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By Scott Wong (
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CURTAIN CLOSES ON CANTOR ERA - POLITICO's Jake Sherman and Anna Palmer write the majority leader's last act: "This is what the end looks like for House Majority Leader Eric Cantor. The Virginia Republican will soon trade his grand second-floor Capitol suite - with its massive conference room and flat-screen televisions displaying a Twitter feed - for a smaller hideaway somewhere in the building. Steve Scalise, the Louisianan who will be the next majority whip, already has ideas about how he'll divvy up Cantor's old space. Cantor has missed the Republican leadership meetings he once helped lead, even though they are held just steps from his office. He's even skipped some votes on the House
floor.

-- "It's an anticlimactic end to Cantor's meteoric rise. His tenure as majority leader - defined in part by opposition to Obamacare and moments of friction with fellow GOP leaders - will close quietly on Thursday. One of the most dominant figures on Capitol Hill until his shocking primary loss in June, Cantor will spend the rest of this Congress as a member of the GOP rank and file. Already, Scalise and Kevin McCarthy, the incoming majority leader, have taken on most of Cantor's responsibilities. McCarthy has coordinated with committee chairmen, and Scalise is beginning to canvass for votes. ...

-- "Cantor's colleagues are looking to usher him out of leadership with grace. McCarthy will host a reception honoring Cantor at the Capitol Hill Club that will be open only to members of Congress. Many colleagues are chipping in to help cover the costs of Cantor's sprawling political organization. Cantor's budget, since his fall from leadership, is being cut so drastically that Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) is paying to keep some of his aides employed until the end of August. ... On Tuesday, at a weekly gathering of House Republicans ... Washington state Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, the No. 4 House Republican, played a Hollywood-style highlight reel of Cantor's career. It began with a clip
of McMorris Rodgers introducing Cantor as majority leader on the House floor. The video showed Cantor's work with children and his opposition to abortion. It ended with his name and title on the screen, until it faded to black."
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-- Watch the Cantor tribute video here:
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-- INCOMING MAJORITY WHIPSTEVE SCALISE (R-La.) is wasting little time, naming staff to his new whip team and making changes in his personal office:

-- LYNNEL RUCKERT, Scalise's current chief of staff, has been named chief of staff to the Majority Whip: She's served as Scalise's top aide since he was elected in 2008.She previously worked for then-Reps. David Vitter and Bobby Jindal.

-- PARKER HAMILTON POLING, chief of staff to Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.), has been named chief of staff to the Chief Deputy Whip. He has served as McHenry's top aide since 2007 and previously worked for the House Education and the Workforce Committee and in the White House Office of Media Affairs under President George W. Bush.From 1999 to 2001, Parker was the Executive Director of the College Republican National Committee.

-- BILL HUGHES has been named policy director. He joins the whip's office from the Retail Industry Leaders Association, where he was the executive vice president of government affairs.A 27-year Capitol Hill veteran, Hughes served as policy director for House Speaker Dennis Hastert for six years and later was staff director for the Senate Republican Policy Committee and chief of staff to then-Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas).

-- In Scalise's personal office for Louisiana's 1st district: CHARLES HENRY has been named chief of staff. The New Orleans native previously served as his deputy chief of staff and has worked for Scalise since his time in the Louisiana State Legislature.

-- DARREN ACHORD has been named deputy chief of staff and legislative director. He returns to Team Scalise from Sen. Marco Rubio's office. He previously advised Scalise and Jindal on policy issues. The full list of staffing changes is here:
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SENATE PASSES BILL BUT STEPS CLOSER TO 'HIGHWAY CLIFF' - Adam Snider reports for POLITICO: "The Senate has passed a bill to rescue highway and transit funding that House Speaker John Boehner says he won't accept, keeping the specter of a 'highway cliff' alive with just days before Congress is set to leave for its August recess. With both chambers having passed different versions of the bill, lawmakers will now engage in a staring contest until one side blinks. ...

