| | | | |  | | By Katherine Tully-McManus | Presented by Sallie Mae® | With an assist from Daniella Diaz, Anthony Adragna, Jordain Carney, Nicholas Wu and Sarah Ferris
| 
Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy walks the line on debt ceiling negotiations and the expulsion of one of his members. | Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP Photo | | Congress and the White House are racing against the clock, and the House and Senate schedules, to find a path to avoiding default on the nation’s debt. President Joe Biden has truncated his international trip. Could late-May recesses also be on the chopping block? Sure, Tuesday’s talks yielded a set of official proxies for Biden in the talks and Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) voiced optimism about the new “structure” of discussions. But as the key players keep talking, time is ticking. And each chamber is scheduled to be in Washington just a handful of days before the potential June 1 X-date (and not at the same time, either). Today some House Democrats will resume a long-shot end run to bypass the sticky debt ceiling and spending negotiations, as a “discharge petition” ripens on the vine today. They’ve waited the mandatory seven days and can now start gathering the 218 signatures needed to force the speaker to bring it up. But Democrats securing a handful of GOP votes is improbable and the procedural timeline — another seven day wait and then two legislative days before consideration — makes getting this done before the earliest projected X-date a fantasy. Heading into this new phase, here is where things stand on Capitol Hill: House GOP: House Republicans maintain that their job is done. They passed a bill. And now they are waiting for Biden to make a move towards agreeing to the spending restrictions outlined in their bill. McCarthy signaled Tuesday that he sees Biden’s appointment of Louisa Terrell, Steve Ricchetti and OMB Director Shalanda Young, a Hill and approps veteran, to continue negotiations as a positive step. Though he said there's “now a better process” on debt ceiling negotiations, "that doesn’t mean we’re going to get to an agreement." On the idea of a discharge petition from Democrats, Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) dismissed the idea that any of his conference would support it. "No way. Ain't gonna happen," Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), a centrist in the GOP caucus, said Tuesday on the discharge petition idea. "No, no, no. We've been clear – they need to negotiate," said freshman Rep. Juan Ciscomani (R-Ariz.). House Dems: Though Democrats are making the move on the discharge petition, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) was noncommittal on proceeding with that when he returned to the Capitol Tuesday afternoon. The New York Democrat said he hadn’t made a decision yet and was going to consult the White House and other Democrats on the strategy. But, Democratic leaders are expected to tee up the move as soon as Wednesday morning, when they can start collecting signatures. Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) said that in addition to trying to hold the line against GOP proposals, Democrats also need to “do a better job of explaining to the American people what these cuts will mean.” He sees a messaging problem. “I’m very concerned because I don’t like the perception of credibility for what the Republicans are doing. What they’re doing is not credible. It’s a hostage situation,” he said Tuesday. The White House attempted to quell progressive angst late Tuesday night with a statement saying that Biden will “fight” to keep GOP proposals on expanding work requirements for food security programs out of any final deal. The president had flirted with the idea over the weekend, to the dismay of progressives. Senate GOP: Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) remains in the backseat and he’s not backseat driving. “This shouldn’t be this hard,” McConnell said Tuesday. “We know we’re not going to default.” Sen. Mike Braun (R-Ind.) also isn’t sweating, calling it “the same old song and dance.” The Indiana Republican is confident “they’ll get something worked out.” Meanwhile, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) is confident of something else: “I’ve got confidence that Kevin McCarthy can’t really negotiate a bad deal, and get it passed in the House and retain his speakership,” he told Burgess. Senate Dems: They’re eyeing both the clock and the speaker. “I trust President Biden. I’m just very skeptical that there’s going to be an agreement in time,” said Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.). “We’re gonna get to a point where McCarthy has to decide whether he’s willing to proceed to default.” And an eight term House member now in the Senate, Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.), has thoughts on his former colleague: “It’s about the House. Kevin’s in shackles. He’s in leg, arms and hand cuffs. And frankly I don’t think he’s got much capacity to negotiate. And very little capacity to advance a deal,” Welch told Burgess. RELATED READS: Senators dismiss happy talk after Biden-McCarthy debt sitdown, from Burgess and Sarah
| | A message from Sallie Mae®: Every year, Federal Pell Grants help nearly 7 million students access college. Pell Grants, however, only cover one-third of the average cost of attendance today, compared to more than 75% when it was introduced 50 years ago. Private student lender Sallie Mae believes modernizing the Pell Grant can more meaningfully support students with the most need. Learn more. | | | GOOD MORNING! Welcome to Huddle, the play-by-play guide to all things Capitol Hill, on this Wednesday, May 17, where we’re waiting to see if the speediest lawmakers defend their titles this morning. (More on that below!) WILL THE HOUSE YEET SANTOS? — House Democrats could force a vote on expelling New York Rep. George Santos from Congress as soon as today. Booting a lawmaker from the House takes a two-thirds vote of the chamber and it is doubtful that 70+ Republicans would vote to oust their colleague, despite his recent indictment. McCarthy is hoping to avoid that vote and instead pivot, with a vote to refer the expulsion resolution to the House Ethics Committee. That would be a more palatable off-ramp, especially for vulnerable GOP members. (House Ethics usually presses pause on their inquiries if federal prosecutors take action, but perhaps a vote of the full House could prompt them to take up their parallel inquiry.) Olivia has more on McCarthy’s closed door meeting outlining the options. Our friends at Playbook have more details on why Dems decided now was the time to move on Santos. Plus, there’s no shame in the CRS game. If you haven’t already, now might be the time to brush up on your expulsion precedent and procedure. SELF FUNDING REFLECTION — House appropriators are set to mark up their fiscal 2024 Legislative Branch spending bill today, which would slash funding for Congress and its supporting agencies by roughly 2 percent.
