Principals

☞ White House: The Biden administration will end the COVID-19 vaccination requirements for federal workers and contractors, healthcare workers, and international travelers on May 11, when the public health emergency expires. It’s the latest sign the administration believes the country has moved past the pandemic.

☞ Senate: The Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing later today on Supreme Court ethics reform with experts and former judges (Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts declined an invitation to appear). According to new polling from Democratic pollster Navigator shared early with Semafor, the Supreme Court’s popularity has dipped amid controversies over abortion and Justice Clarence Thomas’ relationship to a powerful Republican donor: 44% of Americans now view the high court favorably today, while 48% view it unfavorably. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell paid tribute to his former chief of staff Janet Mullins Grissom, “a trailblazing government leader” who passed away over the weekend.

☞ House: Speaker Kevin McCarthy rebuked a Russian reporter for suggesting he opposed the aid to Ukraine during a news conference in Israel. “I support aid for Ukraine. I do not support what your country has done to Ukraine,” McCarthy said. McCarthy in the past insisted he wouldn’t back a “blank check” for the country.

It was a little hard to tell on Monday whether Washington’s debt ceiling showdown was drawing closer to a compromise or catastrophe.

In an afternoon letter to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen announced that the so-called “X-date” when the government would run dry on cash and face potential default might arrive as soon as June 1, just one month away. (In January, the Department had more vaguely said the deadline would be “early June.”)

Not long after, news broke that President Biden had invited McCarthy and the three other top leaders of Congress — House Minority leader Hakeem Jeffries, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell — to the White House on May 9 to discuss the borrowing limit.

A break in the logjam? Maybe. But exactly what they plan to talk about is a bit unclear. Democrats have spent the last several days savaging the party-line debt limit bill Republicans passed last week as a right-wing pipe dream of dead-on-arrival spending cuts. (Schumer has taken to calling it the “Default on America Act.”) Meanwhile, Biden and top Democrats have insisted that they will not haggle over the debt ceiling. Instead, they are demanding that Republicans agree to a clean hike, and save spending talks for budget negotiations later in the year.

The White House is sticking to that message for the moment. Biden “stressed that Congress must take action to avoid default without conditions, and invited the four leaders to the White House to discuss the urgency of preventing default, as well as how to initiate a separate process to address the budget and fiscal year 2024 appropriations,” a White House official said. Jeffries and Schumer were more pointed, saying in a joint statement that Congress should make spending decisions during budget talks, “not in a hostage-situation in which extreme MAGA Republicans try to impose their radical agenda on America.”

The question now seems to be whether any elegant compromise exists that would allow all parties to save face, given that Republicans have insisted they won’t pass a clean debt ceiling hike. One idea commentators have floated is that the sides could temporarily extend the debt limit until the budget deadline later this year, allowing the two issues to be dealt with in parallel, but on technically separate terms. However, it’s unclear whether there’s appetite for that kind of maneuver, or if come May’s meeting, the parties will simply sit down together and but heads.

— Jordan Weissmann

Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W. Va. reintroduced his permitting reform package that failed to get a vote last year, saying he wanted to “restart the conversation in the Senate” about speeding up the approval process for energy projects like pipelines, wind farms, and power lines. The House passed its own mammoth energy bill weeks ago, which married permitting reform with other GOP priorities that have little chance of passing the Senate. Aides say permitting reform is one area they think Congress could make a bipartisan breakthrough this term, but it will require the House and Senate to get on the same page when it comes to issues around electricity transmission, which Democrats want to address to make it easier to expand renewables.

Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md. won’t seek reelection in 2024, potentially setting up a competitive primary contest in the blue state. Reps. Jamie Raskin and David Trone as well as Prince George’s County executive Angela Alsobrooks have all been named as potential candidates. Meanwhile, the state’s most popular Republican isn’t expected to mount a campaign: Former Gov. Larry Hogan told Semafor late last year that he “never once thought about running for Senate” and that he’s “not really a legislator.” Former Hogan aide Michael Ricci said Monday it was “not something I expect to happen at this point.”

Since we’re talking about people who aren’t running, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin said he doesn’t plan to run for the Republican nomination for president in 2024. Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, who did run for president in the 2020 cycle, also said he’s not running for a fourth term.

