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PRESENTED BYBY JOHN BRESNAHAN, ANNA PALMER AND JAKE SHERMAN THE TOPGood Thursday morning. We’re hiring for two new positions: managing editor for special projects and events producer. If you want to work for Punchbowl News, you should apply. We have lots of fun! Or pass it on to your friends, family or colleagues if you think they’d like to work with us. Inside Pelosi’s week-end sprint Speaker Nancy Pelosi wants to hold a vote on both the Build Back Better Act and the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill today or tomorrow. You read that correctly — a vote sometime in the next two days on legislation calling for nearly $3 trillion in federal spending that’s been delayed for weeks. To be honest, it doesn’t feel like the House will get there today. We could be wrong, but when you’re betting on Congress, always take the over. These folks never get anything done in any logical fashion, and they’re never on time. Friday or the weekend seems more likely. There’s still a chance that Democratic leaders may be forced to postpone until mid-November. It’s all very fluid right now. Yes, we know, we’ve said this phrase a lot lately. Let’s review some of the dynamics at work for the key players here: → Speaker Nancy Pelosi: When looking at House Democratic strategy, you begin and end with Pelosi. She wants a vote on BBB first then BIF. Pelosi has had an interesting journey during this BBB process. First, Pelosi said the House would only vote on the bipartisan infrastructure bill after the Senate had passed the reconciliation package. She eventually caved on that. In fact, Pelosi twice tried to pass the infrastructure bill even before the House finished drafting the reconciliation package. Then Pelosi said she wouldn’t force the House to consider a reconciliation package that wouldn’t pass the Senate intact. And here we are with the House on the brink of considering a massive, $1.5 trillion-plus reconciliation package that won’t pass the Senate intact. So Pelosi has been forced to give a lot of ground process-wise, as well as policy-wise. But over the last few weeks, Pelosi was reminded that the Senate is not only the “world’s greatest deliberative body,” but it’s the world’s slowest, most torturous and illogical body. Pelosi decided in recent days that she can’t wait for the Senate anymore, and the only way to pressure Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s senators is to actually present them with a bill that they have to make a decision on. And far from dissuading the House’s aggressive legislative push, Tuesday’s poor election showing in Virginia and across the country seemed to give the House majority a new impetus to get this done quickly. Of course, the Senate isn’t going to move quickly just because the House has decided it’s time. For example, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) said on Fox News last night that “they’re working off the House bill. That’s not going to be the bill I work off of” when it comes to reconciliation. We’re not sure exactly what he’s talking about here, but it doesn’t sound good for Democrats. → Moderates: Pelosi’s biggest hurdle right now is the moderates. Five Democratic moderates have publicly declared that they want a budgetary score before they vote for the BBB, which isn’t going to happen. They’re also worried about changes to prescription drug pricing and immigration. In sum, moderates really want to just slow this whole thing down in order to extract more changes to the legislation. That’s what the demand for CBO score is, in part — a stalling tactic. That helps them vis-a-vis Pelosi and the leadership. Here is a top aide to a moderate House Democrat:
→ Progressives: Led by Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, progressives have softened their public stance on the BBB. This is in part due to the backlash coming from last week’s questionable Hill visit by President Joe Biden and their resistance to a standalone vote on the bipartisan infrastructure bill. But their outrage over a Tuesday deal for a five-year repeal of the state and local tax deduction (SALT) forced leadership to revise the provision. Democrats are now looking to raise the SALT cap from $10,000 to $72,500. Progressives still don’t like it because it would mostly benefit wealthier taxpayers. But Pelosi is wheeling and dealing. She needs to get pro-SALT Democrats to vote for the reconciliation package, so she’s doing what she needs to do to get it through the House first. Then she can worry about the Senate later. → Pro-immigration Democrats: This is Pelosi’s biggest outstanding policy issue. If the speaker moves too far to the left on this issue, she loses votes in the middle. If she moves too far to the middle, she loses votes on the left. It’s all going to come down to which position will give Pelosi the best chance of passing the package. Reps. Chuy Garcia (D-Ill.), Adriano Espaillat (D-N.Y.) and Lou Correa (D-Calif.) have publicly declared their opposition to BBB if they don’t get pro-immigration language included. They met with Pelosi for an hour on Wednesday. The moderates who are objecting include some vulnerable Democrats who are worried that they’re going to get pummeled by Republicans on this issue as problems continue at the U.S.-Mexico border. The revised BBB text includes language that would allow the Department of Homeland Security to “parole” undocumented immigrants who entered the United States before January 2011 for at least five years — with a possible extension to 2031 — although there’s no path to citizenship. The threat of deportation would be removed, provided they can pass a background check. It would also allow “green card recapture” authorized by Congress but never issued. Pro-immigration groups estimate that up to a 1 million immigrants could be impacted by this. Why Senate Democrats can’t get the parliamentarian to rule on immigration The House plan is similar to the “Plan C” proposal that Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Robert Menedez (D-N.J.) were going to submit to the Senate parliamentarian to see if it could survive the Byrd Rule. Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough has rejected two previous proposals by Senate Democrats on this front. This is news: We were told that Durbin and Menendez can’t get a formal ruling from MacDonough because there’s no CBO score for the BBB package yet. Without that, she can’t decide whether the proposal can survive a Byrd challenge. So what may happen is that Pelosi’s decision to include the immigration language in reconciliation convinces Garcia, Espaillat and Correa to vote for the package, but it gets knocked out later by MacDonough. If and when the legislation makes it back to the House, then those three Democrats have to decide what to do. But that’s a fight for another day. The White House’s least favorite budget judge has another analysis today Here’s something else that the White House and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) don’t agree on: Manchin puts a huge amount of stock into the Wharton School at UPenn’s analysis of legislation, and the White House doesn’t. Wharton will come out with a new analysis today that will piss the White House off. The analysis will say that the BBB is not completely paid for — it would increase spending by $1.87 trillion, while increasing revenue by $1.56 trillion in the 10-year budget window. And if all of the programs besides the clean energy credit become permanent, that would increase new spending by $3.98 trillion while revenue would only increase by $1.56 trillion. How the W.H. views BBB pay fors The CBO and JCT scores of the BBB are not out yet, but here is how the White House gets to $2.1 trillion in offsets for the crown jewel of Biden’s agenda. PRESENTED BY DUKE ENERGY Duke Energy is transforming our energy infrastructure to deliver cleaner, smarter energy for the communities we serve. We’re investing more than $125 billion over the next decade in renewables, advanced energy storage, electric vehicle technology and more – all to reach our goal of net-zero carbon by 2050 while delivering affordable, reliable, cleaner energy for our communities and the future we share. Learn more about our bold clean energy commitment. FILIBUSTER Carper calls for a voting rights exemption to the filibuster Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.), who has declined to say where he stands on eliminating the filibuster, is now willing to support an exception to the 60-vote hurdle in order to pass voting rights legislation. Carper’s announcement, disclosed in an op-ed in the News Journal of Wilmington, comes after Senate Republicans on Wednesday again blocked a Democratic bill on the issue. This time it was the John Lewis Voting Rights Act. The vote was 50-49, with Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska being the lone Republican to cross the aisle and vote with Democrats. Here’s Carper:
Advocates of eliminating the filibuster have worked all year to overcome opposition within Democratic ranks to the move, with Carper and King being among the latest converts to the idea of a narrow carveout for voting rights legislation. Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) says he doesn’t want to get rid of the filibuster just yet, but he’s very frustrated about the lack of action on voting rights and is willing to look at the issue. However, Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) have been firm in objecting to any change to the procedural hurdle, so Majority Leader Chuck Schumer remains short of the 50 votes he’d need for a rules change using the so-called “nuclear option.” THE HILL VS. THE PENTAGON Senate Republicans push Milley on ‘woke’ military agenda Sen. Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma, ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and 11 other GOP senators on the panel are pressing Joint Chief Chair Mark Milley over the costs and impact on readiness of what they call the “woke military agenda.” In an Oct. 21 letter to Milley that we got our hands on, the GOP senators said they wanted to “express our grave concerns about this administration’s imposition of political narratives on our military, at the expense of readiness and morale.” Other Armed Services Committee Republicans on the letter include Sens. Roger Wicker (Miss.); Deb Fischer (Neb.); Tom Cotton (Ark.); Mike Rounds (S.D.); Joni Ernst (Iowa); Thom Tillis (N.C.); Dan Sullivan (Alaska); Kevin Cramer (N.D.); Rick Scott (Fla.); Marsha Blackburn (Tenn.); and Tommy Tuberville (Ala.). Here’s Inhofe and the other GOP senators:
