| Good morning, Early Birds! President Biden is hosting the congressional picnic today. With Biden's love of ice cream, we'd be surprised if it's not on the menu. But we want to know what else is being served — and any conversations had. Tips: earlytips@washpost.com. Thanks for waking up with us. In today's edition … The Senate has some attendance problems … The committee investigating Jan. 6 holds its seventh hearing this afternoon … President Biden meets this morning with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador … but first … | | |  | On the Hill | | The Senate returns after the fall of Roe with few options |  Sen. Richard J. Durbin, D-Ill., chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, on Capitol Hill in Washington on Thursday, Feb. 17, 2022. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post) | | | The Senate is back in town for the first time since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade — with no clear legislative path to respond. Unlike House Democrats, their Senate counterparts don't plan to move any abortion-related bills over the next four weeks they're in session, mostly because they lack the support of 10 Republicans needed to overcome a filibuster. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Monday goaded Democrats on the Senate floor, saying they are "desperate to change the subject." "We're not backing away from it," Sen. Richard J. Durbin (Ill.), the Democratic whip, retorted. "We're not running away from it at all. That starts with a hearing." The Senate will hold two this week. | | Durbin was referring to the first one — "A Post-Roe America: The Legal Consequences of the Dobbs Decision" — to be held this morning by the Senate Judiciary Committee, which he chairs. The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee will hold its own abortion hearing Wednesday on "threats to women's health" after Roe. Dr. Colleen P. McNicholas, chief medical officer of Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri, who is testifying today before the Judiciary Committee, will call on President Biden to declare a public health emergency. "This is the very least in a long list of solutions providers like me need your help on securing so that we can continue to care for millions of patients who will soon be in a time-sensitive health-care emergency of their own," McNicholas will say, according to prepared remarks provided to The Early. "We need action and we need it now. We are out of time." This is an idea many Democrats have been pushing, as we reported nearly two weeks ago. Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Tina Smith (D-Minn.) urged Biden to declare a national public health emergency shortly after the Supreme Court's ruling, and Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) told the Early he supports doing so, too. But Biden has shied away from doing so. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre reiterated what Jennifer Klein, executive director of the White House Gender Policy Council, told reporters on Friday: declaring a national emergency wouldn't free up much money or give Biden significantly more legal authority to protect abortion rights. "We haven't taken it off the table, but there are components of this potential decision that [have] kind of given us pause and made us think a little bit deeper about doing that," Jean-Pierre said. Biden himself said Sunday that he was still considering it. The White House would not comment on why Biden is still considering the move if his aides see little upside. The administration has taken other steps in the meantime. Biden signed an executive order on abortion on Friday, and Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra on Monday reaffirmed a doctor's ability to provide medical care to save a woman's life, even if that means aborting a fetus. Durbin, too, had concerns about declaring a health emergency. "If you overpromise and say that it's going to repair the damage and it doesn't, you know people will say you weren't being frank and candid with them in terms of the impact, so I need to know more," Durbin said. As for the status of bipartisan legislation by Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) and Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) to codify protections provided by Roe, Kaine said, "We're not there yet, but it's been very productive." | | Some Democrats are frustrated at the lack of response. Reps. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) called on Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Monday to state definitively whether Supreme Court Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh "lied under oath to the Senate Judiciary Committee" when they said in their confirmation hearings that they considered Roe precedent reaffirmed by the court. And on a strategy call of Democratic communicators on Monday, there was little talk about abortion, two aides on the call, who requested anonymity to discuss a planning session, told The Early — a signal that it won't be a legislative priority this month. Instead, they are focused on the possible, including a slimmed-down reconciliation bill and an agreement with the House on a bipartisan microchip manufacturing bill. | Build Back Better skepticism | | Schumer and Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) met virtually Monday evening to continue their discussions on the scaled-back Build Back Better plan. But Manchin downplayed any sense of urgency, telling reporters his deadline is not the August recess but the end of the fiscal year when the budget resolution — which allows Democrats to pass the bill via reconciliation — expires on Sept. 30. | The Senate's attendance woes |  Steven Dettelbach, President Joe Biden's pick to head the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee during his confirmation hearing on Wednesday, May 25, 2022. