The Archive

IN THIS EDITION

Why today’s W.H. meeting will be very rough

DHS, Republicans clash over Mayorkas testimony

Senate GOP has issues with tax deal

News: DCCC takes aim at Pilip in ad

Laphonza Butler opens up about not running for full term

THE TOP

Why today’s W.H. meeting will be very rough

Happy Wednesday morning.

The Big Four are going to the White House today so President Joe Biden can pitch them on the importance of Ukraine aid and his national-security supplemental.

This may be a waste of time.

Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell enter this meeting with vastly different incentives and potentially irreconcilable disagreements on how to handle foreign aid and border security.

Republicans have linked Ukraine aid to a border bill. The border bill the Senate is working on is dead on arrival in the House. And GOP leaders in the Senate are airing their grievances with their House counterparts, revealing serious differences between the two camps on legislative strategy.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell: Last week, McConnell urged Republican senators to unify and support the border deal that Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) is negotiating with Democrats. There’s no better time than now to say yes to a deal, McConnell argued, since Democrats are willing to accept significant border restrictions in exchange for foreign aid. A border deal under a future Donald Trump presidency, he added, would be impossible.

Speaker Mike Johnson: The speaker, now in his 84th day leading the House, will never pass what the Senate produces. Sure, he is open to reviewing the details. But in House GOP leadership, there’s an overwhelming sense that whatever the Senate produces will not be anywhere near satisfactory to House Republicans.

True border security, Johnson told House Republicans on a Sunday call, would only come with Trump in the White House. Johnson’s position is that whatever Congress passes should be, at its core, similar to H.R. 2, the hardline border bill House Republicans passed last May. That won’t fly with a Democratic Senate and president.

Johnson has gone as far as to say he was tempted to try to negotiate a border package with the White House. The speaker’s world believes that House Republicans are closer to the median Republican voter than Senate Republicans are — whether that’s true or not is up for debate.

Senate Republican leadership backs McConnell: McConnell’s leadership team is publicly pushing back against Johnson.

Here’s what Senate Minority Whip John Thune told us:

Under a GOP majority and a Republican president, there wouldn’t be enough Democrats willing to give Republicans the necessary 60 votes for a border package, Thune argued. Similar efforts failed under Trump the last time, partially for that reason.

Today is different: Democrats are being forced to accept Republicans’ border policy ideas because the foreign aid package, a Biden administration priority, can’t pass without them.

“[We have] unique leverage because of the Ukraine funding,” Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) told us. “Even when we had the majority in the House, the Senate and the White House, we still couldn’t get 60 votes for some of the things that Sen. Lankford is negotiating on now.”

To be sure, a border deal is still a ways off. Negotiators haven’t yet found a way to bridge their divisions over presidential parole authority, which Republicans want to restrict.

But GOP leaders on both sides of the Capitol can’t even sync up on their strategy and messaging. To hear Senate Republicans put it, you can’t say the border is in a state of emergency yet reject a bipartisan deal to address the crisis.

“We’ve got a giant problem with tens of thousands of people coming every day,” said Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), a member of GOP leadership. “We’ve got to work to find solutions. I wouldn’t shut the door on anything.”

“It makes no sense to me for us to do nothing when we might be able to make things better,” Cornyn said.

Relatedly: Trump’s Iowa victory isn’t pressuring more Senate GOP leaders to endorse him. So far it’s just Sens. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) and Steve Daines (R-Mont.).

We all know how McConnell feels about Trump. Thune doubled down on his concerns about Trump’s ability to win a general election. Capito and Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) indicated they’re in no rush to endorse.

Also: The Senate advanced the CR, which extends government funding until early March. The vote was 68-13. Senate leaders hope to pass it by Thursday, but they’ll need a time agreement to accomplish that.

Your headliners! Exclusive: Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.) and Rep. Lisa McClain (R-Mich.) will headline the 78th annual Washington Press Club Foundation dinner this year. The dinner will be held on Wednesday, Jan. 31, at the Waldorf Astoria in Washington.

McClain, in her second term in Congress, currently serves as House Republican Conference secretary. Smith was appointed to the Senate in 2017, previously serving as Minnesota’s lieutenant governor.

