U.S. House Overwhelmingly Votes To Indefinitely Ban Russian Oil Over Biden's Initial Opposition

Congress has officially voted to indefinitely suspend the U.S. purchase of Russian energy. The question now is, what will President Biden do?

Congressman Kevin Brady (TX), Ranking Member of the House Ways and Means Committee, joined Sekulow to discuss this move by Congress, and what President Biden’s next move could be:

The good news is with these two bills we have targeted 100% of what Russia sells into the U.S. – oil and energy is about 60%, the special trade relationship that we revoked was the rest of it. So, I think this is going to do some damage. Certainly, we aren’t going to be contributing to funding that war. . . . Republicans and Democrats in the House and Senate came together for more than six weeks on this. President Biden fought this tooth and nail – both banning Russian energy purchases as well as lifting that special trade status. Only when he saw that we had more than 400 votes did he reverse course and sign the Executive order on oil and now supporting the trade status revocations. So yes, he is going to sign it, but my frustration with . . . the war is how reluctant he has been to engage in a meaningful way to support Ukraine.

The Biden Administration has also been reluctant to provide any real relief for the inflation and high gasoline prices that the American people are experiencing due to his policies. States are trying to get creative for their constituents by reducing taxes in certain areas. But the Biden Administration is still fighting your state’s ability to lower taxes if they received COVID relief funds during the pandemic. We have been fighting this mandate and filed a critical amicus brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit on behalf of 64 Members of the U.S. Senate and House.

Rep. Brady was one of the leads on our brief. He further explained this issue:

One, thanks for your leadership on this and so many issues really important to Texas and conservatives. So, thank you first and foremost. Secondly, this is an Administration that has had it wrong from the get-go. I think that nearly two trillion-dollar COVID stimulus, as they sold it – but had very little to do with COVID, and the only thing it stimulated was raging inflation for the past year and the worst in the last 40 years – is that frankly, they don’t know how to lead this country. They have no policies that actually strengthen us, strengthen families, or the economy in any meaningful way.

ACLJ Director of Government Affairs Thann Bennett explained the hypocrisy of this unconstitutional mandate:

Remember, this was in the middle of a COVID stimulus bill that the whole point of passing these dollars was supposed to ease the burden on the American people. If you are going to tell states to take this money that is supposed to be intended to ease their citizens' economic situation, then you can’t pass any tax measure that reduces revenue. That is going to have the opposite effect. . . . I mean pick your issue. . . . You can pick anything that touches the tax code, and if it reduces revenue to the state level, then that would be prohibited under this legislation. . . . This extends all the way through when? It extends until the next Presidential election until 2024. If that is not a political motivation, then I don’t know what is.

The Biden Administration continues to not take the necessary steps to stand up for the American people, the Ukrainian people, and the people of Israel.

Recently, there has been an increase in deadly attacks in Israel. Since March 22nd, at least 13 people have been killed due to terror attacks. And this time, the terrorists are using firearms – an alarming development as it indicates a possible planned attack.

ACLJ Senior Counsel Jeff Ballabon gave his read on this situation:

Well, the government over there is let’s say not stable, but guess what? The government over here is not very stable either. And it is certainly contributing to this. And when I say it is not stable, I mean in terms of its messaging – what it says and what it does in terms of our relationship and our support for Israel has been very very grim. They say positive words that they support Israel . . . but it has become clear that they are also rewarding the terrorists. They are rewarding the Palestinian Authority even though the Palestinian Authority continues to pay for slay and pay for terrorists.

ACLJ Chief Counsel and my dad Jay Sekulow summed up how the Biden Administration’s policies and rhetoric have had an effect on Israel:

You have to tie all of this together. . . . It’s the lousy pullout of Afghanistan, it’s a war in Eastern Europe, it’s indecision in parts of the United States, and when we are funding research against Israel from the United States State Department – it sends a very mixed message, then we are cutting a deal with the Iranians which the whole Gulf region including Israel says we don’t want you to do, all of that together is producing then terror on the streets which harms the individual Israeli citizen.

Today’s full Sekulow broadcast is complete with even more in-depth analysis of the vote to ban Russian energy, our brief against President Biden’s mandate prohibiting states from lowering taxes, and the recent deadly attacks in Israel.

Watch the full broadcast below: