Axios

A bill to crack down on robocalls passed in the House by a 417-3 vote on Wednesday, in a rare display of bipartisanship amid a divided Congress.

The big picture: The Pallone-Thune TRACED Act would combat robocalls by requiring phone providers to verify the source of calls and allowing users to block those sources for no additional cost. It would also strengthen the Federal Communications Commission's ability to order the Justice Department to organize a working group to ensure robocall violations are prosecuted, Politico notes.

The House Homeland Security Committee requested on Wednesday that the Defense Department inspector general investigate a $400 million contract recently awarded to Fisher Sand and Gravel Co. for constructing a portion of President Trump's border wall.

The big picture: Fisher was not on the Army Corps of Engineers' original list of qualified bidders to build 31 miles of border wall near Yuma, Arizona, per the Washington Post. But Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) cites another report from the Post that alleges Trump has repeatedly urged the Army Corp. to award the contract to Fisher, which is owned by a GOP donor who has made several appearances on Fox News to promote his company.

Rep. Denny Heck (D-Wash.) announced Wednesday that he will not seek re-election.

Why it matters: Heck has served four terms as a congressman and is a member of the House Intelligence Committee, which was responsible for leading the impeachment inquiry into allegations that President Trump pressured Ukraine to investigate his political rivals. Heck is one of a handful of other House Democrats departing office in 2020.

2020 candidate Joe Biden on Wednesday unveiled a plan to raise $3.2 trillion over a decade from tax increases in order to pay for his climate and health care proposals, Bloomberg reports.

Why it matters: Biden's plan demonstrates the political divide within the Democratic Party. His plan is markedly different from the aggressive tax measures pitched by Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, who want to raise around $20 trillion in new taxes over the next decade.

President Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani traveled to Ukraine and Hungary this week in order to meet with the same former Ukrainian prosecutors whose unsubstantiated claims about Joe Biden and his son helped set off the impeachment inquiry, the New York Times reports.

The big picture: The overtures to Yuri Lutsenko, Viktor Shokin and Kostiantyn Kulyk — all of whom have faced allegations of corruption — are part of an effort to solicit new information that Giuliani hopes will undercut the impeachment proceedings, according to the Times.

Sen. Cory Booker described his initial reaction to Sen. Kamala Harris's exit from the 2020 presidential race on Buzzfeed's AM2DM show as anger since there are now more billionaires in the race than black people.

Why it matters: Harris, the first top-tier candidate to drop out, told her supporters that she doesn't have the financial resources to continue her pursuit of the presidency and isn't a billionaire, so cannot fund her own campaign. Former hedge fund manager Tom Steyer and ex-New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg have received a barrage of criticism for buying their way into the 2020 race.

House Judiciary ranking member Doug Collins (R-Ga.), as expected, laid into the partisan nature of the impeachment process in his opening statement of the committee's first impeachment hearing on Wednesday.

The big picture: Collins is one of several combative Trump defenders on the committee who have already signaled their intention to disrupt the proceedings with parliamentary inquiries and interruptions. He and other Republicans have decried the impeachment inquiry as illegitimate and plan to fight back throughout the Judiciary Committee's hearings, despite acknowledging that impeachment is inevitable.

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp's decision to name Kelly Loeffler as interim U.S. senator has generated lots of political buzz, due to some Trump loyalists claiming betrayal.

Why it matters: The intra-GOP skirmish has obscured the big business story, in that Loeffler will become one of precious few senators with a working knowledge of technology and, in particular, blockchain technology.

In his opening statement of the House Judiciary Committee's first impeachment hearing on Wednesday, Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) warned that President Trump has "welcomed foreign interference" in two elections and has engaged in "unprecedented" obstruction.

Between the lines: So far, the impeachment inquiry has been tightly focused on Trump's dealings with Ukraine. Nadler made clear in his opening statement that the Judiciary Committee is broadening its scope to include the findings from special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation, specifically instances of potential obstruction of justice.

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp announced on Wednesday that he has selected Republican donor and businesswoman Kelly Loeffler to fill the soon-to-be vacant U.S. Senate seat of Johnny Isakson.

Why it matters: In appointing Loeffler, Kemp is defying pressure from President Trump and other GOP leaders who have backed Rep. Doug Collins (R-Ga.), a staunch ally of the president who would be a lock to vote against removal in the event of an impeachment trial in the Senate.

The National Republican Congressional Committee is dropping George Buck, a candidate for Florida’s 13th Congressional District, from its recruitment program after a fundraising email sent over the candidate's signature said Democratic members of Congress should be executed, according to Politico's Jake Sherman.

The big picture: The Nov. 26 email falsely accused Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) of working for the country of Qatar and should be punished, the Tampa Bay Times reports. “We should hang these traitors where they stand,” the email reads.

President Trump described Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as "two-faced" over a video clip in which Trudeau appeared to mock Trump alongside other world leaders.

Between the lines: The video that surfaced on Tuesday showed leaders including Trudeau, U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson and French President Emmanuel Macron at Buckingham Palace gossiping about Trump on a hot mic.

Mexico is considering a U.S. proposal to leave biologics protections out of the new trade deal between the two countries and Canada, Bloomberg reports.

Why it matters: The change could help the trade agreement get across the finish line by garnering Democratic support, but it'd be a big loss for the pharmaceutical industry.

Several NATO leaders seem to have been caught gossiping about President Trump on a hot mic, AP reports.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) told NPR Tuesday the impeachment inquiry draft report provides "abundant evidence" that President Trump's acts on Ukraine would qualify him to be impeached.

What's new: Schiff told CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360" later Tuesday that evidence suggests Trump was "using" Rudy Giuliani to "coerce Ukraine" in that probe. Schiff said investigators are trying to find the owner of a "-1" number that featured in call records involving Giuliani and his Ukraine work. He said there were "indications in the trial of Roger Stone that when he was communicating with the president."

Leading Democrats including presidential candidates Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and former HUD Secretary Julián Castro spoke out against an increasing lack of diversity in the 2020 race following the exit of Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) Tuesday.

House Intelligence Ranking Member Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) told Fox News' "Hannity" Tuesday "it’s possible" he spoke with Lev Parnas, an associate of President Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani who's since been indicted for campaign finance violations. But he told host Sean Hannity he doesn't "recall that name."

Why it matters: Call records included in an impeachment report released by House Democrats Tuesday show Nunes had a number of interactions in April with Giuliani and Parnas as a smear campaign was launched against former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, led by Giuliani, Parnas and a Trump-friendly journalist who wrote for The Hill.

Former Deputy Director of National Intelligence Sue Gordon said in a speech to the Women's Foreign Policy Group Tuesday that President Trump often didn't believe intelligence officials' findings during briefings, citing his most common responses, CNN reports.

"One, 'I don't think that's true.' ... one is 'I'm not sure I believe that,' and the other is the second order and third order effects. 'Why is that true? Why are we there? Why is this what you believe? Why do we do that?' Those sorts of things."