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) | | | The Senate is moving forward with its procedural cloture vote Tuesday on Steve Dettelbach to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives this week, despite what Durbin called an "extraordinary" attendance issue. Thirteen senators — eight Democrats and five Republicans — missed Monday night's vote. Schumer and Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) have covid, Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) is recovering from hip surgery and Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) is recovering from a severe hand accident. It's unclear where the rest of the missing senators are and when they'll be back. "We gotta count noses," Durbin said. Because of covid, Senate Democrats will hold today's weekly policy lunch virtually, a Senate aide said. Senators aren't the only ones out with covid: Rep. Lori Trahan (D-Mass.) said Monday evening that she'd tested positive, too. | The Jan. 6 hearing will connect extremists to the White House |  A video of former US President Donald Trump is played on a screen during a hearing of the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the US Capitol in Washington, D.C. on June 28, 2022. (Anna Moneymaker/Bloomberg) | | | Happening today: The January 6th Select Committee will hold its seventh hearing today. The committee will attempt to connect right-wing extremists, including the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers, to the White House and Donald Trump's efforts to hold on to power after losing the 2020 election. | | "The tweet that served as 'a pivotal moment that spurred a chain of events, including preplanning by the Proud Boys,' noted the committee aide, who was not authorized to speak on the record. The tweet was issued 'a little more than an hour after meeting with Rudy Giuliani, Gen. Mike Flynn [ret.], Sidney Powell and others where they consider taking actions like seizing voting machines, appointing a special counsel to investigate the election,'" Jackie and Hannah write. A federal judge, meanwhile, "on Monday refused to delay Stephen K. Bannon's trial next week after the Justice Department called an offer by the former Trump aide to testify before the [Jan. 6 committee] a 'last-ditch attempt to avoid accountability' on charges of criminal contempt of Congress," our colleague Spencer Hsu reports. | | |  | At the White House | | AMLO returns to the White House |  President Joe Biden, and Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador in 2021. (Chris Kleponis/CNP/Bloomberg) | | | Biden will meet with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador this morning, a month after López Obrador boycotted the Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles in protest of Biden's refusal to invite the leftist autocratic leaders of Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela. It's López Obrador's second White House visit since Biden took office. Expected to be on the agenda: migration, trade and disrupting the flow of fentanyl across the border. He'll have breakfast with Vice President Harris beforehand, according to a senior administration official. "López Obrador, the first modern Mexican leader to emerge from the leftist opposition, delights in tweaking the United States," our colleague Mary Beth Sheridan reports. "On July 4, he proposed a campaign to dismantle the Statue of Liberty if a U.S. judge handed a life sentence to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange." His Summit of the Americas snub was more serious. | - López Obrador's absense "'has only further contributed to fears surrounding the shaky health of Mexico's democracy and its partnership with the United States,' Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, wrote in the Mexican newspaper Reforma. (López Obrador, widely known as AMLO, said his critics in the U.S. Senate had 'a lot of hate for the Cuban people.')"
| | |  | Coffee Break(s) | | | We're those people who only eat fresh tomatoes two months out of the year — when they're in season — because, frankly, they taste like nothing the other 10 months. (That's the season for perfect but pricy canned San Marzano D.O.P. tomatoes.) The Post's Voraciously answered our call when they gave us numerous recipes for tomatoes. We have definitely bookmarked Thai-styled marinated tomatoes and cucumbers. Tell us if you've tried any of these recipes. | | |  | The Media | | | |  | Viral | | | (But also, we knew this looked familiar.) |  | | | | | | AM/PM | | Looking for more analysis in the afternoon? | | | | Weekday newsletter, PM |  | | | | | | |
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