GOOD MORNING! Welcome to Huddle, the play-by-play guide to all things Capitol Hill, on this Wednesday, April 5, where we’ll see you at the show. GALLAGHER’S CALIFORNIA ADVENTURE — Rep. Mike Gallagher, chair of the House select committee on the Chinese government, is leading a jam-packed CODEL with about 10 colleagues starting today. It’s a domestic trip, but centered on the influence of the Chinese Communist Party on the American entertainment and tech industries, plus the future of cryptocurrency. The trip will lay the groundwork for future hearings hosted by the panel, as lawmakers suss out topics and potential witnesses while in California. On the agenda: After today’s simultaneously high-profile and private meeting with Tsai, Gallagher and members of his panel will meet with Disney CEO Bob Iger. Later they’ll meet with a group of Hollywood producers, screenwriters and former senior executives who reached out to the committee to discuss what a committee aide described as troubling experiences working to serve the Chinese market and attempts by Beijing to co-opt Hollywood through censorship. Silicon Valley: The CODEL then heads north to Silicon Valley for meetings Thursday about rare earth minerals that so much technology depends on and a talk from Microsoft's vice chair and president Brad Smith on AI. The lawmakers will also meet with Alphabet president of global affairs and chief legal officer Kent Walker as well as executives from Palantir and Scale AI. The group will also meet with venture capitalists like Marc Andreesen and Vinod Khosla. Topics up for discussion include defense innovation and supply chain visibility – i.e. what’s a company’s exposure to China and is there forced labor in the supply chain? Finally, Friday: A roundtable on China’s foray into digital currency will kick off the last day of the trip, followed by a panel on the China-Russia relationship from former Secretary of Defense James Mattis and Oriana Skylar Mastro, an expert on Chinese military and security policy, and then a final meeting with Tim Cook at Apple. BLUNT’S NEXT MOVE — Former Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) is joining Husch Blackwell Strategies as chair of a new advisory group, he told Burgess. He’s planning to dish out the same coveted advice that he’s given Senate Minority Leader Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and plenty of House speakers for more than two decades… but for a fee. “I’ve been giving advice for free for a long time. And generally people have been willing to take it and it worked out pretty well,” Blunt said this week. More on Blunt’s transition and what he hopes to help with, from Burgess. WIN IN WISCONSIN — Democrats will be tempted to extrapolate national political signals from last night’s win for progressives in Chicago, but that might be more appropriate in Wisconsin, where a judge just swung the Wisconsin Supreme Court to a liberal majority. It’s the first time in 15 years that conservatives won’t have control of the court. Janet Protasiewicz’s win means the new 4-3 majority is much more likely to strike down a controversial 19th century abortion ban there. And there are other big takeaways. Wisconsin was one of the tightest battleground states in the country and now Democrats control two of the three branches of state government for the first time since 2008. The race between Protasiewicz and former state Supreme Court Justice Dan Kelly shattered national spending records, with $45 million spent. Zach Montellaro has more. THE TAX PLAN COMETH — How exactly will the Internal Revenue Service spend the $80 billion Democrats awarded last year in the Inflation Reduction Act? The Treasury Department plans to release their long-awaited plan this week detailing how it will spend the funding boost, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Tuesday. Republicans will be ready to rip into the plan after complaining for months that the IRS intends to bring on 87,000 new examiners (which the agency says is an exaggeration). More than half of the funding must be used on tax enforcement, but the details will be left up to Treasury. What we know: Lawmakers will want to weigh in. Expect hearings on the plan in the coming months. DEVASTATING NEWS — Rep. Jesus “Chuy” Garcia (D-Ill.) announced on Tuesday that his daughter, Rosa, died Monday night at age 28. “We are completely heartbroken,” Garcia said. “Rosa joined our family as a young girl who had been in the foster care system. We did our best to provide a stable, loving, and welcoming home for her. Our family asks for privacy and welcomes your thoughts and prayers during this most difficult time.” ISRAEL-BOUND — McCarthy and Jeffries are both headed to Israel later this month (but not together). Marc Rod from Jewish Insider scooped the parallel travel plans, which have Jeffries in Israel April 22 to 24 and McCarthy arriving a few days later April 30 to May 2. The top two leaders in the House were both on a recent trip sponsored by the AIPAC-linked American Israel Education Foundation.
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