Israel, and relevant international stakeholders to take all measured and appropriate steps to support and facilitate safe zones in southern Gaza and enable a steady supply of humanitarian assistance to flow from Egypt towards those in the safe zones until the civilian population is able to return to the north of the Strip,” the members of Congress wrote. “We are optimistic that the international community will participate in providing financial assistance for this humanitarian situation, but Egypt’s robust participation is essential to the success and the safety and security of up to two million Gazans who are desperately in need of such support. Further, those states that have been long-standing intermediaries for Hamas, especially Qatar and Turkey, should be called upon to help as well.” “As members of the U.S. House of Representatives, we are writing to you to express our outright condemnation of the recent terrorist attacks in Israel by Hamas and its terrorist partners,” Aderholt and the other Congress members wrote. “Given these events, we strongly encourage the government of Egypt to engage constructively with the United States, Israel, and relevant international stakeholders to establish and maintain safe zones in southern Gaza, with humanitarian access corridors, for civilians seeking refuge from the fighting in the north of the Strip.” “Israel has the well-established right and responsibility to respond to these vicious attacks. We unequivocally support Israel’s right to defend itself, take necessary measures in support of its national security, and rescue the nearly 200 hostages currently being held in Gaza,” the Congress members continued. “As in previous conflicts, we also note that Israel’s military operations inside Gaza are designed to avoid civilian casualties. Israel has repeatedly encouraged innocent Gazans to leave Hamas locations and targets in the northern part of the Strip and has established an intelligence-driven process to target terrorist activity, limit civilian casualties, establish corridors for safe passage, and adhere to the laws of armed conflict. In contrast, Hamas shamefully disregards international humanitarian law and the rules of war by intentionally targeting civilians, taking hostages, using human shields, and embedding their fighters in civilian communities with utter disregard for their welfare. As the controlling authority in the Gaza Strip, Hamas locates its infrastructure and command centers within civilian homes, schools, and hospitals. Hamas routinely launches rockets and mortars from residential neighborhoods. Hamas and other organizations, such as the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, have done everything in their power to maximize the danger and suffering of the civilians over which they have governing responsibility, publicly threatening residents and preventing them from evacuating combat areas. These heinous actions are intentional, irrefutable, and inexcusable. They are also clear violations of the laws of armed conflict.” Egypt did open the border late on Wednesday to allow twenty trucks of aid into Gaza. Aderholt is the senior member of the Alabama Congressional delegation. To connect with the author of this story or to comment, email brandonmreporter@gmail.com.
Cannabis licenses might be issued in coming weeks
There is currently a temporary restraining order (TRO) on the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission (AMCC) issuing medical cannabis licenses. However, that could change in the coming days for some license categories. On Wednesday, Montgomery Circuit Judge James Anderson heard arguments from attorneys for both the AMCC and the plaintiffs suing the Commission over cannabis license awards made in August. The state is issuing six categories of medical marijuana licenses: grower or cultivator (the term is used synonymously by parties involved), processor, transporter, laboratory, dispensary, and integrated facility. An integrator can grow, process, transport, and dispense cannabis. Applicants who were denied permits for processor, dispensary, and integrator have all filed suit against the AMCC, arguing, for various reasons, that their application was wrongfully denied and the Commission violated the state open meetings law in its August awards meeting. Those lawsuits have all been consolidated into one case challenging those award results. Anderson placed a temporary restraining order on the AMCC issuing any licenses in August and a stay on further AMCC action while the court considers the plaintiffs’ arguments. Under the AMCC’s current proposal before the court, the Commission will rescind the license awards for integrator, dispensary, and processor at its October 26 meeting. Meanwhile, the Commission would be free to issue the August awards for growers, transporters, and laboratories. Alabama Today asked AMCC Executive Director John McMillan if there was a possibility that some of those growers could build their facility, plant their marijuana crop, harvest that first crop, and then have nowhere to legally process it and no market for it to sell it as a grower’s license does not allow the grower to sell it to the public. “Hypothetically,” McMillan answered. Alabama Always, the original plaintiff in this case, was denied an integrator permit in the June and August awards meetings. Their attorney argued that the most important criteria for the award should have been how fast the applicant could get up and running with their first crop. Alabama Always began building a $7 million building a year ago, before the applications