A CRITICAL WEEKEND FOR CRIMEA: RUSSIA MASSES TROOPS ON BORDER – In Moscow, Steven Lee Myers and Alison Smale report on A1 of the New York Times: “With a referendum on secession looming in Crimea, Russia massed troops and armored vehicles in at least three regions along Ukraine’s eastern border on Thursday, alarming the interim Ukraine government about a possible invasion and significantly escalating tensions in the crisis between the Kremlin and the West. The announcement of the troop buildup by Russia’s Defense Ministry was met with an unusually sharp rebuke from Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, who warned that the Russian government must abandon what she called the politics of the 19th and 20th centuries or face diplomatic and economic retaliation from a united Europe.” http://nyti.ms/1lC5b2G
– SECRETARY OF STATE JOHN KERRY is meeting today in London with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, in an attempt to ease tensions before Sunday’s vote. While testifying on Capitol Hill Thursday, Kerry warned that Russia will face an immediate, “very serious series” of responses from the U.S. and Europe if it annexes Ukraine’s Crimea region. AP: http://bit.ly/1ikGNlZ
– U.S.: NO ARMS FOR UKRAINE … YET – “Ukraine’s interim government has appealed for U.S. military aid, including arms, ammunition and intelligence support, according to senior U.S. officials. But the Obama administration has agreed to send only military rations for now, wary of inflaming tensions with Russia. …” Adam Entous reports on A1 of the Wall Street Journal. The U.S. “wants to show support for Ukraine’s interim leaders without further antagonizing an unpredictable Moscow or inadvertently emboldening the Ukrainian military to take steps that could spark violence. ‘It’s not a forever ‘no,’ it’s a ‘no for now,’’ a senior U.S. official said of Ukraine’s request for lethal military support.” http://on.wsj.com/Nd0kIY
– McCAIN TO GOP: DON’T CALL YOURSELVES ‘REAGAN REPUBLICANS’— Seung Min Kim writes for POLITICO: “Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) ripped fellow Republicans on Thursday for objecting to a package of aid and sanctions to respond to the Ukrainian crisis, calling himself ‘embarrassed’ and telling his GOP colleagues: ‘Don’t call yourself Reagan Republicans.’ The Senate has erupted in a dispute over provisions related to the International Monetary Fund in the Ukraine bill, as conservative Republicans protest that it is an unnecessary component of the package that passed the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on a bipartisan vote this week.” http://politi.co/Ob2o5j
– U.S. markets tumbled Thursday over worries about the Ukraine crisis and a slowdown in China. The Dow fell 231.19 points or 1.4 percent. Reuters: http://reut.rs/Ob7r5R
** Presented by RepealSGR.org: Congress has bipartisan/bicameral legislation to repeal the SGR and reform the Medicare physician payment system. This new system will be sustainable, fair and efficient, secure patient access, and encourage quality, affordable care. Republican and Democratic Leadership in Congress need to continue working together to develop bipartisan pay-fors. www.repealsgr.org
SENATORS REACH DEAL TO EXTEND JOBLESS BENEFITS – Burgess Everett writes for the hometown paper: “Senators struck a bipartisan deal on Thursday to revive expired long-term jobless benefits following months of dramatic stops and starts on the issue. After an afternoon of frantic negotiations, five senators from each party announced a deal that should finally deliver 60 votes necessary for the aid package to pass the Senate, barring procedural snags. … The negotiations were led by Sens. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) and Dean Heller (R-Nev.), each hailing from states with high unemployment. …
– “It will be awhile before the package sees a vote. The jobless aid package will be considered in late March after the Senate returns from its St. Patrick’s Day recess — though Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said aid to Ukraine will be the first order of business on March 24. And the legislation still must go through a conservative House, where aides to Speaker John Boehner declined to offer an assessment of the Senate deal on Thursday.” http://politi.co/1qC74ju
– Keeping with the spirit of bipartisanship, senators also passed two measures dealing with flood insurance and federally subsidized child care, writes the Washington Post’s Wesley Lowery and Ed O’Keefe: “The Senate voted 72 to 22 Thursday to pass a flood insurance bill that will roll back sharp premium increases to homeowners that were implemented as part of a federal overhaul of the flood insurance program. … Earlier Thursday, senators voted 96 to 2 to reauthorize a child-care development block-grant program and make several changes to improve the quality of federally subsidized child care.” http://wapo.st/1gw9CHW
