McCarthy's historic meeting

A play-by-play preview of the day’s congressional news

Apr 05, 2023 View in browser   By Katherine Tully-McManus China is not thrilled about Speaker Kevin McCarthy's meeting with Taiwan's president today. | AP China won’t be happy, but that is kind of the point. The relationship between China and the U.S. is delicate, fraught and has become increasingly agitated in recent years. Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) is meeting today with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen, a move that has enraged the Chinese government, which claims Taiwan as part of its territory. The closed-door meeting will make McCarthy the highest-level U.S. official to meet with a Taiwanese leader on American soil since 1979, when the U.S. formally established diplomatic relations with the Beijing government. McCarthy will meet Tsai in his home state at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum in Simi Valley. He’ll be joined by Democratic Caucus Chair Rep. Pete Aguilar, also of California, and top leaders of the House select committee on the Chinese government, Chair Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) and ranking member Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.). Tsai already made a stop in New York, where she met with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) and a bipartisan group of senators, including Sens. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) and Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.). (The Wall Street Journal first reported the senators’ sit down last night.) But no one is calling this an official visit. That would upset the fragile balance the U.S. tries to maintain in the region, trying to project defiance towards China without provoking true conflict. “I’m not going to get ahead of where we are right now and speculate about what the Chinese might or might not do. We strongly urge them to not overreact to this, again, because there’s just simply no reason to,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said on Monday. Taiwanese leaders cannot make official visits to the U.S. but when they do touch down on U.S. soil, they are labeled as unofficial "transits" to maintain the delicate diplomatic relationship the U.S. has with Beijing. There’s just one U.S. city a sitting Taiwan president cannot transit through: Washington. That’s due to self-imposed restrictions the State Department abides by as an acknowledgement of the “one China policy.” Related reads: As Taiwan's President Tsai prepares to meet Kevin McCarthy, China is watching, from Emily Feng in Taipei for NPR; For McCarthy and Taiwan’s leader, visit marks historic first, from Lisa Mascaro at The Associated Press MEANWHILE … Beijing has been giving Secretary of State Antony Blinken the cold shoulder since a February trip to China was scrapped amid the uproar over a Chinese spy balloon traversing U.S. skies. Nahal Toosi, Phelim Kine and Erin Banco have much more on the current state of U.S.-China relations.    GO INSIDE THE 2023 MILKEN INSTITUTE GLOBAL CONFERENCE: POLITICO is proud to partner with the Milken Institute to produce a special edition "Global Insider" newsletter featuring exclusive coverage, insider nuggets and unparalleled insights from the 2023 Global Conference, which will convene leaders in health, finance, politics, philanthropy and entertainment from April 30-May 3. This year’s theme, Advancing a Thriving World, will challenge and inspire attendees to lean into building an optimistic coalition capable of tackling the issues and inequities we collectively face. Don’t miss a thing — subscribe today for a front row seat.     GOOD MORNING! Welcome to Huddle, the play-by-play guide to all things Capitol Hill, on this Wednesday, April 5, where we’ll see you at the show. GALLAGHER’S CALIFORNIA ADVENTURE — Rep. Mike Gallagher, chair of the House select committee on the Chinese government, is leading a jam-packed CODEL with about 10 colleagues starting today. It’s a domestic trip, but centered on the influence of the Chinese Communist Party on the American entertainment and tech industries, plus the future of cryptocurrency. The trip will lay the groundwork for future hearings hosted by the panel, as lawmakers suss out topics and potential witnesses while in California. On the agenda: After today’s simultaneously high-profile and private meeting with Tsai, Gallagher and members of his panel will meet with Disney CEO Bob Iger. Later they’ll meet with a group of Hollywood producers, screenwriters and former senior executives who reached out to the committee to discuss what a committee aide described as troubling experiences working to serve the Chinese market and attempts by Beijing to co-opt Hollywood through censorship. Silicon Valley: The CODEL then heads north to Silicon Valley for meetings Thursday about rare earth minerals that so much technology depends on and a talk from Microsoft's vice chair and president Brad Smith on AI. The lawmakers will also meet with Alphabet president of global affairs and chief legal officer Kent Walker as well as executives from Palantir and Scale AI. The group will also meet with venture capitalists like Marc Andreesen and Vinod Khosla. Topics up