Subject: POLITICO’s Huddle, presented by The Broad Tax Extenders Coalition: POST-PARIS, OBAMA AND HILL GOP SQUARE OFF ON SYRIA — A foreign policy test for new Speaker Ryan — REFUGEES, THE NEXT OMNIBUS WEDGE? — Boehner adjusts to life after power — A WEEK OF HIGHWAY POLICY.
From: "POLITICO Huddle" <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 16 Nov 2015 07:39:14 -0600

11/16/2015 08:37 AM EDT

By Rachael Bade ([email-masked] or @RachaelMBade)

PARIS PITS HILL GOP AGAINST OBAMA. After ISIS's attack on Paris Friday, President Obama dispensed his national security team to the talk shows Sunday to try to clamp down on the notion that the U.S. is next. Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes argued, for example, that while "thousands" of radicals have traveled to Syria and returned to Europe, only about 40 or so have done the same here. 

But that's not calming Republicans on the Hill, who showed up in droves on the talk shows Sunday to blast Obama's foreign policy: 

1.) LINDSEY GRAHAM: 'THERE'S A 9/11 COMING.' Eric Bradner for CNN: "GOP presidential candidate Sen. Lindsey Graham warned Sunday that 'there is a 9/11 coming' if the United States does not play a leading role in a ground war against ISIS. In an interview with CNN's Jake Tapper on 'State of the Union' Graham said he hopes France will invoke a NATO provision that would draw its allies into a war against ISIS. 'They should. The world should be at war with ISIL,' the South Carolina senator said. 'I'm trying to protect America from another 9/11, and without American boots on the ground in Syria and Iraq, we're gonna get hit here at home.'" http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=8107ef1a00912e0ab36cc07076668ac27e143fe79a9dc6abd78b4ebbb38b54e0 

2.) INTEL CHAIRS: RESPONSE TO PARIS ATTACKS NEEDED. Rebecca Kaplan for CBS: "The Republican leaders of the House and Senate intelligence committees called for a robust U.S. response to the terror attacks in Paris last week and faulted President Obama for not having a strategy to fight the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). 'We don't have a strategy in Syria as it relates to ISIL,' said Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr, R-North Carolina, said on CBS' 'Face the Nation' Sunday, using an alternate acronym for the group." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=8107ef1a00912e0a6f313847059b5ebf8097deeee895f227ce0681bc49f5289e 

3.) MCCAUL: CAN'T AFFORD NOT TO RESPOND TO PARIS. Dan Cooney for NBC News: "The Chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security said Sunday that, after the attacks in Paris last week, the White House has no choice but ramp up its involvement in the fight against ISIS. 'I think maybe reluctantly they will change. I think they have to,' Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, said on NBC's 'Meet the Press.' 'What happened in Paris was so horrific, on such a large scale, that we can't afford not to respond to what happened.' http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=8107ef1a00912e0aa5bea8519f3719a3d184a464fe800f341a016f974064be45 

RYAN, BUDGET WONK, QUICKLY TESTED ON FOREIGN POLICY. Karoun Demirjian for the Washington Post: "New Speaker Paul Ryan built his reputation as the GOP's strongman on fiscal policy - but when it comes to foreign affairs, Ryan has been a good soldier and not the leader of the fight. Now that he's stepped into the Republicans' top spot in Congress, Ryan (R-Wisc.) is suddenly expected to speak for his party on national security, which Republicans rate as a top concern - especially the battle against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria."

"But few outside Ryan's inner circle even know where the Wisconsin Republican stands on most foreign policy matters, or how he'll choose when to counter or collaborate with the Obama administration. There is little time for a learning curve. Ryan's first two-and-half weeks on the job were marked by deadly terrorist attacks in Paris and the passage of a defense authorization bill in Congress. He has been asked to address matters from the closure of Guantanamo Bay to a proposed new congressional mandate to battle ISIS. He didn't always give direct answers, and occasionally deferred to committee chiefs to flesh out his responses.

"Ryan has just tapped as his chief foreign policy adviser a veteran Hill staffer with a resume similar to the speaker's: Jonathan Burks was policy director on the House Budget Committee for four years, and most recently advised Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on budget and appropriations. But Ryan will also be keeping the counsel of some of the Republican Party's most recognized foreign policy experts, many of them veterans of the 2012 campaign in which he was Mitt Romney's running mate. That roster, according to Ryan aides, includes: Dan Senor, a prominent foreign policy adviser to the Romney campaign who previously worked as spokesman for the Coalition Provision Authority
 in Iraq; Elliott Abrams of the Council on Foreign Relations, who worked as a national security adviser to former President George W. Bush; and Eric Edelman, a former ambassador who served in Bush's Defense Department." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=8107ef1a00912e0acb2042788c2be51580270224248ebdc77c8dc7cc82d7ed8e 

HUGE DIVIDE ON SYRIAN REFUGEES ISSUE, TOO. Republicans are also questioning the Administration's plan to allow 10,000 Syrian refugees into the U.S. following the attack. That issue, of course, was already hyper-partisan, but expect that debate to take center stage in the next few weeks.

The administration says the U.S. is absolutely vetting refugees to ensure they don't have ISIS-links: "We have very extensive screening procedures for all Syrian refugees who come to the United States," Rhodes said on NBC's Meet the Press. 

