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Jeffries calls on Biden to pardon more Americans

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House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries called on President Joe Biden to pardon more people convicted of nonviolent offenses amid controversy over the president’s pardon of his son, Hunter Biden.

“During his final weeks in office, President Biden should exercise the high level of compassion he has consistently demonstrated throughout his life, including toward his son, and pardon on a case-by-case basis the working-class Americans in the federal prison system whose lives have been ruined by unjustly aggressive prosecutions for nonviolent offenses,” Jeffries said in a statement.

Jeffries’ comments echo the calls from some other Democrats who in recent days have asked Biden to use his clemency powers for more Americans in federal custody besides Hunter and to address sentencing disparities. But it did not pass judgment on the pardon of Hunter Biden itself. Some in the caucus have openly criticized the president since the pardon was issued and said it could tarnish his legacy and open a lane for Donald Trump to issue similar sweeping pardons.

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Congress

Spy-law extension at risk after Senate votes against launching debate

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The Senate voted against advancing a long-term reauthorization of a key surveillance power Friday, raising the odds that Congress could need another short-term patch — or let the spy law lapse entirely.

Senators voted 52-47 against taking up a House-passed three-year deal, which leaders planned to use as a vehicle for a Senate-forged agreement that was circulated earlier this week.

Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) had been involved in negotiations aimed at reaching an agreement that could pick up support from enough Democrats. But the prospects for a deal evaporated earlier this week after President Donald Trump named close political ally Bill Pulte to be acting director of national intelligence.

Democrats had warned Pulte could “weaponize” the intelligence community against Trump’s perceived political enemies. Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania was the only Democrat who voted to advance the surveillance bill.

Republican Sens. Josh Hawley of Missouri, John Kennedy of Louisiana, Mike Lee of Utah, Rand Paul of Kentucky, Eric Schmitt of Missouri, Rick Scott of Florida and Tommy Tuberville of Alabama voted against taking up the extension of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which is meant to target foreigners overseas.

Several of the GOP opponents are longstanding surveillance skeptics and are some of the loudest voices within the conference for requiring a warrant before searching the foreign-collected data for Americans.

The Senate is expected to try again to move its agreement next week. Congress has until June 12 to reauthorize the program or pass another short-term punt.

“We’re going to need some help from Democrats obviously, and I think it’s a terribly irresponsible position that they’ve taken, but we’ll find out if that changes,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Friday.

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Senate GOP passes immigration enforcement bill

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Senate Republicans passed their $70 billion immigration enforcement bill Friday, beating back several attempts to rein in the Justice Department’s “Anti-Weaponization Fund.”

Senators voted 52-47 on the bill after roughly 18 hours of amendment votes. In the end, Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska was the only Republican to vote against the bill.

The House left town Thursday rather than stay and pass it before leaving for the weekend. Now it won’t go to President Donald Trump until early next week — pushing the GOP even further past Trump’s self-imposed June 1 deadline.

Friday’s vote followed weeks of stops and starts as Republicans saw momentum on their party-line package get repeatedly derailed because of Trump’s political priorities. First Republicans needed to contend with the administration’s push to get $1 billion in Secret Service funding, part of which could go toward the White House ballroom project.

Then came the Justice Department’s announcement of a $1.8 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund” critics feared would be used to give payouts to the administration’s allies, including those who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

In the end, Republicans nixed the ballroom security money from the bill and beat back several attempts to jettison or place guardrails on the fund from Democrats and some of their own members

“It’s a simple bill,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Thursday in defense of the legislation. “It will do nothing more than fund Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement for three years … because Democrats have refused to fund the Department of Homeland Security or immigration law enforcement.”

But Democrats hammered Republicans for not including language that would limit or prohibit the “Anti-Weaponization Fund” after acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told House appropriators that the administration wouldn’t go forward with it.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer accused Republicans of “taking the great values of America on our 250th year and flushing them down the toilet because you’re afraid of Donald Trump.”

