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02/11/2016 08:34 AM EDT


By Lauren French (lfrench@politico.com or @laurennfrench)

RYAN SEEKS HIS MOMENT OF TRUTH ON THE BUDGET. Jake Sherman and John Bresnahan report, "Speaker Paul Ryan has sat quietly in budget meetings during the past few weeks, as lawmakers munch on snacks and nurse beers and sodas. Attendees say he's been in "listening mode." But with a stubbornly large pocket of conservative Republicans hellbent on reversing recently increased spending levels, Ryan (R-Wis.) finally has a chance to change the governing dynamic that's stunted progress in the House for a half-dozen years. Ryan sees the 2017 budget logjam in starkly simple terms - and he's expected to lay them out Friday morning at a closed party meeting. Either conservatives will support the spending
blueprint at levels agreed to last year by former Speaker John Boehner, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid and President Barack Obama, or they could be forced to skip the appropriations process altogether." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=c3a1497010b30770e9548defcbfe6d09df0cd0b43514ea5bcbc3f4c5588b828c

DEMOCRATS NAME TOP REPUBLICAN TARGETS. From your Huddle author, "The campaign arm for House Democrats has marked 19 congressional seats they'll aggressively target in 2016 in hopes of knocking out Republican incumbents and electing Democrats. The list, which the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee will unveil Thursday, is the first batch of so-called "Red to Blue" races that Democrats have identified as prime pick-up opportunities in the House. It includes districts represented by some of the House's most vulnerable GOP lawmakers, including Republican Reps. Daniel Webster of Florida, Bruce Poliquin of Maine and Mia Love of Utah. Democrats are hoping to elect the Chief of the Orlando
Police Department Val Demings, Maine politician Emily Cain and attorney Doug Owens in those seats, respectively." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=c3a1497010b3077062cfecc4d8e4ffb83aee43ee0af7bdfe3dca8c9de62d1743

SANDERS INCREASES PRESSURE ON OBAMA ON IMMIGRATION. From Seung Min Kim, "Bernie Sanders is upping pressure on the Obama administration over one of its immigration enforcement initiatives, taking new aim at a controversial program just days before the Democratic presidential contest in Nevada. In a letter with Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.), Sanders criticizes the Priority Enforcement Program, which helps federal immigration authorities to work with local law enforcement officials to identify immigrants who should be deported from the United States. The revamped enforcement initiative is a core part of President Barack Obama's executive actions on immigration unveiled in November 2014,
although it has gotten considerably less attention than the actions that grant work permits to potentially millions of immigrants here illegally." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=c3a1497010b3077075f387001e1b12e37e9366b99430dbbd32384aabc196443c

** Sponsored by ACAP, the Association for Community Affiliated Plans: ACAP believes everyone with Medicaid and CHIP coverage deserves the highest quality of care. But the quality of care delivered in fee-for-service Medicaid is unknown, leaving federal and state governments no way to compare and improve quality across all delivery systems. Congress should address this by enacting S. 2438, the Medicaid and CHIP Quality Improvement Act. For more information: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=c3a1497010b307704af2493d0d0eabaad4ebe8a03703a2cc20f870f35eafc914 **

HAPPY THURSDAY, Feb. 11, 2016 and welcome to the Huddle. Rachael Bade will take over this space tomorrow. You can find me at lfrench@politico.com and @laurennfrench on Twitter. She's at rbade@Politico.com.

TODAY IN CONGRESS: The Senate will vote at 10:30 a.m. on a procedural vote on the conference report on the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015. More votes are expected. In the House, votes are expected between 3:30 and 4:30 p.m.

AROUND THE HILL - The Congressional Black Caucus PAC will formally endorse Hillary Clinton at 11 a.m. at the DNC Headquarters Building. - Sens. Tim Kaine and Mark Warner, and Reps. Bobby Scott and G. K. Butterfield will introduce legislation at 10 a.m. honoring the contributions of African-Americans in the U.S. - Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi will hold her weekly press conference at 10:45 a.m. in Studio A. Speaker Paul Ryan will hold his press avail at 11:30 a.m. in Studio A.

TREY RADEL WRITES THE MOST AWKWARD THING YOU'LL READ THIS WEEK. The former Florida congressman attempts to make jokes but do we need to use the word "shank" so often? http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=c3a1497010b30770ca10fdf9bfe99ea3c859e28c111b6639d8c926454920fbd8

DEMOCRATS TO CLINTON: GET IT TOGETHER. Gabriel Debenedetti reports, "Frustrated by the margin of Hillary Clinton's 22-point blowout loss to Bernie Sanders in New Hampshire's primary, the Democratic establishment had advice for her the day after: Overhaul the messaging aimed at young voters and women, and start realizing the Vermont senator is a true threat to win the nomination. Interviews with close to twenty donors, superdelegates, elected officials and strategists revealed that many were caught off guard by the scope of Clinton's defeat Tuesday - they were under the impression the race was tightening... Most continue to believe Clinton is still on track to win the nomination and they
think the March election calendar works in her favor thanks to its emphasis on larger and more diverse states." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=c3a1497010b30770a667282c19d117e6f5877db26405944fdf2800d855ce9003

