Advertisement
Heard on the Hill
Word on the Hill: Capitol Hill Reality Show Casting Call
There’s a casting call next week for Capitol Hill staffers for a new reality show about working in Congress.
The posting on Brad Traverse Jobs reads:
Description: The Executive Producer behind Catfish, 30 Days, 9 By Design & Architecture School is casting a new reality show and looking for congressional staffers and D.C. influencers. Democrats and Republicans are welcome as long as applicants have a strong point of view and aren't afraid to express it. There will be filming of a short reel on July 24-26 so applicants must be in the D.C. area and somewhat available on those dates.
With a short-reel filming scheduled to start Monday, the casting is being finalized over the next two days.
Reps. Michelle Lujan Grisham, D-N.M., and Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., wore the same dress to work Wednesday by accident and it was reportedly a big hit on the floor. Both Republicans and Democrats were joking that the two women were double trouble.
@RepDebDingell and I not only wore the same dress coincidentally, but we are both fighting the GOP budget today. pic.twitter.com/tef4GSJuXu
The fifth annual Washington Kastles Tennis Classic that features Republicans and Democrats playing a series of doubles matches to raise money for D.C. schools and food banks, is less than a week away.
Rep. Robert C. Scott, D-Va., has been added to the roster, and will play alongside Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., and Reps. Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio, Dave Brat, R-Va., Cheri Bustos, D-Ill., Charlie Dent, R-Pa., Robert W. Goodlatte, R-Va., Jared Huffman, D-Calif., Erik Paulsen, R-Minn., and Kevin Yoder, R-Kan. Former Sen. John B. Breaux, D-La., is also expected to play.
The revised media participant list now includes Brett Baier of Fox News, Jonathan Karl of ABC News, Albert Tillman of Bloomberg, Peter Alexander of NBC News and Bob Cusack of The Hill.
The event takes place Thursday at 7 p.m. at the Charles E. Smith Center at George Washington University. Here’s how to purchase tickets.
The Wyoming State Society is hosting the 41st annual COWPIE (short for Committee of Wyoming People in the East) at 8 p.m. on Saturday. It’s ‘a night of country dancing and western revelry,’ held during the opening weekend of the Cheyenne Frontier Days festival in Wyoming. The COWPIE celebration takes place at Eastern Market’s North Hall (225 Seventh St. NE). Tickets are available here.
The trendy Shaw-area Asian-meets-French fusion restaurant, Kyirisan, added a daily toast, and bottomless mimosas and bloody marys to its summer brunch menu. The bottomless drinks will last until Labor Day and the daily toast will change weekly.
Sneak peek at a toast dish: a wild salmon rillette with local quick pickle cucumber, poached egg, and fennel pollen on toast.
Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., 65.
Rep. James E. Clyburn, D-S.C., 77.
Rep. John J. Duncan Jr., R-Tenn., 70.
Rep. Phil Roe, R-Tenn., 72.
Saturday
Rep. Robert B. Aderholt, R-Ala., 52.
Rep. John B. Larson, D-Conn., 69.
Have any tips, announcements or Hill happenings? Send them to AlexGangitano@cqrollcall.com.
Get breaking news alerts and more from Roll Call on your iPhone or your Android.
Heard on the Hill
Baseball Coaches’ Bill Would Provide for Injured Capitol Police Officers
The congressional baseball coaches aren’t done talking about the positive outcomes of this year’s game: bipartisanship and support for the Capitol Police.
Reps. Joe L. Barton of Texas and Mike Doyle of Pennsylvania, the respective Republican and Democratic coaches, introduced a bill Wednesday that would expand the Capitol Police Memorial Fund to allow donations to go to officers injured in the line of duty.
The original 1998 law creating the fund was established to raise money for the families of two Capitol Police officers killed in the line of duty that year.
“It became pretty obvious to us after the shooting that the new money that was coming in was coming in as a result of the incident and the people that were shot,” Doyle said.
Agents David Bailey and Crystal Griner, both on House Majority Whip Steve Scalise’s security detail, were wounded while protecting the Republican players after a shooter opened fire at their baseball practice in Alexandria, Virginia, on June 14.
[Shooting Victims Come from All Walks of Hill Life]
“We just have an existing fund that received private donations and in this case, we have some fairly large donations we want to put into the fund that could be used for the two officers that were injured protecting us at the baseball practice,” Barton said.
This year’s game brought in nearly $1.7 million and sold almost 25,000 tickets. After the shooting, tickets were selling at a rate of 500 per hour.
