Principals

☞ White House: At a ceremony today, Biden will award the Presidential Citizens Medal to a dozen individuals who the White House says “made exemplary contributions” to democracy two years ago around Jan. 6, including police officers who defended the Capitol that day like the late Brian Sicknick.

☞ Chuck Schumer: Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow’s decision to retire will open up a vacancy in the key swing state of Michigan next year. In a statement praising Stabenow’s work, Schumer said they were “confident Democrats will retain the seat.” Reps. Elissa Slotkin, Haley Stevens, and Debbie Dingell are reportedly considering runs.

☞ Mitch McConnell: The GOP leader and other Republicans have reason for optimism with the news of the open Michigan Senate seat — it would be a big pick up for them if they can nail the “candidate quality.” Former nominee John James, now waiting to be sworn into the House, is a name to watch.

☞ Kevin McCarthy: Can McCarthy get to 218? He failed on the 11th ballot yesterday, but things may be looking up with an emerging deal. McCarthy soundly defeated Donald Trump, at least, who Matt Gaetz nominated as speaker on the last vote.

☞ Hakeem Jeffries: The Democratic leader will hold an event this morning on the East Front Steps of the Capitol today marking the Jan. 6 anniversary.

Today marks the second anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol building that saw throngs of pro-Trump rioters unsuccessfully try to overturn Joe Biden’s electoral victory. Its effects continue to ripple through American society on a daily basis. Over 950 people have been charged with crimes associated with the day and investigations, trials, and sentencing remain ongoing. The House Select Committee on January 6th voted out a criminal referral against Trump before issuing their final report and disbanding. On Thursday, the girlfriend of Brian Sicknick, the officer who died a day after being assaulted at the Capitol, filed a civil suit against Trump and two rioters.

The attack remains a live political issue, with many analysts blaming a weak Republican midterm showing on candidates tied to Trump’s quest to reverse his loss. A new poll from Politico and Morning Consult found that about one-third of voters say the Capitol attack will have a “major impact” on their vote in the next election (the share among Democrats and independents has risen, while declining among Republicans). Fifty-nine percent of voters say Trump and Republicans in Congress are at least somewhat responsible for the events that led to Jan. 6 — including 31% of Republicans — down slightly from immediately after the attack.

Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa. revealed a prostate cancer diagnosis, saying he will have surgery in the coming months and expects to make a “full recovery.”

Biden announced plans to further limit asylum claims from migrants attempting to cross the U.S. southern border, ahead of a planned trip to the border on Sunday. The announcement received criticism from human rights organizations and some Democrats. Four Democratic senators including Bob Menendez, D-N.J. issued a statement criticizing the moves — which include expanding the use of Title 42 despite the Biden administration push to end it — and arguing they will ultimately “increase border crossings over time and further enrich human smuggling networks.”

— Morgan Chalfant

Punchbowl News: McCarthy is expected to hold a conference call with his caucus this morning to discuss a potential deal on rules changes that he’s trying to make with his conservative detractors.

Playbook: Some Republicans backing McCarthy are growing more frustrated and privately suggesting he might need to relent and let someone else seek the speaker’s gavel if this goes on much longer.

The Early 202: The Jan. 6 committee’s trove of evidence posted online recently also included nearly 2,000 Social Security numbers linked to people who visited Trump’s White House in December 2020 (including some members of his Cabinet). It has since been uploaded with the numbers redacted after the Washington Post discovered it.

Kevin McCarthy is working on a deal with the rebels, but it may not be enough to get him over the top

Kevin McCarthy appeared to be making progress towards a deal with at least some opponents of his speakership on Thursday night, even as 20 Republicans voted him down on the House’s seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth, and eleventh ballots. The standoff is now the longest since before the Civil War.

Success is still extremely far from assured, however, and there’s no sign of an imminent vote that would make him Speaker of the House. Here’s where things stand as of Friday morning.

There’s an offer on the table

McCarthy’s team presented an offer in writing to holdouts on Thursday evening and some of them said they were encouraged.

“It’s changes that we wanted,” Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C. said after reviewing a draft. “Now, we’ve got a lot more that we have to get to. This is round one and it’s on paper, which is a good thing.”

Topics under discussion include the House Freedom Caucus’s influence on committees (an area where McCarthy allies say they’re especially loath to cede too much power), how to approach budget negotiations around the debt ceiling, rules addressing earmarks, and a vote on 12-year term limits (it wouldn’t become law),

There’s also a much-discussed motion that would allow any Republican member to bring a vote to remove the speaker. The new package builds on previous concessions holdouts say interest them, including a 72-hour waiting period before legislation and the Holman Rule, which would allow them to zero out funding for individual federal employees and programs.

Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., another “no” who participated in talks, said “it’s not about a no, it’s about what it takes to get to yes.”

But he also wasn’t sure yet if he’d seen enough to convince him he could support McCarthy.

“The thing about it is, trust is a series of promises kept,” he said.

