The Hill’s Morning Report — House GOP far from unified on debt limit; Fox News settles

by Alexis Simendinger and Kristina Karisch - 04/19/23 6:20 AM ET

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It was a tale of two deals on Tuesday, as House Republicans spent the day trying to find common ground on a debt limit bill and an unexpected settlement came in just under the wire in the Dominion Voting Systems lawsuit brought against Fox News.

On Capitol Hill, Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) is working to wrangle his conference around a go-it-alone debt limit increase bill he hopes will bring President Biden to the negotiating table, but GOP leaders still hope to turn that plan into a formal bill within days. McCarthy previewed the proposal during a Monday speech on Wall Street, but the reception inside his own chamber was tepid, as a handful of disgruntled members made clear inside the private meeting that achieving unity would take more time.

“We ain’t there yet,” Rep. Dan Bishop (R-N.C.) said Tuesday. “It’s got to be robust.”

Biden spoke with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) on the phone Tuesday afternoon to discuss the looming fights over raising the debt limit and passing a budget, announcing they “won’t negotiate over default” and urging Republicans “to pass a clean bill like they did three times in the previous administration” (The Hill). Meanwhile, Politico reports that the centrist Problem Solvers Caucus is circulating its own debt ceiling proposal as a Plan B to avert a default.

The eventual debt limit bill would be the House GOP’s first firm offer in debt limit negotiations. Biden has refused to meet with the Speaker on the matter until the House unveils a comprehensive budget plan. As The Hill’s Emily Brooks reports, McCarthy’s framework includes reverting discretionary non-defense spending to fiscal 2022 levels and implementing work requirements for safety net programs. But several details in the debt bill are still being ironed out, and members leaving the meeting said that several people pushed for it to go further in terms of cuts and spending clawbacks.

House GOP leaders are aiming to move on the bill next week, according to House Rules Committee Chairman Tom Cole (R-Okla.). It is possible that the bill will be fast-tracked to the floor rather than going through a regular order committee process.

With just four votes to spare in a slim majority — and a lowered threshold for forcing a vote to oust the Speaker hanging over his head — McCarthy and other leaders are maneuvering carefully. McCarthy told reporters he will probably agree to the repeal of some aspects of the Inflation Reduction Act that members are asking for despite concerns about sending those measures to the Senate (Politico and Bloomberg News).

“Am I concerned about it? Yeah. But will I? Probably,” he said.

The Hill: What Republicans are considering for their go-it-alone debt limit bill.

As Washington scrambles to secure a debt ceiling solution, the urgency hasn’t made its way to Wall Street, despite McCarthy’s speech. Investors continue to operate as usual, working under the assumption that Congress and Biden will find a way to avoid a potentially catastrophic government default. As The New York Times reports, the lack of panic reflects investors’ “been-there, done-that” attitudes, and an expectation that lawmakers will resolve the issue at the eleventh hour.

But the fractious House GOP, and warnings that Congress may have less time to raise the $31.4 trillion limit than previously thought, could make for an altogether different situation this year. The House GOP’s uncertainty about its own bill was stark on Tax Day, as analysts estimated the United States may run out of measures to continue paying its bills as soon as June.

In a report, Goldman Sachs said that tax receipts so far suggest an “increased probability” the deadline could arrive in the first half of that month, though they cautioned there is a “slightly greater chance” of July. The government has said the debt ceiling deadline could fall anywhere between June and September.

Regardless of timing, top economists are raising alarms that Republicans’ demands threaten to push the country to the fiscal brink — and may trigger a government default that could rattle global markets and precipitate another recession (The Washington Post).

More definitive news came out of Delaware on Tuesday, where Fox News and Dominion Voting Systems agreed to a blockbuster $787.5 million settlement over the network’s coverage of former President Trump’s false claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election. The settlement, which was announced moments before opening arguments were slated to begin, followed months of courtroom fighting between the two parties in what had been widely seen as a precedent-setting moment for defamation law (The Hill and NBC News).

