Tag Archives : Build House

Top Pence aide appeared before grand jury investigating Jan. 6

Marc Short, a top aide to former Vice President Pence, testified before a federal grand jury investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, he confirmed Monday.

“I can confirm that I did receive a subpoena for the federal grand jury and I complied with that subpoena,” Short told CNN’s Erin Burnett.

ABC News first reported on Short’s testimony, saying it happened last week. The content of the subpoena and what Short told the grand jury is unclear, and he did not comment further.

The Justice Department has largely kept its investigation into the Jan. 6 attacks under wraps. Short is the most prominent former Trump administration who is known to have appeared before a grand jury in the matter.

The department is investigating the attacks on the Capitol, as well as a scheme to put forward fake electors in swing states that would give the vote to former President Trump.

Short served as chief of staff to Pence for nearly two years, including during the Jan. 6 riots.

Short previously sat for an interview with the House committee investigating the Capitol riots. Portions of that interview have been played during public hearings, including one hearing focused on the pressure campaign to get Pence to reject the electoral results and refuse to certify Joe Biden as the winner of the 2020 election.

Short has also said publicly that he warned Pence’s Secret Service agent days before Jan. 6 to raise concerns that then-President Trump could publicly turn on Pence.

Short, who also spent time as Trump’s legislative affairs director, has previously been critical of the committee’s composition as well as its focus on Trump’s culpability for Jan. 6 as opposed to security lapses or legislative fixes to prevent a similar event.

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New House security program to provide members $10K to safeguard their homes

The House Sergeant at Arms is creating a residential security program that will provide thousands of dollars to congressional lawmakers to help safeguard their homes.

The Sergeant at Arms sent a letter to members and staff on Monday announcing the residential security program, which is set to begin on Aug. 15, according to a Republican congressional aide with knowledge of the plans.

The initiative will pay for up to $10,000 worth of security system equipment and installation costs at House lawmakers’ personal residences. Eligible equipment includes motion sensors, video recorders, indoor and outdoor cameras and door locks.

The Sergeant at Arms, which serves as the chief law enforcement and protocol officer of the House, said the program is meant to bolster security for House members and their families.

“[T]he Sergeant at Arms (SAA) will assume the cost of and oversee certain future residential security upgrades, maintenance, and monthly monitoring fees. This program will strengthen the security of Members of the House of Representatives and their families,” the Sergeant at Arms wrote in the letter announcing the initiative.

The officer also said the program cover fixed-rate monthly monitoring and maintenance fees up to $150 a month incurred by members.

Punchbowl News first reported on the program on Monday.

News of the initiative comes after a number of lawmakers have been faced with concerning threats in recent weeks.

Last week, Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.), who is running for governor of New York, was attacked while onstage at a campaign event in the Empire State. A man wielding a sharp weapon tried to stab Zeldin, but the congressman grabbed his wrist to stop him before others ran on stage and intervened.

Zeldin’s campaign has since said the congressman and his staff are safe. He was not injured in the incident. A suspect has been charged with assaulting a member of Congress using a dangerous weapon.

Earlier this month, a man was arrested near the home of Rep. Pramila Jayapal in Seattle for allegedly threatening to kill the congresswoman. The Washington Democrat said former President Trump was responsible for the rise in political violence.

And Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) shared a video on Twitter this month of vulgar and threatening calls his congressional office had received.

A number of congressional lawmakers have received additional security in recent weeks, according to Punchbowl News, including all members of the Jan. 6 select committee, who are accompanied by Capitol Police protection. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) has also reportedly received a Capitol Police detail.

The U.S. Capitol Police’s Threat Assessment Team opened about 1,820 cases from the beginning of the year through March 23, the department told The Hill on Monday. Cases include direct threats and directions of interest, which are defined as concerning statements or action.

Those statistics are the latest the department has released this year.

For comparison, Capitol Police received 9,625 threats and directions of interest in 2021, and 8,613 in 2020.

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The Committee of the Whole is back; but why?

Just when you thought it was dead and buried, the COW is baaaack!   

