Congress: The Senate & The House

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⚡️ Schumer does it again

Senate Republicans on Thursday blocked a bill aimed at ensuring federal protections for in vitro fertilization (IVF), as Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) forced them to take another difficult vote on a hot-button election issue.

• Democrats are trying to hold Republicans' feet to the fire on reproductive rights two years after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade — and ahead of the 2024 elections. The GOP is trying to dodge those bullets.
• Every Senate Republican this week signed a letter voicing their support for IVF, arguing that Democrats are lying about the GOP's position on the procedure.

🛡️ Republicans have rallied around protecting IVF after the Alabama Supreme Court issued a ruling in February that resulted in clinics pausing the treatment in the state.

• Two Republicans, Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Susan Collins (R-Maine), voted to advance the bill.

Thursday's vote was the latest episode in which Schumer has called votes that drew attention to GOP divisions on issues that Democrats are highlighting in their campaigns.

• Last week he brought forward a bill to protect access to contraception at the federal level, and Republicans blocked it.
• GOP lawmakers also voted against a bipartisan immigration bill last month, the result of a move by Schumer to clear a path for President Biden's executive order to reduce crossings at the Southwest border.

Read more.

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Sen. John Fetterman was at fault in car accident and seen going ‘high rate of speed,’ police say

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman was seen driving at a “high rate of speed” on Sunday morning just before he rear-ended another car on Interstate 70 in Maryland, according to a state police report.

https://apnews.com/article/fetterman-car-accident-police-report-d714084a1b17a23f233f2733c5694b5a?

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🏛️ Scoop: McConnell eyes next move

Photo illustration: Tiffany Herring/Axios. Photos: Brendan Hoffman, Samuel Corum/Getty Images

In January, Mitch McConnell will go from the longest-serving Senate party leader to a regular senator from Kentucky — and some of his Republican colleagues already are speculating about how he might continue to wield his long-held power, Axios' Stef W. Kight writes. Why it matters: Several sources close to GOP leadership tell Axios that assuming Republicans win the Senate majority in November, McConnell is eyeing chair of the Appropriations Committee. McConnell, 82, is both a student and a practitioner of power. While no final decision has been made, such a post would let him remain a force with real juice, wielding enviable say over funding for everything from the Pentagon to pet projects until he finishes his term in 2027. Between the lines: Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), a longtime, close ally of McConnell, is now Appropriations vice chair — the committee's top Republican on the panel, one slot ahead of McConnell on the panel. That could kill the idea, unless another plum slot could be found for her. 🔭 Zoom out: During his waning days in leadership, McConnell has focused on fighting isolationists in his conference — an effort he plans to continue while he remains in the Senate. Chairing Appropriations would give McConnell even more say in boosting U.S. spending on defense and military aid. Scoop: McConnell-aligned PAC spending big on border ads ...

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Republican IVF bill fails in U.S. Senate

WASHINGTON — Alabama Republican Sen. Katie Britt’s efforts to pass legislation that would block Medicaid funding from going to states that ban in vitro fertilization were unsuccessful Wednesday when Democrats blocked the bill from advancing.

https://floridaphoenix.com/2024/06/13/republican-ivf-bill-fails-in-u-s-senate/?

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Speaker Johnson says House will go to court for Biden audio after Justice Dept. refused to prosecute

WASHINGTON (AP) — Speaker Mike Johnson said Friday that the House will go to court to enforce the subpoena against Attorney General Merrick Garland for access to President Joe Biden’s special counsel audio interview, hours after the Justice Department refused to prosecute Republicans’ contempt of Congress charge.

https://apnews.com/article/justice-department-contempt-biden-classified-documents-8f38c7178fb0c996442781243f65ab97?

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🔥 The GOP's cigar crisis

Photo: Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

🏛️ The House Republican leadership has a quintessentially Capitol Hill problem: A shift in committee chairs has left lawmakers without a place to light up cigars — and they're getting a little tense about it. Rep. Tom Cole's (R-Okla.) move to chair of the Appropriations panel created a domino effect in office changes that took away members' private spot to enjoy stogies close to the House floor. Now GOP members are urging Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) to find a solution. 👀 GOP lawmakers stressed to Axios the importance of having quiet places to gather off the House floor to bond, saying the loss of Cole's "hideaway" — as such areas are known — has created a void Johnson should address. Given stark divisions and constant infighting among this crop of House Republicans, there's a good argument for anything that could ease tensions in the House GOP conference. 🔎 How we got here: When Cole chaired the powerful Rules Committee, his Capitol hideaway was a place for lawmakers to huddle and talk policy over cigars. But after Cole became Appropriations chair he let former chair Kay Granger (R-Texas) stay in her office, even as he surrendered the Rules committee spot to that panel's new chairman, Michael Burgess (R-Texas). That left Cole without a hideaway of his own, and cigar aficionados without a lair. Burgess, a physician, isn't into the cigar thing. "We desperately need a place to smoke cigars, and I do not have — and should not have — the chairman's office right now ... because Kay Granger needs that, and that's the appropriate thing to do," Cole said. He noted that members used to be able to smoke in the Speaker's Lobby, a tradition Nancy Pelosi did away with in 2007, when she replaced John Boehner — an avid smoker — as speaker. Go deeper.

