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PRESENTED BY

BY JOHN BRESNAHAN, ANNA PALMER AND JAKE SHERMAN
WITH MAX COHEN AND CHRISTIAN HALL

THE TOP

Happy Thursday morning. The January Consumer Price Index report, which measures inflation, will be released at 8:30 a.m.

Some news for you this morning: Two vulnerable House Democrats have been privately expressing concerns about any effort to ban stock trading on Capitol Hill. The lawmakers in question: Reps. Cindy Axne of Iowa and Elaine Luria of Virginia

Of course, barring such transactions by lawmakers and top aides is a hot topic on Capitol Hill, and it has the potential to be a massive change in an institution that reflexively avoids reform. A lot of members have concerns, but our reporting tells us that a broad array of Republicans and Democrats are on board with some kind of change.

Luria’s opposition – which she raised during a recent meeting of frontline Democrats – is much more significant. 

Our Max Cohen caught up with Luria in the Capitol and, well, she let it rip. 

Max: “I saw Speaker Pelosi is publicly, is going to back a ban on stock trading among members. I was curious what your thoughts were on this?”

Luria: “So my thoughts on it, you know, I think this whole concept is bullshit. Because I think that, why would you assume that members of Congress are going to be inherently bad or corrupt? We already have the STOCK Act that requires people to report stock trades. Why would you assume – I mean, the people that you’re electing to represent you, it makes no sense that you’re going to automatically assume that they’re going to use their position for some nefarious means or to benefit themselves. So I’m very strongly opposed to any legislation like that.”

Max: “And I know Congresswoman Spanberger has kind of led the charge on this. Have you talked with her about your concerns about trying to ban congressional stock trading, or is that something you’ve kept to yourself so far?”

Luria: “No, I mean that I’ve talked to her. I know that I don’t agree with her on this issue. I mean, we’re great friends together in Virginia, but it was an issue where we differ.”

Axne, on the other hand, worries that a ban on congressional stock trading would fail to differentiate between accounts that aren’t controlled by members of Congress (like 529 education accounts) and active trading being done by lawmakers.

Axne also feels that if the law is updated, members need to be provided with clear guidance so they fully understand where the red lines are. These are issues that Democratic leaders are working through, with the House Administration Committee taking the lead on drafting the legislation.

Both Axne and Luria are well-respected members of the House Democratic majority. Axne is on the Financial Services Committee, a so-called “A” committee — and the Agriculture Committee. Luria, a Navy veteran, has a seat on the leadership-picked Jan. 6 select committee in addition to slots on the Armed Services, Veterans Affairs and Homeland Security panels.

Axne and Luria have also both filed stock transactions during the last two years, according to financial disclosure records filed with the House Clerk’s office. Here’s Axne’s most recent full financial disclosure report and here is Luria’s.

Luria has a heavy position in publicly traded stocks. Luria and her husband, Robert Blondin, own between $1 million-$5 million in Facebook stock, $1 million-$5 million in ​​NVIDIA stock and $500,000-$1 million in Netflix stock. Financial disclosure reports only provide a range of asset values.

Last year alone, Luria and her husband traded hundreds of thousands of dollars of stocks. On March 31, they sold between $250,000-$500,000 in Alibaba stock. The couple purchased $250,000- $500,000 of Uber stock the same day as they sold the Alibaba position.

Also in March of 2021, Luria’s husband bought between $1,000-$15,000 of both QuantumScape and Tesla stock. 

All of Axne’s trades have come as part of individual retirement accounts. You can view them here. 

Luria’s burst of brutal honesty – that this proposed rule change is “bullshit” – is rare in the Capitol. Luria now finds herself in an unusual position – a vulnerable Democrat taking a tough and unpopular stand in the midst of a tough election year.

GOVERNMENT FUNDING

Will the Senate slow the stopgap funding bill?

The House passed a short-term government funding bill on Tuesday, thanks to a big bipartisan vote. More than 50 House Republicans joined with Democrats to pass the measure, which will keep federal agencies open until March 11. House and Senate appropriators hope to have an omnibus spending package finished by that date to cover the rest of FY 2022.

But the question we have now is will the CR move quickly through the Senate, or will Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer be forced to work hard to pass it? At this point, he may have to work for it.

Several Senate Republicans – picking up on a story first reported by the Washington Free Beacon – slammed the Department of Health and Human Services for including crack pipes and other drug paraphernalia in “smoking kits” provided under a $30 million federal “harm reduction program grant.” This concept behind the grant is to reduce the spread of disease among drug users.

