Principals

1. Congress returns
2. Spy tool debate
3. U.S. boosts TSMC
4. U.S.-Israel divide
5. Biden’s boomer bounce
6. Soros audio empire

PDB: Lawmakers propose bipartisan privacy legislation

Biden to Wisconsin … White House seeks relief for 30 million student borrowers … How to watch the solar eclipse

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Reporting to Chief Revenue Officer, Rachel Oppenheim, Richardson will spearhead client partnerships and develop strategic initiatives spanning advertising, events, content and partnerships. He brings legendary experience to our outfit as Semafor’s brand continues to ascend in the beltway, with our Washington-focused newsletter, Principals, tripling its subscriber base year-on-year.

Welcome back, Congress

Congress is back with a long to-do list. Speaker Mike Johnson is still charting a path forward on Ukraine aid, and in the meantime, the House will vote this week on reauthorizing a key spying tool (more on that below) and on a messaging resolution to reaffirm Israel’s right to defend itself. Meanwhile, the Senate will receive impeachment articles against Homeland Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Wednesday. Leader Chuck Schumer said senators would be sworn in Thursday, but it may not last long, with some Democrats signaling they’ll vote to dismiss the charges. Congress still needs to reauthorize the Federal Aviation Administration, which is currently in the Senate’s court after the House passed its own version — Schumer says his chamber will tackle it in May. Remember the farm bill? The temporary reauthorization expires Sept. 30, but the House Agriculture Committee chair has signaled he plans to mark up the bill before Memorial Day. Congress will also face another unexpected funding fight over rebuilding the Francis Scott Key Bridge. Maryland Gov. Wes Moore will be on the Hill Tuesday morning, lobbying members on the Biden administration’s not-yet-announced bridge funding request.

– Kadia Goba

Congress is finally poised to vote on a key spying tool

The House is barrelling towards a vote on a key but controversial surveillance tool this week. Ahead of an April 19 deadline, the House Rules Committee on Tuesday will debate legislation to reform and reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, a law that allows warrantless spying on foreign targets overseas but has been scrutinized over the U.S. data sucked up in the process. The new bill contains reforms like blocking FBI searches of American 702 data for criminal evidence, but members who believe it doesn’t go far enough are expected to offer an amendment to require warrants for searches of U.S. data. The White House has warned against this; one senior administration official said it would “make the country less safe.” Proponents already seem to be admitting defeat. “Sadly this vote is likely to fail,” GOP Rep. Thomas Massie posted on X. “I will demand a recorded vote & post results.” And just in case: The Biden administration already sought and received a one-year extension of the program from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, another senior official said.

— Morgan Chalfant

U.S. grant will help TSMC bring advanced chips stateside

The ambitious U.S. effort to fund domestic semiconductor manufacturing will finally include Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company. The Biden administration is announcing a $6.6 billion grant to TSMC this morning for three chip facilities in Arizona. “For the first time ever, we will be making at scale the most advanced semiconductor chips on the planet here in the United States of America,” Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said. The latest announcement for the chips program — designed to both secure U.S. supply chains and outgun China’s tech advancements — came as Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen wrapped up meetings in China with plans to discuss concerns related to Xi-era industrial strategy in more depth. This morning, she said she warned in her meetings that Chinese entities would face “significant consequences” if they support Russia in its war in Ukraine. President Biden is also expected to warn Beijing over its behavior in the South China Sea during a meeting with leaders of Japan and the Philippines later this week, according to the Financial Times.

U.S., Israel diverge six months after Hamas attack

A fractured Washington marked six months since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack and Israel’s war in Gaza. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer released a statement calling for the release of hostages, while Speaker Mike Johnson offered full-throated support for Israel and warned Democrats against “lecturing Israel on how it should best defend itself.” Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del. rejected a push from some House Democrats to pause weapons deliveries to Israel following the World Central Kitchen strike, underscoring the Democratic divide that has become a political liability for President Biden. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va. told Politico that Biden’s “current approach” is “not working,” and that Israel’s recent boost in humanitarian aid to Gaza was months too late. Meanwhile, Israel is “closer to being a global pariah than ever before,” The Wall Street Journal writes, noting the virtual collapse of normalization talks with Saudi Arabia in addition to its growing distance from the U.S.

