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PRESENTED BY

BY JOHN BRESNAHAN, ANNA PALMER AND JAKE SHERMAN

THE TOP

Breaking this morning: The Biden administration announced that 1 million Americans have signed up for health coverage through the Affordable Care Act during the special enrollment period the administration launched in February.

​Breaking in Punchbowl News AM: Congress’s quest to create a commission to investigate the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol has moved into a new phase. Speaker Nancy Pelosi has deputized a key senior Democratic committee chair to negotiate with his Republican counterpart on the issue.

Reps. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) and John Katko (R-N.Y.), the chairman and ranking member of the Homeland Security Committee, are now leading the talks, according to sources familiar with the situation.

If Thompson and Katko can reach an agreement that meets the muster of leadership, then a floor vote in the House could come quickly, these sources said. 

The question to us is do Republicans want a deal? Will Katko be empowered to cut one? This is tricky for House Republicans because Katko is someone who generally would be inclined to get to yes. Remember, he voted to impeach Trump. But he hopes to be the Homeland Security chair if Republicans take back the majority. and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy has not seemed particularly eager to back the creation of this commission.

Pelosi said three months ago that Congress and the White House should create a bipartisan commission to look into what happened during the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol. She wanted to use the 9/11 commission as a model for this effort, Pelosi said.

But Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and McCarthy quickly objected. They didn’t like the overall makeup of the panel, feeling Democrats would control too many seats under Pelosi’s plan. And they didn’t like the fact that the commission chair could unilaterally issue subpoenas. Pelosi later altered the proposal to an even 50-50 split in seats, as well as making sure subpoenas can only be issued on a bipartisan basis.

Most of all, though, McConnell and McCarthy didn’t like the fact that the commission would focus solely on Jan. 6. They felt Pelosi was trying to tie former President Donald Trump — who fomented the attack on the Capitol as Congress was certifying Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory — as a political millstone around the GOP’s neck. They wanted to expand the commission’s review to include “other political violence,” such as the nationwide BLM protests following George Floyd’s murder in May 2020. Pelosi, of course, didn’t agree to this. So the issue has been stalled for months. 

Against this backdrop, Thompson and Katko have been brought into the discussions. Pelosi believes Homeland Security is the proper panel to craft this legislation. The two veteran lawmakers have a good relationship, according to aides in both parties.

Thompson, however, is among a group of Democrats who have sued Trump and Rudy Guiliani, the former president’s personal lawyer, for trying to block the Jan. 6 Electoral College certification. These lawmakers assert “that Mr. Trump and Mr. Giuliani violated the Ku Klux Klan Act, an 1871 statute that includes protections against violent conspiracies that interfered with Congress’s constitutional duties; the suit also names the Proud Boys, the far-right nationalist group, and the Oath Keepers militia group,” according to the New York Times.

The clock is ticking on this issue, as it’s already mid-May and nothing has happened. House Democrats separately will be briefed tomorrow on a $2.1 billion Capitol security spending plan that Pelosi and House Appropriations Committee Democrats have been floating to Senate Democrats and GOP leaders. Pelosi and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) would like to vote on that spending bill by the end of next week if there’s a bipartisan, bicameral deal. 

CLIP AND SAVE

The Punchbowl News deadline list

Congress is facing a lot of deadlines coming up — both real and self imposed. Here are a few of them, detailing the incredible legislative crunch we’re in the middle of right now.

→ 14 days until May 25, when President Joe Biden wants a politically charged police reform package on his desk. There are just eight legislative days until then. Negotiators are talking, but are in real danger of missing that deadline.

→ 20 days until May 31, when Biden and the White House say they want real progress on an infrastructure bill. There are lots of meetings at the White House this week, but there hasn’t been any progress that can be called “real” yet.

→ 55 days until July 4, when Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she wanted an infrastructure bill to pass the House. For the record, there’s no infrastructure bill right now, or even a markup of a bill scheduled.

→ 82 days until July 31, when the suspension of the debt limit runs out. 

→ 143 days until Sept. 30, when government funding and surface transportation policy runs out. The end of the fiscal year is a massive deadline for Congress. We believe that a big infrastructure/fiscal package could come up then.

DOWNTOWN MOVES

Former Appropriations chair chief heading downtown

Elizabeth Stanley, the chief of staff to former House Appropriations Committee Chair Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.) is joining Resolution Public Affairs. This comes as earmark lobbying heats back up, and expertise in the appropriations arena becomes more valuable.

Resolution was founded by Heather McHugh, who was Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s (D-N.Y.) legislative director and a former top official at the DCCC under then Chairman Chris Van Hollen of Maryland. Lea Sulkala, who was chief to Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-Calif.), is also a principal at the firm. The firm reported more than $600,000 in lobbying in the first quarter for clients such as Delta Airlines, Citigroup, Deloitte, Humana, Verizon and Wells Fargo.

