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Showing posts from November, 2021

The House GOP musical chairs that could keep Stefanik as No. 3

Rep. Virginia Foxx is fighting to keep her top GOP spot on the Education and Labor Committee in the next Congress — a move with potential major consequences for the House Republican leadership lineup. Foxx (R-N.C.) has privately lobbied party leaders for a waiver to keep her seniority on the panel come 2023, according to multiple GOP sources familiar with the matter. She has also privately met with Education and Labor members to inform them of her intention to run again and ensure they're on board if leadership decides to grant her a special pass from conference term limit rules, two members on the panel told POLITICO. That maneuvering raises questions about the future role of Rep. Elise Stefanik (N.Y.), a rising force in the House GOP who privately pledged earlier this year to limit her time as conference chair to one term. Stefanik made her vow while hustling to win over ultra-conservatives reluctant about handing her the No. 3 leadership spot Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) was about...
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Carrie Meek, pioneering Black former congresswoman, dies at 95

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Carrie Meek, the grandchild of a slave and a sharecropper’s daughter who became one of the first Black Floridians elected to Congress since Reconstruction, died Sunday. She was 95. Meek died at her home in Miami after a long illness, family spokesperson Adam Sharon said in a statement. The family did not specify a cause of death. Meek started her congressional career at an age when many people begin retirement. She was 66 when she easily won the 1992 Democratic congressional primary in her Miami-Dade County district. No Republican opposed her in the general election. Alcee Hastings and Corrine Brown joined Meek in January 1993 as the first Black Floridians to serve in Congress since 1876 as the state’s districts had been redrawn by the federal courts in accordance with the 1965 Voting Rights Act. On her first day in Congress, Meek reflected that while her grandmother, a slave on a Georgia farm, could never have dreamed of such an accomplishment, her parents ...
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The Missouri auctioneer bidding it all for Trump's backing

Immediately after taping the announcement of his Senate candidacy on Tucker Carlson's show, Billy Long paid former President Donald Trump a visit. As Long recalls it, Trump was a bit surprised. “You're in without my endorsement?” Trump asked the six-term Missouri GOP congressman. Long replied in the affirmative, then quickly explained why that should all change. During their August meeting at Trump Tower, Long argued to Trump that if Republicans nominate someone other than him to keep retiring Sen. Roy Blunt's (R-Mo.) seat red, the GOP might have to spend as much as $50 million in the state — money better spent in Arizona and Georgia. Channeling his past as an auctioneer, Long pitched himself as the equivalent of a “three-for-one” sale for Trump. Three months later, Long is still seeking the former president’s support. Ahead of Congress' Thanksgiving break, Long visited Trump again, this time in Mar-a-Lago. Trump told the imposing 66-year-old that he remains open to ...
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Bannon indictment does little to jumpstart Jan. 6 committee's subpoena talks with top targets

Two months after the Jan. 6 select committee subpoenaed them, two of Donald Trump’s top White House aides are locked in a standoff with the panel — and the indictment of Trump ally Steve Bannon appears to have done little to change their calculus. Former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and longtime Trump social media manager Dan Scavino, the first Trump White House officials subpoenaed by the House’s Jan. 6 investigators, have yet to provide documents or testimony to investigators. The committee’s protracted, ongoing negotiations with both men have yet to yield breakthroughs. In Meadows’ case, it’s led to yet another threat of criminal contempt charges. Recent public comments from panel members and other players signal that Meadows in particular is holding out on the committee as he awaits the outcome of Trump’s lawsuit aimed at keeping his White House records shielded from the select panel. The logjam highlights the challenges the committee faces in securing depositions from...
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White House adviser sees 'a lot of momentum' for social spending bill in the Senate

