Good Friday morning. I'm Anna Palmer and welcome to your Politico Playbook audio briefing. Stay tuned

after the show for a message from Jewel Labs. We're kicking off the morning with some behind

the scenes fighting between House Republican leadership and their party committee. On Tuesday,

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer hosted House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, House Minority Whip, Steve Scalise, and Louisiana Representative Cedric Richmond for a private meeting to negotiate a deal to give members of pay raise.

It's typically a thorny topic, but both McCarthy and Scalise have cautiously embraced the idea, publicly and privately,

of giving lawmakers a bump in their compensation.

The salary for House members has been at $174,000 since 2009, which also freezes staff's salary.

McCarthy told NBC in May that he is open to it because it's been a decade and members of Congress are leaving the job over the pay. And Scalise has said it ought to be looked at because Congress shouldn't be a place where only wealthy people can afford to serve. In Tuesday's meeting, both McCarthy and Scalise backed the pay increase. The gathering went well,

sources told us, and the two sides were moving toward a deal. Then, one day after the meeting,

the National Republican Congressional Committee sent an email blasting Democrats for considering

a pay raise, staking out a position in direct conflict with their party leaders.

Needless to say, this did not sit well with many in the GOP leadership.

People wondered what exactly the NRCC was thinking, taking a position crosswise with the top

Republicans in the House.

The NRCC's Chris Pack said this in response. With the exception of making anti-Semitism and socialism

a cornerstone of their party's platform and trying to fleece taxpayers to pay for their political

campaigns, the socialist Democrats have accomplished precisely nothing since taking over the chamber.

Perhaps they should actually do something,

anything to justify their paycheck. That's the point of our release. This has led to a serious

round of sniping. A source familiar with the meeting said this. McCarthy and Hoyer each agreed

in that meeting to take care of their own committees and make sure that if this went forward,

neither side would attack each other. Less than 24 hours later, NRCC sent out that email

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