Bracing for a chaotic spending summer

Presented by The Alzheimer's Association: A play-by-play preview of the day’s congressional news

Jun 12, 2023 View in browser   By Katherine Tully-McManus and Daniella Diaz Presented by The Alzheimer's Association With an assist from Burgess Everett  Last week’s conservative rebellion against Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and the debt deal he cut with President Joe Biden has only increased concerns that this spending cycle could prove chaotic. | Francis Chung/POLITICO HOT SPENDING SUMMER — The spending caps that were baked into the bipartisan debt limit deal are causing some delayed heartburn on Capitol Hill and may still dial up the heat on summer spending fights to come. Last week’s conservative rebellion against Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and the debt deal he cut with President Joe Biden has only increased concerns that this spending cycle could prove chaotic. There is pressure on House appropriators to draft bills below the caps set by the McCarthy-Biden deal, figures that are, at best, unlikely to fly in the Democrat-controlled Senate. There are a handful of competing factions angling to reconsider the spending caps baked into the bipartisan debt deal. Caitlin Emma and Jennifer Scholtes lay them out like this: House Conservatives: They’ve accused McCarthy of abandoning secret handshake deal promises from January while cutting the debt deal with Biden. Last week they derailed floor action to make their point for the House making deeper spending cuts than the McCarthy-Biden deal lays out.  Senate Republicans: They’ve balked at the spending caps on defense and are scrambling to find a way to boost cash for the Pentagon and another round of aid to Ukraine.  Democrats: Many Democrats didn’t want Biden to agree to spending caps in exchange for averting a disastrous default. They’ll be trying to ensure that domestic programs, disaster aid and immigration don’t get shortchanged.  This year, the threat of shutdown is not the only worst-case scenario. The debt limit deal includes a trigger provision for an automatic overall 1 percent cut to discretionary spending programs if Congress does not pass all 12 appropriations bills for fiscal 2024 by Jan. 1, 2024. Lawmakers generally prefer using a scalpel, not a hatchet, to choose where to trim spending. Timeline refresher: October 1 is when government funding runs out, so that’s the date that Congress either needs to pass all the spending bills, or approve a stopgap, in order to avoid a shutdown. Full-committee markups are set to start in the House this week and in the Senate later this month. Under the debt limit deal, if there is a continuing resolution in place at the start of 2024, automatic and indiscriminate cuts would come into effect. Plus: Don’t miss this morning’s Playbook, where our colleagues lay out some demands from the House conservatives of McCarthy.   STEP INSIDE THE WEST WING: What's really happening in West Wing offices? Find out who's up, who's down, and who really has the president’s ear in our West Wing Playbook newsletter, the insider's guide to the Biden White House and Cabinet. For buzzy nuggets and details that you won't find anywhere else, subscribe today.     GOOD MORNING! Welcome to Huddle, the play-by-play guide to all things Capitol Hill, on this Monday, June 12, where when people try to make plans on Oct. 1 we say “sure, as long as the government isn’t shut down.” HUDDLE WEEKLY MOST CLICKED ‘How can we trust her?’: Florida congresswoman violates same financial law she blasted rival for breaking, from Alexandria Jacobson at Raw Story THE COMMITTEE SINKING NOMS — Relatively obscure nominations are turning into Senate knife fights as 2024 approaches and the Commerce Committee is the center of the action. Don’t miss new reporting from Burgess, Jennifer Haberkorn and Daniella on how Ann Carlson, who Biden tapped to run the National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration, removed herself from consideration two months after the White House nominated her after facing tough attacks from Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and committee Republicans. The Carlson episode is instructive for a White House and Democratic Senate that’s faced several tough nomination crunches. At the moment, Labor Secretary hopeful Julie Su is in the highest-profile fight, as a handful of Democratic senators remain undecided and there’s no floor vote in sight.   A message from The Alzheimer's Association: Medicare Access Restrictions: Only for Alzheimer’s? Breakthroughs in Alzheimer’s research have led to new FDA-approved treatments. But, for the first time ever, CMS blocked Medicare coverage to these treatments costing patients with a terminal disease time they will never get back. Now CMS insists on imposing unprecedented, unclear and unnecessary restrictions for coverage that are not required for any other FDA-approved drug. Medicare must be fair. Learn more.   