Power Up: Rob Portman is out. Does that mean Jim Jordan is in?

But the news was tempered by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's (R-Ky.) announcing he would allow the 50-50 Senate to organize after it became clear Democrats didn't have the votes to eliminate the filibuster, which acts as a 60-vote supermajority for most legislation. Liberal activists have been aggressively pushing for its removal.

• “McConnell on Monday said he was prepared to move forward on a [Senate power-sharing] deal ‘modeled on that [2001] precedent’ after two Democratic senators — Joe Manchin III (W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (Ariz.) — publicly reiterated their previously stated opposition to eliminating the filibuster,” our Mike DeBonis reports.

But President Biden shouldn't break out the champagne over a new era of bipartisan unity. Portman's decision not to seek reelection in 2022 means there will be fewer Hill Republicans willing to partner with the White House in the future. Sens. Patrick J. Toomey (Pa.) and Richard Burr (N.C.) — one of a handful of Republican senators who actually talk to Democrats — are also leaving in two years.

And given former president Donald Trump's grip on Republicans, it could be a staunch ally with the lead to replace Portman: Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), who Trump awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom before leaving.

• “Jim is well positioned if in fact he’s ready to take that leap; I’m not sure there’s anybody that would beat him,” said Ken Blackwell, a former Ohio secretary of state and longtime Portman ally told the New York Times.
• “The Portman news hits really hard — his statement didn't say things are hopeless but he clearly doesn't have a lot of optimism going forward about what the Senate will look like through 2028,” a senior House GOP aide told Power Up.

• The source put Jordan in the camp of Republicans “playing to the base, trying to generate outrage and increase and enhance your own profile going forward rather than best serving the nation.”
• “It's a blow when you're losing serious people in government who want to focus on policy rather than running to a cable news hit and appealing to the base,” the source added, noting that the upper chamber has become more like the House in recent years. “It's telling about the direction of where the Republican Party might be going.”

Most recently, Portman was part of the bipartisan coalition that crafted and called on President Trump to sign a coronavirus relief bill. But even as far back as 2013, Portman became the first sitting Republican senator to publicly support same-sex marriage after his son told him he was gay.

• “The idea there are any ‘moderates’ on either side in politics in 2021 is a fallacy,” a GOP strategist told Power Up. “I think you'll be seeing fewer people who actually want to get things done involved in federal politics.” 
• “They're definitely a dying breed,” a former senior  GOP Senate aide told us of centrists. “The era of moderate senators representing solid red or solid blue states is probably nearing its end … The average senator today is more selfish, more blindly partisan, more small-minded, less intelligent, less independent and frankly less patriotic.”
• “Politics right now is just poisonous. So it’s understandable truly good people like Portman want to bounce. It’s like a stationary bicycle. You’re pushing and sweating and fighting but you’re not moving. That’s exhausting. So what’s the point? It’s sad for the country, really,” the aide added.
• “It's a big blow to serious-minded people,” a GOP Senate aide added of Portman's retirement.

This isn't just a theoretical debate. Biden's ambitious first-term agenda — which includes a $1.9 coronavirus relief bill — is at stake.

• White House press secretary Jen Psaki has said Biden does not plan to change his views on Senate rules (that the 60-vote supermajority should stay).
• “Blowing up the filibuster would be a disaster for the country,” former Ohio governor Josh Kasich (R) told CNN's Chris Cuomo last night. “Now it forces the parties to work together.”

Biden may yet have to turn to a partisan procedure known as budget reconciliation if he can't get Republican support (which looks unlikely) for his relief package. That would allow him to ram it through with 50 votes.

• “We cannot let all our hard work go to waste because of this racist, outdated, and undemocratic procedure,” activist Liz Haskell of Yuma County Indivisible, a group that helped elect Sinema in 2018, told DeBonis. “If Sen. Sinema wants to deliver for the people who pulled her across the finish line, she’s got to be a strong advocate for getting rid of the filibuster in the Senate.”

