Happy Tuesday, this is Congress Editor David Sivak welcoming you to our fourth edition of Capitol Tea, a weekly column dedicated to life on Capitol Hill. Miss our last installment? Catch up here.

In this edition …

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– Vice President JD Vance’s class loyalty. The vice president still dines with his “redshirt freshman” colleagues.

– Food court blues. The union for House service workers is suing a third eatery.

RISING SOPHOMORE

Vance is no longer Ohio’s senior senator, but he still considers himself a member of his freshman Senate class.

Vance and his wife, Usha, hosted his old GOP colleagues at the Naval Observatory this spring as part of a tradition dating back to his earliest days in the Senate.

Each month, the group will dine at a restaurant, with a different senator hosting each time, but Vance chose his vice presidential residence, a 9,000 square-foot property that boasts a pool, solarium, and private garden, when it came his turn in early May.

“All of our spouses came in town for that one, so that was really, I mean, special and surreal,” said Sen. Katie Britt (R-AL), one of five Republicans who entered the Senate with Vance in 2023.

The gathering, which has not been previously reported, is a sign of how close Vance, despite his ballooning vice presidential portfolio, remains with his GOP classmates, a group made up of Britt and Sens. Ted Budd (R-NC), Markwayne Mullin (R-OK), Pete Ricketts (R-NE), and Eric Schmitt (R-MO).

They now maintain two separate text chains, one with Vance on it and one without, to avoid inundating his phone. (I’m told the text threads are “fun and sometimes spirited.”)

But Vance, who plays an outsize role in the Senate as vice president, still has a standing invitation to the dinners, and Britt said he “comes when he can.”

Collectively, the class calls itself the “redshirts,” a nickname I discovered in talking to staffers about the dinners. I received conflicting accounts on the origin story, but the senators have embraced the obvious sports reference — the “redshirt freshmen” who defer their eligibility to play an extra year in college.

There is plenty of Senate lore to uncover surrounding class names. Britt, whose husband played for the New England Patriots, made “redshirt freshman” T-shirts for each of her classmates, one of which is hanging in Mullin’s office.

The 2014 class, a crop that includes Sens. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) and Tom Cotton (R-AR), also goes by the “Bear Den,” and Britt cited their nickname as inspiration in adopting their own.

(Roll Call has a helpful deep dive on the “Bear Den,” if you’re curious.)

THUNE TO VISIT NATO NATIONS WITH DELEGATION OF GOP FRESHMEN

For two-plus years, the dinners have anchored the friendship between Britt and her class colleagues. She called it a “trusted space” for career advice, especially early in their Senate terms.

“For me, being away from my husband and my kids, and trying to figure out, where is your lane, and how do you make all this work? … I mean, this was instrumental in being able to kind of get my footing,” Britt said.

The meals have also become a venue to celebrate their accomplishments, as they take on new leadership roles or sponsor high-profile pieces of legislation.

Before the recess, the group held an impromptu dinner after Schmitt ushered a $9 billion rescission bill through the Senate. GOP leadership and Britt’s son joined them for the occasion.

The dinners will be held everywhere from Mastro’s Steakhouse to the Capital Grille. In one off-campus excursion, the class also cheered Schmitt on at Nationals Park for this year’s Congressional Baseball Game.

Ricketts was a particularly good sport and wore the St. Louis Cardinals logo on their “Schmitt Nation” T-shirts. (The Ricketts family owns the Chicago Cubs.)

Their meals typically do not include Sens. Peter Welch (D-VT) and John Fetterman (D-PA), the two Democrats who joined the Senate in 2023, but they will have a classwide dinner about twice a year, according to Britt.

She is also friendly with the pair and had a separate dinner with them this spring.

As for the most recent crop of senators, Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-OH), who replaced Vance in January, is lobbying for his class to be known as the “outsiders,” given many of the GOP freshmen were businessmen before entering politics.

But the name isn’t official yet — Moreno came up with it in a brief interview while offering a friendly jab at the “redshirts.”

“That’s the second-best class,” he said. “Ours is obviously the best.”

He noted his GOP classmates, who host monthly breakfasts together, have camaraderie of their own. Later this month, they will travel to Europe with Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) as a congressional delegation.

HOUSE FOOD FIGHT

CHA Street Food, the Asian fusion eatery that opened in the Rayburn Cafeteria on Monday, is facing a wrongful termination lawsuit from the union representing House service workers.

According to court documents, Unite Here Local 23 is seeking relief for Steak ‘n Shake employees who lost their jobs as part of a larger reshuffling in the House’s food offerings. The complaint, filed on July 29 and first reported here, alleges that, under D.C. law, CHA Street Food was obligated to rehire the workers when it took over the Steak ‘n Shake food stall.

The restaurant is the first local chain to be sued as new vendors begin to open over the August recess. Previously, Unite Here filed a lawsuit against a Starbucks that is replacing Dunkin’ in the Longworth Office Building, plus another against the new Jimmy John’s in Rayburn.

HOUSE UNION SUES STARBUCKS AND JIMMY JOHN’S VENDORS OVER EATERY SHAKEUP

The court battle is taking place alongside a vendor boycott that has attracted the support of the Congressional Labor Caucus.

We reached out to CHA Street Food but did not hear back.