WHERE WARREN AND WATERS DIVERGE — Two top watchdogs of Wall Street on Capitol Hill are on opposite sides of a GOP-led push to scale back investment safeguards, report Eleanor Mueller and Declan Harty. Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) are at odds over proposals that would ease the path for individual Americans to buy stakes in startups and other private businesses. Waters (D-Calif.) is rallying support for the measures, that are led by Financial Services Chair Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.), while Warren (D-Mass.) and other progressives are pushing back. ICYMI: TILLIS’ SATURDAY CENSURE — Republicans in North Carolina voted to censure Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) over the weekend, voting at the state’s GOP convention to punish the second-term senator for his willingness to work across the aisle on immigration and gun policies as well as for backing protection for interracial and same-sex marriage last year. Saturday’s vote required two-thirds of the state party’s 1,801 voting delegates, but it doesn’t have the teeth to remove Tillis from office. CRAMER FOR BURGUM — Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) is willing to do what it takes for his governor Douglas Burgum – ads, a press release, whatever. Here's how he put his pro-Doug stance in an interview with Burgess: "I just say it to everybody that I can't imagine why I wouldn't be for him. I'm all for him. I hope he goes all the way to the White House and I'll be with him all the way. I think it's great for North Dakota … Doug Burgum has a compelling personality and if you can break through with some messaging, you know it could happen. If he asks for a release or an ad or [to] use the word endorsement rather than ‘I'll support him,’ I'll do it."   GET READY FOR GLOBAL TECH DAY: Join POLITICO Live as we launch our first Global Tech Day alongside London Tech Week on Thursday, June 15. Register now for continuing updates and to be a part of this momentous and program-packed day! From the blockchain, to AI, and autonomous vehicles, technology is changing how power is exercised around the world, so who will write the rules? REGISTER HERE.     QUICK LINKS  Facing threats to his speakership, McCarthy takes a 'YOLO' approach, from Scott Wong at NBC News Colin Allred Wants to Be Beto O’Rourke—Without the Losing, from Sam Brodey at The Daily Beast TODAY IN CONGRESS The House convenes at noon for morning hour and 2 p.m. for legislative business. Votes will be postponed until 6:30 p.m. The Senate convenes at 3 p.m. and will resume consideration of Elizabeth Allen to be Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy with a cloture motion on the nomination at 5:30 p.m.   A message from The Alzheimer's Association:   AROUND THE HILL 3 p.m. House Rules meets to consider (in a repeat of last week) bills on gas stove regulations and measures on broad changes to regulatory policy. (H-313) TRIVIA FRIDAY’S WINNER: Chime Heart correctly answered that on Oct. 22, 1962 President John F. Kennedy delivered his address to the nation announcing the discovery of Soviet missile bases in Cuba, a week after the missile launch sites were first spotted on the island. TODAY’S QUESTION from Chime: Why are British elections always held on Thursday? The first person to correctly guess gets a mention in the next edition of Huddle. Send your answers to ktm@politico.com.   A message from The Alzheimer's Association: Are Continued Restrictions for FDA-approved Alzheimer’s Treatments the Future of Medicare? For people living with Alzheimer’s, Medicare hasn’t been the “rock solid guarantee” President Biden has promised. For more than a year, CMS has blocked Medicare coverage to FDA-approved Alzheimer’s treatments costing patients with a terminal disease time they will never get back. Now the agency is planning to continue unprecedented restrictions, saying they’ll provide coverage only through a registry — something Medicare has never before done for an FDA-approved drug. Yet with a deadline only weeks away, CMS has yet to explain the barriers patients will face or the steps doctors must take to prepare to deliver long-delayed treatment. Each day is crucial to someone living with early stage Alzheimer's when it comes to slowing the progression of this disease. Medicare must do better for beneficiaries with Alzheimer’s.   GET HUDDLE emailed to your phone each morning. Follow Katherine and Daniella on Twitter @ktullymcmanus and @DaniellaMicaela   Follow us

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