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BY JOHN BRESNAHAN, ANNA PALMER AND JAKE SHERMAN

THE TOP

News: Stick with us here — this is complex, but potentially important. Budget reconciliation is the process by which the Senate can pass spending or tax bills with a simple majority. Congress usually passes one budget resolution each year, giving the Senate the fast-track, simple-majority opportunity once. 

But aides to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) have asked the parliamentarian whether they can double dip, using the 2021 budget resolution to pass two reconciliation bills. The American Rescue Plan got through Capitol Hill using the fiscal year 2021 budget resolution. Schumer wants to know if he can use it again. 

This is potentially a very big deal. It could give Democrats and President Joe Biden a chance to do at least two more reconciliation bills this year (one FY 2021, one FY 2022), if Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough agrees with the Democrats’ arguments, which rely on their interpretation of the 1974 Congressional Budget Act and reconciliation procedures. This would give Democrats a better chance of enacting some or all of Biden’s “Build Back Better” proposal, which is set to be unveiled in a Wednesday speech in Pittsburgh. 

That proposal has a $3 trillion-plus price tag, and Republicans are already gearing up to oppose it. Part classic infrastructure bill, part social welfare program, the Biden proposal would continue a massive outpouring of government funding that began last year with the Covid pandemic. This $6 trillion tidal wave of government largesse — most of it funded by new debt — represents the biggest shift in federal spending since LBJ launched the“Great Society” in the 1960s.

Schumer hasn’t made any definitive decision whether to move forward with this “second reconciliation bill” plan yet — and Republicans will go nuts if he does — but the New York Democrat wants to know if the option is available to him. If Democrats are allowed to do so, there would have to be a floor vote on an amendment to the FY 2021 resolution. That may be problematic, especially if moderate Democrats look at this move as undermining the budget process.

Democratic aides insist that this doesn’t mean they can’t pass an FY 2022 budget, which was one of our first questions about this move. Budget Committee Chair Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is pushing for a major expansion of Medicare by reducing the eligibility age for the program, as well as changes to prescription drug pricing. House Democrats want to add climate provisions to another reconciliation bill as will. Some Senate Democrats want to use an expanded reconciliation process as a backdoor way to gut the filibuster.

But if Schumer has more than one reconciliation bill to play with, it also gives him added flexibility on how to proceed with the “Build Back Better” initiative. That’s something he and the White House would welcome.

WHAT DO THEY WANT?

Digging into Rep. Jim Jordan

What do they want? That’s a question we find ourselves asking about lots of ambitious politicians. What drives them? What is this person doing? Why, what is their goal? Figuring this out is the essence of why we started Punchbowl News three months ago.

Today, our subject is Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio). 

Jordan is one of the most interesting and powerful people in Republican politics. Does he want to be speaker of the House? Will he run for president?

It’s a question that House Republicans have asked themselves for a long time. And it matters. Jordan helped end the career of former Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), blocked Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) from becoming speaker, and then tormented former Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.). Jordan has run for both speaker and House minority leader, losing badly on each occasion.

Yet now, in his eighth term, the 57-year-old Jordan has become, in many ways, the second most powerful House Republican behind McCarthy. Jordan — who claims “I’m just a country boy from Ohio” — insists he wants nothing more than to be Judiciary Committee chairman if Republicans take control of the House next year.

“The Judiciary Committee is supposed to be the committee that safeguards the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, free speech, all your liberties, more than any other committee. And it has now become a committee that hasn’t even had a hearing, and we got all these bills passing that limit your Second Amendment rights, limit your First Amendment rights,” Jordan said in an interview.

“So I would love the opportunity to be chairman of the Judiciary Committee.”

When asked whether he wants to be speaker some day, Jordan was adamant: “No. No, no.”

When asked about being president, Jordan says he isn’t interested in that either.

“I was ‘Joe Bag of Donuts’ wrestling guy, now I get a chance to serve in Congress,” Jordan said. “That’s enough.” 

So do Jordan’s colleagues believe this, that all he wants to be is a committee chairman? Not likely.

“If we take the majority, and I think we will, it’s a foregone conclusion that he becomes Judiciary chairman,” said a Republican who knows Jordan well. “Do I think that’s enough for Jim Jordan’s ego? No. But I don’t know what his future ambition is.”

Democrats loathe Jordan with a particular brand of dislike, as do old school Republicans such as Boehner, who once dubbed him a “legislative terrorist.” Democrats point out Jordan repeatedly pushed Trump’s lie that the election was stolen, although Jordan never used that specific phrase. In committee or on the floor, Jordan will launch into angry, intense diatribes against Democrats, and he doesn’t really care what they say or think about him, which clearly drives Democrats nuts. The Ohio Republican is also a frequent guest on Fox News and other conservative media, no jacket and sleeves all rolled up, bashing Democrats on whatever the GOP attack line of the day is.

Jordan and McCarthy are now close allies, a dramatic difference from 2015, when Jordan basically blocked the California Republican from rising to the speaker’s chair. That change has helped both men, and remade Jordan’s standing inside the GOP Conference.

