View in web browser

PRESENTED BY

BY JOHN BRESNAHAN, ANNA PALMER AND JAKE SHERMAN
WITH MAX COHEN AND CHRISTIAN HALL

THE TOP

Happy Monday morning. This is the first time since mid-December that the Senate and House will be in town at the same time. So welcome back, and everyone please be safe. The Hill is going to be crowded this week.

It’s a week of reckoning for Democrats on Capitol Hill. And there’ll be a final tribute to the late Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in the Rotunda on Wednesday.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Reid’s successor, has promised to force a vote on voting rights legislation by Jan. 17. Republicans are uniformly opposed and will filibuster any Democratic attempts to standardize the nation’s election laws. Schumer has warned he’ll then try to alter Senate rules to rein in the filibuster. 

But Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) isn’t only opposed to scrapping the filibuster, he’s opposed to changing the chamber’s rules without Republican buy-in. He’s not willing to go “nuclear” – revising the Senate’s rules with just 50 votes. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) has also said she wants to keep the 60-vote threshold for cloture. So Schumer’s in a jam. 

With all this at stake, President Joe Biden – a 36-year veteran of the Senate – will go to Georgia tomorrow to weigh in on voting rights and the future of the filibuster. Several Senate Democrats will attend his speech. As we told you last week, Biden is going to try to build public support for voting rights reform and argue that the Senate has to pass something on the issue – even if it means changing the rules in order to do so.

We don’t expect Schumer to lay out any floor schedule on these votes until after the Biden speech. So this will be a closely watched event. Can Biden make a strong argument on voting rights or potential Senate rules changes on the filibuster? Will it matter? 

Separately, the Build Back Better Act remains stalled. One thing we’ll be asking progressive Democrats this week is if they have any ideas to jump-start the process after it was derailed by Manchin in mid-December. Progressives were certain that the Senate would take up the BBB and pass it quickly, but they were sorely mistaken. 

The stakes remain enormous for Biden and Schumer here. The BBB was the president’s top legislative priority, and like voting rights reform, it faced unyielding GOP opposition. So it could only pass with Democratic votes under reconciliation. Manchin was concerned about the cost, as well as soaring inflation. December’s inflation report will be released on Wednesday morning, and if it’s as bad as the November report, that may drive Manchin even further away from a potential deal. 

The Senate this week will also take up a Russia sanctions bill offered by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) related to the Nord Stream 2 natural project. This comes as a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine looms. Biden has warned Russian President Vladimir Putin that Russia will suffer severe economic consequences if such an attack happens.

The vote on the Cruz bill will have to take place by Friday at the latest under a previous agreement. It will need 60 votes to pass.

Covid and the Capitol

One dynamic worth considering: The House returns to D.C. Monday for the first time in nearly a month. A bunch of lawmakers have come down with Covid in this Omicron surge – the latest being Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez (D-N.Y.). Those lawmakers reporting being ill are overwhelmingly Democratic, so Republicans are either not contracting the disease or more likely they are not testing and/or announcing their diagnosis publicly. Even contracting Covid is now apparently a political act. 

PBS’s Lisa Desjardins has been keeping statistics about lawmakers who have contracted Covid. Check it out here.

THE INVESTIGATION

House Democrats have a big decision to make on Jan. 6 probe

Reps. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Scott Perry (R-Pa.) have now both told the Jan. 6 committee that they won’t voluntarily sit for interviews about their dealings with former President Donald Trump in the period up to and including the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. 

The GOP pair’s refusal presents Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), the select committee chair, and the House Democratic leadership with some tough decisions to make. Do they subpoena the Republicans and attempt to compel their testimony? What if the GOP lawmakers refuse to comply with those subpoenas? Would Democrats then initiate contempt proceedings? Or would the select committee have to go to court first just to issue the subpoena to Jordan or Perry? Thompson has said the panel is still reviewing whether it has the legal authority to do so. It would be an unprecedented step, however, and opens up some very sticky legal questions for this and future Congresses.

Another big question – What happens with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, who also talked to Trump on Jan. 6? Is the select committee going to invite him to testify, and if so, when? And what happens when he says no as well?