The Supreme Court said it would reconsider a decades-old precedent known as the Chevron doctrine that has long been a target of conservatives, and is widely considered a legal keystone of modern American government. Under the rule, judges are required to defer to decisions made by federal regulators when a law’s language is ambiguous. Striking it down would give the courts vastly more leeway to strike down other actions by government agencies, which could have profound implications for areas such as climate or labor. The specific case involves whether herring fisherman in New England should have to pay the salaries of government-mandated monitors on their boats.

The White House estimates that Russia has endured 100,000 casualties in its war in Ukraine since just December, including 20,000 troops killed in action.

— Morgan Chalfant, David Weigel, and Jordan Weissmann

Punchbowl News: McCarthy told Punchbowl in Israel that he believes the Biden administration doesn’t want to expand the Abraham Accords because they were initially brokered by the Trump administration.

Playbook: J. Michael Luttig and Laurence Tribe declined to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee today, but they submitted written testimony in which each says Congress can pass laws imposing ethical standards on the Supreme Court. Without mentioning the recent allegations involving Thomas, Luttig wrote the justices must conduct themselves in a way that is “beyond reproach, not only in fact, but also in appearance.”

The Early 202: Some Republicans have voiced support for strengthening disclosure rules or oversight for the Supreme Court in the past.

Take Donald Trump seriously, not literally, on “fake news.”

THE NEWS

Donald Trump is participating in a CNN town hall, ending a long absence from so-called “mainstream media” television programming by appearing on a network he has long denounced as “fake news” and that his voters love to jeer at rallies.

A Trump advisor told Semafor’s Shelby Talcott that they hoped to “jumpstart the relationship” with CNN now that the network is under new management.

“Going outside the traditional Republican ‘comfort zone’ was a key to President Trump’s success in 2016,” they said. “Some other candidates are too afraid to take this step in their quest to defeat Joe Biden, and are afraid to do anything other than Fox News.”

BENJY’S VIEW

That comment points to one of the ironies of the 2024 campaign so far: Trump, who has done more to rally conservatives against the press than any modern politician, has also been more eager to cultivate a relationship with them than his chief opponent, Ron DeSantis, who has largely resisted interviews and engagement with non-conservative outlets.

In addition to his upcoming CNN appearance, the Trump campaign has run something resembling a typical press shop, frequently supplying comment in stories from its spokesman Steven Cheung while putting out regular memos and releases to influence coverage. The candidate himself has shown flashes of true rage toward journalists and his rhetoric is as aggressive as ever, but his team tends to operate like run-of-the-mill comms professionals. And, as with his previous campaigns and administrations, there’s no shortage of leaks and quotes from a vast extended universe of “Trump world” players.

Trump’s long absence from the major networks since his election likely has more to do with his radioactivity after January 6th than his own desire to avoid the cameras. The big cable players were reluctant to even give much attention to his November campaign announcement. Only his recent indictment seemed to break the seal on round-the-clock coverage like the old days.

By contrast, DeSantis very deliberately insulated himself from the national press during his rise. Following Trump’s lead, he elevated a hostile forward-facing spokeswoman with a MAGA-friendly Twitter persona, cultivated Potemkin news outlets to cheer him on, and tried to limit press protections with new legislation.

It’s easy to see how he chose this approach. Trump won his first election with traditional news outlets publishing indignant fact checks and virtually every editorial board endorsing his opponent. The national press never looked less relevant. DeSantis’ decision seemed validated when he shrugged off a widely-criticized 60 Minutes report on his pandemic response before cruising to re-election.

That strategy is looking dicier now that DeSantis faces tough stories about his drop in the polls, amid concerns from donors, potshots from rivals, and critics portraying him as an unlikeable loner who managed to push his natural allies in Florida toward Trump. Without a long-established brand like Trump’s pre-2016 “Apprentice” persona, he risks being defined early among voters giving him a close look for the first time.

While he has some more traditional communications staff, they’ve so far shown less interest in countering these stories with surrogates, spokesmen, and messaging of his own before his campaign officially launches. A pro-DeSantis super PAC is starting to more visibly engage with the press, but it’s still starting up and is limited by campaign finance law in how much it can speak on his behalf.

Maybe DeSantis’ campaign will recover. But if he turns out to have miscalculated on his media strategy, it will be because he misread the lessons of Trump, whose barebones campaign took off in 2016 with nonstop interviews with any outlet that would talk to him, drowning out opponents in the process.

