EMAIL DETAILS

By Heather Caygle | 07/10/2017 07:55 AM EDT


By Heather Caygle (hcaygle@politico.com or @heatherscope)

With assists from Elana Schor and Kyle Cheney

WELCOME BACK: THE SPRINT TO RECESS STARTS NOW - Congress kicks off three weeks of legislative action today before lawmakers are set to jet out of town for a month-long August break. With no major legislative achievements since President Donald Trump took office and the Senate health care bill hanging by a thread, there's already pressure from the top to cancel recess: "I cannot imagine that Congress would dare to leave Washington without a beautiful new HealthCare bill fully approved and ready to go!" Trump tweeted this morning.

A CRITICAL WEEK FOR THE SENATE - Senate Republicans trudge back into the Capitol this afternoon no closer to passing their health care bill than when they left more than a week ago for the July Fourth holiday. At best, the effort to round up 50 votes for passage stayed in neutral over the last nine days. At worst, caucus opposition hardened enough over the break to sink the bill for good. Stay tuned.

Conservative Sens. Ted Cruz (Texas) and Mike Lee (Utah) are pushing hard to move the bill further right, a plan that has many moderates balking. And some senators are already predicting the repeal plan is doomed and Republicans will have to work with Democrats to get anything done. "My view is it's probably going to be dead," Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said on "Face the Nation" on Sunday.

The lay of the land: Don't expect a vote this week. GOP leaders are waiting on an updated estimate from the CBO this week after making tweaks before the recess, hoping the changes improve the dismal prediction that 22 million fewer people will have insurance under the GOP plan. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and his leadership team meet today to talk strategy before a full caucus huddle tomorrow, Burgess reports.


The Cruz-Lee conundrum: Without the support of Cruz and Lee, the GOP's health care bill is almost certainly doomed. But the duo, backed by conservative groups and the administration, is aggressively pushing for adoption of their amendment to offer cheaper, deregulated plans for healthy people. Opponents say their idea would just shift sick people into one risk pool, with Sen. Chuck Grassley warning the proposal could be "subterfuge to get around pre-existing conditions." Cruz responded by saying Grassley was adopting Democratic talking points. Start your week right with the Burgess update: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=b279532fd561fcc5b0da58b3f4154900d7948adfb88c98fc4d87e30994ed63aab8646ab61b732a3352698be61a37dabed0d14c44a7638895

Coming attractions: Save My Care is launching a seven-figure ad buy today airing footage of senators declaring opposition to the GOP plan and calling on them to stay opposed. The ad targets Sens. Dean Heller (Nevada), Shelley Moore Capito (W.Va.), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) and Susan Collins (Maine). Watch: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=b279532fd561fcc59bcc77e9509162d952d631d44ebe1b782894da4704d47cc98599b2b1d8b3967726a1f97825690c0ab351342a9b13f913

And ICYMI over the weekend, read Adam Cancryn's piece from Morgantown, W.Va., on why Capito remains opposed to the health care bill, even in the heart of Trump country: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=b279532fd561fcc53ca5e46bbd8d4b62d8c1ecaeefd49138becae34e4500d09d8c236b29609a12cc5b3380af5356baa7161b9972af8eea1b

BUCKLE UP Y'ALL, IT'S SURE TO BE A WEEK. Welcome to July 10 and thanks for reading POLITICO's Huddle, the play-by-play guide to all things Capitol Hill. We're celebrating 54 days until the big kickoff game between Alabama and Florida State. Roll Tide y'all!

WHAT THE HILL IS READING - Donald Trump Jr. met with a Russian lawyer with ties to the Kremlin last year after being promised dirt on Hillary Clinton, the New York Times scooped over the weekend. "The meeting was also attended by his campaign chairman at the time, Paul J. Manafort, and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner. ...The accounts of the meeting represent the first public indication that at least some in the campaign were willing to accept Russian help." Jo Becker, Matt Apuzzo and Adam Goldman: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=b279532fd561fcc5b44c7be68f370e3c912cf719f3901133cf8fbab44cc16e7fa439051df0dd5ab6cd4d50ef254406a157c04baa3e4704fb

RUSSIA SANCTIONS: THE STATE OF PLAY - Looming in the backdrop of Trump's meeting with Vladimir Putin last week was the Russia-Iran sanctions bill that cleared the Senate 98-2 last month and remains stalled in the House amid a series of alternatively technical and partisan scuffles. Trump tweeted that sanctions didn't come up in the meeting, but Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told a different story, and senators who pushed hard to tie the president's hands on easing penalties against Putin were not pleased with the result. "At the end of the day, the House needs to pass a bill," Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said on NBC Sunday. "If you don't like our bill word for word, you can change it.
But I'm not going to gut the bill."

What's next: Texas GOP Rep. Pete Sessions is among the House Republicans concerned about the Senate-passed sanctions bill's negative effect on his home state's oil and gas industry, particularly given ExxonMobil's paused-but-not-dead Arctic exploration deal with Russia's state-controlled oil company. But don't be surprised if the House starts considering changes that go beyond the bill's energy components, risking a stare-down with senators who celebrated their passage of the bipartisan sanctions package.