Allies of McCarthy tried to project optimism and a sense of newfound momentum. At one point, top negotiator Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C. even said “the goal” was to elect a speaker that night.

“I think we’re getting closer,” Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio told reporters as they staked out meetings.

Still, the night ended without any new commitments to support McCarthy, even as members crisscrossed between offices to go over the particulars.

“We’re evaluating things and we’re still working through it,” Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., a McCarthy opponent who leadership sees as gettable, said after a late night meeting.

The deal might not make McCarthy speaker, though

McCarthy allies say it’s still unclear how many of the 20 holdouts might be swayed, even if an offer from leadership is met favorably by some.

“We don’t know what that number is, but this is phase one and phase two will be whoever’s remaining and just kind of limit the universe out there,” Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa. said inside the Speaker’s Lobby. “I just know it’s going to get Kevin closer,” he added.

The talks seemed mostly aimed at bringing aboard more movement-oriented conservatives like Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, who were intensely engaged in talks today.

But more flamboyant MAGA-style populists like Reps. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla. and Lauren Boebert, R-Colo. still sounded dug in as of Thursday evening. Rep. Bob Good, R-Va. started the day saying he would never vote for McCarthy under any circumstances. And Arizona freshman Eli Crane told Politico he was “not looking for a deal.”

“If you listen to the hardest-core seven or eight, they have told me they will never yield,” Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Texas said on Thursday, according to CNN. He has suggested Republicans begin to consider backup options who might get 218 votes if the standoff continues.

Winnowing down opposition and showing some momentum could help McCarthy keep Republicans from drifting toward other potential speakers for now, like his top deputy Steve Scalise, and make it easier to pressure the remaining rebels. But if the issue for a critical mass of votes really is McCarthy himself, it might only delay the inevitable.

— Kadia Goba and Benjy Sarlin

For George Santos, life in Congress becomes a treadmill

George Santos has spent his first week at the Capitol being chased by the press corps in between speaker voters, and it might be doing him some good. The still-not-a-Congressman from New York told Semafor he’s lost six pounds from walking since arriving in Washington.

Santos, who faces calls for investigations and even possibly his resignation from his new Republican colleagues after admitting to faking large portions of his biography, arrived to find lawmakers frantically preoccupied with a once-in-a-century speaker’s fight.

While he did not want to go into his own travails, he volunteered that he was extremely enthusiastic about negotiations on a deal to help advance Kevin McCarthy’s speaker prospects, calling the rules package “fantastic” and a strong base for legislating.

“I was elected because of my proposals in my campaign,” he added. “And I’m going to deliver on every last one of those proposals.”

—Kadia Goba

Federal regulators move to ban noncompetes — and set up a massive legal battle

With all due respect for Kevin McCarthy’s wild odyssey to become speaker, this might actually be the most consequential thing that happens in Washington this week: On Thursday, the Federal Trade Commission proposed a new regulation barring companies from imposing noncompete agreements on their workers.

The move could change the face of labor rights and, at the very least, lays the groundwork for an important showdown over the FTC’s power to shape the rules of antitrust.

The regulation would bar noncompete clauses, which prevent workers from leaving their employer for a rival, as a form of unfair competition under antitrust law. White House officials today jumped to celebrate the agency’s action as a “BFD.” But the proposal is already facing serious resistance from the business lobby that seems destined to play out in court — The U.S. Chamber of Commerce issued a statement calling the FTC’s rule “blatantly unlawful.”

Once reserved mostly for executives and highly paid professionals, the use of noncompete agreements has exploded over the last several decades, with recent studies finding that they cover between 15% and 18% of all workers.

While defenders say they encourage businesses to invest in training and retaining talent, the contracts have become a yoke for many low-wage hourly employees. (See: The notorious case of Jimmy John’s). Several studies have found that enforcing noncompetes tends to lower workers’ wages, and many argue that it also acts as a drag on innovation by stopping them from spinning off their own startups.

The issue has attracted attention in both right and left policy circles and the FTC rule, which would bar the agreements with narrow exceptions involving the sales of businesses, resembles a bipartisan bill sitting in Congress. ”That is the gold standard of national non-compete reform,” John Lettieri, head of the Economic Innovation Group think tank, said.

But the regulation is also something of a legal trial balloon from an FTC that, under Chair Lina Kahn, has been aggressively pushing the legal envelope on antitrust enforcement. The noncompete rule is her first attempt to issue a fresh regulation dealing with unfair competition, which critics have argued is likely outside its authority.

Sean Heather, the Chamber’s vice president for antitrust policy, told Semafor that while it was too early in the regulatory process to discuss a lawsuit, “we aren’t going to sit on our hands and let the FTC move forward in an extra legal manner.

— Jordan Weissmann

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WHAT THE LEFT ISN’T READING: An Energy Department review acknowledged that the cancellation of the Keystone XL pipeline cost jobs.

WHAT THE RIGHT ISN’T READING: Biden said during a speech yesterday that migrants should not “show up at the border.”

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— Steve Clemons