The game’s proceeds benefited the Washington Nationals Dream Foundation, the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Washington, the Washington Literary Center, and the Capitol Police Memorial Fund, a last-minute addition by the coaches.
[Capitol Police Officer Paints to Heal]
Support from colleagues has been overwhelming. By the time it was introduced Wednesday, the bill had more than 105 co-sponsors.
“There wasn’t a single person who didn’t instantly say, ‘I want to be on that bill,’” Doyle said. “My biggest fear was that I was going to not reach somebody and they weren’t going to be on the bill.”
Barton joked, “If I had known it was a competition between Doyle and myself for the number of co-sponsors, I guarantee I would have had one more than he had.”
[Democrats Down Republicans, Both Down the Rhetoric]
“We want to do this pretty quickly,” the Texas Republican added.
They are hopeful that the bill will reach the Senate by early next week. Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, a member of the Republican baseball team, talked to Barton about introducing it in his chamber and the coaches are also reaching out to other team members, GOP Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona and Democratic Sens. Joe Donnelly of Indiana and Christopher S. Murphy of Connecticut.
“This may be one of those that moves real expeditiously, as it should,” Barton said. “We have two officers that were seriously injured and there are some expenses that they should be reimbursed for.”
He also mentioned a Capitol Police officer who was injured in a car crash on Monday.
“I said if there could be a silver lining from the whole incident, it’s been how both sides have come together to support one another and then to also support these people that were the real heroes that put their lives on the line,” Doyle said.
Bailey and Griner have been notified about the bill. Both have been released from the hospital. Bailey threw out the first pitch at the Congressional Baseball Game, while Griner did the same at the Congressional Women’s Softball Game last month.
“Good news travels quickly,” Barton said. “[This bill can] show America that it is possible to still get things done in Congress.”
Get breaking news alerts and more from Roll Call on your iPhone or your Android.
The inability of Senate Republicans to agree on a measure to repeal and replace Barack Obama’s 2010 health care law is another blow to Donald Trump’s still-young but embattled presidency.
The president took to Twitter shortly after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., pulled the measure after the third and fourth GOP senators announced their opposition — two more than he could spare. Trump’s message in a late-night tweet and then one on Tuesday morning was forward-looking.
The House appeared prepared to quickly take up the Senate leadership bill for a vote that likely would have propelled it to Trump’s desk. But Trump’s inability to help McConnell and Co. find 50 Republican votes comes as the White House is dealing with declining approval ratings, including in key swing counties that helped him upset Democrat Hillary Clinton, as well as a seemingly ever-escalating scandal involving the Russian government and some of his top campaign aides, including Donald Trump Jr. and son-in-law Jared Kushner.
[Was President at Trump Tower When Son Met Russian Lawyer?]
Republicans should just REPEAL failing ObamaCare now & work on a new Healthcare Plan that will start from a clean slate. Dems will join in!
The president started Tuesday by tweeting for all to “stay tuned” on health care, returning to what long has appeared his gut instincts about how to ditch Obama’s law and replace it with a Trump-GOP plan: “As I have always said, let ObamaCare fail and then come together and do a great healthcare plan.”
Republicans should just REPEAL failing ObamaCare now & work on a new Healthcare Plan that will start from a clean slate. Dems will join in!
Since the Senate took up its health overhaul effort in May, Trump has been — publicly, at least — a less visible presence than he was during the House effort. Aides explained that Trump was using a softer touch and tone because he has realized the Senate is a different animal than the House, where there were more potential deals to cut and Republican cats to herd.
The president’s own words and tweets during the Senate’s process to fashion a bill — which often seemed to contradict those of his communications, policy and legislative affairs shops — appeared to reveal a chief executive eager to leave some space between himself and whatever McConnell and his top deputies could piece together.
If they could craft a measure capable to garner 50 votes — with Vice President Mike Pence casting the decisive 51st — Trump and his top aides made clear he would sign it. After all, the businessman-turned-president who promised voters so much “winning” they would plead with him “we can’t take it anymore, we can't win anymore like this,” is in need of a major early-term legislative victory.
With only a very small majority, the Republicans in the House & Senate need more victories next year since Dems totally obstruct, no votes!
Yet, Trump never seemed that thrilled with the House bill, which he reportedly called “mean,” just the victorious vote. The same appeared true of the Senate bill, as his out-of-place comment during a July 27 meeting with most GOP senators at the White House showed.
“This will be great if we get it done,” he said that day. “And if we don’t get it done, it’s just going to be something that we’re not going to like — and that’s OK. I understand that very well.”