CHASER: TOP CLINTON AIDE SENT 'TOP SECRET' EMAILS. From Rachael Bade, "Hillary Clinton's top national security and foreign policy staffer Jake Sullivan was one of the authors of messages that appeared on several Hillary Clinton email chains recently labeled "top secret" by the State Department, according to multiple intelligence sources who have seen the correspondence. Sullivan, then deputy chief of staff to the secretary of state, is now senior policy adviser to the 2016 Democratic front-runner. Sullivan's lawyer Beth Wilkinson did not respond to a request for comment. Sullivan both initiated email conversations and also forwarded along messages with sensitive information, and he
sometimes added additional content on the email chains in question, according to the sources." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=c3a1497010b3077008d328ae23f9aa66d392734c478f85d29700f14e501dabd4

CHASER II: STATE WILL RELEASE MORE CLINTON EMAILS. Julian Hattem for The Hill, "The State Department will release 550 emails from Hillary Clinton's private sever this weekend, under pressure from a federal judge who earlier this week appeared visibly annoyed at its delayed efforts. In a court filing late on Wednesday night, State Department official Eric Stein told the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia that department staffers have made "significant progress" on preparing the emails for release. As a result, the department will now be able to release the roughly 550 emails - which represent roughly 14 percent of the 3,700 remaining Clinton emails - on Saturday, in the middle
of the three-day Presidents' Day weekend. The department had previously said that it could not release the emails until late next week." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=c3a1497010b307702535a486f3f6bb752d76acba1e7c0e66881783d2e95dcbf3

CRUZ STAFFERS LEAD CHARGE TO UNDO OBAMA ON IMMIGRATION. Seung Min Kim, has the story, "Scott Keller and Chip Roy - who served in top roles in Cruz's Senate office - are now litigators on behalf of Texas, leading the lawsuit against Obama's unilateral actions, which are at the cornerstone of the president's immigration legacy. The duo's positions also underscore Cruz's enduring influence and reach at the Texas attorney general's office, where the Republican presidential candidate served as the state's top appellate lawyer and built a launching pad for his political career. Keller and Roy are now preparing for high-stakes oral arguments at the Supreme Court in April, hoping to persuade enough
justices to rule that Obama's 2014 executive actions to grant work permits to more than 4 million immigrants in the United States illegally flies in the face of the separation of powers." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=c3a1497010b30770170574f49004468f9bbf9e63c7eade543b2b8d52217807df

LOBBYING ON THE DECLINE IN D.C. From the Associated Press, "The number of business and interest groups lobbying in state capitols has risen nearly 11 percent in recent years as organizations have shifted some efforts away from the stalemates in Washington to statehouses, which are more apt to act on key policy initiatives, according to a new study. An analysis released Thursday by the Center for Public Integrity found that the growth in statehouse lobbying coincided with a nearly one-fourth decline in the number of entities registered to lobby the federal government from 2010 to 2014." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=c3a1497010b30770625acf6752ecc66bf41d578a0aba4c1d9869e84871f4b839

CONGRESS MOVES TO STOP INTERNET TAXES. Alan Fram with the AP reports, "State and local governments would be permanently barred from taxing access to the Internet under a bipartisan compromise that Congress is a step away from sending to President Barack Obama. The Senate was expected to vote Thursday to approve the language, part of a wide-ranging measure that would also revamp trade laws. The Internet tax provision had broad support, with few senators eager to oppose the bill and open the door to taxing online access during an election year. Nonetheless, some were resisting the legislation because of trade provisions and a long-running dispute over a separate proposal on taxing online
sales to consumers." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=c3a1497010b307701d4fe518a61f52724da5c83e8b495f52bd87b0c1ca645be4

MAKING MOVES. Long-time Hill staffer Adam Sharon will announces today he joined the newly launched communications and consulting firm Prime Strategies as head of their D.C. office.

WEDNESDAY'S TRIVIA WINNER - We stumped you - again. Sens. John McCain (Jeopardy!) and Claire McCaskill (High Rollers) are the two current U.S. senators who have won on game shows.

TODAY'S TRIVIA - Today's question is from yours truly. There are four presidents who began their careers as members of the Whig Party before switching to, and be elected as, Republicans. Who are they? The first person to correctly answer gets a mention in the next day's Huddle. E-mail lfrench@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." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=c3a1497010b3077039029fb07d73b039fcad4cd5e2bfecd089ab443f25cff541

** Sponsored by ACAP, the Association for Community Affiliated Plans: Medicaid and CHIP form the backbone of coverage for tens of millions of low-income and disabled Americans. But we don't have a clear view of the quality of care delivered through fee-for-service Medicaid. Ask your member of Congress to reward states that provide high-quality Medicaid and CHIP coverage by cosponsoring S. 2438, the Medicaid and CHIP Quality Improvement Act. It will allow for apples-to-apples comparisons on quality - and provide incentives to spur improvement. For more information: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=c3a1497010b307704af2493d0d0eabaad4ebe8a03703a2cc20f870f35eafc914 **

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