were even turned in. “I know since that some people have said that nobody told Alabama Always to build a structure, but they did,” the attorney stated. “In the fall of 2022, my client already began construction.” Alabama Always claims they began construction early to meet the AMCC requirement that an applicant must be able to start operating within 60 days of being issued a license. “They don’t give you a single point (in the scoring) for being able to commence growing within 60 days,” the plaintiffs’ attorney argued. “Some of these plaintiffs’ attorneys don’t know what they’re talking about,” McMillan told Alabama Today. “Getting started within 60 days is not that difficult. You could start a crop in here,” referring to the courtroom, by bringing in grow lights, irrigation, drainage, growing medium, and other greenhouse materials. McMillan said if the court allows, the Commission could issue the grower, transporter, and laboratory licenses as early as November. McMillan cautioned, “The Commission could do whatever it wants to do.” On the advice of counsel, McMillan said he expects the Commission to rescind the awards for integrator, processor, and dispensary at its October 26 meeting. Judge Anderson gave the applicants who were denied the grower, transporter, or laboratory licenses until October 26 to file a motion asking to extend the TRO on those three licenses beyond that date. Anderson said, “If they want to file something before the 26th, we will deal with it. “ The most desired license is the integrated facility license, but the statute limits the number to a maximum of five licenses statewide. Approximately thirty business entities applied for that license, and it seems like most of the two dozen that were denied have hired an attorney and joined the consolidated case. Attorney Bill Espy announced that he had a client joining the case on Wednesday. Anderson said the problem is the legislature did not allow enough licenses in the original statute. “The legislature could fix this,” Anderson said. “They don’t want us legislating from the bench.” The statute allowed the AMCC to award as many as twelve grower licenses. Only twelve applied, and of those, only seven were granted licenses. Alabama Today spoke with Antoine Mordican at Native Black Cultivation, who was denied a grower permit. Mordican said that, at this time, he is not interested in filing litigation. Mordican said that he is working to address the issues in his application that the AMCC said were deficient and that he hopes to be awarded a license when the AMC makes a second round of grower awards. “They are not following the statute,” Mordican, who is Black, said. “The statute requires that 25% of the licenses be awarded to minorities. Of the seven, only one is minority owned.” One of the roughly 20 plaintiffs’ attorneys objected to the growers being issued licenses, arguing that it was unfair to the five integrators because they could potentially lose market share. Several plaintiffs’ attorneys asked the court to bar the Commission from considering the scoring prepared by the University of South Alabama when considering the applications for integrator, processor, and dispensary. “We have been waiting for four months to do something about the scores,” said the attorney for Alabama Always. “The grading of the scores is inconsistent with the statute. If they are allowed to consider the scores, we are going to be back here again. You can avoid that.” “Unless the use of the scores is prohibited, we think that there will be a lot of tendency on the part of the commissioners to rely on the scores,” he added. Michael Jackson is an attorney for the AMCC. “They are not going to be happy with the scores unless they get an award,” Jackson said. “The Commission has absolute discretion on what they consider.” “If there is a problem with the scoring, it doesn’t matter,” Jackson continued. “If the scoring is wrong, it doesn’t matter. If the scoring is bad, it doesn’t matter.” “They are not articulating
Paul DeMarco: Alabama grocery tax reduction underway, state leaders have more work ahead
This past September, the Alabama grocery tax was reduced from four cents to three cents after state lawmakers passed legislation this past session. This type of legislation has been debated for decades but never went anywhere because of the concern about the money that would be reduced to fund Alabama public schools. However, Alabama has seen record surpluses for both the general and education budgets. With more money to work with, Alabama State Representatives and Senators were finally able to make the first moves toward the ultimate removal of the tax on groceries. In addition, to the first move, another penny will go away in 2024 if state education revenues grow by 3.5 percent. Thus, within two years, the reduction of the tax at the local grocery will potentially be cut in half. Alabama is one of just a few states that still has a tax on groceries. Thus, Alabama legislators are already looking at what it will take to remove the other two cents as well. Yet, there are cities that tax groceries in Alabama, so we are now starting to see movement there as well. This past week, the city of Hoover dropped its grocery tax by half a percent as well. The city of Clay cut their tax in half, from four cents to two cents last year. So hopefully we will see more cities and the state take action next year to provide more relief for grocery shoppers in Alabama. Paul DeMarco is a former member of the Alabama House of Representatives and can be found on X (formerly Twitter) at @Paul_DeMarco.
