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PRESENTED BY
THE TOP
Happy Thursday morning.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer isn’t giving any sign yet on when he hopes to begin debate on the massive $740 billion reconciliation package. Democratic senators and senior aides say the package is still undergoing a “Byrd bath” from Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough, with the Finance Committee scheduled to submit its portion of the energy provisions for review today. Other panels did the same on Wednesday.
There’s no deadline for when MacDonough has to issue guidance, yet there’s also enormous pressure from Democratic leaders to finish the Byrd Rule scrub as soon as possible.
Schumer has scheduled two votes for 1:45 p.m. today. Normally, senators would head home for the weekend after that, especially in an election year, but Schumer hasn’t given any indication what the outlook is for a weekend vote-a-rama. Republicans have told us some of their senators want to leave town if possible, although they’re waiting to see what Schumer announces.
→ | Now, let’s talk about the “Sinema Sweepstakes.” |
The Arizona Democrat is the pivotal vote on Democrats’ reconciliation package, which came out of closely held talks between Schumer and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.). And so far, Sinema hasn’t said whether she’s going to back the proposal or not.
Sources close to Sinema said she was “blindsided” by the Manchin-Schumer deal. Manchin and Sinema met on the floor for about 10 minutes on Tuesday, a conversation watched intently by reporters sitting in the gallery above. Schumer hasn’t wanted to discuss his interaction with Sinema this week, telling reporters that “We’re in touch with Sen. Sinema… I’m very hopeful. We’re all going to stay united and pass this bill.”
Sinema is currently seeking several changes to the bill, according to senators and media reports. Sinema wants to scale back a provision on “carried interest” that’s designed to raise as much as $14 billion from private equity and hedge fund managers. Sinema is also seeking some changes to the corporate minimum tax structure and wants $5 billion in additional drought resiliency funding (as does every western senator).
This all begs an important question: Why wasn’t Sinema involved in cutting the deal? Schumer and Manchin have made clear that these negotiations were kept very private. Sinema and Manchin – referred to as “Sinemanchin” for a big part of this Congress – have been the two hardest to get to yes on bills crafted by the Democratic leadership and White House.
So why would Schumer ever cut a deal that she wasn’t a part of? The fact is that Sinema has gripes that are predictable, and the substance of her gripes are likewise predictable. Sinema hasn’t offered any complaints about being left out of the discussions, yet not including her clearly could cause problems on the other side.
Sinema has long said that her focus was on making sure that any policies adopted by Democrats don’t worsen inflation, and she’s made clear that dealing with climate change a major priority.
Democrats noted privately that Sinema was consulted extensively on major portions of this package, including the Medicare prescription drug pricing negotiations, during previous rounds of talks. That was until Schumer and Manchin did this final deal. Sinema also supported a corporate minimum tax last year, the key tax provision in this package.
We tried to suss out what rank-and-file Democrats thought about the wisdom of leaving Sinema out of this latest round of negotiations. Here’s what they said.
→ | Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.): “You’ll have to ask her about anything related to her.” |
→ | Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.): “I think we’re gonna come to a product that we can all support this week. I’m not much for conducting negotiations out in the open. I think Sen. Sinema is gonna take a look at this bill and come to a conclusion as to whether she can support it or whether she needs changes. I’m of the mind we will all be on the same page when we get to this weekend.” |
Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.): “Did they bring in Dick Blumenthal? Did they bring in Patty Murray? Part of this deal is we’re all gonna analyze it. I still haven’t made up my mind what I’m gonna do. I haven’t had a chance to fully analyze the Inflation Reduction Act. But I will, and we’ll go from there.”
Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii): “I am hopeful that all the items in the reconciliation bill, my understanding is, there are things that she has supported in the past. So I hope that’s good enough for her.”
Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.): “I think [Schumer] has done great work to get us to where we are. I don’t know anyone else who could’ve gotten us to this point.”
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.): “I’m not gonna second guess Schumer on this.”
And what about Bernie?
We’re also keeping an eye on Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who has expressed deep reservations about the Schumer-Manchin deal. No Democrat really believes Sanders is going to vote against this bill in the end, but he’s clearly not happy either. Sanders has already said he’s going to offer amendments to the reconciliation package.
Sanders has gone to the Senate floor each of the last two days to lambaste the “so-called Inflation Reduction Act.” On Tuesday, Sanders talked about how much better the Build Back Better Act was than this latest proposal.
On Wednesday, Sanders basically gave a “Good news, bad news” speech when discussing the current legislation’s impact on working-class Americans. The bill helps with prescription drug costs, but not enough. It helps with health care, but not enough. And on climate change, Sanders read a letter from the Center for Biological Diversity that called the bill “a climate suicide pact.” Yeah.