“Fox has admitted to telling lies about Dominion that caused enormous damage to my company, our employees, and our customers. Nothing can ever make up for that,” Dominion CEO John Poulos said. “Throughout this process, we have sought accountability and believe the evidence brought to light through this case underscores the consequences of spreading and endorsing lies.”

Dominion sued Fox News in 2021, demanding $1.6 billion in damages, saying the network defamed the company when it broadcast false claims that it paid kickbacks to politicians and that its machines “rigged” the 2020 presidential election by flipping millions of votes for Trump to Biden. Notably, the settlement agreement doesn’t require Fox News to apologize or admit to spreading false claims on network programming, according to The New York Times.

In a statement, Fox News Media said the network was “pleased” to reach a settlement and that it acknowledged “the Court’s rulings finding certain claims about Dominion to be false.”

▪ The New York Times: Here are the other legal cases Fox is entangled in.

▪ The Atlantic’s David A. Graham: Fox News lost the lawsuit but won the war. The network will pay $787.5 million to Dominion Voting Systems as the price of retaining its audience.

Related Articles

▪ The Hill: The Bidens report combined income of $579,514 last year and Vice President Harris and husband Doug Emhoff report $456,918, according to 2022 tax documents released by the White House.

▪ The Hill and The Washington Post: The decision by Republicans not to play ball on helping to temporarily replace Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) on the Judiciary Committee is creating a dilemma for Senate Democrats. They worry nominations could be stalled in committee for the foreseeable future.
▪ The Hill: House Republicans grilled Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Gary Gensler over his crypto and climate policies during a tense hearing Tuesday.

▪ Bloomberg Government: It’s a sugary Senate tradition: Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.), the upper chamber’s latest candyman, preps treats for sweet and sour lawmakers available within easy reach on the Senate floor.

▪ The Hill: Sen. Bob Menéndez (D-N.J.) releases immigration plan reliant on Biden executive action.

LEADING THE DAY

➤ POLITICS

When the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year and invited states to decide abortion rights and restrictions, conservatives nationwide found themselves newly challenged to weigh the ramifications of a burst of new laws around which voters are sharply divided. In a matter of months, abortion legislation evolved into a political litmus test for GOP candidates and members of Congress, The Hill’s Alexander Bolton reports. Republicans are not all in sync.

Some GOP lawmakers favor a national abortion ban while others want to leave the issue to the states entirely. There’s also talk about compromise legislation to implement a national 20-week abortion ban, although such a proposal has little chance of picking up Democratic support in Congress. Whether to endorse a national abortion ban at six weeks — Florida’s new legal threshold — or 15 weeks or 20 weeks, has become a test for Republican presidential hopefuls, some of whom are treading carefully.

FiveThirtyEight: Voters in red states say they support anti-trans laws. Their lawmakers are delivering.

In the House, Democrats say they want to vote for tougher checks on firearms and new limits on who can own them, reports The Hill’s Mike Lillis. The near-unanimous opposition from Republicans in both chambers has not changed amid fierce debate about the U.S. trend in mass shootings.

2024 Watch: Trump’s attacks against rivals, efforts to sew up endorsements from the Florida congressional delegation and entreaties to supporters across the country have lifted his poll numbers and filled his campaign coffers (The Hill). … Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), described by The Washington Post as the most powerful governor in a generation, nevertheless faces pressure to overhaul his strategy ahead of an expected presidential challenge to Trump (The Hill). … The governor’s reception on Capitol Hill, where he once served? Lukewarm (The New York Times). … DeSantis remodeled Florida into a conservative citadel. He suggests to conservatives he could do the same nationwide (Bloomberg News and The Washington Post). … In the Sunshine State, GOP political influencer Susie Wiles helped Trump and DeSantis get elected. Later banished from DeSantis’s orbit, Wiles, 65, is again advising Trump (The New York Times). … Billionaire GOP donor and Citadel founder Ken Griffin continues to back DeSantis as other donors flee (Semafor).

