The Archive

IN THIS EDITION

Mayorkas, Ukraine, Israel and FISA top the list as Congress returns

Cantwell-CMR data privacy bill unveiled, now the hard part starts

What we’re watching

The tax bill’s window is closing

Top Emmer staffer heading to K Street

THE TOP

Mayorkas, Ukraine, Israel and FISA top the list as Congress returns

Happy Monday morning.

We’re back! The Senate returns today after a two-week recess, while the House is back Tuesday.

President Joe Biden heads to Madison, Wis., and Chicago today, and then hosts Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida for a state dinner on Wednesday. On Thursday, Kishida will address a joint meeting of Congress. Kishida and Biden will also meet with Philippines President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.

Lawmakers return to the Capitol with a lot on their plates. Ukraine, FISA, Israel, data privacy and other sensitive topics are dominating the headlines. These issues cut across party lines, although the partisanship — and intra-party in-fighting — on each is intense.

We’re going to start with the Senate impeachment trial for Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

Trial or no trial? House Republicans will formally present their articles of impeachment against Mayorkas to the Senate on Wednesday. The DHS secretary was impeached nearly two months ago. Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), as president pro tem, will swear in senators on Thursday. And then the fireworks begin.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is expected to offer a motion seeking the immediate dismissal of the case against Mayorkas. That only requires a simple majority to pass. If Democrats stick together, they can bypass a trial entirely, bringing a quick end to what has been a sputtering effort against Mayokas from the start. On the off-chance that one or two Democrats defect, Republicans are trying to stay united to force a full trial.

The Senate GOP messaging on this is straightforward — Mayorkas must be held accountable for his handling of the migrant crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border, so a trial is necessary. Notably, the messaging memo doesn’t weigh in on the actual question of whether Mayorkas should be convicted and removed from office.

For his part, Mayorkas says he’s paying very little attention to the Hill proceedings.

“I am focused on the work,” Mayorkas told reporters on Friday. “When I say I’m doing my work, I’m going to be testifying before two committees on Wednesday. That is perfectly reflective of my approach.” Mayorkas will be appearing before the House and Senate Appropriations panels this week to discuss the department’s FY2025 budget request.

Mayorkas has dismissed the GOP allegations as “baseless,” as have other top Democrats and the White House. Here’s a memo from DHS rebutting the attacks on Mayorkas.

It’s possible that Democrats could win the dismissal vote even if they don’t have all 51 in favor. A handful of Republican votes could be in play, like Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), who has spoken favorably of a dismissal.

FISA: Across the Capitol, Speaker Mike Johnson and House GOP leaders will attempt once again to pass a FISA reauthorization bill. The third time’s a charm! Maybe!

On Tuesday, the Rules Committee is marking up a modified version of Rep. Laurel Lee’s (R-Fla.) bill from February. This version doesn’t include Rep. Warren Davidson’s (R-Ohio) provision barring federal agencies from buying info on Americans from private data companies. The House Intelligence Committee strongly objected to this language back in February, forcing the bill to be pulled.

A small number of amendments will be made in order at the Rules Committee. These include a proposal from the Judiciary Committee that requires national security agencies to obtain a warrant when they seek to query information on any U.S. person caught up in surveillance.

We’re told that Judiciary and Intelligence members will all vote for the rule. Whether these members vote for the underlying legislation once the amendments are considered on the floor is a different matter. This is chiefly aimed at the House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.), the ranking member, and their colleagues. The Judiciary panel has overwhelmingly supported the inclusion of the warrant requirement in any FISA reauthorization bill.

But the reality is that if this modified version of FISA isn’t passed this week, Johnson may be forced to put a clean reauthorization bill on the floor next week under suspension before FISA Section 702 lapses on April 19 — and it could pass. So FISA opponents have to pick their poison here.

Jordan and Intelligence Committee Chair Mike Turner (R-Ohio) are scheduled to hold forums with the Republican Main Street Caucus and the Republican Governance Group this week to discuss FISA legislation, per a source.

Israel: To mark the six-month anniversary of the Gaza war, the House may take up a resolution bashing Biden over Israel. The GOP resolution — which doesn’t have a sponsor yet — says the House “opposes efforts to place one-sided pressure on Israel with respect to Gaza, including calls for an immediate cease-fire….”

This isn’t likely to impact Biden too much politically after the death of seven World Central Kitchen aid workers last week in an Israeli airstrike sparked international outrage.

Ukraine: On perhaps the toughest issue Johnson faces, he’ll meet with members all week. We expect to see his Ukraine aid proposal sometime in the next few days. As we’ve spelled out, it could include the REPO Act, language overturning Biden’s ban on new LNG export applications and more.

— John Bresnahan, Jake Sherman and Andrew Desiderio

Tuesday at 9 a.m. ET: Join us for The Summit: The Future of Rural Health Care. We’re exploring access to health care in rural communities. The half-day event will feature a one-on-one interview with Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.), a panel conversation with health care industry leaders and a fireside chat about patient access to quality care. RSVP now!

BIG TECH

Cantwell-CMR data privacy bill unveiled, now the hard part starts

A bipartisan, bicameral agreement on data privacy has finally emerged after years of hand-wringing and competing proposals stood in the way. Now the question is whether there will be enough support to pass it — or will Big Tech seek to derail it?