For our purposes we will use the acronym COW as shorthand for the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union. It is a transplant from the British Parliament that our Forefathers brought with them on the Mayflower and then grafted onto the operations of every legislative body they created — from the colonial legislatures to the Continental Congress. It actually made considerable sense while we were still 13 colonies since its central purpose was to keep deliberations secret from the King until final decisions were made. 

The COW was comprised of all the members of the House of Commons except the Speaker who was seen as the King’s snitch and therefore excluded from the Hall of the House during COW debates.  The COW elected its own chairman to preside.  When the House resolves itself into the Committee of the Whole, the Mace, a staff representing the Crown in Great Britain, and the federal government in the U.S., is moved to a lower platform on the dais. Today, the chair of the COW is appointed by the Speaker who is allowed to fully participate in its debates and vote on its amendments.  

There is no longer need to keep proceedings of the COW secret,  thanks to our separation of powers. The president, unlike the King, cannot retaliate against members who oppose administration policies. However, engrained traditions die hard, even if they are anachronistic practices executed by vestigial organs.  Even after successfully separating from Great Britain and its King, the newly independent Congress of the United States clung to the COW because it allowed for more informal, free-wheeling debates 

It was not until the congressional reforms of the “sunshine” 1970s that the House adopted a rule providing for recorded teller votes in the COW.  Prior to that, members registered their positions by non-record, teller votes, by filing down the center aisle to be head-counted as either for or against the pending amendment. 

The rules of the House today still provide for a Committee of the Whole to process all revenue measures and bills that directly or indirectly appropriate money.  However, until last week the COW had not been used since the first session of the 116th Congress in 2019. 

So why was it suddenly back the week of July 18 to process an omnibus  appropriations measure that combined six of the 12 regular money bills into one?  The most obvious answer is to lend stature to the six, non-member delegates from D.C., American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Marians, the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. Thanks to a rule change in 1993, they were allowed to vote in the COW, but not in the House, at least in those Congresses in which Democrats were in the majority and made the rules.  

But, in 2020 they were shut out from any floor voting when the Democratic majority stopped using the Committee of the Whole. The delegates were obviously very upset and pressured for restoring their floor voting privileges in the COW.  (They are still members of the standing committees and fully participate in those proceedings.) 

Another likely factor in the switch-back to the COW last week was that some top Republicans had joined in criticism of the COW-less House, especially since a candidate of their party was elected as the Puerto Rico delegate in 2018. The revival of the COW might be seen as the Democrats’ bovine bluff to test just how serious Republicans were in trying to milk the issue. 

One of the more recent practices in the House has been to make a multitude of amendments in order to major bills – 650 to the defense authorization bill the week of July 11, and 190 to last week’s omnibus appropriations measure. The way the House has managed this gargantuan challenge is to give the bills’ floor managers authority to bundle multiple amendments into single, en bloc amendments. On the appropriations bill, for instance, 639 amendments were filed with the Rules Committee which then made 190 of them in order for floor consideration. The appropriations’ floor managers for the six-part bill then proceeded to bundle 188 of those amendments into eight en bloc amendments, five of which were adopted, and three rejected. The number of amendments in each en bloc varied from two to 45, with most averaging around 30. 

The use of these massive, en bloc amendments, whether in the House, as with the DoD authorization, or in the COW, as with the appropriations bill, is not a shining example of deliberative democracy, let alone of comprehensibility. Whether the House continues to use the Committee of the Whole in the future or not, en bloc amendments are here to stay on mega-amendment bills. The best that can be said of it is that it is a time-saving device; the worst is that it is a mockery of democracy. 

Don Wolfensberger is a Congress Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, former chief-of-staff of the House Rules Committee, and author of, “Changing Cultures in Congress: From Fair Play to Power Plays.”  The views expressed are solely his own.    

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Trump set for controversial return to DC as 2024 bid looms

When former President Trump left Washington, D.C., in January 2021 under the cloud of the Jan. 6 riots, his future in the GOP and American politics was uncertain.

On Tuesday, Trump will return to the nation’s capital for the first time in 18 months with his grip on the GOP steadied and talk of a potential 2024 White House campaign heating up.

