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By Seung Min Kim (
mailto:skim@politico.com
skim@politico.com or @seungminkim)

SHUSTER'S RELATIONSHIP WITH AIRLINE LOBBYIST - Rep. Bill Shuster (R-Pa.) is the chairman of the House Transportation Committee and is overseeing a major overhaul of the Federal Aviation Administration. But Shuster said Thursday that he's in a "private and personal relationship" with a top lobbyist for the airline industry, per POLITICO's John Bresnahan, Anna Palmer and Jake Sherman: "Shuster and Shelley Rubino, vice president for global government affairs for Airlines for America, have been romantically involved since last summer, according to multiple sources familiar with their relationship. Rubino, a former top House Democratic leadership aide, has been with the trade group since March
2012. The two are often seen together at fundraisers and D.C. events, where Shuster is a sought-after figure. They also have been spotted together in Washington when Congress is not in session."

--Shuster's statement: "Ms. Rubino and I have a private and personal relationship, and out of respect for her and my family, that is all I will say about that." He added that his office "has in place a policy that deals with personal relationships that cover my staff and myself. This was created in consultation with legal counsel and goes further than is required by the law. Under that policy, Ms. Rubino doesn't lobby my office, including myself and my staff."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=7d9e3da66338db20762d72ab1e42a5045782768d16572f24dfff9d4bdbecf160
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=7d9e3da66338db20762d72ab1e42a5045782768d16572f24dfff9d4bdbecf160

--Roll Call does a little #tbt and digs this out of their archives: "Transportation Chair Lodges With Ex-Aide Who Makes Six Figures Lobbying His Panel." This was former Rep. Bud Shuster (R-Pa.) - Bill Shuster's father:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=7d9e3da66338db205ab9d07f92fb87d8624e4dbedee4f8be975c03705a825c4e
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=7d9e3da66338db205ab9d07f92fb87d8624e4dbedee4f8be975c03705a825c4e

DEMS' TRADE CIVIL WAR - POLITICO's Adam Behsudi: "The most important trade bill in a decade has pitted Harry Reid against President Barack Obama. Liberal Democrat Rosa DeLauro against moderate Democrat Ron Kind. Labor unions against pro-business Democrats. And Elizabeth Warren against virtually everyone who supports a landmark piece of legislation that would allow the president to close what could be the biggest free-trade deal in history."

"The open warring among Democrats over fast-track trade legislation, and the party's broader existential crisis on free trade, grew more pronounced Thursday as senior lawmakers announced a breakthrough on the trade bill. Many Democrats still feel the burn, 20 years later, of lost manufacturing jobs from the North American Free Trade Agreement - pushed through by former President Bill Clinton - and they fear another Democratic president is on the verge of turning his back on working-class Americans by negotiating a trade deal that would send jobs overseas."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=7d9e3da66338db2019bbfb520df89b284040d5e5dc0288bcdb2d566e9be18946
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=7d9e3da66338db2019bbfb520df89b284040d5e5dc0288bcdb2d566e9be18946

--Here are more details of the fast-track trade deal, from the AP's Laurie Kellman:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=7d9e3da66338db20cce6f571761f44c89f4408252486ca7c32fd00d163cb990f
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=7d9e3da66338db20cce6f571761f44c89f4408252486ca7c32fd00d163cb990f

MCCONNELL WARNS 'BIG FIGHTS' ON FUNDING - The Senate majority leader sits down with the Wall Street Journal and vows to use spending bills to extract concessions from the White House - which means we're in for a fun few months of appropriations battles. From Siobhan Hughes and Kristina Peterson: "The comments placed an emphasis on rolling back regulations and set up a new front in an approaching showdown over spending with the Obama administration, whose appointees have backed rules for broadband Internet, the environment and labor policy ... Mr. McConnell said Republicans planned to write in restrictions on spending and various agencies' behavior in the spending bills."

