POLITICO NIGHTLY: How a bill becomes a law, without wine and cheese

 

View in browser   BY ELANA SCHOR Presented by A view of the U.S. Capitol Building from the U.S. Supreme Court. | Paul Morigi/Getty Images for MoveOn PARTY’S OVER — The term “MacGuffin” is most commonly associated with Alfred Hitchcock, used to define a trope that’s common in his movies — a sought-after item that propels the tension of the plot but has little importance on its own. Other directors have used their own MacGuffins to great effect, too: Take the Ark of the Covenant in Spielberg’s “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” craved by every character but ultimately stashed away on the dusty shelves of an Army intelligence warehouse. Politics has its share of MacGuffins, too. One might argue that Obamacare repeal became a MacGuffin for the GOP during the first two years of the Trump administration, as Republicans warred among themselves over their own inability to achieve an unpopular goal that some senior members of their party are now openly disavowing. But I’m here to identify another MacGuffin: socializing across the aisle. It’s common to hear mourning from some of Congress’ more senior members — most recently voiced by new dean of the House Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) — for a bygone era, in which the two parties maintained better relationships by breaking bread together. Earlier in Rogers’ career, he told Spectrum News this week, lawmakers’ families stayed in Washington and “found ways to socialize — play at golf together, making dinner together. Democrat and Republican. Families sharing this and that and so forth.” The reality, as our Congress Minutes author Anthony Adragna explained in a response to Rogers, contains far more shades of gray. Shared gatherings didn’t stop the Watergate scandal from coarsening politics 50 years ago, nor did such glass-raising deter outright violence on the House floor during the runup to the Civil War. And particularly now, with a new pandemic wave that’s pushed Covid cases higher in the capital in recent weeks, it’s naïve to assume that a return to bipartisan bonhomie would do anything to lessen the bleak deterioration of relationships between the parties. If anything, it’s reasonable to suspect that the pre-virus dynamics of lawmaker social engagements may never return to the Hill, as mask-wearing and mandate-heeding becomes another tool of polarization. And beyond Covid, let’s not forget how frayed relationships got over the past year thanks to the Jan. 6 siege on the Capitol by Trump supporters. Just like Indiana Jones’ artifact in “Raiders,” Cary Grant’s mistaken identity in “North By Northwest,” and that suitcase full of … something shiny in “Pulp Fiction,” the idea that socializing can restore bipartisanship is merely a plot device without actual substance. Now, bipartisanship is not dead just because socializing to achieve it is a MacGuffin — nor is the socializing itself. Less than a year ago, the Senate passed a bipartisan infrastructure bill (which proceeded to earn a thrashing from conservatives who’d have preferred not to give the Democratic president a victory). The 10 negotiators of that bill even held their share of Rogers-style get-togethers, as POLITICO reported at the time. Meanwhile, there are plenty of other, much-easier-to-achieve bipartisan deals available to lawmakers. Our Marianne LeVine wrote about one today : a bill that would take a significant step on racial justice by eliminating the federal sentencing disparity between crack and cocaine offenses. That legislation has ample Democratic backing and 11 Republican cosponsors in the Senate — enough to surmount a filibuster — but it faces an uncertain path to a floor vote. More wine and cheese or book clubs for the Judiciary Committee’s Democrats and Republicans won’t fix that. The only thing that will shake loose that bill, or the other broadly popular proposals that fail to translate bipartisan cosponsorship into passage, is tough decisions by party leaders to burn time on trying to take them up. Some of those bipartisan bills may feel small in scope or politically irrelevant to one or both parties’ bases, but they’re around for the taking if Congress wants a debate. There’s no shortcut to more bipartisan legislating, in other words — besides doing more of it. Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. Reach out with news, tips and ideas at nightly@politico.com . Or contact tonight’s author at eschor@politico.com, or on Twitter at @eschor.   A message from ACT|The App Association: Open and fair competition in the digital marketplace drives our members’ success, but the proposals in the Open App Markets Act will hinder our small business members’ opportunity for continued prosperity. https://actonline.org/2022/04/04/give-small-developers-a-chance-not-higher-barriers-to-entry/   WHAT'D I MISS? — Musk mounts bid to buy Twitter: SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who last week became Twitter’s biggest shareholder, is now offering to buy the social media company, he announced today . “I made an offer,” Musk wrote in a tweet, which included a link to a regulatory filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. That filing contained a letter from Musk to Bret Taylor, the chair of Twitter’s board of directors, presenting his proposal to purchase the remaining shares of Twitter’s stock — those that he does not already own — at a rate of $54.20 per share. — Pentagon confirms explosion aboard Russian warship: Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby confirmed an explosion aboard the flagship of Russia’s Black Sea fleet — which Ukraine said was the result of a missile strike and Russia said was caused by an internal fire detonating ammunition. Kirby later appeared to also back reports that the damaged Soviet-era guided-missile cruiser Moskva, which he said is one of three cruisers in the Russian fleet, had sunk. The Pentagon press secretary still couldn’t confirm conflicting claims from the Russians and Ukrainians about what ultimately led to the ship’s demise. While the Russian side claimed there was a fire on board and a storm sank the ship, the Ukrainians said the damage from their Neptune missiles sent the ship underwater. — Adams slams