Subject: POLITICO Huddle, presented by Managed Funds Association: SENATE GOP PUNTS ON BUDGET – House marks up budget next week – RYAN’S OUTREACH TO TRUMP, CRUZ – Cornyn predicts ‘piñata’ for SCOTUS nominee
From: "POLITICO Huddle" <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 08 Mar 2016 06:03:08 -0600

03/08/2016 07:01 AM EDT

By Seung Min Kim ([email-masked] or @seungminkim) 

SENATE REPUBLICANS PUNT ON BUDGET - From POLITICO's Ben Weyl and yours truly: "Republicans on the Senate Budget Committee said Monday they would delay consideration of a budget this month, the latest example of GOP struggles on both ends of the Capitol to craft a fiscal blueprint this year ... 'The Senate Budget Committee will continue to discuss the budget as well as improvements to the budget process that would increase fiscal honesty, stability in government operations and the ability to help govern our nation,' Senate Budget Chairman Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) said." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=25ca92c64d83573971dae00513f8718c89160b1f64caf384d1a4e48c4977b74c

--The plan for Mitch McConnell, who has vowed to do a budget this year although a two-year deal has locked the topline numbers in place, is still to go ahead with the budget process. But Dems are already crying foul (and gloating a bit, Huddle is sure) over the GOP budget struggles, noting that Republicans repeatedly chastised Democrats for skipping a budget when they were in the majority.

--And some in-cycle Republicans facing competitive reelection bids - like Rob Portman of Ohio and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin -- have already made it clear that they see no need to do a budget, as The Hill's Alex Bolton notes: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=25ca92c64d835739413965c30185be80a0022ca2c6785d900bfa37189a35e36a

--Meanwhile in the House, the Budget Committee will vote on a budget resolution on either March 15 or 16, per Ben and POLITICO's Matthew Nussbaum: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=25ca92c64d83573975c4e6c6887bccd39de3525a7ffc4271e40a28b673f696b5

RYAN CHATS WITH TRUMP, CRUZ - WaPo's Ed O'Keefe: "Making good on a vow to do so, House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) has spoken with two of the four remaining Republican presidential candidates. Ryan has spoken by phone with Donald Trump and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, according to his spokeswoman, Ashlee Strong ... The outreach allowed Ryan 'to explain House Republicans' plan to present a bold conservative policy agenda this year,' Strong said in an email. 'He will have similar calls with Senator [Marco] Rubio and Governor [John] Kasich soon.'" 

--Trump spox Hope Hicks tells Ed: "They did speak, and they had a great conversation. Mr. Trump likes and respects the Speaker very much." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=25ca92c64d835739aada425e79fce29ed8734f4147e7577d690c9d23d8abcfcb

--At a women in leadership conference in Boston, moderate Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) - who had been a Jeb Bush backer - declines to say whether she would support Donald Trump should he be the Republican standard-bearer. The Wall Street Journal: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=25ca92c64d8357393eb80cd36c640f302219f63993aefc7f0e430977cafba056

CORNYN: SCOTUS NOMINEE WILL BE 'PINATA' - CNN's Ted Barrett: "The No. 2 Senate Republican warned Monday that potential nominees to the Supreme Court should consider the battle they will be forced to endure if they are picked for the post, suggesting a high-stakes slugfest could damage their reputations in a fruitless pursuit of the top court. 'I think they will bear some resemblance to a pi&ntilde;ata,' said Sen. John Cornyn of Texas."

--"'What I don't understand is how someone who actually wants to be confirmed to the Supreme Court would actually allow themselves to be used by the administration in a political fight that's going to last from now until the end of the year,' Cornyn told a small group of reporters in the Capitol." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=25ca92c64d8357393bfad0041849c9318145b74f70728536a1756c23ed8ef4d5

--Former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) critiques the current one: Lott says he likely would've considered Obama's yet-to-be-named Supreme Court nominee: "My attitude, particularly on the Supreme Court, was that elections do have consequences, sometimes bad," Lott tells David Axelrod in a podcast interview. "I tried to lean towards being supportive of the president's nominees, Democrat or Republican." CBS News: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=25ca92c64d8357397ee9f4af234854d36e26f8dcce54f9dc903142d1f5a023cd

REST IN PEACE - Sad news from the House Judiciary Committee: Tiffany May Joslyn, the deputy chief counsel for Democrats on the crime subcommittee, was killed Saturday in an auto accident in Rhode Island. "Her hardworking nature and diligent spirit served as an inspiration to everyone who knew her and worked with her, regardless of political affiliation," Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, ranking member John Conyers, subcommittee chairman Jim Sensenbrenner and subcommittee ranker Sheila Jackson Lee said. "Tiffany's passionate work and dedication to social justice is unparalleled. From her time working in the non-profit sector as a young criminal defense attorney to her many months of hard
 work to reform our criminal justice system as Deputy Chief Counsel of the U.S. House Judiciary Crime Subcommittee, Democratic staff - her work made a lasting impact." 

