Morning Report — Ukraine and border complicate budget talks

House GOP leaders are in a time crunch on Ukraine.

Congress is back in session today, and House Republicans are facing urgency to move more military help for Kyiv within a tiny window. The lower chamber is scheduled to be in session for only four days before a long, two-week holiday recess — and the week is expected to be dominated by government funding efforts. The issue has emerged as a huge challenge for Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), who is scrambling to provide the military assistance without sparking a revolt in his own GOP conference, where the appetite for foreign aid has waned and the wrong move could cost him the gavel. 

WITH NO CLEAR DEADLINE — and no clear plan — to provide Ukraine with more military aid in the fight against Russia’s invasion, Johnson has given no indication he’s ready to move quickly on a foreign aid package in the short window before the break, nor has he disclosed what such legislation would look like. 

The Speaker has said he wants to focus on funding the government first and only then shift to a package of national security issues, including border security funding and aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. The Hill’s Mychael Schnell and Mike Lillis report that timeline would push the earliest potential action on Ukraine until April 9 — in three weeks — when the House is scheduled to return to the Capitol after the long holiday recess. In the eyes of many Democrats, Ukraine’s beleaguered forces don’t have that long to wait.

“The clock is ticking, and we have to get the bipartisan national security bill over the finish line before we leave town next Friday, March 22 — before we leave town,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) warned last week. “It’s reckless to do otherwise.”

CONGRESSIONAL LEADERS STRUCK A DEAL to fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) through the remainder of fiscal year 2024, a source familiar with the matter confirmed to The Hill, closing out the six bills due by Friday’s shutdown deadline. Negotiators are still working out the details and legislative text of the DHS agreement, the source said, but the DHS legislation will be a full-year bill and not a stopgap, which lawmakers were eyeing over the weekend.

However, lawmakers could still find themselves needing to pass a short-term continuing resolution before Friday to keep the lights on in Washington as they finish considering the funding legislation. House Republicans have been adamant that they need at least 72 hours to review any bills before voting on the House floor, and Senate procedure could draw out the consideration process into the weekend (The Hill).

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LEADING THE DAY

POLITICS 

“BLOOD BATH”: Former President Trump and his allies are aggressively pushing back after Democrats and media figures seized on his comments that there would be a “blood bath” if he loses November’s election. Trump’s comments over the weekend sparked outrage, but he and his team have argued he was unfairly taken out of context and was clearly talking about potential consequences for the auto industry if Biden wins reelection. But The Hill’s Brett Samuels writes Trump has repeatedly put himself and Republicans in a difficult position with his rhetoric about immigrants, far-right groups and the 2020 election, and Saturday’s comments are the latest example.

BIDEN FACES WORRYING SIGNS in Georgia — the state he flipped blue for the first time in decades back in 2020 — including low primary turnout and a lack of big down-ballot races to energize his base. Biden beat Trump by fewer than 12,000 votes in the Peach State last cycle, and polls suggest the former president now has the edge as the pair head toward a 2024 rematch (The Hill). 

“The bad news [for Democrats in Georgia is] an enthusiasm gap between Democratic voters and Republican voters,” said Atlanta-based Democratic strategist Fred Hicks. “The question for Democrats is not for whom you’re going to vote in November; it’s whether or not you’re going to vote.”

BIDEN’S RE-ELECTION CAMPAIGN must balance the White House’s support for a bill that could lead to a ban on TikTok, while simultaneously harnessing the power of the platform to reach a crucial bloc of young voters. The Hill’s Rebecca Klar reports the president said he would sign a bill that could ultimately ban TikTok from U.S. app stores and web hosting services roughly a month after his campaign joined the app. 

“I think it’s going to be a very fine line they’re going to have to walk,” said Annie Wu Henry, a 28-year-old digital strategist who led Sen. John Fetterman’s (D-Pa.) digital strategy during his Senate campaign. “Someone might think, you know, as long as it’s there, it’s fine that they’re using it, but some people might find it hypocritical.”

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ZOOM IN

COURTS

TRUMP HAS NOT BEEN ABLE to get a bond to secure the $454 million civil fraud judgment against him and his co-defendants, his lawyers said in a court filing Monday. Last month, the former president was ordered to pay $355 million in disgorgement, or “ill-gotten gains,” in a civil fraud case. Judge Arthur Engoron wrote that Trump and his co-defendants — including his adult sons — were liable for fraud, conspiracy and issuing false financial statements and false business records, finding that the defendants fraudulently inflated the value of Trump’s assets to obtain more favorable loan and insurance rates. 

