Subject: POLITICO Huddle, presented by Emirates Airline: Senate and House Republicans in standoff over Patriot Act – State eyes 2016 release for Clinton emails – Blumenthal at center of Benghazi probe
From: "POLITICO Huddle" <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 19 May 2015 05:38:56 -0600

By Lauren French (
mailto:[email-masked] 
[email-masked]  & @laurennfrench)

THE PATRIOT ACT STANDOFF. Burgess Everett and Seung Min Kim report, "House and Senate Republican leaders are locked in a standoff over one of the nation's most controversial national security programs - with each chamber refusing to budge, the clock ticking and patience running low. With key portions of the PATRIOT Act set to expire at the end of the month, House Republicans are signaling they won't accept anything other than their USA Freedom Act, which would end the National Security Agency's bulk data collection program and passed the chamber by an overwhelming majority last week. But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has repeatedly panned that proposal, and his leadership
 team is indicating the only thing that can clear the chamber is a temporary extension of current law, which would extend the NSA program revealed by former contractor Edward Snowden." 
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STATE SEEKING 2016 RELEASE FOR CLINTON EMAILS. Josh Gerstein has the story, "The State Department is proposing a deadline of January 2016 to complete its review and public release of 55,000 pages of emails former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton exchanged on a private server and turned over to her former agency last December. The proposal came Monday night in a document related to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit Vice News filed in January seeking all of Clinton's emails.... Hackett said 12 State staffers have been assigned full-time to reviewing the Clinton emails and that it took until sometime this month to scan in the records, which were provided on paper by Clinton in 12
 "banker's boxes" in December. He said the scanning process took five weeks and was "complicated" by some of the printouts of Clinton emails being double-sided." 
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BLUMENTHAL AT HEART OF BENGHAZI PROBE. From the New York Times' Nicholas Confessore and Michael S. Schmidt, "Now, as 
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Hillary Rodham Clinton  embarks on her second presidential bid, Mr. Blumenthal's service to the Clintons is again under the spotlight. Representative Trey Gowdy of South Carolina, a Republican who is leading the congressional committee investigating the 2012 attacks in Benghazi, Libya, plans to subpoena Mr. Blumenthal, 66, for a private transcribed interview...Mr. Gowdy's chief interest, according to people briefed on the inquiry, is a series of memos that Mr. Blumenthal - who was not an employee of the State Department - wrote to Mrs. Clinton about events unfolding in Libya before and after the death of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi. According to emails obtained by The New York Times, Mrs.
 Clinton, who was secretary of state at the time, took Mr. Blumenthal's advice seriously, forwarding his memos to senior diplomatic officials in Libya and Washington and at times asking them to respond."
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GOOD MORNING, it's Tuesday, May 19, 2015 and welcome to The Huddle, your play-by-play guide to everything Capitol Hill. Let me know what's going on at 
mailto:[email-masked] 
[email-masked]  or at @laurennfrench on Twitter.

TODAY IN CONGRESS - No votes are scheduled in the Senate but senators will break at 12:30 for their weekly caucus luncheons. The House will meet at 10 a.m. with two series of votes expected between 1:15 and 2:15 p.m. and 5:15 and 6:15 p.m.

AROUND THE HILL - Members of the House Freedom Caucus will discuss their opposition to the Export-Import Bank with Sen. Mike Lee and House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling at 10 a.m. in 402 Cannon House Office Building. Also at 10 a.m., Rep. Don Byer will introduce legislation promoting women in economic leadership at the House Triangle. Rock the Vote, LinkedIn, and the McGraw Hill Financial Global Institute will host its first Millennial Economic Forum at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce at 8 a.m. to discuss a new report on the millennial economy.

Democratic Caucus Chairman Xavier Becerra will hold his weekly press avail at 10 a.m. in HVC-25. Speaker John Boehner and the GOP leadership team will hold a press conference at 10 a.m. in the RNC lobby. Minority Whip Steny Hoyer will hold a pen and pad at 11 a.m. in H-144.

Sen. Bernie Sanders will hold a press event at 11:30 a.m. on college affordability in the Senate Swamp. And in the Ohio Clock Room, a group of senators, including Sen. Mitch McConnell, will discuss trade at 11 a.m. 

