The Archive

IN THIS EDITION

Back to the border

The Vault: What Yellen needs from G7

Frontliners start to break with Biden

NRCC raised $10M in April

What we’re watching

THE TOP

Back to the border

Happy Monday morning.

The Senate is in today, the House returns tomorrow. But both chambers are leaving Thursday for the Memorial Day recess. Congress is already so into summer!

Speaker Mike Johnson is in Philadelphia today and will hold a fundraiser with Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.). Fitzpatrick is one of the few remaining House Republican moderates.

President Joe Biden is hosting Kenyan President William Ruto at the White House this week, including a state dinner on Thursday. Remember, Johnson decided against hosting Ruto for a speech to a joint meeting of Congress during this vigorous Tuesday-through-Thursday week.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will take part in meetings in Frankfurt, Germany, and a G7 finance minister conference in Stresa, Italy. We’ll have coverage from both sessions by our own Brendan Pedersen, who’s traveling with Yellen.

Much of the focus this week again will be the ongoing conflict in Gaza coupled with the political fallout inside Israel. Now comes news that broke overnight — Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian have died in a helicopter crash. Raisi was seen as a possible successor to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

In the Senate: Various committees will hear testimony from top national security officials this week, including from Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

But the action is going to be on the Senate floor, where Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is expected to tee up another vote on the bipartisan border security deal that Republicans killed earlier this year.

Let’s just say up front that this effort will fail. Republicans see this simply as a political exercise intended to boost vulnerable Democratic incumbents, so they’re not going to vote for it. And Schumer openly acknowledged that not every Democrat will support it.

More from Schumer’s “Dear Colleague” letter Sunday night:

Hispanic Democrats, including Sens. Alex Padilla (Calif.) and Bob Menendez (N.J.), will oppose it, as will a handful of Senate progressives. Of course, Menendez might not even show up for the vote because of his federal bribery trial in New York City

So not only will the border security proposal not get 60 votes, it won’t even get a majority.

But that isn’t the point. Democratic leaders have been pretty transparent about their view that this is a chance to flip the traditional politics of border security on its head — and throw their red-state members a lifeline.

Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), one of the party’s top messaging figures, said, “We are not going to stop talking about this.”

“We’re tired of being on defense about this. Frankly, our argument is better. The Republicans unanimously tanked tough border policy because their boss told them to,” Schatz said.

Republicans see Schumer’s decision to resuscitate the border deal as an attempt to deflect from President Joe Biden’s record on the border. GOP leaders believe the issue is already baked in when it comes to the election, and they think voters will blame Democrats for the ongoing crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border no matter what.

Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.), the lead Republican negotiator for the bipartisan border deal, likened Schumer’s move to recent GOP efforts to force doomed-to-fail Senate votes on H.R. 2, the hardline Republican border bill that has no Democratic support.

Lankford, of course, suggested earlier this year that members of his party were playing politics when they rejected his deal with Democrats and the White House. Lankford sees Schumer’s move as no different.

“This is, let’s pick up weapons and try to attack each other,” Lankford told us late last week. “That’s not going to help us. We’ve got to figure out how to solve this.”

It’s certainly a boost for Sens. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) and Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio). The ads practically write themselves: “Senator X voted for the strictest border crackdown in a generation.”

As we wrote last week, it’s a steep uphill climb for Tester and Brown with former President Donald Trump on top of the GOP ticket. Both will need to out-perform Biden by substantial margins to win reelection this November in their red states.

Yet it’s not just Tester and Brown who would benefit from this “show” vote. Sens. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) and Bob Casey (D-Pa.) are also more than happy to vote for this to draw a contrast with their GOP challengers.

The House: The House is voting this week on a pair of financial services bills. It’s a welcome sign for the Financial Services Committee, which has a backlog of legislation that needs floor consideration. Read about this week on the floor, which our Vault team said is unlike any other week in crypto’s history.

Also on the floor: The Working Dog Commemorative Coin Act; legislation that would give Congressional Gold Medals to “60 diplomats, in recognition of their bravery and heroism during the Holocaust”; and a bill that would make it illegal for undocumented immigrants to vote in the District of Columbia.

— Andrew Desiderio, Jake Sherman and John Bresnahan

Upcoming Event! Join us Wednesday for our event with Senate Minority Whip John Thune. Anna Palmer will sit down with Thune to discuss news of the day, 5G & spectrum policy and the higher demand on network reliability. Afterward, Hans Vestberg, chair and CEO of Verizon, and Tom Brady, seven-time World Champion, entrepreneur and philanthropist, will join Anna for a fireside chat. If you are interested in attending in person or virtually, please fill out this interest form. Please note that in-person attendance is not guaranteed as there are only a small number of spots available.

WE’RE HIRING!

Exciting news: Punchbowl News is hiring four new positions! We’re expanding our business and editorial teams to continue delivering the best coverage of the people, power and politics of Washington.

On the business team, we’re looking for a client engagement manager, business operations associate and lead engineer to support our advertising, revenue and technology teams.

On the editorial side, we’re looking for a Senate reporter to join the team covering Capitol Hill.

Interested or know someone who would be a good fit? Apply today!

The Vault: What Yellen needs from G7

FRANKFURT, GERMANY — Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has a full week ahead of her in Europe.

The G7 finance ministers’ conference kicks off in Stresa, Italy, as top economic officials from around the world will stream into a tiny beach town just south of the Swiss border.

