📢 McCarthy's concession

Plus: Kids in limbo | Thursday, February 02, 2023

Open in app View in browser   Presented By Enbridge   Axios Sneak Peek By Axios Sneak Peek · Feb 02, 2023 Welcome back to Sneak. Smart Brevity™ count: 594 words ... 2.5 minutes.     1 big thing: Kids in limbo Immigrants cross the Rio Grande into El Paso, Texas, on Jan. 8, 2023. Photo: John Moore/Getty Images   Five years after migrant families were separated at the U.S.-Mexico border, roughly 1,000 kids have yet to be reunited with their families, Axios' Stef Kight reports. The Biden administration has reunited more than 600 migrant children separated from their families during the Trump presidency — but nearly 1,000 still need to be reunited, Homeland Security announced today. Why it matters: The Trump administration's much-criticized separation policy had traumatic effects on migrant children and their parents. Efforts to reunite families have been complicated by some agencies failing to keep organized records of who was separated and what happened afterward. The task force launched by President Biden and led by Michelle Brané has identified more than 3,900 migrant children who were separated during Trump's tenure. More than 2,900 have been reunified, many before Biden's efforts. Zoom out: The reunifications under Biden are a backdrop to a heated partisan debate over border security. Caught in the middle is DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, whom newly empowered House Republicans are threatening with impeachment. Mayorkas pledged today to cooperate with investigations by Republicans who want to punish him as a way to cast Biden's border policies as too lenient. At the same time, Mayorkas defended new border policies that have drawn criticism from Democrats and immigration advocates who say that a new border plan wrongly blocks people from gaining asylum in the U.S. Go deeper.     2. McCarthy's concession Photo: Anna Moneymaker via Getty Images   House Republican detractors extracted a significant concession from Speaker Kevin McCarthy today ahead of voting to remove Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) from the Foreign Affairs Committee, Axios' Andrew Solender reports. Why it matters: Proposed changes would defuse an escalating tit-for-tat over committee assignments by requiring bipartisan sign-off for the House to vote to oust members going forward. Reps. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), Ken Buck (R-Colo.) and Victoria Spartz (R-Ind.) voted "yes" after securing the commitment from McCarthy. The committee would also have to conduct an investigation and hold a hearing before voting. After a bipartisan group hashes out the language of the rules change, the House will have to vote to ratify it. Between the lines: This proposal may not have blocked the removal of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) from committees in 2021, as 11 House Republicans voted with Democrats.     3. Democrats back Omar Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) leaves the House chamber today. Photo: Jose Luis Magana/AP   House Democrats put up a united front in support of Rep. Omar, despite some criticizing her at the time for comments about Israel that lawmakers criticized as antisemitic. Omar has since apologized. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) said today: "This is about targeting women of color in the United States of America." Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.): "Where are the free speech warriors today? The hypocrisy is obvious to the American people." The other side: "We're not removing her from other committees.... When it comes to foreign affairs ... she shouldn't serve there," McCarthy said today. He blocked Reps. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) from staying on the House Intelligence Committee last week.     A message from Enbridge Advancing the energy transition today     Enbridge is reducing emissions to reach net-zero by 2050. The company is modernizing its assets, using solar energy to power its systems and ensuring new investments are aligned to emissions targets. To build a cleaner energy future tomorrow, today.     4. Black Caucus meets with Biden Photographer: Bonnie Cash/UPI/Bloomberg via Getty Images   Meeting with members of the Congressional Black Caucus today in the Oval Office, President Biden promised progress on police reform and said he hoped the death of Tyre Nichols would inspire action. Vice President Kamala Harris, who was also at the meeting, attended the funeral Wednesday of Nichols in Memphis, Tennessee.     5. Clinton back at the White House Photo: Ting Shen/Bloomberg via Getty Images Former President Bill Clinton was back in town today to mark the 30th anniversary of the Family and Medical Leave Act, which he signed into law during his first weeks in office.     A message from Enbridge Carbon capture will be key to achieving net zero     According to the IEA, reaching net zero will be virtually impossible without CCUS. That's why Enbridge is partnering with industry, customers and Indigenous groups to advance the Wabamun Hub — potentially one of the world's largest integrated carbon capture, transportation and storage projects.   📬 Thanks for reading. This newsletter was edited by Justin Green and copy edited by Brad Bonhall. Are you a fan of this email format? Your essential communications — to staff, clients and other stakeholders — can have the same style. Axios HQ, a powerful platform, will help you do it.   Axios thanks our partners for supporting our newsletters. 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