Trump will deliver the keynote speech at a summit hosted by the America First Policy Institute, a think tank formed by a band of former Trump administration aides to promote the former president’s policies. 

Other panelists attending the summit include former Trump administration officials such as ex-Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe and former economic adviser Larry Kudlow, as well as lawmakers aligned with Trump, Sen. Rick Scott (Fla.), the chairman of the Senate GOP campaign arm; and fellow GOP Sens. Lindsey Graham (S.C.) and Ted Cruz (Texas).

But the focus will be on Trump, who has not been in Washington, since he lifted off on Air Force One the morning of Jan. 20, 2021, without attending the inauguration of his successor, Joe Biden.

When Trump was last in the capital, Republicans like Graham and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (Calif.) were condemning Trump for his role in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol and saying it was time for the party to move on from the former president.

When Trump addresses the audience Tuesday, he will look out on a crowd of Republican lawmakers, former administration officials and conservatives who have wholeheartedly embraced the former president and his record.

Linda McMahon, the former head of the Small Business Administration under Trump and now the head of the America First Policy Institute, used her opening remarks at the summit to highlight Trump’s successes in cutting regulations, appointing conservative judges, cracking down on the southern border and investing in the military.

When McMahon teased Trump’s speech on Tuesday, the crowd applauded.

“I think we’re all looking forward to that,” she said.

The prospect of a 2024 campaign will overshadow Trump’s remarks Tuesday. Allies have said the former president could announce a third White House bid as early as this summer.

While this week’s policy summit is ostensibly meant to lay out the path forward for ensuring the Trump administration’s accomplishments become a cornerstone of the conservative movement, Trump himself has been largely focused on grievances over the 2020 election since departing office.

In a speech in Arizona on Friday, Trump appeared alongside Kari Lake, an Arizona gubernatorial candidate who has been among the most outspoken election deniers running for statewide office.

In Florida on Saturday, Trump blasted the Biden administration over its energy and border policies, and he vowed to reimpose Schedule F, an action that would allow him to fire federal employees with ease and replace them with loyalists.

Trump’s return to Washington also coincides with the culmination of eight hearings held by the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, riots at the Capitol. The panel has specifically zeroed in on Trump’s role leading up to and during the attack to paint a clear narrative that the former president spread falsehoods about the election, encouraged his supporters to descend on the Capitol and then sat idly by as violence unfolded.

“Every American must consider this: Can a president who is willing to make the choices Donald Trump made during the violence of Jan. 6 ever be trusted with any position of authority in our great nation again?” committee vice chair Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), an outspoken Trump critic, said at the conclusion of Thursday’s hearing.

Trump’s speech on Tuesday will also take place as his former vice president, Mike Pence, seemingly lays the groundwork for a potential presidential bid of his own in 2024. Pence been increasingly blunt about the need for Republicans to lay out a forward-looking agenda.   

“Some people want this election to be about the past, but elections are always about the future. Democrats would love nothing more than for Republicans to take our eye off the ball and focus on days gone by,” Pence said in Arizona on Friday in support of Karrin Taylor Robson, a gubernatorial candidate challenging Trump’s preferred candidate. 

“If the Republican Party allows itself to become consumed by yesterday’s grievances, we will lose,” Pence said. “But if we come together, keep our eye on the ball and focus on the future, we won’t just win the next election, we will change the course of American history for generations.” 

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Progressive drops out of Wisconsin Senate race two weeks before primary

Wisconsin Senate candidate Tom Nelson (D) announced Monday that he was dropping out of the state’s Senate race just two weeks before the primary election. 

“Friends, good news, bad news. Bad news is I’m suspending the campaign today,” Nelson said in a video posted to Twitter on Monday.  “And I want to thank everybody for all the great work that you’ve done for us it means so much we come so far. So that’s the bad news.”

Nelson, who is the county executive of Outagamie County, is endorsing a fellow progressive candidate, Lt. Gov Mandela Barnes (D), to win the Democratic primary and take on Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.). He called Barnes a “good man” and a “strong nominee” for the Senate race. 

