Subject: POLITICO Huddle: NEW GOP LEADERS STUMBLE OUT OF BLOCKS – House tries again today on border bill – CANTOR TO RESIGN FROM CONGRESS AUG. 18 – Congress OKs VA, highway bills – UDALL TO BRENNAN: RESIGN – Don Young manhandles staffer
From: "POLITICO Huddle" <[email-masked]>
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Date: Fri, 01 Aug 2014 05:35:14 -0600

By Scott Wong (
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NEW GOP LEADERS STUMBLE OUT OF THE BLOCKS - Jake Sherman, John Bresnahan and Anna Palmer report for the hometown paper: "The Steve Scalise era is off to an embarrassing start. The Louisiana Republican, who boasted of his deep ties to red-state GOP lawmakers in his recent bid to become majority whip, received a very public drubbing on his first day in the No. 3 slot when his colleagues abandoned leadership's plans to pass a border security bill. With their eyes fixed on August recess, GOP leaders were forced to pull the bill Thursday afternoon after rank-and-file lawmakers flipped from 'yes' votes to 'no' votes, as the chamber descended into chaos just hours before a monthlong recess was
 supposed to kick off.

-- "The meltdown unfolded just hours after Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.) gave his last floor speech as majority leader, ushering in an era of new leadership that pledged to be more efficient. But reality quickly set in that, new leadership aside, conservatives continue to hold enough clout to upend the House agenda - just as they have since Republicans took power in 2011.

-- "Thursday's setback, however, could be fleeting. Scalise will have an unusually quick chance for redemption because the House is sticking around Friday to try to chart a path forward. Scalise and Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.), chief deputy majority whip, were huddling with members Thursday evening to try to pick up votes. ... GOP sources are hopeful small changes to the legislation could garner enough backing to pass it." 
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-- CRUZ CRACKS CONSERVATIVE WHIP TO THWART LEADERS - WaPo's Robert Costa writes on A1: "The beginning of the collapse of House Speaker John A. Boehner's border bill came Wednesday evening, when Texas Sen. Ted Cruz gathered more than a dozen House Republicans at his office in the Dirksen building on Capitol Hill. It was there, as Boehner (R-Ohio) held his own meetings on the other side of Constitution Avenue, that Cruz heard that the speaker didn't have enough votes - and realized that if his House allies held firm, he could rupture the fragile coalition supporting the measure." 
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ERIC CANTOR told the Richmond Times-Dispatch he'll resign from Congress on Aug. 18, allowing Gov. Terry McAuliffe to call a special election for his district that coincides with the Nov. 4 general election. "'I want to make sure that the constituents in the 7th District will have a voice in what will be a very consequential lame-duck session,' Cantor said in an exclusive interview with the Richmond Times-Dispatch on Thursday afternoon. ... By having a special election in November, the winner would take office immediately, rather than in January with the next Congress." 
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-- THE SENATErejected its own bill responding to the border crisis, "killing the chances of legislation reaching President Barack Obama's desk before the August recess," Seung Min Kim and Burgess Everett write for POLITICO. "The $2.7 billion funding measure died on a procedural vote, 50-44." It needed 60 votes. 
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BUT CONGRESS DID GET SOMETHING DONE BEFORE RECESS ...

-- "Senate sends VA reform bill to Obama," By POLITICO's Lauren French: "The Senate on Thursday approved legislation overhauling the scandalized Department of Veterans Affairs, 91-3, sending the package to President Barack Obama. The vote comes nearly four months after revelations surfaced of mismanagement and corruption at the agency. An inspector general report found that VA facilities across the country were manipulating wait times to hide the long delays veterans faced when trying to see doctors. The legislation was approved as Robert McDonald prepares to take control of the VA. ... The House passed the reform bill on Wednesday." 
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-- "Senate clears highways, transit patch, punting the issue until May," By POLITICO's Kevin Robillard and Adam Snider: "The nation's highway and mass transit programs can breathe easy for another 10 months after Senate Democrats relented Thursday and cleared a GOP-crafted $11 billion extension they had overwhelmingly rejected two days ago. But... the bill's passage nevertheless represents a defeat for asphalt, trucking and other business groups that have long pushed for a hike in the gas tax and a five- or six-year transportation bill. The Senate's 81-13 vote sends the legislation to President Barack Obama for his signature mere hours before the Transportation Department said it would need
 to begin cutting payments to states and on the brink of a five-week congressional vacation." 
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HAPPY FIRST DAY OF AUGUST and welcome to The Huddle, your play-by-play preview of all the action on Capitol Hill. Send tips, suggestions, comments, complaints and corrections to 
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FEINSTEIN VINDICATED AS CIA APOLOGIZES FOR SNOOPING ON SENATE - Mark Mazzetti and Carl Hulse report on A1 of the NYT: "An internal investigation by the C.I.A. has found that its officers penetrated a computer network used by the Senate Intelligence Committee in preparing its damning report on the C.I.A.'s detention and interrogation program. The report by the agency's inspector general also found that C.I.A. officers read the emails of the Senate investigators and sent a criminal referral to the Justice Department based on false information, according to a summary of findings made public on Thursday. One official with knowledge of the report's conclusions said the investigation also
 discovered that the officers created a false online identity to gain access on more than one occasion to computers used by the committee staff.

