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February 10, 2023
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PRESENTED BY
THE TOP
Happy Friday morning.
Mark Warner and Marco Rubio are quickly becoming the Senate’s most prominent — and effective — bipartisan duo.
Warner, the Senate Intelligence Committee chair, and Rubio (R-Fla.), the vice chair, are in lock-step as they clash with the Biden administration on key national security matters, most notably the classified documents scandals and the Chinese spy balloon incident.
These issues have united senators from both parties. Warner and Rubio have the support of the entire Intelligence Committee as they push to get briefed on the classified documents found at the homes of President Joe Biden, former President Donald Trump and former Vice President Mike Pence.
This is news: Their strategy is paying off, with the Virginia Democrat indicating to us that there may be a breakthrough with the Justice Department.
Warner said the Intelligence Committee is “in the final stages” of scheduling a briefing for the end of the month, during which he’ll “make doubly clear what I expect” — that is, access to documents and an assessment of national security risks.
In Warner’s case, it’s a lot more difficult to speak out against an administration — and, by extension, a president — from one’s own party. But Warner has done just that on the classified documents, as well as the Chinese spy balloon.
“Both of them understand that this is a uniquely challenging time,” Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), a longtime member of the committee, said of Warner and Rubio. “They both do what I think is the key to good intelligence policy. They are trying to think [about] what it means for the long-term.”
The current battles in particular go to the heart of the committee’s duties. Warner and Rubio view DOJ’s refusal to brief them on the classified documents as an affront to their charge to conduct oversight of the intelligence community. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell have blessed the Warner-Rubio effort.
“The way we interact in the Intelligence Committee — there’s no cameras, there are no recordings, let’s just talk about the national security risks that we have. Those aren’t partisan issues,” said Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.), a member of the panel.
The shoot-down of a Chinese spy balloon last week is uniting the Intelligence Committee leaders, too. Both Warner and Rubio have, in their own styles, raised concerns that Biden waited to bring down the balloon until after it had already traversed the continental United States.
Here’s Warner, speaking after an all-Senate classified briefing yesterday:
Despite their united fronts of late, the two men are very different, both politically and stylistically. Rubio has presidential aspirations and is positioning himself in a unique lane inside the Republican Party. Warner, a moderate, is more guarded, but he’s also emerged as a dealmaker within the Senate Democratic Caucus.
They’re often seen walking together to and from the Senate SCIF, and they talk frequently. Warner had a similarly close rapport with Rubio’s predecessor, former Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.). Rubio said he viewed their relationship as a model for how Senate panels should operate.
“I certainly think that [Warner] is a very jealous guardian of the committee’s role and is pretty tough on administrations, Republican or Democrat, who are not forthcoming,” Rubio told us. “It just begins with the fact that he’s a good person to work with. He’s professional, serious, operates with an interest in the good of the country.”
The committee itself has long functioned as a nonpartisan entity, even during some of the most politically charged moments, such as the Russia investigation. Its posture stands in stark contrast to that of the House Intelligence Committee, which saw a total breakdown in relations between the two parties during the Trump era and, as a result, very little nonpartisan intelligence oversight.
The panel’s chair in the last Congress, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), helped marshal Trump’s first impeachment. In retaliation, Speaker Kevin McCarthy blocked Schiff from serving on the House Intelligence Committee during this Congress.
But both the House and Senate Intelligence committees are entitled to the same information, and the administration doesn’t want to appear as if it’s giving special treatment to the Senate panel. So whatever information is shared with the Senate panel later this month will go to its House counterpart as well.
Update: Washington D.C. police have made an arrest in the Thursday morning attack on Rep. Angie Craig (D-Minn.).
D.C. police announced late Thursday night that “26-year-old Kendrick Hamlin, AKA Hamlin Khalil Hamlin, of no fixed address,” has been arrested and charged with simple assault. Hamlin allegedly struck Craig while they were riding in an elevator. Craig threw hot coffee on him and was able to escape. Craig later attended House votes, and she backed a GOP resolution disapproving of a revised D.C. criminal code.
— Andrew Desiderio and John Bresnahan
ANNOUNCING…THE LEADERS!
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CRYPTO FOMO
Waters’ mixed feelings on the future of crypto
Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) has her fair share of concerns about the crypto sector. But the top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee doesn’t want the U.S. economy to miss out on future potential benefits either.
We sat down with Waters this week, where the veteran lawmaker made clear she wants Congress to come up with “real regulations to deal with crypto” following the collapse of FTX.
Yet unlike some lawmakers, Waters doesn’t seem to want to regulate the sector out of existence. That could make a significant difference in policy discussions as the House Financial Services Committee mulls crypto’s future in the coming years – a top priority for Chair Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.).
Here’s what Waters told us this week:
If crypto does mature in the coming years and become a more ubiquitous part of the global financial system, Waters added, the country won’t be able to ignore the implications.
“We’ve got to look at the inevitability, perhaps, of us being isolated if in fact we don’t understand what our role is going to be, and whether we’re going to have a digital government,” Waters said.
Water’s position here tracks with what a wide range of more crypto-friendly lawmakers have said about the sector’s potential. If crypto one day becomes something that broadly drives financial innovation, the United States would benefit by leading the “digital revolution.”
But it would be a mistake to call Waters a crypto booster. The California Democrat continues to back the Securities and Exchange Commission, which has emerged as the sector’s number one enemy for an ever-lengthening list of enforcement actions targeting digital asset companies.
Republicans, including House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, have frequently attacked SEC Chair Gary Gensler’s approach to crypto. But Waters said that House Democrats would resist any GOP attempts to cut the agency’s funding.
More from Waters:
– Brendan Pedersen
PRESENTED BY COMCAST
Jobs that require one digital skill earn on average 23% more than jobs that require none, adding up to an $8,000 annual pay increase.
DOWNTOWN DOWNLOAD
| → | British American Tobacco has signed up Capitol Consulting Group’s Stephen Replogle to lobby on “general issues relating to tobacco.” |
| → | The City of Atlanta has hired TheGROUP DC to lobby on a host of new laws passed during the Biden presidency. |
TheGROUP will lobby on water infrastructure and transportation programs included in the bipartisan infrastructure law, the CHIPS law and the Inflation Reduction Act.
– Jake Sherman
THE CAMPAIGN
McConnell dogs Scott – once again
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has made absolutely clear that he doesn’t think much of Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.).
Let’s review: Scott was the chair of the NRSC last cycle and refused to get involved in primaries. McConnell then intimated that the GOP had candidate quality problems, and Republicans lost winnable races in Arizona, Georgia and Pennsylvania, among others.
Scott put out a 12-point policy plan, which said laws should be voted on every five years. He also supported tax increases for low-income Americans. McConnell and practically every other Senate Republican thought the plan was stupid. And we now see why once again – President Joe Biden used it in the State of the Union as an example that Republicans could gut Social Security and Medicare.
Scott pushes back on all of this, saying he doesn’t want to alter these entitlement programs. Scott also noted that Biden proposed something similar as a senator. But Scott put out the plan and it’s quite clear what it says.
McConnell was on Kentucky radio Thursday with Terry Meiners and said this of Scott’s 12-point plan, which, again, calls for all federal laws to sunset after five years:
Chris Hartline, Scott’s spokesperson, said Scott knows how to win in Florida better than McConnell does.
Goodness gracious. McConnell says that Scott will have trouble getting re-elected because of this plan.
– Jake Sherman
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