| Good morning. It's Monday. Insert some pithy comment about sports™️ and football or whatever here. Tips, comments, handwarmers? Reach out and sign up: earlytips@washpost.com. Thanks for waking up with us. Breaking: House Democrats could gain as many as three more seats under a new map released last night by New York legislators. "The map erases the upstate seat held by Rep. Claudia Tenney (R) and creates a deep blue district in the middle of the state," reported Colby Itkowitz and Adrian Blanco. | | |  | On the Hill | | Moderate House Democrats urge Biden to pass climate provisions in BBB |  Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.) is one of 20 "frontline" Democrats who have signed a letter to President Biden urging standalone climate legislation. (AP Photo/Steve Helber/FILE) | | | ⚠️: A group of House Democrats running for reelection in competitive districts will today send a letter to President Biden urging him to move forward with the $555 billion in climate investments that have already passed the House as part of the Build Back Better Act, the mammoth bill that is Biden's top legislative priority but has all but flamed out. The demand for climate action from moderate House Democrats in swing districts who are increasingly anxious about their electoral prospects is being led by Rep. Mike Levin (D-Calif.) and has been blessed by the League of Conservation Voters. The letter has so far been signed by over 20 "frontliner" Democrats, including Reps. Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.), Jahana Hayes (D-Conn.), Chris Pappas (D-N.H.) and Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.). "In the two months since the House passed [BBB], mid-December tornadoes killed at least 78 people in Kentucky and late December wildfires destroyed 1,000 homes in Colorado," they write in the letter, which was provided to The Early. "The time for [Biden] to work with the Senate to finalize and pass the strongest and most comprehensive version of the [BBB] that can get 50 Senate votes is right now. We must seize this moment for all Americans and enact these vitally important climate investments into law in the coming weeks." "These provisions are necessary for our districts and what constituents are demanding," Levin, who flipped his coastal district in 2018, told The Early. "Climate change doesn't discriminate between red states and blue states and red and blue districts." | | Biden and Democratic leadership have insisted they're still pushing for BBB. But the agenda over the next few weeks doesn't bode well for the $2 trillion stalled package in the short term: "The House and Senate return next week after the painful defeat earlier this month on another key item on [Biden's] agenda — a voting rights bill — with a plate full of items Democrats plan to focus on. Not on the menu: Build Back Better," our colleague Paul Kane writes. Front-liners — the 32 House Democrats considered most at risk in the midterms by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee — are ramping up pressure on the party to adjust its midterm strategy as the list of vulnerable incumbents grows. Biden said earlier this month that in his conversations with lawmakers "it's clear that we would be able to get support for the 500-plus billion dollars for energy and the environment." Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) has been the biggest roadblock for Biden's sweeping package. But he's said he's open to passing stand-alone climate provisions outside of BBB. Levin's message to Manchin: "The American people are broadly in support of [climate] investments because it's all about global competitiveness and improving the long term economic position of America." | | Rep. Milke Levin (D-Calif.) on the climate provisions in BBB | "These provisions are necessary for our districts and what constituents are demanding. Climate change doesn't discriminate between red states and blue states and red and blue districts." | | | | | | | Nord Stream 2 gets airing in talks between congressmen and Ukrainian president |  House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.) and a congressional delegation give a briefing after their meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Friday. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky) | | | What lawmakers learned in Ukraine: Senate Democrats and Republicans are getting closer to striking a deal on a sanctions package meant to deter Russian President Vladimir Putin from invading Ukraine. | | The two sides are "on the one-yard line," Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told CNN's Dana Bash on Sunday in a joint appearance with the committee's ranking Republican, Sen. Jim Risch (Idaho). Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.), meanwhile, the House Foreign Affairs Committee's chairman, reassured Ukrainian officials during a European trip last week that a sanctions package was coming soon. "It's something that I believe could be done with weeks in a bipartisan way," Meeks told The Early on Sunday, a day after returning from Ukraine, where he traveled as part of a delegation of seven other House Democrats and three House Republicans. In interviews over the weekend, Meeks and four other lawmakers who traveled with him grappled with one of the puzzles of the Ukrainian standoff: Why has Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky repeatedly downplayed the threat of an invasion, even as he's urged the U.S. to confront Putin more aggressively? The meetings with Ukrainian officials underscored the balancing act they're trying to pull off, Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-N.J.) told The Early. "They need to be prepared for a very possible invasion," he said. "And yet at the same time they don't want to create panic. That would cause people to start withdrawing all their money from banks and canceling investment activities and leaving the country." "It would be very unfortunate if Putin could tank the Ukrainian economy simply by making these threats without even moving his troops across the border," he added. Malinowski said the U.S. will also need to provide economic assistance such as loan guarantees. President Biden told Zelensky last week his administration is exploring measures to bolster Ukraine's economy, according to a readout of the call. Another lawmaker on the trip, Rep. Colin Allred (D-Tex.), told The Early that while he understood the economic concerns, he thought Zelensky might be going too far in playing down the threat of invasion. The extent of the Russia troop buildup on the Ukrainian border and Russia's disinformation campaign "are of such a level that the concerns about short-term economic pain is really almost a little bit misplaced," he said. | | The lawmakers met with Zelensky on Friday for about an hour, according to Rep. August Pfluger (R-Tex.). Some of the conversations focused on one of the sticking points in negotiations over a sanctions package — whether to impose sanctions to block the Nord Stream 2 pipeline under construction between Russia and Germany now as a way to deter Putin from invading. "There were several ministers who said [that] if the Nord Stream project is stopped, they don't believe Russia would invade right now," Pfluger said. "They think that would be enough to stop the invasion." Ukraine has lobbied for years to try to stop the pipeline project, but the Biden administration is resisting those calls before a potential invasion. A vote in the Senate earlier this month on sanctions legislation championed by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) failed after Democrats filibustered it. Malinowski said while he opposed the pipeline, imposing sanctions to kill it before a potential Russian invasion was likely to backfire. "If Russia does invade, we're fairly confident that Nord Stream will die, based on what the Germans have said to us," Malinowski said he told the Ukrainians. "And if it doesn't invade Ukraine, we are going to return to the question of how to stop this from becoming operational. But sanctioning Germany right now probably plays into Putin's hands." | | |  | At the White House | | Qatari emir to meet Biden |  Qatar's emir, Tamim Bin Hamad al-Thani, will today visit the White House. (Eduardo Munoz/Pool Photo via AP, File) | | | Happening today: "Qatar's emir, Tamim Bin Hamad al-Thani, will meet with Biden at the White House, as the administration seeks help in shoring up natural gas supplies to Europe in the event the crisis over Ukraine escalates to war and Russia cuts its flow to the continent," our colleague Karen DeYoung reports. "Thani is the first Persian Gulf leader to meet with Biden since his election, in a sign of shifting U.S. relations with the region." | - "In addition to his meeting with Biden, the emir is also scheduled for talks with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and members of Congress. Those talks are likely to focus on Afghanistan, where Qatar continues to play a central role in facilitating the evacuation of tens of thousands of U.S. citizens, permanent residents and at-risk Afghans."
| | |  | From the courts | | Ginni Thomas is back in the spotlight |  Virginia "Ginni" Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, watches Justice Amy Coney Barrett take the Constitutional Oath on Monday, Oct. 26, 2020. (Patrick Semansky/AP Photo) | | | To recuse or not to recuse: "Ginni Thomas's name stood out among the signatories of a December letter from conservative leaders, which blasted the work of the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection as 'overtly partisan political persecution,'" our colleague Michael Kranish writes. | - "One month later, her husband, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas took part in a case crucial to the same committee's work: former president Donald Trump's request to block the committee from getting White House records that were ordered released by Biden and two lower courts."
- "Thomas was the only justice to say he would grant Trump's request."
- "That vote has reignited fury among Justice Thomas's critics, who say it illustrates a gaping hole in the court's rules: Justices essentially decide for themselves whether they have a conflict of interest, and Thomas has rarely made such a choice in his three decades on the court."
| | |  | The Media | | | |  | Viral | | | I guess the 49ers didn't strike gold 🤷 |  | | | | | | AM/PM | | Looking for more analysis in the afternoon? | | | | Weekday newsletter, PM |  | | | | | | |
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