White House National Economic Council Director Brian Deese said on Sunday that he was optimistic the Senate will pass President Joe Biden's social spending legislation despite concerns from moderate Democrats. Deese, who appeared on "Fox News Sunday," described the passing of the $1.7 trillion bill in the House as a “milestone,” which would likely add fuel to Senate Democrats’ efforts to get the bill on the president’s desk by year's end. The bill, Deese added, includes issues that every Democratic lawmaker can get behind, such as providing better child care and reforming tax codes. “We have broad agreement on those provisions. And so I expect as we move to the Senate, we will have a lot of momentum,” he said. He also said he expected the bill would not shrink despite likely scrutiny from lawmakers like Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona because of the months of groundwork the White House has done to understand “where the co...
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GOP weighs trapping Democrats in Trump’s budget

With a government shutdown deadline approaching, Republicans are flirting with forcing a longer-term freeze on funding levels — forgoing the potential for extra defense spending in order to jam Democrats into Trump-era domestic limits. Even as Congress prepares to kick the next spending cliff from Dec. 3 to the holidays, Democrats are clamoring to begin bipartisan negotiations on a sweeping government funding deal. But the GOP's burgeoning hardline approach to the talks threatens the majority party’s hopes of ushering in their own spending priorities. It's all but inevitable that Congress passes a stopgap funding patch next month, leaving spending levels flat — what no one knows yet is how long that arrangement will last. Democratic leaders believe retiring GOP senators will provide the bipartisan support needed for a longer-term spending deal and that appropriations leaders will squash a freeze, according to a leadership source. Their bet may be misplaced, however: Republica...
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Dems stuffed their bill with popular health provisions — but they’re delayed until after the midterms

Democrats are close to making good on long-held promises to lower prescription drug costs and make health care more affordable. The rub? Voters won’t feel much of it until after the 2022 elections. The party is increasingly banking its midterm prospects on passage of the president’s domestic agenda in the coming weeks, convinced that it can help counteract concerns of inflation and inaction in D.C. House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) told POLITICO that the party’s physical infrastructure bill that Congress recently sent to Biden’s desk isn’t enough, and pointed to the health provisions of the still-pending $1.75 trillion social spending bill as the types of measures that could win over voters. “When people see the roads and bridges in their communities, when they see water systems being created ... and they see the $65 billion in broadband expenditures, that is a big, big deal,” he said. “But if you do that and do that only, what would you have done for prescription drugs? Noth...
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Sen. Barrasso declines to condemn Trump over Pence remarks

Sen. John Barrasso on Sunday declined to criticize former President Donald Trump for saying it was “common sense” for rioters on Jan. 6 to chant threats of violence against then-Vice President Mike Pence. Speaking on ABC’s “This Week,” Barrasso (R-Wyo.) said it was not “common sense” to chant “hang Mike Pence,” but declined to directly condemn Trump for those remarks, just saying, “I don’t agree with President Trump on everything.” He added: “I agree with him on the policies that have brought us the best economy in my lifetime, and I'm going to continue to support those policies.” Trump made his remarks about “common sense” to ABC’s Jonathan Karl, defending those who charged into the Capitol on Jan. 6 as working to prevent what he once again described as a grave injustice, the confirmation of Joe Biden‘s election as president. Trump remained focused on baseless assertions that the election was stolen from him, and that it was partially the fault of Pence, his own vice president....
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Schumer shakes up schedule as reconciliation bill slog continues

President Joe Biden’s $1 trillion-plus social spending plan will probably have to wait several weeks to hit the Senate floor. With Congress reconvening Monday and the House still working to pass the massive climate, safety net and tax package, the Senate will likely turn instead this week to the massive annual defense policy bill, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Sunday. That’s because even if the House passes the so-called budget reconciliation bill this week, there’s still work to do to ready the legislation for the Senate floor. The House passed the Senate’s infrastructure bill earlier this month but left without passing the reconciliation bill. And with Democrats focused on clinching a big spending deal on the effort to fight climate change , install universal pre-K and raise taxes on the wealthy and corporations, the National Defense Authorization Act has stalled in the Senate thus far. It’s one of the few bills Congress passes every year; the House passed its version i...
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