Nelson had been endorsed by the Progressive climate group Sunrise Wisconsin and former presidential candidate Marianne Williamson.

But Nelson was polling behind Mandela, Milwaukee Bucks executive Alex Lasry (D), and state Treasurer Sarah Godlewski (D) in the race, according to a Marquette University Law School poll.

In his own statement,  Barnes thanked Nelson for his endorsement. 

“I deeply respect Tom Nelson’s commitment to the working people in this state and I’m thankful for his endorsement,” Barnes said in his statement. “It will take all of us coming together in every corner of this state to beat Ron Johnson.”

Democrats are hoping to unseat Johnson as they seek to retain their Senate majority.

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Cheney blasts Sen. Tom Cotton for criticizing Jan. 6 hearings

Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyoming) ripped Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) on Monday evening for his criticisms of the public hearings put on by the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

“Hey @SenTomCotton – heard you on @hughhewitt criticizing the Jan 6 hearings,” Cheney tweeted. “Then you said the strangest thing; you admitted you hadn’t watched any of them.”

Cotton spoke with conservative radio talk show host Hugh Hewitt on Monday morning, where he argued that the lack of cross-examination of witnesses in hearings concerning Jan. 6 was a departure from “Anglo-American jurisprudence.”

“I think what you’ve seen over the last few week is why Anglo-American jurisprudence going back centuries has found that adversarial inquiry, cross-examination is the best way to get at the truth,” Cotton said.

He continued: “There is no one on that committee who takes a view different from Nancy Pelosi, or even a view that’s like, we should examine the full context of all of these statements, of all of these recordings, of all of this video.”

Cheney, one of the two Republicans on the Jan. 6 committee, hit back at Cotton for criticizing hearings he acknowledged not watching.

“Here’s a tip: actually watching them before rendering judgment is more consistent with “Anglo-American jurisprudence,’” she said.

Cotton admitted on Hewitt’s show while discussing the most recent public hearing that “I did not watch that hearing, and I have not watched any of the hearings, so I’ve not seen any of them out of the context that I see a snippet here or there on the news.”

However, Cotton still objected to the Jan. 6 committee for the lack of context presented by its members.

“They’ve never released the full transcripts. They’ve never released the full videos,” he said of panel interviews conducted behind closed doors. “We have no idea what those witnesses said in the full context of their depositions. And even if we had those, there was no lawyer in the room who was probing in the other direction.”

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Energy & Environment — Biden to make more climate moves this week 

The Department of Agriculture says it will plant more trees as the White House eyes additional climate mitigation actions. Meanwhile, California is stepping up its own climate goals. 

This is Overnight Energy & Environment, your source for the latest news focused on energy, the environment and beyond. For The Hill, we’re Rachel Frazin and Zack Budryk. Someone forward you this newsletter? Subscribe here. 

Biden to announce steps on wildfires, extreme heat

The Biden administration this week will announce actions aimed at reducing wildfire risk and protecting people from extreme heat, according to a White House official. 

What do we know? The official said the actions Biden will announce include new resources for communities that deal with extreme heat and new initiatives that expand access to “more affordable sources of clean energy” in an email to The Hill.  

What else? The administration will also announce investments through the bipartisan infrastructure law to help “eliminate the backlog of reforestation needs” and help communities plan for and mitigate wildfire risk.  

The Agriculture Department on Monday said that it would try to plant more than
1 billion trees over the next 10 years and also try to eliminate the reforestation backlog. The White House official said the administration will announce additional steps related to wildfires this week.  

The upcoming actions were previously reported by E&E News. 

The steps come after the spotlight shifted to the Biden administration on climate action after Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) backed away from climate talks in the Senate.  

Biden last week announced steps related to expanding offshore wind energy and heat funding, adding his administration would announce additional executive actions aimed at climate change “in the coming days.” 

• But many climate advocates described last week’s steps as insufficient and are likely to view the latest steps in a similar light. 
• Several progressives have called on Biden to declare a climate change emergency. Last week, Biden said that the issue was an “emergency” but stopped short of a formal declaration that would unlock additional climate powers. 

Read more about the upcoming moves here. 