- Capitol Police would see a 6 percent boost to almost $781 million
- Architect of the Capitol would see a nearly 30 percent cut to $799 million
- Members’ office funds, which pay for staff salaries, member travel and other official expenses would be flat-funded, a 20 percent increase from last cycle untouched.
No sequestration flashbacks: The proposal, released Tuesday, defied some expectations of deep cuts. The LegBranch bill, of course, is the smallest of the 12 annual spending bills and makes up a tiny fraction of federal spending. There was also recognition, according to GOP aides who spoke to Huddle, that deep cuts to Congressional funding during sequestration made it difficult for the House to function and serve constituents. Diversity and inclusion, who? House Republicans have zeroed out funding for the House Office of Diversity and Inclusion, an office created under then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) leadership but made permanent with bipartisan support as an initiative of the House Modernization Committee. Republicans say the functions of the ODI would be wrapped into other Congressional support offices as part of a “restructuring”. “The value of that office is you have an office within Congress that goes to bed at night thinking about these issues of diversity, equity and inclusion, and wakes up every morning thinking about these issues,” former ModCom Chair Rep. Derek Kilmer (D-Wash.) told Huddle. He said the panel “decided that we didn't want to just make recommendations. We wanted to make change, and it's disappointing to say the least to see this proposal to zero up funding for that office.” As always, the LegBranch bill is packed with treasures. Read the bill or the GOP summary or Dem summary.
| | | | INTERNATIONAL REPUBLICAN INSTITUTE HONORS “WOMEN OF IRAN”: POLITICO is proud to partner with the International Republican Institute (IRI) in support of this year’s John S. McCain Freedom Award to the “Women of Iran.” As IRI’s highest honor, the Freedom Award exemplifies the goals and accomplishments of strengthening democracy for a freer, more secure world. In celebration of IRI's 40th anniversary, the Institute is highlighting many courageous women across the globe who are on the front lines in the fight for freedom. Don’t miss an opportunity to support and empower women leaders who are fearlessly advancing democracy worldwide. | | | | | JORDAN’S HUNTER BIDEN MOVES — Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) is taking two next steps on Wednesday in his sweeping investigation into the response to a 2020 New York Post story about Hunter Biden that Twitter temporarily blocked from being shared: First, in a new letter first obtained by Huddle, Jordan and Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner are warning that they could subpoena the Central Intelligence Agency. One of the requests in the letter is for the CIA to conduct an agency-wide search for documents and communications with each of the names of the 51 former intelligence officials who signed into a signatories to a public statement alleging that the inquiry tinto Hunter Biden’s laptop could be a Russian influence campaign. Jordan wants communications and documents for the period October 1, 2020, to October 31, 2020. “We fully expect the CIA to produce all responsive documents to the Committees’ March 21, 2023, request in unredacted form no later than May 30, 2023. If the CIA does not produce all responsive documents, the Committees may resort to compulsory process,” Jordan and Turner wrote in the letter. Meanwhile, Jordan's subpanel investigating GOP claims of a federal government politicized against conservatives is planning to interview former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper over a letter he signed, along with 50 other former intelligence officials, that the Post story “had all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.” They stressed in the same letter that they had no evidence of Russian involvement. PRIMO DEAL FOR USCP’S PITTMAN — Capitol Police Chief Thomas Manger told members of the House Administration Committee that former acting chief Yogananda Pittman has been “on leave without pay” since Feb. 1—a disclosure that appeared to be news to members of the panel. (ICYMI, the Capitol Police said late last year that Pittman would retire, with the University of California, Berkeley saying she was becoming their chief of police as of February.) Pittman oversaw USCP’s intelligence operations in the leadup to the Jan. 6 attacks, fellow police and lawmakers have criticized her for her performance in that role. Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-Va.), a member of the panel, read Manger the guidelines for the leave policy for the Capitol Police, which states that being placed on leave without pay requires a “reasonable assurance” that a member or civilian employee will return at the end of their leave period. Manger acknowledged he was aware of the guidelines, but that they had reached a “negotiated separation agreement” with Pittman similar to deals worked out in the past. Why go on leave? Manger noted that Pittman will be able to apply for retirement in roughly a month. He added that if Pittman had retired in January, he wasn't sure she would have been eligible for pension and other benefits. But he stressed that Pittman isn't getting paid and doesn't have, in his words, any "police powers." (Pittman previously faced a vote of no confidence in the weeks after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol; at the time she served as the assistant chief of police for protective and intelligence operations.) Not over yet?: Capitol Police union chair Gus Papathanasiou slammed the arrangement, telling POLITICO in an interview: “I think that’s ethically wrong. I think Congress needs to investigate it.” “I walked around and talked to a lot of officers today and they were pretty livid,” he said. “I don’t think any officer could strike that kind of a deal.” He said he discussed the issue with Manger, the chief, after the hearing, though he declined to comment on the conversation. And the House Administration appears poised to dig into the agreement. “I think we will be looking at that,” Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.) told POLITICO in a brief interview. “This is news to us that she was actually on administrative leave, so we’ll be looking a little closer into that.”
| | | | A message from Sallie Mae®:   | | | BENEFIT BREACH — If your health insurance and transit subsidy puts your personal information out on the open market, are they really a “benefit”? House employees were notified Tuesday of a data breach involving individuals that are enrolled in the U.S. Department of Transportation’s (DOT) transit benefit program (TRANServe) in Washington, D.C. The breach may have compromised users' names, workplace, work email, phone number, home address and SmartTrip or TRANServe card number. “The data breach occurred within the system that supports TRANServe and not within systems maintained by the U.S. House of Representatives,” the notice specified. There’s credit monitoring available for those impacted. One staffer texted a POLITICO Congress team colleague: “Do you think your data is more likely to be stolen if you work for Congress or if you put up a billboard with your social security number on it?” Great question. GRUMPINESS POST-IRAN BRIEFING — Some Republican senators emerged after a closed-door, classified briefing on Iran frustrated by what they said was a lack of new information and a strategy. “Nothing that I heard just now required a classification briefing that it was at,” Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) told reporters. “It could totally have been done open and you all could have been there.” Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) also faulted what he said was a lack of a new strategy. “We are in a bar fight with Putin, with Xi and with the Ayatollah. The Biden administration wants to quote Socrates in the middle of a bar fight,” he said. That wasn’t Foreign Relations Committee Chair Sen. Bob Menendez’s (D-N.J.) take afterwards: “I haven’t come out a briefing yet where Republicans have come out and said it was useful,” he said, adding he found the briefing “very useful” and that the administration is “committed to ensuring that Iran does not get a nuclear weapon.” IMPEACHMENT WATCH — Conservatives are making a renewed push to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas — even as they acknowledge that with their razor-thin majority, they don’t yet have the votes. Instead, asked about the prospect of impeachment for Mayorkas, McCarthy said “America has a lot of questions and I think he should have to come before the committee and answer all Americans about this.” On that note: Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) told our Jordain that Mayorkas will appear before his panel “later this summer” — aka June or July. (The appearance, exact date TBA, will be part of a routine oversight hearing, but expect Republicans to use it to push their case.) “We’re having conversations in the conference,” Jordan said, describing the talks as involving “key people.” Committee Republicans have been discussing the possibility of impeaching Mayorkas since last year. The two impeachment resolutions introduced earlier this year have seen little movement in their number of formal co-sponsors, but the idea has gotten powerful new backing, including from House GOP Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.). GOP lawmakers, both privately and publicly, are calling for the House and the committee specifically to take action. Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), asked about an appearance before the committee, said “I look forward to that if he’s still around” but “we ought to be moving a lot faster than that” on impeachment. Math reminder: The people to watch (besides Jordan and McCarthy) are a coalition of moderates, centrists and governing-minded pragmatists. Their numbers are currently significantly larger than the pool GOP leadership can lose and they are skeptical about the strategy of impeachment, both over the politics as they try to defend purple seats and the fact that the impeachment would be DOA in the Senate.
