The Archive

MANCH-MANIA

Manchin on warpath against Dems as Justice enters race

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) is on a tear against his own party as a new and formidable challenger prepares to enter the West Virginia Senate race — GOP Gov. Jim Justice.

Justice is expected to officially jump into the race later Thursday. Sens. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) are scheduled to be on hand for Justice’s announcement.

Manchin hasn’t officially declared whether he’ll run for reelection in 2024, but lately he’s been acting more and more like a candidate.

In public statements and floor votes, Manchin is consistently breaking with his party and President Joe Biden, using language one would expect to hear from a Republican. This week, Manchin even threatened to vote to repeal the Inflation Reduction Act, a law he helped craft. Manchin has been infuriated by the Biden administration’s implementation of the legislation, arguing federal agencies are ignoring clear congressional intent.

In a brief interview, Manchin insisted to us that his posture has nothing to do with the 2024 race.

“I’ve been involved in state politics for a long time. I lost one race in 1996. I made a vow that I’ll never lose another race. And I won’t,” a defiant Manchin declared.

Manchin’s fellow Democrats have been careful not to criticize him directly. For the most part, Democrats want to give Manchin some latitude to distance himself from the party, recognizing that that helps him in West Virginia — a state Donald Trump won by nearly 40 points in 2020.

Lately, though, Manchin has taken it to a whole new level. He’s joined Republicans on nearly every disapproval resolution they’ve brought up for a vote, most recently on blocking EPA emissions standards for heavy-duty trucks Wednesday. Manchin was the deciding vote that led to passage of that measure.

For months now, Manchin has slammed the Biden administration over its implementation of the IRA’s energy-related provisions. Manchin dialed up the rhetorical attacks when he appeared on Sean Hannity’s Fox News show Monday and said he’d vote to repeal the IRA entirely if the administration doesn’t reverse course. Manchin now seems primed to oppose Biden’s nominee for Labor secretary, Julie Su. On top of that, Manchin is deviating from Democrats’ message on the debt limit, calling for Biden to negotiate with Republicans.

Despite all of this, Manchin — chair of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee — regularly attends the weekly Democratic leadership meeting and has, for years, swatted away questions about potentially switching parties.

We asked Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer whether he’s comfortable with Manchin’s posture lately. Schumer’s response: “Look, the bottom line is our caucus is overwhelmingly for the Inflation Reduction Act.”

This is true. But Manchin isn’t alone in his view that the IRA isn’t being properly implemented. Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.) said Manchin made “commitments” as part of the legislation that have since “obviously unraveled.”

More from Hickenlooper:

Another red-state Democrat up for reelection in 2024 said Manchin has a point, but questioned his threat to repeal the entire law.

Here’s Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.):

Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio, another in-cycle red-state Democrat, said this of Manchin’s recent statements: “I don’t think a lot about Sen. Manchin, so I don’t make much of it either way… I do what I need to do.”

Brown, a vocal progressive, is handling his race in a much different way. For the most part, Brown hasn’t been voting with Republicans on blocking specific Biden administration policies, nor has he been in the mix to oppose presidential nominees, some of whom have been forced to withdraw due to opposition from moderate Democrats. However, Brown did announce on Wednesday that he’d be joining GOP senators to overturn the administration’s suspension of solar tariffs.

Graham, who is expected to join Justice at his campaign launch today, said Manchin got played by the Biden administration and Senate Democratic leadership on the IRA.

“I like Joe a lot,” Graham told us. “But he should’ve gotten whatever he was going to get up front.”

— Andrew Desiderio

AIRLINE WARS

Inside a new FAA reauthorization flight: Washington Reagan flights

Delta Air Lines is backing a new coalition aimed at altering the perimeter requirements at Washington Reagan Airport as part of the FAA reauthorization.

Warning: This news is not just for airline nuts but is actually interesting for all D.C. residents, so stick with us.

Washington Reagan, the airport closest to downtown Washington, has been subject to perimeter restrictions for the better part of 60 years. This rule was, in essence, created to protect long-haul airline traffic at Dulles Airport, which is a hub for United Airlines.

Over time, the federal government has peeled back the 1,250-mile perimeter requirement, allowing exceptions so airlines could fly to far-off locales such as Phoenix, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Salt Lake City, Las Vegas, Denver, San Juan, Austin and Portland, Ore.

But the Capital Access Alliance, backed by Delta, is arguing that the rule is outdated and is pushing Congress to add more long-haul domestic flights to Reagan.

Part of their argument is that the feds no longer need to protect Dulles since the population of Northern Virginia has tripled since the rule was put in place.

The coalition has enlisted the Boston Consulting Group to draw up a study backing the addition of more long-haul slots that would benefit all airlines equally. BCG recommends between 20 and 25 additional long-haul domestic slots to Reagan National.

The coalition makes the argument that San Antonio — the nation’s seventh-largest city — and San Diego, the nation’s eighth largest city, have no direct flights from DCA.

Let’s zoom out for a second: Altering the perimeter requirement would probably allow Delta to add another flight to LAX, Salt Lake City and a flight to Seattle — all Delta hubs. Delta flies its 757 with an enhanced first class product to LAX, which is far superior to American’s offerings to Los Angeles. American considers DCA a hub.