BIDEN ADMINISTRATION ANNOUNCES PLANS TO PLANT 1 BILLION TREES 

The Biden administration on Monday outlined plans to plant 1 billion trees as part of efforts to address an extensive reforestation backlog.  

How so? The effort, spearheaded by the Department of Agriculture, will build on existing reforestation efforts using funds from the bipartisan infrastructure law and the bipartisan Repairing Existing Public Land by Adding Necessary Trees (REPLANT) Act. 

Without the two laws, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said, the department would only have been able to address about 6 percent of the reforestation backlog.   

• “Forests are a powerful tool in the fight against climate change,” Vilsack said in a statement. “Nurturing their natural regeneration and planting in areas with the most need is critical to mitigating the worst effects of climate change while also making those forests more resilient to the threats they face from catastrophic wildfire, historic drought, disease outbreaks and pest infestation.”  
• “Our reforestation efforts on national forests only increase through strong partnerships with other federal agencies, tribes, state and local governments, communities and organizations,” added US Forest Service Chief Randy Moore. “We recognize that successfully increasing reforestation on national forests is dependent on these strong partnerships.” 

The Forest Service has this year significantly expanded reforestation funds, putting about $100 million toward such efforts this year, at a time when unprecedented wildfires remain a looming threat.  

The announcement is the latest of a number of forestry-related moves by the federal government. 

In April, President Biden signed an executive order aimed at protecting old-growth forests. In August, before Biden took office, the U.S. officially signed onto an effort to plant one trillion trees worldwide, with a goal of at least 855 million in the U.S. by 2030. 

Read more about the announcement here. 

California ups climate goals, faces fires

A burgeoning blaze near Yosemite National Park forced the evacuation of thousands of residents over the weekend, prompting California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) to declare a state of emergency just a day after announcing a set of ambitious new climate goals.

Newsom issued a state of emergency for Mariposa County on Saturday due to the impacts of the Oak Fire, which his office said had destroyed homes, threatened critical infrastructure and led to the evacuation of 3,000 residents.

• At the time of the declaration, the blaze had burned more than 11,500 acres — a figure that grew to 16,791 acres by Monday morning, according to Cal Fire. The fire was 10 percent contained on Monday.
• Newsom’s emergency declaration came less than a day after he launched new statewide climate targets for renewable energy, clean buildings, carbon removal and clean fuels.

The specifics: As part of the new targets, the governor called for the state to ensure that its 2022 Climate Change Scoping Plan provides the tools necessary to achieve California’s 2030 climate goals, as well as state carbon neutrality, no later than 2045, in a letter sent to the chair of the California Air Resources Board.

In his state budget proposal in January, Newsom allocated $22.5 billion for combatting the climate crisis over the next five years. In May, he revised the figure to add another $9.5 billion.

On Friday evening, however, the governor announced that he would be accelerating the state’s clean energy targets while working with the legislature “to enshrine carbon neutrality into state law,” according to his office.

• Among the new targets proposed in his letter to the California Air Resources Board was a goal of producing at least 20 gigawatts of offshore wind power by 2045. 

Read more from The Hill’s Sharon Udasin. 

WHAT WE’RE READING

• Operatives working with Florida utility plotted primary challenge for Miami senator (The Orlando Sentinel and Floodlight) 
• The audacious PR plot that seeded doubt about climate change (The BBC) 
• Colonial Pipeline spill 30 times bigger than previously thought (WRAL) 
• Mideast nations wake up to damage from climate change (The Associated Press) 

ICYMI

• Younger Republicans significantly more concerned about environment than older ones: Gallup 
• These US cities broke heat records on Sunday 
• Al Gore: America must address ‘democracy crisis’ to solve climate crisis 

🐢 I love it when you call me Big Papa.

That’s it for today, thanks for reading. Check out The Hill’s Energy & Environment page for the latest news and coverage. We’ll see you tomorrow.  

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Defense & National Security — US condemns Myanmar military executions  

The U.S. on Monday condemned Myanmar’s military regime for executing four pro-democracy activists. 