Will Boomers save Biden?

President Biden is polling well with a demographic close to his heart: Senior citizens. Politico’s Steven Shepard sees a potential sea change in the latest public surveys, with Democrats making big gains among the elderly and losing Gen Zers, but warns it could also be a polling quirk that doesn’t correspond to real-world results. But the New York Times’ Nate Cohn also notes that these aren’t your grandparents’, er, grandparents. The more Republican-leaning Silent Generation — of which Biden is a member — is rapidly aging out of the electorate, leaving a rising cohort of historically left-leaning Boomers to take their place. Since 2008, Boomers have gone from making up 0% of the senior vote to a whopping 70% today. To illustrate the shift, Cohn points to the 1970s sitcom “All In The Family,” which centered on the generation gap between a reactionary bigot, Archie Bunker, and his 20-something liberal daughter and son-in-law. The actor who played Bunker, Carroll O’Connor, has been dead for decades, while Rob Reiner, who played the fictional son-in-law, is 77 (and happens to be a prominent Democrat).

Soros fund is building an audio empire

George Soros thinks it’s good business, and perhaps good politics, to be in your ears. Soros Fund Management, the firm founded by the billionaire, has been on a buying spree in the audio space, Semafor’s Max Tani reports. In February, the group became the largest shareholder in Audacy, the second-largest radio company in the U.S. Soros has also invested in Crooked Media, the liberal podcast company launched by Obama administration vets, and played a role in the sale of 18 Hispanic radio stations by Univision. The moves are billed as financially motivated, but Tani notes the ownership could matter if the aftermath of the 2024 election ends up looking like 2020 — with conservative radio up in arms over Trump-led efforts to challenge the results.

Julie Su, Acting U.S. Labor Secretary; David Rubenstein, Co-Founder & Co-Chairman, The Carlyle Group; Henry M. Paulson, Jr., Former U.S. Treasury Secretary; Brian Moynihan, CEO, Bank of America; Sen. Ron Wyden (D) Oregon and Sim Tshabalala, CEO, Standard Bank will join the Global Finance Session at the 2024 World Economy Summit to discuss the implications of lowering global inflation and how current geopolitical conflicts are affecting the global financial system. Understand what executives and policymakers are closely monitoring in this new world economy. Register for this session here.

April 18 | 9 a.m.-12 p.m. ET | Washington, D.C.

Beltway Newsletters

Punchbowl News: Speaker Mike Johnson is likely to unveil his Ukraine aid proposal “sometime in the next few days.”

Playbook: The FISA 702 bill the House is taking up this week doesn’t include a provision that would block data brokers from selling Americans’ data to law enforcement, angering some conservatives. “It’s disappointing to watch Speaker Johnson, who was a strong defender of essentially the same bills … when he was a member of the Judiciary Committee, now as speaker essentially has crossed all the way over to the intel point of view,” Rep. Warren Davidson, R-Ohio said.

The Early 202: Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene fired another warning shot at Johnson. “If he passes that $60 billion to Ukraine, and then follows up with FISA reauthorization, you’re going to see a lot more Republicans than just me coming out saying his speakership is over with,” she said.

White House

• President Biden will visit Wisconsin today to talk about his new student debt relief plan that would affect as many as 30 million borrowers and will later attend a campaign event in Chicago.
• Biden called University of South Carolina women’s basketball coach Dawn Staley to congratulate her on the team’s victory in the NCAA tournament.
• Ahead of his meeting this week with Biden, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida characterized Japan’s decision to boost defense spending as a response to a “severe and complex” security environment in Asia as well as broader geopolitical conflicts. “As we are witnessing Russia’s Ukraine aggression, the continuing situation over the Middle East, as well as the situation in East Asia, we are faced with a historic turning point,” he told CNN.

