News: GOP ponders the power of the purse

Thursday, October 20, 2022

GOP ponders the power of the purse

Oct 20, 2022

Republican U.S. Senate candidate JD Vance speaks with a supporter during a campaign stop in his hometown.

Republican U.S. Senate candidate JD Vance speaks with a supporter during a campaign stop in his hometown at the Butler County GOP headquarters on October 19, 2022 in Middletown, Ohio. | Gaelen Morse/Getty Images | Gaelen Morse/Getty Images

A BILLION HERE, A BILLION THERE — From the campaign trail to leadership offices, Republicans are telegraphing what they are willing — and unwilling — to spend on if they take control of Congress in the upcoming midterm elections. There's an immediate spending fight coming in December during the lame duck session, but Republicans are looking further ahead as they dream of full control of Congress — and a firmer grasp on the country's pursestrings.

BORDER WALL BACK ON THE TABLE — In Ohio, of all places. Republican Senate candidate J.D. Vance seemed to like what he saw during the Donald Trump presidency, when GOP lawmakers on Capitol Hill routinely made government funding conditional on border wall dollars. He wants that strategy to make a comeback, Burgess reports from Middletown, Ohio .

"Republicans, we need to have a fight over the border wall. And we need to be willing to say to Joe Biden: 'You don't get another dime for your priorities unless you do your job and enforce and secure the Southern border,'" Vance told supporters in his hometown.

But the border-wall-or-bust strategy came with consequences. In late 2018, then-President Trump plunged the country into a 35-day government shutdown by refusing to sign a stopgap spending bill because it lacked $5 billion in border wall funding.

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), who was campaigning with Vance on Wednesday, isn't eager to return to shutdown brinkmanship. But he likes the idea of forcing President Joe Biden to negotiate with a GOP-controlled Congress, of course.

"It's just a natural fact of our system of separated powers that when the opposition party controls Congress, the president has to grant more in terms of negotiations," he said.

DIVISION OVER UKRAINE DOLLARS — Republicans on Capitol Hill aren't in agreement on whether to continue funding Ukraine's battle against Russia, and that has the White House sweating their spending plan.

It wasn't a shock when Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy this week suggested that he'd be wary of handing a "blank check" to Ukraine. Some Republicans, including McCarthy and conservatives like Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), are wary of any prolonged commitment to supporting Kyiv. Dozens of House Republicans — 57 of whom voted against a $40 billion aid package in May — agree. And the midterm elections could deliver McCarthy the speaker's gavel and much more control over the federal funding spigot.

But others — including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee — support continued weapons transfers and military assistance.

"Nobody's talking about a blank check. It's what [Ukraine] needs," Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) said in an interview with POLITICO. "This is a historical thing where war fatigue sets in, and this is the big risk. In fact, it's something that Vladimir Putin banks on, that it's no longer going to capture the front page of the newspaper … and people are going to forget about it and the genocide will be occurring in the darkness. We're trying to prevent that."

Former Vice President Mike Pence pushed back in a speech Wednesday against Republicans who "would have us disengage with the wider world" and went on Fox News to speak in support of continued aid for Ukraine.

The division makes for a tricky calculus for the White House, which needs to figure out if they should cram all their Ukraine asks into the lame duck session or if there will be enough support for future packages to clear a new Congress. Andrew and Jonathan Lemire have more on what the White House is weighing and the division in Congress .

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GOOD MORNING! Welcome to Huddle, the play-by-play guide to all things Capitol Hill, on this Thursday, October 20. If you're in a recess funk, tune into yesterday's Prime Minister's Questions in the British Parliament. It was somehow both more raucous and more restrained than what we're used to.

DCCC HOLLERIN' BACK AT O'HALLERAN — One of the most endangered House Democrats is getting a boost from the caucus' campaign arm. Rep. Tom O'Halleran, already a perennial front-liner, was dealt a rough hand in redistricting, making his district even more of an uphill battle.

Some thought the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee might not invest in the race, but they opened their coffers this week with a $680,000 buy in the Phoenix market. The broadcast spot attacks O'Halleran's GOP opponent, Eli Crane, as too radical. It's a 30-second spot that uses footage of the Jan. 6 insurrection and warns that Crane promotes conspiracy theories espoused by white supremacists and supports abortion bans. It closes with a nod to O'Halleran's "independent voice."

This is the first outside funded ad backing O'Halleran in the race; he's been on his own for TV ads until the DCCC stepped in.

His fellow Arizona Democrat Rep. Ruben Gallego praised the move and O'Halleran's engagement with the Navajo Nation. But some have raised concerns that, with Democrats cash strapped in the final stretch, other races would be wiser investments. Sarah and Ally have more on the campaign cash calculus at play .

The House GOP campaign arm has spent heavily in the district, but Crane hasn't locked it up yet. POLITICO's election forecast ranks the race as leaning Republican .

Another Dem Hollerin': Tim Ryan asks why Democrats 'don't smell blood' and help him in Ohio , from Annie Linskey at The Washington Post

GRASPING AT GHOSTS — Lawmakers aren't letting up on the issue of so-called "ghost guns" that can be 3D printed from guides sold online and are able to evade some common security features.