We’ll talk about the executions. Plus: the lines former President Trump cut from a Jan. 7, 2021, speech condemning the rioters who stormed the Capitol a day prior.  

This is Defense & National Security, your nightly guide to the latest developments at the Pentagon, on Capitol Hill and beyond. For The Hill, I’m Jordan Williams. A friend forward this newsletter to you? Subscribe here.

Blinken: Myanmar military executions ‘reprehensible’

Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday denounced as “reprehensible” the Myanmar military junta’s recent executions of pro-democracy activists and elected leaders. 

• In a statement, Blinken said the U.S. condemns “in the strongest terms” the executions of Ko Jimmy, Phyo Zeya Thaw, Hla Myo Aung and Aung Thura Zaw over their “exercise of their fundamental freedoms.” 
• “These reprehensible acts of violence further exemplify the regime’s complete disregard for human rights and the rule of law,” Blinken said.   

Who was executed? Phyo Zeya Thaw was a former lawmaker who was convicted in January for offenses involving possession of explosives and terrorism, The Associated Press reported. 

Ko Jimmy was a former pro-democracy activist who was convicted of violating counterterrorism laws, according to the outlet. Meanwhile Hla Myo Aung and Aung Thura Zaw had been convicted of killing of woman in March 2021. 

Attempts to ‘extinguish democracy’:“The regime’s sham trials and these executions are blatant attempts to extinguish democracy; these actions will never suppress the spirit of the brave people of Burma,” Blinken said. 

“The United States joins the people of Burma in their pursuit of freedom and democracy and calls on the regime to respect the democratic aspirations of the people who have shown they do not want to live one more day under the tyranny of military rule,” he added. 

Read more here.  

Trump cut lines from speech condemning rioters

Former President Trump cut lines from a Jan. 7, 2021, address condemning the rioters who entered the Capitol the day prior as not representing him or “our movement.” 

A draft of the speech marked up by Trump, shared by Jan. 6 committee member Rep. Elaine Luria (D-Va.), includes additional evidence not shown by the panel during its Thursday hearing, its final one expected this summer. 

• What got cut? The draft shows Trump used a marker to cross out a line saying, “I want to be very clear. You do not represent me. You do not represent our movement.” 
• Trump also cut other lines dealing with the consequences rioters should face. 
• The prepared draft said he would encourage the Justice Department to prosecute rioters “to the fullest extent of the law. We must send a clear message. Not with mercy, but with justice. Legal consequences must be swift and firm.” 

How did aides respond? A number of top White House aides say they were unsure why Trump made the changes he did, but they did oppose them. 

“That needed to be stated forcefully,” Pat Cipollone, Trump’s White House counsel, said in an interview with the committee. 

Why Trump gave the speech: Cassidy Hutchinson, an aide to Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows, said the primary motivation for the address was to get out a stronger message condemning the riot than the administration had given had the day before. But there was also concern that the Cabinet might seek to remove Trump from office. 

“The secondary reason for that was think about what might happen in the final 15 days of your presidency if we don’t do this. There’s already talks about invoking the 25th Amendment. You need this as cover,” she said in video shared by the committee. 

Read more here.  

FROM THE WEEKEND: BIPARTISAN HOUSE MEMBERS GO TO UKRAINE  

A bipartisan House delegation met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Ukraine’s capital of Kyiv on Saturday as the country’s war with Russia hits the five-month mark. 

• Who went to Ukraine? Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.) said in a statement along with the four other members of the delegation that they saw firsthand during their visit how Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war has failed to achieve its goals. The other members of the delegation are Reps. Michael Waltz (R-Fla.), Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), Mikie Sherrill (D-N.J.) and Mike Quigley (D-Ill.). 

Briefing with Zelensky: Zelensky briefed the members of the delegation on the missile strikes that Russia launched against Ukraine in the past day, specifically targeting the port of Odessa. The city announced that four missiles were launched toward the port, but two were shot down before impact.  

• Zelensky also told the delegation about the planned reconstruction of Ukraine after the war ends, according to the statement. He said the first step is implementing the Fast Recovery Plan, which would focus on quickly restoring destroyed residential, educational and medical infrastructure.  
• “We appeal to our partners, in particular the United States, with a proposal to take an active part in the implementation of this ambitious but extremely important project,” he said. 