Congress

• The Senate is back in session this afternoon and will take a procedural vote on a judicial nominee this evening. The House gets back tomorrow.
• Senate Commerce Committee Chairwoman Maria Cantwell and House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairwoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers unveiled an expansive online privacy bill proposal. The bill, which aides described as a “discussion draft,” would set a national standard for how tech companies collect and use data on Americans, allow users to opt out of targeting advertising, and let users delete or move their data.
• House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner said that some of his GOP colleagues have echoed Russian propaganda on the House floor. — CNN
• More than a dozen House Democrats who voted in favor of a bill to force ByteDance to divest TikTok also have TikTok accounts. — Politico

Economy

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said it was “realistic” to predict that the Baltimore port could be functioning again by the end of May. — CBS

Courts

• A federal judge nominated by President Biden sharply criticized the Justice Department for evading GOP subpoenas related to a House investigation of Hunter Biden.
• Federal prosecutors charged a man with setting fire at Sen. Bernie Sanders’ Burlington, Vt. office last week.

On the Trail

• Donald Trump’s campaign said it raised over $50 million at a Palm Beach fundraiser over the weekend.
• Trump announced he will release a statement on abortion and abortion rights today.

• At his fundraiser in Palm Beach, Trump expressed regret that people were not immigrating to the U.S. from “nice” countries, citing Denmark as an example. — NYT
• A truly bizarre scandal is unfolding around Republican Senate candidate Tim Sheehy, a star NRSC recruit in Nebraska. Sheehy has claimed in speeches to have been wounded by gunfire in Afghanistan — but in 2015, he told a U.S. National Parks Ranger on a visit to Montana that he had accidentally shot himself when he dropped a Colt .45 revolver, and paid a fine over the incident. Weirder still, Sheehy claims that that was a lie he told in order to prevent a military investigation into his alleged war wound. —Washington Post
• Trump called a state senator in Nebraska, Tom Brewer, to encourage him to bring up a winner-take-all bill in the final days of the legislative session. — Nebraska Examiner
• House Majority PAC, Democrats’ leadership-affiliated super PAC and their corresponding 501(c)(4) House Majority Forward, outraised their Republican counterparts, Conservative Leadership Fund and American Action Network $37 million to $30 million this quarter.

Foreign Policy

• Donald Trump’s plan to end Russia’s war in Ukraine rapidly would involve “pushing Ukraine to cede Crimea and the Donbas border region to Russia.” — WaPo
• Israel announced plans to pull troops out of Khan Yunis as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared Israel “one step away from victory.”
• Israel’s military said it was prepared to handle any threat from Iran, as officials brace for retaliation following Israel’s attack on the Iranian consulate in Damascus.
• José Andrés, the founder of World Central Kitchen, said that Israel seemed to be conducting a “war against humanity itself.” — ABC
• The U.S., U.K., and Australia are set to announce formal talks about bringing other nations into the second pillar of AUKUS — the nuclear-powered submarine pact formed in large part to counter China — following a U.S. push to get Japan into the agreement. — FT
• China is giving geospatial intelligence to Russia, the U.S. is warning allies. — Bloomberg
• Drones hit the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Russian-occupied Ukraine, raising the risk of what the International Atomic Energy Agency called a “major nuclear incident.”

Media

A Brazilian Supreme Court justice has ordered an investigation into Elon Musk after he said he would reactivate X accounts that the judge ordered to be blocked.

Big Read

The decisions by 21 House Republicans this year to leave Congress early or at the end of their terms are another sign of the fall in morale within the party, according to the Washington Post. Many in the GOP have accepted their inability to govern is a problem of their own making. They agree that breaking their legislative impasse relies on keeping control of the House in November, but increasing their ranks enough to push back against the hard-liners who carry influence by taking advantage of narrow margins. “This is a dysfunctional place, and I’m not making an observation that others haven’t made,” former GOP Rep. Ken Buck of Colorado was quoted as saying. He recently resigned and has hinted a few more colleagues are considering leaving before the end of the year.

Blindspot

Stories that are being largely ignored by either left-leaning or right-leaning outlets, according to data from our partners at Ground News.

What the Left isn’t reading: Hillary Clinton faced pro-Palestinian demonstrators during a return to her alma mater, Wellesley College.

What the Right isn’t reading: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he would investigate whether political bias drove Jan. 6 prosecutions if elected president.

Principals Team

Editors: Benjy Sarlin, Jordan Weissmann, Morgan Chalfant

Editor-at-Large: Steve Clemons

Reporters: Kadia Goba, Joseph Zeballos-Roig, Shelby Talcott, David Weigel

Donald Norcross is a Democratic congressman from New Jersey.

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