Proceeds from the dinner fund internships, educational and networking programs for women and minority journalists. Punchbowl News is a proud supporter of the dinner and will be hosting a VIP reception ahead of the main event.

— Andrew Desiderio, Jake Sherman and Heather Caygle

DHS, Republicans clash over Mayorkas testimony

News: House Republicans are clashing with the Department of Homeland Security over whether Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas will testify during the House GOP effort to impeach him.

Homeland Security Committee Chair Mark Green (R-Tenn.) sent a letter to Mayorkas this morning requesting written testimony for the panel’s impeachment inquiry, which is expected to wrap up this month. Read the letter, which we obtained first.

Republicans had wanted Mayorkas to appear in person this week but he declined, citing a conflicting meeting with Mexican officials. DHS officials counter that Mayorkas hasn’t been permitted to testify in the probe despite their efforts to find another date that works for both sides.

Republicans say that’s not true. Here’s more from Green’s letter:

The House Republican investigation into Mayorkas’ handling of the issues at the U.S.-Mexico border has been underway for about a year. But some Republicans were talking about impeaching Mayorkas before they even had control of the House. And the effort comes as Republicans are simultaneously pursuing a separate impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden.

DHS response: DHS spokesperson Mia Ehrenberg said the committee has failed to find an agreeable date to have Mayorkas testify, claiming Republicans didn’t reach out to the department to collaborate. Mayorkas has testified before Congress 27 times, more than any other Cabinet official.

“This is just the latest example of Committee Republicans’ sham process. It’s abundantly clear that they are not interested in hearing from Secretary Mayorkas since it doesn’t fit into their bad-faith, predetermined and unconstitutional rush to impeach him,” Ehrenberg said.

What’s next: The committee has held one hearing in its impeachment proceedings against Mayorkas. The panel will have its second and final impeachment hearing on Thursday.

Arizona Sheriff Mark Dannels and Tammy Nobles, whose daughter was allegedly killed by an MS-13 gang member, will testify. Nobles previously testified before the House Judiciary Committee.

— Mica Soellner

Senate GOP has issues with tax deal

The top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee is looking for changes to a bipartisan tax deal before throwing his support behind the measure.

Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) said after briefing panel members Tuesday night that he backs reviving business tax benefits and is open to “an appropriate child tax credit set of provisions,” but has issues with the package as-is. He did not detail the changes he wanted.

“As is always the case, the devil is in the details,” Crapo said. “And we’ve got to get the details.”

Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and House Ways and Means Chair Jason Smith (R-Mo.) announced their agreement earlier Tuesday on a long-sought tax package. Ways and Means is moving toward a markup Friday, as we reported.

Republican support will be critical to passage in the Senate.

Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.) told reporters there was an openness to “something approximating” this deal. He said some senators want child tax credit provisions changed, but others may want different tweaks.

Before the meeting, Senate Minority Whip John Thune said there are things in the deal that the GOP wants but also things “that shouldn’t be in there” — pointing to concerns about keeping child tax credit eligibility tied to work.

More news: The National Association of Manufacturers is launching ads today in multiple Kentucky papers and the Shreveport Times in Louisiana. They’re targeting (you guessed it) Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Speaker Mike Johnson as part of a push to get the Wyden-Smith deal over the finish line.

They urge readers to thank each chamber’s top Republican for “standing up for manufacturers” and say that their companies need the revival of three business tax benefits.

Meanwhile in banking: The Biden administration has a new proposal aimed at changing how U.S. banks make money by restricting their use of overdraft fees.

Banks have been bracing for this proposal for a while. While some large lenders have changed or eliminated overdraft programs, the practice of charging customers for overdrawing their bank accounts remains widespread.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s proposal argues the existing rules around overdraft fees have allowed for a “loophole” within the Truth in Lending Act. The agency, led by Director Rohit Chopra, says account overdrafts are actually loans and must be treated as such, which means stronger disclosures and consumer protections.

The distinction between “loan” and “fee” is huge. Chopra told reporters that the industry’s average fee of $35 per overdraft amounts to 16,000% APR, assuming most consumers’ overdrafts are less than about $26 a pop.

