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IN THIS EDITION

News: Scalise lays out House Republicans’ September plans

Forget the defund movement. Dems in tough races are embracing cops

Punchbowl News brings Power, People, Politics to Texas Tribune Festival in Austin

Jeff Flake reflects on ambassadorship — and drops some 2024 hints

THE TOP

News: Scalise lays out House Republicans’ September plans

Happy Friday morning.

We had the opportunity to talk with House Majority Leader Steve Scalise Thursday. We had a detailed conversation about the House GOP’s priorities as the 2024 midterm elections loom large.

There are just 60 days until Election Day. The House is in session for the next three weeks before lawmakers head home for all of October to campaign for reelection.

Of course, the most pressing business for Congress is to pass a bill to fund government agencies beyond Sept. 30. Speaker Mike Johnson laid out his legislative plan to try to get that done this week — a six-month stopgap funding bill with the SAVE Act attached. We don’t think that proposal has much of a chance, as we’ve noted.

But Scalise has a slew of other bills planned for the month as well. Let’s get into it.

Next week, the House will focus on cracking down on China. We wrote about this in detail on Monday.

But House Republicans are also planning several weeks’ worth of cultural war votes on what Scalise called “woke” ESG and DEI policies both in government agencies and financial institutions. Furthermore, Republicans will have legislation that addresses the BDS (boycott, divest and sanction) movement against Israel.

ESG and DEI. Scalise says he’s preparing to bring up bills targeting financial institutions that invest assets based on diversity, equity and inclusion standards. Hill Republicans have been talking about this for nearly two years, so we’re not terribly surprised here.

Scalise says that financial institutions are investing assets “in their most favored woke fund and it actually gets much lower returns for hard working people.”

Furthermore, Scalise said he’ll be scheduling a floor vote on a bill to prevent college accreditation agencies from taking political views into account when certifying institutions of higher education.

Immigration and crime. Also on the docket is a bill from Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) that requires the federal government to deport undocumented immigrants who are convicted of sexual offenses or domestic violence.

And in the final week of September, the House will vote on a bill that sets minimum bail standards for municipalities to be eligible for federal grants.

Also: Scalise added that he intends to move a bill called the Fix our Forests Act by Rep. Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.). The bipartisan legislation deals with a host of federal policies aimed at preventing forest fires.

We asked Scalise just what he’s thinking with this agenda. With the high cost of food, housing and everything else atop most voters’ minds, why is he lining up a number of culture-war votes?

Here’s what Scalise said:

End of fiscal year crush. Scalise signaled he’s eager to fight for a stopgap funding package that includes the SAVE Act. That legislation requires voters to prove they’re U.S. citizens before registering to vote in a federal election. The House GOP leadership believes — wrongly, in our view — that the Senate will be pressured to take up their proposal.

“At some point in time, the Senate does have a role to play. If we pass a CR next week, whatever’s in it, the Senate’s got to go do something,” Scalise said. “At some point, the Senate has to do their job. If it includes the SAVE Act, if it includes other things too, let’s see what they do.”

Interestingly, Scalise does seem to be signaling that more could be added to the CR to get it through the chamber.

Remember: The farm bill expires this year too. Some provisions expire at the end of September, others on Dec. 31. Scalise wouldn’t commit to a short-term extension of agricultural policy. This is something that the GOP leadership will get a lot of pressure on in the coming weeks.

2024. Texas GOP Rep. Tony Gonzales made waves — actually a hurricane — when he told us at a Punchbowl News event at the Texas Tribune Festival in Austin that Republicans would lose the House.

“What’s frustrating me is I firmly believe that House Republicans are going to lose the majority,” Gonzales said, “And we’re going to lose it because of ourselves.”

Scalise strongly disagreed with that take:

Yes, that was a bit of ribbing.

— Jake Sherman and John Bresnahan

Today at 1:15 p.m. CT/2:15 p.m. ET in Birmingham, Ala: Punchbowl News founder and CEO Anna Palmer will discuss the small business ecosystem in Alabama and the state’s economic future with Alabama Republican Sen. Katie Britt. To join us, RSVP.

Forget the defund movement. Dems in tough races are embracing cops

Four years after progressives warmed to the “defund the police” movement, Democratic candidates running in competitive elections are seeking to tie themselves to law enforcement as closely as possible.

In ad after ad from vulnerable Democrats, lawmakers are showcasing police union endorsements and touting how they’ve increased funding for law enforcement.