▪ The Hill: Iowa Democrats are coming to terms with their downgraded status in a state that no longer kicks off the party’s primary calendar.

▪ The Hill: Illinois Democrats see Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D), the self-described “pragmatic progressive,” as getting a boost among those who see a formidable potential future White House challenger.

▪ FiveThirtyEight: Should Democrats have chosen Chicago in a swing state for their 2024 national nominating convention?

▪ Politico: Trump and McConnell: Shared hatred for the GOP anti-tax group Club for Growth.

▪ Politico Magazine, by Alexander Burns: America’s looming conflict: red state judges vs. blue state governors.

➤ SPARKS AND COURT

Does the case of Jack Teixeira, 21, the Massachusetts National Guard airman accused of leaking classified intelligence online, mean the national security clearance system is broken? (NBC News). U.S. officials are investigating but have found no clear public evidence that Teixeira had connections to an organized foreign operation or government (Politico).

▪ The Boston Globe: The Air Force stripped a Cape Cod, Mass., base of its intelligence unit after Teixeira was charged in the security leak scandal last week.

▪ Stars and Stripes: The Air Force opened its own investigation into leaked Pentagon documents, service leaders told senators on Tuesday.

The circulated Defense Department documents continue to raise questions in the U.S. and abroad. Scores of images recently leaked online, many with classified U.S. military and intelligence assessments, illustrate how deeply the United States is involved in virtually every aspect of Ukraine’s war with Russia. The Biden administration continues to refute the charge that it has become a proxy war between two superpowers (The Washington Post).

The Post reports today that China is readying a supersonic spy drone unit that could expand its surveillance capabilities, according to the documents leaked into dissemination through chat platform Discord, popular with gamers. China’s military could soon deploy a high-altitude spy drone that travels at least three times the speed of sound, according to a leaked U.S. military assessment prepared by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency.

Politico: Joint Chiefs shuffle: Here are some of Biden’s top contenders to replace Trump’s military leaders. As many as five members among the eight most senior uniformed leaders who advise the president on military issues are scheduled to leave their assignments this year.

The Hill’s Rebecca Beitsch exclusively reports that a lawsuit to be filed in federal court seeks to compel the National Archives and Records Administration to seek assistance from the Justice Department to recover missing text messages from both the Secret Service and leadership of the Department of Homeland Security. They were described as lost immediately following the 2020 election.

IN FOCUS/SHARP TAKES

➤ INTERNATIONAL

A Moscow court on Tuesday upheld the detention of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, 31, who has been jailed since March and accused of trying to steal Russian state secrets. The court’s decision means he will remain in pretrial detention until May 29, although Russian authorities can extend that period (The Wall Street Journal).

Seen publicly for the first time since his arrest, Gershkovich and his newspaper deny the charges. The U.S. government has asserted he is wrongfully detained and called for his immediate release. U.S. Ambassador to Russia Lynne Tracy attended the hearing and afterward insisted to reporters that the charges are “baseless.” She urged the immediate release of Gershkovich and American Paul Whelan, held in Russia since 2018 (The New York Times [with video]). Russian officials have said discussions about a possible prisoner swap for Gershkovich might be possible after his trial.

Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin this week made an under-the-radar visit to the headquarters of his troops in the partially occupied Kherson region of southern Ukraine, Putin’s second known visit to an area near the front lines since the start of Russia’s invasion in February 2022, and his first known visit to Luhansk since Russia began fomenting a bloody separatist war there in 2014.

Monday’s trip, timed to Orthodox Easter on Sunday, signaled that despite repeated military setbacks, Putin has not given up his plan to seize four eastern and southeastern Ukrainian regions. At the president’s direction, the Russian Constitution was rewritten to include the four regions, and people in the occupied territories must use the Russian ruble and are being issued Russian passports. But Moscow has been forced to set up new regional capitals, because the real capitals are controlled by Ukraine (The Washington Post).

