带走里克·克莱因
这句话几乎立刻赢得了政治上的恶名，它可能再次与此相关。
众议院议长南希·佩洛西在2010年的一次地方官员集会上说:“我们必须通过这项法案，这样你才能发现其中的内容，远离争议的迷雾。”当时奥巴马医改的通过正处于混乱的最后阶段。
10多年后，佩洛西失去了工作，部分原因是最后一次立法推动的反弹，民主党人再次参与了一场旷日持久的党内斗争，以制定总统议程。
就在国会又一个关键的一周开始之际，乔·拜登总统和乔·曼钦参议员公开就大规模社会支出法案中应该和不应该包含什么内容展开了斗争。
拜登计划花几天时间游说他的民主党同僚通过该法案和两党基础设施法案。但他们很难让选民相信他们在努力做什么——部分原因是他们无法就实际内容达成一致。
根据美国有线电视新闻网上周发布的一项民意调查，这是美国历史上规模最大、影响最深远的提案之一的不祥征兆:只有四分之一的选民表示，如果这两项法案都获得通过，他们会过得更好。
记忆更长的民主党人担心这个过程再次包含实质内容。即使他们到达了他们想去的地方，他们仍然可能会解释他们的账单没有做什么，而不是他们被设计来完成什么。
与...的关系亚里沙·维尔塞马
调查1月6日袭击的众议院委员会将于本周继续调查，他们将于周二晚上开会，通过一份针对前总统唐纳德·特朗普的高级助手史蒂夫·班农的藐视法庭报告。此前，班农拒绝遵守传票，拒绝提供证词以及他在叛乱期间可能与特朗普进行的任何沟通。
本尼·汤普森主席在一份声明中说，班农没有合作，而是“躲在前总统关于他声称援引的特权的不充分、笼统和模糊的声明后面”，委员会拒绝接受他的立场。
但将班农以藐视国会罪提交司法部的过程可能会很漫长。总统的言论可能也让围绕这一局势的种种说法变得复杂起来，他在周五表示，DOJ应该起诉那些无视传票在特别委员会作证的人。
在拜登发表评论后，DOJ发言人安东尼·科里发表声明称，司法部“将在所有起诉中完全根据事实和法律做出独立决定”。句号。句号。”
在竞选和执政期间表达的承诺中，拜登经常寻求在白宫和司法部之间建立刑事事务的界限——这种界限在他的前任任期内经常被视为模糊不清。司法部长梅里克·加兰同样支持司法部独立于行政部门，鉴于拜登的立场，这可能会变得更加难以描述。
小费奎因·斯坎兰
德州现在正式进入关键时刻，在特别会议之前，该州议员只有两天时间批准新的国会地图完成重新划分包裹。
周六，州众议院的立法者修改了州参议院批准的地图，以防止国会的两名黑人成员，民主党人希拉·李庚翔和阿尔·格林，不得不站起来对抗对方。众议院议员还修改了奥斯汀地区的选区，因此大多数选民现在是西班牙裔，这与州参议院批准的地图下的拟议选区不同。然而，众议院的版本仍然让该地区的西班牙裔合格选民少于目前的地图。
但周日，参议院拒绝了这些修改，并要求成立一个会议委员会，这意味着参众两院的议员将不得不聚集在一起，尽快谈判一项协议。
让新地图通过只是德克萨斯州重划选区战役的第一部分。挑战地图的诉讼将会接踵而至。马克·埃利亚斯(Marc Elias)是一名民主党律师，他在2020年大流行选举周期中努力扩大投票渠道，他周日在推特上说取笑变得合法行为在孤星之州。
Democrats struggle to define bills they can’t agree on: The Note
The TAKE withRick Klein
It was a quote that earned an almost immediate spot in political infamy, and it may be relevant again.
"We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it, away from the fog of controversy," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told a gathering of local officials back in 2010, amid a messy endgame in passing Obamacare.
More than a decade later -- with Pelosi in the job she lost in part due to backlash from that last legislative push -- Democrats are again engaged in an extended intra-party fight to enact a president's agenda.
Even as another pivotal week in Congress begins, President Joe Biden and Sen. Joe Manchin are openly warring with each other about what should and should not be in the massive social spending bill.
Biden plans to spend a few days lobbying his fellow Democrats to pass both that and the bipartisan infrastructure bill. But they are struggling to convince voters about what they're trying to do – partly because they can't agree on what that actually is.
This is an ominous sign about one of the largest and farthest-reaching proposals in American history: Only one in four voters said they will be better off if both bills pass, according to a CNN poll released last week.
Democrats with longer memories fear that process is again subsuming substance. Even if they get where they want to go, they still might be explaining what their bills don't do as opposed to what they are designed to accomplish.
The RUNDOWN withAlisa Wiersema
The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack is set to continue its probe this week as they meet Tuesday evening to adopt a contempt report against Steve Bannon, who was a top aide to former President Donald Trump. The development comes after Bannon refused to comply with a subpoena to provide testimony and any communications he may have had with Trump in the days surrounding the insurrection.
In a statement, Chairman Bennie Thompson said rather than cooperate, Bannon is "hiding behind the former President's insufficient, blanket, and vague statements regarding privileges he has purported to invoke," and that the committee rejects his position.
But the process to refer Bannon to the Justice Department for criminal contempt of Congress could be lengthy. The optics surrounding the situation may also now be complicated by comments from the president, who said on Friday that the DOJ should prosecute those who defy subpoenas to testify before the special committee.
On the heels of Biden's comments, DOJ spokesperson Anthony Coley issued a statement saying the department "will make its own independent decisions in all prosecutions based solely on the facts and the law. Period. Full stop."
In pledges expressed on the campaign trail and in office, Biden often sought to establish boundaries between the White House and the Justice Department on criminal matters -- a separation that was often seen as blurred under his predecessor. Attorney General Merrick Garland similarly backed the department's independence from the executive branch, which could become more difficult to portray in light of Biden's stance.
The TIP withQuinn Scanlan
It's officially crunch time in Texas, where state lawmakers now only have two days to approve new congressional maps before the special session toaccomplish redistrictingwraps.
On Saturday, legislators in the state House altered the map approved by the state Senate in a way that prevented two Black members of Congress, Democrats Sheila Jackson Lee and Al Green, from having to go up against each other. House legislators also reworked an Austin-area district so the majority of voters are now Hispanic, unlike the proposed district under the state Senate's approved map. However, the House’s version still leaves the district with less Hispanic eligible voters than it has under the present map.
But on Sunday, the Senate rejected those changes and requested a conference committee, meaning lawmakers from both chambers will have to get together to negotiate an agreement -- quickly.
Getting the new map passed is just the first part of the redistricting battle in Texas. Lawsuits challenging the map will come next. Marc Elias, the Democratic attorney who worked to expand voting access during the 2020 pandemic election cycle, took to Twitter Sunday toteasecoming legalactionin the Lone Star State.