Still, however, the president did have at least partial ownership of the Senate bill. Trump told the Christian Broadcasting Network’s Pat Robertson last week “I will be very angry” if GOP senators failed to strike a deal on the Senate measure. “Mitch has to pull it off.”
And Democrats reacted quickly to try and tie Trump to the Senate failure.
“Instead of listening to the people they represent, Donald Trump, Mike Pence, and congressional Republicans ignored their constituents and met behind closed doors to craft legislation that would have devastated working families,” Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez said in a statement released late Monday night.
“Make no mistake,” Perez said, “this bill’s defeat is a victory for human decency and for the millions of families who rely on the Affordable Care Act.”
Get breaking news alerts and more from Roll Call on your iPhone or your Android.
Heard on the Hill
Take Five: Jimmy Gomez
Freshman Rep. Jimmy Gomez, 42, a California Democrat, talks about the time between his being elected and being sworn in, returning as a former Hill staffer, and his welcome to Washington compared to Montana Rep. Greg Gianforte’s.
Q: What has surprised you about Congress so far?
A: The House floor has been the most interesting for me because I come from a state legislature where everybody has a desk, there’s a specific hour that you vote. I feel like it’s part legislative body, part bizarre. … People are just trying to sell you on something on the floor — sign this, vote this way — and it’s kind of a little hustle and bustle with a little high school mixed in because everybody has their seating areas.
It’s different because you have one side of the aisle and you have the other. In California, we got away from that almost 15 years ago.
[Take Five: Trey Hollingsworth]
Q: What was your first day as a congressman like?
A: It was so much at one time. Most people have time to interview, get staff in order. I had to get staff in order and start voting almost immediately. It was nonstop, just the protocols and the culture that you have to learn.
Also, I just didn’t think how welcoming people were going to be. The members have been lending me interns and sending me food. The response of both sides of the aisle when I got sworn in was very positive.
I didn’t expect that because the gentleman from Montana that was sworn in made some comments and he got booed by his own colleagues, or somebody booed him. I think just how open and welcoming people have been. Very positive.
[Take Five: Brian Fitzpatrick]
Q: Have you been able to meet the massive California delegation?
A: I’ve known a lot of them because I worked in politics in California for a while in some form or fashion. Now I’m getting to know people that were, for lack of a better term, sort of legends in politics. Nancy Pelosi has been in office way before I graduated from high school. Now, all of a sudden, I’m serving in the same capacity they are. Not exactly the same, but we’re both members of Congress and that makes it a little bit special. Lucille Roybal-Allard has been elected for decades and this seat that I’m in is actually her dad’s. So, it kind of gives me a perspective that I’m here because other people came before me.
The Republicans, I never knew. Kevin McCarthy and I joke around that he gave me a lot of attention for a couple of weeks (over the delay in his swearing-in), but I’ve always heard that he’s a pretty good-natured guy. I met Ed Royce a couple weeks ago at a dinner. He seemed really nice.
Q: In the time between when you were elected and sworn in, how did you fill it?
A: I came the week after I got elected just to have some interviews with leadership and start looking for staff. When I walked in, that was kind of the first strange part. I worked here for [former Rep.] Hilda Solis. I remembered saying that I wasn’t going to come back to D.C. until I was a member of Congress. This time, coming back, it felt strange because I knew I had to do this job, but I was trying to transition from my Assembly job. It was just two worlds tugging at me.
The member pin — the first day I was here, I was just walking around. Nobody even noticed me. Then I put this on and all of a sudden, the eyes started trailing me. I tried to get away without wearing it, or at least leaving my jacket, and it’s too late, people know who I am now.
Q: You’re interested in media literacy being taught in high school. How did this come about?
A: A lot of the fake news conversation came right after the 2016 election, but it’s something that had been discussed before Donald Trump ever ran for president. There was a study from Stanford University that our young people couldn’t really tell what was real and what was fake. I thought the best way to come up with it was somehow teaching, oftentimes, young people to spot how you tell what is fake, what is real.
Last book read: “I was reading a Harry Potter book in Spanish. I’m trying to work on my Spanish.”
Last movie seen: “Wonder Woman.”
Favorite song of all time: “I like musicals. In ‘La La Land,’ there’s this one, ‘Audition (The Fools Who Dream).’ I feel like the fools who dream and who take risks are the ones who change the world.”
Role model: “I don’t have one.”
Closest to in Congress: “Rep. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., is a friend of mine from before.”
Get breaking news alerts and more from Roll Call on your iPhone or your Android.