Subject: POLITICO Huddle: GOP GEARS UP FOR CUBA FIGHT -- McCarthy blasts Obama on Iran -- PETE KING OUT OF 2016 RACE -- Comey comes to Congress next week
From: "POLITICO Huddle" <[email-masked]>
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Date: Thu, 02 Jul 2015 05:58:56 -0600

By Burgess Everett (@burgessev or 
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LA LUCHA DE CUBA: President Obama's establishment of a Cuban embassy on Wednesday follows the traditional pattern of White House-congressional relations: First comes the policy change, then comes the battle with congressional Republicans (and Sen. Robert Menendez). Seung Min Kim: "Within hours of Obama's announcement to open an embassy in Cuba, Republicans in Congress were threatening to deny funding to the embassy while blocking any ambassador to lead it - underscoring the deep antipathy toward Obama's Cuba policy on Capitol Hill. And lifting that decades-old embargo? Fat chance, Republicans say. 'The support to keep pressure on the Castro regime is stronger now than it has ever been in
 Congress,' [said] Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.).

The end-around: "The Obama administration doesn't need Congress's approval to simply switch its existing 'interests section' in Havana to a full-fledged embassy. But it would need lawmakers to sign off on additional funding. The State Department asked Congress for roughly $6 million for fiscal 2016 to convert the interests section to an embassy. It's clear the current building would need upgrades: A May 2014 inspector general report said the facility, located on the waterfront Malecon boulevard in Havana, is 'subject to high winds and salt air and requires constant attention.' Administration officials 'believe that they have the resources available in the State Department to at least start
 the embassy,' Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said in an interview Wednesday. Republicans 'cannot stop the president from his policy change; they can embarrass the United States by limiting investment.'" 
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THE ROAD AHEAD: The House's July schedule includes bills to fund the Interior Department and Financial Services and General Government, which will leave four more spending bills for after the August recess (still much more than the Senate will do). The rest of the agenda from House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy per The Hill's Cristina Marcos: "McCarthy also listed the revived No Child Left Behind education policy overhaul ... a California drought relief measure and patent reform, as well as completion of the national defense authorization act and a trade enforcement bill. The biggest deadline of the month will be on July 30, when the Highway Trust Fund will run dry ...McCarthy made no
 mention of the Export-Import Bank." 
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Because you asked: The Senate will start on their own education bill next week. Then, our guess, is the chamber will turn to transportation in mid-July; in order to attach Ex-Im to the highway bill the Senate will need to get moving at least a few days before the HTF deadline.

McCARTHY TELLS OBAMA TO 'WALK' ON IRAN: Following up on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's tough talk in POLITICO earlier this week, the House GOP leader writes in the Washington Post that "Obama should ignore the rhetoric that his legacy depends on an agreement and be prepared to reject a bad deal." 
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GRAHAM-KING TICKET DREAM SHATTERED: The hawkish presidential ticket (with regional balance) of Sen. Lindsey Graham and Rep. Pete King is now shattered, as King announced that a 2016 run is "not in the cards. I don&#39;t want to be taking up other people&#39;s time,' King said on CNN. 'I don&#39;t want to have 19, 20 candidates, whatever it&#39;s going to be.' 
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NOT THE HEADLINE HE WAS LOOKING FOR: Freshman Rep. Cresent Hardy of Nevada has some trouble with the tax man, per the Las Vegas Sun. "He and his partners have faced unpaid business debt, including tax liens and private bank loans, totaling more than $5.3 million, according to a search of public records by the Sun. That figure does not include debts stemming from a previously reported $8 million bankruptcy that Hardy's construction company filed in 2012. Although he attacked Niger Innis, his Republican primary opponent in 2014, over a similar record of unpaid business taxes, Hardy has never before accounted for the full scope of his own financial difficulties." 
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WEDNESDAY'S TRIVIA WINNER - Grant Dubler was the first to answer that President John Tyler still has living grandchildren. At Grant's request, I can report that many of you answered Tyler, but the presidential range of guesses spanned Jefferson to FDR.

TODAY'S TRIVIA - Grant has today's question: On July 2, 1776, the Continental Congress voted to declare independence from Britain, but the document famously was not signed until two days later. What famous document in American history actual wassigned on July 2nd, albeit many decades years later? The first person to correctly answer gets a mention in the next day's Huddle. Email me at 
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TRIVIA BONUS: McCarthy's House agenda did not divulge who won the House GOP's June trivia, but after some sleuthing we've discovered it was Rep. Dave Trott. You're welcome, Capitol denizens.

AFTER THE RAIN COMES THE SUN. And welcome to the Huddle, your play-by-play guide to everything Capitol Hill, which is really the best place in the country to celebrate Independence Day. Please send tips to 
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TODAY IN CONGRESS - Why are you even at your desk today?

WEDNESDAY'S MOST-CLICKED: A pic of House Speaker John Boehner dancing with Lithuania's speaker drew the most eyeballs, even though it was at the bottom of Huddle yesterday. I know what the people want.

PROGRAMMING NOTE: We hate to ruin your holiday weekend (which judging by your auto-replies has already started) but this is the last Huddle of the week as D.C. prepares for some fireworks. Seung Min will be back with more heat from the streets of Capitol Hill on Monday.

COMING ATTRACTIONS: Program your popcorn machine and start camping outside the Hart building, the FBI is coming to the Senate. The Senate Intelligence Committee will host an open hearing with FBI Director James Comey next Wednesday at 2:30 p.m. to "examine the growing terrorist and nation-state threats to the United States and our allies and how the proliferation of commercial encryption is challenging the FBI's lawful investigative tools."

CONSERVATIVES TO EX-IM: EVERYTHING MUST GO -- Seven GOP senators, including Rand Paul, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, say it's time to liquidate the Export-Import Bank's assets now that the charter has expired. "Given the unique nature of your agency's termination, we write to request clarity on your plan for an orderly liquidation,' they wrote, requesting a timeline, details on which employees will processing the liquidation and justifications for keeping others employed." Reuters: 
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Not signing on: Lindsey Graham, a big Ex-Im backer, and Bernie Sanders, the only member of the Democratic Caucus to vote against the bank.

YOU'LL ALWAYS REMEMBER YOUR FIRST TIME ... ON THE SENATE FLOOR: RealClearPolitics has a look at how new senators choose their time to make a splash with their maiden speeches, or how to avoid trying to make one during a Rand Paul fauxlibuster. James Arkin: "In the early 20th century, it wasn't uncommon for senators to wait more than a year before taking this step, a delay that showed humility and deference to senior lawmakers, according to the official Senate website. Indeed, Wisconsin Sen. Robert La Follette gave his first major address after three months in 1906, a time frame the website described as 'an astoundingly brief period by the standards of that day.' In contrast, eight of this
 year's 13 freshman senators spoke in their first three months on the job." 
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ASSUME VOTING RECORD MINE: In our giddiness to congratulate our home state Sen. Susan Collins on her impressive voting streak, we overlooked Ironman Chuck Grassley. The Iowa senator does not have a perfect voting record like Collins but that's only because of how long he's served: Grassley hasn't missed a vote since 1993. Per Govtrack, "From Jan 1981 to Jun 2015, Grassley missed 35 of 11,949 roll call votes." Sen. Marco Rubio has missed more votes this year than Grassley has missed in his entire life.

TRIVIA SHAKE-UP - Trivia is somewhere else in Huddle today. Read the dang newsletter, y'all.

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