| | | | Manchin wheels and deals… But heavy on the wheels this week. West Virginia Democrat Sen. Joe Manchin took a spin on a fellow West Virginian’s bike on Tuesday. Yes, there are photos. On your mark, set, go! By the time you’re reading this, lawmakers, reporters, federal judges and Hill staff will be crossing the finish line at a fun annual 3 mile race that pits different branches of government (plus the Fourth Estate) against each other. The team names have us laughing: Livin, Laughin, Levin for Rep. Mike Levin’s (D-Calif.) staff, Rev on the Run for Rev. Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) and Manchin’s Moonshiners. Best of luck to the runners! QUICK LINKS Lauren Boebert files for divorce from her husband, from Jesse Paul and Nancy Lofholm at The Colorado Sun Hagedorn campaign money transferred to charity led by his widow, Jennifer Carnahan, from Hunter Woodall and Ryan Faircloth at the Star Tribune Intrusion at national security adviser’s home under investigation, from Carol D. Leonnig and Tyler Pager at The New York Times Feinstein responds to questions about her absence from Washington, from Benjamin Oreskes at The Los Angeles Times Sanders goes big in new health package, from Daniel Payne and Burgess Computer in Russia breached Metro system amid security concerns, report says, from Justin George and Ian Duncan at The Washington Post TRANSITIONS Merav Ceren is now deputy policy director for the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. She most recently was senior professional staff member for the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability. Chile Emenuga is now the press secretary for Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio). He most recently was the press assistant for Rep. Rick Allen (R-Ga.). Kevin Dawson is now chief of staff for Rep. Mike Kelly (R-Pa.). He previously was health policy adviser to Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.). Sam Forbes is now digital outreach manager with Rep. Andrea Salinas (D-Ore.). He previously was a press assistant/legislative correspondent for Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-Calif.).
| | | | GET READY FOR GLOBAL TECH DAY: Join POLITICO Live as we launch our first Global Tech Day alongside London Tech Week on Thursday, June 15. Register now for continuing updates and to be a part of this momentous and program-packed day! From the blockchain, to AI, and autonomous vehicles, technology is changing how power is exercised around the world, so who will write the rules? REGISTER HERE. | | | | | TODAY IN CONGRESS The House convenes at 10 a.m. for morning hour debate and 12 p.m. for legislative business. First and last votes are expected at 5 p.m. The Senate convenes at 10 a.m. to consider the nomination of Jeremy C. Daniel to be U.S. District Judge for the Northern District of Illinois with a cloture vote on the nomination at 11:30 a.m. If cloture is invoked, the Senate will vote on confirmation and cloture on a Louisiana judge Darrel Papillion at 2:15 p.m. with additional votes at 5 p.m. AROUND THE HILL 9 a.m. Rep. Deborah Ross (D-N.C.) and Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) hold a press conference to announce the reintroduction of the America's CHILDREN Act. (House Triangle) 9:30 a.m. Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) holds a press conference on the resolution to expel Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) from Congress. (HVC Studio A) 2 p.m. Reps. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) hold a press conference on Medicare for All. (House Triangle) 2 p.m. House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on “The State Of American Influence In 2023: Great Power Competition And Persistent Crises In An Era Of Budget Constraints.” USAID Administrator Samantha Power testifies. (210 Capitol) 3 p.m. Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) holds a press conference on the World Health Organization. (House Triangle) 4 p.m. McCarthy and other congressional leaders hold an event to unveil the portrait honoring Former Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.). (Statuary Hall) 4:30 p.m. Rep. Andy Barr (R-Ky.) and Texas Public Policy holds a press conference on the effects of Housing First. (House Triangle) 5 p.m. Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) holds a press conference on the Railway Safety Act. (Senate Swamp)
| | TUESDAY’S WINNER: Jim McFeely correctly answered that the three universities to count among their alumni both an NBA MVP and a U.S. president are:
- University of North Carolina Chapel Hill (Players: Michael Jordan & Bob McAdoo; President: James Polk)
- U.S. Naval Academy (Player: David Robinson; President: Jimmy Carter)
- Georgetown University (Player: Allen Iverson; President: Bill Clinton)
TODAY’S QUESTION: The House bought this building in 1957, intending to use it as temporary office space. Hint: It’s gone. 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
| | A message from Sallie Mae®: For too long, the federal student loan program has done too much for too many, and not enough for those who need the most support. Meaningfully increasing the Pell Grant, which provides need-based government funding that does not need to be repaid, would be a step in the right direction in supporting access for low-income students and helping protect against overborrowing. Learn more about why private lender and education solutions provider Sallie Mae supports expanding the Pell Grant, a critical tool in increasing college access and completion. | | | | | | | Follow us | | | | |
No comments:
Post a Comment