| | | | |  | | By Marianne LeVine | KNOWING STEIL’S STYLE — The House Administration Committee isn’t exactly known for high-profile fights. But as panel chair Rep. Bryan Steil sees it, that’s about to change – and this month’s ousting of Architect of the Capitol Brett Blanton is just the start. “Twenty years ago, the committee was relatively unknown, because it didn’t cover topics that the broader public was interested in. I think that shifted dramatically,” Steil (R-Wis.) told Jordain in an interview. The House Administration Committee tends to be more bipartisan than the Judiciary or Oversight panels. And this Congress, there are several areas where that tradition may continue, including giving Congress the ability to fire the architect of the Capitol, addressing lawmakers’ ability to own and trade stocks and making changes to the three-member Capitol Police Board. Yet some of Republicans’ other priorities are all but guaranteed to spark more partisan fireworks, especially when it comes to the panel’s investigation of Capitol security during the Jan. 6 attack. The House Administration Committee will be the new hub for the now-dissolved Jan. 6 select committee documents and the panel will receive the same level of access to Capitol security footage, according to a GOP aide. The 41-year-old Steil, who voted to certify President Joe Biden’s 2020 victory, isn’t committing to revisit the work of the Jan. 6 select committee, which primarily focused on former President Donald Trump’s actions before and after the attack. Steil only suggested that there would be a role for his panel but that he hadn’t “reached any conclusions as to exactly what that process will look like.” Another area that’s likely to prompt fights with Democrats: oversight of D.C. “Washington, D.C. is a federally administered city. And so I think that that’s an appropriate place for Congress to be engaged,” Steil told Jordain. More here.
| | | | JOIN POLITICO ON 3/1 TO DISCUSS AMERICAN PRIVACY LAWS: Americans have fewer privacy rights than Europeans, and companies continue to face a minefield of competing state and foreign legislation. There is strong bipartisan support for a federal privacy bill, but it has yet to materialize. Join POLITICO on 3/1 to discuss what it will take to get a federal privacy law on the books, potential designs for how this type of legislation could protect consumers and innovators, and more. REGISTER HERE. | | | | | GOOD MORNING! Welcome to Huddle, the play-by-play guide to all things Capitol Hill, on this Wednesday, February 22, where everyone seems to be on a CODEL this week. A FULL HOUSE, FOR NOW — Virginia State Sen. Jennifer McClellan won a special election Tuesday to replace Rep. Don McEachin (D-Va.) in the House, becoming the state’s first Black woman elected to Congress. McClellan’s widely expected victory against GOP candidate Leon Benjamin, a pastor, will bring the Republican-controlled House of Representatives to its full 435 members, with a 222-213 split. McClellan will serve out the remainder of the term won last fall by McEachin, who passed away in November shortly after his re-election. More from POLITICO’s Madison Fernandez here. McClellan’s victory comes the same day Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.) announced he will leave Congress in June to become president and CEO of the Rhode Island Foundation, the state’s largest and oldest philanthropic organization. A special election won’t be scheduled until Cicilline officially resigns. GARCETTI’S MOMENT OF TRUTH? — The Senate Foreign Relations Committee will vote again on former Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti’s nomination to become ambassador to India as soon as Feb. 28. Garcetti is among several nominees listed for the panel’s business meeting that day but a committee vote on his nomination can be delayed once if there are objections. The committee first approved Garcetti’s nomination in December 2021 but he never received a floor vote in the last Congress. Both Democratic and Republican senators have raised concerns about sexual assault and harassment allegations against his close adviser Rick Jacobs, which have hovered over Garcetti’s confirmation. The Los Angeles mayor has consistently denied that he knew about Jacobs’ alleged behavior. It’s not clear at the moment that Garcetti has the votes to get through the Senate. Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) reiterated last month that he had qualms about the nominee. We’ll be watching to see if Garcetti’s committee vote tally changes. TIM SCOTT IN IOWA — Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) is in Iowa for his “Faith in America” listening tour, as he mulls a 2024 presidential run. Scott, who is widely seen as the most likely Republican senator to jump into the race, will speak today at a Drake University event and will headline the Polk County Republican Party’s annual Lincoln Dinner. THE DISAPPEARING SANTOS CONTRIBUTIONS — When George Santos launched his first campaign in 2019, he reported four-figure donations to local Republican groups and President Donald Trump’s reelection committee. But those donations never arrived, according to those groups’ own filings, POLITICO’s Jessica Piper reports. And those aren’t the only Santos donations that don’t quite square. Santos’ campaign reported donating $2,000 to GOP Senate candidate Blake Masters in 2021, but a spokesperson for Masters confirmed the campaign never received the money. In fact, according to Piper, Santos’ campaign “reported more than $9,000 in donations that do not align with what was reported by other groups.” “The Santos campaign’s disbursements to other political committees should be mirrored on those committees’ disclosure reports, and the fact that they aren’t indicates yet another serious reporting error or perhaps even outright fraud,” said Saurav Ghosh, director for federal campaign finance reform at the Campaign Legal Center. More from Piper here.