--McConnell tells Siobhan and Kristina: "Whether it's health care, whether it's financial services-literally an assault on anybody in the country who's making a profit, with the view that if you're making a profit you must be up to no good."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=7d9e3da66338db20d34cd555253f7971ca764a8e4ea297b566e059eb3bcee109
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=7d9e3da66338db20d34cd555253f7971ca764a8e4ea297b566e059eb3bcee109

--More from that WSJ interview: McConnell says he is "as optimistic as it's reasonable to be" that his party will hang onto Senate control in the 2016 elections, but he isn't thrilled that Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) is leaving the Florida Senate seat open as he runs for president:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=7d9e3da66338db207bcb751d4599c09257789b486aab684cd538e00c24034352
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=7d9e3da66338db207bcb751d4599c09257789b486aab684cd538e00c24034352

ODD (BYLINE) COUPLE ALERT - This piece on boosting funding for clean water programs, written by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Fall Out Boy:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=7d9e3da66338db200bcea0194ecd3a88d183f7d39bc356518be882b637ea68fe
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=7d9e3da66338db200bcea0194ecd3a88d183f7d39bc356518be882b637ea68fe

TRANSITIONS - Amber Marchand, communications director for Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), is headed over to Hamilton Place Strategies as managing director starting next week. She emails colleagues: "Senator Blunt is truly one of the best bosses I've had the honor to work for during more than a dozen years in politics and government. I'm so grateful for the professional growth and opportunities that he has afforded me in the U.S. Senate, and I'm thankful for the smart and talented reporters and staffers who I've met and worked with along the way."

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http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=7d9e3da66338db2029b9931df48d2b4d934a66bede51ac482321f484b5aade51
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HAPPY FRIDAY, APRIL 17, 2015 and welcome to The Huddle, where we're guessing that on the list of the 2,000 most influential political journalists on Twitter (
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=7d9e3da66338db20fe6f25dec551dea70df8747f4c9a6077bab78875b2ee951b
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=7d9e3da66338db20fe6f25dec551dea70df8747f4c9a6077bab78875b2ee951b ), we came in right around 2,001st place. Please send whatever you got to
mailto:skim@politico.com
skim@politico.com and follow along on Twitter at @seungminkim. Lauren French is your host next week, so give her a shout at
mailto:lfrench@politico.com
lfrench@politico.com and @laurennfrench.

My new followers include @RachelE_Green and @jvconnors.

TODAY IN CONGRESS - Leftover jet fumes from yesterday.

AROUND THE HILL - Rep. Sander Levin (D-Mich.) is holding a pen-and-pad to discuss the new TPA legislation at 10:30 a.m. in Rayburn B-318.

LYNCH BATTLE HEATS UP - Not that it wasn't already a big fight, but the stalled vote for Loretta Lynch as attorney general takes another turn for the worse as the White House takes a swing at Sen. Chuck Grassley, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid threatens to break from Senate protocol to force a vote, and everybody went home without getting closer to confirming Lynch. The New York Times' Emmarie Huetteman and Carl Hulse: "Senators on Thursday reopened negotiations on a stalled bill to combat human trafficking, while bickering intensified among Democrats and Republicans, and even the White House, over the stalemate that has ensnared the attorney general nomination of Loretta E. Lynch."

--"Senator John Cornyn, Republican of Texas, who introduced the trafficking legislation, said he was hopeful that his work with Democrats would help them move past the protracted debate about his once bipartisan bill. 'I would say we're seriously talking for the first time in a while, but we're not there yet,' he said."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=7d9e3da66338db2091a9dac567ad4eea3a0c2acc0fb3bb3ec9911bad37b4d2f5
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=7d9e3da66338db2091a9dac567ad4eea3a0c2acc0fb3bb3ec9911bad37b4d2f5

--Meanwhile, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, still exploring a run for president, indicates in New Hampshire that Lynch should get a vote. Bush notes that the longer the vote takes, the longer Eric Holder stays around - an argument that hasn't swayed most Senate Republicans. CNN:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=7d9e3da66338db20096f0b9d84f120e710b1ec93c260a65ccd90ff15809cd826
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=7d9e3da66338db20096f0b9d84f120e710b1ec93c260a65ccd90ff15809cd826

--Some more details from Burgess Everett on how Reid could force a vote on Lynch:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=7d9e3da66338db208d4607e46f4c668a51ede7615c3a63c15002bab0fc7a48ab
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=7d9e3da66338db208d4607e46f4c668a51ede7615c3a63c15002bab0fc7a48ab

JEH JOHNSON: 'WHAT'S A GYROCOPTER'? Your Huddle host caught up with the Homeland Security secretary on his trek to the Hill Thursday, where he gave his first reaction to the bizarre small-copter chaos that captivated the Capitol earlier this week. He declined to weigh in much beyond that - aside from noting that Doug Hughes "apparently literally flew in under the radar" - and said he was waiting for more facts.

