Heard on the Hill
What we're hearing from people we trust on and around the Hill
INFRASTRUCTURE WIN: In Stars & Stripes, ret. Army Major General James “Spider” Marks makes the case for the national security benefits of America’s first transcontinental railroad, which would be formed by the recently announced merger of Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern. Marks is urging the Surface Transportation Board to approve the merger, arguing the unified network will connect key military facilities, defense manufacturers and ports – all critical for rapid mobilization and national defense.
NOT ROCKING THE SUBURBS: Ambassador Richard Grenell, the Kennedy Center’s president, corrected the record about Ben Folds’s boycott of the legendary performing arts center. “Ben Folds was a disastrous artistic director. He would have been fired if he had stayed 1 day under my leadership,” Grenell noted. “He was paid $200k by the people before me to do a total of 3 shows - and all 3 shows netted $35k in total, BEFORE he was paid. So he can never return to the Kennedy Center under my tenure because his ideas are not supported by the market. In fact, he’s been rejected by the community — he couldn’t sell tickets or get sponsors.”
IMITATION GAME: Gov. Gavin Newsom (D., Calif.) got a painful reality check on his efforts to draw Republicans out of office in California. Recent polling shows that Californians oppose his idea by a two-to-one margin. Unfortunately for Newsom, tweeting like President Donald Trump only works for the current occupant of the White House.
REVOLVING DOOR GO BRRR: The Washington Free Beacon exposed the revolving door between Sher Edling LLP and the Democratic Attorneys General who rely on it to keep them in office. “Democratic attorneys general in at least nine states and Washington, D.C., have hired the same climate-focused law firm, Sher Edling LLP, to sue oil companies on their behalf in recent years,” the Beacon’s Thomas Catenacci explained. “At the same time, that firm has donated $49,000 to the Democratic Attorneys General Association (DAGA), which is led by and works to elect those same officials.”
LEAVING THE COLD: Former Rep. Mary Peltola (D., Alaska) is leaving the Last Frontier for the Windy City, the Washington Reporter’s Matthew Foldi reported. She will be joining the University of Chicago as a Fall 2025 Pritzker Fellow.