Hot dish 09.18.24

By Sydney Kashiwagi

Hello and welcome to another DC Dish.

Week two back is shaping up to be a busy week in Congress.

IVF: Democrats attempted once again, unsuccessfully, to get Republicans on the record on in vitro fertilization Tuesday. In a second “show vote,” as Republicans call them, the GOP blocked a bill that would codify the right to IVF nationwide.

The measure was blocked largely along party lines back in June when I covered it then. It needed 60 votes to advance in June but failed 48-47. On Tuesday, it failed in a 51-44 vote with two Republicans voting in favor.

Democratic Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith were both co-sponsors of the bill and slammed Republicans for blocking the measure after the vote.

LOOMING SHUTDOWN: Congress will vote today on GOP House Speaker Mike Johnson’s plan to fund the federal government before funding expires at the end of the month.

Under his plan, the government would be funded for another six months and the SAVE Act would be attached to it. It’s a bill that’s already passed the U.S. House that would require proof of citizenship in order to register to vote in federal elections.

Democrats are largely opposed to the his plan and so are some Republicans. As House Majority Whip, Rep. Tom Emmer is tasked with getting Republicans on board with Johnson’s plan. Emmer told POLITICO Tuesday he’s managed to flip some GOP no votes but would not say how many members had flipped.

SECRET SERVICE: Congress also has its hands full weighing whether to increase funding for the U.S. Secret Service following the second apparent assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump, which both parties have indicated they would support.

THIRD PARTY RECRUITMENT IN CD2: A third-party candidate running for Congress in the competitive Second Congressional District was recruited by a secretive group that has since been banned from Facebook for deception, my colleague Chris Magan reports.

Thomas Bowman wasn’t surprised when the Patriots Run Project contacted him through the social media site earlier this year “asking some questions about my viewpoints.” He says he’s politically outspoken on Facebook.

Several news organizations and watchdog groups raised questions about the Patriots Run Project, which recruited candidates in competitive congressional races in four other states. Facebook took down the network’s pages in June after an international group, the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, released a report that the group violated the site’s ban on “deceptive political advertising and coordinated inauthentic behavior.”

On Monday, the Associated Press published a story about the Patriots Run Project, noting it could help Democrats’ efforts to win back control of the U.S. House and finances tied to “Democratic consulting firms.” The group sought out far-right Trump supporters like Bowman to run as third-party spoilers in tight races.

GOP Second Congressional District candidate Joe Teirab and the National Republican Congressional Committee blamed the recruitment effort on Democrats but his Democratic opponent Rep. Angie Craig and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee denied any involvement.

CD2 AD ALERT: Teirab released his first TV ad of the general election Tuesday that will appear districtwide. He introduces himself to voters by walking them through his biography as a lifelong Minnesotan, son of an African immigrant who joined the Marines and later became a federal prosecutor. He blamed Craig and the Democrats “for killing the American dream” via “skyrocketing inflation, open borders, insider deals and corruption.”

DFL PRESSES DOTSETH TO END BID: Top Minnesota Democrats called for GOP state Rep. Jeff Dotseth to end his re-election campaign on Tuesday in response to a report from my colleagues Ryan Faircloth and Briana Bierschbach that detailed past allegations of domestic abuse. They also called on House Minority Leader Lisa Demuth, R-Cold Spring, to expel Dotseth from the House GOP Caucus.

“What we’ve learned about Rep. Dotseth’s past is beyond concerning,” House Majority Leader Jamie Long, DFL-Minneapolis, said at a news conference at the State Capitol, Faircloth reported. “Dotseth’s behavior, whether it was yesterday or years ago, is unacceptable and not fitting for an elected representative of our state.”

Dotseth, a first-term lawmaker from Kettle River, was arrested in 2008 after his then-wife called police to report he’d assaulted her, according to court documents first reported by Faircloth and Bierschbach. He was initially charged with misdemeanor domestic assault but pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of disorderly conduct several months later. A judge granted a yearlong order for protection barring Dotseth from contacting his then-wife and using or possessing firearms, and he was only allowed to have supervised visits with the 9-year-old daughter the couple shared.

Dotseth denied the abuse allegations in his own 2008 divorce affidavit and again in a statement to the Minnesota Star Tribune last week.

MEDICARE: Klobuchar and fellow Democratic lawmakers argued in a court filing this week that pharmaceutical companies are wrongly trying to accomplish through the courts what they couldn’t win in Congress, as manufacturers keep pursuing litigation to stop the federal Medicare program from negotiating lower drug prices, my colleague Christopher Snowbeck reported.

Medications that prevent blood clots and help with diabetes are among the first 10 drugs subject to price negotiations between the federal government and drug manufacturers under a law passed in 2022.

Last month, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced projections for the program’s first year in 2026, saying people on Medicare should save $1.5 billion in out-of-pocket costs for these prescription drugs while the federal health insurance program itself can expect $6 billion in savings.

However, drug companies — including New Jersey-based Bristol Myers Squibb, whose blood thinning drug Eliquis is subject to negotiations — have argued the program violates the Constitution by forcing them to turn over to the government their most successful medication products at huge discounts. After losing in lower courts, Bristol Myers and two other manufacturers appealed their cases to the Third Circuit, where Klobuchar and 14 other lawmakers filed their amicus brief late Monday.

JUDGE FORUM: The League of Women Voters of Golden Valley and co-sponsor Minnesota State Bar Association (for statewide races) will host a judicial candidate forum tonight at 7 at Golden Valley City Hall. It will include contested races for Minnesota and Hennepin County. Invited candidates: for Supreme Court Chief Justice: Stephen Emery and Natalie Hudson; for Supreme Court Associate Justice: Matthew Hanson and Karl Procaccini, for Court of Appeals Judge 12: Diane Bratvold and Jonathan Woolsey, and for 4th District Court Judge 24: Matthew Frank and Christopher Leckrone. We’ll have a guide to all the contested judicial races closer to the election.

WHERE’S WALZ: Gov. Tim Walz will meet with University of Minnesota President Dr. Rebecca Cunningham and University leadership ahead of the President’s inauguration at 8:30 a.m.

At 3 p.m. Walz will interview candidates for a vacancy in the Fourth Judicial District.

At 5:15 p.m. he will attend an Urban Debate League event.

On the campaign side, Walz will travel to D.C. in the evening.

READING LIST

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