• Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) presented a report from Democrats on the Joint Economic Committee on the projected effects of a national default. 
  
  

• Accenture, a tech consulting company, announced it’s laying off around 19,000 people.

   

• North Carolina expanded Medicaid on the 13th anniversary of the Affordable Care Act, leaving 10 states that have opted not to do so.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg sent a letter to GOP committee chairs saying their call for him to turn over documents and communications about the ongoing hush-money case involving former President Trump was “an unprecedent[ed] inquiry into a pending local prosecution.”

Bragg said the request from the chairs, including Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), “only came after Donald Trump created a false expectation that he would be arrested the next day and his lawyers reportedly urged you to intervene.”

The DA offered to “meet and confer to understand whether the Committee has any legitimate legislative purpose in the requested materials that could be accommodated.”

The Manhattan grand jury’s meetings Wednesday and Thursday were cancelled, and it’s scheduled to meet again on Monday.

Trump on Thursday called for the removal of Bragg and three other law enforcement officials leading investigations into the former president.

President Biden is heading to Ottawa Thursday evening for the first trip of his term to Canada. He’ll meet with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and address parliament during the trip.

From The Hill’s Brett Samuels: “Biden has visited Canada before, including in 2016 during his final year as vice president. When he returns this week, he and Trudeau will again emphasize the U.S.-Canada relationship in a bilateral meeting Friday[.]”

Ukraine, Haiti, migration and climate change will be on the agenda during the trip. Read more here.

Here are four major moments from the day’s committee hearings, beyond TikTok:

1. Afghanistan withdrawal

House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) demanded Secretary of State Antony Blinken turn over a dissent cable related to the 2021 U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan by Monday.

The Hill’s Laura Kelly wrote that McCaul sees the cable “as critically important to understanding why the Biden administration failed to anticipate the fall of the American-backed government and takeover by the Taliban,” while “Blinken said his department was holding back the physical copy of the cable to maintain the integrity of the Dissent Channel[.]”

2. Defense spending

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley testified at a House Appropriations Committee hearing.

The Hill’s Brad Dress wrote, “In their most extensive public comments yet on potential budget reductions, the defense chiefs pushed back against an agreement reached earlier this year among more conservative House Republicans to cap all discretionary spending at fiscal year 2022 levels, which has led to concerns about defense spending cuts.”

3. Transportation Department definitions

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said at a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing that the department is reviewing its definition of “high-hazard flammable train” after the East Palestine, Ohio, derailment in February.

4. Gun regulation

Manuel Oliver, whose son Joaquin Oliver died in the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, was arrested after being removed from a joint committee hearing on gun regulation.

The Hill’s Emily Brooks does a deep dive into the 70-plus-member House Main Street Caucus, its new leadership and its ideological positioning among four other influential GOP caucuses. 

The Hill’s Saul Elbein breaks down the state vs. local preemption conflict in Texas, where companion bills in the GOP-dominated legislature “would nullify any local ordinances that could fall under the rubric of the state’s labor, natural resources, agriculture, insurance or occupations codes — unless the legislature writes specific legislation directly permitting a rule.”

“Biden backs woke ESG investing” — Liz Peek, former partner of Wertheim & Company. (Read here)

“Mellman: ‘Big Government’ Republicanism” — Mark Mellman, president of The Mellman Group and the Democratic Majority for Israel. (Read here)