Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) addresses reporters during a press conference on Tuesday, March 7, 2023 to discuss the Restricting the Emergence of Security Threats that Risk Information and Communications Technology Act which would allow the Department of Commerce to identify and protect against foreign threats to technology products and services.
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Romney calls for generational change in retirement announcement
Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), the Republican Party’s 2012 presidential nominee and a vocal critic of former President Trump, is not seeking a second term in the Senate.
In a video Wednesday, Romney, 76, said, “At the end of another term, I’d be in my mid-eighties. Frankly, it’s time for a new generation of leaders. They’re the ones that need to make the decisions that will shape the world they will be living in.”
Romney criticized both President Biden and former President Trump in his announcement, saying neither was leading their parties to address the challenges of “mounting national debt, climate change and the ambitious authoritarians of Russia and China.”
The senator told The Washington Post that the potential for a less productive second term, both due to House dynamics and likely either a President Trump or Biden, influenced his decision to retire.
The Hill’s Al Weaver noted Romney’s “single term in the upper chamber will be widely remembered for his votes to convict Trump in both of his impeachments — the only Senate Republican to have that distinction.”
Welcome to Evening Report! I’m Amee LaTour, catching you up from the afternoon and what’s coming tomorrow. Not on the list? Subscribe here.
CATCH UP QUICK
Senate Republicans are pushing Majority Leader ChuckSchumer (D-N.Y.) to hold floor votes for top military nominations as Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) continues to block expedited package votes.
Eugene Peltola Jr., Rep. Mary Peltola’s (D-Alaska) husband and former regional director for the Bureau of Indian Affairs for Alaska, died this morning following a plane crash.
Judge Aileen Cannon issued a protective order in the Mar-a-Lago documents case leaving it up to a chief information security officer to make arrangements for former President Trump to review evidence in the case, sidestepping Trump’s request to re-designate a space in his home as a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility.
Rule vote on Pentagon funding stalled amid GOP opposition
House Republican leaders delayed a vote on a rule outlining parameters for considering a Defense Department appropriations bill. This comes amid opposition from some GOP members who want to see top-line figures for all 12 appropriations bills first.
Congress has until Sept. 30 to pass appropriations bills or a continuing resolution to prevent a government shutdown.
House chairmen pitch impeachment inquiry to skeptical senators
House committee chairmen leading the impeachment inquiry into President Biden made their case for opening the inquiry to Republican senators in a briefing Wednesday.
From The Hill’s Alexander Bolton: “Senate Republicans have publicly and privately expressed their skepticism about pursuing an impeachment inquiry against Biden without first having compelling evidence of a high crime or misdemeanor, the standard for impeachment set by the Constitution.”
“We’re going to talk about the facts,” said House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), referring to himself and Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.). “They asked us to come, so we came over.” Read more here.
Senator subpoenas Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund subsidiary
In the latest move by the Senate subcommittee investigating a proposed merger of PGA Tour and Saudi-backed LIV Golf, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) subpoenaed a subsidiary of the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund (PIF) for records relating to PIF’s U.S. investments and more.
Background: Atthe first subcommittee hearing on the proposed deal, Blumenthal said the hearing was “about how a brutal, repressive regime can buy influence — indeed even take over a cherished American institution — to cleanse its public image.” Read more here.
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Meadows’s request to block possible Georgia conviction rejected
A judge rejected former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows‘s request to block a possible conviction in the Georgia election interference case pending Meadows’s appeal seeking to move the charges to federal court.
Americans ages 6 months and older can get an updated COVID-19 vaccine as early as today. Where can you get it? Does it protect against current variants? The Hill’s Nathaniel Weixel answers questions you may have here.
Former President Bush urges PEPFAR reauthorization
Former President George W. Bush (R) is urging Congress to reauthorize the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) for another five years in a new Washington Post op-ed.
PUNDIT CORNER
“Here’s how to stop government end-runs around the First Amendment” — Nadine Strossen, past president of the ACLU and senior fellow at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), and Joe Cohn, FIRE’s legislative and policy director. (Read here)
“Kevin McCarthy is cornered” — Max Burns, a veteran Democratic strategist and founder of Third Degree Strategies. (Read here)
⏲️ COUNTDOWN
14 days until the next GOP debate.
17 days until the government funding deadline.
🗓 ON TAP TOMORROW
Sean Penn will be at the Motion Picture Association in D.C. for a screening of “Superpower,” his documentary on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
12 p.m.: Former Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly interviews former President Trump on SiriusXM Triumph channel 111. It’s their first interview together since May 2016.
1:30 p.m. The Brookings Institute holds a virtual event featuring a panel discussion on artificial intelligence regulation.
UNDER THE RADAR
There a story you think should be getting more attention? Something people should be talking about? Drop me a line: ALaTour@digital-stage.thehill.com
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