| | | | |  | | By Jennifer Haberkorn, Eli Stokols, Lauren Egan and Ben Johansen | | Presented by |  | | | Welcome to POLITICO’s West Wing Playbook, your guide to the people and power centers in the Biden administration. Send tips | Subscribe here | Email Eli | Email Lauren Congressional Democrats are demanding President JOE BIDEN provide insurance coverage for in-vitro fertilization to all federal employees, arguing it would be one of the most concrete moves the administration can take after the Alabama state Supreme Court jeopardized access to such fertility treatments. Currently, the insurance program that covers more than 8 million federal employees and their families across the country has limited coverage for IVF. That has forced many federal employees to assume tens of thousands of dollars in out-of-pocket medical bills should they choose to pursue the treatment. More than 175 House and Senate Democrats are now calling on the Office of Personnel Management to require IVF coverage in all Federal Employee Health Benefit insurance policies. In the wake of the Supreme Court’s Dobbs ruling — and the Alabama court decision which declared that embryos created by IVF should be considered children — Democrats are looking for ways to expand and protect IVF access. Biden, in his State of the Union address, called on Congress to pass legislation guaranteeing the right to IVF treatment. But with a Republican-controlled House and the Senate filibuster in place, Democrats have little chance of passing such a law. So they want Biden to use other levers of the government instead. “At a time when IVF is increasingly under attack by the extreme personhood movement, President Biden would send a strong message that his administration, in word and deed, are true champions of safeguarding the right of families to decide if, when and how to build a family,” the lawmakers wrote in a letter they are set to send to OPM on Monday and first shared with West Wing Playbook. OPM has already taken some limited steps in this direction. Last year, for the first time, the office required all health insurance plans to cover the medications associated with three cycles of IVF, but not the treatment itself. Last year also marked the first time a national insurance plan voluntarily covered IVF for federal employees. There are a few other regional plans in the FEHB program that cover IVF, but their availability is based on geography. An administration official, when asked about the request, pointed to the IVF coverage implemented in 2024 health plans. Rep. GERRY CONNOLLY (D-Va.), who led the letter with Sen. TAMMY DUCKWORTH (D-Ill.) and represents many federal employees in the Virginia suburbs of D.C., has been trying to bolster OPM’s insurance coverage for years. “The Alabama ruling probably gives us more impetus. That’s why we have 100-plus signatures on the letter,” he said. While a future administration can undo an OPM coverage decision, Connolly argues that once a benefits package is in place, it is politically difficult to take it away. We are witnessing the manifestation of this concept currently with the Affordable Care Act. Democrats who signed the letter also underscored that if OPM were to mandate IVF coverage in FEHB — the largest employer-sponsored plan in the country — it would send a message to other health plan providers to do the same. That, in turn, would expand its reach. “It’s much more than a drop in the bucket,” Connolly said of OPM’s ability to spread IVF coverage. “The Federal Employee Health Benefit Program is so big and has so much influence in the industry itself as a driver, that this will have significant — if we can get this mandated — ripple effects on lots of other insurers.” MESSAGE US — Are you Office of Personnel Management Director KIRAN AHUJA? We want to hear from you. And we’ll keep you anonymous! Email us at westwingtips@politico.com. Did someone forward this email to you? Subscribe here!
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| | ROUNDING OUT THE CONDEMNATIONS: President Biden gave his first public remarks Monday on the growing number of anti-Israel protests across college campuses, telling reporters that he condemned “antisemitic protests” as well as “those who don’t understand what’s going on with the Palestinians.” When asked if Columbia University President MINOUCHE SHAFIK should resign, Biden wasn’t sure: “I will have to find out more about that.” Biden’s comments come less than a day after his initial statement, which commemorated Passover and warned of the rise of antisemitism — but didn’t include mention of Palestine or the suffering in Gaza. HEY VOLODYMYR, IT’S JOE. GUESS WHAT!!! President Biden spoke with President VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY on Monday after the House approved tens of billions of dollars in long-stalled aid to Ukraine over the weekend. In a readout of the call, the White House said Biden “shared that his administration will quickly provide significant new security assistance packages to meet Ukraine’s urgent battlefield and air defense needs as soon as the Senate passes the national security supplemental and he signs it into law.” MAKING IT COUNT: Don’t yet know if this was discussed on the call but… the Biden administration is preparing to send a larger-than-normal military aid package to Ukraine that will include armored vehicles, in addition to artillery and air defenses, our LARA SELIGMAN and LEE HUDSON scooped. Defense officials want it to be ready to go once Biden signs off on a separate foreign aid bill for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan — which the Senate is expected to pass as early as Tuesday. The package that officials are working on will be “significantly larger” than the previous tranche of $300 million for Ukraine, which a U.S. official said will “help meet Ukraine’s battlefield needs.” WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE WANTS YOU TO READ: This