Here’s what Sanders told Bres last night following his speech:
Bres: “You’re going to vote for this bill, right?”
Sanders: “Well, right now we’re taking a hard look. And what I will tell you is we’re going to offer amendments to improve it … and we will see what happens.”
Bres: “OK. Have you told your leadership about what your position is?”
Sanders: “We’re going to offer amendments to improve the bill. And I think it desperately needs to be updated. … This is a bill that ignores many of the most pressing needs facing working families, provides huge subsidies to the fossil fuel industry. This is a bill that must be improved.”
Needless to say, the proposal that Manchin and Schumer crafted isn’t anywhere close to the bill Sanders would have drafted. And Sanders-drafted amendments could put some of his Democratic colleagues in a tough spot. But this is a good illustration of the challenges Schumer faces in straddling the two poles in his caucus.
– Jake Sherman, John Bresnahan and Max Cohen
PRESENTED BY HEALTHCARE LEADERSHIP COUNCIL
Seniors are speaking out! A large majority of seniors on Medicare are not supportive of changing the law so that the government can interfere in the successful Part D program.
Yet, Congress is considering policies that will insert the government into this already successful program. Lawmakers must abandon price setting policies and protect the access seniors depend on under Part D.
THE HOUSE
Tragedy strikes the House: Walorski and two aides die in car crash
The House Republican Conference is in an extended state of shock right now after Rep. Jackie Walorski (R-Ind.) and two aides were killed in a car crash on Wednesday. The driver of the other vehicle involved in the accident also died.
The two aides were Communications Director Emma Thomson, 28, and District Director Zachery Potts, 27.
Here’s the latest, from the Indianapolis Fox affiliate:
The Elkhart County Sheriff’s Office said the crash happened around 12:30 p.m. Wednesday on State Road 19 south of State Road 119. Police originally said a northbound car traveled left of center, colliding head-on with a southbound vehicle that carried Walorski and others.
The Elkhart County Sheriff’s Department has since retracted this statement saying “the preliminary information may have been incorrect.” The cause of the accident is still actively being investigated and reconstruction crews will reexamine evidence in the morning, according to the sheriff’s department.
Walorski was elected in 2012 to replace Democrat Joe Donnelly, who’d won one of Indiana’s Senate seats. Walorski was especially close with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy. The California Republican said in a statement that she was a “dear friend” and trusted adviser.
Walorski was so close to McCarthy that he elevated her to the party’s top position on the House Ethics Committee, an assignment reserved for those members trusted by the leadership. Walorski also had a seat on the powerful Ways and Means Committee.
The Indiana Republican, who was 58, was very close to some of the women in the conference, including Rep. Ann Wagner (R-Mo.), who released an emotional tweet thread about Walorski’s untimely death.
Walorski was married in 1995 to Dean Swihart.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi ordered the flags flown at half staff at the Capitol and President Joe Biden did the same at the White House.
– Jake Sherman
LEADERSHIP WATCH
NEW: Adam Schiff, eyeing leadership, had a big dollar July
We scooped a few months back that California Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff is very interested in mounting a leadership race. His prospects? It’s difficult to say given the fact we don’t know whether Democrats will still be in the majority or which party leaders plan to stick around next year. We took a deeper dive into these dynamics last month.
But here is some of Schiff’s internal fundraising data from July that we found interesting – and perhaps instructive in the next leadership race.
→ | Schiff raised $442,000 directly for candidates and members last month, including events in their districts. |
→ | Schiff also raised another $57,000 for candidates and members through his own donor network. This effort is through Schiff’s own donors or digital fundraising the California Democrats does for members and candidates. |
→ | In June and July, Schiff transferred $250,000 to the DCCC. |
Giving money to other members and candidates isn’t the entirety of a leadership race, but it certainly helps. And the mere fact that Schiff is pounding the pavement like this is instructive. Schiff had more than $19 million in his campaign fund as of June 30.
Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the House Democratic Caucus chair, is also traveling extensively for House Democrats. Jeffries has given $1 million in dues to the DCCC this cycle, according to a source familiar with the committee’s finances.
– Jake Sherman
CHIPS PART DEUX
Semiconductor companies now push for green-card reform
The chief human resource officers of major semiconductor chip makers have written a letter to the congressional leadership calling for Capitol Hill to restructure immigration laws to allow for more highly skilled foreign workers to remain in the United States.
