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02/24/2016 07:36 AM EDT


By Lauren French (lfrench@politico.com or @laurennfrench)

Featuring Burges Everett

WHY MCCONNELL DITCHED ALL CAUTION OVER SCOTUS PICK. John Bresnahan and Burgess Everett report, "Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was on the road traveling when he heard the news that would change everything: Justice Antonin Scalia had been found dead. With the Senate in recess, Republicans scattered across the country and a GOP presidential debate scheduled for later that night, McConnell knew he had to act fast or potentially lose control of the situation. A Supreme Court nomination fight in the middle of an election could easily turn into a disaster for Republicans unless they found unity - and quickly. So without even talking to Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa)
or other members of his leadership team, McConnell laid out the Republican position within hours of the Scalia news. No Obama nominee would be approved before the election. No hearings, no vote, not even a meeting with the president's pick. The Senate would wait until voters had a say before acting." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=80bef1cd3fd8b0e65af39e3702afd060cc98e2abd17e6696add489af2b673686

SHUSTER POOLSIDE WITH AIRLINE LOBBY. A triple threat byline from Anna Palmer, Jake Sherman and John Bresnahan, "On Feb. 10, Nick Calio, head of the nation's top airline trade group, Airlines for America, testified before Rep. Bill Shuster's House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. The topic was a top priority for both men: A bill to overhaul the Federal Aviation Administration, most controversially by putting air traffic control in the hands of an entity favorable to the airlines. Two days later, Shuster's committee approved the measure. And the week after that, he and Calio escaped to Miami Beach, Florida, with Shelley Rubino, an Airlines for America vice president who is
Shuster's girlfriend.... It's the most recent example of Shuster's cozy relationship with the powerful airline association. His panel has jurisdiction over the $160 billion U.S. airline industry." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=80bef1cd3fd8b0e63c05f3f3d3bac578ee6052e882a4b31cdd9948f31a84bf8b

POLL FINDS STRONG SUPPORT FOR SCOTUS HEARINGS IN WISCONSIN, NEW HAMPSHIRE. Public Policy Polling is out with a poll this morning finding that respondents in Wisconsin and New Hampshire broadly support filling any vacancy on the Supreme Court this year - 62 percent in Wisconsin and 59 percent in New Hampshire. Those numbers could be significant for the two Republican senators representing those respective states, Sens. Ron Johnson and Kelly Ayotte. Both are up for re-election this year during a cycle that favors Democrats. The poll found that an even higher number of respondents - 78 percent in New Hampshire and 76 percent in Wisconsin - believe the Senate should consider who is nominated
before making the call for or against confirmation hearings. http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=80bef1cd3fd8b0e682547bcc5406c76845d91bde2b26a58b07e2d0a7e568c335

HAPPY Tuesday, February 24, 2016 and welcome to the Huddle. Rachael Bade will take over this spot for the rest of the week. You can find me at lfrench@politico.com and @laurennfrench on Twitter. She's at rbade@politico.com.

AROUND THE HILL - Lawmakers will attend the Congressional Gold Medal Ceremony to honor those who labored for the Voting Rights Act of 1965 during a 3 p.m. ceremony in the Capitol Visitor's Center. - The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee will hold a 10 a.m. hearing on Zika in 430 Dirksen Senate Office Building. - Sens. John McCain, Lindsey Graham and Kelly Ayotte will discuss President Barack Obama's plan to close the Guantanamo detention facility at 10 a.m. in the Senate Radio TV Gallery. - Also at 10 a.m., the Senate Democratic Steering and Outreach Committee will hold a hearing discussing the Supreme Court nomination process in 253 Russell Senate Office Building. --
Speaker Ryan and House GOP leaders hold post-Conference meeting media availability at 10 a.m. in HC-8. - Democratic Caucus Chairman Becerra and Vice-Chairman Crowley will hold a post-meeting availability at 10 a.m. in HVC-210.

