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February 4, 2022
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 PRESENTED BY BY JOHN BRESNAHAN, ANNA PALMER AND JAKE SHERMAN  THE TOPHappy Friday morning. The RNC is gathered for its winter meeting in Salt Lake City, and the party is set to vote on censuring Reps. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) and Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.). As we all know, Cheney and Kinzinger – but especially Cheney – have become the primary irritants for former President Donald Trump these days. And in today’s Republican Party, that’s enough to put you in a permanent penalty box. Nevermind that by traditional standards, Cheney and Kinzinger are consistently more conservative than Trump. The RNC watered down the resolution – introduced by David Bossie, a former senior Trump adviser – NBC reported. It initially called for Cheney and Kinzinger to be expelled from the party by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy. The question now is will the RNC resolution cause Cheney and Kinzinger problems in the House Republican Conference? The hardline pro-Trump wing of the GOP Conference has been agitating against the pair for months, pushing to expel them from the party. These calls have been growing louder as the Jan. 6 select committee’s investigation has picked up speed — and grown closer to Trump. Could these hardliners try to force McCarthy’s hand following this expected RNC vote? Remember: Rule 1(b) of the House Republican Conference rules say: “A ⅔ vote of the entire membership shall be necessary to expel a Member of the Conference. Proceedings for expulsion shall follow the rules of the House of Representatives, as nearly as practicable.” If someone were to call on Cheney and Kinzinger to be removed from the conference, McCarthy could use procedural methods to try to slow down or shelve it. In reality, McCarthy and the House GOP leadership have been eager to tamp down this internal drama for obvious reasons. With President Joe Biden and Democrats unable to move their agenda due to Senate GOP opposition, the American public’s frustration with the continuing Covid pandemic and soaring inflation felt across the country, and House Republicans seemingly on the march toward the majority, why would McCarthy want the spotlight on internecine fighting over Trump? The way the GOP leadership sees this, Kinzinger will be gone from Congress after the election and Cheney will lose in November. (Team Cheney downplays her troubles in Wyoming and says it’s not nearly as bad as the national media would have you believe). McCarthy has a tightrope to walk here. If he’s seen as protecting Cheney and Kinzinger, the California Republican risks damaging his relationship with the hard right – a relationship that was once rocky but is now largely under control. However, If he gives in to their demands, McCarthy puts the spotlight directly on his conference at a time when his best move is to keep a low profile. Read WaPo’s Josh Dawsey on the row from Salt Lake City. A bad jobs day on tap? It’s jobs day. The January employment numbers come out this morning at 8:30 a.m., and President Joe Biden will talk about them at 10:45 a.m. from the White House. This may be a bad number for the White House. Here’s Ben Cassleman in the NYT.
CNBC detailed the range of possibilities for the numbers. A loss of several hundred thousand jobs would be deflating for the White House – even if it was a quirk due to the spike in Omicron-caused Covid cases. PRESENTED BY CLIMATE POWER It’s time for Congress to take on climate change, lower utility costs, and make a major investment in American workers – with clean energy. We can create millions of good-paying jobs that can’t be outsourced and don’t require a four-year degree. We can lower costs for America’s working families by as much as $500/year, protect future generations, and put our clean energy economy into hyperdrive. It’s simple: Voters want this. Congress, let’s get it done. FOR THE HILL Pelosi backs staffer unionization push  Speaker Nancy Pelosi threw her considerable weight Thursday behind a growing movement to unionize Capitol Hill aides. Drew Hammill, Pelosi’s deputy chief of staff, tweeted Thursday:
This was, in part, in response to a question by Pablo Manríquez of Latino Rebels. Manríquez asked Pelosi Thursday about the issue during a news conference, and the speaker indicated she supported the DCCC’s unionization effort. Part of this discussion has been spurred by an anonymous Instagram account called “Dear White Staffers” which details poor working conditions on Capitol Hill, especially for junior staffers. The unionization effort picked up support from a host of Democrats Thursday, including Reps. Nydia Velazquez (D-N.Y.), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Andy Levin (D-Mich.). We’re going to spend some time looking into how real this unionization effort is. If you have details or are involved in the effort, shoot us a note – jake [at] punchbowl [dot] news and bres [at] punchbowl [dot] news – and help us understand what’s going on. THE FUNDING BATTLE A stopgap spending bill likely, even as ‘topline number’ is close With government funding running out on Feb. 18, it’s clear that Congress will need to pass a short-term stopgap spending bill to avert a shutdown. Even if Republicans and Democrats are able to get a “topline” spending number