Johnson's weighs earmarks tweaks

An evening recap of the action on Capitol Hill and preview of the day ahead
Apr 22, 2024 View in browser
 
POLITICO Inside Congress

By Jennifer Scholtes and Caitlin Emma

With assists from POLITICO’s Congress team

House Speaker Mike Johnson arrives to speak with reporters at the U.S. Capitol.

The final call is up to Speaker Mike Johnson, who of course faces the added pressure from conservatives still weighing an ouster vote. | Francis Chung/POLITICO

HOUSE LEADERS MULL GROUND RULES FOR PET PROJECTS 

Speaker Mike Johnson is navigating another demand from conservatives that has flown more under the radar: Changing the rules on earmarks.

Rep. Robert Aderholt (R-Ala.) is leading appropriations critics in proposing an item-by-item scrutiny system to root out “political” projects in both chambers. But new Appropriations Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.) has his own ideas. He told us he wants to unlock the possibility of more earmarks, this time in the Labor-HHS-Education funding bill, which was off limits for member-directed projects last time around. Besides that, he doesn’t see many “extensive changes” this year.

The final call is up to Johnson, who of course faces the added pressure from conservatives still weighing an ouster vote.

“Whatever the speaker comes back with is what I'll be supporting,” Cole said.

Although the new Appropriations chair won’t talk about his pitch to Johnson, he spoke freely about his qualms:

1. Why he wants to unlock Labor-H: Because the House barred earmarks in the largest non-defense funding bill last year and the Senate did not, senators got all the power to route millions of dollars in federal cash to hospitals, workforce development programs and school districts in their states.

“You’ve got nothing to trade,” Cole told us. “To me, it just works better when we’re coordinated. But I also recognize that, at the end of the day, nobody over here tells the United States Senate what to do, and vice versa.”

2. The nonprofit and ‘political’ attack problem: Since last summer, House Republicans have worked to weed out Democrat-led earmarks for projects they disagreed with.

First, they nixed funding for LGBTQ+ programs in committee, as Democrats decried the unprecedented move as “insane” and “bigoted.” Then last month, fueled by Libs of TikTok scorn, they targeted a $1 million earmark Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) secured for an LGBTQ+ community center in Philadelphia.

Still, many House conservatives wanted to delete more, including earmarks for organizations that perform abortions or provide needle exchange, condoms and services to immigrants, even if federal funding wouldn’t be used for those specific efforts. Due in part because of those objections, the House passed the final funding package last month with just five votes to spare.

One way Cole hopes to cut down on that drama: Bar earmarks for non-profits, at least under the Transportation-HUD bill.

“It narrows it down. So we hope that would be helpful,” he said.

One conservative’s idea: Aderholt is leading conservatives in a different reform plan. The Alabama Republican told us he briefed Cole and the speaker on his idea to require both subcommittee leaders in the House, and both in the Senate, to sign off on earmarks before they make it into funding bills.

“If they keep going the way we’re going, nobody can vote for an appropriation bill,” Aderholt said. He doesn’t like the idea of barring earmarks for nonprofits, arguing that it would rule out “good, solid” organizations like the Boys & Girls Clubs.

Dream on: The House’s top Democratic appropriator, Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, said Aderholt’s approach would mark the death of earmarks again. “If we start to review everybody's project, can you imagine what kind of chaos?” she said. “If we go down that slippery slope, I would be the first one to say: End it.”

Across the Capitol, top Senate appropriators already rolled out their earmark guidance for the upcoming fiscal year. And senators in both parties like their autonomy from the tumultuous House.

— Jennifer Scholtes and Caitlin Emma, with assist from Joe Gould and POLITICO Deep Dive 

 

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GOOD EVENING! Welcome to Inside Congress, the play-by-play guide to all things Capitol Hill, on this Monday, April 22, where we hope you enjoyed your day as much as Sen. Joe Manchin did!

SENATE’S FOREIGN AID SCHEDULE

The Senate will come back early from their Passover recess Tuesday to take up the House-passed foreign aid package, with the chamber set to pass the bundle no later than Wednesday evening.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer set up a vote to break a filibuster on Tuesday afternoon, and there's some hope in both parties they won't have to use all the debate time. Even if senators object to speedy passage — which requires consent from all 100 of them — the clock will run out Wednesday evening at the latest.

