NotedDC

Jan. 6 panel set to release final recommendations

by Amee LaTour and Elizabeth Crisp - 12/20/22 6:21 PM ET

The Jan. 6 committee is poised to release its full report Wednesday, recommending legislation in response to the Capitol riot along with criminal referrals against former President Trump and ethics complaints against several GOP lawmakers.

The 154-page executive summary released Monday names the Presidential Election Reform Act as one of its recommendations. While that bill is not expected to pass before the end of the year, Congress is set to advance similar reforms to the Electoral Count Act of 1887 that members from both parties have gotten behind.

How the bills compare: The House passed the committee-recommended bill in September with a mostly party-line vote of 229-203. Two members of the select committee, Reps. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) and Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), introduced it.

Meanwhile, the omnibus bill being pushed through Congress ahead of the Friday government funding deadline includes a similar bill, called the Electoral Count Reform Act, which originated in the Senate.

Both bills state the vice president’s role in the counting of electoral votes is strictly ministerial — an effort to undercut future claims that the vice president has the power to change the outcome. Then-Vice President Mike Pence faced pressure from Trump on that issue on Jan. 6, 2021.

The measures would also increase the number of lawmakers needed to bring objections to a state’s electoral votes, but by different amounts. Currently, a single member from both the House and Senate are needed to bring such an objection. The House-passed bill recommends raising that to one-third of both the House and Senate. The Senate bill raises it to one-fifth of both chambers.

Reactions: “It’s clear that only a bipartisan compromise originating in the Senate can actually become law,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said in September, according to The Washington Post. “One party going it alone would be a non-starter. In my view, the House bill is a non-starter. We have one shot to get this right.”

The Senate bill has 38 cosponsors, including 15 Republicans.

Cheney and Lofgren wrote a letter to several senators, including leaders and top Rules Committee members, earlier this month saying in part the Senate bill doesn’t define certain terms in a section on grounds for objections and may permit House members “to raise objections based on allegations of voter fraud.”

More Jan. 6 committee coverage:

This is NotedDC, looking at the politics, policy and people behind the stories in Washington. We’re The Hill’s Amée LaTour and Liz Crisp.

📨 Have a tip or something you want to share? Email us at ecrisp@digital-release.thehill.com and alatour@digital-release.thehill.com. A friend send you this newsletter? Sign up here or in the box below.

BRIEFLY

Incoming House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) announces Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.) as his pick to lead House Democrats’ campaign arm.
The Hill’s Emily Brooks breaks down the tensions between Reps. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.).
The New York State Climate Action Council has adopted a blueprint of measures aimed at meeting the state’s climate goals.

🗳 Special primary in Virginia

A special Democratic primary Tuesday will decide who runs in the Feb. 21 special election to represent Virginia’s 4th District after Rep. Donald McEachin’s (D) death in November.

The Cook Political Report’s David Wasserman notes the winner “will be the prohibitive favorite in the February 21, 2023 special election, considering President Biden carried the seat 67%-31% in 2020.”

The field: State Sen. Jennifer McClellan and state Sen. Joe Morrissey will both be on the ballot, along with former Del. Joe Preston and businessman Tavorise Marks. Our colleague Brad Dress wrote of leading candidates McClellan and Morrissey:

“McClellan has campaigned aggressively, earning key endorsements from U.S. Democratic Virginia Sens. Tim Kaine and Mark Warner, as well as Richmond’s mayor, among a long list of others.”
“Lamont Bagby, a member of the Virginia House of Delegates who called McEachin his mentor, announced he was running for the seat before quickly suspending his campaign and endorsing McClellan, saying she was the only person for the job.”
“Morrissey, a longtime attorney who has been disbarred twice, is one of the more polarizing figures in Virginia politics. In 2014, he was convicted of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, a then-17-year-old receptionist at his law firm who is now his wife.”
“After his conviction, Morrissey resigned his seat in the House of Delegates, which he later won back in a special election while serving partial time in jail. Before he left office, Gov. Ralph Northam (D) pardoned Morrissey for the 2014 crime.”

The process: It’s a short timeline. McClellan and Morrissey announced their candidacies last week.

To participate in Tuesday’s election, voters must sign a pledge reading, “I certify that I am a resident of and registered to vote in the 4th Congressional District of Virginia; I am a Democrat; I believe in the principles of the Democratic Party; and I do not intend to support, endorse or assist any candidate who is opposed to the 4th CD Democratic nominee in the ensuing election for Congress.”

A vacancy filled, a vacancy created?: Democrats will start the 118th Congress with 212 House seats instead of 213 due to the vacancy, with Republicans holding 222 seats.