for discussion include defense innovation and supply chain visibility – i.e. what’s a company’s exposure to China and is there forced labor in the supply chain? Finally, Friday: A roundtable on China’s foray into digital currency will kick off the last day of the trip, followed by a panel on the China-Russia relationship from former Secretary of Defense James Mattis and Oriana Skylar Mastro, an expert on Chinese military and security policy, and then a final meeting with Tim Cook at Apple. BLUNT’S NEXT MOVE — Former Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) is joining Husch Blackwell Strategies as chair of a new advisory group, he told Burgess. He’s planning to dish out the same coveted advice that he’s given Senate Minority Leader Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and plenty of House speakers for more than two decades… but for a fee. “I’ve been giving advice for free for a long time. And generally people have been willing to take it and it worked out pretty well,” Blunt said this week. More on Blunt’s transition and what he hopes to help with, from Burgess. WIN IN WISCONSIN — Democrats will be tempted to extrapolate national political signals from last night’s win for progressives in Chicago, but that might be more appropriate in Wisconsin, where a judge just swung the Wisconsin Supreme Court to a liberal majority. It’s the first time in 15 years that conservatives won’t have control of the court. Janet Protasiewicz’s win means the new 4-3 majority is much more likely to strike down a controversial 19th century abortion ban there. And there are other big takeaways. Wisconsin was one of the tightest battleground states in the country and now Democrats control two of the three branches of state government for the first time since 2008. The race between Protasiewicz and former state Supreme Court Justice Dan Kelly shattered national spending records, with $45 million spent. Zach Montellaro has more. THE TAX PLAN COMETH — How exactly will the Internal Revenue Service spend the $80 billion Democrats awarded last year in the Inflation Reduction Act? The Treasury Department plans to release their long-awaited plan this week detailing how it will spend the funding boost, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Tuesday. Republicans will be ready to rip into the plan after complaining for months that the IRS intends to bring on 87,000 new examiners (which the agency says is an exaggeration). More than half of the funding must be used on tax enforcement, but the details will be left up to Treasury. What we know: Lawmakers will want to weigh in. Expect hearings on the plan in the coming months. DEVASTATING NEWS — Rep. Jesus “Chuy” Garcia (D-Ill.) announced on Tuesday that his daughter, Rosa, died Monday night at age 28. “We are completely heartbroken,” Garcia said. “Rosa joined our family as a young girl who had been in the foster care system. We did our best to provide a stable, loving, and welcoming home for her. Our family asks for privacy and welcomes your thoughts and prayers during this most difficult time.” ISRAEL-BOUND — McCarthy and Jeffries are both headed to Israel later this month (but not together). Marc Rod from Jewish Insider scooped the parallel travel plans, which have Jeffries in Israel April 22 to 24 and McCarthy arriving a few days later April 30 to May 2. The top two leaders in the House were both on a recent trip sponsored by the AIPAC-linked American Israel Education Foundation. HUDDLE HOTDISH TMI… Rep. Sydney Kamlager (D-Calif.) shares her poop scooping with the world. Big news in Burlington… They’re renaming the airport Patrick Leahy Burlington International Airport. QUICK LINKS  Everybody in Washington wants the Ukrainian ambassador at their party, from Ben Terris at The Washington Post ‘The Label’s Actually Part of the Problem’, from David Siders in POLITICO Magazine   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.     TRANSITIONS  Paul Iskajyan is now press secretary for Rep. Scott Peters (D-Calif.). He most recently was deputy comms director for Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.). Aliya Manjee is now a director in Qorvis’ Washington office. She previously was counsel for the House Ways and Means Oversight Subcommittee. Mason Burrows has been promoted to be press secretary for Rep. David Valadao (R-Calif.). He most recently was press assistant for Valadao. Michelle Lane is now staff director for the House Natural Resources Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee GOP. She previously was VP of government relations at the National Park Foundation. Bryan Shuy is now SVP at the Conafay Group. He previously was chief of staff for Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.). TODAY IN CONGRESS The House and Senate are out. AROUND THE HILL Recess. TRIVIA TUESDAY’S WINNER: Debbie Warburton correctly answered that Franklin Delano Roosevelt served hot dogs to King George VI and Queen Elizabeth (the Queen Mum) at a picnic on ​​June 11, 1939. TODAY’S QUESTION from Debbie: Who was the first U.S. President to visit a foreign country while in office, and what country was it? 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   Follow us

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