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

CLINTON FRENZY IN THE HOUSE? POLITICO's Jake Sherman and John Bresnahan: "Now that the Hillary Clinton email flap has blown up into the biggest news story in Washington, seemingly every House Republican wants in on the action. No fewer than three House committees have launched or are considering probes into Clinton's email practices, a feeding frenzy that could allow the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee to cast the investigations as yet another partisan witch-hunt."

--"Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) says his House Oversight and Government Affairs Committee is opening an investigation into whether Clinton violated government record-keeping and security regulations by using a private email server to handle official State Department communications. Chaffetz has threatened to subpoena Clinton to get what he wants. California Rep. Ed Royce's House Foreign Affairs Committee has signaled it might jump in as well ... And Rep. Trey Gowdy's (R-S.C.) Benghazi select committee, which has drawn the most headlines so far, has issued a subpoena for all of Clinton's State Department communications, with a deadline in the coming weeks."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=f1ebf22fb6563dcdef792d87a97e35f7304e73f0dd745d1ee04c1f193b17acd9
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=f1ebf22fb6563dcdef792d87a97e35f7304e73f0dd745d1ee04c1f193b17acd9

KERRY: IRAN DEAL WON'T BE 'LEGALLY BINDING' - The Wall Street Journal: "Secretary of State John Kerry, in an often contentious Senate hearing, told lawmakers Wednesday the U.S. isn't negotiating a 'legally binding' agreement with Iran, meaning future presidents could choose not to implement the accord ... Mr. Kerry, joining other members of the Obama administration in rebuking the GOP senators, said their claims that Congress could nullify or alter a deal had the effect of undermining U.S. foreign policy. He also said they were incorrect in their claim they could alter the terms of the deal."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=f1ebf22fb6563dcdbc93dbf4bb86b37ddd698101e95f582f29f6d729eac1de5c
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=f1ebf22fb6563dcdbc93dbf4bb86b37ddd698101e95f582f29f6d729eac1de5c

--POLITICO's Burgess Everett, with an assist from Manu Raju, writes on how the blowback to the Iran letter has startled Republicans: "Some Republican senators admitted Wednesday they were caught off guard by the backlash to a letter warning Iranian leaders against a nuclear agreement with President Barack Obama. And Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said Republicans - many of whom blessed the missive during a brisk signing session at a Senate lunch a week ago, as senators prepared to flee a Washington snowstorm - should have given it closer consideration."

--"'It was kind of a very rapid process. Everybody was looking forward to getting out of town because of the snowstorm,' McCain said. 'I think we probably should have had more discussion about it, given the blowback that there is.'"
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=f1ebf22fb6563dcddfcfeb4a0423a12073db06b94bdb375983b76d3d74a77abd
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=f1ebf22fb6563dcddfcfeb4a0423a12073db06b94bdb375983b76d3d74a77abd

--If you haven't gotten your fill of Tom Cotton profiles, here's another from the Washington Post:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=f1ebf22fb6563dcdee48c733653c5fe5ba1303055c04b6bd73dff09111ea27b7
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=f1ebf22fb6563dcdee48c733653c5fe5ba1303055c04b6bd73dff09111ea27b7 and The New York Times:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=f1ebf22fb6563dcda2cf4a31691f9d2496f5838ae305d10d53e237ad8e14b77a
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=f1ebf22fb6563dcda2cf4a31691f9d2496f5838ae305d10d53e237ad8e14b77a

QOTD: "Yes, of course I email - I'm modern, I'm contemporary, I'm hot, I'm hip." - Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), in this Ashley Parker special on whether lawmakers use e-mail.
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=f1ebf22fb6563dcd6e2ca8366f8eb66bb7b63204a9989a68a65f01d7781d9230
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=f1ebf22fb6563dcd6e2ca8366f8eb66bb7b63204a9989a68a65f01d7781d9230

QOTD, PART 2: Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, after he said he won't go forward with amendments to the anti-trafficking bill until Republicans stripped language on abortion: "Then we're happy to debate all the amendments they want ... including Vitter's stupid amendment."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=f1ebf22fb6563dcd555e5653a923b36c39118704d931669b91b9339c1e646e3b
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=f1ebf22fb6563dcd555e5653a923b36c39118704d931669b91b9339c1e646e3b

(Vitter responded: "I've received some nice compliments for my legislative work. But Harry Reid calling my effort to end birthright citizenship abuse 'Vitter's stupid amendment' is right up there with the highest of compliments, considering the source.")

