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By Scott Wong (
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NEW CIA EMAILS REVEAL TENSION OVER TERRORISM PROBE -- Our own Josh Gerstein has the exclusive following Tuesday's very public brawl between the Senate and CIA: "Internal Central Intelligence Agency e-mails detail misgivings about an in-house review of aggressive, Bush-era interrogations of terrorism suspects and show how that inquiry was curtailed by a separate Justice Department probe, according to the documents obtained by POLITICO. The e-mails appear to discuss the same internal review at the core of a unusual public row between the CIA and lawmakers that escalated dramatically Tuesday when Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein delivered a blistering floor speech
accusing the agency of trying to thwart oversight and possibly undermining the Constitution by spying on the work of Senate aides. ...

-- "Several former CIA officials said they believe the heavily-redacted e-mails, which are marked as 'unclassified/AIUO,' meaning for 'administrative, internal use only' and released to POLITICO under the Freedom of Information Act, refer to that review. The e-mails show worries about the political atmosphere surrounding the review, concerns over the backgrounds of CIA personnel assigned conducting it and suggest the scope of the project was reined in.

-- "'SRT [Senior Review Team] did as good a job as it could given the very rough political environment,' one CIA e-mail says. 'The only thing I would have changed that could cause us problems in the future is that when [redacted] and I arrived there were too many folks who had been involved in the program working in the Task Force. For obvious reasons, I believe that no CTC [Counter Terrorism Center] employees who had been involved in the program should have been assigned to SRT.'"
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-- FEINSTEIN COMES OUT SWINGING, ACCUSES CIA OF SPYING ON SENATE: "The chairman of the Senate intelligence committee levied an extraordinary barrage of criticism against the Central Intelligence Agency, saying it may have violated the Constitution and U.S. laws by spying on a congressional review early this year," report on A1 of the Wall Street Journal. "Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D., Calif.) said in a speech from the Senate floor that the CIA had conducted improper searches of committee computers being used by staff members. The CIA director quickly rebuffed that accusation, saying a Justice Department review would show no wrongdoing. Nonetheless, the harsh critique was all the more stinging
because it came from a Democratic leader and pro-intelligence lawmaker who is usually an ally of the CIA. ...

-- "Ms. Feinstein charged Tuesday that the CIA, without any prior notification, had searched Senate committee computers in a secure location in northern Virginia that aides were using to review CIA documents on the agency's program to interrogate terror suspects. The CIA also searched a separate network drive containing the staffers' work and internal messages, she said. 'I have grave concerns that the CIA's search may well have violated the separation-of-powers principles embodied in the U.S. Constitution,' undermining the ability of Congress to effectively oversee the administration, Ms. Feinstein said. 'How this will be resolved will show whether the intelligence committee
can be effective in monitoring and investigating our nation's intelligence activities, or whether our work can be thwarted by those we oversee.'"
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-- CIA DIRECTOR JOHN BRENNAN denied that his agency had hacked into Senate computers. "When the facts come out on this, I think a lot of people who are claiming that there has been this tremendous sort of spying and monitoring and hacking will be proved wrong,' Brennan told NBC's Andrea Mitchell at a Council of Foreign Relations event.

** Presented by RepealSGR.org: Congress has bipartisan/bicameral legislation to repeal the SGRand reform the Medicare physician payment system. This new system will be sustainable, fair and efficient, secure patient access, and encourage quality, affordable care. Republican and Democratic Leadership in Congress need to continue working together to develop bipartisan pay-fors.
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FLORIDA LOSS A BLOW TO DEMS' 2014 HOPES - Alex Isenstadt reports for the hometown paper: "The Florida special election Tuesday was supposed to be an ideal chance for Democrats to show that 2014 isn't a lost year. Instead, they were dealt another body blow, further weakening their prospects for this year's midterms. Democrats couldn't have asked for a more golden opportunity.

-- "They had the right candidate matchup: Alex Sink, a respected former statewide official who nearly won the governorship in 2010, up against a former lobbyist, Republican David Jolly. They had the right district: A swing region of Florida that appeared poised to elect a Democrat after more than four decades of GOP representation. And they certainly had the money ... In the end, it wasn't enough. Jolly won by 3,456 votes. And he did it by playing a hand Republicans across the country are expected to follow: Run as an opponent to the president's unpopular health care law and the Democrat as for it."
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HUDDLE FIRST LOOK: SEN. CHUCK GRASSLEY (R-IOWA) will introduce a resolution today to stop what he calls "cloture abuse," the growing practice of filing cloture to end the consideration of a bill before the bill has been considered. He's already received backing from 25 Republican co-sponsors, but no Democrats have signed on yet. "Cloture is supposed to be used after the Senate has considered a measure for a period of time and a preponderance of the Senate thinks it has deliberated enough," Grassley will say in a floor speech today. "Cloture should not be used to prevent any meaningful deliberation from taking place." Read the bill here:
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http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=a7d7ca8e3ebc45c534477cea2aec40ec5089166efadfe0dec747634c0f269711 Graphic on the growth of same-day cloture filings:
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HAPPENING AT 11:30 TODAY: House GOP Conference Chairwoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers hosts CEOs in her Cannon office, which was redesigned to model a Silicon Valley startup with brightly colored paint, whiteboard walls, and an innovation lounge. Those representing the Technology CEO Council include: Greg Brown (Motorola Solutions); Ursula Burns (Xerox); Michael Dell (Dell); Mark Durcan (Micron); Paul Jacobs (Qualcomm); Brian Krzanich (Intel); Ginni Rometty (IBM); and Joe Tucci (EMC).

