| | | | |  | | By Katherine Tully-McManus | | | With help from Marianne LeVine and Burgess Everett
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Moderates on Capitol Hill aren't cooking up a working group to solve the debt limit crisis (yet.) House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) met with President Joe Biden yesterday. | Francis Chung/POLITICO | NO GANG ACTIVITY — There are serious doubts on Capitol Hill that President Joe Biden and Speaker Kevin McCarthy will be able to steer the nation away from a disastrous default, but don’t expect a Senate gang or a bipartisan group to step up to take the lead just yet. Biden and McCarthy (R-Calif.) had their first meeting since entering divided government this year. Expectations were on the floor. And platitudes followed. The absence of a spark of progress or clear momentum is usually theme music for a ragtag group of centrist lawmakers to get together to try to find agreement. But most of the familiar faces are laying low so far. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is sitting back and letting McCarthy take the lead for his party. But that means if Senate GOP moderates get involved in separate talks, there is a risk of undermining McCarthy. There is some movement. Some House moderates huddled last week to talk about possible paths forward to avoid default in June. There are informal chats among senators on potential solutions. And Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) has met with McCarthy. But there’s no rescue gang at this point. “This is not a gang discussion,” said Michigan Sen. Debbie Stabenow, a member of Senate Democratic leadership, told Burgess, Sarah and Caitlin. “Not on the question of whether or not we’re going to crash the economy.” Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) is willing to get involved, but on fiscal issues and debt reduction that are not the debt limit. “Take the debt limit stuff off the table, because it’s playing with fire,” said Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.). “I am more than fine with deficit reduction. It has to be separate from the debt ceiling.” Don’t miss Burgess, Sarah and Caitlin’s look at what is cooking on Capitol Hill while Biden and McCarthy are still feeling out their relationship. ICYMI: The largest House GOP caucus backs more than half a dozen ideas for fiscal reforms as the White House embarks on debt ceiling talks with Republicans, from Caitlin and Olivia
| | A message from Humana: 30 million people choose Medicare Advantage. With Medicare Advantage, members can see better health outcomes at lower costs. That’s one of the reasons why nearly half of the total Medicare population chooses Medicare Advantage. Learn more. | | | GOOD MORNING! Welcome to Huddle, the play-by-play guide to all things Capitol Hill, on this Thursday, Feb. 2, where we’ve got nothing against groundhogs but rely more on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s weather updates. PUT IT IN THE BANK(S) — Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) has snagged a key endorsement from a member of Senate leadership in his bid for Senate. Sen. John Barasso (R-Wyo.) is backing Banks.
“Jim Banks will help build a conservative firewall in the Senate that will put the brakes on far-left policies that are hurting Americans,” said Barasso in a statement.
Mitch Daniels passed on a senate bid in the Hoosier state earlier this week, which cleared the deck for Banks to be an early favorite. | 
The vote to remove Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) from the House Foreign Affairs Committee is an early test of the House GOP whip operation. | Francis Chung/POLITICO | OMAR ON THE AGENDA — The vote to yank Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) off the House Foreign Affairs Committee will play out today on the House floor. And the calculation has changed significantly from just days ago. Yesterday Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.) flipped in favor of removing Omar, following Rep. Victoria Spartz (R-Ind.), who changed her position on Tuesday. For more on this major test of the House GOP’s whip operation, read Olivia and Nicholas’ latest.
| | | | JOIN POLITICO ON 2/9 TO HEAR FROM AMERICA’S GOVERNORS: In a divided Congress, more legislative and policy enforcement will shift to the states, meaning governors will take a leading role in setting the agenda for the nation. Join POLITICO on Thursday, Feb. 9 at World Wide Technology's D.C. Innovation Center for The Fifty: America's Governors, where we will examine where innovations are taking shape and new regulatory red lines, the future of reproductive health, and how climate change is being addressed across a series of one-on-one interviews. REGISTER HERE. | | | | | COMMITTEE ON SOUR GRAPES — Rep. Mike Quigley (D-Ill.) says he was “disappointed to be hit by friendly fire” when being removed from the House Intelligence Committee roster this year after serving on the panel since 2015. Under House rules, a member can’t sit on Intel for more than four consecutive Congresses “in a period of six successive Congresses.” Of course many members have gotten waivers over the years allowing them to do just that. Even former speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) was trying to wield her influence to keep Quigley on Intel, talking to Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) on the floor about the need for institutional knowledge on the roster. Nicholas talked to Quigley, Pelosi and others about the intel shuffle. House Dems' Intel angst doesn’t stop with Quigley. There was lots of chatter Wednesday night about Democrats who were named to Intel but already serve on two committees. Meanwhile in the Senate… Two lawmakers from the opposite chamber and party are also feeling salty about getting the committee shaft. Sens. Rick Scott of Florida and Mike Lee of Utah won’t return to the Senate Commerce Committee. “What they told me today at lunch is the way the rules work, McConnell gets to pick,” Scott told Fox News Digital. He thinks it’s retaliation for his unsuccessful bid to challenge Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky,) late last year. Lee had supported Scott’s bid for the top spot in the conference. “Mitch happens,” Lee tweeted about the situation (with the nail painting emoji) and said “He has unreviewable discretion to make certain committee assignments. This was one of those.”