The Trump factor: From his perch in Palm Beach, Trump is working to oust perceived political enemies by supporting pro-Trump primary challengers to Republicans who  he feels have betrayed him. With Portman's departure, Ohio is now seen as a major new opportunity for the president, according to the New York Times's Maggie Haberman and Reid Epstein. 

• “That opening, along with another statewide contest next year in which Gov. Mike DeWine is expected to face at least one Trump-aligned primary challenger, is likely to make Ohio a central battleground for control of the Republican Party, and an inviting one for Mr. Trump, who held on to Ohio in the election while losing three other Northern battleground states,” the Times reports.

Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), the number three House Republican, is also on Trump's “personal hit list,” per Haberman and Epstein, after she became the only member of House GOP leadership to vote to impeach the former president. 

• “It’s unclear whether Mr. Trump will target her seat, or simply her leadership post in the House, but advisers said they anticipated that he would take opportunities to damage her,” per Haberman and Epstein. 
• Cheney was censured over the weekend  by the Wyoming Republican Party for supporting Trump's impeachment by Republicans in Wyoming's Carbon County. She's gotten only lukewarm support from House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.).
• Trump ally Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) is traveling to the Wyoming Capitol this week to “accelerate her exit from Congress” and talk about his vision for the GOP, the Casper Star Tribune's Nick Reynold's reports.
• “The Republican Party right now is in a bit of an identity crisis within the Beltway in Washington, D.C.,” Gaetz told Reynolds. “The establishment is trying to reconstitute a lot of the power they lost in the party during the Trump era, and those of us who've embraced the energetic populism of President Trump want to be able to maintain that going forward. In Wyoming, you have the clearest example of an establishment figure who didn't like the president, who opposed many of his policies, and is doing all she can to seize power in Washington.”

Official Trump litmus tests: Plans to “provide the ideological ammunition to sustain Trump's political movement after his departure from the White House” are in the making by former Trump administration officials, report Axios's Hans Nichols and Lachlan Markay report: 

• “Russ Vought, who led [Trump's] Office of Management and Budget, plans to announce two pro-Trump organizations Tuesday, aiming to provide the ideological ammunition to sustain Trump's political movement after his departure from the White House,” per Nichols and Markay. “ … Vought is among those who are staying close to Trump. He's working to ensure that cultural issues that Trump ran on, from transgender rights to critical race theory, remain front and center in the Republican Party and coming elections.”

The investigations

IMPEACHMENT PART DEUX: The House last night formally delivered an article of impeachment charging Trump with inciting the deadly insurrection at the Capitol, as Democrats prepared to use his own words as evidence against him in his Senate trial next month, Seung Min Kim, Tom Hamburger, Josh Dawsey and Karoun Demirjian report. 

• The nine House managers walked the article to the Senate last night, setting in motion Trump’s second impeachment trial scheduled to begin February 9th. 
• Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) and McConnell must now agree to the structure of the trial, including length of arguments, motions to call witnesses, and a possible motion to dismiss the trial at its outset, Politico's Andrew Desiderio and Marianne Levine report. 
• Offering his most extensive comments since taking office, Biden told CNN, “I think it has to happen.”
• Presiding over the trial will be Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), president pro tempore of the Senate, a constitutional role given to the longest-serving lawmaker in the majority party. 
• When asked if he was concerned about remaining impartial, Leahy told reporters: “I have presided over hundreds of hours in my time in the Senate. I don't think anybody has ever suggested I was anything but impartial in those hundreds of hours,” NPR's Susan Davis and Nina Totenberg report.

Convicting Trump will require 17 GOP senators. A survey by the New York Times found that 27 Republican senators expressed opposition to charging Trump or otherwise holding him accountable by impeachment. Sixteen Republicans indicated they were undecided, and seven had no response.

• Key quote: “There are only a handful of Republicans and shrinking who will vote against him,” said Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), who has been advising Trump on the upcoming proceedings.

Justice is served: The Justice Department’s inspector general announced its office is opening an investigation into whether any current or former department official tried to improperly “alter the outcome of the 2020 Presidential Election,” Matt Zapotosky and Robert Barnes report. 

