NEWS w/ @mkraju: Moderate Republicans are privately discussing teaming up w/ Democrats to avoid a government shutdown if the House GOP plan to fund the government fails on the House floor this week.

The idea was raised by mods in multiple leadership meetings tonight, per sources During GOP whip's meeting, Rep. Mike Lawler of New York told colleagues he is willing to support a so-called discharge petition – a procedural mechanism to force a floor vote on a bill and circumvent leadership – to move a short-term spending bill if their Republican plan stalls.

During a pen-and-pad today, some of McCarthy’s key deputies laid out the contours for what they see as a potential debt ceiling deal.

Rep. Garrett Graves outlined 4 areas of possible agreement:

-Permitting reform
-Clawing back unspent Covid $$
-Work requirements
-Spending caps On spending caps, Graves said that the White House is “pushing for a shorter window.”

But Rep. Dusty Johnson, co-chair of the centrist leaning Main Street Caucus, said it would be “very difficult” for Republicans to accept a two-year spending caps deal.

Bishop & Brecheen BOTH flip for McCarthy. Lots of cheers Cloud & Clyde also flip to McCarthy. So far he has picked off four opponents.

McCarthy tells members on a conference call: “I’m not telling you we have an agreement. We’re in a good position and having meetings,” per source on the call. McHenry on the call also says NO gavels have been promised in these talks, and lamers the rumors that have been flying around

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene: “When you make a mistake, you should own it. … and I definitely want to own it.” MTG: “There is no comparison to the Holocaust.”

She acknowledged that there are remarks she has made that are “offensive” and “hurtful,” and she is “truly sorry”.

“Anti-Semitism is true hate,” she adds.

CHENEY just addressed the House GOP conference, as a meeting gets underway to decide her fate in leadership.

“We cannot let the former president drag us backward and make us complicit in his efforts to unravel our democracy,” she said, per source familiar. Cheney, as expected, not fighting to hang on to her job:

“If you want leaders who will enable and spread his destructive lies, I’m not your person, you have plenty of others to choose from. That will be their legacy.”

NEWS: The House GOP steering committee is calling a last-minute meeting tonight, I’m told.

Comes as McCarthy is currently meeting with Marjorie Taylor Greene to decide whether to strip her of her committee assignments, move her to a different one, or kick her off entirely. Any potential committee changes, of course, would need to go through the GOP Steering committee.

But unclear if McCarthy has arrived at a decision yet. He is still in the meeting with Greene.

McCarthy could also just keep her where she is.

NEWS: Me & @heathercaygle are being told that special arrangements are being made to allow members to vote today who are in quarantine.

These members are not covid-positive or experiencing symptoms — they have received a negative test — but had been exposed. The arrangements include entering through a special entrance that has been closed off to the public and then having members in Plexiglass in the gallery.

We're told there are 3 members who will be using these arrangements — 2 Dems, 1 Republican.

Happy first day of the 117th Congress!

I took a turn at the helm of Playbook today, with the help of the great @heatherscope @sarahnferris & @burgessev.

Here's everything you need to know about a *very* newsy day and week ahead >> politico.com/newsletters/pl… The main event, of course, is the speaker's vote. And Pelosi's allies are 100% confident she'll reclaim gavel, even if it takes a few hours.

But she has little room for error — Pelosi's office was even emailing members up until the last-minute to reconfirm their attendance.

NEWS: On a House GOP call just now, Louie Gohmert said that if he had seen Liz Cheney's statement on the election before their leadership races, he would’ve voted against her, per source on call.

Cheney was unanimously elected GOP conf chair, despite some conservative grumbling. Gohmert — speaking directly to Cheney — also said on the call he would've tried to make sure someone challenged her for conference chair.

Freedom Caucus members had debated whether to recruit a Cheney challenger, but ultimately didn't, nor did anyone else step up to the plate.

Retiring GOP Rep. Francis Rooney, when pressed by @jimsciutto on whether Biden or Trump would better handle coronavirus, says:

"I don't think there's any doubt that Vice President Biden has the right approach. And there's a lot of Republicans that would agree with that as well." MORE: When asked whether Trump has let down the American people with his response to the coronavirus, Rep. Rooney says: "In many respects, yes."

Things getting HEATED at House GOP conference meeting right now.

Matt Gaetz & Thomas Massie both got on the mics and went after Liz Cheney for backing Massie’s primary opponent, per source in the room. Now Rep. Chip Roy is attacking Cheney for her support of Dr. Fauci, per source in the room.

He lamented that his liberal primary opponent retweeted Cheney’s tweet about Fauci.

SCOOP: House Republican leaders are racing to distance themselves from a leading GOP congressional candidate after we uncovered hours of Facebook videos in which she expresses deeply racist, Islamophobic and anti-Semitic views.

the story w/ @allymutnick: politico.com/news/2020/06/1… It’s hard to even list all the offensive comments from Marjorie Greene, but let me try:

—She questioned whether Muslims should be allowed to serve in office, calling the midterms “an Islamic invasion" & accusing Muslims of wanting "special treatment" to “rise” above non-Muslims.

A quick story/thread on why the new press restrictions in the Capitol are such a disservice to the American people during the impeachment trial. After Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearing, Republicans huddled for a private meeting to see if they had the votes. At the time, Jeff Flake was still was one of the key undecided GOP votes. But he snuck out a back door to avoid the mob of reporters waiting outside.

Rep. @jamie_raskin is showing off a packet of documents that the State IG just gave over to Congress.

Raskin says it's a bunch of propaganda & conspiracy theories about some of the State officials that Dems wanna talk to... apparently it had been given to Pompeo. @jamie_raskin It's unclear where the documents came from, though Raskin said some of the folders appear to come from the Trump hotel.

"We don't know where it came from... the whole thing looks rather amateurish to me," he says.