Their takeaways: The delegation members said the war has “violently disrupted” the lives of Ukrainian civilians and that they saw evidence of Russian atrocities in Irpin and Bucha, two cities in the province surrounding Kyiv.  

“Four months since Vladimir Putin’s unlawful further invasion began, President Zelenskyy and the people of Ukraine continue to inspire the world with their courageous fight for their freedom, sovereignty, and democracy,” the delegation said. 

The lawmakers said they will continue to seek ways to help Zelensky and the Ukrainian people as effectively as they can as they “continue their brave stand.” 

Read more here.  

ON TAP FOR TOMORROW

• The Potomac Officers’ Club will host the 2022 Air Force Summit at 7 a.m. 
• The Center for Strategic and International Studies will host the Twelfth Annual South China Sea Conference at 9 a.m. 
• The Department of Defense will host RDER Industry Engagement Day” at 9 a.m. 
• The Business Council for International Understanding will host a roundtable discussion with Roundtable Discussion with Mr. Michael Laychak, Director, Defense Technology Security Administration, at 10:30 a.m. 
• The American Security Project will host a discussion on “NATO’s Next Act – A Conversation with Ambassador Doug Lute” at 12 p.m. 
• The Atlantic Council will host “A conversation about Taiwan with the 27th US Secretary of Defense Mark T. Esper” at 12 p.m. 

WHAT WE’RE READING

• US bolsters cyber alliance to counter rising Iran threat 
• Two Americans dead in Donbas region of Ukraine 
• Biden keeps his distance from Jan. 6 panel 

That’s it for today! Check out The Hill’s Defense and National Security pages for the latest coverage. See you tomorrow!

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Senate vote on semiconductor bill delayed due to weather

The long-delayed CHIPS bill, which would provide $52 billion to the domestic semiconductor industry and $81 billion to the National Science Foundation, was postponed another day after severe thunderstorms delayed senators’ return to Washington Monday.  

The Senate was supposed to vote at 5:30 p.m. Monday on a motion to end debate on the bill, which would have set up a final vote on Tuesday.  

But now it will be pushed back a day after senators got hung up at airports after severe weather moved across the Mid-Atlantic and heavy rains doused Washington, D.C. 

“The Senate had planned to move forward to end the debate on the bipartisan CHIPS and innovation bill. Unfortunately a number of storms on the East Coast disrupted the plans of a significant number of senators,” Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) announced. 

Schumer said he would postpone the procedural vote until 11 a.m. Tuesday to give colleagues more time to get back to town safely. This means final passage of the bill will be delayed until Wednesday.  

“I remain hopeful that we can remain on track to finish this legislation ASAP,” he said.  

Schumer said that in the meantime he would file a motion to advance legislation to help military veterans suffering from toxic exposure, the Honoring our PACT Act. The legislation needs to pass the Senate again because of what the leader described as “a technical error.”  

This means the Senate won’t act on a resolution to ratify Sweden’s and Finland’s accession to NATO until next week at the earliest. It’s a high priority of Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who visited both countries in May.  

A Republican senator backing the CHIPS bill said the postponed flights due to bad weather made it uncertain whether there would be 60 votes to advance it to a final vote.  

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Hillicon Valley — Hulu under fire

Democratic campaign groups are blasting Disney-owned Hulu, saying the company has refused to run ads about abortion and gun safety.  

Today we’ll also look at President Biden’s vow to expand cyber cooperation with Israel and Saudi Arabia amid growing digital threats from Iran.

This is Hillicon Valley, detailing all you need to know about tech and cyber news from Capitol Hill to Silicon Valley. Send tips to The Hill’s Rebecca Klar and Ines Kagubare. Subscribe here.

Democrats blast Hulu over ad block 

Democratic campaign groups are slamming the Disney-owned streaming service Hulu for what they say is its refusal to run ads on the crucial midterm election issues of abortion and gun safety. 

