CQ ROLL CALL: Daily Briefing

June 23, 2011

Today In Washington


THE WHITE HOUSE: Obama and Biden spent more than an hour in the West Wing with Pelosi, Hoyer, Clyburn and Van Hollen, starting at 10, to talk about foreign policy and the party’s posture in the debt-increase-for-deficit-reduction talks — which appeared at an impasse this morning.

The president leaves in an hour for Fort Drum in upstate New York, where he’ll meet at 2:30 with soldiers from the Army's 10th Mountain Division, many of whom have just returned from Afghanistan. Then he heads down to the city to appear at evening fundraisers in a midtown Sheraton, a foodie-favorite restaurant (Daniel) and a Broadway theater. Air Force One takes off at 11 for Pittsburgh, where Obama will spend the night.

THE HOUSE: Convened at 10 and in about an hour will resume debate on the increasingly troubled patent overhaul bill. The vote that may well determine the measure’s future will come before 2 — on whether to drop a provision letting the patent and trademark office keep the fees it collects so that the agency can speed up its review process. Almost all Democrats and many Republicans back that funding stream and may have the votes to sink the bill if that language is dropped.

No matter what happens, the last vote of the day will be by 5 — so that lawmakers can attend this evening’s cavalcade of end-of-the-second-quarter fundraisers. Work will begin on the annual defense spending package, but debate has been put off until the week after next on amendments that would tug on the Pentagon’s purse strings in order to change Obama’s polices on Afghanistan, Pakistan and maybe (again) Libya.

THE SENATE: Convened at 10 and is about to vote on two GOP amendments to the confirmation streamlining legislation. One would prevent the president from installing policy “czars” in the West Wing who haven’t been blessed by the Senate. The other would keep the head of the Bureau of Justice Statistics as a confirmable post. Senators have made a bipartisan promise to keep their amendments relevant to the bill, but the vote on passage won’t come before next week.

DEBT WALKS: Cantor announced this morning that he would not go to today’s budget summit meeting, which is set to start at 2. He said the negotiators were at an impasse over taxes and so the session was pointless — and he called on Obama and Boehner to take it from here. Kyl is preparing to join him.

The surprise development could mean one of two things: The House majority leader realizes that the Biden talks are really on the verge of collapse and wants to be the first to get his side clear of the coming political debris, or he has concluded that fellow Republicans won’t support even the slightest boost in revenue unless the Speaker himself insists on it (and maybe not even then). So, Cantor’s decision is designed either to distance himself from Boehner (whose job he wants sooner or later) or to raise the political pressure on his superior.

“Once resolved,” Cantor said of the tax question, “we have a blueprint to move forward to trillions of spending cuts and binding mechanisms to change the way things are done around here.” That statement was a tacit confirmation of what has become clear in recent days, and made the Democrats very apprehensive: The negotiators had come to accord on perhaps $2 trillion in projected savings in the next decade, an amount that would allow an increase in the debt ceiling beyond the election under the dollar-for-dollar formula that both sides have adopted.

It has also become clear that Democrats have dramatically downgraded their expectations for how much new revenue they can get to contribute to the deficit reduction formula. They are now talking only about cutting corporate and other “special interest” tax breaks, like the one for ethanol that ran into a Senate buzzsaw last week.

The Democratic rank-and-file are extremely worried that the budget deal will rely disproportionately on cuts to health care and other social programs for the poor and old, which is why they are now pushing hard to get some economic stimulus sweeteners that would offset some of the coming cuts to entitlements. And GOP leaders show shows signs of willingness to support provisions that will help create jobs or minimize the pain of unemployment — perhaps a payroll tax holiday for employers or more highway spending or the preservation and maybe even expansion of the Trade Adjustment Assistance program.

LIBYA VOTES: The president’s timetable for the Afghanistan drawdown is getting decidedly mixed congressional reviews — and after July Fourth, Pelosi may lead House Democrats in pushing legislation that would force Obama to bring more of the troops home sooner. But within hours of last night’s speech, the bulk of congressional short-term anti-war angst was back on Libya, and originating mainly with House Republicans.

Boehner has lined up a pair of House votes (probably tomorrow) that would amount to a swift kick of the presidential behind. One will be on a straightforward “use of force” resolution that would back the president's policy — and that everyone now knows is doomed to rejection. And so the marquee moment will come when majorities of both Republicans and Democrats vote to prohibit the use of funds for direct U.S. military engagement in Libya. Only “non-hostile actions” would be allowed under the measure (refueling other NATO planes, surveillance, etc.) — a direct swipe at the president’s declaration that the U.S. role in the bombing campaign does not amount to hostilities and so he’s not required to ask permission to keep at it.

FILL 'ER UP: Thirty million barrels of oil will be released from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in an effort to respond to lost oil supplies caused by turmoil in the Middle East and Libya, Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced this morning. That amount will be matched by the other 27 member countries of the International Energy Agency. The release is designed in part to hold pump prices in line this summer — not only to mollify vacationers but also because the spring’s high oil prices and the resulting increase in the cost of gasoline are part of the reason for the continuing economic slowness.

House Energy and Commerce Chairman Fred Upton excoriated the move, saying the reserve should be tapped only for genuine emergencies and that the better way to boost domestic supply would be to support the GOP legislative agenda for expanded drilling and exploration. “Releasing our reserves to calm the market is emblematic of an administration whose energy policy is irrational and counterproductive,” he said.

MARITAL PROBLEMS: Obama’s first fundraiser tonight is a top-dollar affair for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender donors — and he could be arriving just as the state Senate is casting the climactic vote on whether to legalize gay marriage in New York. (The bill still seems to be a vote shy of passage, and negotiations are under way to create exceptions on religious grounds that would assure passage.)

Members of the LGBT world are overwhelmingly in the president’s corner, but less overwhelmingly than three years ago. And the reason is simple: The president’s “still evolving” thoughts about gay marriage have not been evolving nearly fast enough for them. And so — even if the donors inside are willing to give the president a pass on the issue — the arriving presidential motorcade will be confronted by a candlelight vigil of protesters.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Freshman GOP Rep. Bob Dold of Illinois (42).

— David Hawkings, editor
dailybriefing@cqrollcall.com



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