Unusual Allies Fight Sequester Cuts

Disparate groups have found something to agree on: Stop the upcoming sequester cuts.

Roll Call‘s Kate Ackley reports:

Defense industry insiders joined with advocates for public health, research universities and other sectors that rely on federal funds Monday to issue a combined call to stop the upcoming sequester cuts.

The rare display of unity among groups that are often pitted against one another underscored shared concern over the across-the-board budget cuts scheduled to hit nondiscretionary spending March 1.

“We’re going to rise and fall together in this debate,” Emily Holubowich, the executive director of the Coalition for Health Funding and co-chairwoman of NDD United, said at a morning news conference at the National Press Club. “Working separately wasn’t working, clearly.”

Full story available on RollCall.com.

K Street Sees Surge in Unregistered Lobbyists

Is K Street, the D.C. metaphor for the lobbying industry, slowing down? Not so, says CQ Roll Call, citing a lot of work being done by unregistered lobbyists — people who keep their work just under the limit of the lobby laws.

From CQ Roll Call:

The tepid recovery and a dysfunctional Congress do bear blame, but a third, much overlooked factor exists: A lot of the work influencing government takes place in the shadows, outside of the view of public disclosures such as the LDA. And with a president who has further stigmatized registered lobbyists, K Streeters and some of their clients have made a practice of keeping their work just under the limits of the lobby laws.

In some cases, lobbyists have remained on the job, even with the same firms, but have deregistered, keeping their clients and their work secret. One prominent example is Steve Ricchetti, who stayed with his Ricchetti Inc., although no longer as a registered lobbyist, before joining the Obama administration last year. Lobbyists, of course, can’t work for the executive branch — President Barack Obama banned them — unless granted a waiver.

[...]

More than the economy, more than the partisan gridlock on the Hill, Thurber asserted, it’s the lack of enforcement of lobbying laws and the resulting move to keep more lobbying work out of public view that is depressing the LDA tallies. K Street players don’t trigger the lobby law until they make more than one contact with government officials and spend at least 20 percent of their time on lobbying activities for compensation.

Full story on RollCall.com.

Hagel Faces Former Colleagues in Confirmation Hearing

Chris Maddaloni/CQ Roll Call

Hagel defended his record on national security issues at his confirmation hearing Thursday before the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Facing down some of his former Senate colleagues from both sides of the aisle, Chuck Hagel directly defended his record on national security issues at his confirmation hearing Thursday before the Senate Armed Services Committee.

CQ Roll Call’s Megan Scully reports:

Hagel, a two-term Republican senator from Nebraska who retired in 2008, assured the panel that no single vote, quote or statement defines him, his beliefs or his record.

“My overall worldview has never changed: that America has and must maintain the strongest military in the world; that we must lead the international community to confront threats and challenges together; and that we must use all the tools of American power to protect our citizens and our interests,” said Hagel, a Vietnam veteran. “I believe, and always have beleived, that America must engage in the world, not retreat from the world.”

 

Read the full story on RollCall.com.

Watch the Hagel confirmation hearing live on RollCall.com.

Congress Prepared to Take Up Immigration Reform

Roll Call has announced that Congress is prepared to take up immigration reform:

A bipartisan group of eight senators has agreed on a set of principles that will form the basis for broad immigration legislation they hope to pass this spring.

The principles will be unveiled at a news conference Monday, ahead of a speech President Barack Obama will give Tuesday in Las Vegas laying out his vision for a comprehensive overhaul of immigration policy.

According to a copy of the agreement obtained by CQ Roll Call, the principles include creating “a tough but fair path to citizenship for unauthorized immigrants currently living in the United States that is contingent upon securing our borders and tracking whether legal immigrants have left the country when required.”

Full details available at RollCall.com.

VP Biden Looks to 2016

Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. is taking an expanded role these days, first on the fiscal cliff negotiations and now on the gun violence task force, which he is leading.

CQ Roll Call

Vice President Biden may be looking toward a run in 2016.

Roll Call‘s Shira Toeplitz reports that Biden’s close relationship with Congress is something he will have to navigate carefully as he looks ahead to a possible presidential run in 2016.

Biden’s close association with a legislative body that is viewed less favorably than cockroaches presents a conundrum as he forms his role in President Barack Obama’s second term and looks ahead to a possible 2016 presidential bid.

In the first Obama administration, the former 36-year senator played the integral role of negotiator and deal-maker between the White House and Congress. In the next four years, he must balance the administration’s needs with his own ambitions.

A decade ago, Biden’s Senate tenure, plus his two terms as vice president, would make him the instant frontrunner in the national primary. But in 2016? They make him the “inside-the-Beltway” candidate, albeit one with an increasingly well-received “regular Joe” shtick.

Read the full story on RollCall.com.