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By Burgess Everett | 04/28/2016 07:13 AM EDT


(@burgessev or beverett@politico.com)

Featuring Seung Min Kim

GET OUT OF TOWN DEALS - Mexican ambassador: Sen. Jeff Flake's nightmare appears to be over -- the Senate is expected to approve Roberta Jacobson as the ambassador to Mexico before jetting out of town today for recess. It's a complicated dance, but Seung Min has your cheat sheet. First Sen. Ted Cruz lifts his hold on the State Department authorization, giving Sen. Marco Rubio the sanctions against Venezuelan officials that he desires. That will clear the Senate to approve, or at least set up a confirmation vote on Jacobson. http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=08a6f64746e31aa476502cf804596c7cbce2a29e33fea0c2f4ab2079bab01662

CJR: Key senators are expected to roll out several new co-sponsorships and provisions of their prison sentencing bill this afternoon at 1:45 p.m. Sens. Chuck Grassley, Dick Durbin and John Cornyn have been racing to notch some more GOP supporters to convince Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to take it up, and time is running out to do big controversial bills like this before the election.

HASTERT GETS 15 MONTHS: Former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert is going to prison after a judge called him a "serial child molester" on Wednesday in Chicago. Our own Natasha Korecki was on the scene: "'Some conduct is unforgivable no matter how old it is,' U.S. District Judge Thomas Durkin told Hastert in a lengthy statement at the hearing. Durkin called it 'deplorable' that Hastert lied to the FBI during an initial investigation that ultimately led to a felony charge that Hastert broke federal law on reporting cash transactions while paying hush money to a former student at a school where he was a coach. Durkin also said it was 'unconscionable' that Hastert initially accused the former
student - known in the case as Individual A - of extortion, leading the FBI to begin investigating the victim."

'Mistreated': "Hastert was not charged with molestation because the statute of limitations had run out on those crimes, but Durkin repeatedly called Hastert a 'serial child molester,' saying he couldn't believe he was using the words 'House speaker' and 'child molester' in the same sentence ... During his own testimony, Hastert spoke quickly. 'I'm deeply ashamed to be standing before you today,' he said. 'I'm the one solely responsible for being here. I know I'm here because I've mistreated some of the athletes that I coached.'" http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=08a6f64746e31aa4f4db394ef101b7be7343bf6bbfbd2dd48dfe1372ed48319d

TRUMP...WHO? It sure looks like Donald Trump is going to be the GOP nominee this year, forever altering the fortunes of the congressional GOP's majorities. Yet as Trump says he's the presumptive GOP nominee, Senate Republicans say it's too early to call it a done deal and pledge their support to him. "He's very close to wrapping it up. ... I think it is likely that he is going to be the nominee," said Sen. Susan Collins of Maine told me. "I've always supported the Republican nominee, and I don't think this year will be different. But I'm going to wait and see what happens at the convention." On Wednesday Sen. Cory Gardner became the third senator to endorse Ted Cruz -- then insisted that
Trump won't be the nominee. "Republicans will vote for a Republican and that will be somebody other than Donald Trump," he said. With Trump's stances and rhetoric making Democrats giddy, some Republicans are happy they don't have to share the ticket with him: "I'm just glad I'm not the ballot," said Sen. Dean Heller of Nevada. My story this morning: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=08a6f64746e31aa460cb7f6e80067c07c5ad452dce386a6a719ce3dcfb134c39

Someone will write a country song about this election: "Republican aides are growing increasingly despondent about their party's prospects in the 2016 presidential election, according to CQ Roll Call's most recent Capitol Insiders Survey ... nearly half of them - a solid plurality - think the Republican nominee will lose." Roll Call: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=08a6f64746e31aa4e50841255165bdae5f889072908c38c39a7900f4628564ea

MORE TROUBLE FOR STUTZMAN: This probably wasn't the type of momentum that Rep. Marlin Stutzman was imagining going into his Tuesday primary against Rep. Todd Young for the Indiana GOP Senate nomination. Alex Bolton of the Hill, who I thought was on vacation: Stutzman "failed to report $1,100 in expenses to federal campaign officials, including a private plane trip last month from a friend with a real estate development business ... The undisclosed trip is another embarrassment for Stutzman, who charged his campaign thousands of dollars for what his wife described on Facebook as a family vacation. Stutzman defended that trip as campaign-related but paid back the money 'in the interests of
full disclosure,' according to his campaign." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=08a6f64746e31aa465274f0df8c7fa6748ef56fe36669a4e4b4b91451f632732

CHAFFETZ WOULD SETTLE FOR A CENSURE: House Oversight Chairman Jason Chaffetz really, really wants to impeach IRS Commissioner John Koskinen. But his party is reluctant to go that far, so he'll take a censure at this point, WaPo's Lisa Rein and DeBonis report. "My foremost goal is impeachment and I'm not letting go of it," Chaffetz said in an interview. "But if censure is the right precursor while we go through the process of educating our members, I have a [censure] bill drafted and ready to go." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=08a6f64746e31aa47b2b3ba5f40c670258d67351827bce8e42b365e777f6b857

Thursday's the new Wednesday. And welcome to the Huddle, your play-by-play guide to everything Capitol Hill, where it feels like Spring in New England. Please send tips to beverett@politico.com and follow along on Twitter @burgessev.

