GOING ROGUE — Some moderate Democrats are staring down the debt ceiling deadline to explore a compromise with Republicans. But they’re going rogue and bucking their party to explore a “plan B” that won’t have leadership’s blessing.

The message from the White House Democratic leadership in both chambers is that the debt ceiling must be raised without concessions to Republicans.

But since February, moderate House Democrats have been privately meeting with GOP centrists, against the wishes of their leadership, to talk through possible options on the debt limit.

Right now, there’s no solid break-glass backup plan or a compromise that could win favor in both chambers and parties. But participants in these private talks aren’t willing to risk the standoff between Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and President Joe Biden going sour.

Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine): “None of us work for the White House. We work for our constituents. And they should start talking and negotiating,” said the co-leader of the centrist Blue Dog Coalition.

Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) said he’s one of those working within the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus because “we’ve got to have a plan B.”

In the Senate, usual suspects for bipartisan “gangs” like Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Mitt Romney of Utah, haven’t heard a peep.

“The only hints of an idea I hear is an effort among [House] Republicans to come up with something they can vote for and send it over here,” said Romney. “I don’t know of any bipartisan [effort] here. Not with me.”

Sarah, Burgess and Adam Cancyrn parse the prospects for the bipartisan talks, where the White House stands and what Senators are waiting for.

THIS WEEK — Capitol Hill may be quiet, but there’s still plenty to watch:

• McCarthy is slated to meet with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen in California this week. The stateside meeting is being received in Beijing as a provocation and China has threatened to retaliate. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) quietly met with Tsai in New York last week.
• Former President Donald Trump heads to New York today ahead of his arraignment scheduled for Tuesday. He faces a litany of charges stemming from a $130,000 payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 campaign and potentially other matters. In Washington, Capitol Police are preparing for potential demonstrations in response to the arraignment, although reaction to the indictment was tepid. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) will be in New York to voice her support for Trump. More on how Congress is talking about the indictment, from Burgess.
• Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas) tours presidential hopeful Nikki Haley around the U.S.-Mexico border today, including Texas entry points between San Antonio and Eagle Pass.

GOOD MORNING! Welcome to Huddle, the play-by-play guide to all things Capitol Hill, on this Monday, April 3, where April showers bring May flowers, but what do April high winds bring?

HUDDLE WEEKLY MOST CLICKED: No. 1 last week was Rep. Don Beyer’s (D-Va.) new headshot, closely followed by “Matt Gaetz’s Legislative Aide Is a Convicted War Criminal” from The Intercept at No. 2

AOC 2.0 — Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) isn’t the new kid on the block anymore. She made a name upsetting a popular incumbent and battling Democratic leaders like former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), but now she’s moving on up to shape Democrats’ strategy against the new Republican House majority and is building power on Capitol Hill.

She’s the No. 2 Democrat on the Oversight Committee, where she says she first was taken seriously on the Hill, where senior Democrats were “willing to give me the benefit of the doubt.” Now she’s helping to build the Democratic playbook against the GOP’s barrage of investigations.

Only in Huddle: How she’s shifting Dem strategy: “There have been strategies in the past to try to ignore some of the most bombastic conspiracy theories or attempts by the Republican Party,” she said. “And I think we’re shifting perhaps to a new era where we do address them, but we debunk them aggressively and early. Before they start, as I like to say, growing legs and walking around.”

She’s earned begrudging respect across the aisle. Oversight Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) told POLITICO that “She maximizes her five minutes as well as anyone in Congress, when she has five minutes to ask questions … asking good questions, getting good questions in, getting good sound bites, getting good information. I think she’s always prepared.”

Senator Ocasio-Cortez? “There’s a world where I’m here for a long time in this seat, in this position. There’s a world where I’m not an elected official anymore. There’s a world where … I may be in higher office,” the New York Democrat said in a recent sit-down interview with Nicholas and Jordain.

Only in Huddle, part II: AOC on rampant speculation that she’d challenge Schumer in 2022: “I didn’t feel like it was particularly based in anything aside from a desire for that to be a story or a narrative or a tension,” she said. “But I do think that it was still important, because I think it provided a strength to progressive movements to achieve really significant victories during that time.”

Much, much more on AOC’s move from outside agitator to team player, from Nicholas and Jordain. (Huddle host tip: there’s something spicy all the way at the end.)

A STRIKE AGAINST SU — A coalition of opponents to President Joe Biden’s nominee for labor secretary are launching a campaign against Julie Su, taking aim at her previous writing on immigration and her participation in a campaign against the tipped minimum wage. The campaign, called “Stand Against Su” includes a letter writing campaign, billboards Arizona, Montana, and West Virginia targeting those states’ Democratic senators in an effort to sway them to vote against Su when her nomination comes to the floor.