The coalition’s San Antonio and San Diego arguments are definitely valid. Delta has been expanding a bit at Reagan — they will begin service to Miami, Orlando and Nashville this fall — and they could try to own a few routes that are underserved from Reagan. United flies non-stop to San Antonio and San Diego from Dulles.

We will be following this fight very closely. We imagine American and United will have something to say about this proposal, considering they are the predominant airlines at DCA and Dulles, respectively.

The FAA reauthorization will be up this year so this will come to a head pretty soon.

Also worth noting: Delta has Jeff Miller, Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s close friend, as a lobbyist.

– Jake Sherman

JOINT EFFORT

Senators unveil their take on weed banking

It’s been a long time coming, but the Senate is finally ready to talk about how it wants to fix the business of cannabis banking.

Sens. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) and Steve Daines (R-Mont.) unveiled the Secure and Fair Enforcement Banking Act of 2023 Wednesday night, which would clear regulated banks to work with state-legal cannabis companies. Reps. Dave Joyce (R-Ohio) and Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) introduced a House companion.

Read the 38-page bill’s text here.

Remember the history here: The House has passed some form of cannabis banking reform seven times since 2019 by significantly bipartisan margins. The Senate has always been the chief obstacle to final passage, as we wrote during the lame duck late last year. But pushing through cannabis legislation has been a priority for Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.

So, this draft represents a significant change of fortunes for the cannabis industry. A bipartisan group of almost 40 senators is co-sponsoring the bill. Republican backers include Sens. Cynthia Lummis (Wyo.), Bill Cassidy (La.), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), Dan Sullivan (Alaska), Kevin Cramer (N.D.) and Rand Paul (Ky.). That’s not quite enough to get past the filibuster, but it’s a good start.

Still, there’s a couple of things we should note. This is a “skinny” version of cannabis banking reform that’s focused primarily on bank regulators, prohibiting the government from dinging banks just for working with weed businesses.

Last year, we talked about the potential for a “SAFE-plus” package that would include broader cannabis reforms, including a bill to help states expunge the records of non-violent cannabis offenders and another to remove restrictions on gun ownership for cannabis users.

Those bills — the HOPE and GRAM Acts, respectively — didn’t make the cut here. Daines and Merkley said in a joint statement that there’d be “an opportunity” to add those bills into the SAFE package through regular order.

That might be a problem if they’re already struggling to secure 60 votes. For starters, the SAFE Banking Act will need to make its way to the floor through the Senate Banking Committee. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), who chairs the committee, isn’t a co-sponsor of SAFE at this point.

Brown has been ambivalent about cannabis reform that’s narrowly focused on helping banks. Brown only came around to the idea last year when lawmakers started discussing expungements and other consumer-focused reforms, like making it easier for cannabis employees to qualify for mortgages.

And then there’s the GOP-run House. House Financial Services Committee Chair Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) is ambivalent-to-negative on cannabis banking. McHenry has said in the past he won’t get in the way if his colleagues want to get it done, however.

All together, we see a path for this legislation to become law, though it’s far from assured. Plus, it’ll be one weird trip if it doesn’t have support from Congress’s top financial services lawmakers.

– Brendan Pedersen

THE CAMPAIGN

News: Democratic fundraising platform ActBlue processed $218 million in donations during the first quarter of 2023, sparked by a liberal grassroots response to a wave of gun violence and former President Donald Trump’s indictment.

ActBlue reported the Q1 figure was 25% higher than the same period four years ago, when Democratic presidential primary candidates were soliciting donations in earnest to remain competitive in a sprawling field.

The average Q1 contribution size was $36.75, ActBlue said. The platform added they received donations from a total of 1.4 million unique donors.

A blog post said the first quarter numbers showed “small-dollar donors’ sustained engagement and investment in the campaigns, organizations, and issues they support” ahead of a crucial 2024 cycle for Democrats.

ActBlue was in the news earlier this month as the organization announced it was reducing its staff by 17%, citing a strategic “restructuring.”

In other fundraising news: Organized labor leaders hosted a fundraiser for House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries on Wednesday evening at the Machinist Union Capitol Hill townhouse. The event, where House Assistant Democratic Leader Jim Clyburn also spoke, raised money for Jeffries’ campaign fund.

The major labor leaders in attendance were AFT President Randi Weingarten, Machinists Union International President Robert Martinez Jr., AFSCME President Lee Saunders and AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Fred Redmond.

— Max Cohen

MOMENTS

8:30 a.m.: First quarter 2023 GDP will be released by the Commerce Department’s BEA.

9 a.m.: President Joe Biden will get his daily intelligence briefing.

9:45 a.m.: Speaker Kevin McCarthy will hold a photo opportunity with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol.

11 a.m.: President Yoon will address a joint meeting of Congress.

12:15 p.m.: Biden will participate in Take Your Child to Work Day.

1:45 p.m.: Karine Jean-Pierre will brief.

2:15 p.m.: House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan and other House Republicans will release their border bill.

6:45 p.m.: Biden will participate in a campaign call.

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