TODAY IN CONGRESS - The Senate is in at 10 a.m., with a vote at 2 p.m. on water and energy spending expected but not scheduled. The House is in at 10 a.m. with work on the disapproving the fiduciary rule; votes expected beginning around 1:15 p.m.

AROUND THE HILL - At 9 a.m. Rep. Bob Goodlatte and Sen. Mike Enzi will deliver remarks at a Mercatus forum in the Capitol Visitor Center's HVC 210. At 10 a.m., House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Labor Secretary Tom Perez hold a presser on Labor's conflict of interest rule in HVC-210 alcove. At 10:30 a.m., Pelosi leads another one on LGBT protections in HVC Studio A. At 11 a.m. Sen. Gary Peters meets with SCOTUS nominee Merrick Garland at Hart 724. At 11:30 a.m., House Speaker Paul Ryan holds his regular press briefing in HVC Studio A.

In the afternoon: At noon Rep. Tom MacArthur talks FEMA at H-137 and Sen. Ron Wyden meets with Garland at 221 Dirksen. At 1 p.m. Rep. Raul Grijalva leads a presser on national park accessibility on the House Triangle. At 4 p.m. Reps. Jerry McNerney and Walter Jones announce the formation of the Congressional Campaign Finance Reform Caucus in 121 Cannon. Sens. Durbin and Grassley will roll out the big CJR deal at 1:45 p.m. in the Senate Studio.

A few steps away: The Congressional Caucus on Black Women and Girls, chaired by Reps. Bonnie Watson Coleman, Robin Kelly and Yvette Clarke launch a formal symposium at 10 a.m. and a reception in the evening at the Montpelier Room in the Library of Congress's James Madison Building.

WEDNESDAY'S MOST CLICKED: Jake's story about Rep. Bill Shuster surviving his primary. And in one of the saddest post-election day releases I've ever received, here is ousted opponent Art Halvorson's message to his supporters: "We need your help gathering yard signs. It is now very important that we be courteous neighbors and remove all yard signs that stand on public property."

ADVICE TO LIVE BY: Sen. Barbara Mikulski, on how the Maryland Senate primary ended up: "Politics is not beanbag. You know, if you want something dainty, take up needlepoint."

DAD, WHY IS YOUR JOB SO BORING? House Speaker Paul Ryan is ALL IN on the Capitol's Take Your Kids To Work Day. CNN: "Ryan, who is a father of three, is inviting school-age children of Capitol Hill reporters to attend his weekly news conference in the Capitol, according to speaker's office spokeswoman AshLee Strong. The move follows a tradition that Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi started in 2007 after she became the first female speaker of the House. Press gallery rules prevent non-credentialed visitors from attending media events in the Capitol studio, but the speaker's office worked with the galleries to allow children to attend. 'Ryan will stick around and say hi to the kids afterward,'
Strong told CNN." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=08a6f64746e31aa48a39c09e76fcce6a1274a5feba279da6a6d8ee1aaad1be8f

Stay woke, cuz the GOP is on fleek: Ryan spent Wednesday in Georgetown, the hippest neighborhood of them all, trying to recruit millennials with his vision of what the Republican Party stands for regardless of who is the nominee. "The speaker rapped on Bernie Sanders for offering free college without a plan to pay for it, knocked Obamacare for rising health care costs and slammed federal anti-poverty programs for failing to end hunger. 'That is why Republicans are working on a policy agenda right now... We owe the country an alternative,' he told the campus crowd. 'Government is not supposed to manage people but to serve them.'" Bade and Jake: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=08a6f64746e31aa4551a0ebabbb053250f85ca09eade3f55a7b8fd8fbfd3aca7

On deck: Ryan will speak at the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast on May 17.

TALES FROM THE ENCRYPT: Senate Intelligence leaders Richard Burr and Dianne Feinstein lay down why they believe the U.S. needs to change its policies on encryption in the WSJ this morning. "We are not asking companies to provide law enforcement with unfettered access to encrypted data. We aren't even asking companies to tell the government how they gain access to this encrypted data. All we are doing is asking companies to find a way to keep their data secure while also cooperating with law enforcement in terrorism and criminal investigations." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=08a6f64746e31aa45c972e78ae18a43a9965f5a4a4a8d4164c800b99ac1c05bc

SCOTUS SPENDING DIPS: Bloomberg reports that the air wars over Merrick Garland's nomination are already winding down. "Television ad spending to support the nominee, appeals court judge Merrick Garland, has plummeted in the last two weeks ... Through April 14, groups backing Garland spent about $1.6 million on television ads ... Since then, the only buy came from Planned Parenthood, which ran $137,000 in ads April 19 to April 25 attacking Republican Senator Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire for her opposition to his nomination, according to CMAG. Garland's opponents have spent more than twice as much on television ads." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=08a6f64746e31aa4f944b715256e77be64e1d274a275e99b93cbb52569e067ae

WEDNESDAY'S TRIVIA WINNER - Marshal Shemtob and James Wegmann were the first to answer that Indiana had a peak of 13 congressional districts until the '30s.

TODAY'S TRIVIA - James has today's question: What Hoosier and former Vice President and Speaker of the House had to be identified by papers in his pockets when he died in a train station? 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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