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01/19/2016 07:58 AM EDT


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

THE PLAN: In Baltimore, GOP leaders laid out a limited blueprint for the year that, as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell put it, may not "titillate the public." But it does get members of Congress pretty excited, particularly those in the House (who left the Inner Harbor happy for once: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=1cef1e930d184d0e0e7580245bc2b9cd953181b0cd68dd3395cec9e64f01cc1e First the two chambers plan to get cranking on a budget about a month earlier than usual, based at the levels of last year's bipartisan spending deal and possibly with policy changes or conservative add-ons. Second, it's onto the appropriations process, which will be fraught with perilous issues like the Confederate Flag; House Majority Leader Kevin
McCarthy insist that won't be an issue this time around. The vow is to do all 12 appropriations bills; most members will settle for six or eight bills, with some rolled together.

And third? This is the less clear part of congressional Republicans' year. House Speaker Paul Ryan wants the year to be about big ideas like healthcare and tax reform, but it remains to be seen how many of those proposals get votes. The largest piece of entrepreneurial legislation is criminal justice reform, and McConnell has yet to make a commitment there. But his deputy, GOP Whip John Cornyn of Texas, was chatting up influential House members in Charm City and is optimistic as ever. Finally, there is an FAA expiration deadline at the end of March, which conservative groups are eyeing as a must-pass vehicle but leaders do not seem worried about.

Repeal and ____: There's also divisions among congressional leaders over whether Congress should craft an Obamacare replacement for the party's presidential nominee to run on, per The Hill's Alex Bolton. http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=1cef1e930d184d0e36be8577879bae4efc6eadac592514356121fd0c9d9b0297

PASS OUR BILL: A bipartisan group of more than 60 former federal prosecutors and government officials write to McConnell and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid this morning asking for their support for the Criminal Justice Reform bill that passed the Judiciary Committee. Signers include: Former AG Michael Mukasey, former Rep. Bob Barr and a whole lot of attorneys general. Read it: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=1cef1e930d184d0e39bd28d0d29363420bf07116a09d3937399412cfee6371b5

AIM IS OFF: McConnell gave Sen. Rand Paul a boost by holding an Audit the Fed vote last week, but the presidential candidate seemed to squander any opportunity to talk about it by skipping the undercard debate last week. Paul now has a bill pushing back against the president's gun actions on the Senate floor, but it's unlikely to receive a vote so shortly after the Federal Reserve vote, we're told by Someone That Knows Things.

CONGRESS CELEBRATES WITH RELEASED PRISONERS: Congress was calling on Iran to release Americans held in Tehran for months, so naturally members took some time Monday to celebrate with their released constituents. Rep. Jared Huffman met with Jason Rezaian on Monday, while Rep. Dale Kildee visited with Amir Hekmati and his family at a military hospital. Rep. Robert Pittenger is overseas as part of a welcoming delegation for Amir Hekmati, telling the Washington Post by phone over the weekend that the hostages were in decent physical shape upon release. http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=1cef1e930d184d0e1d1c13572468553b66366403f8b380aace74ef5336c8e8f0

Flashback: Senate votes down attempt to link Americans' release to nuclear deal in September. http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=1cef1e930d184d0e0bcded4553b60de1bce639cfe6958f04dfe33f4fd411d553

CONSTITUTIONAL CLEAN-UP: In Baltimore, Ryan didn't want to touch Cruz's presidential eligibility with a 10-foot stick. But back in Congress, the phrase "natural born citizen" is pretty important to the 17 (or more) lawmakers who were born outside the United States. As Karachi-born Chris Van Hollen put it, "we need to resolve this issue." But how, asks NYT's Carl Hulse? "A constitutional amendment could be the most certain route. Simply excising the phrase 'natural born' in a bit of constitutional copy-editing would mean that a person elected president would have to be a citizen of at least 35 years of age who has been a resident of the United States for at least 14 years - an approach that
could open the presidency to naturalized citizens." It's not just Cruz who might face questions on the presidential ticket, Hulse writes: Potential veep candidate Michael Bennet was born in India. http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=1cef1e930d184d0e505ba6388b43b0d9ff126edb495e8d6ab580c789d61b5ff2

DEM DEBATE THOUGHT BUBBLE: The moderators missed an opportunity to exploit differences among the candidates by not pressing Bernie Sanders on his vote against surveillance reform last year. He and Sen. Tammy Baldwin were the only two Democrats to take this position, which effectively sided with Rand Paul. .

Hello Winter. And welcome to the Huddle, your play-by-play guide to everything Capitol Hill, where for 10 more months we'll be the undercard to the presidential election. Please send tips to beverett@politico.com and follow along on Twitter @burgessev.