piece by Punchbowl's ANDREW DESIDERIO, JAKE SHERMAN and JOHN BRESNAHAN, who note that Biden has so far come out on top gotten everything he’s really wanted in his battles with the 118th Congress. The trio points to Biden’s wins on government funding, FISA and foreign aid for Ukraine and Israel. Oh, he also wasn’t impeached. Although Biden hasn’t come out unscatched (cc: Hunter and James Biden being deposed over the family’s finances), House Republicans’ list of embarrassments kind of overshadow that, with members of their own caucus openly attacking each other on the floor and in public. Campaign spokesperson JAMES SINGER shared the piece on X. WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE DOESN’T WANT YOU TO READ: This piece by our CLAUDIA CHIAPPA, who reports that Papua New Guinea’s prime minister is clapping back at Biden after the president made a dubitable claim last week that his uncle AMBROSE FINNEGAN — a former Army Air Corps member — was eaten by “cannibals” after crashing on the Pacific island during World War II. “President Biden’s remarks may have been a slip of the tongue; however, my country does not deserve to be labeled as such,” PNG Prime Minister JAMES MARAPE said in a statement. POTUS IS A POD BRO: The “SmartLess” podcast released a preview of the episode it recorded last month with Biden and former presidents BARACK OBAMA and BILL CLINTON. The clips were a microcosm of the men’s different personalities. In one, Obama revealed the POTUS perk he misses most was private concerts at the White House with artists like MICK JAGGER and BB KING. For Clinton, it’s “the fact that they don’t play a song when you walk in a room anymore.” As for Biden, he touted his efforts to create a diverse administration, including appointing the first Black woman to the Supreme Court. And he noted that he didn’t simply hire sycophants. “Mine talk back,” the president said of his staff. The full episode airs on April 29. PREPARE FOR THE LEAST PRODUCTIVE DAY AT THE WHITE HOUSE ALL YEAR: On Friday, Vice President KAMALA HARRIS will give remarks to White House employees and their children on Take Your Child to Work Day. Good luck with the kids! We’re sure they’ll all be well behaved and attentive.
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| | PERSONNEL MOVES: PATRICK MEYERS has left the White House, where he was the director of vetting research in the presidential personnel office. On Monday, Meyers started at the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Africa bureau, where he will serve as special adviser.
| | | | A message from Chime:   | | | | | HAPPY EARTH DAY: President Biden celebrated Earth Day on Monday by announcing $7 billion in federal grants to fund solar power across over 900,000 homes in low- and middle-income communities, AP’s ALEXA ST. JOHN and WILL WEISSERT report. Administration officials say the grants are expected to eventually reduce emissions by the equivalent of 30 million metric tons of carbon dioxide and save households $350 million annually. You’re welcome, Earth. While visiting northern Virginia’s Prince William Forest Park this afternoon with BERNIE SANDERS and ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ (and, dear reader, he got as many photos as possible next to those two progressive stalwarts), Biden announced plans to expand his administration’s American Climate Corps — a New Deal-style work force aimed at engaging young people in clean energy jobs. As our ZACK COLMAN reports for Pro subscribers, the White House also posted openings for the first 2,000 positions within the American Climate Corps, targeting a June start date for the first class of young people it intends to train. This comes as polls show an increasingly tight race for the White House, with a recent Harvard Youth Poll showing former President DONALD TRUMP cutting deeper into Biden’s lead with young voters particularly. FORECAST LOOKING LIKE MORE SCOTUS PAIN: The Supreme Court agreed on Monday to hear a challenge to the Biden administration’s crackdown on the sale of do-it-yourself “ghost gun” kits, which allow people to build untraceable guns at home, our JOSH GERSTEIN reports. The court will take up a regulation Attorney General MERRICK GARLAND issued in 2022 that sought to label these kits as firearms, requiring manufacturers to run background checks on customers and mark the products with serial numbers. The case is expected to be set for this fall, with a decision likely to come after the November election.
| | Trump’s Jokes Killed DC’s Sense of Humor (Jeff Nussbaum for POLITICO) RFK Jr. rarely mentions abortion — and sends mixed signals when he does (WaPo’s Meryl Kornfield) The Politics of Pessimism (Frank Bruni for The Atlantic)
| | A message from Chime: Chime is expanding banking with no overdraft fees to everyday people. Cost is a barrier to many, which is why Chime never charges overdraft or monthly fees — and there are no minimum balance requirements for our checking and savings accounts. We reach customers traditional banks don't, can't or won't and are helping everyone unlock financial progress. Learn more. | | | | | | The Cubs! In the 1930s, Reagan worked as a sports announcer for WHO Radio in Des Moines, Iowa. But rather than being at the game, the future president had to be on his toes. While commentating, he would recreate the action from a slip of paper typed by a telegraph operator who was transcribing plays by Morse code, according to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. In June 1934, during a divisional Cubs v. Cardinals matchup, the line went dead. On the spot, Reagan improvised a streak of foul balls that lasted nearly 12 minutes until the wire came back on. A CALL OUT! Do you think you have a harder trivia question? Send us your best one about the presidents, with a citation or sourcing, and we may feature it! Edited by Sam Stein and Rishika Dugyala.
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