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03/09/2016 06:44 AM EDT


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

SENATE CLOSES IN ON FLINT DEAL - Your Huddle author has the latest with Darren Goode: "With the political spotlight squarely on the water catastrophe plaguing Flint, Michigan, key senators hammering out an aid package for the beleaguered city said they were on the cusp of a deal Tuesday after being bogged down by partisan and procedural obstacles. Hillary Clinton has focused relentlessly on the Flint water crisis in her bid to win over Michigan voters - who went to the polls Tuesday - by visiting the city, demanding a Democratic debate there and, on Sunday, ultimately following the lead of Bernie Sanders in calling on Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder to resign."

--"It's the kind of national attention, Democrats argue, that could help revive the stalled aid measure - even as some Republicans threw up objections to the package and a bipartisan energy bill was nearly derailed over the Flint fight in the Senate. 'It's a national story, even an international story,' Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said ... Sen. Mike Lee, who announced his hold on the package last week due to his concerns about new spending in the proposal that would offer at least $850 million in loans and other aid, signaled Tuesday that he may relinquish his hold. Lee, a Utah Republican, and Michigan's two Democratic senators indicated that they were close to an agreement
that would let votes on the water infrastructure aid package proceed." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=c44fa2ead645c57da4ae80cecc49d8fc32696a8d824e883a9d3ac334560b9afc

DEMS RIP CORNYN OVER 'PINATA' COMMENT - AP's Matthew Daly has the latest volley in the furious SCOTUS wars raging in the Senate: "Democrats accused Republicans on Tuesday of taking their cues from Donald Trump after the Senate's No. 2 Republican said President Barack Obama's nominee to the Supreme Court should expect to be treated like a 'piñata.' Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid said Republicans were 'acting like big, tough people threatening to destroy the reputation of a Supreme Court nominee they haven't even met yet.'"

--"Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said [Senate Majority Whip John] Cornyn's comment sounded like a threat made by Trump, 'except I don't think he speaks Spanish.' Cornyn said Tuesday that his comparison of the nomination and confirmation process to a piñata was 'only to say the confirmation process around here has gotten pretty tough.'" http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=c44fa2ead645c57d478e4be54d7fb12553f4c79ed4dee393a418b6ecb3d725f0

--CNN's Ted Barrett -- dominating the SCOTUS piñata beat - finds a decade-old tape that has Cornyn complaining about Democrats treating then-nominee Sam Alito as, you guessed it, a "piñata." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=dac69a37a7db636d633f89e59e99ee5531f40d433dbfd56d0af62a8a39b2341b Meanwhile, Patty Judge - who is vying for the Democratic nomination in the Iowa Senate race against Judiciary chair Chuck Grassley - hit up the Senate Dem lunches Tuesday: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=c44fa2ead645c57d7c66058b05c53abb998b600377c0279851c7c2cce9d25ab8

VIDEO OF THE DAY - Harry Reid answers a reporter's ringing iPhone at Tuesday mics. Sources tell Huddle that was Wall Street Journal reporter Siobhan Hughes' phone: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=c44fa2ead645c57dc984ebfb410d27904d0fa974a3b06374293a032efe8ee917

GOP PREDICTS POLITICAL PAIN FOR SCOTUS NOMINEE - The Hill's Alex Bolton: "Republicans are promising that anyone nominated to the Supreme Court by President Obama is in for a rough ride. Senate GOP Whip John Cornyn (Texas) warns a nominee will be a 'piñata,' while third-ranking Senate Republican John Thune (S.D.) promises a 'process without an end.'"

--"Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) says he has 'no clue' why anyone would want to subject themselves and their family to the intense scrutiny of a Supreme Court confirmation process under such conditions. 'I notice the governor of Nevada quickly removed himself from consideration, showing there are no dummies in Las Vegas. They know the odds,' he said." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=c44fa2ead645c57d2598bbceab59107405a53d0e8d8560a170e0682ab7367f69

--Huddle predicts more SCOTUS fireworks at today's Senate Judiciary later this morning, although the main witness, Attorney General Loretta Lynch, took herself out of the running yesterday. Hearing begins at 9:30 a.m. POLITICO's Josh Gerstein has more on why Lynch bowed out: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=c44fa2ead645c57d144fde7ff8f11f80bbbef8177eb017673eeea50d24b134ed

--Lynch doesn't seem to have been in serious consideration in recent days, anyway. But the people who are, according to NPR's Nina Totenberg, include Chief Judge Merrick Garland of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, D.C. Circuit Judge Sri Srinivasan, Ninth Circuit Judge Paul Watford, Eighth Circuit Judge Jane Kelly and U.S. District Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson. They are all among the people being interviewed by Obama in recent days, Totenberg reports: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=c44fa2ead645c57dc1dbc59a18900329295afa162648975311b1593316c5d3f2

MCCONNELL WILL STICK TO BUDGET DEAL - WaPo's Kelsey Snell: "Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Tuesday that the upper chamber plans to soon begin writing spending bills based on a bipartisan budget agreement reached in December that would boost spending this year by $30 billion. House conservatives are pushing their leaders to abandon that deal ...[n]ow, Senate Republicans' patience is running thin with their House colleagues.

-" 'We will be using the top line that was agreed to last year in order to move forward on the Senate appropriations bills,' McConnell told reporters. McConnell's decision means that the House will have to accept the terms of the 2015 budget agreement or start work on spending bills with a lower overall funding cap - a move that all but ensures another round of messy negotiations later this year over how to keep the government funded." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=c44fa2ead645c57d331e4191c875819cf339c8cecfcdf99394d849f61c3184ef

TRANSITIONS - Phillips Hinch has joined the office of Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) as senior policy adviser. Before Collins, Hinch served as senior economic policy adviser for Rep. Tom Reed (R-N.Y.) overseeing tax, pensions, trade and financial services policy, as well as for the Financial Planning Association, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and the House Ways and Means Committee.