“Julie Su turned her back on tipped workers when she participated in an event describing our industry and livelihoods to a legacy of slavery. This kind of rhetoric is offensive to restaurant workers across the country,” Joshua Chaisson, President of Restaurant Workers of America said in a statement to Huddle. “In the same way that a bipartisan group of Senators opposed tip wage elimination, they should similarly oppose Su’s nomination.”

The campaign is an attempt to drive the conversation on Su during the Congressional recess and influence key senators (and their constituents) while they are in their home states. The Su nomination will be high on Democrats’ agenda when they return to Washington, but her opponents are trying to get ahead.

More on Su’s nomination: What a landmark sweatshop case tells us about Julie Su’s approach to labor, from The 19th’s Mel Leonor Barclay

DIVING DEEP INTO HAWAII — It’s been more than a decade since Sen. Dan Inouye died and to say that Hawaii’s politics are still adjusting might be an understatement. With Inouye’s death and Sen. Daniel Akaka’s retirement, the state was launched from having a top appropriator raking in federal dollars to being represented by two junior senators and much more diffuse political power around the state.

“Inouye’s approval had the same weight as a ton of money,” former Hawaii Gov. Neil Abercrombie told the Honolulu Civil Beat . “There’s no such power anymore, and there’s not even the idea that such power still exists.”

An great deep dive including:

• The vacuum left by Inouye and who’s filling it
• How the late senator may have weathered the #MeToo movement
• The “Inouye cliff” when federal funds to Hawaii dropped off

‘Nobody Gets To Run A State For 50 Years Anymore’: Hawaii Political Life After Dan Inouye, from Nick Grube at the Honolulu Civil Beat

GREENE ON SCREEN — Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) got the 60 Minutes treatment last night, where she doubled down on the baseless claim that “the Democrats are a party of pedophiles,” and denied that she claimed the Parkland shooting was a false flag operation, while her own social media posts to the contrary showed on screen.

FETTERMAN SPEAKS — In his first major interview since entering inpatient treatment for depression, Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) told CBS Sunday about his “downward spiral” before seeking help and apathy towards being alive when he sought treatment.

“The whole thing about depression is that, objectively, you may have won. But depression can absolutely convince you that you actually lost. And that’s exactly what happened. And that was the start of a downward spiral,” Fetterman said.

Fetterman says now, back home in Braddock, Pa., is “the first time ever to be in remission with my depression.” He is expected to return to Capitol Hill on April 17.

RELATED: Op-Ed: The Tired Trope of the ‘Power Hungry’ Woman, from Gisele Barreto Fetterman in Elle Magazine

Tweeted and deleted… Rep. Shri Thanedar (D-Mich.) tweeted and deleted this photo of himself with the Detroit skyline last night. With a caption you’ll never forget (even if you want to).

QUICK LINKS

One-time supporter of Guantánamo’s military court now says it was ‘doomed’, from Sacha Pfeiffer and Monika Evstatieva at NPR

Voters with disabilities often overlooked in voting battles, from Ayanna Alexander at The Associated Press

Democrats Run on Abortion, Even for Offices With Little Say on the Issue, from Reid J. Epstein at The New York Times

How the climate movement learned to win in Washington, from Eli Stokols

After fleeing war, Ukrainians rush to help Mississippi tornado victims, from Daniel Wu at The Washington Post

TRANSITIONS

Maura Gillespie is launching Bluestack Strategies, where she will be founder and principal. She most recently was deputy chief of staff for former Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.).

Madeleine Russak is joining Signal Group as VP. She previously was comms director for Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii).

Danny Smith has been promoted to be legislative director for Rep. Brian Babin (R-Texas). He previously was legislative assistant for Babin.

Justin Wein is now legislative adviser to the director of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network at Treasury. He previously was chief of staff for Rep. David Price (D-N.C.), and is a Nita Lowey alum

TODAY IN CONGRESS

The House convenes at 2 p.m. for a pro forma session.

The Senate convenes at noon for a pro forma session.

AROUND THE HILL

A quiet one.

FRIDAY’S WINNER: David Rondeau correctly answered that William Henry Harrison delivered the longest speech at his inauguration, clocking in at over two hours and more than 8,000 words. He fell ill after standing in the cold rain and died just 31 days later.

TODAY’S QUESTION from David: Who gave the shortest inaugural speech on record?

The first person to correctly guess gets a mention in the next edition of Huddle. Send your answers to [email protected]

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