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The conventional wisdom in Washington a month ago was that Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) might be so tied in knots by his conservative House colleagues and narrow majority that his effectiveness against Democrats in both chambers would be a question mark.

The Hill’s Alexander Bolton reports that McCarthy is demonstrating to vulnerable Senate Democrats that they may want to reevaluate the House majority. The Speaker led his caucus in boxing in some senators with a House resolution to block Washington, D.C.’s controversial crime reform bill.

The Senate will vote on the measure this week, despite some brief uncertainty Monday over whether the D.C. City Council could “withdraw” the city’s law from Senate consideration (Senate aides said no). President Biden said last week that if Congress votes to nullify the District’s law to ease criminal punishments, he will sign off on it and side with the critics saying the law goes too far.

Montana Sen. Jon Tester, a Democrat elected in a state former President Trump won by 16 points, does not want his constituents to view his party as soft on crime. Other Democrats in the Senate are equally squeezed while facing voters who say they’re worried about violent crime and public safety.

The Hill: Democratic enthusiasm in the Senate on Monday swelled for the GOP-led D.C. crime resolution. Tester and Sens. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.) and Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) as well as Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) revealed they will support a resolution to overturn the District’s controversial law.  

McCarthy this month was similarly able to split moderate and liberal Democrats over a Labor Department regulation encouraging retirement managers to consider issues of environmental and social policy and corporate governance in their investment decisions. Republicans argue that investors want returns, not politics. In addition, the Speaker and his GOP colleagues say they’ll use the Congressional Review Act to force Democrats to vote on a resolution to block a definitional Environmental Protection Agency rule about U.S. waters, a move intended to target vulnerable Democratic incumbents.

Who’s advising McCarthy? His new chief of staff, a House veteran who once worked for former firebrand Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.), knows the ins and outs of balanced budget demands and legislative jiu-jitsu stretching back to the Clinton era. The news media have taken note of Dan Meyer’s return to the Capitol at age 68 (The Washington Post).

Financial Times: McCarthy will meet the Taiwanese president in the United States instead of Taiwan.

A bipartisan Senate bill intended to improve freight rail safety following a Norfolk Southern derailment in Ohio has run into GOP roadblocks (The Hill). Republicans in the Senate say the measure could have unintended consequences, and are hesitant to move before a federal investigation is completed and before the company foots the bill to help East Palestine, Ohio, clean up and recover from the toxic spill on Feb. 3.

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“We’ll take a look at what’s being proposed, but an immediate quick response heavy on regulation needs to be thoughtful and targeted,” Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) told The Hill. “Let’s define the problem. Let’s figure out what the solutions are and if there are things we need to fix, we’ll fix them.”

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▪ The Hill/AP: Norfolk Southern to pay several million dollars for derailment in Ohio, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) said Monday.

▪ The Hill: Norfolk Southern to provide financing for East Palestine, Ohio, residents’ temporary relocation during soil removal and cleanup.

▪ CNN: Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg rethinks how he does his job in the wake of the Ohio train disaster.

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Related Articles

▪ The Hill: Republicans set for internal battle over how and by how much to cut spending.

▪ The New York Times: House Republicans blame Biden’s spending bills for an increase in deficits. Voting records show how Republican votes helped Washington pile up debt.

▪ Roll Call: House Administration Republicans turn to public in Jan. 6 inquiry.

▪ The Atlantic: The new anarchy. America faces a type of extremist violence it does not know how to stop.

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LEADING THE DAY

➤ POLITICS

Former Vice President Mike Pence filed a motion asking a judge to block a federal grand jury subpoena for his testimony related to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol on the grounds that he is protected by the Constitution’s Speech or Debate Clause. Pence had publicly signaled that he planned to resist the subpoena, arguing it was “unconstitutional and unprecedented.” 

The motion was filed Friday night, the same day Trump’s lawyers asked a judge to block the former vice president from speaking to a grand jury about certain matters covered by executive privilege (The Hill and CNN).