-Related WSJ editorial: "Putin is not our friend," http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=b279532fd561fcc5b83791a23752774cbe0a1537213a03e9a52d1fa3b55d0174a11c0d606ea4b0a0889d5331bc1defe3dffb9a0bf3e6da8f

ALL IN THE FAMILY - Rep. Jimmy Duncan (R-Tenn.) has paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to family members in recent years, including around $300,000 to one of his sons, the Knoxville News Sentinel's Tyler Whetsone reported this weekend. The payments, listed as "salary expense" were mostly funneled through American Public Strategies, an entity that isn't actually a registered business in the state. Over the last decade, "Duncan has doled out hundreds of thousands of dollars to his two sons, his niece, his son-in-law, his daughter-in-law and his sister for campaign work, raising both ethical and legal questions," the Nashville Post Cari Wade Gervin reports.

SCHUMER SEEKS SNORTABLE CHOCOLATE CRACKDOWN - Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) "is urging federal regulators to look into a 'snortable chocolate' powder, saying he's worried that it could prove harmful and is being marketed like a drug," the AP reports. "In a letter Saturday, the New York Democrat asked the Food and Drug Administration to investigate the use of caffeine in inhalable food products such as so-called Coco Loko." More: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=b279532fd561fcc53c4993458c8ebbd8380a2bf3aade7d23ec38c09b181ba4fd2a8ecd53616a101b9618f14363117031d42e7a0536054fa9

IT'S GOING DOWN - Former Oklahoma GOP Sen. Tom Coburn said he will work to unseat Rep. Markwayne Mullin after his fellow in-state Republican announced he was running for re-election, breaking a promise to serve only three terms. "If you can't believe him on term limits, what else can you believe him on, and what can't you believe him on?" Coburn told a local radio show. The Oklahoman's Justin Wingerter: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=b279532fd561fcc5d7f2314d4c0147783cbb5d9eca19d40cb98e7f8666139431c75991212d7d5ff750c06d92e6b12966790b0842393ea846

TUESDAYS DOWN SOUTH - With 10 candidates, the Alabama GOP Senate primary may look crowded. But the race really comes down to one question: Will Trump endorse a candidate, and if so, will he pick the establishment-backed Luther Strange or firebrand Rep. Mo Brooks? Brooks, despite denouncing Trump for "serial adultery" during the presidential campaign, has been lining up endorsements from White House allies like Sean Hannity and members of the House Freedom Caucus. Jonathan Martin and Alex Burns with the New York Times: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=b279532fd561fcc5937f6cf511a628a10f0c0c671fcf47aaecc792db3a501296b87f73f316e864d116e0380c6b89dcb1ef80f4f807cfe1fd

And the AP profiles another candidate, former state Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore: As "Moore runs for U.S. Senate, he doesn't shrink from telling voters he has twice been ousted from the bench for defying federal courts over the Ten Commandments and same-sex marriage. Instead, he wears those rejections as a badge of honor. ...Moore's iconic status in the culture wars gives him a strong GOP voter base and makes him a leading contender in the Aug. 15 primary." Kim Chandler: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=b279532fd561fcc58b2904b84536b1375a77844f0ffa460a6244b55cf8e65cba3d561cbc1137c495b13765430dd9e0a8ea010920658916a9

TODAY IN CONGRESS - The Senate gavels in a 3 p.m. with two roll call votes at 5:30 p.m., including a confirmation vote on Neomi Rao, nominee to lead OMB's regulatory affairs office. The House is out until Tuesday. View the weekly agenda here: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=b279532fd561fcc50bef81d4eaa8e20ccfeeda126f2ca7242c992ae87892d4a6f106b39a8b688d13b4df7118330a167b3e150e5cb85e16bb

AROUND THE HILL - Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) and D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser hold an 11 a.m. press conference in HVC-215 on protecting city interests during the 2018 appropriations process.

FRIDAY'S TRIVIA WINNER - Josh Underwood was the first to correctly guess that Woodrow Wilson devised a plan to hurry a potential successor into office should he lose his reelection bid. Wilson won a second term so the move wasn't necessary. But had he lost, reports indicate Wilson hatched a plan to appoint his opponent, Charles Evan Hughes, secretary of state, then orchestrate resignations to put Hughes in office early.

TODAY'S TRIVIA - Josh with today's question: How many people have held four U.S. cabinet or cabinet-level positions and who are they? The first person to correctly answer gets a mention in the next edition of Huddle. Send answers my way: hcaygle@politico.com

GET HUDDLE emailed to your phone each morning.


To view online:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=b279532fd561fcc59f0b9569daf9b5c7e284fe0ef82f9c50805518bd7d3c81eab1140a41e071abc6309dc89ad414d5a46eddb87765219610
To change your alert settings, please go to http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=b279532fd561fcc5be46a2bea4f78711b3137a4ba606c18b7239596affb254e42f50d8286f77196356baa44821c9b0a0d57738b8915c2b27 or http://click.politicoemail.com/profile_center.aspx?qs=c1c81b2ef644fde1dd3c1f6178ef6a8ea3ee660992025bd415d3eaa4670582523037ed50090777f94950aa9f32e6dc4401ff48643a970f30
This email was sent to Hbiden@rosemontseneca.com by: POLITICO, LLC 1000 Wilson Blvd. Arlington, VA, 22209, USA


To unsubscribe,http://www.politico.com/_unsubscribe?e=0000015d-2c5a-db11-a3df-ff7bbb0a0000&u=0000014e-f0fe-dd93-ad7f-f8fffbc40000&s=0dd89924d359ff47694ca84ac2ff25c3b7be16742d61a209b5bfebb630f36fdcd6ae5d451dc4e987cabd82ef5d526751b26fee59714159d801b8dfb0009fc78e