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📢 GOP calls on SCOTUS to save Trump

🛡️ Trump's GOP Protection Squad continues to push various political and legal maneuvers to try and reverse his felony conviction in New York.

• Sunday it was Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) — a loyalist and contender to be Trump's vice presidential nominee — suggesting that the conservative-led Supreme Court should "step into" the matter and overturn Trump's guilty verdict in the New York hush money case before the Nov. 5 election.
• There's no such legal case before the high court, and any unsolicited foray into such a politically hot issue would super-charge Democrats' allegations that the court has become guided by politics as much as the law.
• Trump would have to exhaust his legal appeals in a series of New York courts before his case could reach the U.S. Supreme Court.

But Donalds told NBC's "Meet the Press" that House Speaker Johnson, "myself ... and many Americans believe the Supreme Court should step into this matter."

⚡️ Donalds' comments reflect a growing view among Republican lawmakers that all levers of powers should be exercised in attempting to overturn the former president's conviction, Axios' Andrew Solender reports.

• House Republicans are eyeing legislation that would allow Trump, if elected president, to move his case from state to federal court.
• 💰 Others have pushed to cut federal funding for state and federal prosecutors who have cases against Trump.

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Tobacco-like warning label for social media sought by US surgeon general who asks Congress to act

The U.S. surgeon general has called on Congress to require warning labels on social media platforms similar to those now mandatory on cigarette boxes.

https://www.orlandosentinel.com/2024/06/17/tobacco-like-warning-label-for-social-media-sought-by-us-surgeon-general-who-asks-congress-to-act/

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Chairman McCaul Secures Date for Transcribed Interview of Jen Psaki for Afghanistan Withdrawal Investigation

Washington, D.C. — Today, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul sent a letter to former White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki confirming her appearance for a transcribed interview before the committee on July 26, 2024, regarding her role in the Biden administration’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan. Psaki agreed to appear before the committee after nine months of exhaustive efforts, but conditioned her appearance on White House approval. In his letter to Psaki, Chairman McCaul restates his expectation for her unconditional appearance and her responsibility to resolve any third-party arrangements prior to her transcribed interview. Chairman McCaul underscores the importance of Psaki’s testimony given her role as an “authoritative source” on the administration’s deadly withdrawal, and that limitations on her appearance will be treated as refusal to testify.  

https://foreignaffairs.house.gov/press-release/chairman-mccaul-secures-date-for-transcribed-interview-of-jen-psaki-for-afghanistan-withdrawal-investigation/?

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🔥 Dems pressure Schumer

⚡️ Some of the Senate's most vulnerable Democrats in the Nov. 5 election are pushing Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) to hold a vote soon on a tax bill that supporters say could lift half a million children out of poverty, Axios' Stephen Neukam reports.

• Schumer is deciding whether to bring the $78 billion tax package to the floor and risk its failure because of a lack of Republican support.
• Its passage could boost Senate Democrats in their campaigns — and if it were to fail, they'd have another issue to bash Republicans about.

👶 The bipartisan bill, which has passed the House, would extend an expanded version of the Child Tax Credit that expired last year, a priority for Democrats. It could give families a tax credit of up to $2,000 per child under age 17.

Democratic senators such as Sherrod Brown (Ohio) and Jon Tester (Mont.) — who are up for re-election in red states — are pushing Schumer to hold a vote before November.

• Also especially interested in the bill getting a pre-election vote: Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), who's facing a tough fight in a state that President Biden won in 2020 — but where polls now suggest he's trailing former President Trump.

"I've asked Schumer to move on it," said Brown, who will face Republican Bernie Moreno in November.

• Rosen, who will face former Army Capt. Sam Brown in Nevada, cited the tax credit as the reason she's urged Schumer to schedule a vote.
• Ohio's and Nevada's child poverty rates are in the bottom half of U.S. states, according to federal data.
• "I hope we can get a vote on it, because that's what we're here to do," said Tester, who's facing perhaps the toughest re-election battle among Senate Democrats, against business executive Tim Sheehy.

For now, Schumer isn't tipping his hand.

• Any move to have the chamber vote on the bill is likely to draw fire from Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee.
• Crapo has raised concerns about several provisions in the bill.

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Targeting bump stocks

👂 One bill we hear Schumer will put on the Senate floor: a bipartisan plan to ban bump stocks, the gun attachments that allow semiautomatic weapons to fire more rapidly.

• 🌊 A wave of Senate Democrats is planning to join Schumer to try to pass a bump stock ban when he brings it to the floor this week, Stephen scoops.