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) blasted California from within the belly of the beast on Sunday when he spoke at the Ronald Reagan Library in Simi Valley, writes The Hill’s Niall Stanage. When he took aim at policies that he argued had led to California’s “hemorrhaging” population, DeSantis was making the latest move in his ongoing feud with California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D). But it was also a clear example of how Republicans have made California an emblem of what they see as progressive radicalism and bad governance.

Meanwhile, Republicans are wrestling with whether DeSantis, a likely 2024 presidential hopeful, can soften his staunchly conservative brand enough to win a national election. As The Hill’s Max Greenwood writes, the Florida governor has built a reputation as a relentless political firebrand who was willing to push a long list of policies that endeared himself to conservatives nationwide — and as he prepares for a likely presidential bid, he’s not showing any signs of dialing it down. But while that may help him stand out in a Republican primary that will be decided by the party’s most conservative and loyal voters, some in the party are unsure he can moderate his views enough to appeal to a broader swath of the electorate in a 2024 general election. 

Trump, for his part, said he hates losing so much that he has suggested he will mount a third-party campaign if he doesn’t win the Republican presidential nomination. But he may not be able to win that way either, thanks to “sore loser” laws in six states he would need to win to return to the White House, which either explicitly or effectively prevent a candidate from running on an independent or third-party ticket if they’ve previously run in the same race under a different banner.

A new study in the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy concluded it would be “effectively impossible” for the former president to win if he runs a third-party bid for the White House, because he would fail to make the ballot in as many as a majority of states  (Bloomberg News and The Washington Post).

CNN: Republicans grapple with how to nominate someone other than Trump in 2024.

As the new chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) is walking a tightrope as he tries to win back the Senate for the GOP. Daines, whose personal connection to MAGA figures has lent him credibility with the base, has also found favor with more establishment members of the party who are still upset over a crop of inexperienced and deeply flawed Trump-backed candidates losing swing-state races in 2022 (The Washington Post).

▪ The 19th: Republicans could flip a number of Senate seats in 2024. Will women candidates benefit?

▪ ABC News: Biden’s reelection bid faces resistance from some Democrats.

▪ Reuters: As the 2024 election approaches, the White House jumps into states’ abortion battles.

▪ Politico: Pennsylvania Republican Doug Mastriano, unchastened, says he is weighing a Senate run.

➤ ADMINISTRATION

The White House this morning previewed elements of the president’s budget, to be unveiled by the president in Philadelphia on Thursday, stating that Biden wants the Medicare tax rate on income to rise to 5 percent from 3.8 percent for individuals earning more than $400,000 a year as a way to help extend the solvency of Medicare into the 2050s. 

The president proposes additional tax and other accounting changes to fortify the Medicare Hospital Insurance Trust Fund while also curbing costs for beneficiaries, including through lower charges for pharmaceuticals. The White House information is HERE. 

Separately, like some of his predecessors, Biden is using his bully pulpit and the sweet and sour of federal influence to get the private sector to bow to an economic agenda. Former President Obama attempted it with renewable and solar energy, and Trump claimed he persuaded (or wielded his social media commentary at) private companies in order to gain investments in U.S. manufacturing plants and jobs.

The Washington Post points to Audi and Eli Lilly as examples of industrial policy — the government’s carrot-and-stick approach, which Republicans have rhetorically bashed over the years as “picking winners and losers.” The German carmaker said it “probably” would boost its U.S. output in response to the Biden administration’s electric vehicle subsidies and the pharmaceutical giant said it would slash insulin prices, which the president assailed as excessively high for the millions of U.S. diabetics who are dependent on the drug.

“There is an increasing willingness on both the left and the right — spurred on by growing levels of progressivism on the left and populism on the right — to use the power of the state to essentially micromanage businesses,” Neil Bradley, chief policy officer for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, told the Post. “The natural result of that is, frankly, crony capitalism and a much more inefficient private sector.”