There’s a lot on the docket, as we wrote in The Sunday Vault. But even before then, Yellen is slated to give a major address on our transatlantic alliance with Europe on Tuesday at the European Central Bank. We’ll be traveling with the Treasury secretary all week.

But for many on Capitol Hill, the main event will be about Ukraine and a piece of legislation Congress managed to pass earlier this year — the REPO Act. This G7 meeting will be a crucial opportunity for Yellen to rally heretofore hesitant E.U. leaders behind some kind of plan to use Russia’s frozen global assets to pay for Ukrainian aid.

The REPO Act gave U.S. authorities a first-of-its-kind power to seize Russian sovereign assets to cover the cost of Ukrainian aid. But the United States needs Europe’s help to make the regime an effective one because the European banking system is where the vast majority of Russia’s global assets currently sit.

For now, Yellen will push a more limited approach that stops short of outright seizure — a plan targeting the future interest earnings on Russian sovereign assets. In an interview Sunday afternoon, Yellen told us the idea was to do “something more ambitious with the windfall profits.”

“At every point, we have made clear we feel there’s a strong, international legal justification for seizing the assets,” Yellen said. “But, we’d strongly prefer not to act alone and find a way to get the benefit of the assets that can command consensus among the G7.”

There will also be plenty of G7 conversation about the future of sanctions targeting Russia’s energy sector and industrial base, as well as tariffs to compete with China and the future of artificial intelligence regulation. We’ll be tracking all that and more.

— Brendan Pedersen

CAMPAIGN CONUNDRUM

Frontliners start to break with Biden

Vulnerable House Democrats are increasingly finding ways to distance themselves from President Joe Biden.

In a presidential year, Frontliners know much of their success will be tied to the top of the ticket. But they also have an instinct for self-preservation, and that means taking some shots at the unpopular president’s policies.

In recent weeks, swing-seat Democrats have become more vocal about their issues with the administration’s handling of the southern border, the Israel-Hamas war and energy policies.

Polls have Biden trailing former President Donald Trump in a number of key swing states where many Frontliners reside. While few Democrats will sound the alarm publicly on the party’s leader, their willingness to criticize the White House’s policy moves is a good indicator that these vulnerable members are feeling the heat.

“I think people trust me and others to do what’s best for our districts, and if that means agreeing with the administration, great. If it means disagreeing, that’s fine too,” Rep. Greg Landsman (D-Ohio) told us.

Here are some recent examples:

→	Last week, 26 Democrats, many of whom are in swing districts, raised concerns in a letter to the administration about Biden withholding the transfer of heavy bombs to Israel. The NRCC has been relentlessly hitting at-risk Democrats for a perceived softness on Israel policy.

→	Earlier this month, Rep. Angie Craig (D-Minn.) led over a dozen Democrats in a letter demanding Biden take executive action to control undocumented migration at the U.S.-Mexico border.

→	Last April, Reps. Marie Gluesenkamp-Perez (D-Wash.) and Mary Peltola (D-Alaska) penned a letter to Biden administration officials pushing back on proposed electric vehicle rules and urging them to shore up infrastructure for rural America. Gluesenkamp Perez has continued to message on this front.

The Democratic split is also happening at a more local level. For instance, Rep. Chris Deluzio (D-Pa.) bucked the administration on a proposed Energy Department rule on Grain-Oriented Electrical Steel. Deluzio, who worked with Pennsylvania GOP Rep. Mike Kelly to secure changes to the rule, said the regulation would’ve cost western Pennsylvania more than 1,000 union jobs.

“That’s the kind of pushback and disagreement that I take on when it’s about my region and jobs and supply chain,” Deluzio told us. “I’m going to push the administration to hear me, and this was a success story of seeing exactly that.”

A common thread we heard from Frontliners was the insistence that their races were inherently local affairs. In a blockbuster Biden vs. Trump showdown year, that’s easier said than done.

Rep. Steven Horsford (D-Nev.), however, insisted his brand in the district is what will propel him to victory.

“I’m on the ballot,” Horsford told us. “As a Frontline member, the message starts from the ground up, not from the top down.”

— Mica Soellner and Max Cohen

THE MONEY GAME

NRCC raised $10M in April

News: The NRCC raised $10 million in April and ended the month with $59.8 million on hand.

The NRCC finished March with $55.9 million in the bank, so they added $3.9 million to their cash stockpile. The $10 million haul is the NRCC’s second-best-ever April tally in the organization’s history.

House Republicans have a slim majority and must defend over a dozen incumbents in seats that President Joe Biden won in 2020. Throughout the cycle, the DCCC has outraised the GOP campaign arm.

Per the NRCC, the group has raised $134.7 million in total this cycle.

After former Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s ousting, House Republicans have struggled to replicate the Californian’s fundraising prowess.

— Max Cohen

📆

What we’re watching

Tuesday: Army Secretary Christine Wormuth and Gen. Randy George will be in front of the Senate Appropriations Committee. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will be in front of the Senate Foreign Relations and Appropriations committees.

Wednesday: Blinken will be in front of the House Appropriations Committee. The House Energy and Commerce Committee will have a hearing on their bill to sunset Section 230.

Thursday: The House Appropriations Committee will have a hearing on the U.N.’s budget with Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield. The House Education and Workforce Committee will have a hearing on antisemitism on college campuses with the presidents of Northwestern and Rutgers and the chancellor of UCLA.

— Jake Sherman

MOMENTS

CLIPS