▪ The Washington Post: The U.S. eavesdropped on United Nations Secretary General António Guterres, leaked documents reveal.

▪ The New York Times: Russia is importing Western weapons technology, bypassing sanctions.

▪ Reuters: South Korea opens door for possible military aid to Ukraine.

Saudi Arabia’s efforts to set up a long-term ceasefire between warring Yemeni factions are influencing warmer ties between Washington and Riyadh, which nosedived after Biden promised early in his campaign to make the Kingdom a pariah over its targeted killings and human rights atrocities. As The Hill’s Laura Kelly writes, the Biden administration is largely on the sidelines of a peace process made possible by China, which brokered relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran in March — the two Gulf countries are on opposite sides of Yemen’s eight-year civil war. Still, Biden officials are offering gushing praise for Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, a key signal that the administration is appealing to Riyadh’s grievance that Washington has unfairly and disproportionately singled out the Kingdom for criticism among America’s allies.

It marks a 180-degree turn for the administration that identified in 2021 that the crown prince, known as MBS, approved a gruesome operation that led to the killing of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi in October 2018.

▪ Al Jazeera: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Saudi Arabia for meetings with King Salman and MBS.

▪ The Hill: McCarthy to address Israel’s Knesset.

Amid mixed signals about a 24-hour humanitarian cease-fire in Sudan, it was not clear Tuesday who was in control of the country, or which of the two dueling forces — the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitaries or the Sudanese Army — had the upper hand in the spreading violence that has killed at least 270 people and wounded more than 2,600 others. Attempts at a truce crumbled late on Tuesday as clashes re-erupted between both factions in central Khartoum, just hours after they agreed on the ceasefire.

“I can see outside smoke rising from buildings. And I can hear from my residence blasts, heavy gunfire from outside. The streets are totally empty,” said Red Cross staffer Germain Mwehu from Khartoum. “In the building where I stay, I saw families with children, children crying when there are airstrikes, children horrified,” (The New York Times and CNN).

▪ The New York Times: Who are the Rapid Support Forces, the paramilitaries fighting Sudan’s army?

▪ CNN: Rival generals are battling for control in Sudan. Here’s a simple guide to the fighting.

▪ The Washington Post analysis: Behind the chaos in Sudan is a broader global power struggle.

OPINION

■ Chuck Schumer’s embrace of mobs is a menace to constitutional democracy, by Dan McLaughlin, senior writer, National Review. https://bit.ly/3oga8JK

■ This country will break our hearts again, but Ralph Yarl lives, by Imani Perry, contributing writer, The Atlantic. https://bit.ly/3mARLyY

WHERE AND WHEN

📲 Ask The Hill: Share a news query tied to an expert journalist’s insights: The Hill launched something new and (we hope) engaging via text with Editor-in-Chief Bob Cusack. Learn more and sign up HERE.

The House will convene at 10 a.m.

The Senate meets at 10 a.m. to resume consideration of the Fire Grants and Safety Act.

The president will receive the President’s Daily Brief at 10 a.m. Biden will travel to Accokeek, Md., to speak about the economy at the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 77 training facility at 2:30 p.m. He will return to the White House at 3:45 p.m.

The vice president is in Washington and has no public schedule.

Second gentleman Emhoff will headline a political fundraising event at a private residence in Los Angeles at 5:30 p.m. PT.

The White House daily press briefing is scheduled at 12:15 p.m.

ELSEWHERE

➤ ENVIRONMENT & ECONOMY

🚰 Canadian researchers said they have developed a method to filter toxic “forever chemicals” from water and potentially destroy the long-lasting compounds permanently. These hazardous compounds have long troubled environmentalists and regulators, as their harmful effects on human health are well documented, but their ubiquitous use and the challenges in breaking them down have complicated efforts to eliminate them.

In March, the Environmental Protection Agency proposed the first drinking-water standards requiring water utilities to reduce levels of PFAS — perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances. And the new technology, developed at the University of British Columbia, which has been described by one of its developers as a “Brita filter, but a thousand times better,” could help address the problem (The Washington Post).

