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By Burgess Everett (@burgessev or
mailto:beverett@politico.com
beverett@politico.com )

Featuring Manu Raju

BUDGET A BIG WIN FOR HOUSE GOP: And it's likely to be followed by another one today with bipartisan approval of a PERMANENT fix to one of Congress's reliable cliffs. Jake, Bres and new Hill Team member Rachael Bade, take it away: "GOP leaders sounded confident throughout the day on Wednesday. They didn't even huddle with their members before the vote on the 2016 budget resolution. In a complicated parliamentary procedure that saw six different budget plans voted on, the House first adopted a GOP-leadership backed proposal that includes $20 billion in military spending beyond what the Budget Committee had approved last week. ... The vote on that proposal - known as 'Price 2,' after Budget
Committee chairman Tom Price (R-Ga.) - was 219-208. Then, in a final vote, the House approved a budget resolution by a 228-199 margin."
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UP TODAY -- DOC FIX: The Boehner-Pelosi compromise is expected to pass the House today. And though we are hearing there are objections from individual senators on a quick vote this week, which may push final passage until mid-April, eventually Senate Democrats are probably going to have to swallow it despite their opposition to abortion language. Jen Haberkorn: "President Barack Obama put pressure on Democrats on Wednesday when he said he looks forward to signing a 'good bipartisan bill' to change the Medicare formula and permanently put an end to the 'doc fixes' that Congress has passed for years. Endorsements also came from a wide swath of outside groups, such as the Center for American
Progress and nearly every physician, hospital and health advocacy group."
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Boehner makes the case: The speaker writes in National Review a few hours ahead of his (expected) triumph that "this would be the first real entitlement reform in nearly two decades, and that's a big win for conservatives."
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WILL SENATE GOP GET A BIG BUDGET WIN TODAY? Probably. While GOP leaders are confident they have the votes, they are watching their right flank -- and potential presidential hopefuls -- carefully. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell can only afford to lose three votes, and many expect Sens. Rand Paul and Ted Cruz to vote against it. A like-minded conservative, Mike Lee of Utah, will be pivotal as well -- but he refused to say Wednesday how he would vote. 'Not right now,' Lee snapped when asked if he would back the budget resolution. The votes of other 2016 hopefuls are also hanging in the balance. Sen. Marco Rubio isdemanding the Senate adopt his amendment with Sen. Tom Cotton to
significantly ramp up defense spending. 'We'll see how it plays out after that,' Rubio said. 'I haven't conditioned my vote on that amendment but I certainly want to see it passed.'

BUT FIRST, THE VOTEARAMA: Expect 12+ hours of voting on budget amendments in the Senate today, where McConnell is likely to leverage the fatigue factor to get the budget across the finish line sometime after midnight. Perhaps 100, or more, amendments will be considered in the interim, including raising the minimum wage, Iran sanctions, protecting pregnant workers from discrimination and tax credits for undocumented immigrants. Seung Min and I have the viewers guide: "The Senate's famous budget 'vote-a-rama' on Thursday won't change any laws - far from it, it's a daylong, only-in-Congress charade, the main purpose of which is to make the other party look bad and score political points. And
yet it has the potential to be among the most consequential days in Congress this year. Some of the roll calls are bound to show up in campaign ads and talking points and floor speeches: Just ask Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), who was attacked by her GOP opponent, Scott Brown, two weeks before her 2014 reelection for voting to 'pave the way' for a carbon tax, a vote that was more than 18 months old at the time. 'So many attacks are not based in the substance of what we do here,' Shaheen sighed when reminded of Brown's broadside."
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DIAMETRICALLY OPPOSED DEMS -- No labels? Could McConnell get a vote from Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia in a pinch? It's possible: He is refusing to rule out voting for the Republicans' budget today. I have a hard time believing it, but he was asked several different ways if he is ruling out a vote for the GOP. "I'm considering looking at everything. I always have. I'll look at everything," Manchin said before delivering this gem: "I'm still an old stuck in the rug, Bowles and Simpson guy." Maybe if it's 2 a.m. and McConnell is short a vote then Manchin votes for it, otherwise it's hard to see.

