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By Scott Wong (
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A NEW CONTRACT WITH AMERICA? - POLITICO's Manu Raju explains: "A faction of Republicans including Sen. Lindsey Graham is agitating for party leaders to unveil a policy manifesto in the midterm elections, detailing for voters what the GOP would attempt with a Senate majority its members are increasingly confident they'll achieve. Advocates of the strategy, which has triggered a closed-door debate in recent weeks among the party's current 45 senators, say it would serve as a firm rejoinder to Democrats casting the GOP as the 'party of no.' They say voters should know what they'd be getting by pulling the lever for Republicans in November. ...

-- "[T]he quandary of how specific they should get during the campaign underscores the difficulties Senate Republicans face transitioning from opposition party to governing party. While Republicans are in broad agreement over their principles, such as repealing Obamacare and opposing higher taxes, a new GOP majority would have its own challenges unifying behind an ambitious agenda. The policy agenda would be modeled after the 'Contract with America,' the 10-bill document that Republicans campaigned on en route to a historic takeover of the House in 1994.

-- "Sen. John Barrasso, the No. 4 Senate Republican who chairs the Republican Policy Committee, has asked all ranking members of Senate committees to send him legislative proposals they would want to pursue if they become chairmen next year. It's not clear, at this point, whether the exercise will yield more policy papers or be presented as a unified GOP agenda but Barrasso said it would help showcase a slew of GOP economic ideas either way. That may not be enough for some in the caucus. ... But the idea has met a cool reception from other senators, including some in leadership such as Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who faces a tough reelection race this year."
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BURR, VETERANS' GROUPS CLASH OVER MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND - Hadas Gold has the story for POLITICO: "Leading veterans groups are lashing out against Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) for an open letter he wrote scolding the organizations for not doing more to condemn Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki. Calling Burr's letter a 'monumental cheap shot' and a 'disgusting ambush style of politics,' Veterans of Foreign Wars' commander in chief William A. Thien and John E. Hamilton, the adjutant general, said on Monday that Burr should be ashamed of his conduct. 'Senator, this is clearly one of the most dishonorable and grossly inappropriate acts that we've witnessed in more than forty years of
involvement with the veteran community and breaches the standards of the United States Senate. Your allegations are ugly and mean-spirited in every sense of the words and are profoundly wrong, both logically and morally. Quite frankly Senator, you should be ashamed,' Thien and Hamilton wrote."
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WHY OBAMA WON'T FIRE SHINSEKI - Larry J. Sabato writes for POLITICO Magazine: "When presidential popularity sags, the predictable calls begin: Off with their heads! The heads, of course, belong to key administrators and Cabinet officials who are perceived to have contributed to whatever woes are besetting the president. The calls come from both friends and foes of the White House. The friends want to satisfy and silence baying opponents with a pound of prominent flesh; the foes hope it's just the first pound. President Obama has been resistant to dismissing any senior person. He refused to fire Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius during the disastrous Obamacare rollout
(though Sebelius later resigned). Nor has he, as of this writing, dismissed Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki, despite widespread problems in the VA that are ballooning into a damaging scandal. If Obama gave Shinseki his walking papers, it would be out of character for this president. ...

-- "What effect do firings have on public opinion? Does it help a president's job approval when he shakes up his team? Is there a pattern in history that can be detected, at least since polling began? Turns out, there are several trends worth noting. I examined the most prominent firings from Harry Truman to Barack Obama and tried to see what, if any, effect showed up in subsequent Gallup surveys. What I found was that delivering a prominent pink slip usually had only a minor impact on a president's popularity, even short-term. Moreover, the polling result for the president was more likely to be negative than positive."
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UC SANTA BARBARA MOURNS SIX STUDENTS SLAIN BY KILLER - Kate Mather and Adolfo Flores report for the L.A. Times: "UC Santa Barbara canceled classes for Tuesday as the campus mourned six students killed in a rampage on Friday. The school, however, said faculty and staff will be on campus to offer support and counseling to students. ... Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Department officials Sunday identified the first three victims of the Isla Vista rampage, each found fatally stabbed Friday night inside an apartment not far from the UCSB campus.Now, all the attacker's victims have been identified, and they were all UCSB students. The latest names to be released -- Cheng Yuan Hong, 20, of
San Jose; George Chen, 19, of San Jose; and Weihan Wang, 20, of Fremont -- were stabbed multiple times in unit No. 7 of a two-story, charcoal gray building on Seville Road.

