Democrats vow to press forward with border deal

Presented by Instagram: An evening recap of the action on Capitol Hill and preview of the day ahead

Jan 25, 2024 View in browser   By Daniella Diaz and Anthony Adragna Presented by With assists from POLITICO’s Congress team The notion that Donald Trump’s presidential campaign imperatives might derail months of work was met with frustration by Senate Democrats. | Francis Chung/POLITICO WILL BORDER TALKS GET TRUMPED? If Senate Republicans were confused by Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s closed-door comments Wednesday on the pending border negotiations — and, boy, were they — Democrats were downright vexed. The notion that Donald Trump’s presidential campaign imperatives might derail months of work by a small group of senators hoping to open a bipartisan path for Ukraine and Israel was met with frustration by Senate Democrats, who vowed to press forward regardless. “It speaks to how badly this place is broken,” said Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.), a red-state Democrat who is facing a tough re-election for his seat. “Hopefully the American people won't accept that bullshit.” McConnell on Thursday made clear he remains supportive of the border talks led by Sens. James Lankford (R-Okla.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) and Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.), but he still faces growing skepticism from the rightmost wing of his conference. Murphy said he wasn’t surprised that McConnell would acknowledge the political challenges. “It shouldn't be a shock to anybody that Donald Trump doesn't want to fix the border,” he said. “It shouldn't be a shock that, you know, some Senate Republicans don't want to fix the border. They have become a lot of Republicans have become used to this being just merely a political issue, not an actual policy problem. And that's hard for them to get over.” What’s next: The long-awaited and much anticipated text is “absolutely” coming next week, Sinema said Thursday, with Murphy adding that “90%-plus” was already written. And then, he said, “we wait” on Republicans. “We won't get every Democratic vote for this deal, but the majority of Democrats will likely support it. Not every Republican will support it, but we need them to decide that they want to put this on the floor and have a debate,” he said. “I think what Republicans are realizing is that the proposal that we have agreed upon will fundamentally fix many of the problems at the border and in a broken asylum system,” Murphy continued. “And there is unquestionably a group of Republicans that don't want to fix the problem, and they are now faced with a compromise policy proposal that will fix big parts of the problem.” To recap: The idea of pairing Ukraine aid with immigration policy changes originated with Republicans who made clear they would only approve security aid abroad if measures were taken to improve security at home, at the U.S.-Mexico border. The outlines of such a bargain were sketched out last year, and since then Trump has continued his march toward the GOP presidential nomination, making the surge of migrants a central issue of his campaign. As Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) put it Thursday, “There's a fourth person in the negotiating room. It's Sinema, Murphy, Lankford and now Trump.” — Daniella Diaz, with assist from Anthony Adragna   A message from Instagram: Parents should be able to decide which apps are right for their teens. According to a new poll by Morning Consult conducted in November 2023, more than 75% of parents believe teens under 16 shouldn’t be able to download apps without parental permission.1 Instagram wants to work with Congress to pass federal legislation that gets it done. Learn more.   GOOD EVENING! Welcome to Inside Congress, the play-by-play guide to all things Capitol Hill, on this Thursday, Jan. 25, where we hope you stay dry today! EXCLUSIVE: HAWLEY’S PLEA TO THE ACADEMY Conservative Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) has a message to famously liberal Hollywood: Honor “the victims of America’s nuclear testing” programs as it prepares to hail the critically acclaimed “Oppenheimer.” The film, which is up for 13 award nominations at the March 10 Oscars, tells a “compelling story” of these nuclear testing programs, Hawley writes in a letter to the governors of the Academy Awards, but “does not tell the story of the Americans left behind — still reckoning with the health and financial consequences of America’s nuclear research, after all these years.” “These victims deserve justice through fair compensation from their government — and you can help by telling their stories,” Hawley added. The letter is Hawley’s latest attempt to gain national attention for victims of radiation exposure — including those harmed by a nuclear waste site near St. Louis — as he fights for federal compensation. He threatened last year to hold up passage of the must-pass national defense policy bill without a reauthorization of the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, which is due to expire in June 2024. — Anthony Adragna    GROWING IN THE GOLDEN STATE: POLITICO California is growing, reinforcing our role as the indispensable insider source for reporting on politics, policy and power. From the corridors of power in Sacramento and Los Angeles to the players and innovation hubs in Silicon Valley, we're your go-to for navigating the political landscape across the state. Exclusive scoops, essential daily newsletters, unmatched policy reporting and insights — POLITICO California is your key to unlocking Golden State politics. LEARN MORE.     