Biden's promises: Today Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Rep. Grace Meng (D-N.Y.), along with 25 colleagues, are sending a letter to Biden calling for the reversal of a Trump-era rule that moved the regulation of ghost guns and their data from from the State Department to the Commerce Department. The Democrats who signed the letter want jurisdiction back at State, where they can be regulated in key categories including the U.S. munitions list and the International Traffic in Arms Regulations.

"The online distribution of these ghost gun blueprints only increases the risk of these weapons proliferating and poses a serious threat to public safety and national security. President Biden should fulfill his campaign promise and reverse the Trump administration's weakening of these gun safety regulations," said Markey in a statement.

Regulation consternation: In a separate letter sent Wednesday, 14 Democratic senators led by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) urged the Justice Department and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to issue enforcement guidance for the recently finalized rule on ghost guns. They raised concern about a potential loophole where parts of a ghost gun, which could easily be made whole, might be regulated more loosely.

"The Ghost Gun Rule was promulgated to stop the proliferation of ghost guns, mitigate the threat these firearms pose to our communities, and help law enforcement — at every level — do their jobs… It is now incumbent upon the Department and ATF to see that it is enforced — and enforced strongly," the senators wrote.

TEXT LIKE NO ONE IS WATCHING — Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.) was busy fighting for her political life ahead of a runoff election on Jan. 5, 2021, but that didn't stop her GOP colleagues from trying to get her involved in the planned scheme to reject the electoral college results on Jan. 6. That's just one revelation from a trove of 59 pages of text messages from Loeffler's iPhone obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution from an anonymous source.

Loeffler sometimes just didn't respond to texts about making plans. (Relatable.) She also didn't appear to respond to a scathing set of texts from Tricia Raffensperger, six days after the 2020 elections, where she lays blame on Loeffler for threats against her husband Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and the rest of her family.

Greg Bluestein, Tamar Hallerman and David Wickert dive into the texts , which reveal Loeffler's private consideration of her own election fate and how to cast doubt over the election results.

COTTON VS. COUNCIL — Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) won't stand by as the District of Columbia tries to govern itself. The D.C. Council voted unanimously to send a bill to Mayor Muriel Bowser that would allow noncitizens, including undocumented residents, to vote in local elections. Cotton took note, and is pledging to try to stop the move.

"Washington D.C. just moved to let illegal aliens vote. I'll be introducing a resolution to block this," he wrote on Twitter . "Let's get every Democrat on the record on whether illegal immigrants should vote."

STEP INSIDE THE WEST WING: What's really happening in West Wing offices? Find out who's up, who's down, and who really has the president's ear in our West Wing Playbook newsletter, the insider's guide to the Biden White House and Cabinet. For buzzy nuggets and details that you won't find anywhere else, subscribe today .

HUDDLE HOTDISH

GUNS RECOVERED NEAR THE CAPITOL — A swath of Capitol Hill was shut down Wednesday as Capitol Police arrested 80-year old Tony Payne of Georgia, who they say parked a van with firearms outside the Supreme Court. The arrest comes as members of the federal judiciary and Congress are on edge about security concerns and increasing threats to their safety.

After detaining Payne and two others, police say they searched the vehicle and found two handguns and a shotgun, as well as "pipes and containers," which triggered the involvement of USCP's Hazardous Incident Response Division to do a "thorough search" and clear the van.

Payne was charged with possession of an unregistered firearm, unregistered ammunition, and carrying a pistol without a license, Capitol Police said in a statement Wednesday evening. A man and a woman who were initially detained along with Payne were not charged.

"The individuals told our investigators they were here to deliver documents to the U.S. Supreme Court," the USCP statement said.

QUICK LINKS

E.V. Bonanza Flows to Red States That Denounce Biden Climate Policies , from Jack Ewing at The New York Times

House panel may remove Iran drone measure from NDAA , from Alexander Ward, Connor O'Brien and Matt Berg

Meet the House GOP's New Crop of Marjorie Taylor Greenes , from Sam Brodey at The Daily Beast

TODAY IN CONGRESS

The House convenes at 11 a.m. for a pro forma session.

The Senate convenes at 9 a.m. for a pro forma session.

AROUND THE HILL

Pretty quiet after the pro formas.

TRIVIA

WEDNESDAY'S WINNER: Arthur Shemitz correctly answered that James Madison, at 5-foot-4, was the shortest president while, at 6-foot-4, Abraham Lincoln was the tallest.

TODAY'S QUESTION from Arthur: Which onetime presidential hopeful described himself as having grown up as "just a high school kid like everybody else with skinny legs"?

The first person to correctly guess gets a mention in the next edition of Huddle. Send your answers to ktm@politico.com.

GET HUDDLE emailed to your phone each morning.

Follow Katherine on Twitter @ktullymcmanus

CORRECTION: Yesterday's Huddle included an incorrect election forecast for Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney's race in New York's 17th district. POLITICO's forecast rates the redistricted seat as leaning towards Democrats.