ELECTION REFORM

Senate panel to take up Dem efforts to overhaul U.S. elections

The Senate Rules Committee is set to begin mark up this morning S. 1, the “For The People Act,” a huge — and controversial — election reform package supported by virtually all Senate Democrats except Sen. Joe Manchin (W.Va.). Republicans plan to offer more than 100 amendments to package, so this markup may last a while.

The legislation is one of the top priorities for Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), and Rules Committee Chair Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) will get the process started despite heavy GOP opposition. 

Sen. Roy Blunt of Missouri, the top Republican on Rules, said on Monday that it’s going to be a lengthy process, and he didn’t expect the markup to finish Tuesday.

“I think it will last at least all day,” Blunt warned reporters. “At some point, I think the chair will have to decide if she wants all legitimate amendments to be voted on. I mean, they’ve got an 888-page bill with a 900-page substitute. That should take a while on a very controversial issue — taking over and federalizing elections. I think they owe it to the other side to let the other side be heard on amendments.”

Klobuchar released a substitute amendment last week that includes some revisions and technical changes to the original bill. With GOP-controlled legislatures in Georgia and Florida altering their election laws in response to false claims from former President Donald Trump and his allies that the November election was “stolen,” Democrats are vowing to move ahead with this bill. Their proposal will guarantee “every American citizen full access to the ballot by combating voter intimidation and suppression; ending the corrupting power of dark money in our elections; and putting an end to partisan gerrymandering,” according to Rules Committee Democrats. 

The House passed its version of this legislation on a party line vote back in March, and Schumer has vowed to bring it up for consideration on the Senate floor once Rules completes work on the proposal. 

With Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) vowing to block the Democratic bill — which he’s termed a “power grab” that would doom the GOP to minority status — the issue has also become caught up in the debate over the Senate’s filibuster rule. Some Democrats have suggested blowing up the filibuster over this issue. While the votes aren’t there to do that, the issue is a huge one for the party base. 

→ Also today: NIAID Director Anthony Fauci will testify in front of Senate HELP at 10 a.m. Also testifying: CDC Director Rochelle Walensky, HHS’s David Kessler and FDA’s Peter Marks. 

MOMENTS

9:30 a.m.: President Joe Biden will get his daily intelligence briefing.

Noon: Jen Psaki will brief. 

1 p.m.: Biden will meet virtually with a bipartisan group of governors. The group: Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker (R), Utah Gov. Spencer Cox (R) , Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R), New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D), Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D), Maine Gov. Janet Mills (D).

2 p.m.: Speaker Nancy Pelosi will hold a ceremonial swearing in for newly elected Louisiana Rep. Troy Carter (D). 

4 p.m.: VP Kamala Harris will meet with members of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus.

CLIP FILE

NYT

→ “F.B.I. Identifies Group Behind Pipeline Hack,” by David E. Sanger and Nicole Perloth

→ “Glenn Youngkin Wins G.O.P. Nomination for Virginia Governor,” by Trip Gabriel

→ Tom Friedman: “Israelis, Palestinians and Their Neighbors Worry: Is This the Big One?”: “Let’s see, what happens when TikTok meets Palestinian grievances about right-wing Israeli land grabs in Arab neighborhoods in Jerusalem? And then you add the holiest Muslim night of prayer in Jerusalem into the mix? Then toss in the most emotional Israeli holiday in Jerusalem? And a power play by Hamas to assume leadership of the Palestinian cause? And, finally, a political vacuum in which the Palestinian Authority is incapable of holding new elections and Israel is so divided it can’t stop having elections?

“What happens is the explosion of violence around Jerusalem on Monday that quickly spread to the Gaza front, and has people asking: Is this the big one? Is this the start of the next Palestinian uprising?”

WaPo

→ “As Biden faces a struggle to hold the Senate, Democrats’ divisions resurface,” by Sean Sullivan

→ “West Virginia’s Capito emerges as central figure as Democrats, Republicans seek infrastructure deal,” by Tony Romm

→ “Capitol Police must make major cultural shift to confront rising threats, inspector general says,” by Karoun Demirjian

→ “Texas’s population boom should be a boon to Democrats. But Republicans are reaping the gains,” by Arelis R. Hernández in San Marcos, Texas, and Griff Witte in D.C.

WSJ

→ “Colonial Pipeline Shutdown Threatens to Magnify Gasoline-Price Surge,” by Collin Eaton, Amrith Ramkumar and Dustin Volz

AP

→ “GOP readies blitz against Democrats’ voting rights bill,” by Brian Slodysko and Christina A. Cassidy

→ “Gaza militants, children among 24 dead as Israel hits Hamas,” by Fares Akram and Karin Laub

Politico

→ “Newsom wants to hand out cash before California recall election,” by Jeremy B. White

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Editorial photos provided by Getty Images