MAGA Fixers
A lot of what you thought you knew about DC lobbying — ‘Gucci Gulch’ arm-twisters filling fund-raisers and lining up outside hearing rooms — is an incomplete picture of present-day Washington.
Katie Arcieri documents an example: Top law firms used to dealing with antitrust regulators on a lawyer-to-lawyer basis are now advising clients to consider enlisting lobbyists and political fixers to smooth the path toward getting deals approved.
“It would be malpractice of me not to tell a client that we do seem to be in an environment where relationships with people at either the Oval Office or the DOJ front office can indeed impact the outcome of a given investigation,” said Jeffrey S. Oliver, partner with Baker Botts who advises clients on merger reviews. “It’s now on the menu in a way that it never has been.”
Adds Brett Kappel, a political lawyer with Harmon Curran: “The White House feels perfectly comfortable intervening in the Justice Department on anything.” (H/T Kate Ackley for the data assist.) Read More
Weighing Pork
Whether you call it pork-barrel spending, important local projects, or something else, the heft of this year’s batch of earmarks is undeniable. Our team counts 3,245 of them in the Senate’s first six government-funding bills. The total so far: $6.6 billion.
Jack Fitpatrick reports that Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is the most prolific earmark author at this stage of the process, with set-asides worth $435.5 million. The biggest single earmark also has McConnell’s fingerprints. It’s a proposed $70 million guarantee for a bioscience center at the University of Louisville.
Republican senators aim to bring home nearly $3.4 billion, or 51%. Democrats have claimed $3 billion, or 46%, while bipartisan groups of senators have sponsored $216.9 million, or 3%. They haven’t released all of the appropriations bills, so those numbers are going to climb. Read More
Read today’s Congress Tracker for more about how earmarks are proving to be a motivator for lawmakers.
How Well Do You Know Washington — Campaign Edition
A Dec. 2 special congressional election will either extend or break a streak that has energized Democrats. The trend: even those who lost did better than the top of their party’s 2024 ticket, suggesting a voting base that’s motivated and willing to turn out.
This week’s question, fueled by Greg Giroux‘s analysis of BGOV data: How much better than Kamala Harris did Democratic congressional nominees do, on average, in this year’s special House elections?
A) 13 percentage points
B) 18 percentage points
C) 23 percentage points
D) 28 percentage points
Scroll down for the answer.
Health-Care Announcement Coming
A Trump administration plan to bring down health-care costs will be announced this week, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Sunday on NBC’s Meet the Press. Trump said last week he hopes to secure a plan by Jan. 30 to address an impending surge in health insurance premiums caused by subsidies that expire on Dec. 31. Read More
Did You Ace the Quiz?
In the four special congressional elections held so far this year, the Democratic nominees together averaged margins that were 18 percentage points higher than their party’s 2024 presidential nominee pulled in those same districts. So give yourself a star if you chose Option B.
To do the math, start with last year’s presidential margin. Subtract this year’s congressional result. Trump won by 37.2 percentage points in Florida’s 1st District, which now-Rep. Jimmy Patronis (R-Fla.) carried by 14.6 percentage points. That’s what campaign postmortems call a 22.6-point Republican underperformance.
GOP underperformance figures for this year’s other three special elections: 16.1 points, 16.2 points, and 17.4 points. That trend will next be tested when Trump-endorsed Republican Matt Van Epps (R) competes with state Rep. Aftyn Behn (D) for the Tennessee seat left open by former Rep. Mark Green (R).
Before You Go
Gold Card: A draft version of a new DHS form indicated that the administration expects a $15,000 fee from those applying for immigration gold cards, Andrew Kreighbaum reports. Employers—and, in some cases, immigrant workers themselves—are to submit the form as a first step to secure permanent residency. Read More
Intra-Administration Cooperation: The Department of Health and Human Services will relay data from Medicaid recipients to Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials, Lauren Clason reports. The official notice of the policy comes in response to a preliminary injunction on the data sharing. Read More
Free Pass: Facilities that are part of the steel production process can now temporarily avoid compliance with hazardous air pollutant rules. Jennifer Hijazi reports that a White House proclamation exempts coke ovens from testing and monitoring requirements set by the previous administration. Read More
Target Practice: What’s the best way for the US to defend itself against enemy drone attacks? For starters, practice taking them down. Katrina Manson reports that 500 Chinese-made flying machines are about to become fodder for military rehearsals. The confiscated drones were donated by Florida. Read More
Texas Hold-It: Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito temporarily restored the Republican-drawn congressional map in Texas a little more than an hour after the state and its GOP leaders sought emergency intervention. A lower court said that the map, drawn at Trump’s behest, was probably an unconstitutional racial gerrymander. Read More
Greene Resigns: The resignation announcement by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), once one of the president’s staunchest advocates on Capitol Hill, is “great news for the country,” Trump told ABC News. Read More
Unclear Reception: Trump said no television networks should be able to expand, citing the potential growth of what he considers left-wing news outlets. Trump was responding to a Newsmax story that said FCC head Brendan Carr is moving to push through a merger of Nexstar Media Group and Tegna. Read More
Ukraine Action: Ukraine signaled that key sticking points remained in peace talks with the US after senior officials hailed progress in winning more favorable terms for Kyiv from a proposal backed by Trump. A day after assailing the Ukrainian leadership for failing to show gratitude, Trump signaled in a Truth Social post that talks may be making progress. Read More
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