“A spokesman for [HHS] told the Washington Free Beacon that these kits will provide pipes for users to smoke crack cocaine, crystal methamphetamine, and ‘any illicit substance,’” the newspaper reported on Monday. That report set off a firestorm among conservative commentators, which quickly reached Capitol Hill. 

The White House denied this on Wednesday, as did HHS Secretary Xaxier Becerra and Office of National Drug Policy Director Rahul Gupta. Psaki blamed “inaccurate reporting.”

But Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) isn’t buying those denials and she placed a hold on the CR until the dispute was resolved to her satisfaction.

“It would be absolutely absurd to send government-funded drug paraphernalia to underserved communities. U.S. taxpayer dollars should not be used to fund vending machines for crack pipes. If this is President Biden’s plan to address drug abuse, our nation is in serious trouble,” Blackburn said in a statement. “Today’s claims by White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki and Secretary Becerra mean nothing given that the HHS-approved FY 2022 Harm Reduction Program Grant specifically allows for government-funded smoking kits. We will not allow this administration to continue lying to the American people.”

During a series of late votes in the Capitol Wednesday night, Blackburn declined to talk to us about the controversy. We asked Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama, the ranking Republican on the Appropriations Committee, whether he’d work to resolve this stalemate, and he said it was a matter for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. So we asked McConnell’s office about the issue, but aides weren’t able to provide us with any guidance at this point.

The Washington Post posted a story Wednesday night with this headline: “No, the federal government isn’t spending $30 million on ‘crack pipes’”

But it’s clear that this is a serious issue among Senate Republicans, with several of them mentioning it to us. So party leaders on both sides may have to take some action here, possibly even adding language to the CR to settle the matter. That would require the bill to go back to the House following a Senate vote. Theoretically, the House could move this by unanimous consent. 

There’s not going to be a government shutdown, we’ll say that definitively. It doesn’t help either party and this issue – while certainly important  – isn’t going to trigger that.

But Schumer may be forced to file cloture to break a filibuster on the CR in order to complete floor action on the funding measure by Feb. 18, the current deadline.

We’ll also count on some “Senate magic” helping smooth things out. The Senate is in recess after next week, so senators are going to be anxious to pass a CR and head back home, especially those who’re up for reelection in November. Like Schumer.

JOB MOVE

Jennifer Steinhauer, a 25-year veteran of the New York Times, is moving to Chicago to work as the director of the speaker series and strategic initiatives for the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics. The IOP, of course, is run by David Axelrod and is a fixture of contemporary political discussion.

Steinhauer has had an illustrious career with the New York Times. She started in the paper’s city hall bureau and eventually worked in Los Angeles for the Times before coming to D.C.

→ Prosperity Action Inc., former Speaker Paul Ryan’s PAC, gave $5,000 each to the following GOP campaigns: Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.); Dave McCormick’s race for the Senate seat in Pennsylvania; Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.); and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa). Ryan has $463,274 on hand.

FRONTS

MOMENTS

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

10:45 a.m.: Biden will leave for Culpepper, Va., and then he will head to Brandy Station, Va.

12:30 p.m.: Biden will speak about his administration’s efforts to “work to lower health care costs, including prescription drug costs, for American families.” HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra will also speak. The event will be at Germanna Community College Daniel Technology Center.

2:55 p.m.: Biden will leave Virginia for D.C.

3:25 p.m.: Biden will arrive at the White House.

4:45 p.m.: Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris will host Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

CLIP FILE

NYT

→ “Archives Found Possible Classified Material in Boxes Returned by Trump,” by Reid Epstein and Mike Schmidt

→ “One Menacing Call After Another: Threats Against Lawmakers Surge,” by Catie Edmonson and Mark Walker

→ “A Product of Public Universities, Michelle Childs Would Be an Unconventional Court Pick,” by Erica Green and Rick Rojas

WaPo

→ “Giuliani asked Michigan prosecutor to give voting machines to Trump team,” by Jon Swaine, Emma Brown and Jackie Alemany

→ “‘We need to go’: A burst of gunfire on Ukraine’s front line and echoes of wider risks with Russia,” by Steve Hendrix in Avdiivka, Ukraine

→ “Mask mandates continue to fall as Fauci says U.S. may be approaching ‘normality,’” by Lenny Bernstein, Frances Stead Sellers, Katie Shepherd and Brittany Shammas

WSJ

→ “Biden Approves Pentagon Plan to Help Americans Fleeing Ukraine if Russia Invades,” by Gordon Lubold and Nancy Youssef

Bloomberg

→ "U.S. Promises to Make China Account for Trade-Deal Miss,” by Emma Kinery and Eric Martin

Politico

→ “Democrats’ social spending dreams stuck in winter purgatory,” by Burgess Everett

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Editorial photos provided by Getty Images