By: Matthew Foldi

Federal Election Commission (FEC) Chairman Sean Cooksey is a former Chief Counsel for Sen. Josh Hawley (R., Mo.), Counsel for Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas), an attorney at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher , and a 5th Circuit Court clerk. He was confirmed to the FEC in 2020 and has already made a huge impact at the Commission. The New York Times — no supporter of Republican priorities for campaign finance law — described Cooksey’s accomplishments on the Commission as “breathtaking” and gave him credit for “remaking the landscape of money in American politics.” 

Perhaps most impressive, Sean has done all of this while being a young father and an active member of his church. Decades from now, campaigns and candidates will be relying on Cooksey’s achievements at the Commission, and we are extremely grateful that Sean spoke with us about the 2024 election, his top priorities, and his advice to young Hill staff. 

House:

• The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit in Washington, D.C. will happen this week, causing massive traffic delays and road closures. From Monday through Friday, there will be road closures surrounding the Walter E. Washington Convention Center.
• The House will continue to work through appropriations.
• Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will be testifying in front of the House Financial Services Committee on Tuesday morning about the international finance system. Iran hawks are hoping she is pressed on the administration’s lack of wholehearted sanctions enforcement.
• Democrats are expected to go all-out opposing Rep. Chip Roy’s (R., Texas) Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, a bill that ensures that only American citizens can vote in federal elections.
• Rep. James Comer (R., Ky.) is escalating his investigation into White House physician Kevin O’Connor. Comer requested that the doctor appear behind closed doors for a transcribed interview with committee counsel. 
• Speaker Mike Johnson (R., La.) will deliver remarks on threats to the U.S.-led world order at the Hudson Institute today. RSVP here. 
• The House Foreign Affairs Committee will be considering HR 8345, which would limit funds to the United Nations and other organizations that provide any status beyond observer status to the Palestine Liberation Organization, H Res 1323, which would reject the United Nations’s decision to place the Israel Defense Force on a list of child’s rights abusers, and more this week.
• Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R., Ohio), former CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield, former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe, David Feith, Dr. Jamie Metzl, and Dr. Kevin Roberts will lay out how to “hold[] China accountable for its role in the most catastrophic pandemic of our time: COVID-19” today at the Heritage Foundation. RSVP here. 

Senate:

• The Senate is in session this week and then out next week for the Republican National Convention. 
• Tuesday’s lunch will be at the National Republican Senatorial Committee.
• Lots of consideration of nominations for this week, along with watching Senate Democrats expected to avoid the press corp questions about President Joe Biden.
• The Senate is resuming consideration of Nancy Maldonado to be United States Circuit Judge for the Seventh Circuit Court; a roll call vote on the motion to invoke cloture is expected. Maldonado, a favorite of the left’s dark money network, was unable to define the term “assault weapons” when asked by Sen. John Kennedy (R., La.). 
• A roll call vote is also expected for Stephanie Sanders Sullivan to be Representative of the United States of America to the African Union.
• Cloture was withdrawn with respect to Mustafa Kasubhai to be United States District Judge for the District of Oregon. During Senate hearings, Kasubhai refused to describe the violence during the 2020 riots in Eugene, Oregon as a “riot” when pressed by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.).
• Senate Republicans, led by Sen. Eric Schmitt (R., Mo.), Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R., Ala.), and Roger Marshall (R., Kan.), will host a roundtable featuring former acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker, the Heritage Foundation’s Kevin Roberts, and America First Legal’s Stephen Miller focusing on the politicization of justice in America tomorrow.

What we’re hearing from people we trust on and around the Hill – please send us more tips!

