Outlook for federal spending bill perks up

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LAWMAKERS APPEAR to have agreed on a stopgap spending measure that will give them a little more time to come up with a larger budget bill for the coming year.

The temporary bill, or continuing resolution, will keep the government funded at current levels and prevent a federal shutdown at the end of the week.

It’s a seemingly near annual tradition in Congress to put off spending proposals until the last minute.

The current fiscal year started Oct. 1, but federal funding has been tethered through temporary proposals that expire on Friday.

After the stopgap plan, which both sides agree will pass, lawmakers will get to work on a wide-ranging omnibus spending package to fund the government through 2023.

A Christmas miracle? After months of negotiations and deflections, a deal on a framework for a long-term plan appears to have been brokered in large part by Sens. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) and Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) — both retiring at the end of this term.

“Now, the House and Senate Appropriations Committees will work around the clock to negotiate the details of final 2023 spending bills that can be supported by the House and Senate and receive President Biden’s signature,” Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), who chairs the House Appropriations Committee, said in a statement.

Not everyone’s on board: “A month ago the American people voted for a new direction in Washington,” House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy (Calif.), who is the frontrunner to be Speaker when the chamber votes next month, said of the midterm elections that handed Republicans a new majority in the House. “It was their will that the current business-as-usual approach needs to stop.” 

What’s next: The current federal budget expires on Friday. The temporary measure would give lawmakers one week to hammer out the final details of the omnibus.

Welcome to NotedDC, we’re The Hill’s Amée LaTour and Liz Crisp.

BRIEFLY

• The Hill’s Niall Stanage details recent controversies fueling arguments that the GOP has become extreme.
  
• Liberals unhappy with Twitter under Elon Musk are struggling to find an alternative social media platform.
  
• A former Trump national security adviser says the Russians appeared ready to release Paul Whelan and another American a month before the 2020 election.
  
• Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) explains why he wants state lawmakers to get rid of runoff elections.
  
  

🌍 Biden: ‘All-in on Africa’s future’ 

President Biden on Wednesday addressed the gathering of 50 delegations from Africa and announced expanded efforts to aid African countries in entrepreneurship.

“The United States is all-in on Africa’s future,” Biden said in his keynote address. “There is so much more we can do together, and we’ll do together. We’ve got a lot of ground to cover in the coming days.”

The U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit, organized and hosted by the State Department, runs through Thursday.

View full coverage of Biden’s speech here.

More from The Hill:

• Biden looks to reassert US influence in Africa with summit
  
  

🎥 Four memorable lines from Pelosi documentary

Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) documentarian daughter, Alexandra, has turned hours of intimate footage into a behind-the-scenes film looking at the woman who would run House Democrats for two decades and usher consequential legislation.

The documentary, “Pelosi in the House,” is now available on HBO and HBOMax.

Here are four memorable quotes from the film:

1. ‘If he comes, I’m going to punch him out’

The film shows Pelosi knew of then-President Trump‘s efforts to whip up a crowd at the Ellipse, where he directed supporters to go to the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, to stop Congress’ certification Joe Biden‘s electoral win.

She was watching on TV and was told the Secret Service had to discourage Trump from coming to the Capitol because they didn’t have the security resources, but she was warned that Trump could change his mind.

As caught on camera, Pelosi’s response: “If he comes, I’m going to punch him out. I’ve been waiting for this. For trespassing on the Capitol grounds, I’m going to punch him out and I’m going to go to jail, and I’m going to be happy.” 

The excerpt was aired by CNN in October.

2. ‘I didn’t really choose this life. It chose me’

Pelosi, third in line to the presidency, doesn’t mince words about her rise to the highest position any woman had served in government before her: “I didn’t really choose this life. It chose me.”

And as her daughter tries to keep up with the 82-year-old’s pace through the Capitol, Pelosi quips: “I’m a work horse, not a show horse.” 

3. ‘Some people count sheep at night. I count votes’

The documentary gives a rare glimpse into how methodical Pelosi is as Speaker.

