| Good morning, Early Birds. Yes, there's already a J.D. Mandel (Mandell?) Twitter account. Tips: earlytips@washpost.com. Thanks for waking up with us. In today's edition … Theo on lawmakers sparring over deadlocked Iran negotiations … The Senate is expected to name conferees for the America Competes Act this week, but not before holding some politically charged votes … All the ways House leadership wants to recruit and retain Hill staffers … The Post's Tyler Pager on all the challenges President Biden faces six months before the midterms… but first … | Please welcome Leigh Ann Caldwell to the Early 202 team | | Hello loyal readers! I'm honored and thrilled to be taking over co-authoring the Early from the indefatigable Jacqueline Alemany, who has moved on to do more big things at The Post. Don't worry Jackie fans, she won't be far as we'll continue to highlight her incredible work here. Who am I? I come from NBC News where I spent seven years covering Congress and elections. Capitol Hill is the best beat in Washington in my humble opinion so expect the ins-and-outs of policy and politics to still be a major focus of this space. Of course, I'll work alongside the brilliant Theo who will continue to bring his deep and insightful reporting of K Street, Congress and the administration to you. My younger days as a competitive swimmer forced this night owl to become a morning person and my television life kept my early mornings training intact. So set your alarm (or just read us later in the morning), grab a cup (of tea in my case) and we'll see where these wild times take us. Leigh Ann | | |  | On the Hill | | Biden under pressure not to remove terrorist designation for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps |  Secretary of State Antony Blinken faced questions about Iran's nuclear capabilities on the Hill last week. (Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post/POOL) | | | When the Trump administration designated Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization in 2019, Ali Vaez warned that the move could make it harder to revive the Iran nuclear deal in the future. | | Vaez, the Iran director of the International Crisis Group, tweeted at the time that branding the IRGC — an arm of the Iranian military — as a terrorist organization would make it "politically costlier for the next president" to reforge the agreement that former president Barack Obama negotiated in 2015 to slow Iran's ability to build a nuclear weapon. That's exactly what's happened. As Iran gets closer and closer to amassing enough nuclear material for a weapon, Iranian negotiators have demanded that President Biden reverse the designation if he wants to strike a new deal — which the administration views as politically painful. Republicans and a number of Democrats have seized on the issue and urged Biden to hold firm. Lawmakers in both parties pressed Secretary of State Antony Blinken last week not to remove the designation when Blinken testified on the Hill last. And the Senate is set to vote this week on a non-binding motion put forward by Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) to prohibit Biden from lifting the designation. The issue has united Republicans who have always abhorred the Iranian nuclear deal with Democrats who opposed former president Donald Trump's decision to quit the deal but have reservations about striking a new agreement. "The IRGC is a terrorist organization," Rep. Brad Schneider (D-Ill.), who pressed Blinken on the issue last week, told the Early. "I don't think there's any question about that. To lift the designation carries an incredible symbolic effect that would be dangerous not just to the United States but to our allies in the region. I've been very clear that I have concerns even raising it as a possibility." | Political, not practical, importance | | Administration officials have briefed lawmakers that striking the IRGC from the list of foreign terrorist organizations would have little practical effect, since the group would remain heavily sanctioned, as our colleague Karen DeYoung has reported. But the designation's symbolic weight in Tehran and in Washington has hemmed in the administration. "It's not just members of Congress," said Robert Einhorn, who served as the State Department's special adviser for nonproliferation and arms control in the Obama administration. "It's Israel. It's the Gulf Arab countries. They ask, 'How can you remove the IRGC from the list of terrorist organizations when they clearly continue to be engaged in a range of very nefarious activities?'" | | Republicans and some Democrats have argued that failing to negotiate a new deal would be better than making concessions. But other Democrats have argued that resurrecting the Iran deal is Biden's best shot at avoiding a nuclear-armed Iran. "I do not share my colleagues' skepticism of a renewed nuclear agreement with Iran, in part because the whole world has watched how difficult it is to craft a Western response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine given Russia's status as a nuclear power," Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) told Blinken last week while Blinken was testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Blinken told senators that Iranian attacks on U.S. forces only climbed after Trump withdrew from the Iran deal, designated the IRGC as a terrorist organization and ordered the killing in 2020 of Qasem Soleimani, the commander of the Quds Force, an IRGC division. "No one is shedding any tears for [Soleimani's] demise," Blinken said. "But I'm just stating the facts." | | Iran is believed to be only weeks away from having enough nuclear material for a potential weapon. But even Iran experts disagree about how likely the situation is to trigger a crisis in the coming months. "In the run up to the midterms, we will either have Biden's war in the Middle East, because Iran's nuclear advancements would push the U.S. towards taking military action," Vaez, the Iran expert who warned about the implications of Trump's decision to brand the IRGC as a terrorist organization, told the Early. "Or we will have Biden's bomb, because Iran will have crossed the Rubicon and will become a nuclear weapons state." But Ray Takeyh, a former State Department senior adviser on Iran in the Obama administration who's now a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, said he would be willing to bet up to $10,000 that Biden wouldn't strike Iran's nuclear facilities in the next year. "It's a question of, 'How much of a nuclear program do you want to live with?'" Takeyh said. "There was a time when the position of most countries dealing with Iran was zero enrichment [of uranium for use as nuclear fuel]. That has long been forfeited. So the line has continuously moved." | Congress will soon begin House-Senate negotiations on the America Competes Act |  Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) plans to offer several motions to instruct conferees that could lead to difficult votes for vulnerable Democrats. