There is a move in Congress that lets a member have it both ways, and John Joyce ran it perfectly in April 2024.

On April 19, 2024, the House voted on H. Res. 1160, the rule for the four-bill national security package — the procedural step that decides whether a bill even gets to the floor. Without it, Speaker Mike Johnson could not have brought the Ukraine aid package up at all. Joyce voted yes. It passed 316–94.

The next day, the House voted on the actual bill: H.R. 8035, the Ukraine Security Supplemental Appropriations Act — $60.8 billion. Joyce voted no. It passed anyway, 311–112.

So the aid got through — with his help on the vote that mattered procedurally — and his name sits on the record as a no. He got the outcome and the press release at the same time.

A Washington Post columnist put him on a list of seven

This wasn't a subtle observation. Five days after the vote, Washington Post columnist Marc A. Thiessen mapped which congressional districts were actually receiving the Ukraine money — "the great majority" of it, he wrote, "stays right here in America — replenishing U.S. weapons stockpiles, strengthening our defense industrial base and creating good manufacturing jobs for American workers" — and then listed the members who voted against aid flowing into their own districts.

Sixteen House members were on that list. And there was a caveat:

"Seven House Republicans who voted against Ukraine aid going to their districts did vote for the rule that allowed Speaker Mike Johnson (La.) to bring the bill to the floor — without which aid could not have moved forward."

John Joyce is named in that group of seven.

What's in PA-13

Pennsylvania's 13th District covers most of south central Pennsylvania, including Altoona, Gettysburg and Chambersburg.

Headquartered in Chambersburg is Letterkenny Army Depot — over 18,000 acres, and in the Army's own words "the premier Department of Defense center of industrial and technical excellence for air defense tactical missile ground support equipment and Patriot missile recertification." The depot says it is the second largest employer in Franklin County, with more than 1,600 employees, and that it "fuels over a quarter of a billion dollars annually into the region both through payroll and contracts."

Air defense interceptors were exactly what the Ukraine package was buying. As Thiessen put it, the package would "enable the arrival of American-made weapons — including air defense interceptors to protect Ukrainian cities from Russian bombs and missiles."

That is the industrial base Joyce voted against funding, in the county where it is the second-biggest employer.

Having it both ways

Opposing military aid to Ukraine is a position a member of Congress can hold honestly, and plenty do. What isn't honest is holding it while quietly casting the procedural vote that lets the aid pass anyway — so that the defense workers in Franklin County and the anti-aid voters in a Republican primary can each come away believing he was on their side.

The pattern with Joyce is the dodge

This is the instinct that runs through the rest of his record: take the position that costs nothing, and stay out of the room where somebody can ask a follow-up question. His answer to the fight over a federal privacy standard was to write a bill that would preempt every state law "relating to" what it covers, in a country where more than 20 states have passed comprehensive privacy laws of their own — and he told reporters that what industry had told a colleague in a state capitol was "Please, not one more."

A vote for the rule and against the bill is the legislative version of the same move. It's a way to be on the record without being accountable for the outcome.

Joyce has been in Congress since 2019 and represents a seat rated R+23 on the Cook Partisan Voter Index — the 13th most Republican district in the country. He was not in danger. He could have simply voted his conscience on the bill and defended it in public. He decided he'd rather have the cover.

We deserve better.

Sources

These legislators opposed Ukraine aid and their own states' interests — Marc A. Thiessen, Washington Post Opinion, April 25, 2024. Vote records: House Roll Call 142 (the rule, April 19, 2024) and House Roll Call 151 (H.R. 8035, April 20, 2024). Photo: Army Tactical Missile Systems recertification at the Letterkenny Munitions Center, U.S. Army Environmental Command (CC BY 2.0).