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Presented by PhRMA: Mar 11, 2019 View in browser
By Jake Sherman, Anna Palmer, Daniel Lippman, Garrett Ross and Eli Okun

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NATASHA KORECKI and ALEX THOMPSON: "DNC picks Milwaukee to host 2020 convention": "Milwaukee beat out Miami, which had mounted an unsuccessful final lobbying blitz to be the host city. ...

"Milwaukee made its new stadium the centerpiece of its bid. But there are still lingering concerns over whether or not the city has the hotel inventory to host a massive convention." POLITICO

-- THIS WAS LONG THE OBVIOUS OPTION -- we wrote Feb. 2 (here) that the convention would be in Milwaukee. Democrats need to win Wisconsin. It will be interesting to see how they solve the hotel conundrum -- Milwaukee is a second-tier city with a dearth of hotels, according to people involved in the convention-planning process. Not to mention, Houston and Miami would've been hot in the summer. Milwaukee is more mild.

NEW ... MEGAN WHITTEMORE is now chief of staff to SEN. DAVID PERDUE (R-GA.). Whittemore was previously deputy chief and comms director. Derrick Dickey -- Perdue's outgoing chief -- will run his 2020 campaign, and serve as senior adviser to the senator.

-- UPDATE: MARC SHORT started today as VP MIKE PENCE'S chief.

Good Monday afternoon. FROM THE WHITE HOUSE: "Press Secretary Sarah Sanders and Office of Management and Budget Acting Director Russell Vought will give an on-camera briefing at 2:00PM." The last briefing was 42 days ago. (hat tip: NBC's Monica Alba)

WE INTERVIEWED HOUSE MINORITY LEADER KEVIN MCCARTHY (R-CALIF.) on the main stage at SXSW yesterday. He gave PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP a good grade. ... He said Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) had a good rollout. ... And he talked about where he sees the GOP going. Video, as captured by McCarthy's staff

-- COUNTDOWN: 29 DAYS until "The Hill To Die On" comes out. Pre-order ... Get a signed bookplate

ON THE WORLD STAGE -- WSJ'S BOJAN PANCEVSKI and SARA GERMANO in Berlin: "Drop Huawei or See Intelligence Sharing Pared Back, U.S. Tells Germany": "In a letter dated Friday and seen by The Wall Street Journal, U.S. Ambassador to Germany Richard A. Grenell wrote to Germany's economics minister that the U.S. wouldn't be able to keep intelligence and other information sharing at their current level if Germany allowed Huawei or other Chinese vendors to participate in building the country's 5G network.

"This marks the first time the U.S. has explicitly warned its allies that refusing to ostracize Huawei could have consequences on these countries' security cooperation with Washington." WSJ

-- BLOOMBERG'S SALEHA MOHSIN: "U.S. Sanctions Russian Bank for Supporting Venezuela's PDVSA"

THE POLITICO LEDEALL -- "Trump unveils FY2020 budget proposal": "President Donald Trump released his fiscal 2020 budget request Monday - a month later than usual, due to the recent government shutdown, which spanned 35 days. Trump in his budget proposal asks for $8.6 billion for the border wall and $2.7 trillion in spending cuts, a higher proposed reduction than any other administration in history." POLITICO ... The budget

WHAT'S ON THE PRESIDENT'S MIND -- @realDonaldTrump at 10:12 a.m.: "At a recent round table meeting of business executives, & long after formally introducing Tim Cook of Apple, I quickly referred to Tim + Apple as Tim/Apple as an easy way to save time & words. The Fake News was disparagingly all over this, & it became yet another bad Trump story!"

... at 10:17 a.m.: "Making Daylight Saving Time permanent is O.K. with me!"

... at 11:27 a.m.: "Republican Senators have a very easy vote this week. It is about Border Security and the Wall (stopping Crime, Drugs etc.), not Constitutionality and Precedent. It is an 80% positive issue. The Dems are 100% United, as usual, on a 20% issue, Open Borders and Crime. Get tough R's!"

MORE VIDEO ... SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-S.C.), standing next to Bibi, says he will work to have the U.S. recognize Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights. 4-minute video

A message from PhRMA :

There are wrong and right prescriptions for changing Medicare. Seniors need Washington to focus on the right ones. Cutting costs for everyone except seniors and limiting access to lifesaving medicines are the wrong prescription for Medicare. Making changes that help seniors pay less out-of-pocket are the right prescription for Medicare.