Turbines the height of 70-story skyscrapers will soon tower over East Coast fishing grounds. But, as ProPublica reports, government regulators with ties to offshore wind developers are downplaying the danger to the marine ecosystem and fishermen’s livelihoods.

Americans have never been more negative about the economy amid persistent inflation, higher interest rates and recession worries, the latest CNBC All-America Economic Survey shows. A record 69 percent of the public holds negative views about the economy both now and in the future, the highest percentage in the poll’s 17-year history.

“It’s clear that as much as there is a partisan overlay to people’s attitudes, everybody is also feeling the squeeze including Democrats and that’s depressing numbers with the base,” said Jay Campbell, partner at Hart Research, the survey’s Democratic pollster.

▪ The Atlantic: Economically, millennials are doing just fine.\

▪ The Wall Street Journal: Netflix password freeloading is ending (in the U.S., by June).

➤ HEALTH & PANDEMIC

💉 The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Tuesday announced it was simplifying its recommended COVID-19 vaccine schedule, stating a single dose of the bivalent vaccine specific to the BA.4 and BA.5 strains of the omicron variant is enough for most individuals. The move indicated a shift away from the two-dose vaccine schedule that has become the standard throughout the U.S. when it comes to mRNA vaccination.

According to the FDA, individuals who haven’t gotten a bivalent shot yet or haven’t gotten vaccinated at all are still eligible for a dose, but those who have received a single dose already are “not currently eligible for another dose” (The Hill).

👉The FDA on Tuesday approved an additional round of COVID-19 bivalent booster shots for adults who are 65 and older, as well as people with compromised immune systems. The shots target omicron variants. COVID-19 still claims more than 1,300 U.S. lives each week (The New York Times).

😷 Variants of the omicron version of COVID-19 may get pushed aside to make way for a new worry within months: A new COVID subvariant, thought to be the most transmissible yet, is spreading in this country. Subvariant XBB.1.16 reached reportable levels in the U.S. last week and the strain might be behind an uptick of conjunctivitis, especially in children, according to reports from India. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data shows XBB.1.16 nearly doubled its presence in the U.S. last week, although it still is considerably less prevalent than other versions.

“I think there’s a high probability it will lead to an increase of cases here,” University of California, San Francisco infectious disease expert Peter Chin-Hong told the San Francisco Chronicle. He said many people weren’t expecting to see another surge until the winter. “XBB.1.16 threatens to shatter that. It may make us reevaluate whether we’ve reached the endemic phase.”

▪ The Wall Street Journal: Timeout days and respite rooms: The new trends in mental health at the office.

▪ CNN: As gun violence reaches record levels in the U.S., an underlying trauma may be building up.

▪ The Washington Post: A silent crisis in men’s health gets worse.

▪ The New York Times: Strep is on the rise. Here’s how to minimize your risk.

THE CLOSER

And finally … 🦎 Pop quiz: Amphibian or reptile?

After centuries of habitat destruction, the spotted and striped Eastern tiger salamander, which has lived in the mid-Atlantic region since the ice ages, is listed as endangered in the Delmarva Peninsula region of Virginia, found only on private lands east of Interstate 95.

The yellowish-green critter’s presence can be traced back 400,000 years in the Blue Ridge Mountains and 14,000 years along the state’s coastal plains. Faced with regional extinction, experts are trying to bring the species back.

“You’re talking about one of the last surviving relics of the last ice age for the salamander’s mountain lineage,” J.D. Kleopfer, a herpetologist with Virginia’s Department of Wildlife Resources, told The Washington Post. “This is a rare salamander that should be a part of our ecosystem.”

Kleopfer’s office is working to relocate some salamander larvae from parts of North Carolina to Southeastern Virginia in hope of replenishing the population — but they won’t know for four to five years if it’s successful.

💡 (Amphibian.)

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