The widespread pro-police messaging among Democrats is a big shift from where the party was in the summer of 2020. Then, the shocking police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis led the party to imagine a future where public safety responsibilities shifted away from cops.

But in the years since, as violent crime increased during the Covid pandemic and Republicans began to attack Democrats as “soft on crime,” Democrats have turned back to embracing law enforcement.

Some data: According to AdImpact, Democrats running in congressional races have spent a total of $24 million on police-themed ads this cycle. It’s a huge investment that shows the party is actively trying to rebut GOP attacks on the issue.

Some recent examples:

— An ad from Rep. Steven Horsford (D-Nev.), the chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, touts how he’s secured $250 million for police and border enforcement. The ad even features a close-up of a ‘thin blue line’ flag, which exemplifies the “Blue Lives Matter” pro-police movement.

— Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) has an ad featuring a group of Wisconsin sheriffs praising her work to combat drug trafficking.

— California Democratic candidate Dave Min said this in a recent ad: “When Sacramento wouldn’t get tough on retail crime, I did. And I’m proud to be endorsed by Orange County Police officers.” Min is facing off against Republican Scott Baugh in the open 47th District.

“There’s a recognition that we need to work together and support law enforcement, that they’re putting their lives on the line,” New Democrat Coalition Chair Annie Kuster (D-N.H.) told us. “I think we’ve seen a lot of our candidates leaning in on that agenda.”

A number of police unions have also endorsed Democratic candidates, from Ohio to California to Arizona.

Police pushback: Democratic attempts to align themselves with cops haven’t always gone smoothly, however, with multiple police groups trying to distance themselves from recent ads.

— Local officials in Irvine, Calif., had to clarify that a police chief who appeared in a pro-Min ad from Giffords PAC hadn’t actually endorsed the Democrat.

— A House Majority PAC ad supporting Rep. Susan Wild (D-Pa.) featured a man wearing a police badge endorsing Wild’s efforts to fight fentanyl trafficking. But a local police union official said the man doesn’t work for the department and only served as an “auxiliary officer” years ago.

— The head of an Oregon police union issued a statement condemning Democrat Janelle Bynum as a politician who “crippled law enforcement” after the candidate ran an ad trying to boost her public safety bona fides. Bynum is challenging Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer (R-Ore.) in the competitive 5th District.

— Max Cohen

PUNCHBOWL NEWS EVENTS

Punchbowl News brings Power, People, Politics to Texas Tribune Festival in Austin

AUSTIN, Texas — Punchbowl News partnered with The Texas Tribune Thursday for the publication’s annual festival, TribFest. We hosted on-stage conversations with newsmakers dishing on Congress and the 2024 election.

House Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Director Arati Prabhakar, Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas) and MSNBC host Ali Velshi joined us for the conversations.

We also brought our signature Brown Bag briefing to the festival, where we hosted a discussion on key news issues on people’s minds.

Here are some top takeaways from those conversations:

Democrats’ chances: Aguilar expressed confidence in Democrats’ ability to win back control of the House. He rated their chances of winning as 7 on a scale of 1 to 10. Still, Aguilar cautioned the party not to take things for granted.

“Our opponent is often complacency as much as it is Republicans,” Aguilar said, noting that it will be close regardless.

Aguilar said he’s confident Democratic candidates will benefit from the renewed enthusiasm that has swept the party since Vice President Kamala Harris took over for President Joe Biden at the top of the ticket. He said the Harris campaign has been communicative with Democratic members on fundraising and her policy vision, even asking to coordinate whenever members travel for campaign events.

The California Democrat also gave some candid insight into how terrified Democrats were about the prospect of Biden remaining the party’s presidential nominee.

Should Harris win, Aguilar added, Biden will be remembered as someone who “saved” the country from former President Donald Trump twice.

Government funding: Aguilar didn’t say whether Democratic leaders would encourage their members to oppose Speaker Mike Johnson’s plan to pair a CR with the SAVE Act, but predicted it would fail anyway.

“I don’t think we’re going to have to work incredibly hard to have members vote against this proposal,” Aguilar said. “We know how this is going to end. This is going to end with a CR that has Democrats and Republicans on board.”

AI: Prabhakar, who serves as Biden’s top science and technology adviser, provided insight into how the Biden administration is working to mitigate the potential harms of artificial intelligence while boosting innovation.

The debate over AI policy often revolves around innovation vs. regulation, but Prabhakar said the two should go hand-in-hand.

“[AI] brings promise and peril,” Prabhakar said. “We’ve got to get it right for the American people, and that means vanishing the harms so that we can seize the benefits.”