-- "Authorities say 22-year-old Elliot Rodger attacked them before going on a rampage through Isla Vista, killing three more people before taking his own life. ... Hidden in Rodger's bedroom were three guns purchased legally from licensed dealers in Goleta, Oxnard and Burbank, authorities said. They said Rodger used the guns and his black BMW to wreak havoc across a square mile of the quiet college town -- running down cyclists and skateboarders, shooting through shop windows and exchanging fire with officers."
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-- REP. LOIS CAPPS (D-CALIF.), who represents Isla Vista: "My heart is broken over the shooting in Isla Vista [Friday[ night and the lives it claimed. Our community is grieving and many people are hurting from this senseless tragedy. ... We've endured too many tragedies as a nation over the past few years. But now is a time for us to pray and to come together as a community. May God bless the memory of these victims, give strength to those who were injured, and support all who are touched by this unconscionable act.' Video of Capps visiting memorial:
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-- UC PRESIDENT JANET NAPOLITANO, the former Homeland Security secretary, said the shooting is 'almost the kind of event that's impossible to prevent and impossible to predict.' Napolitano issued a statement saying she's 'shocked and deeply saddened' by the shooting and sending thoughts and prayers 'to the victims of this tragedy, their families and the entire Santa Barbara community.'
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-- FEINSTEIN: 'SHAME ON US' - "Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) on Sunday predicted that there will be more 'devastating attacks' like the one near the University of California, Santa Barbara if universal background checks are not passed," The Hill reports. "'We must ask ourselves if an individual whose family called police with concerns about mental health, who is receiving therapy and who has had several run-ins with police should be allowed to own multiple firearms and hundreds of rounds of ammunition,' the California Democrat said in a statement."
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-- SEN. RICHARD BLUMENTHAL (D-CONN.) pledged on CBS's "Face the Nation" to renew his gun-control legislation, saying it could have prevented this weekend's deadly shooting at UCSB.
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GOOD TUESDAY MORNING, May 27, 2014, and welcome to The Huddle, your play-by-play preview of all the action on Capitol Hill. Send tips, suggestions, comments, complaints and corrections to
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TODAY IN CONGRESS - The Senate is out this week for the Memorial Day recess. The House is out today but back on Wednesday.

TEXAS PRIMARY DAY: WILL VOTERS GIVE HALL THE BOOT? - Ben Kamisar reports for the Dallas Morning News: "After months of campaigning, voters will decide Tuesday whether to grant longtime Rep. Ralph Hall a farewell term or to hand the district to a challenger half his age, lawyer John Ratcliffe. For a 91-year-old congressman who still runs two miles each day, this has been the toughest race of a long career. The Rockwall Republican is the oldest member of the U.S. House ever, and one of only two World War II veterans left in a chamber where that once was a common credential. He's been a pillar in Texas politics, with a decade in the state Senate followed by 17 terms in Congress. A road, an
airport and a proposed reservoir in the House district all bear his name. The district has only had four representatives since 1903, including legendary House Speaker Sam Rayburn. Hall's tenure covers nearly a third of that span."
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-- AP: "Tea party poised for big wins in Texas GOP runoffs"
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TRANSITIONS - AMIT JANI, a legislative fellow in the office of Rep. Judy Chu (D-Calif.) and the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC),is returning home to New Jersey to work asa field representative for Rep. Frank Pallone in Long Branch. (h/t: Rahul Chopra)

