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By Rachael Bade (
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TWO SENATORS BECOME CONGRESS'S BIGGEST CRITICS. And you can surely guess who: Ted Cruz of Texas and Rand Paul of Kentucky. Jeremy W. Peters for the New York Times, posted early this morning: "Disparaging Congress is nothing new in today's Republican Party, which has thrived on a hearty strain of antigovernment, anti-establishment intensity. But digs like these are notable, and not only for what they imply in the context of a presidential race with three Republican senators. Some of the most unforgiving criticism actually comes from those senators, who are just as eager to dissociate themselves from their line of work as their opponents are to remind voters of it."

"'Washington is broken. Trust me, I've seen it firsthand,' ...Cruz ... often says... Mr. Cruz's diagnosis can vary slightly: Sometimes Washington is 'profoundly broken'; other times it is 'fundamentally broken.'... Paul... prefers 'horribly broken.' But he does not stop there. His campaign slogan for president is 'Defeat the Washington Machine.'
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COMING NEXT WEEK-

FREEDOM CAUCUS PICKS UP WHERE COTTON, RUBIO LEFT OFF. POLITICO's Lauren French and Jake Sherman report: "House conservatives plan to press House GOP leaders to allow a series of hard-to-oppose amendments to the Iran nuclear review bill. The move by the conservative House Freedom Caucus could put Speaker John Boehner in a bind. He'll have to decide whether to clamp down on attempts to change the bill as Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) did in the Senate, angering his right flank - or to allow votes on their amendments at the risk of tanking the legislation ...

"Senior House Republicans are split over how leadership should handle the amendments. Some top GOP aides and lawmakers want to kill the Corker bill, arguing it's weak and gives a stamp of approval to Obama's talks with Iran. But a larger contingent of leadership officials seems to want quick passage - including Boehner himself... Senior Republican sources argue that if the bill is not amended, it will pass easily. They believe most conservatives are likely to fall in line."
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ICYMI: The Senate passed the Iran bill 98-1, with Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) the only vote against it.
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A TRADE SHOWDOWN IN THE SENATE. As the Senate preps for a test vote on fast-track trade authority this coming Tuesday, supporters have their work cut out for them, our Seung Min Kim and Burgess Everett report: "Mitch McConnell is calling Harry Reid's bluff. With his move to tee up a critical trade vote for Tuesday, the Senate majority leader challenged Reid (D-Nev.) to make good on his threat to block movement on trade until the Senate determines a strategy for surveillance legislation and highway funding."

"Reid's opposition, along with his lieutenants in leadership, is a major roadblock for the trade measure because at least six Senate Democrats would be needed to advance the bill, and top GOP senators are counting on some defections from their own ranks. Republicans say Democrats need to cough up at least a dozen votes on Tuesday.

"But on Thursday, most of the expected swing Democratic votes wouldn't say which way they were leaning, despite heavy lobbying from President Barack Obama, who views the trade pact as a legacy-defining issue. Another hurdle is Democrats' push to get assurances that the majority will take up the entire package of trade bills from the Senate Finance Committee - not just the controversial 'fast-track' legislation that would give President Obama broader authority to negotiate trade deals. As of Thursday afternoon, no such assurances have been given."
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TGIF - IT'S MAY 8, 2015. This is Huddle. Both chambers are back at it next week - what's on your radar when Congress returns? Email me here:
mailto:rbade@politico.com
rbade@politico.com , or tweet: @RachaelMBade. Burgess Everett will be your host starting Monday. Holler at him here:
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beverett@politico.com or on Twitter: @burgessev

TODAY IN CONGRESS: Both the House and Senate are out.

OUT THIS MORNING: JOB NUMBERS. Business Insider has the summery: "In April the US economy added 223,000 jobs while the unemployment rate fell to 5.4 percent, the lowest rate since May 2008. The disappointing part of the report, however, was wages, which came in below expectations. Average hourly earnings in April rose 0.1 percent against the prior month and rose 2.2 percent over last year."
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EXPECTED TODAY: DOJ TO OPEN CIVIL RIGHTS PROBE OF BALTIMORE. Del Quentin Wilber for Bloomberg Politics: "The U.S. Justice Department plans to open a full-scale civil rights investigation of the Baltimore police force following the death of a black man who was injured while in custody, according to a person familiar with the probe. U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch decided to grant the request of the city's mayor for a federal inquiry into the police department's practices and whether there are patterns of misconduct, according to the person, who described the move on condition of anonymity. The inquiry may be announced as soon as Friday, the person said."
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High threshold for these kinds of investigations, in question on the Hill. Such civil rights probes are very rare because the Justice Department has an extremely high bar for initiating these kinds of cases. In fact, Senate Judiciary Committee GOP staff are currently pondering whether the standard needs to be lowered. Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) saw the difficulties first hand when he personally asked the attorney general to probe the drowned death of a young man in police custody - only to be told don't get your hopes ups.