TRANSITIONS - Via POLITICO senior energy and enviro reporter Darren Goode, Zak Baig -- Sen. David Vitter's small business panel and former environmental panel staff director - will lead the Washington office of ClearPath, a campaign led by conservative entrepreneur Jay Faison to persuade Republicans on free-market ideas to promote green energy. The move will be officially announced later this morning at the National Press Club.

** A message from Managed Funds Association: Investors use hedge funds as tools to help manage risk and create diversified investment portfolios that help deliver reliable returns over time. During the financial crisis no hedge fund required a TARP bailout, in part because the industry is less concentrated and less leveraged than many other types of financial institutions. To learn more, visit www.hedgefundamentals.org. **

HAPPY TUESDAY, March 8, 2016, and welcome to The Huddle. I'm at [email-masked] for all your congressional news, tips, gossip, complaints, corrections (but no PR pitches for experts, please) and on Twitter at @seungminkim.

My new followers include @CaitlinRunyan and @JasonGerwig.

TODAY IN CONGRESS - The Senate is in at 10 a.m. and is back at work on the opioid bill. The House is gone fishin'.

AROUND THE HILL - Quiet here on pressers, aside from your regular Tuesday Senate stakeouts.

LAWMAKERS TO JOIN OBAMA IN CUBA - Reuters' Patricia Zengerle and Matt Spetalnick: "President Barack Obama will be accompanied on his historic visit to Cuba this month by up to 20 members of Congress, and is also considering further measures to ease travel and trade restrictions around the time of the visit ... [C]ongressional sources told Reuters the White House hoped the delegation would include Republicans as well as Obama's fellow Democrats, to underscore bipartisan support for his moves toward normal relations with the Communist-ruled country." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=25ca92c64d835739fd97eba71366b96e5e27bd909ac9cc7b9a6baf0ecb7b01a3

@JeffFlake: Looking forward to traveling to #Cuba with @POTUS. I hope it's not long until Congress restores the freedom of all Americans to do the same.

SENATORS PRESS STATE ON CLINTON SERVER, AGAIN - The latest from the AP: "Senate lawmakers are renewing their request to question the State Department staffer who helped set up Hillary Clinton's private email server following revelations that he has been granted immunity by the Justice Department ... Republican senators Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin have asked Bryan Pagliano to appear before them to discuss the server and to provide documents and communications about Clinton's personal email account."

--"Pagliano last year invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination in declining to answer questions from the lawmakers about the server and email setup. But in their letter to Pagliano, the senators argue that the immunity grant from the Justice Department -- which is investigating the potential mishandling of sensitive information on the server -- means that the 'Fifth Amendment privilege is no longer applicable.'" http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=25ca92c64d835739e09268aec06384a1afd2039be92aabf69cfc68469e2857e3

HOW NANCY REAGAN WOULD REACT TO TRUMP - The Hill: "Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.), a former Reagan administration staffer, said Monday that the late Nancy Reagan would be 'appalled' by front-runner Donald Trump's behavior in the GOP presidential primary ... 'She would be appalled at the lack of civility by Mr. Trump,' Rohrabacher [a Cruz endorser] said during a Monday interview with MSNBC's Chris Jansing. 'Every time there's a debate, he's insulting his opponents in the debate. Reagan would never have dreamed of that. And Nancy, more than anything else, was someone who demanded a sense of propriety,' Rohrabacher added." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=25ca92c64d83573932423266657dda0ef8ffde999d5e70b9197d5f03245d7ef0

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MONDAY'S TRIVIA WINNER - Shelby Boxenbaum was the first person to correctly respond that Dennis Kucinich was the surprising first runner-up in the Michigan Democratic primary in 2008.

TODAY'S TRIVIA - Shelby has today's question: When was the first electronic vote on the House floor? And what did they vote on? The first person to correctly answer gets a mention in the next day's Huddle. E-mail [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=25ca92c64d835739aecf141b8bf5b664e8cda57906d7a9ebe1e25fa9776eae2e

** A message from Managed Funds Association: Hedge funds were first created about 65 years ago as a tool to help investors create diversified investment portfolios and provide returns that are uncorrelated to the equity market. Institutional investors across the country now rely on hedge funds to help manage risk in their portfolios, among other objectives.

While the industry has grown in recent years, hedge funds are relatively small actors compared to most of the financial services sector. During the peak of the global financial crisis, many hedge funds were forced to liquidate their assets, and yet none required a taxpayer-funded TARP bailout. That is in part because the global hedge fund industry is less concentrated and less leveraged than many other types of financial institutions. To learn more, visit www.hedgefundamentals.org. **

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