Lonely Democrat: On the same side of the aisle but a few rows down, why, we asked Sen. Tom Carper, did you vote for the president's budget when it's clearly an exercise aimed at getting everyone to vote against it."I looked at the Republican budget," Carper said, surveying its cuts. "Then I looked at the president's budget and the kind of investments it made ... And I said: 'I think that's a better plan, somebody, at least one person should vote for it.'" Carper later jabbed Sen. John Cornyn, the engineer of that vote, and told Cornyn that he didn't vote for it out of loyalty for Obama. 'I said: 'No John, this is you. Somebody should vote for your motion.'"

**A message from the American Medical Association: The Deadline is Looming. It's time to repeal Medicare's SGR formula and put patient care first by passing H.R. 2.The current Medicare physician payment patch expires on March 31, 2015.Visit
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=f33744048557678bf97e45f0edbba6657c4419c79fc80beb4a784bdd2e175ad1
www.fixmedicarenow.org to see how you can help make significant reforms in how Medicare pays physicians that focus on value and efficiency. **

Recess is looming -- but first you have to get through Thursday. Welcome to the Huddle, your play-by-play guide to everything Capitol Hill, where spring is set to pay us a visit this evening, if only for a few hours. Please send tips to
mailto:beverett@politico.com
beverett@politico.com and follow along on Twitter @burgessev.

TODAY IN CONGRESS - The Senate is in at 9:30 a.m. and will then move onto the budget votearama at noon. It will last at least 12 hours. The House is in at 9 a.m. and will beginning voting around 10 a.m., wrapping up work on SGR around 1 p.m. or so.

AROUND THE HILL - At 9:30 a.m. Sens. James Lankford and Heidi Heitkamp will discuss cutting red tape in the Senate studio. At 10:45 a.m. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi will hold her weekly press conference in HVC Studio A. At 11 a.m. Minority Whip Steny Hoyer and Rep. Luis Gutierrez will talk immigration in HVC Studio B. At 11:30 a.m. House Speaker John Boehner will hold his press conference in Studio A.

OFF THE HILL: Former House Rules Committee Chairman David Dreier will talk immigration and STEM visas at the Brookings Institution at 1775 Massachusetts Ave. NW.

WEDNESDAY'S MOST CLICKED LINK: Lauren and Seung Min's story about the Hell No Caucus saying Yes to the budget was the big winner.

VITTER AMENDMENT BIND: The Senate Republicans voted unanimously to employ the Vitter amendment upon their staffs in December, forcing them all on the Obamacare exchanges. Except that non binding caucus decision had no teeth, and several GOP offices are ignoring the directive, per a nice and exhaustive National Journal report, which surveyed 20 GOP committees. "Eight declined to comment, either explicitly or by ducking a month's worth of phone calls and emails. Eight replied saying their staffs bought insurance through Washington's small-business exchange. At least four committees still allow their employees access to the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program, just as they did
before the Affordable Care Act was passed ... one has committed to moving his staff off of the program and onto an exchange." That's Pat Roberts; Susan Collins, Mike Enzi and Thad Cochran have no such plans.
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AWKWARD SPOT FOR MENENDEZ: While it's assumed that all 46 Senate Democrats will vote attorney general nominee Loretta Lynch, Sen. Robert Menendez hasn't committed to back her confirmation to run the Justice Department, even as the department is preparing to charge him with corruption within days. In a brief interview Wednesday, Menendez said he was undecided on Lynch's nomination. "I'll decide that when she gets to the floor," Menendez said. Asked if he's spoken to Lynch about the federal criminal investigation into his relationship with a donor, Menendez said: "I did not meet with her, and I haven't talked with her." Manu Raju and I:
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NEW JERSEY GOP PLAYS HARDBALL ON CUBA: Three Garden State Republicans are officially throwing down the gauntlet on President Obama's Cuba policy, instructing appropriators "to withhold necessary funding to fulfill the diplomatic process unless the Cuban government agrees to extradite copkiller Joanne Chesimard, an enemy of the Garden State and a longtime fixture on the FBI's 'most wanted' list." Emma Dumain:
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LEFT THREATENS WYDEN ON TRADE: I can't imagine this is going to do anything to change Sen. Ron Wyden's strategy on TPA, but The Hill reports that liberal groups will try to back a primary challenger if he helps approve new trade pacts. "Activists have protested for months at Wyden's home in Portland and his offices in Oregon and Washington, D.C., demanding that the senator oppose the "fast track" authority that the White House says is essential for a deal.