--Meanwhile, lawmakers are calling for investigations (as they do). House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said the incident exposes security gaps at the Capitol, while Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), the top Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said he is "highly concerned" about Capitol Police's response. And Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, is asking for a "full accounting" by all federal agencies overseeing U.S. security. More from yours truly and Lauren French:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=7d9e3da66338db2056aa1571478c685c5a8c125bb9bc50a03cf172fd26c4ac39
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=7d9e3da66338db2056aa1571478c685c5a8c125bb9bc50a03cf172fd26c4ac39

--Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) also has a lot of questions on the gyrocopter incident. From Roll Call:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=7d9e3da66338db20ba21d5afb0410b746c1f8ac17e446c65ccf49e9c9b246fe5
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=7d9e3da66338db20ba21d5afb0410b746c1f8ac17e446c65ccf49e9c9b246fe5

NCLB UPDATE CLEARS PANEL - The AP writes on the sweeping education law rewrite winding its way through the Senate, which could vote on the bill later this spring: "The legislation would continue to require annual standardized tests to measure student performance but would allow the states to determine how much weight to give them in evaluating schools ... Over three days, the [Health, Education, Labor and Pensions] committee approved 29 amendments to their legislation, but it also set aside some of the more divisive amendments for the full Senate to debate."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=7d9e3da66338db204c84686a9e1b09c0025057030336153df0497c40258f4a60
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=7d9e3da66338db204c84686a9e1b09c0025057030336153df0497c40258f4a60

--Those Tennesseans are having an awfully good week. Sen. Lamar Alexander is chairman of the HELP Committee, which unanimously passed the education bill. Meanwhile, Sen. Bob Corker steered the Iran review bill through the Foreign Relations Committee, with no objections.

PAT ROBERTS' AMAZING RINGTONE - One of the more entertaining hearing interruptions in recent memory came when Sen. Pat Roberts's cell phone rang during a Senate committee hearing to the tune of "Let It Go" from the movie Frozen. That song has now been stuck in my head for nearly 24 hours, but the hilarious video is worth it. From the Washington Post:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=7d9e3da66338db20af65d0ba90711f3fcd957dd7cee8fa1be818215f02f56f92
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=7d9e3da66338db20af65d0ba90711f3fcd957dd7cee8fa1be818215f02f56f92

@dwallbank: Pat Roberts spox e-mails that he rotates the Frozen ringtone with Johnny Cash's 'I Walk the Line. Has 'Let it Go' for the grandkids.

THURSDAY'S TRIVIA WINNER - Kirtan Mehta was the first person to correctly answer that the Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty was signed in Washington on March 26, 1979 - the same day Magic Johnson led Michigan State over Larry Bird and Indiana State for the NCAA Championship. It was signed by Egyptian president Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, and witnessed by President Jimmy Carter.

TODAY'S TRIVIA - Kirtan has today's question: On the occasion of Tax Day earlier this week, in what year and under what president was the nation's first income tax enacted? The first person to correctly answer gets a mention in the next day's Huddle. Email
mailto:skim@politico.com
skim@politico.com .

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NEW ORLEANS GOES HARD-CORE TO COMBAT BLIGHT: Five years after New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu took office and got angry at the thousands of houses abandoned and rotting, roughly 4,000 houses have been demolished and 500 have been repaired.

-- "It's a different vibe," said Landrieu. "We haven't lost our sense of self. We've just added to what we were." Read more about how the Big Easy became hard-core to combat blight in the latest installment of POLITICO Magazine's 'What Works."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=7d9e3da66338db202ac073598eca8d645930846d2dc09769f7d6878023e4d864
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=7d9e3da66338db202ac073598eca8d645930846d2dc09769f7d6878023e4d864

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