very soon – the first step toward a deal – Congress will still need to buy more time to finish work on an omnibus package covering all 12 annual bills. Those packages can be thousands of pages long. Lawmakers and aides involved in the bipartisan, bicameral talks say progress is being made and a topline deal is possible, perhaps as soon as this weekend or early next week. “We’re still working,” Senate Appropriations Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) told us as he was leaving the Capitol on Thursday night. “I just got off a conference call with the major parties two minutes ago.” Asked if topline agreement is possible, Leahy summed it up this way: “Well, if we don’t, we fail.” Leahy, Sen. Richard Shelby (Ala.), ranking Republican on Senate Appropriations, and House Appropriations Committee Chair Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) have continued to exchange proposals on “parity” between defense and non-defense spending, as well as policy riders. Rep. Kay Granger (Texas), ranking Republican on the House Appropriations panel, declined to comment on those talks, but several sources close to the situation say she remains frustrated by the direction of the negotiations. “Negotiations are continuing to make good progress on an appropriations framework,” said Evan Hollander, communications director for the House Appropriations Committee. “A CR will only be entertained to provide additional time to finalize legislation after a topline agreement is reached.” We caught up with Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday afternoon over this issue. Pelosi said any stopgap funding bill would start in the House. This would help Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer move quickly; if the bill originated in the House, it could get around one cloture vote in the Senate depending on how it’s structured. Here’s something to keep in mind: Congress is going to want to move on a CR next week even though the funding deadline is not until Feb. 18. The House is supposed to be out the week of Feb. 14. While House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer warned his colleagues they may be in session, we’ve also heard of a few big congressional delegation trips abroad that members will want to keep on the books. PRESENTED BY CLIMATE POWER Clean energy = good-paying jobs  → The Campaign to End Covid Now is running an ad in D.C., New York and Philadelphia, urging people to tell the Biden administration and Congress “to fully fund the plan to help end Covid around the world.” The message is that less affluent countries especially need Covid vaccine doses, and only the United States can help.  FRONTS   MOMENTS 9:30 a.m.: President Joe Biden will get his daily intelligence briefing. 10 a.m.: Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Democrats will speak about the America COMPETES Act. 10:45 a.m.: Biden will speak about the January jobs numbers. 11:45 a.m.: Jen Psaki will brief. 2 p.m.: Biden will speak and sign an executive order on project labor agreements at Ironworkers Local 5 in Upper Marlboro, Md. 5:30 p.m.: Biden will leave for Andrews, where he’ll fly to Wilmington. He will arrive there at 6:25 p.m. CLIP FILE NYT → “Clyburn Pushes His Pick for Supreme Court, Testing His Sway With Biden,” by Annie Karni → “At CNN, Personal and Corporate Tensions Collide After Jeff Zucker’s Exit,” by Michael Grynbaum and John Koblin WaPo → “Islamic State’s ‘ghost’ of a leader was plotting comeback when U.S. commandos cornered him,” by Joby Warrick and Souad Mekhennet →“Inside Biden’s decision to target ISIS’s elusive leader,” by Matt Viser → “Xi meets Putin in show of solidarity as U.S. warns against helping Russia evade Ukraine-linked sanctions,” by Andrew Jeong and Emily Rauhala WSJ → “ISIS Was Staging Comeback When U.S. Raid Led to Leader Qurayshi’s Death,” by Jared Malsin in Raqqa, Syria Politico → “‘Ground up and spit out’: Inside the Hill staffer Instagram rebellion,” by Katherine Tully-McManus, Nancy Vu, Eleanor Mueller and Ximena Bustillo PRESENTED BY CLIMATE POWER Right now, Congress has a major opportunity to create millions of good-paying jobs and lower utility costs for working families by making a major investment in clean energy. Across party lines, the American people are united in support of investments that create clean energy jobs (78%) and taking action to address climate change (73%). Clean energy jobs are jobs that people can raise a family on, anywhere in America — Union jobs for electricians, pipefitters, roofers, welders, teachers and engineers. These are good-paying, secure jobs that can’t be outsourced, from big cities to small towns, suburbs and rural communities. If we do this right: we will lower utility costs for working families, take on climate change, and power America with clean energy — which will never run out. If we fail: it means fewer jobs, more extreme weather, and allowing China and other countries to gain the edge.  Enjoying Punchbowl News AM?  Subscribe 10 friends with your unique link (below) and get a Punchbowl News hat! Your referral link is: Or share via You currently have: 0 referrals Editorial photos provided by Getty Images. 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Presented by Wells Fargo
At Wells Fargo, we cover more rural markets than many large banks, and nearly 30% of our branches are in low- or moderate-income census tracts. What we say, we do. See how.