Prabhakar also discussed Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s bipartisan AI roadmap and whether Congress can effectively regulate the technology while it is advancing rapidly. Congress notoriously grinds along at much slower speed.

“Technology moves at the pace of research and development,” she said. “Policy moves at the pace of consensus. And that is by design.”

More: In a separate conversation with Punchbowl News, Gonzales predicted that Republicans would lose the House majority “because of ourselves.” Gonzales cited GOP woes on both fundraising and messaging. And Velshi joined Anna to discuss his book, “Small Acts of Courage.”

— Andrew Desiderio and Melanie Zanona

WASHINGTON X THE WORLD

Jeff Flake reflects on ambassadorship — and drops some 2024 hints

One of the most prominent anti-Trump Republicans just wrapped up a rollercoaster of a tenure as U.S. ambassador to Turkey. And in an exit interview with Punchbowl News, former Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) dropped hints about when he might weigh in on the 2024 election.

Flake made waves when he endorsed President Joe Biden in 2020. Flake was eventually nominated and confirmed to serve as the top U.S. envoy in Ankara.

Since then, Flake has refrained from engaging in politics while dealing with a series of complex negotiations between the United States and Turkey over NATO, Ukraine, F-16s and more. While it’s no secret where he stands on former President Donald Trump, Flake — who officially wrapped up his ambassadorship five days ago — isn’t quite ready to weigh in on the current campaign.

“I had gone this far up until my last day without bringing politics into the equation and I’m not about to,” Flake told us with a laugh.

But Flake clearly wanted to be home before the final stretch of the campaign, and he strongly suggested to us that he’ll be speaking out at some point.

Flake also told us he’s “always been a big fan of continuity” when it comes to foreign policy. Of course, Vice President Kamala Harris would represent continuity in U.S. foreign policy from the Biden administration.

In the meantime, Flake plans on doing some guest lecturing at BYU in Utah and ASU back home in Arizona.

Does a Cabinet position await? If Flake decides to endorse Harris, he’ll join a handful of former GOP lawmakers who have done so. Former Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) spoke at the Democratic convention last month, and former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) revealed this week that she’ll be voting for Harris.

Flake would also be a contender for a Cabinet position in a Harris administration. The vice president said last week that she intends to appoint a Republican to her Cabinet. Flake’s decision to endorse Biden in 2020 undoubtedly helped him get the Turkey job, and Democrats believe Flake was successful in that role.

Congress and Ankara: Turkey’s relationship with Congress has been fraught over the last decade. Flake’s goal was to change that — and to push Turkey to relent in its opposition to approving Finland and Sweden’s accession to NATO.

Flake lamented that it was a “long, drawn-out event” that ultimately became tied to the issue of whether the United States would sell F-16 fighter jets to Turkey. Congress was already holding up the F-16 sale for different reasons.

Interestingly, Flake told us that the intransigence from lawmakers like Sen. Jim Risch (R-Idaho) — the top Foreign Relations Committee Republican — actually helped him during negotiations with Turkish officials.

“The strong position [from Congress] that F-16s would not move, that we couldn’t progress in our bilateral relationship with Turkey until Sweden was a member — that was incredibly helpful for me to go to my interlocutors here and say, ‘Hey, you know where the Congress is,’” Flake said.

But Flake also had to make the case to lawmakers like Risch that Ankara is an important security partner. Flake, who served on the Foreign Relations Committee, said it’s easy for lawmakers “to overlook some things that a country brings to the table and focus on one issue.”

— Andrew Desiderio

THE CAMPAIGN

New ad: Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester’s (D-Del.) Senate campaign is running its first digital ad that highlights her work on a bill that allows formerly incarcerated individuals to integrate back into society. The ad, part of a targeted outreach effort to Black voters, features Delaware residents thanking Blunt Rochester for fighting for their second chance.

Another new ad: Arizona Senate GOP Candidate Kari Lake is up with a new ad, shared first with Punchbowl News, featuring two parents who lost their 17-year-old son to an opioid overdose. The spot calls the border crisis a “life and death” issue and says Lake’s Democratic opponent, Rep. Ruben Gallego, is “radically wrong on the border.” The ad is part of a $10 million joint ad buy with the NRSC.

On the trail: Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.) is getting creative as she campaigns for the Harris-Walz ticket in Minnesota this week. Jacobs brought her mom to play pickleball with voters in Bloomington, Minn., before attending a reproductive rights canvass kickoff. On Friday, Jacobs will speak to students at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities and Macalester College.

— Max Cohen

MOMENTS

CLIPS