During his State of the Union address last month, Biden railed against “junk fees” charged to consumers by many businesses, including financial institutions and airlines. On Monday, the Department of Transportation said it has a new consumer dashboard to help families shop for tickets on airlines that do not charge parents extra to fly seated next to their children.

The three airlines receiving green check marks from the government for agreeing in writing not to charge family members extra fees to sit together are Alaska, American and Frontier. Red “X” marks indicate the dreaded fees charged by Allegiant, Delta, Hawaiian, JetBlue, Southwest, Spirit and United. Will “X” carriers stick with unpopular surcharges for “family seating” or opt for Uncle Sam’s fee-free approval? (Reuters).

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is in Iraq today for an unannounced trip to Baghdad amid a three-nation itinerary that took him to Jordan and includes Egypt and Israel (CBS News). “I’m here to reaffirm the US-Iraq strategic partnership as we move toward a more secure, stable and sovereign Iraq,” Austin tweeted as he landed in Baghdad. Austin is the highest ranking cabinet official to visit Iraq since the beginning of the Biden administration. He is making the stop nearly two weeks before the 20th anniversary of the beginning of the long war that toppled Saddam Hussein and also killed more than 4,000 American military and wounded at least 32,000 other U.S. soldiers, in addition to hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians. The secretary committed the United States to continued presence in Iraq; the U.S. has 2,500 troops there and 900 in Syria (Reuters). 

▪ The Wall Street Journal: The U.S. military is not yet ready for the era of “great power” conflict.

▪ The Hill: A coalition of environmental organizations on Monday announced a lawsuit against the federal Bureau of Ocean Management, arguing its sales of oil leases in the Gulf of Mexico were unlawful.

▪ NBC News: U.S. transfers Border Patrol agents to northern border as migrant crossings from Canada into the U.S. rise.

▪ The New York Times: The U.S. is said to consider reinstating the detention of migrant families. 

▪ The Hill: Biden’s supporters explain how the president, criticized as being too old and cognitively slower in office, tries to translate “just watch me,” his favorite retort, into overdelivering after being underestimated.  

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IN FOCUS/SHARP TAKES

➤ INTERNATIONAL 

Ukraine’s lines are holding against a Russian onslaught in Bakhmut as Kyiv appears unwilling to give up a town that has become a symbolic image of the war in its second year, writes The Hill’s Brad Dress. After signaling a potential retreat last week, Ukrainian troops have yet to withdraw and are still holding onto their fortified positions in the center of the city while Russian forces struggle to realize an encirclement of Bakhmut. Wagner Group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin complained on Monday that ammunition was running low and a representative of his mercenary company was denied access to Russia’s military command in Ukraine. Prigozhin added that if Wagner were to withdraw, the Russian front in Bakhmut would collapse. 

In spite of the rumors of an imminent retreat of Ukrainian troops, President Volodymyr Zelensky’s office said on Monday that generals had supported continuing Bakhmut’s defense (The Guardian). As the tide appears to be turning back in Kyiv’s favor in embattled Bakhmut, it’s clear the town has taken on a level of symbolic significance for both sides that far outweighs its strategic value. Kyiv shot down 13 of Moscow’s 15 Iranian-made Shahed-136 drones that flew toward Ukrainian cities overnight, the country’s air force said Monday. It didn’t specify what the remaining two drones hit, but there were no reports of disruption to infrastructure (The Wall Street Journal). 

BBC: Ukraine war: Russia’s Wagner boss suggests “betrayal” in Bakhmut battle.

Authorities are still searching for four U.S. citizens who are missing after they were kidnapped from their vehicle by unidentified armed men in Mexico on Friday. The Americans came under fire shortly after they crossed the border into the city of Matamoros, across from Brownsville, Texas. According to a U.S. official, the Americans — a tight-knit group of friends traveling from South Carolina so one of them, a mother of six, could undergo a medical procedure across the border — are believed to have been targeted by mistake and were not the intended victims (The Washington Post and CNN).

