Happy Tuesday! Prepare yourself: Everyone is about to flip-flop on the importance of proper classified information storage and retention—again.

Quick Hits: Today’s Top Stories

• CBS News reported Monday Attorney General Merrick Garland has assigned U.S. Attorney John Lausch—a Trump appointee—to review about 10 Obama-era documents marked classified that were discovered by personal attorneys for President Joe Biden in Biden’s vice presidential office at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement in Washington. Richard Sauber, special counsel to Biden, confirmed Biden’s attorneys found the material in a “locked closet” on November 2, 2022, while preparing to vacate the office. According to Sauber, the White House counsel’s office notified the National Archives of the documents that same day, and they were in archives’ possession the morning of November 3. The archives, according to CBS News, then referred the matter to the Justice Department, leading to Lausch’s investigation which is expected to conclude “soon.”
• The House voted 220-213 on Monday to adopt new rules governing how the legislative body operates, with only one Republican—Rep. Tony Gonzales of Texas—opposing the package despite several expressing concern in recent days about concessions Speaker Kevin McCarthy made to House Freedom Caucus members behind closed doors. Lawmakers also voted 221-210 to pass the first legislation of the new Congress: a bill rescinding about $71 billion of the $80 billion provided to the Internal Revenue Service in last year’s Inflation Reduction Act. The legislation fulfills a campaign promise but is almost entirely symbolic, as it will not pass a Democratic-controlled Senate.
• The House Republican Steering Committee voted Monday to determine leaders on a number of key committees, with Majority Leader Steve Scalise announcing the resulting recommendations—which still need to be ratified by the full Republican conference—later in the day. Rep. Jason Smith of Missouri will chair the House Ways and Means Committee, Rep. Mark Green of Tennessee will chair the Homeland Security Committee, Rep. Virginia Foxx of North Carolina will chair the Committee on Education and the Workforce, and Rep. Jodey Arrington will chair the Budget Committee.
• Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced Monday he had tapped Democratic Sen. Gary Peters of Michigan to lead the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) for a second consecutive cycle, weeks after Peters told NBC News he was not interested in returning to the role in 2024. “[Peters’] hard work led Senate Democrats to defy the political odds and to one of our best midterm results in recent history,” Schumer said. Sens. Tina Smith of Minnesota and Alex Padilla of California will serve as vice chairs.
• Israel’s new National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir announced Sunday he had ordered police to take down any Palestinian flags being flown in public spaces, arguing they were a danger to the public order. The move comes shortly after residents of an Arab village in northern Israel waved Palestinian flags while celebrating the release of a man who had spent 40 years in prison after being convicted of kidnapping and murdering an Israeli soldier. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government announced a number of measures last week targeting Palestinian leadership, transferring about $40 million in tax revenue collected on behalf of the Palestinian Authority to Israeli victims of Palestinian terrorism and revoking certain travel privileges for senior Palestinian officials.
• Damar Hamlin—the 24-year-old Buffalo Bills safety who collapsed during last Monday’s game after suffering cardiac arrest—announced Monday he had been released from the University of Cincinnati Medical Center and was able to fly home to Buffalo. In stable condition, Hamlin is now walking, talking, and breathing on his own, and will continue his recovery at the Buffalo General Medical Center and Gates Vascular Institute.
• The Georgia Bulldogs won their second consecutive college football national championship on Monday, defeating the Texas Christian University Horned Frogs 65-7 and setting a record for most points scored in a college football playoff title game.

Biden’s Big Border Plan

No sooner had President Joe Biden arrived in Mexico Monday than Mexican President Andrés  Manuel López Obrador blasted him for “disdain” and “forgetfulness” toward Latin America and the Caribbean, providing additional fodder to the president’s critics who routinely accuse him of memory loss. 

But maybe Biden and AMLO will mend fences when Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau joins them today for their regular “three amigos” summit. If nothing else, they can shake hands and slap five over the new immigration plan Biden rolled out last week, which López Obrador has already suggested might be worth expanding.

The new plan is meant to bring order to the chaotic influx of migrants at the southwestern border of the United States by pairing an expansion of Title 42—the pandemic era rule allowing border officials to quickly expel migrants—with a new humanitarian parole legal entry pathway. The scheme relies on Mexico’s cooperation, and we’re thinking of it less as “closing a door and opening a window” and more “closing the windows everybody’s been climbing through, cutting the padlock off the door, and giving the bouncer a queue quota.”