Subject: POLITICO Huddle, presented by Emirates Airline: Paul Ryan does the heavy lifting to pass trade – McConnell allows USA Freedom Act vote but is still pushing for Patriot Act
From: "POLITICO Huddle" <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 20 May 2015 06:03:12 -0600

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

RYAN IS CARRYING THE TRADE DEAL ON HIS SHOULDERS. Jake Sherman and Anna Palmer report, "The questions from skeptical lawmakers come in rapid fire - but Rep. Paul Ryan, they say, always seems to have a ready response. What would President Barack Obama's trade deal mean for steelworkers in the Rust Belt? How would it affect agricultural interests in the Midwest? Most commonly, House Republicans need to be convinced this isn't simply a power grab by a president they don't trust. Over the past several months, the Wisconsin Republican has worked - almost single-handedly, and quite stealthily - to build support to give Obama additional authority to negotiate a massive trade deal with Pacific Rim
 nations. It's one of the most aggressive, meaningful - and risky - legislative efforts of Ryan's political career. More than perhaps any leading House Republican, he is taking ownership of the issue - and failure is still very much a possibility." 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=19ff2748f0c4e51d484867d109fbbecaf51723a0179c4a5af91dd50816d66b18 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=19ff2748f0c4e51d484867d109fbbecaf51723a0179c4a5af91dd50816d66b18 

MCCONNELL PUTS FREEDOM ACT ON FLOOR, BUT MAKES CASE FOR PATRIOT ACT.Seung Min Kim and Burgess Everett report, "Republican divisions on Capitol Hill over the PATRIOT Act deepened Tuesday as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell privately made his case against a popular House bill that would end the National Security Agency's bulk data collection program. McConnell said he plans to put the House-passed USA Freedom Act on the Senate floor later this week - a move that could show it can't pass the Senate. But in a closed-door party lunch Tuesday, McConnell made clear his preference for a two-month extension of the current law. And to bolster his case against the House measure, the GOP
 leadership invited Michael Mukasey to meet with Senate Republicans, and the former attorney general argued in favor of keeping the PATRIOT Act provisions intact." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=4b99e98134db5dabc656499bce285b540aaf105172f4d667885f32ca6892c9f2

CONSERVATIVES SEE A WIN ON EX-IM. Your Huddle author reports, "House conservatives are declaring victory in their year- long quest to kill an obscure government bank - and Speaker John Boehner may soon face a choice whether to team up with Democrats to save it. Republican hard-liners predicted Tuesday they have the votes to stop a reauthorization of the Export-Import Bank - a government agency that has come under fire from conservatives who argue it amounts to a free market-distorting handout - over the protest of powerful Republican business interests. The bank's charter is set to expire at the end of June...The emphatic statements of Hensarling and other House conservatives set the stage
 for yet another potential showdown between Boehner, an Ohio Republican, and his right flank. Democrats want to reauthorize the bank and say it would pass if the speaker allowed a vote, but that would mean defying the wishes of a majority of the GOP conference." 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=19ff2748f0c4e51d42ea2d40240a9590db572f55e97dd12173eb0541a90b4290 
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PELOSI'S BALANCING ACT ON TRADE. Erica Werner writes for AP, "The California Democrat, now minority leader, finds herself out of step with her party's president - caught between his ambitions and the overwhelming opposition of her Democratic caucus to a free-trade deal many fear could harm American workers. And it remains to be seen whether the 75-year-old Pelosi, in her 15th term and perhaps approaching the end of her congressional career, will help Obama get his trade bill over the finish line - or side with the labor unions and liberal constituencies who oppose the legislation, even though its failure would constitute a humiliating defeat for Obama." 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=2a501b081b0656e15425ddfcc4e978e6107ff0ccfcd0b24731c1a86638b471d0

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. The House will have two vote series, one between 1:15 and 2:15 p.m. and one between 6 and 7 p.m.

AROUND THE HILL - The House Administration Committee will have a hearing on the U.S. Capitol Police at 2 p.m. in 1310 Longworth. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers and other House Republicans will hold a press briefing on TPA at 11:30 a.m.in 202A CHOB. Speaker John Boehner and Senate leaders will hold a gold medal ceremony in Emancipation Hall at 3 p.m. for the American Fighter Aces. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee will hold a 10 a.m. hearing in Dirksen 419 on the U.S.-Cuba relationship. Sen. Joe Manchin will present the Congressional Gold Medal to a Tuskegee Airman from West Virginia in HVC-200 at 10:15 a.m. Rep. Marsha Blackburn will discuss foster care at 9 a.m. event in 2168 Rayburn
 Office Building.

** 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 . **

THE SAGA OF ALAN GRAYSON CONTINUES. Marc Caputo reports, "Florida Rep. Alan Grayson recently called his estranged wife a "gold digger," but a review of the potential Senate candidate's soap-opera divorce case shows he unsuccessfully tried to have her criminally charged for far less: ringing up grocery, gasoline and car-repair expenses on his credit card. Grayson's previously unreported effort to have Lolita Grayson arrested on credit-card fraud charges was revealed in one of her court filings that complained about the wealthy Democrat's tactics to withhold money from her. 'The Husband has denied the Wife access to marital assets or funds that could be used to pay for attorney's fees and
 costs, even going to the extent of filing a criminal complaint against the Wife for her alleged use of a marital credit card account,' her attorney said in a successful March 13 motion to compel Grayson to pay up." 
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THE QUIET RETURN OF EARMARKS. The Washington Post's Colby Itkowitz reports, "Caught in the crossfire of a ban on earmarks are little-known, specialized tax breaks members of Congress long secured for businesses back home. But now, as part of the larger trade debate, Congress has found a way to bring them back without its fingerprints. A once fairly uncontroversial practice, lawmakers would introduce legislation on behalf of a local company to suspend tariffs on a specific, often obscure, product only available overseas. The result was hundreds of narrow bills, each intended to benefit one manufacturer's bottom line."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=4b99e98134db5dabc5378eabd075737943a31a44b2db21eaf16cc76feb80ea0a 
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CALLING ALL WOULD-BE MEMBERS OF THE DEAD POETS SOCIETY. New York Democrat Rep. Steve Israel will hold the inaugural meeting of the Congressional Writer's Caucus today at 8:30 a.m. The group will hear from officials with Simon & Schuster and author Nelson DeMille. Israel himself is a published author and created the caucus to give other lawmakers a forum to hear from writers and publishers about the industry.