USA Today: Four kidnapped Americans crossed into Mexico to purchase medicine, Mexican president says.

About 12,000 people have been displaced in Bangladesh after a massive fire ripped through the Rohingya refugee camps in the southeastern part of the country on Sunday. The disaster comes amid deteriorating conditions at the Kutupalong megacamp, home to nearly a million Rohingya, most of whom arrived after fleeing a genocidal campaign by the Myanmar military in 2017 (The Washington Post).

▪ Reuters: Turkey’s opposition names Kemal Kilicdaroglu to take on President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in the May election.

▪ NPR: A treaty to protect the world’s oceans has been agreed after a decade of talks.

▪ Reuters: U.S. flies B-52 in joint drill with South Korea.

▪ The New York Times: Unions vow to bring France to a “standstill” over President Emmanuel Macron’s retirement plan.

➤ SUPREME COURT

The Supreme Court’s looming decision over the legality of the administration’s student loan forgiveness program is threatening to undermine a key pillar of the president’s outreach to young voters and efforts to tackle racial inequality, write The Hill’s Alex Gangitano and Brett Samuels. 

Biden himself acknowledged last week that while he was confident his forgiveness of up to $20,000 in federal student debt is legal, he was less sure the Supreme Court and its 6-3 conservative majority would uphold it. A court reversal would leave millions of Americans scrambling, and strike down a key part of Biden’s legacy that excited the progressive wing of the Democratic base and delivered on a major campaign promise.

▪ The Hill: The Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear a Florida city’s challenge to atheists who contend Ocala unconstitutionally promoted a prayer vigil following a local shooting spree.

▪ Business Insider: Even if the Supreme Court finds Biden’s student loan forgiveness was an overreach of authority, it doesn’t mean the relief will get struck down. Here’s why.

▪ The New York Times: The curious rise of a Supreme Court doctrine that threatens Biden’s agenda. The “major questions doctrine,” promoted by conservative commentators, is of recent vintage but has enormous power and may doom student loan relief and other programs.

The Supreme Court looks increasingly likely to sidestep a clash over a North Carolina election law that has weighty stakes for gerrymandering and setting election rules, writes The Hill’s Zach Schonfeld. The justices were headed toward a decision by June in the closely watched appeal from state Republican lawmakers, who are advancing a sweeping legal theory that would hand near-total authority to state legislatures in regulating federal elections, but experts say a recent move by the justices to question whether they have the authority to even hear the state case means they may be considering holding off on resolving the matter this term.

“We are confident the United States Supreme Court retains jurisdiction in this important case,” said David Thompson, who argued the case on behalf of the Republican lawmakers.

▪ USA Today: Supreme Court declines to decide whether city-backed prayer vigil violated First Amendment.

▪ The Atlantic: Why the Supreme Court’s leak investigation failed.

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OPINION

■ Biden must follow Roosevelt’s ‘arsenal of democracy’ example, by The Washington Post editorial board. https://wapo.st/3IUURVB

■ A strong tech sector will keep Xi Jinping from fulfilling his ‘Chinese Dream,’ by  Robert C. O’Brien, opinion contributor, The Hill. https://bit.ly/41NofWm

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WHERE AND WHEN

📲 Ask The Hill: Share a news query tied to an expert journalist’s insights: The Hill launched something new and (we hope) engaging via text with Editor-in-Chief Bob Cusack. Learn more and sign up HERE.

The House will convene at noon.

The Senate meets at 10 a.m. to resume consideration of the nomination of Robert Ballou to be a U.S. district judge for the Western District of Virginia.

The president will receive the President’s Daily Brief at 10:15 a.m. in the Oval Office accompanied by Vice President Harris.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken will meet virtually with business leaders and members of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce at 1:45 p.m. At 3:30 p.m., he will meet with Trinidad and Tobago Foreign Minister Amery Browne at the State Department. 