activist movement over NYC crime: When asked how his administration would get a handle on an uptick in shootings, New York City Mayor Eric Adams criticized the Black Lives Matter movement for failing to mount large-scale protests against ongoing gun violence. Adams was speaking on NY1 about the arrest of Frank James, who is accused of carrying out the shooting on a Brooklyn subway car Tuesday , when he was asked about more than a dozen other incidents of gun violence that happened in other parts of the city Tuesday night through Wednesday morning and what he would do to get a handle on crime. — DOJ urges jury to reject Jan. 6 defendant’s Trump claim: Federal prosecutors urged a jury today to reject a Jan. 6 defendant’s claim that Donald Trump caused him to breach the Capitol and help ransack the Senate parliamentarian’s office. In closing arguments in the case of defendant Dustin Thompson, the Justice Department attorneys called Thompson’s argument a “sideshow” meant to whip up the jury’s anger at Trump rather than focus on the obvious violations of law that Thompson committed.   INTRODUCING DIGITAL FUTURE DAILY - OUR TECHNOLOGY NEWSLETTER, RE-IMAGINED:  Technology is always evolving, and our new tech-obsessed newsletter is too! Digital Future Daily unlocks the most important stories determining the future of technology, from Washington to Silicon Valley and innovation power centers around the world. Readers get an in-depth look at how the next wave of tech will reshape civic and political life, including activism, fundraising, lobbying and legislating. Go inside the minds of the biggest tech players, policymakers and regulators to learn how their decisions affect our lives. Don't miss out, subscribe today.     — DeSantis approves 15-week abortion ban: Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law a measure that bans most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy in Florida , calling it the most significant restriction in a generation. The law will take effect on July 1. DeSantis signed the bill, HB 5, at a Spanish-speaking church in Kissimmee. The measure represents the most significant restriction on abortion in state history and comes amid other Republican-controlled states taking steps to limit abortion. — NASA’s astronauts aren’t ready for deep space: NASA says it needs a new breed of “explorer-astronaut” to build and operate an outpost on the moon. But with the longest human journey into deep space only two years away — a 30-day mission to orbit the moon — the astronaut corps is nowhere near prepared for the expeditions NASA has planned. Over the next five years, NASA intends to start mining the lunar surface for water and other resources in preparation for a long-term human presence on the moon’s surface.   A message from ACT|The App Association:     NIGHTLY NUMBER 0 The number of debates hosted by the Commission on Presidential Debates that Republican presidential candidates will participate in in the foreseeable future , the Republican National Committee announced. The RNC voted unanimously today to withdraw from the primary organizer of general-election presidential debates, calling the CPD “biased” and unwilling to “serve the interest of the American people.”   DON'T MISS ANYTHING FROM THE 2022 MILKEN INSTITUTE GLOBAL CONFERENCE: POLITICO is excited to partner with the Milken Institute to produce a special edition "Global Insider" newsletter featuring exclusive coverage and insights from the 25th annual Global Conference. This year's event, May 1-4, brings together more than 3,000 of the world’s most influential leaders, including 700+ speakers representing more than 80 countries. "Celebrating the Power of Connection" is this year's theme, setting the stage to connect influencers with the resources to change the world with leading experts and thinkers whose insight and creativity can implement that change. Whether you're attending in person or following along from somewhere else in the world, keep up with this year's conference with POLITICO’s special edition “Global Insider” so you don't miss a beat. Subscribe today.     PARTING WORDS A CANDIDATE’S UNIQUE ROAD TO SUCCESS — Dozens of wealthy candidates run for Congress every election cycle. What sets Cory Mills apart are some of the mileposts on his road to riches: Selling tear gas that was used against Black Lives Matter demonstrators and purchasing a company that sold rubber bullets to Hong Kong to crack down on protesters, Brittany Gibson and Daniel Lippman write. Mills, a first-time Republican candidate running in a competitive primary in Florida’s 7th district, is the co-founder of PACEM Solutions. The company sells arms and riot-control gear and provides law enforcement training and private security consulting in the U.S. and around the world. Legally there’s no issue with the firm’s activities. Politically, though, its sales of tear gas and rubber bullets could put Mills — a military combat veteran and Bronze Star recipient who launched PACEM Solutions in 2014 after many years spent in combat zones as a contractor — in a dicey position. Anti-riot bullets sold by what later became a PACEM subsidiary, ALS Less Lethal, were photographed in 2019 after being used against protesters by Hong Kong police, according to reports in the Hong Kong Free Press and the Miami New Times. The demonstrations in 2019 and 2020 against an extradition plan being pushed by mainland China drew almost two million people and were backed by numerous members of Congress in the U.S.   A message from ACT|The App Association: When the largest sellers on the app stores, with multi-billion-dollar valuations, come to Congress with proposals to reshape the mobile marketplace to suit their needs, policymakers should be rather skeptical. We urge Congress not to sacrifice consumers’ most important privacy and security protections–and with them, the competitive prospects of small app companies–in order to further advantage the app stores’ biggest winners. https://actonline.org/2022/04/04/give-small-developers-a-chance-not-higher-barriers-to-entry/   Did someone forward this email to you? Sign up here.   Follow us on Twitter Chris Suellentrop @suellentrop Tyler Weyant @tweyant Myah Ward @myahward   FOLLOW US

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