-- "The inspector general's account of how the C.I.A. secretly monitored a congressional committee charged with supervising its activities touched off angry criticism from members of the Senate and amounted to vindication for Senator Dianne Feinstein of California, the committee's Democratic chairwoman, who excoriated the C.I.A. in March when the agency's monitoring of committee investigators became public." 
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-- SEN. MARK UDALL (D-COLO.)called on CIA Director John Brennan to resign after he was briefed on the CIA's spying activities. Udall, who serves on the Intelligence Committee, released a scathing statement: 'The CIA unconstitutionally spied on Congress by hacking into Senate Intelligence Committee computers. This grave misconduct not only is illegal, but it violates the U.S. Constitution's requirement of separation of powers. These offenses, along with other errors in judgment by some at the CIA, demonstrate a tremendous failure of leadership, and there must be consequences. The CIA needs to acknowledge its wrongdoing and correct the public record in a timely, forthright manner - and that
 simply hasn&#39;t occurred under John Brennan&#39;s leadership."

AN ARM-TWISTING AFFAIR: VIDEO SHOWS DON YOUNG MANHANDLES STAFFER - Roll Call's Warren Rojas: "With the August recess in jeopardy ... the arm-twisting on Capitol Hill is getting pretty intense. Just ask the unfortunate aide who dared cross the path of a tardy Don Young. NBC News producer Frank Thorp V caught the late-for-the-conference-meeting Alaska Republican's manhandling of an unsuspecting staffer on camera. Per Thorp's Twitter feed, the aide had attempted to redirect Young to enter the already in-progress GOP strategy session through another doorway when things got physical. 'While returning to the GOP conference meeting to discuss the ongoing situation on our southern border, I was
 caught off guard by an unidentified individual who was physically blocking me from reentering the room,' Young said in a statement. 'Regardless, my reaction was wrong and I should have never placed my hands on the young man.'" 
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NO THIRD TERM AT DCCC, BUT ISRAEL WANTS SEAT AT LEADERSHIP TABLE - Cameron Joseph reports for The Hill: "Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Steve Israel (D-N.Y.) is adamant this is his last term as chairman - but that doesn't mean he's ready to leave House leadership. Israel told The Hill in an exclusive interview that he will not seek a third term after the 2014 elections but wants to keep a seat at the leadership table. That could lead to some interesting machinations next winter unless someone in House leadership decides to retire. ... The congressman, a close confidante of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), said he'd like to remain in a top spot with the
 party, though.... It's unclear how that will occur without a retirement or the creation of a new leadership role, however. All five Democratic leadership slots are occupied by members who have shown no signs of retiring or stepping aside." 
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SENATE OKs RUSSIA AMBASSADOR, OTHER NOMS LANGUISH- Niels Lesniewski reports for Roll Call: "The Senate may not be confirming nominees to posts in a slew of countries before departing for the August recess, but after someprocedural maneuvering, the U.S. will be getting a top diplomat in Russia. Senators confirmed the nomination of John F. Tefft by voice vote as the chamber finished evening business after he faced objection to confirmation by unanimous consent earlier in the night. The Senate's nuclear fallout continued as the chamber worked into the night leading up until the break that will see no roll call votes until September 8. Foreign Relations Chairman Robert Menendez faced a GOP
 objection to confirming a batch of 25 career foreign service officers to various ambassadorships ..." 
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NEW LUNCH SPOT OPENS ON HILL -- Pret A Manger, the quick-service restaurant, open its eight spot in Washington today, this one on the corner of 3rd Street and Pennsylvania Avenuein Capitol Hill. From the release: "The location will feature 4,300 square feet of space and offer two floors of indoor dining space, along with an outdoor seating area." Popville: 
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THURSDAY'S TRIVIA WINNER - Andrew Ott was first to correctly answer that Kansas was the first state to replace a statue in the Capitol&#39;s Statuary Hall Collection. It replaced its statue of little-known Gov. George Glick with Dwight D. Eisenhower in 2003.

TODAY&#39;S TRIVIA - johnnysnakehead has today's question: Which U.S. vice president was born in a log cabin outside "Detroit"? The first person to send the correct answer to 
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