Subject: POLITICO Huddle: TRADE BILL COULD FAIL TODAY -- Wyden caught in middle -- PAUL LEAVES ‘ALL OPTIONS’ FOR PATRIOT ACT -- Vitter, the insider’s outsider
From: "POLITICO Huddle" <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 12 May 2015 05:51:05 -0600

By Burgess Everett (@burgessev or 
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THE SENATE'S CLIFF-HANGER: Democrats have made not one but two demands that have confused the whip counts ahead of a crucial trade vote today. First Minority Leader Harry Reid told Majority Leader Mitch McConnell that he wanted assurances on transportation and surveillance laws, and now the party is insisting that McConnell give a guarantee that a bill intended to stoke trade with Africa and a customs enforcement package will become law, in addition to the Trade Promotion Authority and Trade Adjustment Assistance package that Republicans have agreed to consider. McConnell has, as of Tuesday morning, given no such assurances, setting up a potential failed vote that is worrying Republicans.
 "There's a way to amend bills with an open amendment process," said Majority Whip John Cornyn. "Blocking on the front end is counterproductive."

The man in the middle: Everyone is watching Senate Finance ranking member Ron Wyden, who co-authored the fast-track trade bill with Chairman Orrin Hatch. Wyden and Hatch made an agreement in committee to move all four trade bills at some point, but only TAA and TPA together on the floor this spring. Now with Wyden and Democrats asking for a guarantee that all four will become law, Hatch is quite peeved. "Sen. Wyden has always been straight up on things - until now. And it worries me, because you're only as good as your word around here," he said. Wyden world says it is the GOP that is breaking its end of the deal without a promise that all four bills get to the finish line. And in the
 middle of all this, President Barack Obama had to cancel a planned meeting with Wyden and other persuadable Democrats last night because Wyden was having trouble getting back to D.C. in time. Manu and I break it all down: 
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As if we needed ANOTHER wrinkle: Nahal Toosi explains that the Middle East peace process is also at issue in the trade bill. 
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WARREN FIRES BACK: The liberal firebrand chats with Greg Sargent of the Washington Post to continue the trade beef with Obama. "The president said in his Nike speech that he's confident that when people read the agreement for themselves, that they'll see it's a great deal. But the president won't actually let people read the agreement for themselves. It's classified," Warren says. 
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Here's a list of Democrats that unequivocally say they will vote to advance the trade bill today: Tom Carper of Delaware.

PAUL TAKE AIM AT PATRIOT ACT: Rand Paul tells the New Hampshire Union Leader that he's not going to pull any punches in the next few days as the Senate tries to figure out how to extend expiring PATRIOT Act provisions. "We will be filibustering. We will be trying to stop it. We are not going to let them run over us. And we are going to demand amendments and we are going to make sure the American people know that some of us at least are opposed to unlawful searches.' 
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So, a talking filibuster? An aide tells me that "all options remain on the table."

Wyden and Paul: Are working together on the PATRIOT Act debate, Kate Nocera of BuzzFeed reports. 
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Here's what Paul told me last month: "I'm working with Ron Wyden on some amendments to the PATRIOT Act. We're going to try to put some NSA reform on it ...I don&#39;t support anything in the PATRIOT Act. I want to repeal the whole thing. So I won't support it, but I will try to amend it and it will be a vehicle for us to try to do something on privacy, NSA reform."

A PERSONAL PIECE FROM NIELS: Roll Call's intrepid Senate reporter Niels Lesniewski explains what the Senate's annual Pediatric Stroke Awareness Month means to him. "The parents of Patch Angerame reached out to Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal's office back in 2011, facing the prospects of choosing between exorbitant medical bills or not providing their son with proper care because of insurance issues. When I first heard Patch's story a year ago, it was uniquely personal for me. It has parallels to my own; also hailing from Connecticut, I suffered a stroke at birth, and went through years of treatment, and both physical and occupational therapy. In my own case, the condition was diagnosed
 almost immediately after delivery, and I quickly began treatment at Yale-New Haven Hospital. In Patch's case, the diagnosis did not come until several months later." 
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Enjoy the last day of the heat wave. And welcome to the Huddle, your play-by-play guide to everything Capitol Hill, where I'm standing strong with Tom Brady. Please send tips to 
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TODAY IN CONGRESS - The Senate is in at 10 a.m. and will vote on breaking the initial filibuster on the vehicle for the trade bill at 2:30 p.m., right after the party lunches. The House is in at noon and will vote on some suspensions at 6:30 p.m.

