| | | | |  | | By Katherine Tully-McManus | Presented by Southwest Airlines | With an assist from Daniella Diaz
|  Special counsel John Durham heads to the Hill this week for a grilling by House Republicans. (Manuel Balce Ceneta) | AP | WORKING TOWARDS INDEPENDENCE — Congress has a jam-packed agenda this summer, with spending and policy fights simmering. But it’s a short week ahead of the lengthy July 4th recess. Here’s what to watch as lawmakers arrive for a short stint in Washington: Behind closed doors: The week kicks off with some closed-door action. The House Intelligence Committee will hear testimony this afternoon from special counsel John Durham on his multi-year probe into the FBI’s investigation into links between Russia and former President Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. He will also appear Wednesday at the House Judiciary Committee. Durham's recent report was critical of the FBI and argued that the agency rushed to investigate Trump and exhibited confirmation bias, but the report did not reveal widespread criminal activity or abuse of power that Trump and his allies continue to claim. Trump is, of course, now under federal indictment for his alleged mishandling of classified documents (and more indictments are anticipated.) Republicans have long portrayed Trump as a victim of a political justice system and they will likely use Durham's appearances this week to further that argument. Longest day of NDAA: Both the House and Senate Armed Services Committees will launch their full-committee markups of the annual defense policy bill on Wednesday, the House in a public meeting and the Senate behind closed doors. The Senate panel has another item atop its agenda before they get to the National Defense Authorization Act: Sen. Joni Ernst’s (R-Iowa) bill that would rescind the Defense Department’s policies that allow servicemembers to travel to seek abortion care. The move is aimed at placating Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) who is blocking 250 military senior officer promotions over the abortion policy. But Tuberville made clear last week that only a standalone floor vote on the policy, not just in SASC or attached to NDAA, would satisfy him. Spending split, revealed: The Senate Appropriations Committee meets Thursday and the outcome will set the table for a the House-Senate spending fight that will only heat up in the coming weeks and months. The panel is meeting to lock in the topline spending levels for each of the 12 spending bills. They're expected to match the levels settled in the bipartisan debt limit deal. They'll also mark up the MilCon-VA and Agriculture spending bills. But the House last week set their levels far below the caps outlined in the debt limit deal, with some bills taking major, double-digit percentage cuts and others left largely intact. The discrepancy between the House and Senate approach sets Congress on a path towards a major clash, and potential government shutdown, in the fall. Another shot at Schiff: Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) is back with another attempt to censure Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) for his previous leadership of the House Intelligence Committee and probes into former President Donald Trump. The new proposal would censure Schiff and refer him to the House Ethics Committee, but it scraps a $16,000,000 fine if the Ethics probe found he committed transgressions. The fine was a sticking point for some of the 20 GOP members who voted with Democrats last week to table an earlier censure resolution. Olivia reports that Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) is on board with the revised proposal (he panned the last one). At least a half dozen others who voted to table the last censure attempt are signaling support for this new one. It could hit the House floor as soon as Wednesday.
| | | | A message from Southwest Airlines: Southwest Airlines’ purpose has always been to connect you to what’s important in your life, and we’re ready to welcome you onboard this summer. To help us serve you, Southwest developed an action plan that accelerates operational investments and reliability, enhances cross-Team collaboration, and improves our operations. Learn about how Southwest is preparing for your next trip with our action plan and path forward. | | | GOOD MORNING! Welcome to Huddle, the play-by-play guide to all things Capitol Hill, on this Tuesday, June 20, where there’s just a few days between Congress and their two-week July 4 recess. HUDDLE WEEKLY MOST CLICKED: You were looking for lunch inspo and found it in the Dirksen bathroom garbanzos. JEFFRIES REFLECTS — Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) has learned a lot in his decades in office – don’t miss Calder McHugh’s POLITICO magazine piece that reflects on Jeffries time in office, including the first time he sharpened his knives as a 29-year-old taking on a tough Democratic incumbent. TAXES, TAXES, TAXES — Much of Republicans’ sweeping Trump-era tax breaks are set to expire in 2025 – meaning the stakes are high in the 2024 campaign, depending on the outcome. Depending on how next year’s elections go, Republicans can keep the cuts or Democrats can rewrite them — or, if neither party gets a clean sweep, a split government could put the nation on course for a massive fiscal collision. Burgess and Sarah reported Monday that everybody has their own ideas on how to handle it. Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) told them, “There’s probably some worth keeping.” Sen. Sherrod Brown told them the tax cuts “did nothing for the country." And Republicans are pretty clear: “We need to renew the expiring tax cuts,” Sen. Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.) said. “Just letting them expire is a tax increase.” More from them here.
