If you thought infrastructure week was dramatic, buckle up, because the next few months are going to be insane. | Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
This morning’s big news — other than, you know, the world’s imminent climate catastrophe and how little time we have left to avert the worst — was Democrats’ release of their $3.5 trillion spending plan. As expected, it doesn’t address raising the debt ceiling, punting that issue to a possible partisan blowup later this fall. The budget resolution
What happens next?
— The Senate will have a final vote on the infrastructure bill, likely sometime Tuesday that’s not in the middle of the night.
— Senate Majority Leader CHUCK SCHUMER will then immediately bring up the $3.5 trillion budget resolution, which includes an enormous array of Democratic priorities and spells out the top-line figures to fund them. This is not detailed language but general instructions to myriad Senate committees to go write legislation. (For example: Senate Finance Committee, please write us a paid family and medical leave law, an expansion of the ACA, a new Medicare program to cover dental, vision, hearing benefits, a SALT cap relief bill, etc.) Full details of which committee is writing what parts of Build Back Better are here
— After the resolution is introduced, the Senate will engage in an unlimited amendment process known as vote-a-rama. Like many things in the budget process, this once had a purpose when the law was written in the 1970s — but today it is used largely to create content for attack ads.
— Then everyone will go on vacation and see how this year’s volatile mix of inflation, job growth, Covid-19 ups and downs, infrastructure dealmaking and the Dems’ new FDR-inspired budget is playing back home.
— The committees have a deadline of Sept. 15 to finish their actual legislation, which, given the scale of what the budget calls for, will be the subject of one of the wildest lobbying and negotiating periods in modern congressional history. (The deadline is non-binding, so expect most senators to blow it off.)
— On top of all of this, by the end of September the two parties will need to agree on a short term-funding bill and raise the debt ceiling. (Senate Minority Leader MITCH MCCONNELL is already reiterating that Republicans won’t budge on the debt ceiling.)
If you thought infrastructure week was dramatic, buckle up, because the next few months are going to be insane.
Jennifer Scholtes and Caitlin Emma break down the budget details here.
— Schumer in his “Dear Colleague” letter: “It is critical that we go on offense during the recess to explain to the American people how our budget will lower costs and cut taxes for American families. At its core, this legislation is about restoring the middle class in the 21st Century and giving more Americans the opportunity to get there.”
BREAKING — “Pentagon to require COVID vaccine for all troops by Sept. 15,” by AP’s Lolita Baldor
Good Monday afternoon.
A message from Amazon:
Watch what happened when Amazon raised their starting wage to $15/hr in 2018.
INFRASTRUCTURE YEAR
FLEXING THEIR MUSCLE — “Washington wakes up to crypto influence amid infrastructure fight,” by Victoria Guida: “An intense infrastructure bill brawl between Bitcoin advocates, Congress and the White House has revealed a new power player in Washington that’s starting to find its footing: the cryptocurrency lobby.
“The industry was first caught off guard … But it fought back with a vengeance, showing that startup digital trading platforms and other firms could rally a small army of recently requisitioned trade associations, lobbyists and public relations experts to put up a real defense. Still, they failed to secure changes as of Sunday night. … Unlike Wall Street banks, the industry was able to direct thousands of crypto enthusiasts on social media to join the battle by providing a real-time play-by-play of Senate negotiations.”
TOP-ED — “Amtrak Joe vs. the Modern Robber Barons,” by the Washington Monthly’s Phillip Longman: “Removing more freight from pavement-pounding long-haul semi-trucks onto super fuel-efficient trains will make driving safer and more pleasant, and may yield huge reductions in carbon emissions. But for any of this to happen on any meaningful scale, the Biden administration will need to do more than invest more public money in train travel.
“It will also need to reverse decades of deregulation, lax antitrust enforcement, and other policy blunders that left latter-day robber barons in control of nearly all the nation’s highly monopolized railroad infrastructure, just as they were in the worst days of the Gilded Age. This time, the financiers aren’t presiding over an expanding rail system; they’re selling it off and permanently liquidating its assets for short-term economic gain. Unless [President JOE] BIDEN takes on the financiers, merely maintaining Amtrak service — let alone expanding it — will become ridiculously expensive.”
THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION
PSAKI IN THE SPOTLIGHT — “Press Secretary Jen Psaki is Good At Mending Fences. Just Don’t Call Her Nice,” by Lizzie Widdicombe in Vogue, with photos by Annie Leibovitz: “According to Psaki, the most important thing about speaking on Biden’s behalf is getting the tone right. … She has an Apple watch on one wrist and, on her desk, a neon-green water bottle that flashes occasionally, reminding her to hydrate. Some press secretaries have asked not to be told about sensitive government information, so they don’t risk saying something they shouldn’t.
“But Psaki is a completist. When she’s gathering information, ‘I always want to know the whole story,’ she says. ‘And then I can ask, “Okay. Can I say this? Can I say that?”’ Biden’s the same way. … Psaki has long said that she plans to stay in the press-secretary role for around a year, although she tells me, ‘I’m not walking out the door on day 365.’” Plus details on her Connecticut childhood, doing her own makeup, listening to Top 40 hits, becoming a Russian propaganda target and more
MORATORIUM IN TROUBLE? — “Judge mulls blocking Biden’s new eviction ban,” by Josh Gerstein and Katy O’Donnell: “A federal judge suggested Monday that the Biden administration was engaging in legal ‘gamesmanship’ in order to resurrect a pandemic-related eviction ban despite an indication from the Supreme Court that the measure was unlawful. …
“However, the judge [Trump appointee DABNEY FRIEDRICH] seemed skeptical of [BRETT] SHUMATE’s arguments that an opinion from Justice BRETT KAVANAUGH coupled with the votes of other justices in an emergency ruling the Supreme Court issued in June amounted to definitive guidance from the high court about how to handle the Biden administration’s new iteration of the ban.”
MAYORKAS INTERVIEW — “Immigration Defines Homeland Security Chief as He Thinks Bigger,” by Bloomberg Government’s Ellen Gilmer
JAN. 6 AND ITS AFTERMATH
SELECT COMMITTEE LATEST — WaPo’s Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS): “Key development: [DONALD] TRUMP’s efforts to get DOJ to subvert the election will be examined by the 1/6 committee, @RepRaskin tells me. This establishes intent: After failing to subvert it via legal manipulation, Trump tried to do so via mob violence.” More in his column
THE ECONOMY
BOUNCING BACK — “U.S. job openings hit a record 10.1 million in June,” AP: “U.S. employers posted a record 10.1 million job openings in June, another sign that the job market and economy are bouncing back briskly from last year’s coronavirus shutdowns. Job openings rose from 9.5 million in May … Employers hired 6.7 million workers in June, up from 6 million in May.
“The gap between openings and hiring suggests that firms are scrambling to find workers. … Still, hiring (up nearly 12%) grew faster than job openings (up 6%), narrowing the mismatch. … A record low 1.3 million people were laid off or fired in June.”
POLITICS ROUNDUP
CASH DASH — “GOP megadonors flock to Tim Scott, building 2024 buzz,” by Alex Isenstadt: “Since last October, [LARRY] ELLISON has contributed $10 million to an outside group aligned with the senator — a huge sum even in the super PAC era and the business owner’s biggest known contribution in three decades as a political donor. … Scott, the only Black Republican in the Senate, has seen his profile rise since delivering the party’s response to President Joe Biden’s joint address to Congress in April and is developing a vast network of small- and large-dollar donors that spans his party’s ideological spectrum …
“The pro-Scott super PAC, Opportunity Matters Fund, has drawn support from conservative donors like RICHARD GABY … But Scott has also received backing from the party’s mainstream givers, like New York hedge fund manager DAN LOEB … With the top levels of the GOP divided over whether to remain in lockstep with Trump or break away from him, senior Republicans say Scott’s ability to win support from divergent wings of the party could be an asset should he wage a 2024 run.”
YIKES — “GOP Cash Machine’s Behavior Is ‘Nothing Short of Scandalous,’” by The Daily Beast’s Roger Sollenberger: “WinRed PAC, the for-profit Republican fundraising juggernaut, raised more than $2.24 billion for GOP campaigns and committees in the 2020 election. But somehow, that gargantuan undertaking appears to have cost the PAC almost nothing. …
“According to the 13 campaign finance experts interviewed for this article, WinRed has not disclosed possibly tens of millions of dollars in PAC expenses. In doing so, WinRed, which Republican leaders forced on campaigns in the 2020 election, has kept secret the identities of the people and firms who work for it and provide its services. According to these experts, based on WinRed’s disclosures, the PAC appears to have potentially crossed the blurry lines of federal campaign finance laws.”