OBAMA CALLS FOR DEPORTATIONS REVIEW – Seung Min Kim and Reid J. Epstein report for POLITICO: “President Barack Obama finally bowed to pressure from immigration rights activists and signaled on Thursday that he may change his deportation policy. The president changed course after months of claiming there was nothing his White House could do to stem the flow of deportations of undocumented immigrants. Obama announced in a meeting readout that he has requested a review of his administration’s enforcement policies for immigration laws to see if that enforcement can be done ‘more humanely within the confines of the law,’ the White House said Thursday. To immigrant rights activists, however, that is something of a victory. It means Obama is taking steps toward changing the administration’s deportation policies — though the groups won’t be satisfied until the policies are in force.” http://politi.co/1cXSgsl
‘OPEN MIKE’ LAUNCHES WITH MACON PHILLIPS – Check out the debut video of POLITICO’s new weekly series, “Open Mike,” featuring a conversation between Mike Allen and the digital diplomacy lead at the State Department, Macon Phillips. Watch Phillips’ take on how social media and digital strategies are helping shape diplomacy in Ukraine, and hear his thoughts on the popular Deathstar petition: www.politico.com/open-mike/
WHO WANTS PI? – The only two physicists in Congress, Reps. Bill Foster (D-Ill.) and Rush Holt (D-N.J.) will be celebrating Pi Day today with … pie. “On 3.14, take a break from the irrational Congress and celebrate an irrational number with the only two physicists in Congress,” Foster’s office said in an email. There will be a variety of pies and the event, at noon in Foster’s office in Longworth 1224, is open to the public.
COLIN POWELL’S #tbt pic was pretty sweet. But here’s Rep. Nita Lowey and her husband on their wedding day more than 50 years ago: pic.twitter.com/B4v9chykmK
FLORIDA REPUBLICAN DAVID JOLLY was sworn in Thursday as the newest member of the House. He won a special election Tuesday and fills the vacancy left by the death of Rep. Bill Young.
BOEHNER, PELOSI INVITE POPE TO ADDRESS CONGRESS – Our own Jake Sherman writes: “Speaker John Boehner has invited Pope Francis to address a joint session of Congress. It is an open invitation, the speaker’s office said, and it’s not yet clear when he’ll give the speech on Capitol Hill. … ‘His address as a visiting head of state before a joint meeting of the House and Senate would honor our nation in keeping with the best traditions of our democratic institutions’ [Boehner said in a statement]. ‘It would also offer an excellent opportunity for the American people as well as the nations of the world to hear his message in full.’ Boehner and the previous speaker, Democratic Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California, are Catholics.” http://politi.co/1gwfMYy
GOOD FRIDAY MORNING, MARCH 14, 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 swong@politico.com. If you don’t already, please follow me on Twitter @scottwongDC.
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TODAY IN CONGRESS – The Senate is out today. The House is in at 9 a.m. with first and last votes expected between 10:30 and 11:30 a.m. on the SGR Repeal and Medicare Provider Payment Modernization Act. Both chambers are out on recess all of next week.
AROUND THE HILL – Democratic Caucus Chairman Xavier Becerra and Reps. Lucille Roybal-Allard and Michelle Lujan Grisham speak on the ACA and Latino Americans, at 9 a.m. in HVC 215. Speaker John Boehner hosts President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and Irish Prime Minister (Taoiseach) Enda Kenny at the annual St. Patrick’s Day luncheon at 11:30 in Statuary Hall. A departure ceremony takes place at 1:25 p.m. on the East House Steps.
SCOTT BROWN BEGINS SEEKING STAFF FOR SENATE RUN – Steve Peoples writes for the AP: “Former Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown has begun seeking campaign staff while aggressively courting New Hampshire’s political elite, marking what local Republicans consider serious steps toward launching a Senate campaign against Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen. The stakes are high for the GOP’s national push for the Senate majority this fall as well as for Brown’s own political ambitions. The longtime Massachusetts resident, having recently relocated to his seacoast New Hampshire vacation home, is expected to launch an exploratory committee to enter the race as soon as Friday, according to several New Hampshire Republican officials who spoke directly to Brown about his plans. The move officially allows him to begin raising money and hiring staff. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly disclose his plans before an official announcement.” http://huff.to/1gnHsme
THE ANTI- HARRY REID – “Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval is nearly impossible not to like,” Jon Ralston writes in POLITICO Magazine. “He has a sunny disposition and seems ever eager to work with Democrats, who have nary a bad word to say about him. He’s highly popular in Nevada, with approval numbers in the mid-60s, and he stays on message as well as anyone in politics. He is, in a phrase, the anti-Harry Reid. Which is why the prospect of Sandoval facing off against the occasionally dyspeptic, sharply partisan and manifestly unpopular Senate majority leader in the 2016 U.S. Senate race has some Republicans writing Reid’s political eulogy. ‘It would be a wipeout,’ said one Nevada insider. ‘He is 100 percent the perfect candidate against Harry Reid.’