-- "The House has several options before it. Lawmakers could take up the Senate bill - as soon as Wednesday, if a 'same day' rule is used - strip it of its provisions and again paste in the text of the bill the House previously passed. It could make some modifications to the bill and send it back to the Senate. Or it could simply clear the Senate-passed bill - the least likely option of the three."
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ROBERT McDONALD was unanimously confirmed by the Senate as the new Veterans Affairs secretary. The NYT profiles him here:
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PENTAGON REVIEWING PLAGIARISM ALLEGATIONS AGAINST WALSH - Matt Pearce and Marianne LeVine report for the LA Times: "The Defense Department and the Department of the Army will be reviewing the plagiarism allegations against Sen. John Walsh of Montana, according to a spokeswoman for the U.S. Army War College, where Walsh allegedly used the work of other people in his 2007 thesis for a master's degree. The school said that because Walsh is a member of Congress and a former military serviceman, the Defense Department's Office of the Inspector General has authority to review the investigation."
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ROBERTS' TEA-PARTY FOE CLOSES THE GAP - POLITICO'S Tarini Parti has the story: "Less than a week before primary day, Kansas Republican Sen. Pat Roberts is still ahead, but he has a real race on his hands against a tea party challenger the establishment had largely written off months ago. The three-term incumbent is losing ground in polls, as he spends big on the airwaves to fight off the image of a Washington insider who lives in suburban Virginia and stays with campaign donors during his infrequent visits back home. Meanwhile, Milton Wolf, a radiologist who had never run for office, is inching closer, despite being wrapped up in a scandal after posting X-rays of deceased patients on
Facebook. The latest automated poll conducted by SurveyUSA has Roberts up by 20 points - narrower than his 33-point edge a month ago."
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GOOD WEDNESDAY MORNING, JULY 30, 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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swong@politico.com . If you don't already, please follow me on Twitter
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@scottwongDC .

My new followers include
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TODAY IN CONGRESS - The Senate meets at 9:30 a.m. and at 10:45 a.m. will hold a procedural vote on a bill that incentivizes businesses to bring jobs back to America).If cloture is not invoked, the Senate will hold a cloture vote on a bill dealing with the migrant children crisis at the border. The Senate will then consider several executive nominations.

The House is in at 10 a.m. with first votes expected between 3 and 4 p.m. and last votes between 5:30 and 6:30 p.m. on several bills considered under suspension: The bipartisan deal to reform the Veterans Affairs Department; a resolution authorizing the House to sue President Obama overstepping his duties under the Constitution; a bill to provide additional visas for the Afghan Special Immigrant Visa Program; and another that denounces the use of civilians as human shields by Hamas and other terrorist organizations in violation of international humanitarian law.

AROUND THE HILL - Rep. Donna Edwards speaks on Buy America at 9:30 a.m. at the House Triangle. Sen. Barbara Boxer, Ben Cardin and Chris Murphy speak on the EPA's proposed carbon pollution standards at 10:15 a.m. in the Senate Studio. Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, Conference Chairman Xavier Becerra and the Seniors Task Force mark the 49th Anniversary of Medicare and Medicaid at 10:30 a.m. in Cannon 234.

Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers and other GOP members speak on women and the workforce at 10:45 a.m. at the Elm Tree Site. Reps. John Conyers, Shelia Jackson Lee and others speak on the Detroit water crisis at 11 a.m. at the House Triangle. Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, Rep. Mike Kelly and others speak on EPA regulations and coal at noon at the House Triangle.

Rep. Steven Horsford and others speak on unemployment insurance at 12:30 p.m. at the Elm Tree site. Rep. Keith Ellison and others speak on the Employee Empowerment Act at 2 p.m. at the House Triangle. Reps. Mark Takano, Susan Davis and Steve Cohen speak on the PRO Students Act at 2 p.m. in Cannon 421.