He added, “Are Republicans really going to take Todd Blanche, a known liar, at his word?”

In the end, the marathon vote-a-rama did expose GOP fault lines.

Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) offered an amendment that would have inserted language to block the construction of Trump’s 90,000-square-foot ballroom unless Congress authorizes the project. It was rejected by a 53-46 vote, short of the required 60-vote threshold, but not before several Republicans lined up in support: Susan Collins of Maine, Jon Husted of Ohio, Jerry Moran of Kansas, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and Thom Tillis of North Carolina, as well as Murkowski and fellow Alaskan Dan Sullivan.

Eleven Republicans joined with Tillis in an attempt to advance his amendment that would have redirected the “Anti-Weaponization Fund” toward fraud enforcement at the Justice Department. The amendment fell well short of the 60 votes it would have needed to move forward, since most Democrats opposed it because of how Tillis redirected the funding.

Republicans held the first vote of the day — an effort by Schumer to effectively kill the bill by punting it back to the Judiciary Committee — open for hours as they huddled with their own members, who wanted to get language into the bill to nix the fund.

Cassidy himself spent hours trying to get a vote on an amendment related to the fund at a 50-vote threshold. In the end, he offered — with Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) — an amendment that failed to clear a 60-vote hurdle, which would have redirected money to law enforcement officers injured on Jan. 6.

And Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama called out fellow Republicans who voted against advancing an amendment to loop part of the GOP election bill, known as the SAVE America Act, into the bill, saying that “the people of North Carolina, Alaska, Kentucky, and Maine deserve better.”

Republicans ultimately decided to go it alone in funding the immigration enforcement activities within the Department of Homeland Security through the filibuster-skirting budget reconciliation process — after they were unable to get a deal with Democrats linking the money to new guardrails on ICE and Border Patrol after federal agents killed two people in Minneapolis in January.

The bill would provide roughly $38.5 billion for ICE and more than $26 billion for Customs and Border Protection, as well as an additional $5 billion that will be dispersed at the discretion of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin.

Among other amendments rejected during the hourslong voting session was a proposal from Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) that would effectively bar housing official Bill Pulte from serving as acting director of national intelligence by prohibiting a Senate-confirmed leader of a federal agency or department from serving simultaneously in the DNI role.

Collins, Cassidy and Murkowski voted with Democrats on the proposal, which went down 49-49

“This role was too important to be filled by a part-time, unqualified individual,” Warner said.

Katherine Tully-McManus and Jennifer Scholtes contributed to this report.

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House members keep losing their bids for higher office. Some think they know why.

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Nearly 30 House members who were sworn in at the start of this Congress have launched campaigns for other, more prestigious offices. Voters have not been especially interested in granting them promotions.

The trend was on full display in recent weeks: Rep. Randy Feenstra lost the GOP nomination to be Iowa governor Tuesday despite a late endorsement from President Donald Trump, just as Rep. Dusty Johnson fell short in his bid for governor of South Dakota. A week prior, Rep. Chip Roy lost a runoff to be Texas attorney general.

House Democrats have been similarly hapless. In the Illinois Senate primary, Reps. Robin Kelly and Raja Krishnamoorthi both lost to the state’s lieutenant governor, and in Texas, Rep. Jasmine Crockett fell to a state representative in the Democratic Senate race.

Some of those who have been on the campaign trail this year have a simple explanation for the trend: It’s hard for members of a dysfunctional and unpopular institution to ask voters to reward them with even bigger jobs.

“There’s definitely those out there who think, ‘Well, it’s broken, and they’ve been in it a long time, and obviously it’s still broken,’ so we kind of get the blame for it,” said Rep. Buddy Carter, who fell short last month in making it to a runoff in Georgia’s Republican Senate primary.

Even as public sentiment toward Congress has crashed to historic lows and partisan mudslinging has crescendoed to a fever pitch, some House members have found success.