** A message from Emirates Airline: At Delta, United, and American Airlines, profits are going up, but customer satisfaction remains low. Sound like a good trade-off to you? Now they want to take away your right to choose - and prevent you from flying Emirates. That definitely shouldn't fly with you. Learn more at 
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emirates.com/openskies . **

A CUDDLY CLICK: THE BERNIE BEAR. 
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LIBERALS PLAY HARD-TO-GET WITH CLINTON. From your Huddle author, "Members of the House Progressive Caucus still aren't ready to back Hillary Clinton's campaign, saying she has a ways to go to show she would champion their agenda as president. The resistance comes even as they acknowledge she'll likely be the party's nominee, and her campaign has mounted an early, aggressive courtship of lawmakers. Ellison and other House liberals hope that by holding out on a formal endorsement, they can nudge Clinton to the left, not only on income inequality but poverty, trade, criminal justice and college affordability - essentially, the Elizabeth Warren agenda. Progressive Caucus members have asked to
 meet with Clinton aides soon to discuss their policies." 
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AYOTTE CALLS ON GUINTA TO RESIGN. Elena Schneider and John Bresnahan report, "Sen. Kelly Ayotte said fellow New Hampshire Republican Rep. Frank Guinta should resign following his admission that he accepted improper campaign contributions from his parents, but Guinta is digging in and has no plans to leave office... Last week, Guinta and the Federal Election Commission 
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settled a case  involving $355,000 that Guinta said he loaned himself during his first campaign for the House in 2010. Guinta initially said the money was his, but an FEC investigation concluded that the contributions came from his parents and exceeded donation limits. The settlement requires Guinta to return the funds to his parents and pay a $15,000 fine to the FEC." 
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AND GUINTA ISN'T TALKING. Matt Fuller caught up with the embattled Congressman - who didn't have much to say. "There are plenty of questions surrounding Rep. Frank Guinta's agreement to repay more than $350,000 in improper campaign contributions, but the embattled New Hampshire Republican isn't answering any of them - at least not meaningfully... And despite a number of lingering issues associated with his alleged violation of Federal Election Commission rules in 2009 and 2010 - Was the money he loaned to his campaign, as he still contends, actually his? If so, what is Guinta apologizing for? - The New Hampshire Republican would not go off-script." 
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REPUBLICAN RENACCI PROPOSES GAS TAX HIKE. Deirdre Walsh reports for CNN, "Ohio Republican Congressman Jim Renacci is doing something his party hates -- pushing a plan to raise taxes. The former CPA and mayor is frustrated Congress is going to kick the can -- for the 33rd time -- on coming up with a way to pay to fix the tens of thousands of crumbling roads and bridges across the country. Instead of voting for the 60-day highway bill extension House GOP leaders will put on the floor on Tuesday, he&#39;s proposing legislation that increases the current gas tax to pay for the program until the end of 2016 and forces Congress to come up with a plan."
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MICHAEL WESSEL: WARREN IS RIGHT ON TRADE. The lobbyist writes in POLITICO, "I've actually read the TPP text provided to the government's own advisors, and I've given the president an earful about how this trade deal will damage this nation. But I can't share my criticisms with you. I can tell you that Elizabeth Warren is right about her criticism of the trade deal. We should be very concerned about what&#39;s hidden in this trade deal-and particularly how the Obama administration is keeping information secret even from those of us who are supposed to provide advice... What I can tell you is that the administration is being unfair to those who are raising proper questions about the harms the
 TPP would do. To the administration, everyone who questions their approach is branded as a protectionist-or worse-dishonest."

MONDAY'S TRIVIA WINNER - Edelman's Sean Neary was the first to correctly answer that David Armstrong from Missouri was the first senator to be born in Canada.

TODAY'S TRIVIA - In recognition of next weekend's 2015 NCAA lacrosse championship, Neary - a huge lax fan - has today's question. What current Massachusetts Congressman was captain of Stanford University's lacrosse team? The first person to email 
mailto:[email-masked] 
[email-masked]  with the correct answer gets a mention in tomorrow's Huddle.

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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** A message from Emirates Airline: Right now, Delta, American and United are lobbying congress to take away your right to choose - and prevent you from flying Emirates airline. So, why should you care? Because Emirates supports over 400,000 American jobs, offers one-stop service to 57 destinations that none of the American carriers fly to and consistently receives passenger satisfaction ratings amongst the highest in the industry. Maybe the big three American carriers should have your best interests in mind-instead of their own. Get the facts at 
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emirates.com/openskies . **

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