Glory to Ukraine!
Glory to the defenders of Ukraine and the entire modern civilization!
Today in the issue:
- Why the 119th Congress is unproductive
- Senator Graham and his “sanctions bill”
- New escalation between the US and Iran
▶ Once again, it is necessary to remind that Trump remains Trump. In fact, it is the 47th president himself who constantly reminds us that he remains himself. And here’s how he reminded us once again.
The current 119th Congress is one of the most unproductive in its legislative activity in history. In more than a year and a half of its work, it has passed only 102 laws and resolutions. Most of these bills are budgetary, or they are mainly resolutions related to the regulation of various narrow issues. For comparison – the previous 118th Congress passed 274 laws and resolutions during its two-year term.
In less than six months remaining, the 119th Congress will not come close to the productivity of the previous Congress. In fact, the current Congress has little time left to work. In August, lawmakers have a recess. Since elections are on November 3, in October members of Congress will be engaged in their election campaigns in their districts and states, and will not be involved in legislative activity in Washington. Realistically, Congress will work until the end of July, then for three weeks in September, returning from recess after Labor Day on September 7, and then convene for its last session after the elections in November and work until the Christmas-New Year holidays. After which, on January 3, 2027, it will hand over its place to the newly elected 120th Congress. Thus, legislators have no more than three months in total left to carry out legislative activity. In September, they are unlikely to deal with anything other than the budget for the next year.
The previous 118th Congress, although it passed 274 laws, was far from the most productive. Because it was divided – the Republicans had a majority in the House of Representatives, the Democrats in the Senate, and a Democrat president was in the White House, and passing bills was only possible through situational coalitions and compromises between the White House and the opposition House of Representatives, between the Democratic majority and part of the Republican minority in the Senate (since 60 votes are needed in the Senate to advance bills, which the majority party does not have).
But the current Congress, the 119th session, as already mentioned, is remarkably unproductive. It seems paradoxical: Republicans hold majorities in both houses, and there is a Republican president in the White House. Such a situation is most favorable for passing a wide range of bills. It is only necessary to find situational understanding with part of the opposition faction in the Senate to gather the same 60 votes.
For comparison, the 117th Congress, which operated from January 2021 to January 2023, with a Democratic majority in both houses and a Democratic president in the White House, passed 365 laws and resolutions. This productivity was ensured by the willingness and skill of both President Biden and Senate Democratic leader Schumer to create necessary situational coalitions in the Senate with the participation of Republicans.
The 119th Congress is unproductive for one reason. That reason is Trump.
His categorical unwillingness to cooperate with Democrats in Congress on any issues, and the dependency of Republican legislators on him, constantly fearing to do anything that he dislikes, which could lead him to field loyal candidates against them in primaries, is the reason why the current Congress only passes laws approved by Trump. Bills that he disapproves of are simply not considered, as they are not placed on the agenda. And if in the House of Representatives, there is a rule allowing a bill to be considered bypassing the Speaker if required by 50% + 1 of the members (this is how the bill on supporting Ukraine was considered and adopted in early June), no such opportunity exists in the Senate regulation. Senate Majority Leader Thune places on the agenda only those bills that have been agreed upon with Trump.
Since 60 votes are needed to pass bills in the Senate that do not relate to revising the current budget, Trump’s approval of a particular bill for its consideration and adoption is far from sufficient. There are 53 Republicans in the Senate, and without the votes of at least seven Democrats, they cannot pass bills. Since Trump insists on considering only what reflects his desires and far-right agenda, which is not approved and cannot, in principle, be approved by Democrats, there are no votes in the Senate to pass such bills.
But a rare event for the current Congress occurred. A very broad situational coalition gathered in both houses, which decided to develop and pass a law that would facilitate and reduce the cost of housing construction and reduce housing costs. Speaker Johnson and Senate Republican leader Thune received Trump’s “go-ahead” to pass this law. The corresponding bill was developed by a bipartisan group of legislators. They included restrictions on the purchase of housing by corporate owners, easing many regulatory norms regarding obtaining building permits, providing states that facilitate their corresponding norms with federal grants, and so on.
The bill was passed by both chambers, with an overwhelming majority of both Republicans and Democrats voting in favor in the Senate and the House of Representatives. It’s not surprising—it’s an election year. Both parties have decided that passing such a bill will allow them to show voters that they address the important issue of improving quality of life by making housing more affordable.
The White House was planning to organize a public ceremony for Trump to sign the bill.
And suddenly… Trump announced twelve days ago, on the day the ceremony was supposed to take place, that he would not sign the bill until Congress passed his so-called “Save America Act.” According to this act, all voters must re-register in person at electoral commissions and provide proof of being U.S. citizens, and voting by mail should be virtually banned (except for the sick and those absent on election day). Trump’s goal is to exclude many voters from big cities, most of whom vote for Democrats. He aims to do this because people don’t have the means to travel during work hours to re-register at election commissions, many married women who have changed their last name to their husband’s and don’t have passports (and 146 million Americans don’t have passports because they don’t travel abroad) won’t be able to prove they’re citizens, as their birth certificates have a different last name. But most importantly, a large number of people in big cities cannot afford to split between work, which might be in one part of the city, and a polling line in another part of the city on election day. Therefore, millions of people vote by mail. And Trump wants to exclude them from participating in the elections.
