By Daniella Diaz, Sarah Ferris and Nicholas Wu

With assists from POLITICO’s Congress team

Acting Speaker Patrick Mchenry has dodged questions about his thoughts on increasing his speakership powers. | AP

TICK TOCK: The government will shut down in 30 days if Congress can’t pass a funding patch … and it’s day 15 of the House not having a speaker.

MCHENRY SUPPORT GROWS ... WITH DEMS

The idea of empowering acting Speaker Patrick McHenry to temporarily move legislation is gaining traction in the Democratic Caucus.

Maine Rep. Jared Golden is now openly calling to increase McHenry’s powers, at least to avoid a government shutdown. In an interview with us, the centrist Democrat said he supports allowing McHenry to move bills on a temporary basis, even without a specific promise from GOP leaders.

He argued his party doesn’t need “much leverage” in return for greenlighting McHenry — either Republicans use the power to attempt to pursue a partisan agenda, or they put up bills that they know Democrats will help support and turn into law. That includes a vote on aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, as well as a funding stopgap ahead of the Nov. 17 deadline.

“It seems like a pretty straightforward vote for me, without preconditions or concerns about whether or not they would act in good faith,” Golden said. If the Republicans did act in “bad faith,” he said they’d only be breaking the trust of their own voters. “They would be held over a barrel that the country is holding.”

Other Democrats have indicated they support the idea, though they’re still pushing for a deal with Republicans in exchange for votes. Exact support is difficult to gauge, since they don’t have a concrete proposal yet.

“We have not had that conversation in caucus. If there's a real proposal in front of us, we'll have to reconvene and have that conversation,” Jeffries said Wednesday after a caucus meeting. Democrats are expected to stay united behind Jeffries for as many votes as necessary on the House floor.

Meanwhile, McHenry has continued to dodge questions about his thoughts on increasing his speakership powers.

“I’m focused on getting our speaker-designate across the floor and into the speaker's chair,” he said.

Conservatives are already trying to slam the brakes. They don’t want anyone in their party working with Democrats.

One Freedom Caucus member, who requested anonymity to speak freely, said if Republican centrists move to empower McHenry with Democratic help, conservatives would stop voting in favor of rules — essentially meaning they would block all legislation on the floor.

One problem: While Democrats apparently wait by the phone for Republicans to call, key GOP members are saying Democrats need to help sort out the mess. And there’s still plenty of bad blood on the right side of the aisle after Democrats voted to oust McCarthy two weeks ago.

“The reason that we're in this mess right now are eight people in the Republican conference [and] 208 in the Democratic conference,” said Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.), a centrist known for making deals with Democrats. “Ask them that question: Are they willing to undo what they did and actually make the House functional again?”

— Daniella Diaz, Sarah Ferris and Nicholas Wu

A message from Electronic Payments Coalition:

Don’t Let Durbin-Marshall Steal YOUR Data: Senators Dick Durbin and Roger Marshall introduced legislation allowing big-box retailers like Walmart and Target to process credit card transactions based solely on what is cheapest for them, disregarding YOUR data security. Durbin-Marshall would shift billions in consumer spending to higher-risk payment networks, weakening America’s payment system and putting consumers in a vulnerable position. Last year, Congress wisely rejected a similar Durbin-Marshall bill, and they must do so again.

GOOD EVENING! Welcome to Huddle, the play-by-play guide to all things Capitol Hill, on this Wednesday, Oct. 18, where we hope you’re having a better day than Jim Jordan!

SENATE’S SPENDING PROBLEMS CONTINUE

On the other side of the Capitol, the Senate is experiencing some more run-of-the-mill dysfunction.

Senators are laboring to restart their three-bill funding package. If things don’t get unstuck soon, some senators are worried about needing a long-term spending patch, known as a continuing resolution.

In case you need the reminder: That’s the thing House conservatives really hate.

“It’s impossible to do,” said Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) of the appropriations process. “So we’re going to have a CR on the 17th, and maybe a year-long CR.”

Senators are currently negotiating an amendment package for the military construction, agriculture and transportation and housing funding package. If that sounds familiar, it’s exactly where the Senate was a few weeks ago.