But Republicans like White House contender Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), for example, say the U.S. shouldn't take any more because there's not good way to background check them. Kyle Blaine for Buzz Feed: "Listen, the background checks are required now. The problem is not the background checks," Rubio said on ABC's This Week. "The problem is we can't background check them. You can't pick up the phone and call Syria, and that's one of the reasons why I said we won't be able to take more refugees. It's not that we don't want to, it's that we can't." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=8107ef1a00912e0a8d3fc5dcc288cd94812796a5caaccce43390e829510ced25 

COULD THIS CREATE AN OMNIBUS PROBLEM? MAYBE. As Carl Hulse for The New York Times notes, "Senator Charles E. Grassley, the Iowa Republican who chairs the Judiciary Committee, has been pushing for the year-end spending package now being assembled to prohibit the administration from spending any money to admit Syrian refugees until the intelligence community approves the process." (Full story: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=9ef0db5be6343809fb3f192d2ce1fa4d2a9461c442c62ecc9ad8cc6bf0d4121c This idea is about to gain some serious steam on the Hill, we bet you five-million dollars.

HAPPY MONDAY. IT'S NOV. 16, 2015. Thanks for reading Huddle, your round-up of all things Congress, where we think we, personally, could have kicked better than Mason Crosby. Always reachable here: [email-masked], or Tweet: @RachaelMBade. 

TODAY IN CONGRESS: The House returns tonight for suspenders at 6:30 p.m. The Senate returns at 5 p.m. and will vote shortly thereafter on LaShann Moutique DeArcy Hall, of New York, to be US District Judge for the Eastern District of New York.

** A message from The Broad Tax Extenders Coalition: Over 2,000 nonprofits, charitable organizations, businesses and associations agree: Permanent and multiyear tax extenders will support jobs, generate new investment and innovation, and boost charitable giving. Learn more at www.consensusisclear.org **

LIFE AFTER POWER: BOEHNER TRYING TO FIND HIS WAY. Jake travels to Naples, Fla. to chat up the ex-Speaker about what he's been doing since he left. In a nut shell? Lots of laundry, ironing and other household things like grocery shopping that he didn't have time to do while leading the lower chamber. "After 34 years, it all vanished. The staff. The massive office. The rigid schedule... He's now just John Boehner... 'I'm used to going all the time. Then you're not going all the time. It's,' Boehner said with a pause, 'different.'"

"The man who bounced around the country in motorcades supported by a staff of dozens is suddenly facing a strange new reality. 'I haven't lived anywhere in 20 years except in hotel rooms,"' Boehner said in his first speech since resigning from Congress, an upbeat, hourlong talk to the Forum Club of Southwest Florida. 'You spend 200 nights a year traveling around the country, I don't know, where do you live? I haven't driven a car for nine years. I did a couple of weeks ago. I have a valid driver's license. I was very careful. But, you know, I need a car. So do I get a car in Ohio? Do I get a car here? Do I get a car in D.C.? I don't know. Much less try to figure out what I'm actually going
 to do.'" http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=8107ef1a00912e0ad0377890ccc21bec91a962789d2b8412107dd17ebdc5280a 

SENATE WEEK AHEAD: HIGHWAYS, RECONCILIATION, SPENDING. Roll Call's Niels Lesniewski with a look at highway negotiations ramping up this week: "It might feel like Groundhog Day with another deadline arriving to fund highway programs, but negotiators hope this one will be the last. They have until the end of the week to produce and advance a conference agreement on transportation programs, absent another extension. It's also the vehicle for reviving the Export-Import Bank. In the meantime, in an effort to pass a bill through the Senate that would uproot as much of the Affordable Care Act as possible, Senate Republicans will continue to work behind the scenes to prepare for the floor a
 substitute amendment to a House-passed budget reconciliation measure."

"And on the floor, there are other options for biding the Senate's time after Monday evening's vote to confirm a federal judge. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, told CQ Roll Call there could be another attempt to bring up the fiscal 2016 Defense appropriations bill - something Democrats have continued to oppose, preferring an omnibus agreement uniting defense and nondefense discretionary spending." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=8107ef1a00912e0acb43cb78c9feaddae534bc8cc3e1f230ee4439b5e3d71366 

MOVING ON: Michael Campbell left Rep. Scott Peters' office Friday after three years there as press secretary and legislative assistant (H/t Lauren French). 

FRIDAY'S TRIVIA WINNER. Grant Dubler beat ch'all: Henry Clay was the first statesman to "lie in state" in the Capitol Rotunda, and he, like Vice President Joe Biden, was considered a baby of the Senate, under 30 when elected. 

TODAY'S TRIVIA: Which comes from our winner: The last person to be elected President without any previous experience in elected office was Dwight Eisenhower. But in an age of Trump, Carson, and Fiorina, it is also worth asking when was the last time one of the two major parties even nominated someone for Vice President who had never before held public elected office, and who was that person? Email [email-masked]. 

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** A message from The Broad Tax Extenders Coalition: The consensus is clear: failure to pass tax extenders would hurt families, farmers, charities, and businesses. Over 2,000 nonprofits, charitable organizations, businesses and associations agree: permanent and multiyear tax extenders will support jobs, generate new investment and innovation, and boost charitable giving. Learn more at www.consensusisclear.org ** 

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