Wasserman noted the timing of the special election, set by Gov. Glenn Younkin (R), “will likely force a Democrat to exit the state senate — where Democrats hold a slim 21-19 majority — as soon into the 2023 legislative session as possible to weaken Democrats’ ability to block his agenda.”

Republicans hold a slim majority in the state House of Delegates.

The GOP side: Republicans had their nominating contest, which used ranked-choice voting, on Saturday. Leon Benjamin Sr. advanced to the special general election.

💸 Have yourself a merry little omnibus

If you find yourself bored during the holiday break, lawmakers have a 4,155-page solution: The omnibus spending bill for fiscal year 2023.

If that’s a bit much for you, here’s the “stocking stuffer” version. The Hill’s Aris Folley offers a helpful summary of what’s in and out. Some highlights:

What’s in:

Increased defense spending (total of $858 billion — a 10 percent increase)
Ukraine aid (The Hill’s Ellen Mitchell has more on this here)
TikTok ban on government devices (The Hill’s Rebecca Klar has more here)
The electoral count reform bill (as discussed above)
Disaster relief (around $40 billion)

What’s out:

Real-dollar nondefense spending increase (the $772.5 billion in nondefense discretionary spending marks an increase below the 7.1 percent inflation rate)
Child tax credit expansion
SAFE Banking Act on cannabis banking rules
Sentencing reform for disparities between crack and cocaine offenses
Increased IRS funding (The Hill’s Alexander Bolton has more on that here)

The current stopgap bill, or continuing resolution, expires Friday — giving lawmakers only days to move on the massive spending package.

As the bill works its way through the Senate, our colleague Mike Lillis reports on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) efforts to corral Democratic support.

Lillis writes: “Uniting House Democrats behind the proposal could be crucial, since House Republicans have been highly critical of both the substance of the funding package and the process that led to it.”

Meanwhile, a group of GOP House members is pressuring Republican senators to vote against the omnibus. The Hill’s Emily Brooks has more on that here.

🏙 Chicago’s 2023 mayoral race well underway

One of 2023’s biggest elections is underway as candidates line up to lead the nation’s third-largest city.

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot (D) is seeking to fend off 10 other challengers ahead of the city’s Feb. 28 mayoral election.

The ultimate candidate field may shrink as five candidates face challenges to their nominating petitions.
Candidates found not to have enough valid signatures will be off the ballot. The Chicago Board of Elections plans to finalize the ballot this month, WBEZ reported.
The race is officially nonpartisan, meaning candidates’ names won’t appear next to party labels on the ballot.

What happened last time: Lightfoot advanced from a 14-candidate election in February 2019 with 18 percent of the vote. She defeated, among others, Bill Daley — the son and brother of two former Chicago mayors with a political résumé of his own — as well as state Comptroller Susana Mendoza and businessman Willie Wilson.

Lightfoot defeated Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle in the April runoff with 74 percent of the vote. Around one-third of eligible voters turned out for the runoff.

What happened since: Lightfoot’s first year in office included a 15-day teacher strike and the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Crime, which has plagued cities across the country and was a major issue in the 2019 election, remains top-of-mind with elevated murder and motor vehicle theft rates in the city.

Lightfoot is touting her handling of the pandemic and other aspects of her record as she faces challenges from Rep. Jesús “Chuy” García (D), returning mayoral candidates Paul Vallas and Wilson, local elected officials and more.

What early polls are saying: M3 Strategies polled 440 likely voters from Dec. 11-13, finding García at 28 percent, Vallas at 19 percent, Lightfoot at 15 percent and Wilson at 13 percent. Undecideds accounted for 19 percent.

The poll’s margin of error was 4.7 percentage points. The poll didn’t name a sponsor. FOX 32 reported, “Earlier this year, M3 strategies was paid $4,200 by Wilson’s campaign fund.”

An Impact Research poll conducted Nov. 10-17 among 700 likely voters put García at 25 percent, Lightfoot at 18, Vallas at 14 and Wilson at 10. Fourteen percent were undecided. That poll included some candidates who didn’t end up running.

The International Union of Operating Engineers, which endorsed García, commissioned the poll. Its margin of error was 3.7 percentage points.

WHAT WE’RE READING

How Trump jettisoned restraints at Mar-a-Lago and prompted legal peril (via Washington Post)
The TSA found a record number of guns in carry-on bags this year (via NPR)
Who Is Rep.-Elect George Santos? His Résumé May Be Largely Fiction (via NY Times)
Bankman-Fried made Agriculture panel members focus of campaign support (via Roll Call)

NUMBER TO KNOW

$1.7 trillion

Final price tag for the omnibus spending bill Congress has hashed out.

ONE MORE THING