News and updates

It’s a balmy 70-something degrees in the nation’s capital…in November, but that hasn’t stopped the news cycle! Here’s a selection of articles Federal Relations is reading this week.

#Fail – Despite pouring millions of his vast personal fortune into politics, mega-donor Charles Koch said he and his brother David are “so far … largely failures at” buying up influence and changing the level of political rhetoric in the United States. He also compared himself to Martin Luther. See the interview at MSNBC here. Read about the interview at Politico here. 

Puff Puff Pass – Ohio was set to consider legalizing marijuana on Tuesday (which failed), but what’s truly making waves is how the ballot initiative is written. It would essentially allow only a handful of individuals (ten) to grow and sell pot in the state, effectively creating a monopoly. Read more at The Washington Post. Here are also the next states where marijuana will become an election issue. Read more at The Washington Post. 

Couch Caucus – About a third of Members of the House sleep in their congressional offices, the group has been informally dubbed “the Couch Caucus”, and one of those caucus members is new Speaker Paul Ryan, who has no intention of changing the arrangement. Read more at Roll Call. 

Va-cay – The House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy has released the 2016 schedule and the House be enjoying a very long vacation for half of July, all of August, and half of September. Looks like lots of campaigning will be happening. Read more at Politico.

Early Release – Six thousand prisoners could get out early due to retroactive changes in US mandatory sentencing for drug crimes. It’s the largest release in history, and it’s only the beginning. Ultimately, the federal government is planning on releasing only 40,000 individuals. Read more at Vox. 

Next In Line – First true fight new Speaker Paul Ryan will have to negotiate is who replaces him as chair on the House Ways and Means committee. Read more at Politico.

Comeback Kid? – Jeb Bush is sinking in the polls after a series of disastrous or not strong debates. Can he make a comeback? Read more at The Washington Post. 

Here’s a selection of articles the Federal Relations team is enjoying this week.

Mic Drop – Speaker John Boehner has orchestrated an impressive exit package: he’s raised the debt limit until March 2017, he’s lifted budget caps until September 2017, he’s pass a transportation reauthorization, and has generally set the House up for an exponentially easier end of year 2015 and 2016. He’s shown great leadership all the way to the end. Read more at NPR.

Being Speaker – It’s a huge role. Constitutionally mandated and mired in ceremony, history, institution, and politics. It is part landlord, fundraiser, leader, lightening rod, savior, cat-herder, fundraiser, whipping post, and fundraiser. Lots of raising money for everyone — some of it you can keep for your re-election too. A lot of these roles Ryan has never held or operated in. Read more at The New York Times. 

New Name – Rep. Paul Ryan asked the Clerk of the House Karen Hass to officially change his name to include the middle initial on all official documents and offices – just one day before Ryan is set to be elected speaker. Read more at Politico. 

Polar Opposites – If you think that Congress is only increasing in dysfunction and becoming more politically polarized, you would be correct! Congress is much more polarized. Vox has a graph showing how that’s happened.

Tea Party Ponzi – A number of Tea Party groups function as little more than Ponzi schemes. Republicans attacking Republicans is very lucrative…to the consultants. Read more at The New York Times. 

158 – Approximately 158 families have contributed nearly half of the money raised in the 2016 presidential campaign. These families, along with companies they own or control, contributed $176 million in the first phase of the campaign. Most built their own businesses, parlaying talent and an appetite for risk into huge wealth, and not all of them are born in the US. Overwhelmingly (138 to 20) these families lean right, contributing tens of millions of dollars to support Republican candidates who have pledged to pare regulations; cut taxes on income, capital gains and inheritances; and shrink entitlement programs. Read more at The New York Times. 

Debate – The consensus of the Republican debate this week was that while Cruz and Rubio were likely winners, the true loser was CNBC. Read more at Slate.

New Old Growth Opportunity – Presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders has an idea to help the failing US Post Office. He’s going to let them offer (once again) basic banking services. Read more at the Washington Post. 

Vox has charts on why police in schools is a bad idea. 

Oral History – The nonprofit oral history project StoryCorps has launched a new initiative, the Great Thanksgiving Listen , asking high school teachers to encourage their students to sit down over the Thanksgiving holiday and record a meaningful conversation with an older family or community member. StoryCorps, founded in 2003, traditionally has participants come to one of its booths to record conversations with a facilitator. But the group recently used a $1 million prize from TED to develop a mobile app, allowing anyone to record a conversation and upload it to the Library of Congress. Participate here.