• Oversight of Arnold Ventures: We have heard that Republicans on the Hill are interested in oversight of Arnold Ventures, the left-wing organization funded by Enron billionaire John Arnold. Our Hill sources said that — especially if Trump wins — expect investigations into Arnold Ventures’s advocacy on online education, healthcare, and criminal justice. 
• Exclusive Arizona ad: Republican Senate candidate Kari Lake debuted her latest digital ad with the Washington Reporter, hammering the Democrats’ likely Senate nominee, Rep. Ruben Gallego, for his progressive record in Congress. While the ad focuses heavily on “Joe Biden and Radical Ruben,” it also takes aim at Vice President Kamala Harris. Watch the ad here. 
• Smoke ‘em: The House’s Energy and Commerce Committee will be holding a food and tobacco hearing in September, we’re told. Expect an intense focus on the Biden Administration’s failure to approve legal vaping devices while allowing illegal Chinese vapes to flood the market. 
• Natural gas playing in Pennsylvania Senate: Dave McCormick, we’re told, is planning to blast his opponent Sen. Bob Casey’s (D., Pa.) years of voting against expediting oil and gas leases and for supporting a “moratoria on offshore drilling.” Casey is also backed by anti-fracking groups like the Natural Resources Defense Council, McCormick’s campaign noted to the Reporter.
• Bipartisan congratulations: The Senate Press Secretaries Association elected their new leadership for the next year, including Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s (R., Ala.) press secretary Hannah Eddins, the Senate Finance Committee Republicans’ Eric Fejer, the Senate Appropriations Committee Republicans’ Phoebe Ferraiolo, Sen. Katie Britt’s (R., Ala.) communications director Amy Hasenberg-Elliott, Sen. James Lankford’s (R.,Okla.) Natalie Ihrman, Sen. Bill Hagerty’s (R., Tenn.) Brandon Jackson, Sen. Mark Warner’s (D., Va.) Valeria Rivadeneira, the Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats’ Josh Sorbe, and Sen. Peter Welch’s (D., Vt.) Elisabeth St. Onge. The group, which facilitates events between Hill communications staff, reporters, and trade organizations, was led by Sen. Cynthia Lummis’s (R., Wyo.) Stacey Daniels for the past year. Sorbe will take over next year, per the association’s standard that leaders must alternate between parties. 
• Thanks for reading! The Bucks County Herald shouted out Dave McCormick’s Fourth of July op-ed we published last week. “McCormick, who also appeared at a rally in Doylestown in June, penned a July 4 op-ed for the right-leaning Washington Reporter news and commentary website. In it, he lauded veterans, the continuing importance of military service, and the critical role of veteran leaders in the public sector at a time in which “the public is questioning the value of military service.’” Read our full Fourth of July edition, in which we published McCormick, along with twenty other GOP veterans, here. 
• Fourth of July fire: George Logan, who is running against Rep. Jahana Hayes (D., Ct.), released a video for the Fourth of July, in which Logan, a frontman in a Jimi Hendrix tribute band, performs a rendition of the Star-Spangled Banner that you have to see to believe.

By: Matthew Foldi

The House’s Energy and Commerce (E&C) Committee pulled down the scheduled markup of the American Privacy Rights Act, (APRA) following a major push by skeptics to quash the landmark data privacy bill last month. 

APRA’s advocates — a bipartisan coalition led by top E&C members, Reps. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R., Wa.) and Frank Pallone (D., N.J.), along with state Senator, Maria Cantwell (D., Wa.) — see it as legislation that would make cohesive the patchwork of state bills currently regulating social media. Data privacy is an issue that polls well, but lawmakers are seeing that passing comprehensive legislation that impacts almost every industry is much easier said than done. Some of its proponents still see a path forward, but following the scuttled markup its future is in jeopardy.

For more on the latest with the landmark data privacy bill, click HERE. 

By: Matthew Foldi 

Rep. Marc Molinaro (R., N.Y.) branded his Democratic opponent, Josh Riley, as an “architect of the border crisis,” in an ad previewed exclusively to the Washington Reporter.

Riley’s career as a high-powered lawyer enabled him to advocate for progressive immigration policies, including in one case, in which his clients petitioned the “Supreme Court to dismantle Trump’s border security policies,” Molinaro told the Reporter.

“Josh Riley is a total fraud,” Molinaro told the Reporter. “These new documents [of Riley’s left-wing immigration lawsuits cited in his ad] are damning. [They show that] Josh Riley is one of America’s top legal activists for open borders.”

Riley “fought to overturn our immigration laws and sponsored lawsuits with Biden’s border chief to prevent border patrol from closing the border,” Molinaro’s ad says. The ad comes months after House Republicans voted to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who executed President Joe Biden’s border policies, and oversaw record numbers of illegal immigrants crossing into America. Riley and Mayorkas worked together during President Donald Trump’s administration and filed dozens of briefs arguing for a lax approach to immigration policies.

Click HERE to watch Rep. Marc Molinaro’s ad, first shared with the Washington Reporter.

By: Rep. Tom Emmer

Nearly half of all American adults own digital assets according to some studies. One-third of U.S. voters say they’ll weigh candidates’ views on digital assets before voting. Thirty percent of registered voters in swing states say they’re more likely to support a crypto-friendly candidate. The facts are clear: Americans care about digital assets, and rightfully so.

Today, every single online transaction moves between intermediaries, whether that intermediary is a bank, Big Tech, or the government. Digital assets change that. This technology powers peer-to-peer transactions online. Fundamentally, digital assets embody the free market principles our country was built upon: freedom, privacy, and individual sovereignty. Plus, digital assets build the infrastructure for a cheaper, faster, and more efficient financial system than is currently available. As we conduct more and more activity online, providing internet users the choice to conduct transactions directly with each other will unlock an abundance of economic opportunity and prosperity. However, for this to happen the United States must lead in developing this next iteration of the internet so that it is designed with American values.

Like so many issues this election, the contrast between our two presidential candidates’ stances on digital assets couldn’t be clearer. Only one candidate in this race understands what’s at stake and is running on a pro-crypto agenda.

And that candidate is President Donald Trump.

• The Spectator: How Biden’s bad debate exposed the legacy media, by Ben Shapiro.
• Washington Free Beacon: Biden’s State Department Used Data from Anti-Israel Org To Compile ‘Report Card’ on Jewish State, Internal Emails Show, by Adam Kredo.
• Daily Wire: ‘This Was A Fisheries Killer:’ The Fisherman Who Fought Chevron Deference All The Way To The Supreme Court, by John Bickley.