PRESIDENT OBAMA on Thursday will try to force businesses to pay more overtimeto certain workers, including fast-food managers, loan officers and computer technicians, the New York Times reports.
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SENATE FOREIGN RELATIONS CHAIRMAN ROBERT MENENDEZ outlined his Ukraine bill in a Washington Post op-ed today, the same day he and other senators are set to meet with Ukraine Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk. The package is a blend of aid and sanctions: "Today, our concern is for Ukraine. Tomorrow, it could be for Georgia again or perhaps Moldova, two nations waiting to finalize their association agreements with the European Union, a process Ukraine had been engaged in to the displeasure of the Russian government. Putin has miscalculated by starting a game of Russian roulette with the international community, but we refuse to blink, and we will never accept this violation of international
law."

--The bill will get marked up at 2:30 p.m. today by the Foreign Relations Committee:

-- "It providesfor loan guaranteesfor Ukraine, consistent with the $1 billion announced by the Obama administration in recent days and mirroring just-passed House legislation."

-- "It directsthe Obama administration to assist the Ukrainian government in identifying, securing and recovering assets linked to acts of corruption by former prime minister Viktor Yanukovych, members of his family or other former or current Ukrainian government officials."

-- "It imposes sanctions on Russians complicit in or responsible for significant corruption in Ukraine."

-- "It includes needed reforms to the United States' participation in the International Monetary Fund, which would allow Washington to leverage significant support from the IMF for Ukraine today and for similar crises in the future."
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THE HOUSE VOTED 402-7 to pass a resolution condemning Russia "for using military force to secure Ukraine's Crimean peninsula," The Hill reports.
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GOOD WEDNESDAY MORNING, MARCH 12, 2014, and welcome to The Huddle, your play-by-play preview of all the action on Capitol Hill. Send tips, suggestions, comments, complaints and corrections to
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TODAY IN CONGRESS - The Senate meets at 9:30 a.m. and at 10:30 a.m. will hold a roll call vote on the nomination of six judges and Sarah Bloom Raskin to be a Deputy Secretary of the Treasury. After that, the Senate will turn to the Child Care and Development Block Grant Act.

The House is in at 10 a.m. with first votes expected between 1:30 and 2:30 p.m. and last votes between 4:30 and 5:30 p.m. on the ENFORCE the Law Act. The House also will begin consideration of the Faithful Execution of the Law Act.

AROUND THE HILL - House Democrats hold a caucus meeting at 9 a.m. in HVC-215 but no press availability is planned. Progressive Caucus Co-Chairs Keith Ellison and Raul Grijalva unveil their alternative budget at 10 a.m. in HVC Studio B. Speaker John Boehner and other GOP leaders hold a post-conference availability at 10 a.m. in HC-8. Reps. Raul Labrador, Jim Jordan, Justin Amash, Michele Bachmann and other lawmakers join a "Conversations with Conservatives" event at 11 a.m. in Rayburn 2226. Reps. Walter Jones and Stephen Lynch speak on their resolution to declassify 9/11 documents, at 11:30 a.m. in Cannon 5C. Rep. Rosa DeLauro and Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch hold a press briefing
on Korea FTA lessons learned at noon in Rayburn B-369.

Sens. Jeff Flake and Chris Coons and Intel Corp. CEO Brian Krzanich discuss ways to strengthen the Democratic Republic of Congo, at noon in Russell 385. Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and other Democratic leaders speak on their unemployment insurance discharge petition at 1:15 p.m. at the Will Rogers statue. House Foreign Affairs Chairman Ed Royce hosts a Korean National Assembly delegation at 3 p.m. in Rayburn 2200. Sen. Bob Menendez and members of the Foreign Relations Committee meet with Ukraine Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk at 6:40 p.m. in S-116.

ZETA HOUSE - "'It's a sisterhood': Away from family, congresswomen share home, friendship." Eun Kyung Kim writes for NBC News' "Today": "Rep. Carolyn Maloney sits on powerful financial committees in the House of Representatives. But in another house, a three-story town home just blocks away, she wields power as landlord to a pair of fellow lawmakers. 'It's a sisterhood, for sure,' said Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, one of the two women who share Maloney's home on Capitol Hill.Congressional lawmakers are frequently seeking an affordable place to crash while serving in Washington, away from their homes and district offices. That's why it made sense for Maloney, a New
York Democrat, to rent out the bedrooms of her Washington home to fellow lawmakers in need, Wasserman Schultz of Florida and Rep. Terri Sewell of Alabama. ...