THE INVESTIGATIONS ... ANDREW DESIDERIO, HEATHER CAYGLE and SARAH FERRIS: "Dems have started the gears of impeachment. Can they still turn back?": "While [House Judiciary Chairman Jerry] Nadler cautioned that his standard for impeachment 'doesn't mean you have to have Republican votes,' he said Democrats need to win over at least some voters who backed Trump in the 2016 election - a difficult feat for Democrats as Republicans have remained loyal to the president and have largely backed his criticisms of special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation and other probes ensnaring the president and his associates.

"That reality underscores Democrats' conundrum as they interview witnesses and demand documents as part of the sprawling oversight arsenal they've set into motion. Interviews with more than a dozen key Democratic lawmakers revealed deep divisions within the caucus about whether their efforts could end up helping Trump win a second term in office." POLITICO

-- NBC'S HEIDI PRZYBYLA: "Cummings seeks testimony from two more Trump attorneys about Cohen payments": "House Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings is interested in talking to Sheri Dillon and Stefan Passantino, attorneys responsible for the president's ethics and financial disclosures. They could be central to determining whether Trump committed crimes by making hush-money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels.

"Neither has indicated a willingness to cooperate with Cummings' committee, having disregarded a March 6 deadline set by the Maryland Democrat to agree to provide transcribed interviews to his committee later next week, according to Democratic aides. The White House has responded on behalf of Passantino and declined to make him available for an interview, committee aides said. ...

"According to requests from the committee sent to each of the lawyers, as well as the White House, the two 'appeared to provide false information' to federal officials about payments to Cohen to keep the alleged Trump affair from becoming public." NBC

-- DARREN SAMUELSOHN: "The week that could reveal Mueller's end-game": "Buckle up: The next five days could reveal how the Mueller probe will play out. Paul Manafort will know how long he'll be serving in prison, closing the book on special counsel Robert Mueller's most visible legal fight. Roger Stone will know his trial date, putting a timeline on when the public will get more details about his alleged contacts with WikiLeaks.

"And status reports are due for two of Mueller's biggest cooperators - Michael Flynn and Rick Gates - that will signal whether the special counsel has tapped them for all the information investigators need. This week could even include the ultimate exclamation point: Attorney General William Barr announcing that Mueller has completed his assignment and that a summary version of his findings is imminent." POLITICO

VALLEY TALK -- "GOP Sen. Josh Hawley slams 'toothless' federal response to privacy abuses at Facebook and Google," by WaPo's Tony Romm: "In a letter to the Federal Trade Commission, the Missouri lawmaker urged the agency's leaders to take a more aggressive stand toward Silicon Valley, starting with a series of investigations into tech companies for violating their users' privacy repeatedly over the past year. ...

"Hawley's missive arrives a day before the Senate Judiciary Committee, of which he is a member, is set to hold a hearing about online privacy and the future of regulation. Google is expected to testify at the Tuesday session, according to two sources familiar with the matter but not authorized to speak on the record, along with representatives from other tech companies and consumer groups." WaPo ... The letter

HEADS UP -- BUZZFEED'S DAVEY ALBA: "These Documents Detail The Government's Plan To Use Facial Recognition On All International Passengers In Top 20 U.S. Airports": "In March 2017, President Trump issued an executive order expediting the deployment of biometric verification of the identities of all travelers crossing its borders. That mandate stipulates facial recognition identification for '100 percent of all international passengers,' including American citizens, in the top 20 U.S. airports by 2021.

"Now, the United States Department of Homeland Security is rushing to get those systems up and running at airports across the country. But it's doing so in the absence of proper vetting, regulatory safeguards, and what some privacy advocates argue is in defiance of the law. ... U.S. Customs and Border Protection is scrambling to implement this 'biometric entry-exit system,' with the goal of using facial recognition technology on travelers aboard 16,300 flights per week ... in as little as two years, to meet Trump's accelerated timeline for a biometric system that had initially been signed into law by the Obama administration." BuzzFeed

2020 WATCH -- CNN'S JENNIFER AGIESTA: "Iowa Poll: Trump remains strong among Iowa Republicans, but some hope for a challenger": "Roughly two-thirds (67%) say they'll definitely vote to re-elect the president, and about 6 in 10 (59%) are at least fairly confident he'll win in 2020. ... But those positive signs are tempered by some registered Republicans' hope for a challenger to the President. Overall, Republicans are about evenly divided on the question, with 40% saying they hope the President faces a challenger from the party in the caucuses, and 41% saying they hope he does not face one." CNN

-- LAURA NAHMIAS and SALLY GOLDENBERG in New York: "'F---in insane': De Blasio allies warn against 2020 run"

-- CNN'S KATE SULLIVAN: "Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren will answer questions at a town hall moderated by CNN's Jake Tapper in Mississippi next Monday. The town hall will take place at Jackson State University in Jackson, Mississippi, and air at 9 p.m. ET." CNN

HOT ON THE LEFT ... "'Court packing' ideas get attention from Democrats," by WaPo's Michael Scherer: "Eric H. Holder Jr. ... became the latest figure to embrace an expansion of the nine-member court in recent talks at Yale Law School and Columbia University. ...