Last week, the Supreme Court tossed out the Justice Department's ban on devices like that used in the 2017 mass shooting in Las Vegas, in which a gunman opened fire on a music festival, killing 60 people and wounding 850 more.

• ⚖️ Justice Samuel Alito wrote in support of the 6-3 ruling that said bump stocks don't convert rifles into illegal machine guns — but said Congress could change the law to impose restrictions on bump stocks.

And so here we are.

• Democrats know the majority leader's move is likely to draw an objection from at least one Republican, thwarting the effort — and making this the latest Schumer action to add to Democrats' pre-election messaging.
• Sens. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) have picked up 20 cosponsors for their Banning Unlawful Machinegun Parts (BUMP) Act, which would ban bump stocks.

Two battleground Senate Democrats up for re-election this year co-sponsored the bill.

• Rosen and Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.), who represent states President Biden won in 2020, attached their names to the bill.
• But Brown and Tester, Democrats up for re-election in red states, are not cosponsors.

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✈️ Pic du jour: Boeing chief grilled

Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun walks into a Senate Homeland Security subcommittee hearing today, as relatives of those killed in the crashes of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 and Lion Air Flight 610 hold up photos of their loved ones.

• Calhoun apologized to the families for the crashes involving 737 Max jets — and acknowledged Boeing's safety problems in light of a January incident, in which a 737 Max 9's door panel blew out mid-flight.

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Senate GOP splits on limiting leader

By Stef W. Kight

Illustration: Shoshana Gordon/Axios

🐘 One of the few major splits among GOP Senate leadership contenders — how long Mitch McConnell's successor should be able to hold the job — resurfaced this week. There's growing interest within the GOP in preventing the kind of 18-year reign McConnell (R-Ky.) has enjoyed. 💥 Support for leader term limits has become an early flashpoint in the leadership race between Republican Sens. John Cornyn (Texas), John Thune (South Dakota) and Rick Scott (Florida). For the second time this year, the departing GOP leader is sharply warning his conference against embracing term limits for his successor. McConnell raised the issue during a Tuesday lunch, four sources familiar with the matter told Axios, a sign of how serious discussions about a term-limit proposal have become. Frequent McConnell critics — including Scott and Sens. Mike Lee (Utah) and Ron Johnson (Wis.) — have led the charge to impose a maximum number of years that a Republican can serve as leader. They're not alone. With Cornyn joining Scott in backing term limits — and other Republicans at least open to the idea — long-time backers are hopeful they can win the support of most of the conference. "There's a lot of interest in it," Scott, who launched his leadership campaign with a call for a six-year term limit on leadership, told Axios. 👀 What to watch: Thune, currently in the party's No. 2 job as whip, is the only one of the three candidates for GOP leader who hasn't backed the idea of term limits. But he hasn't ruled them out, saying he's open to discussions. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), who's running for the No. 4 leadership slot, said the term limits conversation "is serious, and I think it's a conversation we should have. I just don't happen to agree with it." 🔎 Zoom in: McConnell believes imposing term limits on leaders would hurt their ability to build out hefty fundraising operations and hamper their power in a way that could devolve into House-like chaos. He laid out his position in detail during the GOP senators' lunch Tuesday — and touted how his fundraising prowess, demonstrated largely through the Senate Leadership Fund super PAC, helped senators win their seats in the room, according to two sources. 💪 Some sources said McConnell's flex could have amplified the arguments of those who want to see power more spread out. Read more

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🤺 Fight begins over Trump tax cuts, tariffs

The battle has begun over what should become of Trump's signature tax law — many provisions of which are scheduled to expire next year — and his former vice president is leading a new offensive to extend those.

• 💵 Mike Pence's group Advancing American Freedom plans to spend $10 million to try to influence the tax debate over the next 18 months, pushing a pro-business tilt that contrasts with both the Biden administration and some populist Republicans who have Trump's ear.

✂️ Much of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), enacted in 2017, expires at the end of 2025. That includes lower individual income tax rates, a larger standard deduction, a higher exemption for the estate tax and much more.

• 🥊 It sets up an intense legislative battle next year over what to extend, what to change and what to allow to expire. The outcome will depend on who wins the November elections.

Mainstream Republicans believe the TCJA has had wide-ranging economic benefits, particularly by incentivizing business investment.

• But fissures within the GOP need to be resolved under any new tax plan — even if Republicans sweep the House, Senate and White House.
• ⚡️ An emerging populist wing of the party — the most visible members include Sens. J.D. Vance (Ohio) and Josh Hawley (Mo.) — is more hostile to large corporations and more open to the aggressive use of tariffs than traditional Republicans like Pence.
• Some Republicans are even in favor of raising the corporate income tax rate, House Ways and Means Committee chair Jason Smith (Mo.) said recently — a non-starter to supply-side conservatives.

Meanwhile, Biden wants to undo many of the tax changes that benefit those earning more than $400,000, and raise the corporate income tax rate from the current 21% to 28%.

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