CBS News
Rep. McCaul says decision on Ukraine aid vote is a “speaker determination”
Washington — Rep. Michael McCaul, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said Sunday that the decision about when and how to bring Ukraine aid up for a vote in the House is a “speaker determination,” noting that he had plans to talk with Speaker Mike Johnson later in the day, although any aid package faces opposition from some in their conference.
“We don’t have time on our side here,” McCaul said on “Face the Nation” on Sunday. “We have to get this done.”
McCaul said he had a commitment from Johnson that the Ukraine aid would come to the floor, adding that his preference would be this week. But with the decision, Johnson is balancing a number of competing factors.
The speaker pledged to take on the issue after Congress returned from a recess last week. Although the Senate in February approved a supplemental funding package that included aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, Johnson blocked the legislation from moving forward in the House, stressing that the lower chamber would find its own path forward on the foreign aid.
That path forward has remained unclear so far. Some Republicans oppose the funding without concessions, like bringing up Ukraine aid in exchange for President Biden reversing a moratorium on natural gas export permitting, or allowing the sale of frozen assets of Russian oligarchs. And former President Donald Trump has advocated for the aid to come in the form of a loan.
Johnson appeared with the former president at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate on Friday, where Trump expressed his support for the job the speaker is doing. Johnson faces a threat to oust him as speaker from one House Republican and an ally of Trump’s, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, who opposed his approach to resolving the government funding fight last month and has warned the speaker about moving forward on aid to Ukraine.
But when it comes to information about the Ukraine-Russia conflict, Republicans put their trust of Trump higher than the U.S. military and Pentagon, conservative media sources or the U.S. State Department, according to a CBS News/YouGov poll released Sunday. McCaul said “that’s precisely why” the speaker visited Trump at Mar-a-Lago to discuss the Ukraine issue, noting that Trump has “tremendous influence over my conference.”
The comments come after an unprecedented attack by Iran against Israel on Saturday, which prompted fresh calls from congressional leaders for approving additional aid to Israel. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell both called on the House to move forward with the Senate-passed national security supplemental, which includes aid for both Israel and Ukraine, while House Majority Leader Steve Scalise said the House would move forward with legislation to support Israel this week.
CBS News
Chinese trans woman awarded thousands over forced electroshock “conversion therapy” hopes for change
A transgender woman in China who recently won 60,000 yuan (roughly $8,300) in compensation from a hospital that forced her to undergo several rounds of electroshock “conversion therapy” has told CBS News that she hopes her experience will herald change for the LGBTQ+ community in her country.
“I hope that the transgender community will soon have safeguard measures and basic human rights, and will no longer be victimized by medical treatment,” said the 28-year-old performance artist who goes by the pseudonym Ling’er.
Ling’er
Ling’er was admitted to a hospital about a year after coming out to her parents as transgender, she previously told the U.K.’s Guardian newspaper. She said in that interview that her parents were “very opposed” to her gender identity and “felt that I wasn’t mentally stable. So they sent me to a mental hospital.”
In the hospital, Ling’er was diagnosed with an “anxiety disorder and discordant sexual orientation,” she told the Guardian. She said she was held for 97 days and subjected to seven sessions of electroshock treatment.
“It caused serious damage to my body,” Ling’er said. “Every time I underwent the treatment, I would faint… I didn’t agree to it, but I had no choice.”
Ling’er said the electric shocks caused her to develop heart problems, which she now requires medication to treat.
The hospital “tried to ‘correct me’, to make me conform to society’s expectations,” Ling’er told the Guardian.
The hospital declined to comment when approached by the Guardian.
There is a legal ambiguity surrounding so-called conversion therapy for LGBTQ people in China. The government removed homosexuality from an official list of psychiatric disorders in 2001, but a diagnosis for distress about sexual orientation remained on the books until recently.
A 2017 Human Rights Watch report urged the Chinese government to prevent hospitals and other medical facilities from subjecting LGBTQ people to conversion therapies. HRW said many victims of these therapies in China were forcibly brought to hospitals by their families.
“I feel good, I won my case,” Ling’er told CBS News. “I hope that my case will be useful for transgender cases in China.”
Watch CBS News
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
Watch CBS News
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
