Subject: POLITICO Huddle, presented by Susan G. Komen: IRAN DEAL’S BIG TEST – Hill backs drone strikes – OBAMACARE REPEAL ON TRACK? – Dems push for higher wages for Hill workers – COCHRAN AIDE ARRESTED – Jared Polis trolls Steve King
From: "POLITICO Huddle" <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 27 Apr 2015 06:27:57 -0600

By Seung Min Kim (
mailto:[email-masked] 
[email-masked]  or @seungminkim)

IRAN DEAL FACES FLOOR TEST - The Iran review agreement carefully crafted by Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) hits the Senate floor this week, where Corker and other backers will have to fend off poison-pill amendments that could kill the compromise. Look for proposals from Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who wants to require Iran to recognize the state of Israel; Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), who's calling for the administration to certify that Iran is not directly supporting terrorists' actions against Americans; and Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), who'd rather kill the deal, per POLITICO's Burgess Everett.

--Burgess reports: "Republican and Democratic leaders, who back the review bill, plan to muster enough votes to block any seriously problematic amendments while still allowing their members to take some political potshots ... Leaders and members of the Foreign Relations Committee are angling for a bipartisan show of force to reject any major changes, according to interviews with senators and aides close to the strategy, yet another sign that lawmakers in both parties want to make sure their voices are heard on the nuclear deal." 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=577efb787c2bb0f2747d919bcc0364d52312684aa6293ee10483867bc9ebb6a5 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=577efb787c2bb0f2747d919bcc0364d52312684aa6293ee10483867bc9ebb6a5 

--Meanwhile, Democrats are fighting to protect the compromise that emerged from the Foreign Relations Committee. The New York Times reports: "Many Democrats who support the underlying bill said emphatically last week that they would abandon a bill with any legislative ornaments they disliked. 'I think the bill that came out of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee was a terrific and important and hard-won compromise,' said Senator Chris Coons, Democrat of Delaware, who enthusiastically supported the bill in the committee. If largely partisan amendments become attached to it, he said, 'I would no longer support it.'" 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=577efb787c2bb0f2dac1a8483b962de8324cb78a515a199afa23890df5fcc061 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=577efb787c2bb0f2dac1a8483b962de8324cb78a515a199afa23890df5fcc061 

--Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), always to the point: "Anybody who monkeys with this bill is going to run into a buzz saw." From the Associated Press: 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=577efb787c2bb0f26aae79213ee74c02e29ee43c12442e00eb58e5132f1411da 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=577efb787c2bb0f26aae79213ee74c02e29ee43c12442e00eb58e5132f1411da 

HILL NOT BACKING OFF DRONE SUPPORT - From the New York Times' Mark Mazzetti and Matt Apuzzo: "About once a month, staff members of the congressional intelligence committees drive across the Potomac River to C.I.A. headquarters in Langley, Va., and watch videos of people being blown up. As part of the macabre ritual the staff members look at the footage of drone strikes in Pakistan and other countries and a sampling of the intelligence buttressing each strike, but not the internal C.I.A. cables discussing the attacks and their aftermath. The screenings have provided a veneer of congressional oversight and have led lawmakers to claim that the targeted killing program is subject to rigorous
 review, to defend it vigorously in public and to authorize its sizable budget each year."

--"That unwavering support from Capitol Hill is but one reason the C.I.A.'s killing missions are embedded in American warfare and unlikely to change significantly despite President Obama's announcement on Thursday that a drone strike accidentally killed two innocent hostages, an American and an Italian." 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=577efb787c2bb0f2ba15aebafd5777d0d532a21e1966438166e7a886f3409a98 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=577efb787c2bb0f2ba15aebafd5777d0d532a21e1966438166e7a886f3409a98 

GOP BACKING OFF OBAMACARE REPEAL? At least, that's what some conservatives fear. POLITICO's Rachael Bade writes: "Conservatives are adamant that reconciliation - the rarely used fast-track procedure that allows the Senate to pass legislation with a simple majority rather than 60 votes - be used to pass a repeal of the health care law. They believed GOP leaders were on board."