It’s known that she’s meticulous and won’t bring up votes without knowing how they will go, but the film gives a peek at her corralling efforts outside the public view.

4. ‘You’re always on message. There’s no cracking you’

The film isn’t a straight journalistic documentary, to be sure, as it’s from Pelosi’s own daughter. But even Alexandra seems to marvel at her mother’s temperament and prowess in the halls of Congress.

“Is that what you want to do, crack your mom?” Pelosi wryly replies with a slight chuckle in response to her daughter’s marvel in the film.  

🍃 Dems on climate crisis panel release final report 

Democrats from the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis held a press event discussing their final report, which touts the panel’s efforts and identifies areas of further work.

• A report summary stated, “[S]ince the release of the Climate Crisis Action Plan in 2020, more than 300 of its 715 policy recommendations have been turned into law,” including through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the CHIPS & Science Act and the Inflation Reduction Act.
  
• The release comes weeks before Republicans take control of the House. Ranking GOP committee member Garret Graves (La.) told Bloomberg last month the committee will not exist in the upcoming Congress.

Committee Chairwoman Kathy Castor (D-Fla.) said Wednesday, “We have so much to be proud of, but we have so much more to do.” Castor called it “disappointing that Republicans in Congress have decided to dismantle our climate committee, because our work remains urgent.”

Rep. Suzanne Bonamici (D-Ore.) said of further work needed, “[T]he way we transition to clean energy is critical to supporting families, workers and the economy. I’ll continue to advocate for workforce development in clean energy expansion and investments in registered apprenticeships to support individuals who have historically been left behind[.]” 

The report also includes a dedication to committee member Donald McEachin (D-Va.), who died last month: “He brought environmental justice to the heart of Congress and was an inspiration to us all.” 

LOOKING AHEAD: The report summary highlighted 12 accomplishments and 12 opportunities. Its list of opportunities included needs for: 

• “A comprehensive transmission strategy to meet the increased electric load from electrification of vehicles, buildings, and industrial processes”
  
• “A Clean Electricity Standard, Zero Emission Vehicle sales standards, and other sector-specific standards to provide certainty for investments in pollution reduction”
  
• “A comprehensive approach to critical minerals sourcing and recycling, including updating outdated mining laws to ensure critical minerals are secured in an environmentally, economically, and socially responsible way”
  
• “Continued investments in research for hard-to-decarbonize sectors like off-road transportation and industry, and for carbon removal”
  
• “Improving community engagement in the permitting process, addressing the cumulative impacts of plastic production and disposal in fenceline communities, and supporting efforts to strengthen the environmental justice focus of agencies”

DON’T FORGET: Castor noted that one of the committee’s members — Rep. Joe Neguse (D-Colo.) — will be a member of the upcoming Democratic leadership team, serving as chairman of the Democratic Policy and Communications Committee. 

CONSERVATIVES RENEW DEMANDS OF NEXT SPEAKER

Last Thursday, House Freedom Caucus Chairman Scott Perry (R-Pa.) and six other current and incoming House Republicans wrote in a letter to colleagues that “any GOP Speaker candidate must make clear he or she will advance rules, policies, and an organizational structure that will result in the values” the letter listed. The Hill’s Emily Brooks broke down the demands here. 

For months, Freedom Caucus members have been pressuring Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) to make changes that redistribute power in the chamber — or risk falling short of the majority vote he needs from the House next month to become Speaker.  

Matthew Green, a professor of politics at Catholic University who studies political leadership, told NotedDC, “The closest precedent to this situation took place a century ago, in 1923, when Republican progressives refused to vote for their party’s Speaker nominee, Frederick Gillette, until he agreed to rules changes that gave them more influence.” 

The GOP conference recently rejected some of the demands in last week’s letter.  

That includes the demand to restore power to force a vote on recalling the Speaker to individual members. Individual members lost “motion to vacate” power in 2018. The Republican Conference voted last month to require majority support from Republicans for a motion to vacate.  

Former House Speaker John Boehner’s (R-Ohio) retirement is often attributed at least in part to a motion-to-vacate push from Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) in 2015.  

