| Good morning, Early Birds. The annual White House Correspondents' Association dinner weekend has come and gone. Let's continue to remember the point: press freedom, especially for Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who is held in Russia, and The Post's Austin Tice, who is missing in Syria. Tips: earlytips@washpost.com. Was this forwarded to you? Sign up here. Thanks for waking up with us. In today's edition … What we're watching: Senate votes on reversing Biden administration rules? … Ron DeSantis's election police … All about Julie Chavez Rodriguez … Subject Matter and Kivvit combine … but first … 🚨 Regulators seize, sell First Republic Bank: "Federal regulators have seized First Republic Bank and sold it to JPMorgan Chase Bank in a deal aimed at quelling renewed weakness in the nation's banking industry," our colleagues David J. Lynch and Jeff Stein report this morning. | | |  | On the Hill | | House Republicans grapple with how far to go on abortion |  Rep. Mike Garcia (R-Calif.) said abortion policy should now be left to the states. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post) | | | When Rep. Mike Garcia (R-Calif.) ran for reelection last year, he earned the endorsement of SBA Pro-Life America, a leading antiabortion group, which hailed him for voting "consistently to defend the lives of the unborn." But SBA is unlikely to endorse Garcia in his next reelection campaign. That's because the influential group will no longer back House or Senate candidates who don't support legislation that would prohibit most abortions at 15 weeks, Marjorie Dannenfelser, the group's president, told The Early last week — the same standard SBA is applying to presidential candidates. | - The group's decision creates a new litmus test that many antiabortion lawmakers might not be able to pass. Just 101 House Republicans — less than half of the conference — co-sponsored a bill last year introduced by Rep. Christopher H. Smith (R-N.J.) to restrict abortion nationwide at 15 weeks.
| | While some Republicans might support the bill even though they didn't sign on, others say it's a bridge too far. "I don't think it's our role in Congress at the federal level to have discussions on the topic, frankly," Garcia, who represents a district in the Los Angeles suburbs that President Biden carried, told us. "It's a states' rights issue." Rep. Brandon Williams (R-N.Y.), a freshman who narrowly won a swing seat last year with SBA's endorsement, said in September that he would vote against a 15-week ban. He referred questions about his stance on Friday to his office, which didn't respond to requests for comment. | | Some Republicans in swing districts who secured SBA's endorsement last year back the 15-week bill. Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), who represents a district Biden carried in 2020, co-sponsored Smith's bill last year and said he thought it remained popular among his constituents. Rep. Zachary Nunn (R-Iowa), a freshman who represents a swing district, did not directly answer whether he supported a 15-week federal limit in a brief interview on Thursday but encouraged us to look at his voting record in the Iowa state legislature. He voted in 2018 to bar abortion after fetal cardiac activity is detected at roughly six weeks with exceptions for rape, incest and to save the life of the mother. | - Democrats, who credit the backlash against the Supreme Court's decision striking down Roe v. Wade with helping them to overperform in the midterms, are eager to go after vulnerable Republicans who support Smith's bill — but they'll also attack Republicans in swing districts who don't back Smith's bill over their support for other antiabortion measures.
- "Vulnerable House Republicans have already made their extreme anti-choice records clear, and this new litmus test is just another reminder that they are out-of-touch with the majority of Americans," Courtney Rice, a Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee spokeswoman, said in a statement to The Early.
| | SBA's shift comes as Republicans in Congress and around the country struggle to figure out how far to go in imposing new abortion restrictions 10 months after the Supreme Court's decision. | | Lawmakers in South Carolina failed to pass a near-total ban on abortion on Thursday, hours before Nebraska state Sen. Merv Riepe, a longtime Republican, derailed a bill prohibiting most abortions at around six weeks in his state. | | House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.), meanwhile, pledged in December to bring a bill codifying the Hyde amendment — which restricts federal funds from being used to pay for most abortions — to the floor within two weeks of Republicans regaining the majority. He still has not done so, which has led to criticism from some antiabortion advocates. | | "It was disappointing to see Congress not pass these common-sense protections yet," said Roger Severino, a vice president at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, who served in the Trump administration. "After the 50-year fight to overturn Roe, now is the time for pro-life politicians to follow through on their long-standing commitments." Smith, who introduced the Hyde amendment bill, said he has spoken to Republican leadership about it and is confident they'll bring it up for a vote. (Scalise's office didn't respond to a request for comment.) "It's a matter of when and not if," he said. But even some of the bill's co-sponsors worry about the politics of bringing it up for a vote right now. | - "I support it," said Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.). "I'm a co-sponsor of it. It's got all the exceptions [for rape, incest and to save the life of the mother]. But I think it sends the wrong message right now."