** A message from Managed Funds Association: Hedge funds are part of the financially regulated mainstream. Fund managers and their activities are monitored by the SEC and CFTC in the U.S. and well-regulated by several EU regulatory laws and individual Member State authorities. To learn more, visit www.hedgefundamentals.org **

WELCOME TO WEDNESDAY! It's March 09, 2016 and you're reading the Huddle. I'm at skim@politico.com, and please follow me on Twitter at @seungminkim.

My new followers include @jayminwang and @CBNNews.

TODAY IN CONGRESS - The Senate is in at 9:30 a.m. and will resume working on the opioid bill. There will be up to three votes on the measure starting at noon. The House is taking a really, really long lunch break.

AROUND THE HILL - Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) will join seniors and veterans for a press conference at noon on the Seniors and Veterans Emergency Benefits Act at the Senate swamp. Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) and immigration advocates will hold a news conference to discuss the Supreme Court case on Obama's executive actions on immigration at 12:30 p.m. in S-120.

CRUZ STILL NOT WINNING OVER SENATORS - Bloomberg's Sahil Kapur: Sen. Ted Cruz is "getting no support from U.S. Senate colleagues even though he's less than 100 delegates behind Trump, and about 150 delegates ahead of Marco Rubio, who has won just two states out of 20 so far. 'It's surely significant that not a single Republican senator has endorsed him, including very conservative senators,' Senator Susan Collins of Maine told reporters. When Alabama Senator Richard Shelby was asked, he offered a curt reply: 'I'm going to lunch.'"

--"When asked why the Texan lacks Senate support, [Senate Republicans'] answers ranged from awkward chuckles and long silences to no-comments and briskly walking into a senators-only elevator to evade the question. 'I think it's a whole list of things,' said Indiana Senator Dan Coats, telling Bloomberg Politics that 'everybody knows why' Cruz doesn't have any Senate supporters." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=c44fa2ead645c57d0dc36f9a63ad2c541d7f5859fc956ff0b1629df4acd3a409

--Or, the HuffPo take: "Senate GOP Tries To Like Ted Cruz The Way You Have To Hug Your Sweaty Cousin" http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=c44fa2ead645c57dbdf2ea7b8b3b4a411394264edf53f86a134171be17c3ceb5

HILL DEMS DEFEND OBAMA ON IMMIGRATION - Your Huddle author has the scoop: "More than 200 Democrats are backing a new amicus brief that will be filed later Tuesday with the high court, arguing the controversial actions Obama took in November 2014 that could defer deportations and grant work permits to more than 4 million immigrants in the United States illegally are both legal and constitutional. The renewed effort from Democrats comes as House Republicans are also mulling whether to get involved in the high-stakes case."

--"The new amicus brief from Democrats also delves deeper into a new legal question that the Supreme Court will consider: whether Obama violated the 'Take Care' clause, which essentially calls on the president to 'take care' that laws are faithfully executed. Democrats are insisting that Obama is not violating the 'Take Care' clause because the executive actions are well within the authority of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, whose sprawling agency oversees immigration matters." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=c44fa2ead645c57d001651b2dd027ca513c2d21a416b48465a7ca1c5d079b69e

GRASSLEY: SENATE 'VERY CLOSE' TO SENTENCING DEAL - The Hill's Mike Lillis: "Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) on Tuesday said revisions to a bipartisan bill passed by his panel last year would be unveiled 'soon.' He predicted the amended package would attract enough support to reach President Obama's desk. 'We feel that we're very, very close,' Grassley said during a criminal justice conference at the Georgetown University Law Center in Washington." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=c44fa2ead645c57d9654c2a44d9eb88a1f8a5079508fbb567bc7a686825d7e99

THE NRSC'S UNFORTUNATE DUCKWORTH TWEET - NBC's Frank Thorp: "The National Republican Senatorial Committee, the organization responsible for helping to elect Republicans to the Senate, is coming under fire for a now-deleted tweet that said Democratic Congresswoman Tammy Duckworth 'has a sad record of not standing up for our veterans.' Duckworth, who is challenging Senator Mark Kirk (R-IL), is a double amputee Iraq war veteran."

--"The NRSC deleted the tweet within minutes, but did not apologize, saying instead, 'It would be great if reporters would pay as much attention to a deleted tweet as they should to Tammy Duckworth being sued by VA whistleblowers for ignoring claims of mistreatment and corruption.'" http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=c44fa2ead645c57dad78479fb6acba3cda360c0353ceb9f1cec21e5006589cf7

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TUESDAY'S TRIVIA WINNER - Andrew Smith was the first person to correctly answer that the first electronic vote on the House floor was on Jan. 23, 1973, and it was a quorum call as part of the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1970.

TODAY'S TRIVIA - Andrew has today's question: Guam is in the next slate of states and territories to cast their primary ballots this Saturday. In 2012, Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul combined for how many of the territory's 215 votes cast at caucus? The first person to correctly answer gets a mention in the next day's Huddle. E-mail skim@politico.com.

GET HUDDLE emailed to your Blackberry, iPhone or other mobile device each morning. Just enter your email address where it says "Sign Up." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=dac69a37a7db636de1e15260fd2163ebadb5d01364d2b42f48069268a9cf7c64


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