TODAY IN CONGRESS - The Senate is in at 2 p.m. with a 5:30 p.m. vote on a nominee. The House is out this week.

AROUND THE HILL: There is a photo-op scheduled with McConnell and Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull around 3 p.m., location TBD.

KEY VOTE: Not often you see this, but Heritage Action is going all-in on the "no Obama nominees" tactic. The group is calling for the Senate GOP to block Wilhelmina Wright's nomination to join the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota over her "troubling record" and pointed Reagan bashing back in the day. This would require quite the rebellion to succeed, but it will be interesting to watch how many more unanimous confirmations occur this year on judges.

JOLLY WARRIOR: GOP Rep. David Jolly has one of the toughest electoral paths this year through a contested primary for the Florida Senate seat, then onto a general election campaign against either Reps. Alan Grayson or Patrick Murphy. And Jolly says he won't ask for a dime of money while he does it. He's leaving the money game to professional fundraisers, and in turn isn't raising dollars for the party either. Soon he says he will introduce a bill to make his unusual position the norm. "'You come to Washington thinking you can change the system, and then all of a sudden you get hijacked by the system,' said Jolly, who was elected to the House two years ago." AP:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=1cef1e930d184d0e22fed9f06873d5d994196cb35298471488cbe589ef39a996

MEDIA SHUT OUT: Ryan paid a visit to Dallas yesterday to participate in a poverty event with Rev. Omar Jahwar, where attendees said the speaker listened a lot and said little. That might be little consolation to the Texas press corps. "After press releases about the event went out to Dallas news outlets, Ryan's office asked that all media be barred from the event because the speaker received 'negative' coverage of his attempts to stem poverty, said Jahwar spokeswoman Dalyce Kelley. Kelley apologized profusely to media who showed up to the event Monday and said the speaker wouldn't participate if reporters were in the room. 'The media has tried to spin it off into a negative thing, like he's
doing it for publicity,' Kelley said." Dallas Morning News: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=1cef1e930d184d0e0bab97f841e33f6c6563e2e35d50fb2ce95118b29186dae6

SCHUMER'S PRECISE PREDICTION: Democrats will wake up on Nov. 9 with 52 Senate seats, according to Sen. Chuck Schumer. This would of course make Schumer the majority leader and demote McConnell, if it comes true. I believe this is what they call a "clip and save" article. HudsonValley.com: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=1cef1e930d184d0e7f5c625187f66f25fab9558580b8bce9fd75120db40a7f2e

PAUL SEES WHAT STICKS: Rand Paul is following up his "Where in the World is Marco Rubio?" video with a cartoon called "Audit the Ted." With weird robotic voices that butcher the pronunciation of "Cruz," the characters attack Cruz for missing the Audit the Fed vote and for taking a campaign loan from Goldman Sachs without disclosing it. The subject matter is certainly fair game, but the execution is bizarre. http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=1cef1e930d184d0ecc7275408e646a32c9b6a374785f021b2c19b08f75b05e0d

Rubio's call: Sen. Marco Rubio -- who made sure it was noticed he came back to Washington last week to vote for Paul's bill while Cruz stayed campaigning -- is calling for clear rules to guide the Federal Reserve's rate hikes. Reuters: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=1cef1e930d184d0ee28c6f909e828707b0d9b8538b8f01fc45f04ff1d51b4f5e

BORDER BATTLE: Living in Takoma (D.C.), I see a lot of Bernie signs but probably even more for Jamie Raskin, who is running for Rep. Chris Van Hollen's Maryland House seat. Raskin might have a strong sign game along the D.C. border, but Roll Call's Eli Yokley reports that Kathleen Matthews is making moves while state Sen. Raskin is trapped in Annapolis for the legislative session. That session ends just two weeks before the April primary, which Matthews is looking to capitalize on by shaking as many hands as possible and Raskin acknowledges means he will "not be able to knock on as many doors as before." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=1cef1e930d184d0e2fcdc8cd1c2d379a887dad4b7769389d477e66e7805d198c

FRIDAY'S TRIVIA WINNER - Jeremy Berkowitz was the first to answer that Everett Dirksen and Gerald Ford delivered the first State of the Union rebuttal in 1966.

TODAY'S TRIVIA - I'll take today's question: President Obama is avoiding a confirmation fight for Education secretary, using John King as an interim appointment to get through the last year of his presidency. But under similar timing circumstances, this Ag secretary was confirmed unanimously in the last year of George W. Bush's presidency. Name the secretary. The first person to correctly answer gets a mention in the next day's Huddle. Email me at beverett@politico.com

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