Which leads us to...

PRESSURE BUILDING FOR POLICE, CRIMINAL JUSTICE REFORMS. From your Huddle author: "Pressure is mounting on Republican congressional leaders to take up criminal justice and police reform legislation - and the calls are increasingly coming from within the GOP. Republican leaders haven't yet decided how to proceed on an issue conservatives typically have not treated as a priority. But with outrage over police killings of African-Americans dominating the news, an increasing number of rank-and-file GOP lawmakers say doing nothing is no longer an option."

"Sheriff-turned-Rep. Dave Reichert (R-Wash.) wants Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) to set up a new select committee on the issue. Sen. Tim Scott, a black South Carolina senator, is pushing for more body cameras. And Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas) is eyeing a commission to study problem areas in criminal justice.... The call to action marks a change of course for Republicans, who have favored a hands-off approach to policing in the past. Some conservatives, ... fear alienating police constituencies who risk their lives as public servants."
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APPEALS COURT STRIKES DOWN NSA PHONE PROGRAM. Devlin Barrett and Damian Paletta for the Wall Street Journal: "A federal appeals court ruled a National Security Agency program that collects phone records on millions of Americans is illegal, intensifying a fight in Congress over extending the soon-to-expire surveillance effort. A three-judge panel of the Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York eviscerated many of the legal theories under which the U.S. government has expanded surveillance since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. The judges didn't address whether the NSA program violates constitutional privacy rights, as some groups allege, but found the Patriot Act language used by
the Bush and Obama administrations to justify the program wasn't meant to allow such mass data gathering."
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The ruling throws a curveball into the current Patriot Act debate on the Hill, POLITICO Pro's Alex Byers and Kate Tummarello report: "The court decision injected a new element of uncertainty into the already rancorous debate in Congress over whether to extend the PATRIOT Act provisions, including Section 215 used to justify the NSA's bulk data collection first revealed by Edward Snowden's leaks. If Congress doesn't act by May 31, the provisions will expire."

"While [Majority Leader Mitch] McConnell, Sen. Richard Burr and other Republicans took to the Senate floor to defend the PATRIOT Act, Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas) indicated GOP leadership had not yet made up its mind about how to proceed given the court ruling...pointed to the possibility of a short-term reauthorization ...But [Minority Leader Harry] Reid's office threw cold water on the idea of a short-term solution, saying he 'will use the tools at my disposal to stop any attempt to extend these powers for any length of time without reforming them."
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"FIVE REPUBLICANS LET CONGRESS KEEP ITS FRAUDULENT OBAMACARE SUBSIDIES." A pretty scathing and juicy report by Brendan Bordelon of National Review: "The application said Congress employed just 45 people. Names were faked; one employee was listed as 'First Last,' another simply as 'Congress.' To Small Business Committee chairman David Vitter... it was clear that someone in Congress had falsified the document in order to make lawmakers and their staff eligible for taxpayer subsidies provided under the exchange for small-business employees. But until Vitter got a green light from the Small Business Committee to subpoena the unredacted application from the District of Columbia health exchange,
it would be impossible to determine who in Congress gave it a stamp of approval..."

"[H]e was unexpectedly stonewalled.... Paul (R., Ky.) refused to lend his support. And when the Louisiana senator set a public vote for April 23, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and his allies got involved.... Four Republicans - senators Mike Enzi, James Risch, Kelly Ayotte, and Deb Fischer - had promised to support Vitter, but that would soon change... Senate staffers, according to a top committee aide, reported seeing Missouri senator Roy Blunt make calls to at least two Republican committee members, lobbying them, at McConnell's behest, to vote no on subpoenaing the exchange."
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TOP ENERGY SENATOR TO RELEASE BILL REVERSING OIL BAN. Timothy Gardner for Reuters: "U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski said on Thursday she will unveil a bill next week to reverse the U.S. oil export ban in an effort to build support for killing the 1970s-era restriction that drillers say threatens to choke the domestic energy boom. Murkowski, the Republican chairwoman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said she will unveil the bill on Tuesday, although it was uncertain when the measure would get a vote in her committee."
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WELCOME TO THE HILL. Tyler Hernandez, who spent two years as senior manager of media relations at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, just joined the House Education and the Workforce Committee as press secretary.

THURSDAY'S TRIVIA WINNER.John Pull of the Congressional Research Service was the first to answer that ABC's "Nightline" originally started as program to update the nation on the Iran hostage crisis in 1979. He remembers watching it with his parents. The program at the time was called: "America Held Hostage, Day XXX," depending how long they were held.

TODAY'S TRIVIA:What song(s) did Johnny Cash sing when he met Richard Nixon? Email
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