| | | | |  | | By Daniella Diaz and Nicholas Wu | | Presented by |  | | | With assists from POLITICO’s Congress team
| 
Rep. Henry Cuellar proclaimed his family’s innocence in a statement issued before the charges were even unsealed, and he vowed to seek re-election regardless. | Francis Chung/POLITICO | OH, HENRY Democratic campaign honchos didn’t think they needed to worry about Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) any more. Texas state lawmakers padded the 28th Congressional District with extra Democratic votes after the 2020 Census in order to pack more Republicans in other districts, and he won a 14-point victory over his GOP challenger in 2022. Cuellar didn’t even make it onto the NRCC’s target list for the 2024 cycle. That all changed Friday, when Cuellar and his wife, Imelda, were charged in an alleged $600,000 corruption scheme. The indictment has Republicans taking a second look at what could be a crucial flip as they seek to preserve and potentially expand their slim majority. “Henry Cuellar does not put Texas first, he puts himself first. If his colleagues truly believe in putting ‘people over politics,’ they will call on him to resign. If not — they are hypocrites whose statements about public service aren’t worth the paper they’re written on,” NRCC spokesperson Delanie Bomar said in a statement first provided to POLITICO. Cuellar proclaimed his family’s innocence in a statement issued before the charges were even unsealed, and he vowed to seek re-election. He still does not know who his opponent will be — the GOP primary is going to a May 28 runoff between Jay Furman and Lazaro Garza Jr. (Cuellar ran unopposed in the Democratic primary for the first time in six years.) Garza posted on Facebook: “It is sad that corruption has always existed in South Texas. It is time to make a difference for the better!” And Furman, in a video posted on Facebook, said “this is what we’re trying to kick out. It’s time for these guys to go.” Valley whirl: Republicans have eyed the congressional seats along the Rio Grande as potential pick-ups in recent years, with Donald Trump doing unexpectedly well there in 2016 and with the post-redistricting flip of the 15th Congressional District, now represented by GOP Rep. Monica De La Cruz. The NRCC and the Congressional Leadership Fund, the largest GOP super PAC focused on House races, have pumped hundreds of thousands of dollars into three districts — Cuellar’s, De La Cruz’s and the 34th, held by Democratic Rep. Vicente Gonzalez. While one prominent forecaster moved his district slightly in the GOP’s direction Friday, House Democratic leaders did not signal any immediate change in their posture toward Cuellar Friday, nor did another top backer, the Hispanic Caucus’ BOLD PAC political arm. Cuellar’s district isn’t listed as a “frontline” district by the DCCC. A sidelined maverick: More immediate consequences will be felt inside the House Democratic Caucus, where Cuellar is seen as an influential moderate who often speaks out against the Biden administration when it comes to issues related to border and energy. He is also the only outspoken anti-abortion Democrat in the House. Pursuant to House Democrats’ rules, Cuellar is stepping down from his role as the senior Democrat on the Appropriations subcommittee overseeing Homeland Security funding, a spokesperson for House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Friday. There’s also inklings of recriminations among progressive Democrats, who saw the party establishment rally behind Cuellar during primary challenges in 2020 and 2022, when his abortion stance and the pending federal investigation became major issues. His opponent in both of those primary races — attorney Jessica Cisneros, who lost by just 289 votes last cycle — did not respond to a request for comment. — Daniella Diaz and Nicholas Wu
| | | | A message from American Beverage: America’s leading beverage companies – The Coca-Cola Company, Keurig Dr Pepper and PepsiCo – are bringing you more choices with less sugar. From sparkling, flavored and bottled waters to zero-sugar sodas, sports drinks, juices and teas, Americans have more options than ever. In fact, nearly 60% of beverages sold today have zero sugar. Families are looking for more choices to support their efforts to find balance and America’s beverage companies are delivering. Explore choices at BalanceUS.org. | | | GOOD EVENING! Welcome to Inside Congress, the play-by-play guide to all things Capitol Hill, on this Friday, May 3, where we hope you enjoy your weekend! ACTIVIST FLOOD BOGS DOWN HILL EMAIL Some Capitol Hill staffers are ready to give up on their government email accounts after being overwhelmed with emails they believe are being sent using an activist group’s new AI-powered tool. “Freepalestine.tools” was built by Gen-Z For Change, a group aiming to “leverage the power of social media to drive progressive change.” It allows users to “[a]utomatically send daily emails to your representatives using Apple Shortcuts, urging them to do everything in their power to stop this onslaught against the Palestinian people.” One House staffer reported getting more than 400 emails from a single sender over the course of a few weeks, and that’s one sender out of thousands who each send multiple emails per day. “I just can't be spending all my time going through this spam,” said one Senate staffer, who like others describing the situation was granted anonymity to avoid exacerbating it. Stats bear out the surge: In mid-April, the Senate’s email system volume was up to 1.7 million messages per day from about 700,000 before October 2023. The House inbound email volume went from 658,000 emails per day to 1.2 million over a similar period. Gen-Z for Change tells Inside Congress that more than 70 million emails have been sent to staffers using their tool. Email-based activism, of course, is nothing new, but the level of sophistication at work here, the staffers say, has made their email accounts useless to the point that they’ve moved much of their internal communication off of email, to Signal chats or other systems that aren’t run by the House or Senate. This tool, unlike previous mass email campaigns, changes the