But the biggest difference between Jordan now and the Jordan of the Boeher-Ryan era is Donald Trump. Trump molded the Republican Party in his own image, and Jordan went along for the ride. An early and loud Trump supporter, Jordan jumped from fringe troublemaker to power player thanks to his ties to the ex-president. Jordan backed Trump through two impeachment trials, Russiagate, and every scandal in between. Trump, in turn, rewarded Jordan with access and exposure, as well as a Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Trump, in fact, made Jordan and the House Freedom Caucus, which Jordan co-founded, the new Republican Establishment. Two of its members became Trump’s White House chief of staff, while another — now Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis — may run for president in 2024 if Trump doesn’t.

“President Trump made the party what I always thought it should have been in the first place —  a populist party rooted in conservatve principle,” Jordan insisted. “No president got more done in my lifetime. No president did more of what he said he’d do. I felt like it was a phenomenal four years.”

Jordan wants Trump to run again in 2024, that’s clear. “I hope he does. I think he’s going to … I want him to.” If Trump doesn’t run, DeSantis “is probably one of the leading candidates for president.”

Strengths: He’s not known for it, but Jordan is a big fundraiser. As of the end of the year, Jordan had $6.1 million in his campaign account. That’s well more than he needs for an Ohio district he routinely wins by better than 30 points. Last cycle, Jordan raised $18 million, two-thirds of which came in unitemized donations of $200 or less. That shows Jordan’s national fundraising base, and he spends millions of dollars to develop that network. Jordan donated hundreds of thousands of dollars straight to other GOP lawmakers, he doesn’t go through the NRCC.

However, the Federal Election Commission has recently asked Jordan’s campaign for an explanation over multi-million dollar revisions in its campaign finance reports.

Weaknesses: He’s seen as an heir to the Trump legacy, so that’s a bit limiting if the party moves away from the former president. Jordan has never won a leadership race. Everything that he has gotten at the committee level — on Oversight and now Judiciary — came from McCarthy. The change in their relationship has been a key to Jordan’s rise inside the conference. But when you’re beholden to McCarthy, you better deliver for him. If Jordan wants to be Judiciary chair, he’ll have to drop some of his policy purity to help McCarthy govern.

1ST ST, SE

NRCC goes on air against Axne in IA-2 flap

To review quickly: Rep. Marianette Miller-Meeks (R-Iowa) beat Democrat Rita Hart by six votes in Iowa’s second congressional district. Hart is now challenging the results, appealing to the House Administration Committee to overturn the victory. Hart didn’t go to court in Iowa, but instead appealed to the House — friendlier confines, considering the House is Democratic. 

The NRCC is going up on radio in Iowa, trying to drag Democratic Rep. Cindy Axne further into the mess. Axne previously backed Hart’s challenge, although there are a lot of Democratic officials who would like Hart to drop it. Axne is said to have statewide ambitions. 

Watch the ad above, or read the script here:

Though shall not steal.

A simple commandment.

A rule to live by.

But Cindy Axne and Nancy Pelosi

Are working to steal an election here in Iowa.

A Pelosi power play,

Backed by Axne,

To overturn the will…of Iowa’s voters

So call Cindy Axne

Tell her though shall not steal…our trust

MOMENTS

9:50 a.m.: President Joe Biden and VP Kamala Harris will get their intelligence briefing.

11 a.m.: The Covid team will brief reporters.

12:30 p.m.: Jen Psaki will brief reporters.

1:30 p.m.: Biden and Harris will receive their Covid briefing.

2:10 p.m.: Biden will speak about Covid-19 and vaccinations.

CLIP FILE

NYT: “How 2 Legislative Tacticians Scored Big Wins on Child Poverty in the Stimulus,” by Emily Cochrane and Catie Edmondson

WaPo: “The Biden do-over: Democrats get a chance to try again on Obama defeats,” by Annie Linskey and Marianna Sotomayor

“Faced with sanctions and condemnation from the West, China becomes bedfellows with Russia,” by Gerry Shih: “Two months into the Biden presidency, the administration’s strategy of rallying U.S. allies to pressure China is already yielding visible results. But the tactic is pushing Beijing to cement ties with its own partners, which represent some of the most vexing geopolitical regions facing successive U.S. presidents: Russia, North Korea, Iran.”

“GOP candidate from New Jersey accused of pandering after he transforms into cowboy for Texas run,” by Meryl Kornfield

WSJ: “New Trade Representative Says U.S. Isn’t Ready to Lift China Tariffs,” by Bob Davis and Yuka Hayashi: “The U.S. isn’t ready to lift tariffs on Chinese imports in the near future, but might be open to trade negotiations with Beijing, according to U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai.

“In her first interview since Senate confirmation, Ms. Tai said she recognized that the tariffs can exact a toll on U.S. businesses and consumers, though proponents have said they also help shield companies from subsidized foreign competition.”

“NRA to Aggressively Lobby Against Gun Measures, Despite Its Financial Woes,” by Julie Bykowicz and Mark Maremont

AP: “AP Exclusive: WHO report says animals likely source of COVID,” by Ken Moritsugu

“Ship ‘partially refloated,’ but still stuck in Suez Canal,” by Isabel Debre and Samy Magdy

Politico: “‘He’s toast’: GOP leaves Raffensperger twisting in the wind,” by David Siders and Zach Montellaro

Star Tribune: “George Floyd’s cause of death at heart of arguments in Chauvin trial,” by  Chao Xiong

AFTER ACTION REPORT

Birx says most Covid deaths were preventable

CNN’s Sanjay Gupta interviewed medical experts who were involved in the Covid response. Deborah Birx suggested that most deaths were preventable. 

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