** A message from Lifeline Facts Campaign: Since its establishment during the Reagan Administration, and as administered by the FCC, Lifeline has offered low-income Americans discounted phone service. It connects individuals to employers, serves our nation's veterans, provides access to healthcare and first responders, works to close the digital divide, and more. Get the facts at www.LifelineFacts.com **

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REPUBLICANS PLAN GITMO TRIP. Burgess Everett and Jeremy Herb report, "Two leading Senate Republican critics of President Barack Obama's plan to close Guantánamo Bay will head to the prison next week as the GOP mounts a full-throated effort to block the president's proposal. Sens. Jerry Moran of Kansas and Cory Gardner of Colorado will lead a day-long congressional delegation trip to the military base in Cuba, according to a Senate GOP aide. The two senators are longtime opponents of Obama's efforts to close the prison and potentially relocate terrorist suspects to facilities in their states. Congressional Republicans universally rejected Obama's plan for closing the U.S. military
prison at Guantanamo Bay on Tuesday, but Gardner and Moran have special reason to loathe it: They represent two of the three states where Pentagon officials evaluated possible U.S. sites to move Guantanamo detainees." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=80bef1cd3fd8b0e687f0a563cd53af3e6eeb9fd898b205924d2ba216b93af19a

CLINTON STAFF CAN BE QUESTIONED. Rachael Bade and Josh Gerstein, "A federal judge on Tuesday ruled that top Hillary Clinton staff should be questioned under oath about her use of a private email - another potential setback to the Democratic frontrunner's effort to leave the email controversy behind. U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan granted a motion for discovery filed by Judicial Watch, which sued the State Department for Clinton-related documents and is now arguing there is "reasonable suspicion" that Clinton or State staff tried to thwart the Freedom of Information Act. That law requires all work emails to be archived in a government systems for public view."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=80bef1cd3fd8b0e66480b3e7725239abc3096a0528cddbcc4f030e170211ad0b

APPLE WANTS CONGRESS TO DECIDE ON PHONE UNLOCKING.... Tami Abdollah with the Associated Press writes, "Apple Inc. will tell a federal judge this week in legal papers that its fight with the FBI over accessing a locked and encrypted iPhone should be kicked to Congress, rather than decided by courts, The Associated Press has learned. Apple will also argue that the Obama administration's request to help it hack into an iPhone in a terrorism case is improper under an 18th-century law, the 1789 All Writs Act, which has been used to compel companies to help law enforcement in investigations." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=80bef1cd3fd8b0e6284bdd38e0bf5d1ca20fdc5fc13b7cf37698854586be69aa

...BOTH SIDES COULD SOON MAKE THEIR CASE. Tony Romm has the story, "Congress is fraught with great political risk for both Apple and the Justice Department. For every lawmaker like Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), a loud, vocal privacy advocate who has lambasted the government for its iPhone request, there are national security hawks like Sens. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) and Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who lead their chamber's Intelligence Committee and have proposed bills to help government crack secure communications. That tension will likely be on full display March 1, when the House Judiciary Committee is set to hold a hearing on encryption of tech devices - a major sticking point between Silicon
Valley and the feds. Apple and the FBI have been invited, but it's not clear yet if Apple plans to testify." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=80bef1cd3fd8b0e68cc478a28953437e1258c86f58af8cbf9bbd40a9e8ddf570

TUESDAY'S TRIVIA WINNER - Wilson Golden correctly answered that Justice Frank Murphy was the first SCOTUS appointee to take his Constitutional Oath at the White House. It occurred in 1940.

TODAY'S TRIVIA - Wilson has today's question: George Washington was the first president to travel abroad - though, admittedly, he didn't do it while in office. Where did he go? When did he travel? And who was his companion? The first person to correctly answer gets a mention in the next day's Huddle. E-mail lfrench@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=80bef1cd3fd8b0e607bc161c7e3c4a6f30a8869220bba1c6639c95b23896fd1d

** A message from Lifeline Facts Campaign: Despite its enormous value to low-income Americans, participation in Lifeline continues to be low, with only 27% of qualified individuals enrolled in the program. New barriers, such as a copay requirement, would further remove access to this basic need for many low-income Americans. In fact, FCC pilot programs have shown that even a modest copay requirement would drastically reduce Lifeline participation because many recipients cannot pay - either because they cannot afford the charge or because they do not have bank accounts from which to pay the fee.

Lifeline Facts Campaign supports the FCC's efforts to improve and modernize Lifeline and opposes the creation of barriers to participation for those who need the program most. Sign the petition to protect the program and become a member of Team Lifeline at http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=80bef1cd3fd8b0e63d634407128da5bc498e804a29480019b92b9eea5dc75b37 **

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