Author’s Note: my apologies for not filing a column last week. My Mayoral responsibilities required more of my attention than usual.
For the first time in two years, the United States House of Representatives voted last week to provide additional military aid and loans to our allies in Ukraine who are weathering their fifth year of illegal, immoral invasion by Moscow.
Like most legislative breakthroughs this 119th Congress, the measure was forced to a vote via bipartisan discharge petition. This is the sixth such vote that has occurred over the past year and a half, as the rank and file is increasingly asserting their legislative prerogative against the inertia in the Speaker’s Office.
As I have written (and/or complained?) about previously in this column, this inertia has plagued Speakers from both parties over the past three decades as regular order has collapsed in the House and power has only been centralized.
Nevertheless - and apologies for my tangent - but I was pleased to see the House reassert its prerogative in support of our friends in Kyiv. The vote likely would have obtained more support had the Speaker’s Office not actively whipped against its passage due to concerns that it would undermine peace negotiations.
Since Russian despot Vladimir Putin has recently made it his country’s official position that the blood soaked battlefield will decide the war as opposed to continuing peace negotiations, I find those concerns to now be moot.
Although the legislation is fairly mild - it would authorize roughly $8 billion in military loans for Kyiv, as well as including assistance for post-war reconstruction and new sanctions targeting Moscow - it faces an uphill climb in the United States Senate where sixty votes are needed, and it is unlikely to be signed into law either.
However, as Ukraine continues to sustain its positive posture on the battlefield while Russia struggles to meet mobilization quotas, it is important that at least one branch of our American government reiterates our natural support for Kyiv amid its enduring struggle for independence, self-determination, and sovereignty against oppression.
In Solidarity with Ukraine.
Greetings! I am planning a “mailbag” edition of Coffee in Coby soon, so please send any questions you may have for me about Schoharie County politics, the Atlanta Braves 2021 World Series title or whatever else, and it might just be included. My email is timothycknight93@gmail.com. Cheerio!
