Subject: POLITICO Huddle: CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF SHUTDOWN -- Fattah indicted, denies everything -- ALONE IN A MEADOWS -- Gutierrez pushes OT
From: "POLITICO Huddle" <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 30 Jul 2015 05:43:56 -0600

By Burgess Everett (@burgessev or 
mailto:[email-masked] 
[email-masked] )

Featuring Seung Min Kim

CALIFORNIA SENATE RACE TIGHTENS: Rep. Xavier Becerra will not run for the seat of retiring California Sen. Barbara Boxer, leaving Kamala Harris and Rep. Loretta Sanchez as the major Democratic players. Becerra will run for reelection in the House, where he serves in a leadership in which major turnover is (eventually) expected. "As Chairman of the House Democrats and lead Democrat on the Social Security committee, I am best positioned in the House of Representatives to stand up and get things done now," Becerra said this morning right before I was going to hit send on Huddle.

SHUTDOWN SCENARIO INCREASES: AP's Andrew Taylor and I were asking senators about defunding Planned Parenthood in a spending bill this fall and finding the strategy was still relatively unknown. That was Wednesday morning; by Wednesday evening the effort had gained major steam. Sen. Ted Cruz called Sen. Rand Paul's bill up for a vote next week a "legislative show vote" and said he'd support the same tactic he tried to use to defund Obamacare, and 18 House members sent a letter to House Speaker John Boehner laying it out: They "cannot and will not support any funding resolution ... that contains any funding for Planned Parenthood." Rep. Mick Mulvaney says "dozens" of other House Republicans
 are with him. The letter: 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=fb81ecac86be5c5a534af3ac8b3bdf4bd545f0fdb580225aafbb44d5f6bb82a7 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=fb81ecac86be5c5a534af3ac8b3bdf4bd545f0fdb580225aafbb44d5f6bb82a7 

This is not what Republican leaders wanted: An actual scenario that sets up a government funding fight. The lack of a broad budget deal doesn't help matters, but a continuing resolution on its own isn't going to shut down the government. A continuing resolution that defunds Planned Parenthood is something else, isn't it Senior Democratic Aide? "The immovable object is about to meet the unstoppable force: Republicans cannot pass a bill that funds Planned Parenthood and congressional Democrats and President [Barack] Obama cannot vote for or sign a bill that defunds it." Indeed Democrats told me they won't stand for defunding Planned Parenthood and Republicans are starting to say they won't
 stand for funding it. As Sen. Jeff Sessions put it: "Congress doesn't have to fund any program it doesn't think is justified." My story: 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=fb81ecac86be5c5a6f7f1591c63c0f04ef9c250d94e76a31f088a9403af6f5d9 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=fb81ecac86be5c5a6f7f1591c63c0f04ef9c250d94e76a31f088a9403af6f5d9 

CHAKA CON? That's what the federal government is alleging. The feds says Rep. Chaka Fattah of Pennsylvania used "his campaign coffers, charities he created, and federal grant funds he controlled to bankroll a failed 2007 Philadelphia mayoral bid, and line the pockets of family members and close political allies," per the Philadelphia Inquirer. "The 11-term Democratic congressman, who holds a seat on the powerful Appropriations Committee, was charged in a 29-count racketeering conspiracy indictment that alleges he channeled hundreds of thousands of dollars to pay off an illegal $1 million campaign loan as well as the college debts of son Chaka 'Chip' Fattah Jr." 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=fb81ecac86be5c5addbfca810b14f0b4d4f4b687404a58ea9c055c558fe7babf 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=fb81ecac86be5c5addbfca810b14f0b4d4f4b687404a58ea9c055c558fe7babf 

Fattah's response: "We at least have an allegation now. I haven't had a chance to read it ... I have never been as an elected official been involved in any illegal activity ... I've helped a lot of people. Millions of people." Video (with annoying auto-play ad): 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=fb81ecac86be5c5abb9f5e3c2f841cc885692c7490b2c7d31e080da71b6867e1 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=fb81ecac86be5c5abb9f5e3c2f841cc885692c7490b2c7d31e080da71b6867e1 

Circling the wagons: House Democrats are handling this the same way that Senate Democrats are handling Sen. Bob Menendez's indictment. "'To tell someone you have to leave Congress when you're facing charges, especially when you're contesting the charges, is to go against the grain of our justice system, which is, you're innocent until proven guilty,' Democratic Caucus Chairman Xavier Becerra of California told reporters." Roll Call: 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=fb81ecac86be5c5ada47785a745aaf28c8f47e687054502089a2df7814c93baf 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=fb81ecac86be5c5ada47785a745aaf28c8f47e687054502089a2df7814c93baf 