House rejects Jim Jordan for a second time
On Wednesday, the U.S. House of Representatives voted for a second time to reject the Republican Party nominee, House Judiciary Committee Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), for Speaker of the House. Jordan again failed to get the 217 votes necessary to be elected. Jordan Both was still well short of the 217 needed to get the position and actually did worse on the second ballot than he did on the first. Jordan has vowed to run on a third ballot on Thursday. The House Republican Caucus has been bitterly split since Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Florida) led a group of eight disgruntled Republicans that voted with Democrats to remove Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-California). House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-Louisiana) defeated Jordan to become the conference’s first choice, but he withdrew last week when conservatives refused to support him in the House floor vote. It is now GOP centrists and moderates that are opposing Jordan after the far right of the Caucus toppled McCarthy and blocked Scalice. Jordan was the Founding Chairman of the ultraconservative House Freedom Caucus. Jordan defeated Austin Scott (R-Georgia) for the GOP nomination in a meeting of the GOP conference Friday after Scalise’s withdrawal. Some members have talked about voting to give the interim Speaker more powers so that the House can continue to function, while the GOP Congress members continue their leadership struggle. Meanwhile, the federal government is racing towards a partial shutdown if Congress does not pass a budget or at least another continuing resolution (C.R.) by November 14. On both of the House floor votes, Jordan had the support of all six Republican congressmen from Alabama. However, Rep. Mike Rogers (R-AL03) was an outspoken opponent of Jordan becoming the Republican nominee. If Jordan cannot sway 217 GOP congress members to support his candidacy, the Caucus may need to look for a less divisive, more likable candidate to be their nominee. Who that would be, however, at this point, is entirely up in that air. To connect with the author of this story or to comment, email brandonmreporter@gmail.com
Backlog of pending immigration cases continues to grow
By Brett Rowland | The Center Square The backlog of immigration cases is growing as U.S. lawmakers evaluate plans to address the problem. The Executive Office for Immigration Review, which handles immigration cases, has 69 immigration courts, 597 courtrooms and 659 immigration judges throughout the U.S. It faced a backlog of nearly 2.2 million pending cases as of July, according to a report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office. That’s more than four times the number of pending cases at the start of fiscal year 2017. “It’s clear that our immigration court system is in desperate need of reform,” U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., said at the outset of a subcommittee hearing on the issue Wednesday. “Addressing challenges at our southern border, of course, has to be part of that solution, but it is not the whole solution.” Sending additional resources to U.S. Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement without providing additional funding for the Executive Office for Immigration Review, which handles immigration cases, will only increase the backlog, Padilla said. U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said only so much can be done with President Joe Biden in charge of the nation’s immigration policies. “The courts can only do so much when the Biden administration has opened the spigot at the border,” he said. More than 255,000 foreign nationals were apprehended or reported evading capture after crossing the southwest border into the U.S. in September alone, according to preliminary Border Patrol data obtained by The Center Square. In August, the official data showed the number at more than 322,000, the most for a single month in U.S. history. The Executive Office for Immigration Review had a budget of $860 million in 2023. Padilla compared that with the budget for CBP and ICE, which have a combined budget of $30 billion. Executive Office for Immigration Review officials have said resource shortages and growing caseloads have contributed to the backlog. Even though the Executive Office for Immigration Review completed a record high number of cases (about 376,000 in the first three quarters of fiscal year 2023, the Department of Homeland Security initiated a record high number of new cases during that time (747,000). “As a result, the backlog increased by about 371,000 cases in the first three quarters of fiscal year 2023,” according to the GAO report. “The effects of the case backlog are significant and wide-ranging from some respondents waiting years to have their cases heard, to immigration judges being able to spend less time considering cases.” Republished with the permission of The Center Square.
Republican lawmaker says she received death threats for voting against Jordan
By Kim Jarrett | The Center Square U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, R-Iowa, said Wednesday evening she received death threats after voting against Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, for speaker. Miller-Meeks voted for Jordan on Tuesday but voted for Rep. Kay Granger, R-Texas, who chairs the House Appropriations Committee, on Wednesday after seeing that Jordan did not have the votes to win. “However, since my vote in support of Chairwoman Granger, I have received credible death threats and a barrage of threatening calls,” Miller-Meeks said. “The proper authorities have been notified, and my office is cooperating fully.” Voting against Jordan is not popular, she said. “One thing I cannot stomach, or support is a bully,” she said. “I did not stand for bullies before I voted for Chairwoman Granger and when I voted for Speaker designee Jordan, and I will not bend to bullies now.” Miller-Meeks is calling for a consensus candidate to “stop the insane policies of the Biden administration.” Jordan said on X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter, that Americans should not be accosted for their beliefs. “We condemn all threats against our colleagues, and it is imperative that we come together,” Jordan said Wednesday. “Stop. It’s abhorrent.” The House, which has not had a speaker since Rep. Kevin McCarthy was ousted on Oct. 3, recessed after Jordan lost his second vote on Wednesday. Republished with the permission of The Center Square.