| | | | DOWNLOAD THE POLITICO MOBILE APP: Stay up to speed with the newly updated POLITICO mobile app, featuring timely political news, insights and analysis from the best journalists in the business. The sleek and navigable design offers a convenient way to access POLITICO's scoops and groundbreaking reporting. Don’t miss out on the app you can rely on for the news you need, reimagined. DOWNLOAD FOR iOS– DOWNLOAD FOR ANDROID. | | | | | JEFFRIES SLAMS MCCARTHY OVER GIVING TUCKER CARLSON JAN 6 FOOTAGE — House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) lambasted Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) Tuesday for providing Fox News host Tucker Carlson access to thousands of hours of security footage from the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. In a Dear Colleague letter, the New York Democrat described the decision as “an egregious security breach that endangers the hardworking women and men of the United States Capitol Police.” Democrats are scheduled to meet for a virtual caucus meeting today at 2 p.m., where House Administration Committee Ranking Member Joe Morelle (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), who chaired the Jan. 6 select committee, are expected to make presentations. More here from the New York Times’ Luke Broadwater. WILL KIRSTEN GILLIBRAND SEE A PRIMARY CHALLENGE? — Despite Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand’s (D-N.Y.) progressive record, some New York political consultants think it’s a real possibility, observing that she’s kept a lower profile since her unsuccessful 2020 presidential run, the Daily Beast’s Sam Brodey and Jake Lahut report. “The fact is, she is a diminished presence,” said Hank Sheinkopf, a Democratic strategist in New York City. “One does not have to be a great soothsayer to look at the amount of press she’s not gotten.” Evan Lukaske, Gillibrand’s spokesperson, said the senator is “confident New Yorkers will re-elect her and she’s excited to continue getting results for New York families.” Who the primary challenger would be, however, is another question. Former New York Rep. Mondaire Jones (D-N.Y.) hasn’t ruled it out and political insiders are watching to see whether Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) considers it. Yet there are also many reasons why potential primary challengers would think twice before mounting a bid against Gillibrand. “For one, going against her would mean getting crosswise with the state’s political establishment,” Brodey and Lahut write. “The senator also begins the election cycle with $5 million in the bank.” More here. BARBARA LEE MAKES IT OFFICIAL — Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) officially announced Tuesday that she is jumping in the Senate race to replace Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.). In an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle’s Joe Garofoli, Lee dismissed questions about her age. (She is currently 76. Feinstein, who announced her retirement last week, is 89 and faced questions about her acuity in recent years.) “Bernie Sanders is older (81) than myself, and he won California,” she told the Chronicle. “It's about speaking to the voters. If Bernie Sanders can win a primary in California, then Barbara Lee certainly can win to be the next United States senator. Come on.” More here. (And h/t to our colleague Nick who scooped in January that Lee told her House colleagues she planned to run for the seat.) FORMER REP. TIM RYAN HEADS TO THIRD WAY — Former Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) is joining Third Way, a center-left think tank, as a senior visiting fellow. He will work with the climate and energy program. QUICK LINKS “‘The Democratic Party in New York is a disaster,’” by Ross Barkan, for the New York Times “Republican leaders wrestle with GOP splinter on Ukraine aid on Capitol Hill,” by CNN’s Lauren Fox and Melanie Zanona TRANSITIONS Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) adds two new staffers: Maryam Ahmed, who was previously a national press secretary at Senate Majority PAC, will be press secretary with a focus on California media. Rohith Murali, a House Democratic Caucus alum, will be a press and digital assistant. TODAY IN CONGRESS The House is out. The Senate is out.
| | | TUESDAY’S WINNER: Kevin Burtzlaff was the first to correctly guess that James Madison and James Monroe were once pitted against each other in a congressional race when they were drawn into the same district. WEDNESDAY’S QUESTION: From Kevin: Who is the only person to have been elected to all four of these offices: Lieutenant Governor, Governor, Vice President and President? The first person to correctly guess gets a mention in the next edition of Huddle. Send your answers mlevine@politico.com GET HUDDLE emailed to your phone each morning. Follow Marianne on Twitter @marianne_levine.
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