THE WOMAN WHO RUNS THE SENATE. Sarah Mimms reports for National Journal, "After more than three decades working largely in high-level jobs for Republican leaders in the Senate, Soderstrom is now serving as McConnell&#39;s chief of staff. She&#39;s also the go-to person on Senate procedure and tactics for Republican members and staffers in both chambers...Soderstrom is one of just nine Republican female chiefs of staff in the Senate and, as the top aide to the new Senate majority leader, she&#39;s by far the most powerful...One of Soderstrom&#39;s biggest strengths is the implicit trust between herself and the majority leader. Like McConnell, Soderstrom is an institutionalist, devoted to
 improving the upper chamber." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=2a501b081b0656e1d42cd046d29859419f8c87700bc9019e33db102d0a94bb5c

CONGRESS IS SEEING RED. Helena Andrews reports for the Washington Post, "Taking a page from the movie "Mean Girls," [Rep. Frederica Wilson] has been encouraging fellow members of congress to wear red every Wednesday to commemorate the 2014 kidnapping of hundreds of Nigerian schoolgirls by the militant group Boko Haram. 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=4b99e98134db5dab9b49f527eed197e9ed9f20a59c647e5c9714c78e74ffea9c 
More than a year  later, 219 of the so-called "Chibok girls" are still missing. So far Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) and Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney (D-N.Y.), among others, have gotten Wilson's memo." 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=4b99e98134db5dab91850c8370f0ca4b8a4539e03ec001af3986236973b26107 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=4b99e98134db5dab91850c8370f0ca4b8a4539e03ec001af3986236973b26107 

REVOLVING DOOR: Deputy communications director Katie Longo is leaving Sen. Joe Manchin's office to become senior director of communications at the American Hotel and Lodging Association. Katie will be moving over to augment that group's communications operation after Chandler Smith left to take over the Senate Republican Conference's press shop.Chandler took over THAT job when AshLee Strong picked up and went to Wisconsin to work for Scott Walker's political arm. Got it?

DEFENSE APPROPRIATIONS LEAVES OBAMA PRIORITIES SHORTCHANGED. David Rogers reports, "House Republicans rolled out their $578.6 billion Pentagon appropriations bill Tuesday, a giant measure that goes to the heart of a budget dilemma for not just President Barack Obama but also the bill's manager, Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen. The total dollars are only marginally above Obama's request, but to get there the GOP adds billions in overseas contingency funds to circumvent the very same Budget Control Act that is being used elsewhere to rein in the president's domestic agenda. Left short-changed are not just Obama's priorities but also Frelinghuysen's. Only last week, the centrist New Jersey
 Republican had to swallow reductions from rail and urban programs important to his state because of the BCA caps. Now, in the bill released Tuesday, he has an extra $37.4 billion in OCO funds to spread around, and his biggest challenge is to make it all look rational." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=2a501b081b0656e1b67708960c41c519361dfefcde9b5b7c672160264ac72a7f

CRIMINAL JUSTICE HEARING TURNS UGLY. Rachael Bade has more, "House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte says he "will not rest until we make progress" on policing and criminal justice reform. But the Virginia Republican's initial public effort to build consensus quickly degenerated into partisan mudslinging on Tuesday, suggesting Goodlatte and reform advocates have a long way to go if they want to find consensus on new police standards or training. In fact, the first of several planned Judiciary hearings on the rising tensions between cops and black communities turned ugly at times, trailing off into arguments about the use of the word "ghetto" and whether black-on-black crime should
 get more attention."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=4b99e98134db5dab6315a55773f22f6d065f71a16510b8d916fa542e619a9714 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=4b99e98134db5dab6315a55773f22f6d065f71a16510b8d916fa542e619a9714 

MCCAIN PROPOSES NEW WEAPONS RULE. Austin Wright and Leigh Munsil report, "In a sharp rebuke to defense contractors, Pentagon bureaucrats, and his own House counterpart, Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain is moving to strip substantial authority for acquiring new weapons from Pentagon leaders and empower the military branches to oversee their own programs. McCain's proposal - details of which were shared with POLITICO by Armed Services staff members on the condition of anonymity - would upend the oversight regime for new weapons that has been in place for nearly 30 years." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=2a501b081b0656e133f6a8d0264f69681059dfb2ba1a544fd2b1a9779f3bcb5c

TUESDAY'S TRIVIA WINNER - Ben Jarrett, a legislative analyst at the Embassy of Israel, was the first to correctly answer that Rep. Joe Kennedy was the lacrosse captain at Stanford University.

TODAY'S TRIVIA - Ben has today's question. Who was the first president to visit Israel while in office? The first person to email 
mailto:[email-masked] 
[email-masked]  with the correct answer gets a mention in tomorrow's Huddle.

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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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