POSTAL PROBLEMS -- Former President Donald Trump might be out of power, but as the AP reports, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy "may be the closest thing" left in Washington, D.C. to him. Despite the increasing scrutiny of his role at the agency, he doesn't appear to be going anywhere. All of this comes as Democrats accused him and the Trump administration of trying to delay mail-in voting last year and the Justice Department opened an investigation into political fundraising at his previous company, The full story from the AP's Will Weissert: https://bit.ly/3fZvXqq Related read: "FBI inquiry of USPS chief DeJoy threatens bipartisan overhaul bill" by the Washington Post's Jacob Bogage: https://wapo.st/2RsjHFo BUSH WON'T BACK DOWN -- When Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) and other progressives voted against a nearly $2 billion emergency funding package for the Capitol Police and other security needs last month, they turned some heads. But as McClatchy's Bryan Lowry and Kelsey Landis report, this is just the latest sign of her willingness to buck party leadership and chart her own course in Congress. As they report, when House leadership got wind of their planned votes against the bill, they asked her fellow Missourian Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D) to try to talk her into voting for it. Cleaver told McClatchy he'd brought up the non-police related provisions of the package in response to her objections to the additional police funding. "If you can't vote on bonuses for Capitol Hill police, vote for the bonuses of people who clean the bathroom," he said. Bush listened to him, but ultimately voted against the package anyway, citing concerns about more police funding without reform of the agency. Now, she's set to unveil her own police reform package this month. According to McClatchy, her bill will "provide grants intended to shift responsibility for various issues from police to other social services" — much of the kind of conversation many other Democrats would like to avoid after last year's midterm losses. Read the full story: https://bit.ly/3ciYXY3 GOP IMMIGRATION MOVES -- While many Republicans are taking a Trumpian tack and are hammering the Biden administration over rising migrant crossings at the southern border, two members of their House freshman class are trying to steer their party toward a more welcoming immigration strategy. As my colleague Olivia Beavers reports, Florida GOP Reps. Maria Elvira Salazar and Carlos Gimenez are promoting separate frameworks to overhaul the nation's immigration system — which could help their party build on its surprising inroads among Latino voters. But their work is complicated by their party's blunt-force messaging on the issue and criticism of the Biden administration. Salazar's plan would offer deportation protection to so-called Dreamers brought into the country illegally as younger people and a 10-year path to achieving a renewable legal status for employed undocumented immigrants with a clean criminal record. Salazar's approach also expands visas for agricultural workers and boosts border security, a must-have for almost all of her party. Gimenez's plan is a narrower overhaul that would allow allow undocumented immigrants already working in the U.S. to pursue a pathway to citizenship by applying through their country of origin, without having to return to their countries to do so. Their efforts come after past Republican-driven attempts on immigration reform have failed miserably. The most recent try in 2018 was voted down by a wide margin, after more than a month of negotiations between conservative members of the House Freedom Caucus, more immigrant-friendly moderates and GOP House leadership. Read Olivia's full story: https://politi.co/2T8VCDW GEORGIA GOP FOR GREENE -- Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene has been stripped of her committee assignments and rebuked by GOP leaders for comments comparing mask and vaccine requirements to the Holocaust. But back in Georgia, my colleagues found few critics of her at the state party convention. Greene did not attend the convention. But as Maya King and David Siders report, many of the activists and party officials they talked to at the convention saw some appeal in her disregard for political correctness and her willingness to say what she believes. "It's like saying it's 'hot as hell,'" Debbie Dooley, a founder of the Tea Party movement in Atlanta, told them of Greene's Holocaust comparison. Read the full story from Maya and David: https://politi.co/3inGEEY CONGRATS -- A few members announced some good news over the weekend. Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) said she was pregnant with her first child. And Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) got married to Sydney Barron in Puerto Rico. |
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