DEMS PITCH LINKING IMMIGRATION REFORM WITH BORDER BILL - Burgess Everett and Seung Min Kim report for the hometown paper: "Senate Democrats are actively warning they may try to attach the Gang of Eight's comprehensive immigration reform bill to the package if House Republicans pass a pared-down funding bill for the border crisis. The complicated calculus reflects the fact that the Senate's own $3.57 billion border supplemental legislation appears unlikely to clear a procedural vote on Wednesday. So if the House is able to pass its $659 million package later this week, Senate Democrats may press to attach their sweeping 2013 immigration reform bill to the House's legislation."
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PRYOR, HAGAN BALK AT OBAMA'S EXECUTIVE ACTIONS ON BORDER - The Hill's Alexander Bolton has the story: "Democratic senators facing tough reelections want to put the brakes on President Obama's plan to reform the nation's immigration enforcement system through executive action. Two of the Senate's most vulnerable incumbents, Sens. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) and Kay Hagan (D-N.C.), say Obama should not act unilaterally to reduce deportations, arguing it's Congress's job to change the law. Slowing or halting deportations of otherwise law-abiding residents who came to the country illegally could produce a backlash in red states where Obama has low approval numbers. Furthermore, the crisis at the
southern U.S. border complicates any move to ease deportation laws. But not taking executive action could discourage Latino voters, who backed Obama and other Democratic candidates overwhelmingly in the 2012 elections and expect action on immigration reform."
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HEARING FEEDS GOP PUSH TO SHUT DOWN EX-IM BANK - Eric Brader writes for POLITICO: "House Republicans weren't satisfied with the answers they got at a Tuesday hearing on corruption allegations at the Export-Import Bank, and now they're vowing to dive deeper into the bank's records and history. Bank Chairman Fred Hochberg's tight-lipped responses and a fired employee's outright refusal to answer the questions of the House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee did not go over well with the panel's Republican members. In particular, Hochberg's insistence that he not offer up any information that could jeopardize investigations into the allegations that agency employees took gifts and
kickbacks in particular riled conservative critics, who are angling to shut the bank down."
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TWITTER SILENCES CRITICS AS USERS, STOCK PRICE SURGES - Yoree Koh reports on A1 of the WSJ: "Twitter Inc. on Tuesday quieted its doubters, at least for now, over its ability to jump-start shrinking user growth in the shadow of larger rival Facebook Inc. The San Francisco social-media company posted strong results across the board in the second quarter, reversing its fortunes from three months earlier, when it sparked concerns that its popularity had peaked. Shares surged 29% after hours to $49.62, topping their first-day closing price of $44.90. Most important to investors, Twitter showed signs its growing pains may be easing. The company reported its second straight quarter of accelerating
user growth, adding 16 million, or 6.3%, more users world-wide in the quarter who logged in at least once a month."
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WALDEN WILL SEEK 2ND TERM AS NRCC CHAIR - Abby Livingston reports for Roll Call: "National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Greg Walden announced Tuesday he will seek a second term running the House GOP's campaign arm. ... The NRCC chairman is an elected position. Conversely, the House Democratic leader selects the chairman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. ... The Oregon Republican ran unopposed for the job after the 2012 elections. In April, several Capitol Hill sources said Walden would coast to a second term if he wanted it."
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150 OBAMA NOMINEES IN LIMBO AS RECESS NEARS - Al Kamen writes in WaPo: "We're now into serious nail-biting time for about 150 nominees pending on the Senate floor to see if they'll be confirmed before the Senate slithers out of town for a five-week recess. The slow-boat route, via filing for cloture, would mean that, in the best of circumstances, only a handful of nominees would get confirmed. (Consideration of each nominee can tie up the Senate floor for hours of debate before a vote.) But administration officials are said to be in close contact with the Senate leadership on how to move as many people as possible, focusing on non-controversial nominees such as the more than two-dozen
career Foreign Service officers looking for ambassadorships."
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EX-REP. CALDWELL BUTLER DEAD AT 89 - Zach Crizer writes for the Roanoke Times: "The freshman Congressman from Roanoke was allowed 15 minutes to speak on July 25, 1974 - third in line of 38 House Judiciary Committee members conducting the hearings on impeaching President Richard Nixon. At the start, the Republican spoke graciously about Nixon, whose popularity had aided his 1972 election victory, but soon M. Caldwell Butler shifted course, revealing himself as a man unwilling to toe the party line if it wasn't the right thing to do. Butler died Tuesday, 40 years after his stand sent a signal that Nixon was certain to face impeachment over the Watergate scandal. He was 89."
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TUESDAY'S TRIVIA WINNER - Drew Thies was first to correctly answer that six American flags are on the moon. Here's more from NASA:
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TODAY'S TRIVIA - Here's a follow up from Drew Thies: Six Flags amusement park was not named for the six flags on the moon. How did the park get its name? The first person to send the correct answer to
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