ONE MAN CAN CHANGE THE WORLD: And that man is Rep. Mark Meadows. Wait, maybe he can't unseat House Speaker John Boehner all by himself. "Conservative lawmakers ... told Meadows they were livid he had opened a Pandora's box with his unexpected move on Boehner. 'Virtually every board member tried to talk Mr. Meadows out of doing this. We had a phone call last night and I was a little angry. Getting surprised by this,' said one Republican member, who, like several other House conservatives, asked to speak without attribution to avoid openly criticizing a friend. 'The whole reason that we formed the Freedom Caucus is that we wanted to work as a team and stop these kind of disorganized, one-man
 shows.'" Lauren French with an excellent tick-tock of the one man show: 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=fb81ecac86be5c5a0ceffc8de974774e913cc96a72ee5569c267005635ac4dab 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=fb81ecac86be5c5a0ceffc8de974774e913cc96a72ee5569c267005635ac4dab 

$AVE OUR $TAFFER$: Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) proudly announced earlier this week that he'll abide by the Obama administration's new overtime rule for workers, and he's pushing lawmakers to join him and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. In a Dear Colleague letter obtained by Huddle, Gutierrez is urging other members of Congress to agree to pay overtime for Hill aides who make less than $50,400 per year - which amounts to more than 40 percent of congressional staff. "Staffers on the Hill work incredibly hard for the public and they are not paid a lot," the Illinois Dem writes in the letter. "It is time we recognize their efforts as we lead by example and we encourage other American
 employers to do the same."

CORRECTION: We got our Medicares and our Medicaids confused yesterday; Sens. Kaine and Brown are tweaking red state governors over Medicaid expansion.

Thursday is the new Friday. And welcome to the Huddle, your play-by-play guide to everything Capitol Hill, where we are all hoping the Senate changes its mind about working next week. Please send tips to 
mailto:[email-masked] 
[email-masked]  and follow along on Twitter @burgessev.

TODAY IN CONGRESS - The Senate is in at 10 a.m. and will vote on its transportation bill at noon and then vote on the House's three-month extension at 1:45 p.m. The House is on recess already and networks will use B-roll of members walking down the Capitol steps until they come back.

AROUND THE HILL - At 9:45 a.m. Sen. Bernie Sanders discusses the Medicare anniversary at Upper Senate Park. At 10 a.m. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and House and Senate Democrats commemorate voting rights on the East Front Steps. At 10:45 a.m. Pelosi holds a presser in the House studio. At 11:30 a.m. Reps. Ruben Gallego and Robin Kelly discuss gun purchases at 234 Cannon. At 12:30 p.m. Senate Democrats talk about the Republican Congress in the Senate studio. At 1:15 p.m. in the Senate studio Sens. Jim Inhofe and Barbara Boxer talk highway bill. At 2:30 p.m. Sanders discusses the Greek debt crises with economists in Hart 902.

WEDNESDAY'S MOST-CLICKED: Hundreds and hundreds of you clicked on The Hill's 50 Most Beautiful.

ONE MAN CAN CHANGE THE SENATE: Actually, it's a lot harder to do than it appears. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell laid it all out before he took his prime perch: The Senate will consider more amendments, empower the committees and put in a solid workweek. But it's hard to get senators off their schedules of arriving on Monday evening and leaving Thursday afternoon, and it may be even harder to change the parliamentary dynamics of the Senate. Let's take filling the tree: "McConnell has used the maneuver more often than past Senate majority leaders - Robert Byrd, George Mitchell and Tom Daschle, all Democrats - and he's done it just about as much as Reid did during a similar time
 period in the Nevada Democrat's reign." Read on in Manu's story for a classic back-and-forth between Stew and Adam Jentleson over whether the Senate is working or not: 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=fb81ecac86be5c5a5856f795f64f1ec746bbab199af0684769937172d5659a29 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=fb81ecac86be5c5a5856f795f64f1ec746bbab199af0684769937172d5659a29 

CLINTON VOWS TO CAMPAIGN WITH DEMS: In 2014 President Barack Obama didn't work it on the trail for his Democratic incumbents (they didn't want him; many of them lost), and Hillary Clinton wants things to be different. Paul Kane has a quote you'll want to revisit later this election season when we see how she interacts with Democrats' congressional campaigns. "Clinton has left no doubt about the type of campaign she expects to run with fellow Democrats in 2016. 'I want to be onstage with you, and I want you onstage with me,' the Democratic presidential front-runner told senators during a recent visit to the Capitol." 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=fb81ecac86be5c5add7de9352a880dd82c86170d0c3b0bd462560093d0234a5b 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=fb81ecac86be5c5add7de9352a880dd82c86170d0c3b0bd462560093d0234a5b 