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will speak at 11 a.m. during the first meeting of a climate-focused financial risk advisory panel, part of the Financial Stability Oversight Council.

Pentagon secretary Austin, scheduled to travel to Egypt and Israel this week after meetings in Amman, Jordan, on Sunday and Monday, made an unannounced stop in Iraq today (CBS News). Austin is focused on Iran threats, the West Bank and China, among other issues (The Jerusalem Post, Al Arabiya News).

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell will testify about the economy at 10 a.m. to the Senate Banking Committee.

Second gentleman Doug Emhoff will speak at STARZ’s #TakeTheLead Transparency Talk event in honor of Women’s History Month at 7:30 p.m. at the Motion Picture Association of America in Washington. 

The White House daily press briefing is scheduled at 1:30 p.m.

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ELSEWHERE

➤ PANDEMIC & HEALTH

As the newly appointed chief medical officer at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Debra Houry is helping make sure the agency is ready to quickly respond to the next pandemic, writes The Hill’s Nathaniel Weixel. Houry was named to her position as part of CDC Director Rochelle Walensky’s massive agency reset aimed at correcting mistakes from the COVID-19 and mpox response.

Advancements in artificial intelligence are starting to deliver breakthroughs in breast cancer screening by detecting the signs that doctors miss. So far, the technology is showing an impressive ability to spot cancer at least as well as human radiologists, according to early results and radiologists, in what is one of the most tangible signs to date of how AI can improve public health.

In Hungary, one of the largest testing grounds for the technology on real patients, AI systems were rolled out in five hospitals and clinics that perform more than 35,000 screenings a year starting in 2021, and now help to check for signs of cancer that a radiologist may have overlooked. Clinics and hospitals in the United States, Britain and the European Union are also beginning to test or provide data to help develop the systems (The New York Times).

Albuterol, which is used to treat asthma along with conditions like respiratory syncytial virus, is one of the most commonly prescribed medications in the U.S., and it’s been on the FDA’s shortage list for months. Hospitals are already preparing for a shortage, monitoring their supplies of albuterol and preparing for more emergency room visits from patients who may not be able to get the inhaler that helps them breathe. Albuterol hasn’t been the only drug affected by supply chain disruptions. The ADHD drug Adderall and anti-viral medication Tamiflu have also been in short supply, leaving patients scrambling for options (The Hill).

▪ The Atlantic: A quirk in animal pregnancy could help humans kill cancer cells.

▪ CNBC: Schools want to close the COVID-19 learning gap before federal funds run out — here’s how it’s going.

▪ Bloomberg News: The new COVID-19 booster shots’ protection waned after two months, study says.

▪ Vox: Why it’s so hard to get answers on long COVID-19.

▪ WJLA: The Health Department in Washington, D.C., announced a March 31 closing date for its COVID-19 centers.

Information about the availability of COVID-19 vaccine and booster shots can be found at Vaccines.gov. 

Total U.S. coronavirus deaths reported as of this morning, according to Johns Hopkins University (trackers all vary slightly): 1,122,264. Current U.S. COVID-19 deaths are 2,290 for the week, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (The CDC shifted its tally of available data from daily to weekly, now reported on Fridays.)

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THE CLOSER

And finally … A man in Florida discovered an abnormally large clam when he was walking with his family on a beach on the Gulf of Mexico. The clam, it turns out, wasn’t just big, it was extremely old — dating back to 1809.

Dubbed Aber-clam Lincoln in honor of former President Abraham Lincoln, who was also born in 1809, the giant quahog clam was dated by the concentric growth rings on its shell. According to Gulf Specimen Marine Lab, which analyzed the presidential mollusk, most of these clams measure 2.8 to 4.3 inches, but this specimen came in at a whopping 6 inches and 2.6 pounds.

At the lab’s aquarium, Aber-clam Lincoln was attracting about 100 visitors a day, but last week, caretakers released it back into the Gulf of Mexico (CBS News and The Tallahasse Democrat).

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