The group Fight for the Future has even followed Wyden around town-hall meetings in Oregon with a 30-foot blimp that urges him to oppose the trade push."
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WHAT THE HILL WILL BE WATCHING OVER RECESS: War, it seems, is gripping the failed state of Yemen. NYT reports from Cairo: "More than 100 Saudi Arabian jets pounded Yemeni targets early Thursday in a drive to stop the Houthi advance through the country, and the Saudi news media declared that the first night of the offensive had fully disabled the Houthi-aligned air force. Iran, Saudi Arabia's regional rival and the Houthis' main ally, denounced the assault as an American-backed attempt 'to foment civil war in Yemen or disintegrate the country.' Houthi-controlled television channels broadcast footage of dead bodies and wounded civilians, blaming 'American-backed aggression.'"
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FIRING BACK AT COATS: We reported here yesterday that Sen. Dan Coats is blocking a resolution celebrating Greek independence, and now he's taking fire from Greek American group The Coordinated Effort of Hellenes. They are asking to flood his office with calls because, in their words: 'Senator Dan Coats has no idea what tragedy he could cause America's men and women of the military with his grandstanding effort today to kill the simple Greek Independence Day Resolution.

MUCH, MUCH LIGHTER FARE -- Parking fiasco: D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton's terrible parking job has gone viral after Warren Rojas blew up her spot. "'She hit the car next to her and did not leave a note, though I couldn't see any damage, was [the]takeaway from the mid-day drama.'" She famously told Politico alum Adam Snider that she doesn't take the Metro and walks to work (
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=f33744048557678b0b3dada5a1017ad9f09e85eed3715d21fedd9ee741238180
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=f33744048557678b0b3dada5a1017ad9f09e85eed3715d21fedd9ee741238180 ); either option would have been resulted in far less attention than this parking job. Roll Call:
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Pols read mean tweets: Pretty happy to watch this video of John Boehner, Kevin McCarthy, Nancy Pelosi and Bernie Sanders read mean tweets about themselves and offer a little commentary while doing, courtesy of RTCA. My favorite: "Um, @NancyPelosi looks like a tub of orange sherbert right now on C-SPAN." Pelosi: "Was I standing too close to John Boehner?

Saving the best for last: Here's a picture of Mitt Romney with 50 Cent. G-G-G-G-G-Gee, that's weird.
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WEDNESDAY'S TRIVIA WINNER - Claude Marx was the first to answer the Hale Boggs died in a plane crash with Nick Begich, who was raised in a town where Paul Wellstone died in a plane crash. In a first for Huddle, nearly every emailed answer we received on Wednesday morning was correct. Bravo.

TODAY'S TRIVIA - Claude has today's question: "Currently there are six Catholics and three Jews on the Supreme Court. Name the first Catholic Justice and the first Jewish Justice to serve on the court and which president appointed them?" The first person to correctly answer gets a mention in the next day's Huddle. Email me at
mailto:beverett@politico.com
beverett@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."
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**A message from the American Medical Association: The Deadline is Looming. It's time to repeal Medicare's SGR formula and put patient care first by passing H.R. 2.The current Medicare physician payment patch expires on March 31, 2015.

After 17 patches in 12 years, it is clear that the Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) formula does not work and must be repealed.

Congressional leaders now have the opportunity to pass H.R. 2 -- a bipartisan, bicameral repeal bill -- but they must act quickly . Visit
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=f33744048557678bf97e45f0edbba6657c4419c79fc80beb4a784bdd2e175ad1
www.fixmedicarenow.org and tweet using the hashtag #fixmedicarenow so we can finally repeal the SGR to rid Congress of this annual embarrassment and make significant reforms in how Medicare pays physicians that focus on value and efficiency.The time is now. **

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