Trump and his company need to post a bond for the full amount to stop New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) from being able to collect while he appeals. Trump’s attorneys said he has approached 30 underwriters to back the bond, which is due by the end of this month (CNN and NBC News).

The Hill: Judge declines Trump’s request to block Michael Cohen, Stormy Daniels testimony.

THE SUPREME COURT SEEMED wary Monday of imposing harsh limits on how federal officials communicate with social media platforms about content moderation decisions. A majority of the justices appeared skeptical of claims the Biden administration crossed the line from persuasion to coercion when it asked social media platforms to remove problematic content.

At issue is an injunction imposed by a federal judge that would limit contacts between government officials and social media companies on a wide range of issues. Several justices, both liberal and conservative, pushed against the sweeping argument made by Louisiana Solicitor General Benjamin Aguiñaga, who claimed the government should not, in most circumstances, ask platforms to remove any content (The Hill).

JUSTICES ALSO WEIGHED the National Rifle Association’s (NRA) free speech case against a former New York regulator. The NRA is asking the justices to resuscitate its First Amendment lawsuit against Maria Vullo, who ran New York’s Department of Financial Services and began investigating the NRA in 2017. Vullo has since left office, but the NRA alleges she violated the First Amendment by encouraging insurers and banks she regulated to sever ties with the group. Several justices seemed open to the NRA’s claims that those actions amounted to coercion, but it remained unclear whether a majority was persuaded (The Hill).

ELSEWHERE

INTERNATIONAL

OPTIMISM GREW MONDAY around talks of a possible new cease-fire in Gaza, with both Israel and Hamas returning to the table to discuss a truce that would see more Israeli hostages released in exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners. The Biden administration is hoping to leverage a possible six-week cease-fire into a longer-term pause, CBS News reports, and has been pushing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to scale down plans for a ground offensive in Rafah.

Israel’s handling of the war has created a rift between the U.S. and Netanyahu’s government; Biden and Netanyahu spoke on the phone Monday, their first conversation in more than a month. White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said the president told Netanyahu that he was “deeply concerned about the prospect of Israel conducting major military operations in Rafah.”

“It would lead to more innocent civilian deaths, worsen the already dire humanitarian crisis, deepen the anarchy in Gaza and further isolate Israel internationally,” Sullivan said at the White House briefing.

Netanyahu agreed Monday to send a team of officials to Washington to discuss U.S. concerns over its planned operation in Rafah (The Wall Street Journal).

DOZENS OF U.S. CITIZENS fleeing the chaotic gang violence in Haiti landed safely in Miami on Sunday. The U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince has advised U.S. citizens to depart from the Caribbean nation as soon as possible. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs earlier this month said more than 360,000 people have been displaced due to gang violence spreading across the country (The Hill).

ABC News: Hunger soars and aid dwindles as gangs in Haiti suffocate the country. About 1.4 million Haitians are on the verge of famine, and more than 4 million require food aid.

Cuban officials are pushing every button at their disposal to get the Biden administration’s attention amid the island’s worst economic crisis since the end of the Cold War. The Hill’s Rafael Bernal reports the communist government that was once hopeful Biden would reverse some of Trump’s most stringent restrictions is lighting diplomatic fires, ratcheting up accusations of U.S. interventionism and callousness in the face of human suffering on the island. Cuban Vice Minister of Foreign Relations Carlos Fernández de Cossío called U.S. Chargé d’Affaires Benjamin Ziff on Monday to deliver a diplomatic note of protest rejecting “the interventionist conduct and slanderous messages of the United States government and its embassy in Cuba regarding internal affairs of the Cuban reality.”

State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel told reporters Monday that “the United States is not behind these protests in Cuba, and the accusation of that is absurd.”

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THE CLOSER

And finally … ☄️ A rarely-seen comet with a reputation for colorful flare-ups is once again visible from Earth. And the latest arrival of the comet — known officially as 12P/Pons-Brooks — is set to coincide with the April 8 total solar eclipse and could be spotted during the event.

Comets are frozen artifacts from the solar system’s formation made of dust, rock and ice. Up to tens of miles wide with tails millions of miles long, they heat up and grow brighter as they get closer to the sun. The comet 12P/Pons-Brooks takes 71 years to fly around the sun and will next reach perihelion — the point in its elliptical orbit when it’s closest to the sun — on April 21. The area around the spiraling comet can glow green and red and produce a long blue tail.

Right now, stargazers might be able to glimpse the comet by pointing a telescope or binoculars toward the constellation Pisces in the early evening. Astronomers say it will soon be visible to the naked eye (NPR).

The Washington Post: While Earth enjoys an eclipse, a NASA probe is ready to “touch the sun.”

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