If GOP lawmakers don’t end up testifying – coupled with other witnesses’ refusal to cooperate – it could potentially leave gaps in the select committee’s final report on the events of Jan. 6. The panel has interviewed hundreds of witnesses so far and uncovered extensive new evidence, yet these Republicans have critical information on what the former president was doing and saying that day. This information could be especially important if the panel ever puts together a criminal referral to the Justice Department on Trump.

Here’s what a spokesperson for the select committee said in response to Jordan’s letter on Sunday night declining to appear:

“Mr. Jordan’s letter fails to address the principal [basis] for the Select Committee’s request for a meeting, including that he worked directly with President Trump and the Trump legal team to attempt to overturn the lawful results of the 2020 presidential election. Mr. Jordan has admitted that he spoke directly to President Trump on January 6th and is thus a material witness. Mr. Jordan’s letter to the committee fails to address these facts. Mr. Jordan has previously said that he would cooperate with the committee’s investigation, but it now appears that the Trump team has persuaded him to try to hide the facts and circumstances of January 6th. The Select Committee will respond to this letter in more detail in the coming days and will consider appropriate next steps.”

There are a couple points to note here: 

→ The select committee response suggests the panel could be heading toward a showdown with Trump at some point. Note the panel’s response says Jordan was going to speak to the panel, but the “Trump team” intervened to dissuade him from doing so. The two sides are already in court over the select committee’s attempts to obtain Trump White House documents from the National Archives. If the panel eventually seeks to have Trump testify, what happens when he refuses? Does Trump get a subpoena too? And a criminal referral if he doesn’t, as Mark Meadows, Trump’s former chief of staff has faced? 

→ Jordan’s Sunday night letter also raises a serious concern, one that may make constitutional or legal experts pause. Pay attention to this quote: “Your attempt to pry into the deliberative process informing a Member about legislative matters before the House is an outrageous abuse of the Select Committee’s authority. This unprecedented action served no legitimate legislative purpose and would set a dangerous precedent for future Congresses.”

This sounds like Jordan is asserting his constitutional privilege under the “Speech or Debate Clause,” which protects lawmakers and staffers from questioning about legislative activity. But can a member assert the Speech or Debate privilege against Congress?

The select committee knows from text messages it obtained from Meadows – a close Jordan friend – that the Ohio Republican was among those pushing a legal theory that Vice President Mike Pence had the authority to block certification of Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory.

The gist of Jordan’s argument here is basically “So what?” Congress’ certification of the Electoral College is required by law. As a member of Congress, Jordan has a right to be involved in any debate tied to those congressional proceedings.

Jordan – who spoke to Trump on Jan. 6 – also notes he had no role in the security posture for the Capitol that day. Jordan, in fact, was in the House chamber during the attack.

But Democrats have a dramatically different take of Jordan’s text message.

They see Jordan involved in an inappropriate pressure campaign to convince Pence to “simply throw out the votes he deems unconstitutional in order to overturn a presidential election and subvert the will of the American people,” Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said in mid-December. Schiff at that time didn’t identify the text as having come from Jordan, although it was ultimately confirmed to be. So to Democrats, Jordan’s communication was all part of Trump’s campaign to set aside the results of the election, which ultimately led to the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

So this a pivotal moment for the select committee’s probe. We’ll be all over it, of course.

👀

Who we’re watching this week

→ Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.): Well, the more things change, the more they stay the same. Our Manchin mantra is to believe what he says and don’t look for hidden meaning in his musings. When Manchin says he’s not interested in talking about the Build Back Better Act, that means he’s not interested in talking about BBB. When Manchin says he wants to keep the filibuster and isn’t interested in altering the 60-vote threshold for cloture, well, we think he means it. (And if he doesn’t, Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona certainly does).

→ Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer: Schumer faces a huge challenge over voting rights and the filibuster. After the disappointment over the Build Back Better Act, Schumer needs a win. Schumer will be looking to see if President Joe Biden can help deliver that here, but it’s hard to see any good outcome for Senate Democrats at the moment.

