SENATE SETS A TRIAL — Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced in a Dear Colleague letter this morning that Senate committees will hold hearings on the House Republicans legislation on the debt limit and spending cuts that passed the House last week. The move is not an attempt to move the bill forward, but to message against the proposed cuts. “The Senate will show the public what this bill truly is. Beginning this week, our Committees will begin to hold hearings and expose the true impact of this reckless legislation on everyday Americans. On Thursday, the Budget Committee will hold a hearing on the Default on America Act,” Schumer (D-N.Y.) writes, creating his own moniker for the GOP proposal. The Senate Budget Committee hearing on Thursday will feature Mark Zandi, the chief economist at Moody’s Analytics and leaders of the Environmental Defense Fund and the Solar Energy Industries Association. New month, same standstill: A soggy Washington weekend didn’t spark fresh attitudes toward debt ceiling negotiations and positions of both Republicans and Democrats seem as entrenched as they were before the House passed its GOP debt ceiling and spending cuts package. Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) says Republicans are “demanding hostage negotiations” while House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) says President Joe Biden is “running out the clock” on the debt limit. House Republicans were certain that their starting bid to rollback federal spending in exchange for lifting the debt limit would force Biden to the negotiating table. But last week’s action on the House GOP package has yet to move the needle much. Now the House is out of town, leaving the Senate to weigh in on the GOP proposal and how Biden should handle it. That’s the Budget Committee’s cue. Treasury Department officials there are expected to update the public on the “X date,” before which Congress will need to pass a debt limit lift to avoid default, in the coming days. That will ramp up the pressure, but it’s not yet clear what will get leaders to budge. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) said last week that Biden not getting in a room with Speaker Kevin McCarthy to negotiate on the debt limit “signals a deficiency of leadership, and it must change.” The West Virginia Democrat said “we are long past time for our elected leaders to sit down and discuss how to solve this impending debt ceiling crisis” and called on Biden to “negotiate now.” Most other Democrats aren’t going that far. They are talking about talks, but are drawing distinction between talks on spending and negotiations on the debt limit. “He will sit down with Speaker McCarthy to talk about these issues in the framework of the budget and the appropriations process,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) told “Fox News Sunday.” But not the debt limit. And Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said on Sunday that Biden can “start negotiating tomorrow” (i.e. today) on possible spending cuts, but stressed that those talks can only move forward if Republicans commit to raising the debt limit. “I’m willing to look at any other proposals. There’s a lot of waste within government. Let’s go after it. But don’t go to war against the working class of this country, lower-income people,” Sanders said. Republicans maintain that what they view as government overspending and the nation’s growing debt are inextricably linked and that conversations about each cannot be separated. "As we're addressing the debt limit, we also have to address the problem that got us here," Scalise (R-La.) told ABC’s "This Week." The House majority leader also challenged Senate Democrats to put forth their own legislation. “If they’ve got a better idea, I want to see that bill and tell them to pass it through the Senate,” Scalise said. Democrats aren’t likely to meet Scalise’s challenge. Instead, they’ll be bringing the GOP legislation up in committee and dissecting it. ALSO ON THE SENATE AGENDA — Schumer is expected to file cloture on more judicial nominations this week and the chamber could take action on at least one GOP-led Congressional Review Act resolution. Most likely to hit the floor is a proposal from Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) to overturn the Fish and Wildlife Service’s decision to list the lesser prairie-chicken – one of the most fraught fowl that Congress deals with annually – as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. GOOD MORNING! Welcome to Huddle, the play-by-play guide to all things Capitol Hill, on this Monday, May 1. For those showers, we were promised flowers. HUDDLE WEEKLY MOST CLICKED: You folks love messy drama. (Still wishing those youngsters the best.) Second most clicked was How Two History-Making Congresswomen (and Roommates) Made It Through 100 Days in Office, from Madison Feller at Elle. EARMARKS ROUNDUP — Last week the House Appropriations Committee published all earmark requests for fiscal 2024 and seeing what's on lawmakers' federal funding wishlists is always interesting. Big picture: House members are warming up to the revival of earmarks, with 5,067 earmarks, a nearly 7 percent increase over last year. If all the requests were passed into law (they won't be) they'd total $19.4 billion. Republicans have big asks and the party leads the list of earmark requests by dollar amount. All of the top six requests come from the GOP side of the aisle. Check out the requests for yourself from the Appropriations Committee or this streamlined spreadsheet created by Daniel Schuman at Demand Progress Education Fund. MCCARTHY ABROAD — Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) is in Israel today, preparing to address the Knesset as it convenes after a month-long recess and in the wake of a divisive fight over a plan to overhaul the country’s judiciary. McCarthy will be the second House speaker to address the Knesset (Newt Gingrich did so in 1998). In an interview Sunday with the conservative Israel Hayom daily, McCarthy said that if President Biden doesn’t invite Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the White House, the speaker will invite him to Congress. McCarthy started his trip, his first venture abroad since winning the speaker’s gavel, in Jordan, where he and his 18-member delegation met with King Abdullah II and the crown prince.
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