The streaming service did not run ads submitted last week by the Democratic campaign groups and has failed to give the groups a clear reason, according to a national Democratic Party official.  

The platform’s rejection of the ads was first reported by The Washington Post. 

• In a joint statement, the executive directors of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC), Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) and the Democratic Governors Association (DGA) said Hulu’s “censorship of truth is outrageous, offensive, and another step down a dangerous path for our country.”
• “Voters have the right to know the facts about MAGA Republicans’ agenda on issues like abortion – and Hulu is doing a huge disservice to the American people by blocking voters from learning the truth about the GOP record or denying these issues from even being discussed,” they said. 
• A spokesperson for Hulu did not respond to a request for comment.

Read more here.  

Iran’s threats spark US cyber coalition

President Biden vowed to expand cyber cooperation with Israel and Saudi Arabia on his trip to the Middle East last week, a move experts see as a direct response to the rising digital threat from Iran.

The U.S. and Saudi Arabia signed bilateral agreements to strengthen their cybersecurity partnership and share information related to cyber threats and malicious actors, while Israel and the U.S. pledged to ramp up collaboration to combat cyber crime. 

• “In both cases, we have to acknowledge that Iran is the primary driver of a lot of what happened during Biden’s trip, and this extends to cyber space as well,” said Jason Blessing, a research fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
• Blessing said the common enemy of Iran provides a window for the U.S. to forge stronger alliances between the two Middle Eastern countries, which have been in secretive talks to possibly establish official relations. 

Read more here. 

EX-GOOGLE EXEC JOINS WHITE HOUSE CYBER OFFICE 

The White House announced on Monday that it was hiring a former Google executive to join the Office of the National Cyber Director to focus on improving and developing the nation’s cyber ecosystem.

Camille Stewart Gloster, who starts on Aug. 1, will serve as the deputy national cyber director for technology and ecosystem security. 

• “We need top talent in the government to meet the dynamic and complex cyber challenges we face as a nation,” National Cyber Director Chris Inglis said in a statement.
• “[Stewart Gloster] is a pioneer who has led on cyber issues for more than a decade at the highest levels of government and industry,” Inglis added. 

Read more here.

‘BAKED ALASKA’ PLEADS GUILTY

Anthime Joseph Gionet, a far-right personality known online as “Baked Alaska,” has pleaded guilty to charges in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. 

The Department of Justice reported Friday that Gionet pleaded guilty to unlawful and violent entry of restricted areas and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds. The rioter is one of hundreds arrested in connection with the Jan. 6 attack.

• According to an FBI affidavit, Gionet shared a 27-minute livestream of the riot, during which he can be heard chanting “Patriots are in control,” “Whose house? Our house,” and “1776, baby.”
• He is seen on the video entering various office rooms at the Capitol. 

Read more here.  

BITS & PIECES

An op-ed to chew on: YQK is coming — time to get ‘quantum-safe’ 

Notable links from around the web: 

Gen Z Designers Made It Big on This App. Now They’re Graduating. (The New York Times / Kalley Huang) 

Impossible Foods’ future may rest on the fate of this tiny molecule (Protocol / Anna Kramer) 

The crypto boom runs on hype men like ‘BitBoy,’ an untrained Atlanta YouTuber (The Washington Post / Steven Zeitchik) 

🐕 Lighter click: Thanks, Donner

One more thing: Musk responds

Elon Musk on Sunday night denied a Wall Street Journal report that claimed he had an affair with the wife of Google co-founder Sergey Brin, calling the article “total bs” and even going so far as to say that he hasn’t “had sex in ages.” 

Musk, in a reply to a tweet about the story, said the report was “shortseller fud” and that the newspaper has frequently wrote fake “hit pieces” on him before. 

“This is total bs,” the Tesla and SpaceX CEO wrote in another post. “Sergey and I are friends and were at a party together last night! I’ve only seen Nicole twice in three years, both times with many other people around. Nothing romantic.” 

Read more here. 

That’s it for today, thanks for reading. Check out The Hill’s Technology and Cybersecurity pages for the latest news and coverage. We’ll see you tomorrow.

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Source: TEST FEED1