McCarthy opposes restoring that power to individual members. But he told Punchbowl he’s willing to discuss changing the threshold required. 

The letter from conservatives also says “we must not return to the blind embrace of earmarks.” Two weeks ago, about three-quarters of the Republican Conference voted against banning earmarks. 

The letter also demands more conservative representation on committees. “Most importantly, the Rules Committee must have multiple conservative seats,” it says, adding “just two of the 27 Republicans on Appropriations belong to the House Freedom Caucus” and one of 20 standing committees is led by a Freedom Caucus member.

Green said this demand is noteworthy because, if met, “it would almost certainly give the Freedom Caucus more influence over the legislative process and the agenda.” 

Another noteworthy demand: That political action committees (PACs) associated with Republican leadership stay out of GOP primaries. The letter says some GOP candidates lost in November after PACs such as the Congressional Leadership Fund spent in primaries, leaving candidates “battered in the general election and with empty war chests.” 

Open Secrets data shows the Congressional Leadership Fund spent nearly $590,000 against Republican Sandy Smith in North Carolina’s 1st District. She won the primary, then lost the general by 5 percentage points. The House Freedom Fund, associated with the Freedom Caucus, supported Smith. 

In an opinion piece published by The New York Times on Nov. 30, Green wrote that McCarthy “should not empower the Freedom Caucus at the expense of his own influence. Yes, he has to navigate a delicate path. But if he is elected speaker but gives away the store in the process, it will be a Pyrrhic victory.”

COMINGS AND GOINGS

• Donna Brazile, former interim chair of the Democratic National Committee, has joined Purple Strategies as a senior adviser.  
  
• Benjamin Chavis, former executive director of the NAACP, has been named as a national co-chair for No Labels.
  
• Amanda Neely, director of governmental affairs for the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and general counsel to Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), is returning to Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher as an of counsel.
  
• The American Soybean Association has hired Melanie Fitzpatrick as executive director of state and industry relations.

Check out more lobbying moves from The Hill’s Karl Evers-Hillstrom here (and send us your professional updates too!).

🌬 HEADS UP: WINTER WEATHER COMING

A storm is set to hit the Washington, D.C., area Thursday with sleet and rain, according to local meteorologists. 

“We should be ready for a high-impact weather day [Thursday], especially the Thursday morning commute,” NBC4 meteorologist Chuck Bell said in an alert. “Rain, sleet, and worst of all: freezing rain.” 

The National Weather Service has issued a winter weather advisory from 10 p.m. Wednesday to 1 p.m. Thursday.

🌈 Law of the land

President Biden on Tuesday signed into law a landmark bill ensuring protections for same-sex and interracial couples.

It was a star-studded event on the White House’s South Lawn, with performances from singers Cyndi Lauper and Sam Smith. Other celebrities, plus marriage equality advocates who took their cases to court and survivors of other forms of LGBTQ violence, including the recent Club Q shooting in Colorado, attended.

The Respect for Marriage Act, which received bipartisan support in Congress, seeks to allay concerns about whether the legality of same-sex marriage could be toppled after the Supreme Court recently upended the long-standing Roe v. Wade decision that had enshrined the right to abortion.

NUMBER TO KNOW

10

Years since the Sandy Hook massacre, where 20 children and six adults were killed.

QUOTABLE

“I won’t miss the circus, but I’ll miss the clowns.”

– Longtime Rep. John Yarmuth (D-Ky.), who is retiring, recalling in his final floor speech a piece of wisdom he was once given about Congress. 

ONE MORE THING

Angelina Jolie on the Hill

Actress Angeline Jolie visited the nation’s capital on Tuesday and Wednesday to meet with lawmakers about the reauthorization of the Patrick Leahy and Orrin G. Hatch Justice for All Act. Jolie, who is pushing for reforms for victims of crimes, was spotted meeting in the offices of Sens. Charles Schumer (D.Y.) and Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.). The Hill’s Judy Kurtz has more here.

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