Here’s the letter, which you should read because it is, in many ways, a preview of the next phase of the CHIPS Plus bill. Now that more semiconductors will be made in the United States, these companies say they need to have the workforce that can make them. Here’s part of the letter:
[W]e must 1) invest more in developing qualified U.S.-born STEM students 2) create more semiconductor-specific degree programs to skill and upskill the U.S. semiconductor workforce; and 3) retain more of the highly skilled STEM foreign-born workforce, particularly graduates from U.S. universities. While the former two will require medium to long-term public investments, Congress can achieve the latter by enacting two specific policy proposals: First, exempt eligible immigrants with doctorate and master’s degrees in STEM fields from annual green card country caps, which was included in the America COMPETES Act (passed by the House of Representatives); and second, allow for the recapture of unused green cards in order to reduce the current massive backlog of employer- and family-sponsored green card applicants.
The letter – signed by industry giants including Broadcom Inc., Intel, Texas Instruments and Samsung Semiconductor – asks Congress to enact “green-card reform” as part of any must-pass bill this year.
However, there are few opportunities for that, and they’ll likely only happen in the lame-duck session after the November midterms. The National Defense Authorization Act is one such target, and the year-end government funding bill is another. The House Appropriations Committee’s version of the FY2023 Homeland Security funding bill has a “green-card recapture” provision in it, although it hasn’t come to the floor yet.
“The highly technical term that can be used to describe these green card reforms is ‘no brainer,’” said Robert Hoffman of Broadcom.
But this is going to be a very heavy lift. Anything related to immigration is a politically charged topic, of course. And while there is clear logic to this request – Congress just approved tens of billions of dollars for the industry, now it has to see the process though – there will be opposition from both sides of the aisle to this.
– Jake Sherman and John Bresnahan
PRESENTED BY HEALTHCARE LEADERSHIP COUNCIL
Two-in-three seniors with Medicare prefer drug plans negotiate with the biopharmaceutical manufacturers INSTEAD of government price setting.
THE CAMPAIGN
→ | New: Blake Masters, the GOP nominee for Senate in Arizona, has his first general election ad up. The ad features Masters’ wife saying that Blake is running because he wants a “country that works.” The ad features Masters with his family, pushing his children on swings. |
– Jake Sherman
FRONTS
PRESENTED BY HEALTHCARE LEADERSHIP COUNCIL
View senior satisfaction survey here.
MOMENTS
10:45 a.m.: President Joe Biden will get his daily intelligence briefing.
1:30 p.m.: House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and Labor Secretary Marty Walsh will hold a roundtable on apprenticeship training in Bowie, Md.
1:45 p.m.: Biden will host a roundtable with business and labor leaders on the Inflation Reduction Act.
2:45 p.m.: Karine Jean-Pierre will brief.
CLIP FILE
NYT
→ | “Trump Lawyer Proposed Challenging Georgia Senate Elections in Search of Fraud,” by Maggie Haberman and Luke Broadwater |
→ | “‘Your Bedroom Is on the Ballot’: How Democrats See Abortion Politics After Kansas,” by Katie Glueck and Shane Goldmacher |
WaPo
→ | “How abortion rights organizers won in Kansas: Horse parades and canvassing,” by Annie Gowen in Overland Park, Kan. |
→ | “China launches military exercises around Taiwan after Pelosi visit,” by Lily Kuo, Christian Shepherd and Ellen Nakashima |
Bloomberg
→ | “China Cancels Japan Meeting Over G-7 Criticism of Taiwan Drills,” by Isabel Reynolds and Colum Murphy |
AP
→ | “On NATO, McConnell nudges GOP away from Trump-era approach,” by Lisa Mascaro |
Politico
→ | “The question vexing Democrats: Biden 2024?” by Burgess Everett and Sarah Ferris |
→ | “A key ingredient to flip the House: A wave of Latino GOP candidates,” by Ally Mutnick |
Detroit News
→ | “Detroit will have no Black congressional representation for first time in 70 years,” by Beth LeBlanc and Melissa Nann Burke |
PRESENTED BY HEALTHCARE LEADERSHIP COUNCIL
As lawmakers continue to debate prescription drug reforms that could disrupt the Medicare program, Seniors Speak Out went directly to the source to find out exactly how seniors feel about this vital program.
When asked about recent policies being considered in congress, 66% of seniors indicated we should let Part D plans negotiate directly with the biopharmaceutical industry INSTEAD of letting the government set prices.
Despite these findings, lawmakers continue to move forward with bad policy while failing to consider this important input of the beneficiaries who would be directly affected.
Editorial photos provided by Getty Images
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