subject line and body of the emails slightly to confound typical methods for sorting and prioritizing emails. That is very much by design, according to Elise Joshi, Gen-Z for Change’s executive director. “Our brilliant coders built a way to prevent offices from filtering away people's emails demanding a ceasefire and track the number of times the Apple Shortcut is used,” she said. What’s very much unclear is whether the flood of messages is doing anything but annoy low-level congressional staff, some of whom are blocking senders and setting filters for any email that mentions Israel or Palestine — thus running the risk of missing critical emails from colleagues or constituents who are not using the automated tool. It’s been especially frustrating for aides to lawmakers who are aligned with the activists and have publicly supported a cease-fire in Gaza. The emails didn’t slow or stop, some noted, when members voted against the House’s standalone Israel aid bill or the Senate’s combined foreign aid package. “That speaks to the extent that this is just completely automated,” a House aide working for a pro-ceasefire lawmaker said. Joshi said the tool is built to skip the 19 members who are signed on to a pro-cease-fire resolution filed by Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) shortly after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel. The freepalestine.tools website does not mention that criterion, nor do the emails it generates, according to staffers. In a further complication, there’s no Senate companion to Bush’s resolution, meaning they are looking for senators to speak out in favor of a House vehicle. “Sadly, we have yet to remove any Senate offices," Joshi said. — Katherine Tully-McManus
| | | | 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. The Pro platform 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. | | | | | NEW DISCHARGE IN TOWN? Turns out the House didn’t need a discharge petition to pass Ukraine aid, after all. But now that hot-button issue is settled, a bipartisan group of lawmakers is hoping to drum up some hype for a new discharge effort aimed at disaster victims. A petition filed earlier this week by Rep. Greg Steube (R-Fla.) would set up floor consideration of the Federal Disaster Tax Relief Act of 2023, which would provide tax relief for losses due to federally declared disasters. “It’s about time we took a vote to help our fellow taxpaying Americans in need,” Steube said in a statement to Inside Congress. The bill was included in a major bipartisan tax package that the House passed earlier this year that is now languishing in the Senate, and House leaders, he said, won’t bring it up as a standalone. The 15 lawmakers who have signed on already are heavy on the Florida and California delegations, whose constituents disproportionately suffer losses due to weather-related disasters: Reps. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.), Cory Mills (R-Fla.), Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.), Gus Bilirakis (R-Fla.), Kat Cammack (R-Fla.), Byron Donalds (R-Fla.), Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.), Doug LaMalfa (R-Calif.), Diana Harshbarger (R-Tenn.), Katie Porter (D-Calif.), Jill Tokuda (D-Hawaii) and Mike Thompson (D-Calif.). Discharge petitions are rarely successful, and they don’t usually attract much majority-party support because of how they circumvent party leadership. Moskowitz’s office said he signed on because “disaster relief can never be politicized. Hurricanes, wildfires, and train derailments don’t just impact Republicans or Democrats, they impact everyone.” — Nicholas Wu and Daniella Diaz
| | | | A message from American Beverage:   | | | | | The Senate is known for Byrd battles. But how about a bird battle? Happy International Tuba Day from the Senate majority whip. QUICK LINKS Why Johnson is stuck with threats to end his speakership from Jordain Carney and Nicholas Wu Military documents contradict Republican Rep. Troy Nehls' military record claims from James LaPorta at CBS News Biden to Honor Prominent Democrats With Presidential Medal of Freedom from Peter Baker at The New York Times Murphy will order July 16 primary, September 18 general election for Payne’s seat from Joey Fox and David Wildstein of the New Jersey Globe TRANSITIONS Kirby Struhar is now a professional staff member for the House Natural Resources subcommittee on Water, Wildlife, and Fisheries. He was previously a legislative assistant for the subcommittee. He is also a Rep. Garret Graves (R-La.), House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis and Trump EPA alum. MONDAY IN CONGRESS The House meets at noon. The Senate is out.
| | | | 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. | | | | | | | | | A message from American Beverage: Families are looking for more choices to support their efforts to find balance. That’s why America’s beverage companies are now offering more than 600 brands with less sugar or no sugar at all, and our actions are making a real difference.
Our commitment to supporting your efforts to find balance includes:
· Putting clear calorie labels on every bottle, can and pack.
· Reminding consumers to think about balance with signs on coolers and displays in store.
· Innovating products to offer more choices with less sugar or no sugar at all.
· Working with local organizations across the country to build awareness of the many choices available – and make zero-sugar beverages more available in communities where it’s needed most.
Learn more at BalanceUS.org | | | MONDAY AROUND THE HILL 4 p.m. The House Rules Committee will hold a business meeting (H-313). 5:15 p.m.: The House Intelligence Committee will hold a closed hearing on “Hot Spots: SRP” (HVC).
| | THURSDAY’S ANSWER: Joe Bookman was the first to correctly guess that Millard Fillmore was the president, along with several members of his cabinet and a few congressmen, who pitched in to put out a disastrous fire at the Library of Congress. TODAY’S QUESTION, from Joe: Under which president were the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution sent to the National Archives? 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. | | | | Follow us | | | | |
