WMAL Interview - SUSAN FERRECHIO - 04.25.17

INTERVIEW — SUSAN FERRECHIO — Chief congressional correspondent for the Washington Examiner

NORTH KOREA: Entire U.S. Senate to go to White House for North Korea briefing. (Reuters) — Top Trump administration officials will hold a rare briefing on Wednesday at the White House for the entire U.S. Senate on the situation in North Korea. All 100 senators have been asked to the White House for the briefing by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats and General Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said White House spokesman Sean Spicer on Monday. While administration officials routinely travel to Capitol Hill to address members of Congress on foreign policy matters, it is unusual for the entire Senate to go to the White House, and for all four of those officials to be involved. Wednesday’s briefing was originally scheduled for a secure room at the Capitol, but President Donald Trump suggested a shift to the White House, congressional aides said.

TAXES: GOP leaders, Trump team to talk taxes on Tuesday. (Washington Examiner/Susan Ferrechio) — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will host a private meeting Tuesday with top House lawmakers and Trump administration officials, including Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, to discuss tax reform and other legislative priorities. “The leader will host a meeting tomorrow with House colleagues and administration officials,” said McConnell spokesperson David Popp. “This is another regular meeting he attends to discuss legislative priorities for Congress and the administration.” Popp would not list the attendees, but Hill sources told the Washington Examiner other attendees will include House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady, R-Texas.
Trump to propose 15 percent corporate tax rate. (Politico) — President Donald Trump is expected to propose slashing the corporate tax rate to 15 percent on Wednesday, as the White House unveils its first stab at a tax plan, according to two sources familiar with the administration’s deliberations. Cutting the corporate rate to such a low level would allow Trump to follow through on a campaign promise that has been months in the making – even if policy experts argue that getting to that rate is impossible to do without imposing a new levy like a consumption tax, or blowing a hole in the deficit. Trump has been saying since early February that the administration’s release of a tax plan was just weeks away. A tax cut to 15 percent for corporations is likely to receive a mixed reaction from Congress, which must approve any overhaul of the tax code.
BORDER WALL: Trump willing to delay border wall push. White House official signals Trump won’t insist on funding for border wall in upcoming spending bill showdown.  (CNN) Less than a week before the federal government is scheduled to shut down absent a funding bill, the White House’s battle lines remain fuzzy. That’s because, in part, President Donald Trump’s top aides sent mixed signals over the past few days about how far he would go to secure funding for his border wall, a potential poison pill for the spending fight. Hours after Trump touted the importance of building a wall, a White House official signaled later Monday that the President won’t insist on that funding in a spending bill to keep the government running past Friday. The official said that even some funding for “border security” could satisfy the President at this point, with the expectation that wall funding would come in future spending bill negotiations. “Politics is the art of compromise,” the official said. The new flexibility comes after White House officials sounded as if they were insisting on wall funding as part of any proposal to keep the government from shutting down.
HEALTH CARE: White House says vote on health-care plan may not come for weeks. (CNBC) – A congressional vote on a Republican healthcare plan may not come for weeks as leaders in the House of Representatives and the Senate continue negotiations over possible proposals, the White House said on Monday. Any vote on healthcare legislation would be determined by Republican congressional leaders and when they have enough votes to pass a plan, White House spokesman Sean Spicer told reporters at a daily news briefing after U.S. President Donald Trump last week said he was in no rush for a vote.