Trump himself says that passing this bill will ensure Republican power for the next several decades.
There are not enough votes in the Senate to pass this bill. Since not a single Democrat will vote for it, and not all Republicans are ready to support it either. Trump is demanding that Republicans change the Senate rules to pass bills by a simple majority. But Republican leader John Thune opposes this. There are not enough votes for this either, as at least some Republicans do not want to change the Senate rules and repeal the 60-vote (3/5) rule for opening and closing debates on bills, known as the filibuster rule. They do not want to because they understand that they will not always be in the majority, and this rule takes into account the interests of the minority, which can block bills that are categorically unacceptable to them and requires the majority to make compromises to create situational coalitions with the minority to pass bills.
All of this is ignored by the 47th president, who daily repeats that he will not sign any bills until Congress passes his “Save America Act,” for which there are no votes.
After Trump’s refusal to sign the housing bill, Speaker Johnson faced a dilemma: whether or not to officially send the bill to the president for consideration. The dilemma is determined by law. If the president officially receives a bill from Congress, passed by both chambers, he has 10 days to consider the bill and either sign it to become law or veto it and return it to Congress. If the president does neither within 10 days, the bill automatically becomes law without his signature.
Speaker Johnson sent the bill to Trump for consideration. Ten days passed on Friday since this happened. Trump again stated on Friday that he would not sign the bill until Congress passes his “Save America Act.” But he also did not veto the bill, which as a result became law at midnight on Saturday without his signature.
Thus, Americans can hope that in the not-too-distant future, more housing will be built and it may become more affordable.
And Trump remained Trump.
The interesting fact here is that Speaker Johnson, knowing that Trump did not want to sign the bill, still sent it to the White House. Whether he coordinated this with Trump is unknown. But he apparently could not in today’s situation set aside a bill that Republican members of Congress (as well as Democratic ones) intended to use to show their constituents that they care about their needs.
However, the current 119th Congress will in any case remain one of the most unproductive in history. Because Trump remains Trump.
▶ About Senator Graham and his latest (one can’t even keep track) statement that he has “agreed” on his “sanctions bill” with the White House. Graham, who in 2015 called Trump a demagogue, fanatic, and said that to make America great, Trump should be sent to hell, joined Trump’s inner circle during his first presidency. He is still invited today to play golf with the 47th. He “agreed” with Trump on the bill submitted by him and Democratic Senator Blumenthal more than a dozen times. Nearly 90 of 100 senators are ready to vote for this bill, but Republican leader Thune does not put it on the Senate agenda because no matter how much Graham claims to have “agreed” with Trump, the 47th still does not give Thune the go-ahead to consider the bill.
On one hand. On the other hand, this bill is more declarative-political than truly effective. It gives the president the right to impose 500% customs tariffs on imports from countries buying oil from Russia. Having the right does not mean using it. It’s unimaginable that Trump would start another trade war with China and India by imposing absolutely prohibitive customs tariffs. Therefore, the bill is declarative-political. If it is ever adopted, it will serve as a political warning to China and India, not as a tool to cut Russia off from exporting oil.
Meanwhile, the Senate holds a bill already passed by the House of Representatives at the beginning of June, bypassing the speaker, to support Ukraine. It obligates the administration to impose total sanctions against the Russian oil, gas, and banking sectors, renews military aid and lend-lease for Ukraine, and allows Ukraine to take out a long-term loan to pay for American weapons. If the Senate passed this bill, it would be much better than Graham’s declarative-political bill. However, since again Trump does not give the “approval” to the Senate Republican leader Thune to consider it, it is not being reviewed…
Editor’s Note. Senator Lindsey Graham passed away after a “short and sudden illness” on the evening of Saturday, July 11, 2026 (Sunday, July 12, Kyiv time) at the age of 71. On July 10, Senator Graham met with Ukrainian President Zelensky in Kyiv.
▶ On Saturday, Iran fired on a Cypriot container ship passing through the Strait of Hormuz along the channel closer to the Omani shore and declared the Strait of Hormuz closed to navigation. In response, the US launched strikes on Iran. Explosions were reported in southern Iran.
There are 924 days left until the end of the story titled “Fear: Trump in the White House” (© the title of Bob Woodward’s book, published in 2018).
Thank you to everyone who read. Take care of yourself and your loved ones. Take care of each other, help each other. Health to all.
Ultimately, what happens in the world depends on us. Whether we fight against evil, do good, remain mere observers, passively wait and believe that someone somewhere will decide something for us, or fight against evil and do everything possible for good to prevail.
We must not allow evil to prevail. The victory of evil would mean the end of the world we live in. We cannot allow this. Especially now.
Ukrainian Friends, I embrace and love you all. Take care of each other, I beg you very much.
Ukraine is and always will be.
And evil will be defeated and punished. And it certainly will be.