--"But as House and Senate lawmakers have met to hash out a compromise budget over the past few weeks, conservatives noted that House Republican leaders have been talking about leaving their options open. An Obamacare repeal is a possibility, but so is a health care 'fix' should the Supreme Court knock down some Obamacare tax credits in a case to be decided within a few months." 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=577efb787c2bb0f21a08b17098f6d8ef83d82c214083973f4ab8459ca2cce9a7 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=577efb787c2bb0f21a08b17098f6d8ef83d82c214083973f4ab8459ca2cce9a7 

SUNDAY SHOW WRAP-UP -

--Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) says drone strikes against terrorism suspects overseas should be carried out by the military, rather than the CIA, in the wake of the accidental deaths of two hostages held by Al Qaeda. POLITICO: 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=577efb787c2bb0f2ede5d682e5fea9f4d93ae5179f08e51bd4b8bce9a2fbc7ff 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=577efb787c2bb0f2ede5d682e5fea9f4d93ae5179f08e51bd4b8bce9a2fbc7ff 

--Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) calls police-community relations the "civil rights cause for this generation." His hometown of Baltimore has been filled with protests since the death of Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old black man who died in police custody. CBS: 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=577efb787c2bb0f2fa7d2f1a9ec715d76f411630b19b16dedfe656263834fd01 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=577efb787c2bb0f2fa7d2f1a9ec715d76f411630b19b16dedfe656263834fd01 

--And New York Police Commissioner Bill Bratton says his probe of the Eric Garner chokehold case is on hold until the Justice Department finishes its own investigation. Loretta Lynch, the Brooklyn federal prosecutor who will be sworn in as attorney general Monday, asked him to hold off. The Hill: 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=577efb787c2bb0f215d3cb111bd362a6fda63c9bf32d45b2739d60056cd1c5ce 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=577efb787c2bb0f215d3cb111bd362a6fda63c9bf32d45b2739d60056cd1c5ce 

**Over the past 26 years, we&#39;ve invested more than $35 million to fight breast cancer in the National Capital Region, funding lifesaving screenings, treatment and support services. Help us do more by joining the Washington, D.C. Race for the Cure on May 9, 2015. Find out more at 
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IT'S MONDAY, APRIL 27, 2015 and welcome to The Huddle, where your newsletter host celebrated the White House correspondents' dinner weekend in the best way she knows how: hiding from the madness. Please send tips, rants, et al to 
mailto:[email-masked] 
[email-masked]  and follow along on Twitter at @seungminkim.

My new followers include @ericaelliott and @haleymorris.

TODAY IN CONGRESS - The House is out. The Senate is in at 3 p.m. and will vote on the confirmation of Dava Newman to be deputy administrator of NASA at 5:30 p.m.

AROUND THE HILL - It's quiet, but a few events off-campus: Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) will lay out the Senate Judiciary Committee's agenda at the National Press Club at 10 a.m. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) are hosting 'Tackling the Student Debt Crisis,' the latest in their series of forums focused on the middle class, at Howard University at 2:30 p.m. And Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) will deliver a speech on good government at Georgetown University at 7 p.m.

SENATE DEMS: HIGHER WAGES FOR HILL WORKERS - CNN's Dana Bash reports: "Some senators who learned about a Senate cafeteria worker who is forced to sleep out in the street because his wage is so low will try to get him and his coworkers a pay increase ... The senators began making the plans after reading a CNN.com article about the plight of Charles Gladden, a 63-year-old grandfather making $360 a week who sleeps on a makeshift bed on a sidewalk next to D.C.&#39;s McPherson Square Metro Station."