ATTN W.H. LEG TEAM: Rep. Grace Meng is not playing around when it comes to Iran. The Queens Democrat hasn't just decided to oppose Obama's Iran deal, but she chose to blast out a news release slamming it in which she sounds a lot like Republican critics. "I strongly believe the world could and should have a better deal than that set forth in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which I will therefore oppose. While I will continue to study the finer points of the deal, they will not be dispositive for me." Ouch. 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=fb81ecac86be5c5a3fbfe7bf5d8ead1d34ce7d0e5eb6f313aa05afaa4bf4fddb 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=fb81ecac86be5c5a3fbfe7bf5d8ead1d34ce7d0e5eb6f313aa05afaa4bf4fddb 

ATTN CONGRESSIONAL LEADERS: "Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew says his department will likely not run out of 'extraordinary measures' it is taking to avoid default before late October, but after that point there are no guarantees," reports National Journal. Worth remembering that Treasury is always on the earlier side with their deadlines and Congress will always vote on this at the last possible minute. 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=fb81ecac86be5c5aa3f35b3d890b25766443d165c28bacbee5358ce514939068 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=fb81ecac86be5c5aa3f35b3d890b25766443d165c28bacbee5358ce514939068 

GOP PLUGS AWAY ON INVERSIONS -- Per Bloomberg's Richard Rubin: "Taxes appear to be much more important to the deals than the companies say ... Senator Rob Portman is using [today's] hearing -- his first at the helm of the Senate's premier investigative panel -- to build support for tax-law changes that reduce companies' incentives to move their legal addresses out of the U.S. through inversions, and make it less likely they could be bought by foreign companies. 'We now have the facts to be able to show that in specific transactions, that U.S. taxes played a major role, and a role that was negative for U.S. jobs and investment,' Portman, an Ohio Republican, said in an interview on
 Wednesday." 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=fb81ecac86be5c5a297f35583e3a9acffbdb8c21bc396473d7a62217c83ec37b 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=fb81ecac86be5c5a297f35583e3a9acffbdb8c21bc396473d7a62217c83ec37b 

STORY IDEA: What kind of beer was it? HuffPo's Sam Stein: "Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) shotgunned a beer the night then-Rep. Todd Akin (R-Mo.) won the 2012 Republican Senate primary and became her general election opponent, she reveals in her new book 'Plenty Ladylike.' Unfortunately, she didn&#39;t reveal what the beer was, making it all but impossible to truly judge her drinking capacity." 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=fb81ecac86be5c5a5718db271756f9dfac4b655aed3f2d32d998bb1a211759a7 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=fb81ecac86be5c5a5718db271756f9dfac4b655aed3f2d32d998bb1a211759a7 

Don't know about that: Here's a photo McCaskill tweeted of a stiff drink at 11:25 a.m. before a big Mizzou game last year. 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=fb81ecac86be5c5adfdc8f372a43dfbd068cd546492b4b644368a3e5ba71fddd 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=fb81ecac86be5c5adfdc8f372a43dfbd068cd546492b4b644368a3e5ba71fddd 

HANGING WITH CHRIS: And here's a shot of Sens. Chris Coons and Jeff Flake (dress shirt completely ruined) hanging out with an elephant in Africa over the weekend. 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=fb81ecac86be5c5a6c9619d887acfe9de898fdfca39f7f86628911dcfb58baea 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=fb81ecac86be5c5a6c9619d887acfe9de898fdfca39f7f86628911dcfb58baea 

WEDNESDAY'S TRIVIA WINNER - Shelby Boxenbaum was the first to answer that Elmo was the first non-human to testify before a congressional committee.

TODAY'S TRIVIA - Patrick Boland has today's question: Who was the last presidential candidate to appear on an episode of WWE's Monday Night Raw in a taped message, and use a variation of one of the Rock's catchphrase? Hint: the answer is not Donald Trump. The first person to correctly answer gets a mention in the next day's Huddle. Email me at 
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."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=fb81ecac86be5c5a30673204696059c569d07e7cbf5d72f5dfcc4ec26033ad40 
 http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=fb81ecac86be5c5a30673204696059c569d07e7cbf5d72f5dfcc4ec26033ad40 

Go to POLITICO Huddle Now >> http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=fb81ecac86be5c5a5803c1b42bea71d73b44861bddfa73f4b9000751c0c82a8a

Go to this edition >> http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=fb81ecac86be5c5a474fbf0efa01d9fa5c1b4ce9a125a26656dc59fae861de3b

=================================

2015 POLITICO, LLC

POLITICO Huddle.

To unsubscribe, http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=fb81ecac86be5c5a10d9870e558e55ccee7b6114c6dda0f839260ec38aedc3b8

1000 Wilson Blvd., 8th Floor

Arlington, VA 22209

=================================