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And what happens next ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌John,

We just passed the big, annual defense bill out of the House - and at the last minute it became a total cluster.

Over 1,000 amendments were filed by members trying to add things to the bill right before the vote.

Until then, the bill didn’t have much culture war stuff in it - because it had been deliberately kept out.

I’m on the Armed Services Committee and we basically exist to write the annual defense bill. We spend months working on it, then we have a big vote in committee. That big committee vote happened a few weeks ago.

I told you about it. This was when I had a conversation in the breakroom (the one with all the snacks) with the right-flank member who was genuinely sad that committee leadership was blocking all the culture war amendments. He told me leadership wanted the bill to actually become law and not just be dead-on-arrival in the Senate.

But once it left committee, we knew it would face another torrent of amendments from the whole House.

It wound up being worse than I thought. Amendments rained down from the right-flank hitting every corner of the culture war: abortion, race, gender, sexual orientation, environment - the works.

Which meant the Speaker faced a choice: He could let those amendments in, or block them.

If he let them in, his right-flank would be happy, but it would tank the bill in the Senate.

If he blocked them, his right-flank would be angry, but the bill could actually become law.

And… he let a bunch of the amendments in, so now the whole bill is dead-on-arrival in the Senate.

Why didn’t he block them like committee leadership did?

In short, because the right-flank has more leverage over the Speaker than they do over committee chairs. They can’t fire a committee chair - but they sure can fire the Speaker.

So now what happens?

Now we’ll go through weeks of song and dance until eventually the Speaker goes back to his right-flank and tells them some version of, “Hey folks, you know I tried, we fought the good fight, but… we’re going to have to take most of those amendments out or the troops won’t get paid. So that’s what’s gonna happen.”

Which, in private, I don’t think will bother the right-flank that much. When their amendments come out, they’ll get to go on TV and yell at the Speaker - and that’s one of their favorite things to do. One of the big themes I’ve observed in my time here is that media attention means much more to them than policy wins, and they’ll happily trade one for the other.

My amendments

I didn’t offer any amendments on the House floor, but I did offer some when the bill went through committee. I also got language included in the base text while we were drafting the bill. That’s one of the big advantages of serving on the committee of origin for a bill - you have a much better shot at getting some amendments passed and requests included, especially as a freshman.

Here are some of mine that passed:

*
A
big
one
was
building
on
one
of
my
amendments
from
last
year,
when
we
were
able
to
expand
parental
leave
for
folks
in
the
National
Guard
and
Reserve
to
include
fathers
and
adoptive
parents.
For
some
reason,
they
had
never
been
included,
which
meant
they
were
never
entitled
to
take
leave
upon
the
birth
or
adoption
of
a
child.
(I’m
a
dad
in
the
National
Guard
so
I
happen
to
know
about
this.)
BUT
when
we
fixed
that
last
year,
we
couldn’t
get
the
Coast
Guard
Reserve
included.
We
took
that
loss,
but
then
went
back
to
work
to
get
it
in
this
year’s
defense
bill
-
and
we
did.
Major
credit
goes
to
my
staff
on
this
one.
They
were
extremely
diligent
because
they
knew
we
had
a
real
chance
to
make
a
difference
for
a
lot
of
young
families.
Their
motivation
got
this
one
across
the
finish
line.
*
*
Added
language
in
the
bill
making
sure
that
the
thousands
of
students
who
receive
their
education
at
military
installations
as
children
of
servicemembers
continue
to
benefit
from
favorable
teacher/student
ratios,
which
was
a
benefit
that
was
going
to
sunset.
We
worked
with
a
member
of
the
other
party
-
Rep.
Don
Bacon
-
who
has
a
well-earned
reputation
for
bipartisanship.
I
can
personally
assure
all
of
you
that
it
was
extremely
helpful
to
have
the
support
of
a
more
senior
member
in
getting
this
done.
*
*
Added
language
to
improve
the
processing
of
sexual
assault
kits
by
military
medical
facilities.
*
*
An
amendment
to
analyze
new
potential
threats
posed
by
biological
weapons
now
that
A.I.
can
be
used
to
help
engineer
them.
*
*
Added
language
to
push
the
Defense
Department
to
expedite
certification
of
licensure
for
military
medics
upon
their
departure
from
the
military.
In
short,
the
idea
is
to
help
them
gain
employment
in
the
civilian
medical
sector
more
quickly.
*
*
And
finally,
added
language
that
told
the
Defense
Department
to
look
for
more
opportunities
for
sourcing
the
textiles
it
needs
for
military
uniforms
from
domestic
manufacturers
-
which
is
a
fancy
way
of
saying
that
North
Carolina
is
big
on
textiles
and
we’d
love
to
do
more
business
with
the
DOD.

Will all of these survive? Not sure. They’re in the bill, but now the bill has hit a speed bump. Once that gets fixed, maybe someone in the Senate will object and decide to pluck out one of our amendments. We shall see!

The big deadline approaches

The way campaigns like ours work is that every few months you have to report how much money you’ve raised.

Those reports are - somewhat surprisingly - hugely influential.

Especially in a statewide 50/50 race like ours, they get a lot of press attention and, as a result, have a tendency to set the tone for the campaign.

Our big deadline is the end of this month. After that, we won’t have another one come out until the week before the election, so this is pretty much the biggest one of the whole campaign.

That’s my polite way of saying that if you can help us out now, it would be very well-timed.

You can contribute here [[link removed]] (ActBlue) or here [[link removed]] (non-ActBlue) . Both fund our campaign directly, and thank you for your support.

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Best,

Jeff

P.S. - I made a short video explaining how culture war amendments took over the defense bill at the last minute and you can watch it on Instagram here [[link removed]] , even if you don’t have an account:

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Paid for by Jeff Jackson for Attorney General
Jeff Jackson for Attorney General
P.O. Box 470882
Charlotte, NC 28226
United States
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Congressman Jeff Jackson is a former member of the Army Reserve and a current member of the Army National Guard. Use of Congressman Jackson’s military rank, job titles, and photographs in uniform does not imply endorsement by the Department of the Army or the Department of Defense.