• The announcement comes on the heels of the revelation Trump considered replacing acting attorney general, Jeffrey Rosen, with a different department lawyer, Jeffrey Bossert Clark, who was more amenable to wielding the department’s power to help keep Trump in office.
• According to people familiar with the matter, Trump only aborted the plan after DOJ officials threatened a mass resignation.

The transition

CONFIRMATION NATION: Confirmations to Biden's Cabinet continue on the Hill as Janet Yellen was approved as the first female secretary of the Treasury Department, Jeff Stein and Rachel Siegel report. 

• The final vote was 84 to 15, with McConnell (R-Ky.) among those supporting Yellen.
• Yellen, 74, will now play a key role advancing Biden’s economic agenda, starting with an ambitious $1.9 trillion economic relief package “that is already facing resistance from GOP lawmakers,” the Wall Street Journal's Kate Davidson reports. 

Notable: Retired Gen. Lloyd Austin officially took the helm of the Department of Defense, with Vice President Harris (D-Calif.) swearing him in. 

Queued up: Other Biden picks awaiting confirmation include Antony Blinken, nominee for secretary of state, who could get a Senate vote this afternoon, the Hill's Jordain Carney reports. 

Also hoping for a speedy confirmation this week:

• Alejandro Mayorkas, nominee for secretary of homeland security
• Pete Buttigieg, nominee for secretary of transportation 
• Merrick Garland, nominee for attorney general 
• Xavier Becerra, nominee for secretary of health and human services

Biden plans to nominate California Labor Secretary Julie Su for the No. 2 position at the Labor Department, Bloomberg Law's Ben Penn reports. 

At the White House

THE PANDEMIC PRESIDENT: Biden said he believes the United States will have made significant progress toward achieving herd immunity by summer and reiterated his administration is aiming to have 100 million vaccinations administered within the first 100 days of his presidency, Felicia Sonmez reports. 

• Key quote: He added Americans who want to receive a vaccination should be able to do so by this spring, but cautioned “it’s going to be a logistical challenge that exceeds anything we’ve ever tried in this country.”

New strain in town: Biden's remarks come as the first case of the highly transmissible P. 1 variant, which is spreading at alarming rates in Brazil, was reported in Minnesota, Joel Achenbach reports. 

Changing virus, same vaccines: While drugmakers Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech said their vaccines were effective against new variants discovered in Britain and South Africa, “they were slightly less protective against the variant in South Africa, which may be more adept at dodging antibodies in the bloodstream,” the New York Times's Denise Grady, Apoorva Mandavilli and Katie Thomas report. 

Insurance in uncertain times: Biden is scheduled to take executive actions this week to reopen federal marketplaces selling Affordable Care Act health plans and to lower barriers to joining Medicaid, Amy Goldstein reports. 

• The orders will be Biden’s first steps to helping Americans gain health insurance, “a prominent campaign goal that has assumed escalating significance as the pandemic has dramatized the need for affordable health care — and deprived millions of Americans coverage as they have lost jobs in the economic fallout,” Amy reports.

Stamping out racism in his ranks: Biden is expected to disavow racism and xenophobia toward Asian Americans, specifically targeting anti-Asian animus connected to the pandemic today, CBS News's Weijia Jiang, Bo Erickson, Arden Farhi and Gabby Ake report.

• “The directives, which may take the form of an executive order or a presidential memo, are expected to be part of a package of executive actions focusing on ‘equity,’ according to two people familiar with the plans. The other administrative actions are expected to focus on Tribal governments, fair housing, and private prisons. The Biden administration has told outside groups it is also preparing measures on voting rights.”

At face value: The Biden administration will resume the process to replace President Andrew Jackson’s face on the $20 bill with famed abolitionist Harriet Tubman, Jacob Bogage reports. 

Viral

RAISE THE WOOF AT THE WHITE HOUSE: The administration released photos of Biden’s German shepherds, 12-year-old Champ and 2-year-old Major, on the White House grounds.