| | | | 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. | | | | | VETO OVERRIDE — The House is expected to take up a measure this week to try to override President Joe Biden’s veto of a GOP bill that would block the White House’s student debt relief plan. The student loan bill was the fifth veto of Biden’s presidency and the Senate is unlikely to have the juice to sustain an override. In the Senate, Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin (W.Va.) and Jon Tester (Mont.) and Independent Sen. Krysten Sinema (Ariz.) joined with Republicans to pass the legislation, but that wouldn’t be enough to override the veto. After more than three years, the federal government’s pandemic-related suspension of student loan payments and interest is officially coming to an end this fall. Interest is set to resume in September, with payments starting in October.
| | Thanks to Opal… Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) joined Opal Lee, the “grandmother of Juneteenth,” for an annual walk in the Historic Southside neighborhood of Fort Worth, Texas near the site of the future home of the National Juneteenth Museum. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas), also honored Opal Lee’s advocacy for Juneteenth to be federally recognized. Cornyn and Jackson Lee led the charge to make Juneteenth a federal holiday in 2021, though previous legislative attempts began in the 1990s.
| | | | A message from Southwest Airlines:   | | | QUICK LINKS Federal Policy on Homelessness Becomes New Target of the Right, from Jason DeParle at The New York Times US Lawmakers to Press Auto CEOs Over China Supply Chains, from Daniel Flatley at Bloomberg Jamaal Bowman Has a ‘Really Loud’ Voice. What Does He Want to Say?, from Ursula Perano at the Daily Beast G.O.P. Leaders Embrace Early Voting, but Will Their Base Get on Board?, from Neil Vigdor at The New York Times TRANSITIONS Shalini Avasarala is joining Weber Shandwick as manager of client experience/media relations. She previously was press secretary for Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.).
| | | | SUBSCRIBE TO POWER SWITCH: The energy landscape is profoundly transforming. Power Switch is a daily newsletter that unlocks the most important stories driving the energy sector and the political forces shaping critical decisions about your energy future, from production to storage, distribution to consumption. Don’t miss out on Power Switch, your guide to the politics of energy transformation in America and around the world. SUBSCRIBE TODAY. | | | | | TODAY IN CONGRESS The House convenes at noon for morning hour and 2 p.m. for legislative business. Roll call votes are postponed until 6:30 p.m. The Senate convenes at 3 p.m. to resume consideration of the nomination of Julie Rikelman to be U.S. circuit judge for the First Circuit, with a confirmation vote expected at 5:30 p.m. AROUND THE HILL 3 p.m. The House Rules Committee meets to consider a bill on health insurance reimbursement, a measure on barring schools from sheltering immigrants and another making changes to the Federal Housing Finance Agency. (H-313)
| | FRIDAY’S WINNER: Vicki Keenan correctly answered that the first presidents to ride in a train, car & airplane were Andrew Jackson (1833), William McKinley (1902), and Teddy Roosevelt (1910), respectively. TODAY’S QUESTION: Who was the first U.S. senator to go on to win the Nobel Peace Prize? 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 and Daniella on Twitter @ktullymcmanus and @DaniellaMicaela
| | | | A message from Southwest Airlines: Southwest Airlines’ purpose has always been to connect you to what’s important in your life, and we have developed an action plan to ensure we’re ready to serve you. Our plan includes:
· Accelerating operational investments and reliability by investing in technology and tools that will improve our recovery during irregular operations;
· Enhancing cross-Team collaboration by strengthening the way our Teams work and communicate together to streamline decision-making; and
· Improving winter operations by reinforcing airport infrastructure, increasing the availability of winter equipment, and bolstering our overall preparedness for extreme winter conditions.
In addition to our action plan, we’re continuing to invest in your Customer Experience. Some of our new initiatives include increasing self-service options, bag tracking, and implementing more real-time day-of-travel communications. Learn about how Southwest is preparing for your next trip with our action plan and path forward. | | | | | | | Follow us | | | | |
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