$5.5 TRILLION TO BALANCE IN 10 YEARS? - POLITICO's budget guru David Rogers on the challenges facing the new GOP majority in writing their budget resolution, due out next week: "Senate Budget Committee Republicans got a taste of things to come Wednesday as witnesses warned it will take $5.5 trillion in deficit reduction to bring the government into balance in a decade and the GOP can't afford to take its eye off economic growth. 'It will be about $5.5 trillion to get us to balance in 10 years," Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget told the panel.

--MacGuineas added: "Just to put that in perspective that's eight times the size of the [2012] fiscal cliff deal and it's 65 times the size of the [2013] Ryan Murray deal which you recall we didn't stick to for very long."

HELLER LEANING AGAINST LYNCH - By Huddle's count, the margin to confirm Loretta Lynch for attorney general right now is razor-thin, and how far she got above 50 votes would depend on Republicans like Nevada Sen. Dean Heller, who like most others in the GOP don't like Obama's immigration actions but - unlike others - wouldn't oppose Lynch on that basis alone. But Heller said in an interview Wednesday that he is "leaning no" on the confirmation vote expected next week, and his opposition is based on Lynch's answers on Internet gambling and the Wire Act, a 1961 law that banned certain types of interstate gambling. "I'm leaning no at this point," Heller said. "Haven't given it an absolute no
but I'm leaning no."

--The senator sent Lynch a letter on gambling issues after the two met privately a few weeks ago, and Heller said he was "not very comfortable" with her responses. "She said she has very little knowledge of what occurred in the Wire Act, and yet at the same time, she prosecuted illegal gambling, offshore gambling," Heller told Huddle. "You can't be prosecuting illegal gambling and say you have very little knowledge of the Wire Act itself."

IT'S THURSDAY, MARCH 12, 2015 and welcome to The Huddle. Please send your tips, suggestions, comments, complaints, and corrections to
mailto:skim@politico.com
skim@politico.com and please follow along on Twitter at @seungminkim.

My new followers include @RealBPhil and @SunGroupWP.

TODAY IN CONGRESS - The House is out. The Senate is in at 9:30 a.m. and will continue work on the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act. At 2 p.m., there will be two votes on nominations: Christopher A. Hart to be chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board and Tho Dinh-Zarr to be a member of the National Transportation Safety Board. The latter is expected to be a voice vote.

AROUND THE HILL - Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) will hold a news conference at 10:30 a.m. on Medicare and Social Security in S-115. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) will be the guest at a discussion on growing security threats hosted by the American Action Forum and the Foreign Policy Initiative at noon in SVC-203-02. Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.), and Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), joined by OMB director Shaun Donovan, will hold a news conference on sequestration relief at 12:30 p.m. in SVC-210.

SCHOCK'S POLITICAL DIRECTOR ON OFFICIAL TRIP - The scoop from the Chicago Sun-Times' Lynn Sweet: "Rep. Aaron Schock, R-Ill., did not volunteer the whole story Monday when he defended bringing 10 House staffers to New York, asserting that they were attending an 'official' event. The Sun-Times has learned that Schock's political director also was part of the group ... Federal Election Commission reports show a November payment of $1,005 from Schock's GOP Generation Y political action committee to the Palace Hotel. A Schock spokesman confirmed that check covered expenses for Schock political director Karen Haney's weekend in New York."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=f1ebf22fb6563dcd23215ca8768d8f1b31f86931f0083f052cca554ae27bda12
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=f1ebf22fb6563dcd23215ca8768d8f1b31f86931f0083f052cca554ae27bda12