As we scooped on Friday, Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) and House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) have unveiled a joint proposal on an issue that has so far stymied lawmakers.

Here’s the text of the bill and a summary of the American Privacy Rights Act, or APRA. Cantwell and McMorris Rodgers gave interviews to their local paper, the Spokesman-Review, on Sunday.

“This landmark legislation represents the sum of years of good faith efforts in both the House and Senate,” Cantwell and McMorris Rodgers said in a joint statement. “Americans deserve the right to control their data and we’re hopeful that our colleagues in the House and Senate will join us in getting this legislation signed into law.”

The legislation, which they’re dubbing a “discussion draft,” would set strict limits on private companies’ use of Americans’ data. As we first disclosed on Friday, this would essentially create the first-ever national data privacy standard, replacing assorted state standards.

There also would be new data security provisions to hold companies accountable if data is hacked or stolen.

OK, what happens now? To be sure, this agreement is a big step forward. But whether it has any legs in a deeply divided Congress — during a presidential election year, no less — is an open question.

CMR is retiring at the end of this Congress and has been aggressive in seeking some legislative wins. See the recent TikTok ban that passed the House.

In the Senate, the proposal could become a vehicle for the Kids Online Safety Act, a popular bill that’s among those Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is considering acting on before the end of the year.

However, it’s too early to tell whether the underlying proposal can pass both chambers. The House and Senate panels’ ranking members, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.), weren’t closely involved in the effort. Cruz hasn’t said anything publicly about the proposal yet, while Pallone called it a “very strong discussion draft” but is recommending a number of changes.

But there are already concerns from the Big Tech companies, and that’s a problem for CMR and Cantwell.

We’re hearing complaints about a provision allowing individuals to “opt out” of targeted advertising. While popular, that’s not going to go over well with Google, Amazon, Meta or other big online companies.

Another potentially huge issue — allowing individuals to sue “bad actors” for misusing data.

Now, the major tech companies will likely be OK with a national standard on data privacy versus a plethora of different state standards. We’ve seen that play out in other industries.

It’s unclear which committee would go first on hearings or a markup. What is clear is that this will be a huge lobbying bonanza for K Street, where Big Tech spends money freely.

Remember what the Big Tech companies did to antitrust legislation in the last Congress. These proposals got big votes in both House and Senate committees and then died before reaching the floor in either chamber. As Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) would remind anyone, do not underestimate the power of Big Tech on Capitol Hill.

Also, that TikTok ban that passed by a big margin in the House last month — what happened to that? Is Cantwell going to move that controversial proposal, which she doesn’t yet support, and this one through her committee?

— Andrew Desiderio, John Bresnahan and Jake Sherman

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What we’re watching

Monday: The House Energy and Commerce Committee has a field hearing in Port Arthur, Texas, on President Joe Biden’s new LNG export application ban.

Tuesday: Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Gen. C.Q. Brown, the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, will testify in front of the Senate Armed Services Committee. The Senate Appropriations Committee will have a hearing on the FY2025 budget request for the Air Force and Space Force.

Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo will testify at the Senate Banking Committee about illicit finance, terrorism and sanctions evasion.

Wednesday: The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee has a hearing on the FBI’s new headquarters building. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas will testify at Senate Appropriations and House Appropriations on the DHS 2025 budget request.

The Consumer Price Index data for March 2024 will be released at 8:30 a.m. by the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Thursday: FBI Director Christopher Wray will testify at House Appropriations about the FBI’s FY2025 budget request.

— Jake Sherman

The tax bill’s window is closing

Congress’ two-week work period beginning today is likely the bipartisan tax bill’s last real hope. And that hope isn’t high at all.

The bill from Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and House Ways and Means Committee Chair Jason Smith (R-Mo.) is still a longshot, at best.

But backers are keenly aware that any shred of possibility of passing the bill begins to disappear after the tax filing season closes on April 15. Winning over Senate Republicans only gets more politically fraught as the election draws closer and changes to 2023 taxes get later.

The status: Heading into this brief April work period, the Senate GOP is mostly dug in against the Smith-Wyden bill. Only a handful of Republican senators have said publicly they’d vote for it.

GOP senators are largely lining up behind objections from Senate Finance Committee top Republican Sen. Mike Crapo of Idaho. Crapo and Senate Republican leadership have urged colleagues to stick together and to vote against cloture.

Given that wall of opposition, a floor vote is unlikely. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is yet again juggling a busy calendar and bigger priorities, like FISA. But expect some pressure and attention to this during this work period, given the feeling that the bill’s time has nearly run out.

And this sets up an even messier fight next year when many of the Trump tax cuts expire. We detailed those dynamics in The Sunday Vault.

— Laura Weiss

BIG JOB MOVE

Top Emmer staffer heading to K Street

David Planning, the floor director for House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, is leaving the Hill for Cornerstone Government Relations.

The floor director for the whip is one of the most important jobs in House Republican leadership. They are a traffic cop, of sorts, in helping get legislation passed on the floor.

Planning, a former college lacrosse player for Ohio State, has a long history on Capitol Hill. He worked for Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) in the chief deputy whip’s office, Steve Scalise when the Louisiana Republican was House majority whip and the House Financial Services Committee. Planning also worked in the legislative affairs shop in the Trump White House.

Dennis Nalls, who is the deputy floor director for Emmer, will be the new floor director. Nalls worked for Scalise for four years.

— Jake Sherman

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