1) Gaetz: Over the past several weeks, my family and I have been victims of an organized criminal extortion involving a former DOJ official seeking $25 million while threatening to smear my name.
2) Gaetz: We have been cooperating with federal authorities in this matter and my father has even been wearing a wire at the FBI’s direction to catch these criminals.
The planted leak to the New York Times tonight was intended to thwart that investigation.
3) Gaetz: No part of the allegations against me are true, and the people pushing these lies are targets of the ongoing extortion investigation.
4) Gaetz: I demand the DOJ immediately release the tapes, made at their direction, which implicate their former colleague in crimes against me based on false allegations
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A) When speaking about Biden's infrastructure plan, McConnell says he "can't imagine" that the Brent Spence Bridge between KY/OH via I-75 wouldn't be in that package. Bridge is named after late Dem KY Rep Brent Spence
B) McConnell: If there's any project in America that's eligible this would be it. Somewhere in the bowels of the multitrillion dollars proposal hopefully there is money to fix the bridge. We need it.
C) McConnell notes that even he & Boehner struggled to get replacement for Brent Spence Bridge. On restoring earmarks for the bridge, McConnell says "they do not allow earmarks of this magnitude"
1) McCarthy is in IA today, talking about Dem efforts to overturn House race there. You probably haven’t heard about the GOP effort to contest a seat in Illinois held by a Democrat.
2) McCarthy has been vocal about what he calls Democratic efforts to overturn the election of Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-IA) in favor of Democrat Rita Hart.
3) But McCarthy and other Republicans haven’t said much about a Republican who lost to Rep. Lauren Underwood (D-IL) in Illinois’s 14th Congressional District and similarly appealed the loss to the House Administration Committee.
1) The Hitchhiker’s Guide to How Biden/Democrats Will Sidestep a Filibuster for Infrastructure Package
President Biden and Congressional Democrats have spoken about again using the budget reconciliation process to advance the infrastructure package and avoid a Senate filibuster.
2) This would sidestep the dual requirement to get 60 votes to begin debate on such a bill and 60 votes to conclude debate in the Senate.
However, reconciliation limits Senate debate and the amendment process.
3) Heretofore, it was believed that two reconciliation options were available in a two-year Congress. Two fiscal years. Two budgets. Two prospective reconciliation vehicles. However Democrats are tinkering with the idea or breaking up the infrastructure plan into multiple parts.
26) The first problem is the general “two reconciliation packages per Congress” parameter. Secondly, if Congress were to theoretically want another reconciliation measure, lawmakers would have to start setting spending figures, say for Fiscal Year ’23, ’24 and ’25.
27) That’s not going to happen. One Congress cannot work that far ahead and bind future Congresses. Third, any policy initiative must adhere to strict fiscal guidelines to be used during budget reconciliation.
28) It’s unlikely that “DC statehood” or “HR 1” for voting access meets the tough budget guardrails. You can’t really shoehorn those policy initiatives into reconciliation.
1) Just like in sports, it helps to know the rules in politics and parliamentary procedure. Senate Democrats toying with the idea of sidestepping regular Senate rules again and using the special budget reconciliation process to potentially pass additional big agenda items.
2) Budget reconciliation is a process where the Senate can skirt a filibuster and pass a bill with a simple majority. To qualify for reconciliation, the bill must be fiscal in nature and can’t contribute to the deficit over a prolonged period.
3) The Senate’s custom of “unlimited debate” doesn’t apply. You don’t need 60 votes to turn off a filibuster – potentially twice on any piece of legislation.
1) From colleague Brooke Singman. GOP FL Rep Byron Donalds on Biden invoking "Jim Crow" when talking about filibuster.
2) Donalds: "In 2005, then-Sen. Biden said, 'At its core, the filibuster is not about stopping a nominee or a bill; it is about compromise and moderation. That is why the Founders put unlimited debate in. That is what it is about, engendering compromise and moderation."
3) Donalds: "Now President Biden is irresponsibly injecting race and the travesty of Jim Crow to oppose the filibuster..Time after time, Democrats resort to the race card to shield them from having to answer for their hypocrisy and radical policies."