| | | | A message from Humana:   | | | CRUZ CONTROL — Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) was the first GOP candidate to enter the 2016 presidential race. 2024, however, is a different story. While Cruz isn't explicitly ruling out a White House bid, he described the Senate as the "battlefield right now." Cruz is up for re-election in 2024 and his advisers are taking the race seriously, after he won his 2018 re-election by a closer margin than is typical for the Lone Star state. “I have no doubt that Democrats will dump a whole lot of money into it,” Cruz said. "There are a lot of national Democrats who want to do everything they can to try to defeat me." If Cruz passes on a presidential run, he'll join Sens. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), who are opting to stay in the Senate after being widely viewed as potential 2024 contenders. With Democrats facing a tough Senate map in 2024, Texas and Florida are the only states that qualify as conceivable pick-up opportunities for the party. There's no shortage of Democrats weighing a possible bid against Cruz, after former Rep. Beto O'Rourke lost his 2018 bid by 2.6 points. Democrats in the state are especially watching former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro, Rep. Colin Allred (D-Texas), state Sen. Roland Gutierrez and state Rep. James Talarico. More from Marianne. CBC TO THE WHITE HOUSE — Members of the Congressional Black Caucus head to the White House this afternoon to renew their push for policing legislation in the wake of the death of Tyre Nichols at the hands of Memphis police. “The White House and the Black community find themselves at another tragic and all-too-familiar inflection point: eager to respond to another police killing of a Black man that has captured the nation’s attention but with limited capacity to do so,” writes Eugene Daniels. QUICK LINKS Can Ruben Gallego’s Senate campaign energize Latino voters in Arizona?, from Sabrina Rodriguez at The Washington Post House Democrats have already found something to love about Kevin McCarthy's Republican-led House, Bryan Metzger at Insider How does someone steal $700,000 from a senator’s campaign in the midst of an election? From Daniel Desrochers at The Kansas City Star Meet the Women Trying to Avoid a Spending Train Wreck in Congress, from Emily Cochraine at The New York Times TRANSITIONS Matthew Hogenmiller is now creative director in Rep. Maxwell Frost’s (D-Fla.) office. Hogenmiller most recently ran digital and creative for March For Our Lives and has also freelanced as a brand designer.
| | | | 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. | | | | | TODAY IN CONGRESS The House convenes at 9:30 a.m. The Senate convenes at 10 a.m. and will consider the nomination of Joseph Falk to be a member of the Board of Directors of the U.S. Institute of Peace. At 1:45 p.m. the Senate will vote on confirmation of the Falk nomination. AROUND THE HILL 7:30 a.m. National Prayer Breakfast (Congressional Auditorium) 9 a.m. Reps. Lizzie Fletcher (D-Texas), Marilyn Strickland (D-Wash.), Diana DeGette (D-Colo.), Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), Judy Chu (D-Calif.) and others on the Ensuring Women's Right to Reproductive Freedom Act. (House Triangle) 10 a.m. Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) holds his weekly press conference. (Studio A) 10 a.m. Reps. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio), Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) and Kweisi Mfume (D-Md.) host a press conference on legislation to preserve Black history. (House Triangle) 11:15 a.m. McCarthy holds a news conference. (Statuary Hall) 4:30 p.m. Members of the Congressional Black Caucus meet with President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. (White House)
| | | WEDNESDAY’S WINNER: Michael Herson correctly answered that George Deukmejian was the Armenian-American governor of California who in 1986 helped lead an effort to recall four justices from the California Supreme Court, including the then-Chief Justice Rose Bird. TODAY’S QUESTION: Who was the first chair of the Congressional Black Caucus? The first person to correctly guess gets a mention in the next edition of Huddle. Send your answers to ktm@politico.com. GET HUDDLEemailed to your phone each morning. Follow Katherine on Twitter @ktullymcmanus
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