EPA TO ROLL OUT CLIMATE PLAN - The WSJ's Amy Harder writes in the A1 lead: "The Obama administration will next week unveil a cornerstone of its climate-change initiative with a proposed rule aimed at allowing states to use cap-and-trade systems, renewable energy and other measures to meet aggressive goals for reducing carbon emissions by existing power plants. Energy companies and others affected by the proposal will be watching for key details, including the percentage by which companies and states must reduce carbon emissions, which is expected to be proposed in a range instead of a single number. The baseline year against which those reductions are calculated will also be closely
monitored. But the proposal is designed to give states, which will administer the regulations, flexibility to meet the benchmarks, as opposed to placing emissions limits on individual plants, according to people familiar with the Environmental Protection Agency's work on the rule."
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PORTMAN: UKRAINE ELECTIONS WERE LEGITIMATE - CBS: "An Ohio senator who observed Ukraine's presidential election this weekend said Monday the experience he had in the crisis-torn European nation was inspiring and he viewed it as a legitimate election. Twenty-one candidates competed Sunday to become Ukraine's next leader. Early returns showed that 48-year-old billionaire Petro Poroshenko was leading with about 54 percent of the vote. U.S. Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio said he visited six polling locations in the suburbs of the capital of Kiev and was inspired by the determination of the Ukrainian people to vote. Several locations had big crowds, he said, though he did not see anyone leave lines
out of frustration."
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THE MOST WELL-TRAVELED LAWMAKERS - Emma Roller and Stephanie Stamm report for National Journal: "So far in the current session of Congress, Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, has received the most travel funds from private groups, compared with his fellow senators. Through the Aspen Institute, Harkin has traveled to Ethiopia, Japan, and Colombia for policy conferences. ... The Aspen Institute's Congressional Program sends members of Congress to conferences around the world to discuss policy-with a scenic backdrop-through grants from charitable foundations. Since 2000, (when LegiStorm began tracking this data) Sen. Tom Udall, D-New Mexico, has received more travel funds from private organizations
than other currently serving senators. Over the past 14 years, Udall has traveled to Italy, Switzerland, Tunisia, Brazil, Mexico, Turkey, Spain, Finland, and China-all on the Aspen Institute's dime. Trips taken by Udall alone, not including staff, totaled more than $160,000. ... Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., who served in the House before joining the Senate in 2007, came in second after Udall in travel funds received. Wicker has received $143,000 in private travel funds since 2000.

-- "This type of subsidized jet-setting is hardly rare behavior. Since the beginning of 2013-when the current session of Congress began-the American Israel Education Foundation has spent more than $2.2 million on travel for both Democratic and Republican lawmakers. The Aspen Institute comes in second, having spent more than $1.3 million on trips for members. And the Congressional Institute, a nonprofit founded in 1987, has spent $420,000 on trips for Republican members of Congress, and none on Democrats."
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FORMER REP. BILL ROY, WHO CHALLENGED DOLE, DEAD AT 88 - Steve Kraske reports for the Kansas City Star: "Former Kansas Congressman Bill Roy has died. The Democrat from Topeka who served two terms in the U.S. House in the early 1970s was 88. He had been ill for several months. Roy also wrote a weekly newspaper column for the Topeka Capital-Journal. But he'll be remembered most for his narrow loss in the 1974 U.S. Senate race against Republican Bob Dole. Dole won that race by a scant 13,532 votes out of 794,434 cast. A Dole defeat would have re-routed, and possibly ended, one of the storied political careers in Kansas history."
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FRIDAY'S TRIVIA WINNER - Jacob Flowers, University of South Carolina School of Law student, was first to correctly answer that Gary Carter (1974-1984) and Tony Perez (1977-1979) are the Washington National's two "Franchise" Hall of Famers.
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TODAY'S TRIVIA - Amanda Toporek has today's question: This state was created when it seceded from a Confederate state during the Civil War: The first person to send the correct answer to
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swong@politico.com gets a mention in tomorrow's Huddle.

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