COULD T-SWIFT BE THE CATALYST FOR AI REGULATION? Explicit artificial-intelligence-generated images of Taylor Swift have advocates waving their hands at Congress to act ASAP on regulating the rapidly evolving technology. Both Republican and Democratic lawmakers say the episode underscores the need for swift action. “I think the American people will ask us to come up with a policy response to this if the social media platforms don't do so on their own,” Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.) said. “AI shouldn’t be able to take your image and make it something else,” Hawley added Thursday. “If we respond with policy, it's all very manageable,” said Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), who was unaware of the explicit nature of the Swift “deepfakes” but later posted about it on X. “But we need to do that.” It caught the eyeballs of House lawmakers, as well: “It is clear that AI technology is advancing faster than the necessary guardrails,” said Rep. Tom Kean (R-N.J.) in a statement. “Whether the victim is Taylor Swift or any young person across our country — we need to establish safeguards to combat this alarming trend.” He urged passage of his legislation requiring the labeling of AI images. — Anthony Adragna and Daniella Diaz   A message from Instagram:   NEW ETHICS REPORT ON BOWMAN  A House ethics watchdog didn’t find reason to believe Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) attempted to impede congressional proceedings when he falsely triggered a fire alarm last fall, according to a newly released report. The Office of Congressional Ethics said it was “unable to identify evidence to support a finding that there was substantial reason to believe Rep. Bowman intended to obstruct or otherwise interfere with an official House proceeding.” Bowman, however, “did not take reasonable steps to mitigate the potential risk of harm” when the alarm was triggered, the OCE found, while adding that it was “unclear whether Rep. Bowman considered such unintended consequences of his actions.” Bowman kicked off a firestorm of controversy in October when he falsely triggered a Cannon Building fire alarm during a chaotic vote over government funding. He subsequently pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor, and the House voted to censure him over the incident. Some Republicans had accused him of pulling the alarm in an effort to delay the vote, a charge Bowman had strenuously denied. Bowman told congressional investigators he believed the fire alarm would eventually stop and that it would be “all good” after it was checked on. He didn’t inform police of his actions because of a “single-minded hurried focus” to get to the vote, he told them. The OCE report came after an evenly split House Ethics Committee declined to take any further action against Bowman last November. — Nicholas Wu   YOUR GUIDE TO EMPIRE STATE POLITICS: From the newsroom that doesn’t sleep, POLITICO's New York Playbook is the ultimate guide for power players navigating the intricate landscape of Empire State politics. Stay ahead of the curve with the latest and most important stories from Albany, New York City and around the state, with in-depth, original reporting to stay ahead of policy trends and political developments. Subscribe now to keep up with the daily hustle and bustle of NY politics.      HUDDLE HOTDISH There’s one place on Capitol Hill where Kevin McCarthy’s speakership lives on. One of your Inside Congress hosts almost stole this perfect dog. John Hoeven told Anthony he’s supporting Rep. Kelly Armstrong (R-N.D.) in his bid for North Dakota governor. Bill Cassidy dropped some Mardi Gras shade.   A message from Instagram: More than 75% of parents want to approve the apps teens under 16 download. According to a new poll from Morning Consult, more than 75% of parents agree: Teens under 16 shouldn’t be able to download apps from app stores without parental permission.1 Instagram wants to work with Congress to pass federal legislation that gets it done. Learn more. 1"US Parents Study on Teen App Downloads" by Morning Consult (Meta-commissioned survey of 2,019 parents), Nov. 2023.   QUICK LINKS  How life is going for this former McCarthy deputy: Not great, from Anthony Adragna Ex-employee accuses scandal-plagued Capitol manager's office of 'sexist environment', from Katherine Tully-McManus and Daniel Lippman Nancy Mace’s Bizarre Jan. 6 Plan: ‘Get Punched in the Face’, from Jake Lahut and Brett Bachman at the Daily Beast Alabama GOP congressman disagrees with Nikki Haley: 'Everyone has some racist in them', from Vaughn Hillyard at NBC News TRANSITIONS  Wilson Baldwin is now Democratic communications director for the House China Select Committee. He continues as deputy chief of staff and communications director for Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.). Kevin Bishop is retiring from his role as comms director for Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), which he’s held since 2002. TOMORROW IN CONGRESS The House and Senate are out. FRIDAY AROUND THE HILL 12 p.m. — Rep. Glenn Ivey (D-Md.) hosts survivors of gun violence for an action summit. (House Triangle) TRIVIA WEDNESDAY ANSWER: Albert Wolf correctly answered that the four senators who founded the “Singing Senators” in 1995 were John Ashcroft (R-Miss.), Larry Craig (R-Ind.), Jim Jeffords (R-Vt.), and Trent Lott (R-Miss.). TODAY’S QUESTION, from ex-Inside Congress host KTM: Which two opposing side senators serving now went to the same Jesuit high school? Bonus: Which one was valedictorian? The first person to correctly guess gets a mention in the next edition of Inside Congress. Send your answers to insidecongress@politico.com. GET INSIDE CONGRESS emailed to your phone each evening. Follow Daniella on X at @DaniellaMicaela.   Follow us

To change your alert settings, please log in at https://www.politico.com/_login?base=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.politico.com/settings This email was sent to rouf@idiot.cloudns.cc by: POLITICO, LLC 1000 Wilson Blvd. Arlington, VA, 22209, USA Unsubscribe | Privacy Policy | Terms of Service