Once in office, Trump did far fewer non-conservative media appearances (an early Lester Holt sitdown where his comments on firing James Comey ended up part of the Mueller investigation didn’t help). But he still spent hours calling up beat reporters and then flamboyantly lying about talking to them. He sat down for book after book, both while in office and after leaving, even as his rhetoric towards the press became darker and more violent.

Trump assumed anyone with half a brain understood it all as a performance: He seemed confused why reporters might take it personally that he alternated between attacking them by name in rallies — even forcing them to have personal bodyguards — and then kissing them on the cheek away from the cameras. DeSantis seems to have taken the attacks literally, not seriously.

ROOM FOR DISAGREEMENT

Conservative commentator Erick Erickson accuses the press of deliberately piling on DeSantis over his choice to ignore them. “If he wins, Republicans from here on out will have carte blanche to avoid the national political press,” Erickson writes. “It is why the press must work with Trump to destroy DeSantis.”

Senators take aim at fixing the rural housing crunch

In recent years, America’s housing crisis has begun to grip rural communities far from the pricey coastal cities whose astronomical rents tend to make headlines. Now, a bipartisan pair of senators are looking to do something about it.

Sens. Tina Smith of Minnesota and Mike Rounds of South Dakota are introducing legislation this week that would revamp US Department of Agriculture programs aimed at the issue.

“If you think about the serious shortage of very affordable homes, it hits hard in rural communities,” Smith told Semafor, adding that rural housing aid programs had “not been updated for a long time.”

The legislation, titled the Rural Housing Service Reform Act, is directed at modernizing the Rural Housing Service, a federal program supporting both single- and multifamily housing through a mix of grants, direct loans, and loan guarantees. RHS units typically house low-income families, seniors, or disabled people.

The bill seeks to improve the process to transfer properties to nonprofits or others who intend to keep them in the subsidized rental market instead of converting them into traditional rental units that are likelier to price out residents with steep rent increases.

As in other parts of the federal government, the technology underpinning rural housing aid can be grossly outdated. Some software is over two decades old, complicating the ability of renters to seek federal assistance to repair their units or remove health and safety hazards. The legislation tries to address the problem with extra funding for IT improvements to streamline the application process and increase staffing levels.

“The Rural Housing Service, like other parts of USDA, are in need of investment in their infrastructure and in their staffing to be able to meet the modern requirements that rural communities face,” Tony Pipa, a senior fellow at the Center for Sustainable Development at the Brookings Institution, told Semafor.

Another provision in the bill aims to build on the success of a pilot program in South Dakota that offered Native American homebuyers affordable mortgages through community development banks. It would expand the program to other tribal lands across the US.

“For Native American communities, this could be a godsend in terms of having access to low interest, low-cost loans, so they can actually start to build housing in an area that just doesn’t have enough right now,” Rounds told Semafor.

Smith said there’s a chance for the legislation to be included in the farm bill later this year. But the Minnesota Democrat emphasized other routes were open, arguing there’s more bipartisan consensus on rural housing than other hot-button issues. “I’m optimistic that we’re going to get good bipartisan support,” Smith said.

— Joseph Zeballos-Roig

The House select committee on China will launch a bipartisan investigation this week into whether U.S. businesses are complicit in Uyghur forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region, according to a source close to the committee.

The committee’s message to U.S. businesses operating in China is to make sure their supply chains are free from forced labor or to get out of China, the source said.

The U.S. already prohibits imports of goods made with forced labor in Xinjiang from entering the U.S., under a law passed by Congress in 2021. The select committee’s chairman Mike Gallagher, R-Wis. says he wants to improve oversight of the law.

The panel, stood up this year, has already been examining human rights abuses against Uyghurs, focusing its second primetime hearing on what the U.S. has termed China’s genocide against them and other ethnic minorities with testimony from two victims who escaped camps in Xinjiang.

— Morgan Chalfant

Rohit Kumar is a co-leader of PwC’s Washington National Tax Services practice. He previously served as a domestic policy director and deputy chief of staff to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

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: An Arkansas judge ruled that Hunter Biden must answer additional questions about his investments and art sales as part of a paternity case brought by the mother of one of his children.

WHAT THE RIGHT ISN’T READING: Texas Gov. Greg Abbott faced criticism for referring to victims in a Texas shooting as “illegal immigrants.” Abbott has since apologized for referring to one of the five victims as “illegal” after reports the person entered the U.S. legally.

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— Steve Clemons