"Conservatives have long been galvanized by the promise of moving the Supreme Court to the right, making it a sometimes significant factor in their voting decisions. Now liberals, angered by the aggressive GOP push to remake the federal courts, are becoming equally impassioned, prompting the discussion of far-reaching ideas for remaking the nation's highest legal body." WaPo

WSJ'S JAMES MARSON in Odessa, Ukraine: "U.S. Bulks Up Ukraine's Navy to Thwart Russia": "U.S. training and equipment have helped strengthen Ukraine's army in its five-year conflict with Russia, but the fresh U.S. focus reflects concern over the Kremlin's new maritime efforts to halt Ukraine's westward integration and keep it in Russia's sphere of influence. ...

"The U.S. is transferring two Coast Guard cutters to Kiev and plans to send coastal radars to Ukraine and three Black Sea neighbors, U.S. officials said. The U.S. is also helping construct a maritime operations center for Ukraine near Odessa and sending naval ships on port visits." WSJ

AFTERNOON SNACK -- GOLF MAGAZINE'S MICHAEL BAMBERGER: "President Trump won a 2018 club championship - without actually playing in it!"

MEDIAWATCH -- Cedar Attanasio has been hired as an immigration reporter for the AP in El Paso.

SPOTTED: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) waiting for a flight from Jacksonville, Fla., to Philadelphia on Sunday afternoon. Many people fly to Jacksonville to get to Sea Island, where the AEI summit was held over the weekend. Pic ... Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) with his wife and out-of-town family at a Sunday matinee of "Nell Gwynn" at Folger Theatre.

SPOTTED at a women's networking dinner sponsored by She's Mercedes (Mercedes Benz) on Sunday night at SXSW: Gwyneth Paltrow, Stephanie Mehta, Hilary Rosen, Miriam Meckel, Kathy Griffin, Katie Couric, Valerie Jarrett, Maria Yuan, Jehmu Greene, Rui Ma, Ruth Chandler Cook, Ali Zelenko, Francesca Rossi and Heather Wilson.

TRANSITION -- Christian Marrone has started at Lockheed Martin as VP for civil and regulatory affairs. He previously was SVP for external affairs and chief of staff at CSRA and also served as COS for the Obama DHS and a political appointee in the Bush DoD.

ENGAGED -- OBAMA ALUMNI: Gareth Rhodes, a Cuomo alum and former Democratic candidate in NY-19 who is about to start as a special assistant to the superintendent of the NYS Dept. of Financial Services, proposed to Alexa Kissinger, a former Obama WH aide now an associate at Jenner & Block. He proposed in Puerto Rico and the couple met at Harvard Law School. Pic ... Instapic

WEEKEND WEDDINGS -- BUSH ALUMNI: Leah Malone, a Romney alum, on Saturday married Ken von Schaumburg, chair of the environmental practice at Clark Hill and a Bush 43 EPA alum, at Del Mar, in a ceremony officiated by Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah). Pic

SPOTTED: Ann Romney, Jamie and Matt Rhoades, Kelli and Will Ritter, Charlie and Lisa Spies, Ron Kaufman, Susan Duprey, Matt Hall, Rachel and Scott Weaver, Pete and Burson Snyder, Lyndsay Keith, Karen and Matt Leopold, Benjamin and Kim Grumbles, Jen Lux, Michelle and Russell Shearer and Mary and Steve Burns.

-- OBAMA ALUMNI -- Erica Sackin, senior director of comms at Planned Parenthood Federation of America and the Planned Parenthood Action Fund and an Obama 2012 alum, married Dave Stroup, an MFA creative writing grad student at GMU and a Mark Warner and Sierra Club alum. Pic ... NYT announcement

WELCOME TO THE WORLD -- OBAMA ALUMNI: Alexandra Veitch, who leads North American government relations for Tesla and is an Obama WH, DHS and Pelosi alum, and Chris Mewett, national security adviser for Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), welcomed Theodora Veitch Mewett. Pic

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There are wrong and right prescriptions for changing Medicare. Seniors need Washington to focus on the right ones. Learn more

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