The proposal announced today would apply to banks with more than $10 billion of assets. But even smaller banks may eventually begrudgingly fall in line, whether through regulatory fear or market pressure.

Remember Basel? Senate Banking Republicans led by Sen. Tim Scott (S.C.) sent another letter to bank regulators Tuesday night blasting Basel III Endgame, per a letter we obtained.

Every GOP member of the panel criticized regulators for failure to show “any sufficient economic analysis or proof that the banking system is currently under capitalized.” Officials like Fed Vice Chair for Supervision Michael Barr have disputed this charge for months.

— Laura Weiss and Brendan Pedersen

THE CAMPAIGN

News: DCCC takes aim at Pilip in ad

Exclusive: The DCCC is back on the air in the New York media market with a new ad criticizing GOP candidate Mazi Melesa Pilip as “part of the extreme wing of the Republican Party.”

Pilip is running against former Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-N.Y.) in the Feb. 13 special election to fill former Rep. George Santos’ (R-N.Y.) Long Island-area seat. Given the razor-thin GOP House majority, the special election has massive stakes — and Democrats are investing heavily.

The new spot is another example of Democrats tying Pilip to the agenda of other Republican groups.

“They’d ban abortion even in New York, even in cases of rape or incest,” the ad’s narrator says, referring to the New York Conservative Party’s platform. “And make massive cuts to Social Security.”

Pilip is running on the Conservative Party line in the election but has told reporters she would oppose a national abortion ban.

The ad also accuses Pilip of dodging questions about her beliefs during the campaign.

Shri Thanedar’s primary opponent’s Q4 haul: Former Michigan state Sen. Adam Hollier, a Democrat primarying Rep. Shri Thanedar (D-Mich.), raised $444,000 in the fourth quarter of 2023. Hollier has $410,000 on hand. It’s a sizable tally for a Democrat challenging an incumbent and is the latest sign that Thanedar will face a tough reelection test this year.

Thanedar is a freshman who succeeded former Rep. Brenda Lawrence (D-Mich.) in the Detroit-area seat. Hollier narrowly lost to Thanedar in the crowded 2022 primary by roughly 4,000 votes.

This time around, Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Wis.) and Lawrence have endorsed Hollier over Thanedar. The incumbent, however, is a wealthy entrepreneur with the ability to self-fund his campaign.

— Max Cohen

THE SENATE

Laphonza Butler opens up about not running for full term

Sen. Laphonza Butler (D-Calif.) had been in office for just two weeks before deciding she wouldn’t seek a full six-year term.

Butler, who was appointed to the seat in October after the death of Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), was thrust into a role that was never on her bingo card. The progressive activist and longtime union organizer suddenly had a huge decision to make.

A central factor informing her decision was her 9-year-old daughter — a rare consideration for a member of a legislative body with a median age in the mid-60s.

“She is really excited about her mom being a senator. But most importantly, she’s excited about her mom being a mom,” Butler, 44, told us. “And the opportunity to choose her, and to show her that I chose her, was another factor in how I thought about my decision.”

Butler has had extensive conversations about this with other young parents in the Senate, like Sens. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) and Katie Britt (R-Ala.). She ultimately concluded that “there are challenges to doing this job and doing this job well” while being the parent of a young child.

We sat down with Butler on the eve of her maiden speech on the Senate floor, scheduled for this afternoon. Butler plans to focus on the plight of young Americans, a nod to her desire to pass the torch and “create room for others to lead.” She’ll touch on issues like voting rights, abortion, housing affordability, mental health and more.

Butler has no plans to endorse a successor. California Reps. Adam Schiff, Katie Porter and Barbara Lee are all vying for the job. Butler is currently the only Black woman in the Senate, and Lee is the only Black woman in the race. Butler noted that Black women such as Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.) and Angela Alsobrooks of Maryland are well-positioned in their own Senate races.

Most people plan for months, if not years, to become a senator. Butler joked that she “became a senator essentially in a 24-hour period.”

“What the appointment gave me the opportunity to affirm is that I know exactly who I am,” Butler said. “I can be best utilized… in spaces and opportunities where I am creating room for others. The opportunity to do that… is more important to me.”

— Andrew Desiderio

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CLIPS