There’s some hope of a breakthrough tonight or tomorrow — we’ll see. Senate Appropriations Chair Patty Murray is working to cut a deal "and swiftly pass this package," an aide said.

One of the issues is an amendment from Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), which would restore gun rights to veterans who need fiduciary help with their VA benefits. Democrats worry that legislation could lead to more veteran suicides.

“We have a number of our members who have very serious objections to it, so we’re trying to work it out,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who added the Kennedy amendment is a poison pill that could sink the bill. “These MAGA Republicans have tried to hold up this bill for a long time … the agreement was no poison pills.”

The Kennedy amendment has been hotlined before and Republicans aren’t sure why it’s become an issue late in the game. Senate Minority Whip John Thune (R-S.D.) said Schumer is setting up an end-of-the-year catchall funding bill known as an omnibus.

“That’s just something that’s not going to fly with our members. And I told him that,” Thune said.

— Burgess Everett

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REPUBLICANS WANT A BREAK

House Republicans are searching for any way to escape the speakership hell. Top appropriator Rep. Mike Garcia (R-Calif.) has an off-color idea: an off-Hill retreat to tamp down emotions.

“If I was in a leadership position, I would take us off site somewhere – it sounds silly – but let's go to Gettysburg or something,” Garcia told reporters after the vote. “Let's go to somewhere that is meaningful to our nation's history so that the Republican Party can once again remember why we do what we do.”

Of course, that’s incredibly unlikely. But that suggestion and the McHenry push show that House Republicans are searching for any way to get a break from this embarrassing mess.

— Daniella Diaz

A message from Electronic Payments Coalition:

Embattled Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) is doing some speaker’s vote counterprogramming – that involves fashion.

It’s a bad week for people with similar names to people making headlines.

Rep. Jared Moskowitz (R-Fla.) believes it’s a good week for short kings.

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QUICK LINKS 

A decade after one shutdown ended, the House shutdown goes on and on, from Paul Kane at The Washington Post

‘The wrong person’: Senate Republicans slam Biden’s pick for Israel ambassador, from Connor O’Brien

TRANSITIONS 

Leah Nodvin is now chief of staff for the Bureau of Europe and Eurasia at USAID. She previously worked for the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Europe.

Kara Zupkus is now comms manager for the Taxpayers Protection Alliance. She most recently was comms director for Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas).

Vivek Chilukuri is joining the Center for a New American Security as senior fellow and director of the technology and national security program. He previously was a senior staff member in various roles for Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), and is a State Department alum.

Tanner Palin has joined Tusk Strategies as a vice president and Maria Restrepo has joined as a senior associate in the D.C. office. Palin most recently served as communications director and senior adviser for Rep. Lucy McBath (D-Ga.) and Restrepo was previously senior associate director for staff secretary for Vice President Kamala Harris.

Mindset has hired Rebecca Alcorn as a director focusing on banking and financial services issues. She was most recently a senior policy adviser for Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho).

A message from Electronic Payments Coalition:

CONGRESS: Don’t Let Durbin-Marshall Steal YOUR Data:
Cyber-attacks against consumers are on the rise, with large retailers like Target falling victim to breaches that expose customer information to hackers and foreign countries.

Now, mega-retailers like Walmart and Target want to leave you even more vulnerable to credit card cyber-attacks so they can pocket billions of dollars in additional profits.

After Senator Dick Durbin passed similar routing mandates for debit cards in 2010, the fraud rate for debit cards increased by NEARLY 60%. A similar outcome for credit cards would likely cost OVER $6 BILLION in additional fraud and likely require passing much of the bill onto consumers.

Last year, Congress wisely rejected a similar Durbin-Marshall bill, and they should do so again. Congress must protect consumers, preserve the integrity of the payment ecosystem, and reject this detrimental and unnecessary government intervention into the U.S. payment system.

TOMORROW IN CONGRESS

The House is in at 12 p.m.

The Senate is in session

THURSDAY AROUND THE HILL

Nothing yet!

TUESDAY’S ANSWER: Florencio Briones correctly answered that there have been six presidential election rematches between major party candidates.

TODAY’S QUESTION: The powerful subpanels of the Appropriations Committee are chaired by people with this nickname.

The first person to correctly guess gets a mention in the next edition of Huddle. Send your answers to [email protected].

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