– “Reid knows this, of course. No one plays the political chessboard like the majority leader; following his moves sometimes feels like watching a real life House of Cards, without the murders. He saw the Sandoval threat coming nearly a decade ago. Back then, Reid managed to sideline the up-and-coming Sandoval with a federal judgeship … But … Sandoval left the bench in 2009 and defeated Reid’s son, Rory, in a race for governor. Now it may be Reid the Elder’s turn as Sandoval could defeat two members of the same family for the two highest offices in the state. There’s just one question: Does Sandoval even want to run for the U.S. Senate?” http://politi.co/1npfFqI
A FIGHT OVER ISSA AND IPADS – Matt Fuller, Emma Dumain and Steve Dennis report for Roll Call: “Republicans once again blocked a Democratic resolution demanding a House floor apology from Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Darrell Issa for silencing Rep. Elijah E. Cummings last week during an IRS hearing. The nearly party line vote to table the privileged resolution came after a theatrical display of protest on the floor, with Democrats refusing to give up on the issue. As [Rep. Dan] Kildee and his Democratic colleagues offered the resolution, they defiantly held pictures of Issa making the throat-cutting motion, displaying the image on iPads, iPhones and paper. A floor procedure kerfuffle, in which a new House precedent may have been established, ensued.
– “Presiding officer Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, insisted that that ‘House will not proceed’ as long as Democrats continued to hold up their iPads displaying the image. ‘Regular order would be putting the iPads down,’ Simpson said.” http://bit.ly/1kQIfiS
POT LOBBY’S PITCH: IT’S GOOD BUSINESSES – Holly Yeager reports for the Washington Post: “The delegation from the National Cannabis Industry Association made a point of dressing well for its day on Capitol Hill, sporting mostly dark suits, lots of ties and plenty of the group’s signature lapel pins, which feature a sun rising over vibrant fields of marijuana. Marijuana advocates have come to lobby Washington before, often to argue for more lenient treatment under federal law. But on Thursday, buoyed by a flurry of state decisions that have expanded the legal use of marijuana, the cannabis crowd came less as social activists than as entrepreneurs, asking Congress to remove some of the obstacles that stand in the way of their fledgling businesses.” http://wapo.st/1iHCv6x
– How many members of Congress use pot? Jared Polis has a guess. Elahe Izadi in National Journal: http://bit.ly/1dWhFAC
THURSDAY’S TRIVIA WINNER – Paul Hays was first to correctly answer that Wilmer “Vinegar Bend” Mizell, a former North Carolina congressman, was raised in Mississippi but nicknamed after a town in Alabama where he was born.
TODAY’S TRIVIA – Brad Grantz has today’s question: This former Pennsylvania Democratic congressman had a grandson who went onto fame as a baseball announcer for the Pittsburgh Pirates. Name the congressman and his grandson. The first person to correctly answer gets a mention in the next day’s Huddle. Email me at swong@politico.com.
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** Presented by RepealSGR.org: Bipartisan/bicameral legislation to repeal the failed Medicare cost control formula called the Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR), and reform the Medicare physician payment system, has been introduced. The bill would create a system that is sustainable, fair and efficient, secure patient access and encourage quality, affordable care. SGR threatens patient access with drastic Medicare provider cuts. Physicians face constant instability, demonstrated by the 23.7 percent cut to physician payments scheduled for April 1. Congress has spent over $ 154 billion – more than the cost of the legislation – on 16 short term patches in the last decade. These patches are the equivalent of paying the minimum on a credit card – it delays the inevitable, increases the total bill and is bad for the budget. Republican and Democratic Leadership need to continue working together to develop bipartisan pay-fors so the House and Senate can pass S.2000/H.R. 4015, by March 31. www.repealsgr.org