Schumer will almost certainly have to come up with an amendment deal to move the legislation more quickly. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), for example, wants to put conditions on Israel aid and restore funding to UNRWA. And Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) wants a vote on requiring Ukraine to pay back aid to the United States. There’s some incentive for the senators to cut a deal, though, with a few more days of recess looming at the other end of the final vote.

Who to watch: Lee is trying to kill the legislation and Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) is notorious for delaying passage votes. We’ll be keeping an eye on them.

— Daniella Diaz and Burgess Everett

EXCLUSIVE: ORGS CALL ON LEADERS TO WATCH IMMIGRATION RHETORIC 

With border politics almost certain to play a major role in the November election, more than 150 organizations are calling on all four top congressional leaders to denounce rhetoric that dehumanizes immigrants.

The letter, which was organized by America’s Voice Education Fund and has a total of 153 signers from civil and immigrant rights organizations, calls on Schumer, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Johnson and Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries to “collectively and forcefully denounce the use of dehumanizing and demagogic rhetoric about immigrants.” The letter says that “language, such as saying that undocumented immigrants are an infestation, animals, or are not people … are profoundly vile and dangerous words.”

Both the House and Senate have now failed to pass comprehensive plans on border policy, an issue that remains mired in partisan gridlock. Most recently, the House failed to pass a border security bill on Saturday. And President Joe Biden hasn’t issued executive orders to address problems at the southern border, despite discussions around that possibility.

The letter doesn’t single out any particular instance of harmful rhetoric from either Republicans or Democrats, calling for both parties to be careful about their language.

“While vehement policy disagreements are welcome, we implore our elected officials to not only condemn the use of demagogic and dehumanizing rhetoric but to also encourage other public leaders around the country to refrain from using it,” the letter reads.

— Daniella Diaz

HUDDLE HOTDISH

Bob Casey certainly likes his sweet treats as he’s moving around Pennsylvania.

John Fetterman has endorsed Mitt Romneyfor president of Harvard.

Joe Manchin has gone fishing.

Rep. Mike Gallagher’s outgoing advice to his colleagues: “Drink more, tweet less.”

John Cornyn finally found a brisket recipe that went too far.

QUICK LINKS 

House committee finds CIA at fault in investigation on sexual assaults, from Daniel Lippman

Quin Hillyer: Garret Graves dug his own political resting place, in The Times-Picayune

The Accidental Speaker from Elaina Plott Calabro at the Atlantic

'Head-Spinning': John Fetterman’s Breaks With Joe Biden Confound Some Democrats, from Igor Bobic at HuffPost

The Squad’s Summer Lee believes all politics are local, from Israel to infrastructure, from Amanda Becker at The 19th

 

THE GOLD STANDARD OF POLICY REPORTING & INTELLIGENCE: POLITICO has more than 500 journalists delivering unrivaled reporting and illuminating the policy and regulatory landscape for those who need to know what’s next. Throughout the election and the legislative and regulatory pushes that will follow, POLITICO Pro is indispensable to those who need to make informed decisions fast. POLITICO Pro dives deeper into critical and quickly evolving sectors and industries—finance, defense, technology, healthcare, energy—equipping policymakers and those who shape legislation and regulation with essential news and intelligence from the world’s best politics and policy journalists. Our newsroom is deeper, more experienced, and better sourced than any other—with teams embedded in the world’s most active legislative and regulatory power centers. From Brussels to Washington, New York to London, Sacramento to Paris, we bring subscribers inside the conversations that determine policy outcomes and the future of industries, providing insight that cannot be found anywhere else. Get the premier news and policy intelligence service, SUBSCRIBE TO POLITICO PRO TODAY.

 
 

TRANSITIONS 

Send your transitions to insidecongress@politico.com and we’ll include!

TOMORROW IN CONGRESS

The House will meet at 10:30 a.m. for a pro forma session.

The Senate is in session.

TUESDAY AROUND THE HILL

Crickets.

TRIVIA

FRIDAY’S ANSWER: David Nexon was the first to correctly guess that 17 senators went on to become President of the United States.

TODAY’S QUESTION, from David: What long-serving senator was offered a tryout with the Green Bay Packers on his graduation from Harvard?

The first person to correctly guess gets a mention in the next edition of Inside Congress. Send your answers to insidecongress@politico.com.

GET INSIDE CONGRESS emailed to your phone each evening.

 

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