- "We need to balance out, from a policy perspective, protecting the right to life and protecting women's rights," she added.
| | The road ahead from Smith's 15-week abortion bill is even rockier. Smith and Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), who introduced the Senate version of the bill last year, told us they planned to reintroduce their proposals later this year, although they didn't specify when. Mace, who was endorsed by SBA in 2020 but not last year, bristled at the group's plan not to back lawmakers who don't sign onto such a ban. | - "It's ironic, because SBA just two years ago was endorsing a 20-week ban," Mace said. "So they're moving the goal posts," using an expletive to describe what she thought of moving the goal posts.
| | But Dannenfelser described the 15-week limit as a "very modest piece of legislation" and said she couldn't credibly ask antiabortion voters to back candidates who don't support it now that Roe is gone. "It wouldn't be credible for us to even do, even if we wanted to," she said. | | |  | What we're watching | | | In Congress: The House is out this week. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and a bipartisan group of 16 lawmakers are continuing their trip to Israel and Jordan. McCarthy is set to address Israel's parliament today. The Senate, which has little legislation on the docket, will spend the week on nominations. Senators will vote tonight on the confirmation of Anthony Johnstone to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit and will work to advance three district court nominees. We are watching a couple other things. Republicans are expected to continue their push to reverse Biden administration rules. With Sen. Dianne Feinstein's (D-Calif.) continued absence as she recovers from shingles, Republicans could continue to have success undoing Biden's executive actions if Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) votes with them, as he did last week to overturn new Environmental Protection Agency rules for trucks. | - One potential vote is the Lesser Prairie-Chicken Congressional Review Act (CRA) by Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.), which would reverse a rule listing the lesser prairie-chicken as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act, a Senate source says.
| | We're also watching whether there are any breakthroughs this week with Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), who has held up nearly 200 Defense Department nominations over the Pentagon's abortion policy. Here are a few hearings we're interested in: Tuesday: Senate Judiciary Committee will host a hearing on Supreme Court ethics in the wake of the allegations that Justice Clarence Thomas accepted gifts without reporting them. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. declined to appear. Thursday: The Senate Armed Services Committee will hold its annual hearing on worldwide threats with the Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines. The Senate Budget Committee will hold a hearing on the impacts of default. If you want to get a sense of the tone of the hearing, check out the title: "The Default on America Act: Blackmail, Brinkmanship, and Billionaire Backroom Deals." Moody's Analytics economist Mark Zandi, who has been outspoken about the economic consequences of default, will testify. At the White House: Biden, Vice President Harris and the Small Business Administration's Isabel Guzman will speak in the Rose Garden this afternoon. Biden is expected to use it as an opportunity to bash the bill to raise the debt limit that House Republicans passed last week, warning about its impact on small businesses if it became law. Later, Biden will meet with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. of the Philippines to discuss economic cooperation and regional security. And in the evening, Biden will host a reception celebrating Eid-al-Fitr, which marks the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. | | |  | The campaign | | DeSantis's election police |  Peter Washington was arrested for voter fraud before the charges were ultimately dropped. (Zack Wittman/The Washington Post) | | | Our colleague Lori Rozsa writes about the fallout of the nation's first election police unit, created in April 2022, tasked with cracking down on "felons who'd allegedly broken the law by casting a ballot," as Lori writes. Here's the takeaway: | - "Many of the initial 20 arrests announced by the Office of Election Crimes and Security have stumbled in court. Six cases have been dismissed. Five other defendants accepted plea deals that resulted in no jail time. Only one case has gone to trial, resulting in a split verdict. The others are pending."
- "In its first nine months, the new unit made just four other arrests, according to a report the agency released earlier this year. Critics say the low numbers point to the overall strength of Florida's electoral system and a lack of sufficient evidence to pursue further charges."
| | |  | At the White House | | All about Julie Chavez Rodriguez |  Julie Chavez Rodriguez, director of the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, outside the White House on June 9, 2021. (Evan Vucci/AP) | | | Our colleague Meryl Kornfield profiled Julie Chavez Rodriguez, 45, Biden's campaign manager and the granddaughter of Cesar Chavez, the legendary founder of the United Farm Workers of America. Here's an excerpt: | - On her early organizing days: "By age 5, Chavez Rodriguez was handing out pamphlets to farmworkers," Meryl writes. "She helped organize marches demanding labor protections for those who harvest the nation's fruits and vegetables. At age 9, she was arrested outside a New Jersey grocery store while distributing fliers about the dangers of pesticides."
- On her new job: "Her role will include building coalitions and appeasing restive party factions," Meryl writes. "Chavez Rodriguez has strong relationships with progressive activists as well as union organizers, and it is not lost on Democratic strategists that she is a prominent Latina figure, a potentially important factor for Biden, whose support among Latinos has sometimes fallen short of expectations."
| | |  | On K Street | | Two firms combine, backed by private equity | | New this morning: The lobbying firm Subject Matter and the strategic communications shop Kivvit are combining, creating a new firm with more than 200 employees. The deal comes after the private equity firm Coral Tree Partners took a stake in Subject Matter last year — one of several recent private equity investments in Washington firms. Will Wynperle, a Coral Tree Partner, said in a statement that he anticipated the Kivvit deal would be "the first of a number of strategic acquisitions." The new firm will be known for now as Subject Matter+Kivvit, with the intention of renaming itself later this year. Subject Matter's lobbying clients include Goldman Sachs, Boeing, Verizon, Amazon and Facebook parent Meta, according to disclosure filings. Kivvit's clients include Google, the Obama Foundation, the hedge fund Citadel and General Dynamics, according to the firm. | | |  | The Media | | | |  | Viral | | | Comedian-in-Chief  | | | | | | AM/PM | | Looking for more analysis in the afternoon? | | | | Weekday newsletter, PM |  | | A lunchtime newsletter featuring political analysis and a global perspective on the stories driving the day. | | | | | | | |
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