-- "The living arrangement has been compared to a similar, albeit slightly more disheveled gathering of their three male counterparts: Rep. George Miller of California, U.S. Sens. Chuck Schumer of New York and Dick Durbin of Illinois. The Amazon online series, 'Alpha House,' was loosely based on the congressional crash pad that the three men have shared for dozens of years.Maloney stressed there aren't many other similarities the two homes share. 'They're the Alpha House, we're the Zeta House,' she said. 'They're tequila, we're more green tea.'"
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TRANSITIONS - MARK PRENTICE starts Thursday as press secretary for Americans for Responsible Solutions, the gun-violence prevention group founded by former Rep. Gabby Giffords and her husband, astronaut Mark Kelly. Prentice had been press secretary for Rep. Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.).

-- ELIZABETH CRADDOCK has been appointed by Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chairwoman Mary Landrieu as her committee staff director, POLITICO's Darren Goode reports. Craddock has been with the Louisiana Democrat since 2006 and is the first woman to lead the energy committee's majority staff. Landrieu aides Caroline Bruckner and David Gillers also will serve in senior roles on the committee, according to Landrieu's office. Craddock previously worked for Reps. Karen Thurman and Dale Kildee.

-- RACHEL HICKS has been promoted to press secretary for Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.). The North Carolina native previously had managed Burr's digital communications. (h/t: Greg Crist)

SENATORS GRILL NSA NOMINEE - Darren Samuelsohn reports for POLITICO: "Talk about an early introduction to the hot seat. More than a dozen senators pressed Vice Adm. Mike Rogers - President Barack Obama's pick to lead the National Security Agency - for his views Tuesday on government surveillance overreach and the continued fallout from Edward Snowden's stolen secret documents. Making his first public appearance since Obama tapped him in January to succeed retiring NSA Director Gen. Keith Alexander, Rogers told the Senate Armed Services Committee that Snowden's leaks threatened Americans' lives and posed 'significant risk, damage and consequence.' Pressed by Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of
West Virginia on whether he'd describe Snowden as a traitor, though, Rogers [replied:] 'I don't know that I'd use the word traitor, but I certainly do not consider him to be a hero,' said Rogers, currently the Navy's top cyber official."
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JOHNSON, CRAPO REACH DEAL TO REPLACE FANNIE, FREDDIE - Jon Prior and Kevin Cirilli report for POLITICO: "The leaders of the Senate Banking Committee have reached a bipartisan agreement on how to overhaul the housing finance market - now they face the challenge of building a broad base of support to establish their legislation as the leading proposal for getting rid of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. What to do with the two mortgage finance giants has bedeviled policymakers since the government took over the companies in September 2008 as the housing market cratered and the financial crisis neared its zenith. The plan announced on Tuesday by Banking Committee Chairman Tim Johnson (D-S.D.) and
the panel's top Republican, Mike Crapo of Idaho, represents a centrist approach in which the government will still play a role in supporting the mortgage market but less of one than it does today."
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CONGRESS NIXES CONVENTION CASH, SENDS MONEY TO PEDIATRIC RESEARCH - Molly Hooper writes for The Hill: "Taxpayer money will no longer be used to pay for presidential political conventions if President Obama signs a bill that is headed for his desk. In a Congress that has been defined by intense partisanship, the parties came together to pass legislation that directs $126 million over 10 years to pediatric research. The funds will be taken from the presidential election campaign fund and directed toward the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The bill's passage marks a major victory for House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), who shepherded the 'Gabriella Miller Kids First Research Act'
through Congress."
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TUESDAY'S TRIVIA WINNER - Drew Thies was first to correctly answer that Belva Ann Lockwood was the first woman allowed to practice law before the Supreme Court.

TODAY'S TRIVIA - Jim Dykstra has a fun question today: Provide the full name of the Major League pitcher who was named after a president, Roman emperor and a city in Oklahoma.The first person to correctly answer gets a mention in the next day's Huddle. Email me at
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** Presented by RepealSGR.org: Bipartisan/bicameral legislation to repeal the failed Medicare cost control formula called the Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR), and reform the Medicare physician payment system, has been introduced. The bill would create a system that is sustainable, fair and efficient, secure patient access and encourage quality, affordable care. SGR threatens patient access with drastic Medicare provider cuts. Physicians face constant instability, demonstrated by the 23.7 percent cut to physician payments scheduled for April 1. Congress has spent over $154 billion - more than the cost of the legislation - on 16 short term patches in the last decade. These patches are the
equivalent of paying the minimum on a credit card - it delays the inevitable, increases the total bill and is bad for the budget. Republican and Democratic Leadership need to continue working together to develop bipartisan pay-fors so the House and Senate can pass S.2000/H.R. 4015, by March 31.
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