2022 WATCH — “Khanna considered challenging Padilla, but now he’s endorsing him for Senate,” by the S.F. Chronicle’s Joe Garofoli
CUOMO ON THE BRINK
STATE OF PLAY — “Cuomo impeachment to near completion ‘as early as later this month,’” by Bill Mahoney in Albany
THE RECRIMINATIONS — “Cuomo harassment report leads to escalating fallout at Time’s Up and Human Rights Campaign,” WaPo: “The boards of the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest gay-rights group, have launched an independent investigation of the group’s president for his role advising the staff of New York Gov. ANDREW M. CUOMO during their efforts to undermine the credibility of a woman who had accused him of sexual harassment. … Separately, the chairwoman of … Time’s Up, ROBERTA KAPLAN, stepped down from the organization … amid a growing backlash about the role she played.”
AMERICA AND THE WORLD
ILLUMINATING READ — “‘If it’s a genocide, declare it a genocide’: Inside the Biden administration’s tortured Myanmar debate,” by Nahal Toosi: “Since he took over as president, Biden and his team have essentially stuck to the same position [as on the campaign], calling the Uyghur atrocities a genocide while using terms that fall short of that official designation for the Rohingya. The Biden administration’s stance puzzles lawmakers, activists and others, who say it is intellectually inconsistent. …
“Such a designation by the U.S. government will bolster the Rohingya’s international legal cases against Myanmar’s rulers while sending a warning to other would-be genocidaires, advocates say. … There’s no sign, however, that the Biden team is willing to make the call. … A recent military coup in Myanmar and related concerns involving China are complicating the calculus as State Department officials review the Rohingya case.”
PULLOUT FALLOUT — “Taliban press on, take another Afghan provincial capital,” AP/Kabul
THE RUSSIA DESK — “Biden taps Russia hawk for key energy post,” by Axios’ Jonathan Swan and Zachary Basu: “President Biden has appointed close former adviser AMOS HOCHSTEIN as a State Department energy envoy charged with implementing a U.S.-Germany deal allowing the Nord Stream 2 pipeline to be completed … Hochstein has been a leading voice against Nord Stream 2.”
DESSERT
OBAMA GETS THE DAN ZAK TREATMENT — “Obama at 60: Feet on the dance floor, eyes on the future,” in WaPo’s Style section: “[F]riends and associates describe him as personally content, politically worried but unfailingly optimistic. He is relieved that the American people denied President Donald Trump a second term, but animated by what he views as an assault on voting rights happening at the state level. For all the pandemic’s trials and terrors, he was delighted to have his daughters at home — ‘like making up for lost time,’ one confidante says — and he binge-watched TV series that he’d missed while in office (including the ODENKIRK oeuvre of ‘Breaking Bad’ and ‘Better Call Saul’).”
PLAYBOOKERS
MEDIA MOVES — Oriana Pawlyk is joining POLITICO as a transportation reporter, covering the politics and policy of airlines, drones and commercial space travel. She most recently covered the Pentagon for Military.com, with a focus on aerial warfare and emerging defense technologies. … Megan Wilson will join POLITICO to cover lobbying and influence in health care. She most recently has covered lobbying for Bloomberg Government. … Jennifer Williams will be a deputy editor at Foreign Policy. She most recently has been senior foreign editor at Vox and co-host of the “Worldly” podcast.
TRANSITIONS — Albright Stonebridge Group is adding Gen. John Abizaid and Jason Hyland as senior advisers. Abizaid most recently was U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia and is a former U.S. Central Command commander. Hyland previously was president and representative officer of MGM Resorts Japan, and is a former acting U.S. ambassador to Japan. …
… David Dunlap is now VP for global government relations at Harsco Corporation. He most recently was principal at Dunlap Strategies LLC, and is a Trump EPA alum. … Maria Papakonstantinou is now comms director for Rep. Buddy Carter (R-Ga.). She most recently was an associate producer at Fox News.
WELCOME TO THE WORLD — Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-Mass.) and Michelle Auchincloss welcomed daughter Grace early Friday morning. She joins big brother Teddy. Pics
A message from Amazon:
Amazon employees have seen the difference $15/hr can make.
Comments are closed.