Rep. Mike Collins advanced in the race Carter lost and has led most polls of the GOP runoff. Reps. Andy Barr and Ashley Hinson are now the Republican Senate nominees in Kentucky and Iowa, respectively, and Rep. Julia Letlow is the favorite in a GOP Senate runoff in Louisiana. One Democrat sworn in for the 119th Congress, New Jersey’s Mikie Sherrill, is now governor.

But if congressional service was once considered a helpful asset not so long ago — half of last year’s elected class of freshmen senators served previously in the House — members now fear that their time on Capitol Hill has become politically toxic.

In the races House members are losing, state-level officials and political outsiders have found more success.

“The voters all across the country aren’t particularly fond of D.C., so are you perceived to be part of the establishment or someone that’s been battling it?” said Rep. David Schweikert, who is now running for the GOP nomination for Arizona governor.

As he spoke to a reporter in the Capitol, he held a mug with the words, “I’d rather be in Arizona.”

Schweikert is facing a colleague, Rep. Andy Biggs, in next month’s primary. Polls suggest either man would face an uphill battle to unseat Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs.

Other House members are finding long odds as they look for seats in the Senate or in state houses — even as some distance themselves from their current positions.

In Tennessee, for example, GOP Rep. John Rose has trailed Sen. Marsha Blackburn in public polling even as he plays down his service in Washington. In one recent ad, he identified himself as “a father, a farmer and a CEO,” and his website also makes no mention he is a sitting member of Congress.

Tuesday’s GOP primary for South Carolina governor could at least temporarily extinguish the political careers of two more other members, Reps. Ralph Norman and Nancy Mace. Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette was already a front-runner in several public polls, and won Trump’s endorsement last week.

The pileup of losses could weigh even more heavily on House leaders who have struggled to get members to show up for votes in the closely divided chamber. Speaker Mike Johnson has already canceled multiple voting days this year to accommodate House members’ primary schedules, and the risk of no-shows is likely to increase.

For instance, Dusty Johnson, usually a reliable leadership ally, missed votes Wednesday just as a contentious effort to curb Trump’s military campaign against Iran hit the House floor.

There are, of course, many reasons for success or failure in politics, and some members who have been on other ballot lines this year have been more careful about attributing their fortunes to the House itself. Roy, for instance, pointed out that he was facing a largely self-funded opponent — an oil-and-gas executive who poured $17 million into the race and was able to use the funding advantage to connect with voters.

“You just got to go to where the voters are,” he said. “Some guys have gone out, done well. Some have not.”

Kelly, whose House career is ending after 14 years representing a Chicago-area district, blamed bad timing, insufficient fundraising and other pressures as reasons she and other members have struggled.

“Most people highly respected me for my work in Congress,” Kelly said in an interview. “Even the ones that didn’t endorse me out loud.”

Still, voter sentiment is growing clear to many lawmakers, who are warily watching their own races ahead of November.

“People are anti-incumbent,” said one House Republican who is seeking reelection and was granted anonymity to speak candidly. “They’re mad. They want change across the board.”

The rest of the year is likely to be a mixed bag for House incumbents. GOP Reps. Kevin Hern of Oklahoma and Harriet Hageman of Wyoming appear to be well on their way to winning Senate nominations — and general elections — in solid red states. Polls show Rep. Byron Donalds is on track to be Florida’s next governor, and Trump-endorsed Rep. Barry Moore is well-positioned to win an Alabama Senate seat if he can emerge from a competitive Republican runoff.

But Democratic Reps. Angie Craig of Minnesota and Haley Stevens of Michigan have struggled to break out in their respective Senate primaries. If he can emerge from a crowded primary field, GOP Rep. John James faces a tough general election in the Michigan governor race, as does Rep. Tom Tiffany, a Republican running for governor in Wisconsin.

All of them will have to convince voters that their years of service in Washington are worth rewarding.

“I was a mayor for eight years, I was a state legislator for 10 years, I’ve been in Congress for 12 years, and I feel like that’s important,” Carter said. “I think experience and that service is invaluable [but] I think it kind of worked against me in a lot of ways … just being in politics for so long.”

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