→ NRCC Chair Tom Emmer and DCCC Chair Sean Patrick Maloney: The shape of the 2022 elections is becoming increasingly clear, with Biden’s flagging approval ratings and a spate of retirements in the House Democratic Caucus. Emmer’s biggest focus is raising money. Maloney’s Democrats, meanwhile, could face even more retirements in their ranks. He will want to get those retirements out of the way quickly, and then tap candidates to step in and run.

→ Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.): Can Congress cut a budget deal even now, more than three months into the fiscal year? The House Appropriations Committee chair is trying to see what her members will accept.

📅

What’s happening this week

→ Tuesday: House Oversight will have a hearing on “Unsustainable Drug Prices: Findings from the Committee’s Drug Pricing Investigation and the Need for Structural Reforms” … House Appropriations has a hearing with Thomas Manger, the chief of the Capitol Police; William Walker, the House sergeant at arms; and Brett Blanton, the Architect of the Capitol, on Capitol security post Jan. 6. 

Senate HELP has CDC Director Rochelle Walensky, Anthony Fauci, and Acting FDA Commissioner Janet Woodcock on the federal response to Covid. … Senate Banking has a confirmation hearing with Fed Chair Jay Powell’s bid for a second term atop the nation’s central bank.

Senate Judiciary will have a hearing with Matthew Olsen, the assistant attorney general in the national security division, and Jill Sanborn, the executive director of the national security branch of the FBI, on the domestic terrorism threat post Jan. 6. … 

→ Wednesday: Senate HELP has its confirmation hearing for Robert Califf to be the next FDA commissioner. … Senate Judiciary has a hearing to consider judicials nominations … Senate Foreign Relations has a hearing to consider the nomination of a number of ambassadors including Amy Gutmann to Germany.  

House Appropriations has a hearing with military chiefs on the impact of another stopgap funding bill. … House Agriculture has a hearing on how investment in electric vehicles impacts rural America. 

→ Thursday: Senate Judiciary will hold a hearing to consider judicial nominees. … Senate Armed Services has a hearing to consider assistant defense secretary nominees. … Senate Banking will consider the nomination of Lael Brainard to be vice chair of the Fed. 

→ Friday: Senate Armed Services and Intelligence will receive a briefing on Afghanistan from Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken. 

→ Rep. Mariannette Miller Meeks (R-Iowa) raised $69,000 into a victory fund, including $10,000 from Ross Perot, the son of the former presidential candidate and billionaire from Texas.

→ The Republican super PAC USA Freedom Fund received $435,000 from Club for Growth.

FRONTS

MOMENTS

9:30 a.m.: President Joe Biden will return to the White House from Camp David.

10:30 a.m.: Biden will get his intelligence briefing. 

1:30 p.m.: Jen Psaki will brief. 

Week ahead: Tuesday: Biden will go to Atlanta to speak about voting rights at the Atlanta University Center Consortium. He will lay a wreath at the crypt of Martin Luther King Jr. and will visit the Historic Ebenezer Baptist Church, where Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) is a pastor. 

Thursday: Biden will speak about Covid-19. 

CLIP FILE

NYT

→ “Biden Comes Out Swinging Against Republicans as His Agenda Stalls,” by Michael Shear

→ “​​U.S. and Russia Will Discuss European Security, but Without Europeans,” by Steven Erlanger in Brussels 

AP

→ “Inflation up, virus down as priorities in US: AP-NORC poll,” by Will Weissert and Hannah Fingerhut

Politico

→ “​​Jan. 6 panel ramps up investigation into Trump’s state-level pressure,” by Nick Wu

→ “Powell was called on to save the economy. His next challenge will be even tougher,” by Victoria Guida

WSJ

→ “Covid-19 School Closures Reignite Political Jockeying Ahead of Midterms,” by Natalie Andrews and Catherine Lucey

Bloomberg

→ “Omicron Inches Closer to Beijing Ahead of Winter Olympics,” by John Liu and Claire Che

Chicago Tribune

→ “Chicago Public Schools cancels classes for fourth day in a row; talks with teachers union ongoing,” by Gregory Pratt

Enjoying Punchbowl News AM?

Subscribe 10 friends with your unique link (below) and get a Punchbowl News hat!

Your referral link is: 

You can see all the rewards in here!

Or share via

You currently have: 0 referrals

Editorial photos provided by Getty Images