--National Review and RedState want Schock to resign, per Bloomberg's Dave Weigel:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=f1ebf22fb6563dcdf941af54384cda75738199745f4a48efef5c52311e1031e2
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=f1ebf22fb6563dcdf941af54384cda75738199745f4a48efef5c52311e1031e2

SENATE DEMS: NO 'BLANK CHECK' FOR ISIL FIGHT - Reuters' Patricia Zengerle: "U.S. Senate Democrats made clear on Wednesday they have serious concerns about President Barack Obama's war authorization request for his Islamic State campaign, although they hoped lawmakers could pass a compromise measure ... Despite appeals from top administration officials for bipartisan support, Republican Senator Bob Corker, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, told a committee hearing that no Democrats backed the proposal."

--"Senator Robert Menendez, the panel's top Democrat, said members of his party wanted strict restrictions on the use of combat troops and geographic limits ... There are also doubts among Republicans, who often criticize Obama's foreign policy as too passive. They want the authorization for the use of military force (AUMF) to have few restrictions on military commanders."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=f1ebf22fb6563dcd3784ac919ef2306f145e263801da1f94c8e68c123c40b239
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=f1ebf22fb6563dcd3784ac919ef2306f145e263801da1f94c8e68c123c40b239

PAUL RYAN, CHIEF SUED OVER CAR CRASH - The National Law Journal's Zoe Tillman: "U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, and his chief of staff, Kevin Seifert, face a $100,000 lawsuit over a car accident Seifert was involved in while driving Ryan's car last year. The U.S. Department of Justice argues that Ryan and Seifert are immune against claims related to the accident and is asking for dismissal of the case. Ryan was not in the car at the time of the accident but owned the vehicle. The DOJ acknowledged Seifert was involved in the February 2014 accident ... Seifert was 'acting within the scope of his employment' at the time of the accident, the DOJ said."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=f1ebf22fb6563dcdcd2b18c11912873ec5804567a57b7b9003a7617bf5c5079c
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=f1ebf22fb6563dcdcd2b18c11912873ec5804567a57b7b9003a7617bf5c5079c

--A Ryan spox tells National Journal: 'This is a routine process for matters involving House employees acting in the scope of their duties and is being handled by the U.S. Department of Justice and House counsel.'
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=f1ebf22fb6563dcd5a7988baef0b7a92ce78092db28c12919a9e562e98dd5f30
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=f1ebf22fb6563dcd5a7988baef0b7a92ce78092db28c12919a9e562e98dd5f30

BACHMANN FILMS 'SHARKNADO 3' - That's one way to live life after Congress. HuffPo: "Former Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) on Tuesday starred in a cameo for 'Sharknado 3,' the cult-classic fantasy movie series featuring vicious, airborne sharks riding deadly tornadoes from the sea. The 2012 Republican presidential candidate was spotted with a film crew outside the White House, presumably before the disaster hits Washington, D.C. 'I believe they are growing in size. Congress has to take this seriously because sharknado is a real phenomenon,' Bachmann said in a scene, before excusing herself for a vote on the Hill a couple of miles away."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=f1ebf22fb6563dcdf40698f2d83513c43f7d43098b8d94d9dde1240fc12c74f4
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=f1ebf22fb6563dcdf40698f2d83513c43f7d43098b8d94d9dde1240fc12c74f4

WEDNESDAY'S TRIVIA WINNER - Bruce McKay was the first person to correctly answer that Kent Conrad is the only U.S. senator to hold both Senate seats from a state at the same time. The AP has an explanation of how that happened here:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=f1ebf22fb6563dcd7f9a06cc715a8b22dba80b12744cf96e0e876a701504bcef
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=f1ebf22fb6563dcd7f9a06cc715a8b22dba80b12744cf96e0e876a701504bcef . And Conrad's birthday is today.

TODAY'S TRIVIA - Huddle reader John Bennett offers today's question: In 2006, Time magazine named America's 10 best senators. Please identify the ones who are still in the Senate. The first person to correctly answer gets a mention in the next day's Huddle. Email
mailto:skim@politico.com
skim@politico.com .

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