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post) | | | After nearly one year and multiple name-changes, the America Competes Act, the bipartisan bill that supporters say will ease future supply chain challenges, is one step closer to conference committee. You would not be remiss to have forgotten about conference committees. In these polarizing times when most major pieces of legislation are passed along party lines, even Hill staffers have had to dust off their congressional procedure books to get up to speed on how to reconcile differences between the House- and Senate-passed versions of a bill. In fact, this will be just the second time since 2017 that a formal bipartisan conference committee convened for a non-defense or non-appropriations bill. By comparison, five non-defense and non-appropriations conference committees in 2015 and 2016. But before the conference committee can get to work on what could be a significant bipartisan deal, the Senate is set this week to take a handful of votes aimed at scoring political points ahead of the midterms. Senators are set to plow through 28 votes on non-binding motions to instruct the conferees — 20 authored by Republicans and eight by Democrats. Times like these are often a political opportunity to force tough votes on the opposing party. Leadership sources on both sides of the aisle say that because they are non-binding, a number could be passed by voice vote. But a few political potholes are on the radar. We touched on a controversial Iran-focused measure above. Another proposal by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) could also be a tough vote for vulnerable Democrats. It would strip the funding from the climate change provisions in the House version of the America Competes Act and use the money to beef up Defense Department procurement coffers. While the measure doesn't have teeth, Democrats voting against bolstering Defense as a war rages in eastern Europe could face easy to script campaign ads calling them weak on national security. The Senate might also tackle more nominations — if the absence of Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), who said Sunday night he had tested positive for covid, doesn't force a delay. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer didn't put forward a vote to confirm Lisa Cook to the Federal Reserve board last week because two other Democratic senators were out with covid. Fed Chair Jerome Powell and Philip Jefferson are also awaiting confirmation, Powell for a second term and Jefferson for a seat on the Fed board. Both have bipartisan support. After a one week in session, the House is out for the week to commemorate the end of Ramadan and the beginning of Eid al-Fitr. Speaker Nancy Pelosi continued her visit to Eastern Europe with a meeting with President Andrzej Duda of Poland this morning. And we will, of course, follow how quickly — or not — Congress can pass President Biden's $33 billion Ukraine aid package. Leadership and appropriators will begin meeting this week to craft a bill, a senior leadership aide said. Senate Democrats will also discuss how to pass the stalled covid aid bill, which is being held up over the border-related health policy, Title 42. | Hoyer, Jeffries ask for more pay and improved benefits for Hill staffers |  The Capitol Dome. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post) | | | Mo' money, mo' staffers: House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (Md.) and Democratic Caucus Chairman Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.) have sent a letter to the House Appropriations and Administration committees pushing for enhanced benefits for Hill staffers. Hoyer and Jeffries outlined several benefits enhancements, including access to a tax-exempt college savings fund and the Public-Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program, as well as a 4.6 percent cost-of-living adjustment. The move comes as Hill staffers continue to pull the curtain back on toxic workplace culture. But it is also an effort by House leadership to ensure that "members, committees, and leadership offices can recruit and retain the most talented Americans," per Hoyer and Jeffries. Hoyer and Jeffries previously applauded the 21 percent boost to the Members' Representational Allowance which would, in turn, increase staff pay. It's unclear how many offices have done this, but Rep. Andy Levin (Mich.) told The Early that he set a $55,000 pay floor for all staffers after he was approached by his junior staff. "It was a dramatic move to make our pay scale more egalitarian," Levin said of the pay raise, which is retroactive for the full year. The House's upcoming quarterly disclosures will tell us whether other offices have done the same. What we're watching: House leadership missed the Congressional Workers Union's April deadline to bring Levin's resolution to the floor. The resolution is needed to protect unionizing Hill staffers from retaliation. We'll be watching for what the CWU does next. | | |  | At the White House | | Six months before crucial midterms, Biden faces many challenges |  President Biden exits Air Force One on Sun., May 1. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP Photo) | | | Problems here, problems there, problems everywhere: President Biden "entered office with a historic set of challenges, punctuated by a deadly pandemic and a shuttered economy," our colleague Tyler Pager writes. "Now, six months before midterm elections that could dramatically alter his governing ability in the final two years of his term, the list of issues has seemingly only grown longer." | - "Gas prices across the country are soaring. Inflation has broken 40-year records. Prospects for Biden's sweeping climate and social spending package appear dim. Crime rates are high. New variants of the coronavirus continue to emerge. Just last week, a report showed the economy unexpectedly contracted in the first quarter, while Vice President Harris's coronavirus case highlighted the stubbornness of the pandemic."
- "White House officials and Democratic lawmakers are quick to tout the country's progress on reopening the economy and distributing coronavirus vaccines, crediting Biden for steadying the ship after a tumultuous four years of Trump."
- "At the same time, many Democrats say it seems as though the president, in some sense, can't catch a break these days."
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