AROUND THE HILL -At 10 a.m. a group of Senate Democrats and Young Invincibles will advocate for policies for women and families in S 120. House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer holds a pen and pad briefing at 11 a.m. in H 144. Also at 11 a.m., Sens. John Cornyn and Tom Carper hold a presser on trade in SVC 203. At noon in SVC 209 Sen. Sherrod Brown and Rep. Sander Levin talk trade. At 3 p.m. Rep. Grijalva, Mayor de Blasio and Al Sharpton will discuss income inequality on the House Triangle.

MONDAY'S MOST CLICKED: Seung Min Kim's story about Bob Menendez and the Latino community was the big winner.

JEB'S MAN OF STEEL: Speaker John Boehner's top flack Michael Steel is off to Jeb-world, after 12 years on Capitol Hill. The best part about the news was watching all the reporters suck up to Steel on Twitter after Jake broke the news. 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=894d47739efccd61fa53d92b220f1ca30948fd984de2724889ae506e3f35c601 
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Dynamic duo: The Hill's story on Steel includes this shot of him, with McConnell flack Don Stewart creeping in the background. 
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VITTER LEAVES COLLEAGUES BITTER: Manu delves into David Vitter, the Louisiana senator now running for governor who has refused to speak to Capitol Hill media ever since he got linked to the D.C. madam scandal. "Within the chummy confines of the U.S. Senate, Vitter has emerged as one of the most disliked members. The second-term senator's effort to kill the federal health care contribution, worth several thousand dollars to lawmakers and their staffers, is a big part of it. But the two-year drive, his critics say, symbolizes an operating style that Vitter's critics complain is consumed with public relations, even for an ambitious member of Congress: speeding in and out of meetings, railing
 about issues on the Senate floor but doing little to execute behind the scenes, firing off news releases left and right. In an institution in which the inside game is critical, Vitter doesn't even pretend to bother with it." 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=894d47739efccd610112c5483a2ea2a72011b5b02b5b11a4f19e4d6ace9db6ad 
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Scoreboard: As he runs for governor, Vitter is joining the group of senators eyeing higher office that are missing Senate votes, missing 6.5 percent of the roll calls so far according to Govtrack. Vitter, Lindsey Graham, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio and Bernie Sanders were among the 10 senators who missed last night's vote on a resolution calling for the release of Americans in Iran.

MENENDEZ: MOVE MY TRIAL TO D.C.: On Monday night Sen. Robert Menendez's lawyers made a change-of-venue motion for his corruption trial to be moved from Newark, N.J., to D.C. The argument from Team Menendez is that leaks have hardened opinions in the New Jersey jury pool and that it will be more convenient and save money for the feds to have the trial in D.C. "The motion also noted that three other senators discussed in the indictment may be called as witnesses. Though those lawmakers are not named, the indictment describes interactions Menendez and members of his staff had with Democratic Sens. Harry Reid of Nevada and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, as well as former Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa."
 Herb Jackson of The Record: 
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My question: Which would be a bigger circus, Washington or N.J.?

REID THE RAINMAKER: When Harry Reid leaves Congress at the end of next year, he will do so after spreading around lots of monetary joy to the Democratic effort to take back the Senate. "Reid already has committed to at least a dozen events through the end of July for Senate Majority PAC, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, and his leadership PAC, according to an aide ... The upcoming schedule is just the beginning of a money-raising blitz that will last through next November, aides say. And it&#39;s one that, faced with the reality of a grueling reelection race, would have been difficult for Reid to undertake should he have tried to return to the Senate." NJ's Alex Roarty: 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=894d47739efccd61594eefc08b81d98156abed45d400283a116838cc854a8028 
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FEWER THAN THREE MONTHS: That's the amount of time Congress has between now and the first Republican presidential debate, an event that often heralds the beginning of the end of productivity on Capitol Hill. The Fox News debate will be held at the Q in Cleveland on Aug. 6. Oh would you look at that, I'm on vacation that day. 
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WELCOME ABOARD: Sen. Tammy Baldwin's is bringing on longtime Wisconsin/Washington Democratic operative Janet Piraino as her state director.

MONDAY'S TRIVIA WINNER - Paul Hays was the first to answer that the Beatles played in Uline Arena, which is set to become an REI. It's been a parking lot since I've been in the area, which is just the worst. Pic: 
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TODAY'S TRIVIA - I've decided this is local trivia week: Name Washington's state avenue that goes into every quadrant but Southwest. The first person to correctly answer gets a mention in the next day's Huddle. Email me at 
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