The Republicans have asked Milley to turn over information on the costs for these initiatives — including the number of hours service members worked on them — by Nov. 8. Milley and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin — the first Black person to serve in that role — have already pushed back hard on GOP attacks alleging a “woke” Pentagon agenda. For instance, Milley was questioned about a lecture for cadets at West Point entitled “Understanding Whiteness and White Rage” during an appearance before the House Armed Services Committee in June. Milley wasn’t having any of it. “I want to understand white rage, and I’m white, and I want to understand it. So what is it that caused thousands of people to assault this building and try to overturn the Constitution of the United States of America? What caused that? I want to find that out,” Milley said. “I’ve read Mao Zedong. I’ve read Karl Marx, I’ve read Lenin, that doesn’t make me a communist. So what is wrong with understanding, having some situational understanding about the country for which we are here to defend?” At least five active-duty service members participated in the deadly Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, and dozens more were veterans, leading to calls from lawmakers for the Pentagon to counter growing threats of political extremism within its ranks. Yet it’s also clear from this latest GOP missive, and the focus on critical race theory and other “culture war” issues during the recent gubernatorial elections in Virginia and New Jersey, that Republicans see this as a potent political topic to hit the Biden administration on. So we’ll see what happens next. THE WORKFORCE FEATURING SEC. GINA RAIMONDO Sec. Gina Raimondo on the "sea change" in workforce development In our second profile of The Workforce, we interviewed Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo. Raimondo has long been known for her workforce efforts as Rhode Island governor and is now the voice for jobs and businesses in President Joe Biden‘s administration. Raimondo is trying to change the way the government mobilizes around workforce development. A well trained workforce is critical for American competitiveness and Raimondo believes that understanding what jobs businesses are committed to hiring for is key. Here’s Raimondo on the difficulty of changing how we train and hire workers:
PRESENTED BY DUKE ENERGY We’re taking action against climate change with more renewables and advanced technology. See how Duke Energy is delivering cleaner, smarter energy for our communities. FRONTS MOMENTS 10 a.m.: President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris will get their intelligence briefing. 10:30 a.m.: Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) will speak about the Democrats’ spending bill. 10:45 a.m.: Speaker Nancy Pelosi will hold her weekly news conference. 2 p.m.: Karine Jean-Pierre will brief reporters. PRESENTED BY DUKE ENERGY More renewables. Less carbon. Visit duke-energy.com/BoldSteps to see our work. CLIP FILE NYT → “Reeling From Surprise Losses, Democrats Sound the Alarm for 2022,” by Jonathan Martin and Alex Burns: “More pointedly, [Virginia Democratic Rep. Abigail] Spanberger said Mr. Biden must not forget that, for many voters, his mandate was quite limited: to remove former President Donald J. Trump from their television screens and to make American life ordinary again. ‘Nobody elected him to be F.D.R., they elected him to be normal and stop the chaos,’ she said, alluding to the sweeping agenda the president is seeking to enact with the thinnest of legislative majorities.” → “Youngkin’s Dance With Trump Was Pivotal. But Is It Repeatable?” by Reid Epstein → “Republicans Pounce on Schools as a Wedge Issue to Unite the Party,” by Lisa Lerer and Jeremy Peters WaPo → “Biden urges swift action as Democrats scramble to deflect voter anger,” by Sean Sullivan, Michael Scherer and David Weigel → “Murphy’s narrow win in New Jersey does little to ease Democratic anxieties,” by Felicia Sonmez, David Weigel and Tyler Pager WSJ → “Fed Dials Back Bond Purchases, Plots End to Stimulus by June,” by Nick Timiraos AP → “The AP Interview: Justice Dept. conducting cyber crackdown,” by Eric Tucker → “Globe bounces back to nearly 2019 carbon pollution levels,” by Seth Borenstein Politico → “2 federal judges are poised to quietly begin unlocking reams of Jan. 6 secrets for Congress,” by Kyle Cheney and Josh Gerstein Milwaukee Journal Sentinel → “A new Wisconsin poll underscores the challenges for two incumbents, Democratic Gov. Tony Evers and Republican Sen. Ron Johnson,” by Craig Gilbert Miami Herald → “DeSantis asks for another round of election law reforms in raucous Palm Beach event,” by Alex Daugherty → “A recount could begin Friday in FL-20 Democratic primary. The margin is 9 or 12 votes,” by Alex Daugherty LAT → “‘This could be my room for a few days’: Garcetti tests positive, isolates in Scotland,” by Luke Money, Dakota Smith and Julia Wick: “Nearly two years into a pandemic that he has likened to fighting a war, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti has tested positive for COVID-19. "The mayor, who is fully vaccinated, tested positive Wednesday in Glasgow, Scotland, where he had been attending a United Nations conference on climate change.” PRESENTED BY DUKE ENERGY Duke Energy is delivering a cleaner energy future for our customers and communities. We’re working to reduce CO₂ emissions for electricity generation in 2030 by at least 50%, on the way to net-zero CO₂ by 2050. We’re also targeting net-zero methane emissions for our natural gas distribution business by 2030. And we’re moving aggressively to make these goals a reality. Our company is fully focused, working together to accelerate the execution of our clean energy strategy – all while continuing to deliver affordable, reliable, cleaner energy for our communities and the future we share. Learn more about our bold clean energy commitment. Enjoying Punchbowl News AM? Subscribe 10 friends with your unique link (below) and get a Punchbowl News hat! Your referral link is: Or share via You currently have: 0 referrals
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