| | | | | |  | | By Katherine Tully-McManus | | | With Marianne LeVine, Nicholas Wu and Andrew Desiderio. SENATE FACES REALITY — The Senate is going to head home for the Christmas and New Year's holidays without action on President Joe Biden's cornerstone economic policy priority or the voting rights overhaul that Senate Democrats were eyeing for an end-of-year push. The recognition of this reality comes after Biden's talks with holdout Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) faltered this week and the Senate Parliamentarian dealt a blow to the package with a ruling against a third attempt to include immigration protections in the social spending measure. (More on that in a minute.) Biden put out a statement Thursday night paving the way for acceptance of this delay: "It takes time to finalize these agreements, prepare the legislative changes, and finish all the parliamentary and procedural steps needed to enable a Senate vote," the president said. After talks with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) he said they'll plan to put his $1.7 trillion social safety net and climate plan "on the floor as early as possible," setting the timeline as "over the days and weeks ahead." Burgess and Marianne take a look at the state-of-play for the Senate. The move (or lack of movement) means that after clearing a roster of must-pass legislation including a debt limit hike, government funding and defense policy, Democrats are set to leave town empty handed on key party priorities. PARLIAMENTARIAN PULLS THE PLUG — The Senate's rules referee quashed a third attempt by Democrats to use the bill to enact an immigration overhaul, including granting protected status to large numbers of immigrants in the U.S. illegally. The House-passed social spending bill included language that would extend work permits and provide temporary protection from deportation for certain undocumented immigrants who came to the United States before January 2011, about 6.5 million eligible individuals. The parliamentarian noted that "these are substantial policy changes with lasting effects just like those we previously considered and outweigh the budgetary impact." The Senate parliamentarian previously ruled that Democrats couldn't include a pathway to legal status in their social spending bill and rejected a second Democratic proposal to change the date on a decades-old registry law to provide more undocumented immigrants a path to legal status. More from Marianne HERE. | | | | JOIN TODAY FOR A WOMEN RULE 2021 REWIND AND A LOOK AHEAD AT 2022: Congress is sprinting to get through a lengthy and challenging legislative to-do list before the end of the year that has major implications for women's rights. Join Women Rule editor Elizabeth Ralph and POLITICO journalists Laura Barrón-López, Eleanor Mueller, Elena Schneider and Elana Schor for a virtual roundtable that will explore the biggest legislative and policy shifts in 2021 affecting women and what lies ahead in 2022. REGISTER HERE. | | | | | GOOD MORNING! Welcome to Huddle, the play-by-play guide to all things Capitol Hill, on this Friday, December 17, where the hottest place to be is the covid testing line (more on that below.) LIVING IN THE NOW: NOM NOM NOMS — Gear up for a long slog in the Senate, where Schumer has teed up votes on 22 nominations starting Friday includes ambassador nominees, USAID positions, and federal judgeships. The move comes after The Senate had a minor breakthrough on its nominations standoff Thursday, but for a significant position: U.S. ambassador to China. The Senate confirmed Nicholas Burns to the role in a blowout vote, 75-18, that was scheduled as part of a deal to unanimously pass Sen. Marco Rubio's (R-Fla.) Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act. More on that from Andrew here. "I've offered 17 nominees today," Cruz told Andrew. "Instead [Schumer] wants to spend 50 hours of Senate time to confirm 12 Biden [foreign-policy] nominees, including about half of them are overlapping, and keep senators here over the weekend." And that's exactly what the Senate will (probably) do, absent an agreement today. RELATED: Senate confirms Biden's Joint Chiefs pick, from Connor O'Brien WHAT ANTI-MCCONNELL FACTION? — "Despite months of attacks, the Trump-led campaign to depose the Senate minority leader has resulted in firm pledges from just two Republican candidates and no senators, and it has failed to turn up a formidable challenger to run against McConnell," write Natalie Alison and Burgess. | | | | A message from Blackstone: Blackstone is advancing medical innovation and backing potentially lifesaving treatments. In 2019, Blackstone invested $200 million alongside Novartis to launch Anthos Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing innovative therapies for patients with cardiovascular and metabolic diseases. Blackstone's capital and life sciences expertise helped Anthos develop abelacimab, a novel treatment with the potential to expand access to care for high-risk cardiovascular patients. Learn more. | | | FIRST IN HUDDLE: FORMER MEMBERS PEN PRAISE — Fifty former members of Congress, 25 Republicans and 25 Democrats and members of Issue One's Bipartisan ReFormers Caucus have penned an open letter applauding Reps. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) and Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) and the rest of the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. "As former members, we know firsthand how essential bipartisan cooperation is for the preservation of our republic and our shared values, and we strongly commend the contributions of Republican members Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger. We sincerely hope other Republicans will join efforts to pursue the truth and facts surrounding the events of January 6," write the signatories. Read the full letter and see the former lawmakers who signed HERE. HASSAN TAKES A STAND — Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.), who is up for re-election in 2022, announced Thursday evening that she supports scrapping the filibuster for elections reform, the latest Democrat to do so. During a speech on the Senate floor , Hassan declared: "We must change the rules to allow a simple majority of this body, as our founders intended, to pass laws that will protect the right to vote and protect American democracy." Hassan's speech comes as Democrats are pursuing a last-ditch effort to change the Senate rules to pass elections reform legislation. But that effort is an uphill battle. Manchin has historically opposed changing rules along party lines and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) reaffirmed her support for the 60-vote threshold this week. BETTER SAFE THAN SORRY — The Capitol Police confirmed Thursday that their response to the Sept. 18 rally on behalf of many people charged in the Jan. 6 attack cost them about $1.3 million. The total, which the department noted was much less than the "hundreds of millions" spent in response to Jan. 6, was first reported by the Washington Post. Emergency legislation passed earlier this year set aside about $35 million for the Capitol Police to reimburse other law enforcement agencies. Capitol Police Chief Thomas Manger said in a statement that the cost of their massive response to the rally was "far less than the toll it would have taken on the American psyche had there been another attack." Their response that day, he noted, allowed the department "to practice coordinating on site law enforcement assistance from partnering agencies, which ensures we have a strong contingency plan." The Sept. 18 rally drew a meager turnout but a massive response from law enforcement. | | | | BECOME A GLOBAL INSIDER: The world is more connected than ever. It has never been more essential to identify, unpack and analyze important news, trends and decisions shaping our future — and we've got you covered! Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, Global Insider author Ryan Heath navigates the global news maze and connects you to power players and events changing our world. Don't miss out on this influential global community. Subscribe now. | | | | | SCRAPPED STATUES — For all of the debate over current statues at the Capitol, it's worth remembering what used to be there. As Amelia Frappolli points out on Twitter , the Capitol used to have two 19th century-era statues on the east front called "The Rescue" and "The Discovery of America" that depicted a white man "rescuing" a white woman an her child from a Native American with a hatchet raised and Christopher Columbus holding a globe above a Native American woman, respectively. Congress brought up, but never passed a joint resolution calling for The Rescue to be "removed, ground into dust, and scattered to the four winds" out of respect for Native Americans. Instead, the Rescue ended up being dropped when it was being moved in 1976, and its remnants were put next to the Discovery in storage, according to WETA. (It's a lot to take in…but it tracks with more concerns that have been raised about representation of Native Americans in art around the Capitol.) The here and now: The debates over statues are still relevant today as the first statue of a Black person sent by a state, Florida, makes its way to the Capitol. The statue of educator and civil rights leader Mary McLeod Bethune is set to appear in her hometown of Mayesville, South Carolina on Friday before it goes to the U.S. Capitol, the Daytona News-Journal reports . Her statue will replace a Confederate general's statue. It's something personal to House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), who will be in Mayesville for a statue ceremony on Friday. "My mother made me learn everything in the world about Mary McLeod Bethune," Clyburn told reporters Wednesday. | | | Cheers… Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.) knows who deserves a toast after this undeniably rough year in the senate: the floor staff who keep the chamber running. The Colorado Democrat and some aides delivered cases of Colorado beer to floor staff on Thursday. The hottest spot … Once again the Capitol's covid-19 testing site is the hottest place to be. Lines on Thursday stretched down and around the corner as demand for testing jumped in the face of the omicron variant, holiday travel and rising case rates. HuffPost's Igor Bobic spotted Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) skipping the line (which is an accepted practice for lawmakers) as his colleague Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) looked on, waiting his turn. We aren't kidding about the line: If you need a test today before weekend travel, get there early. It's not just the Hill… "It's an open secret that Washington's foreign-policy machine effectively runs on interns. These interns, most unpaid or underpaid, have toiled away in the shadows, knowing their careers in foreign policy — whether in government or otherwise — won't happen without those precious lines on their resumes." Read the full story in Foreign Policy. Big endorsement… Sen. Tim Kaine's (D-Va.) ode to his, um, shaving cream. Never a dull moment…Yes, Republicans are signing up to knife Russians who try to take Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.). | | | | A message from Blackstone:   | | | QUICK LINKS Republicans Who Assailed Biden's Stimulus Bill Are Embracing the Money, from The New York Times Power of one: Manchin is singularly halting Biden's agenda, from The AP TRANSITIONS Kiersten Pels is joining Sen. Ron Johnson's (R-Wis.) office as research director. She most recently was deputy press secretary for Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-Mont.), and is a Trump campaign alum. James Braid is now chief of staff for Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.). He most recently was a government affairs fellow at the Conservative Partnership Institute. Joe Karwacki is now digital specialist for Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas). He previously was a digital production assistant with Fox News, and is a Trump digital alum. TODAY IN CONGRESS The House is not in session. The Senate convenes at 9:30 a.m. with a roll call vote at 10 a.m. and many more expected throughout the day. AROUND THE HILL Looks quiet. | | | THURSDAY'S WINNER: Patrick Pizzella correctly answered that James Byrnes of South Carolina is the only person who served as a Supreme Court Justice as well as a state governor, U.S. Senator and congressman. TODAY'S QUESTION from Patrick: What Democrat Presidential candidate won the 1972 Florida Democrat primary and how many counties did he win? The first person to correctly guess gets a mention in the next edition of Huddle. Send your answers to ktm@politico.com. GET HUDDLE emailed to your phone each morning. Follow Katherine on Twitter @ktullymcmanus | | | | A message from Blackstone: Blackstone and Novartis launched Anthos Therapeutics to help develop innovative therapies for patients with cardiovascular and metabolic diseases. While blood-clotting disorders are one of the leading causes of death in the United States, many traditional blood thinners put patients at risk of excess bleeding. Blackstone is working with Anthos to address this need by supporting the development of abelacimab, an antibody treatment that can significantly reduce blood clots without increasing the risk of bleeding.
Before Anthos' launch, funding constraints prevented Novartis from pursuing abelacimab's development. Blackstone's investment revived efforts to bring the treatment to market and offered support that went beyond capital – including advising on trial design and execution and sourcing experts from its network to join Anthos' leadership team.
This partnership reflects the power of Blackstone's approach — investing capital and expertise in life sciences where there is potential for long-term growth and patient impact. | | | | | | | Follow us | | | | |
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