--"After the Senate voted to privatize its restaurants and cafeteria in 2008, it bid out the contracts to the lowest bidder, possibly decreasing salaries for people like Gladden, the sources said. It&#39;s unclear whether the Democratic senators, whom the sources did not identify, will be successful in their attempt to convince Compass Group, the contractor that employs Gladden and others, to increase their wages. The senators could take action as early as next week, the sources added." 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=577efb787c2bb0f221cedbc56d08c956efdacf47b5257405730d3002a81536d9 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=577efb787c2bb0f221cedbc56d08c956efdacf47b5257405730d3002a81536d9 

--ICYMI, the Washington Post's story on Charles Gladden: 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=577efb787c2bb0f2cf642950c0ec74b9477ee821a4f6de51741f06544d988da7 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=577efb787c2bb0f2cf642950c0ec74b9477ee821a4f6de51741f06544d988da7 

WARREN, BROWN PUSH BACK ON TRADE - After Obama calls liberal critics of his trade policy "dishonest," top liberals - including Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Sherrod Brown - fire back. From the AP's Jim Kuhnhenn: Warren and Brown "sent Obama a letter Saturday disputing his characterization of their position as 'dishonest.' They said that while members of Congress can read the draft text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement, they are legally prevented from discussing it openly and the public is barred from examining it."

--"The letter escalates what has been an increasingly personal confrontation between Obama and his critics, most of them liberal Democrats and the heads of organized labor who have traditionally stood behind the president&#39;s economic policies." 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=577efb787c2bb0f25da98c8f87ae7658e1319acfce776ec3bc285300a2e65246 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=577efb787c2bb0f25da98c8f87ae7658e1319acfce776ec3bc285300a2e65246 

--Speaking of Warren, The New Yorker has a hot-off-the-presses profile on the liberal firebrand. Huddle hasn't had a chance to read it yet, so here you go: 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=577efb787c2bb0f2581309bd933a22e4d653eb76f35bfd4c8596f46b7a42719e 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=577efb787c2bb0f2581309bd933a22e4d653eb76f35bfd4c8596f46b7a42719e 

COCHRAN AIDE ACCUSED IN SEX-FOR-DRUGS SCHEME - The Washington City Paper's Will Sommer: "A U.S. Senate staffer allegedly dabbled in drug importation, according to law enforcement. Fred W. Pagan, a staffer for U.S. Senator Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) allegedly told law enforcement agents that he imported drugs from China in a plan to exchange them for sexual favors, according to new documents filed in U.S. District Court." 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=577efb787c2bb0f2051fe630e14c53b72a3cc978d5a7ea0c31bb90bcba5bb795 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=577efb787c2bb0f2051fe630e14c53b72a3cc978d5a7ea0c31bb90bcba5bb795 

--Statement from Cochran's office: "Senator Cochran is disturbed and deeply saddened by the arrest of his long-time aide Fred Pagan, and is suspending him of all duties pending the outcome of this case."

JARED POLIS TROLLS STEVE KING - National Journal: "Jared Polis-the eccentric Democratic congressman from Colorado who once funneled a Coors Light with then-Comedy Central funnyman Stephen Colbert-announced that he was introducing the 'Restrain Steve King from Legislating Act' in response to King&#39;s most recent attempt to stop federal courts from ruling on gay marriage. Two days ago, King introduced the 'Restrain the Judges on Marriage Act,'' just before the Supreme Court is poised to hear a case on same-sex marriage next week." 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=577efb787c2bb0f21ddd7878b8a985ae0d4c0029fd5f668ffd3532154ca48c4f 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=577efb787c2bb0f21ddd7878b8a985ae0d4c0029fd5f668ffd3532154ca48c4f 

FRIDAY'S TRIVIA WINNER - Paul Hays was the first person to correctly answer that Senate Office Building and Old Senate Office Building (or "Old SOB") for the original names for the present-day Russell Senate Office Building.

TODAY'S TRIVIA - Paul has today's question: Name a federal building in Washington that was completed under budget. The first person to correctly answer gets a mention in the next day&#39;s Huddle. Email 
mailto:[email-masked] 
[email-masked] .

GET HUDDLE emailed to your Blackberry, iPhone or other mobile device each morning. Just enter your email address where it says 'Sign Up.' 
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