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PRESENTED BY

BY JOHN BRESNAHAN, ANNA PALMER AND JAKE SHERMAN

THE TOP

Happening tonight: Our conversation with White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain at 6 p.m. EST. Register here to join the virtual conversation. Get caught up on all things Klain with Punchbowl News’ “The Opener,” which details his orbit, political considerations and reputation.

Now, onto the news: “I think this could be an infrastructure year, given the level of energy and enthusiasm that exists in the country and on both sides of the aisle here in Washington to actually get something done.”

That was Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg last night on Nicolle Wallace’s “Deadline White House” on MSNBC. Buttigieg sure hopes it’s an “Infrastructure Year” and Congress keeps its money spigot on full blast to start rebuilding roads, bridges, highways, airports and other facilities around the country.

Yes, it is time to truly begin thinking about infrastructure. The White House doesn’t want to admit publicly or privately it is the next legislative priority, but the Hill is already gearing up for it.

We’ve been chatting with our sources about how they view it, and we’ve come up with a number of questions about infrastructure that are critical to the overall process and its prospects. 

1) The price tag. Congress is getting ready to approve nearly $2 trillion in Covid-related spending this week, and it’s being done on a party line vote. Will Washington have the stomach for another $1 trillion-plus piece of legislation, because that’s what a transportation and infrastructure bill could cost. Some Democrats have floated a number as high as $3 trillion. That seems a bridge too far, so to speak. Does the White House put out a topline number at the start of negotiations? The topline figure has to pass the “Manchin Test” — would the West Virginia Democrat and other moderate Senate Democrats be able to stomach it?

2) What’s the deadline? It’s already March. We keep hearing July 4 as a deadline for infastructure. That seems possible, but tough. It may be helpful to set a deadline at some point in the summer. Frankly, this round of Covid relief is getting done speedily because Congress had a March 14 deadline. 

3) Will Democrats aim for infrastructure to be bipartisan? Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.)  — the alternate Senate majority leader, in many ways — said he wouldn’t support an infrastructure bill that’s considered through the fast-track reconciliation process. In other words, he wouldn’t support a partisan, Democrats-only package. In a 50-50 Senate, that’s Manchin issuing a veto on the fast-track process. If Manchin stays true to his word, that means the White House needs to find a way to work with Republicans. They may be able to convince Manchin to abandon that pledge if Republicans aren’t interested. But they’ll need to give it a try.

4) Will Republicans play ball? That’s a really good question. We can say with relative certainty that Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) will try to get in the mix here. She’s the ranking Republican of the transportation subcommittee on Appropriations and, as we know, she’s certainly interested in bipartisanship. But the White House would have to really listen to someone like Collins this time around; not only pretend they’re listening, but actually do it.

5) Will there be earmarks? Wow, we’re hitting all the marks this morning. That’s another good question. The House and Senate need to come to a final agreement on earmarks, and they’re not quite there yet. But sure, there will likely be earmarks here. Either Democrats will do them unilaterally, or Republicans will join along. More on that below. 

6) Will Democrats raise taxes to pay for it? Well, if they try to raise the corporate rate back to 28%, you have to imagine that that would keep most Republicans on the sidelines. But they’ll have to pay for this legislation somehow. If it’s a Democrats-only reconciliation package, there’s a good chance we could see some action on tax rates.

7) How involved will the White House be? They will probably need to be more involved than they were day-to-day on Covid relief. The process of putting that bill together was relatively linear. There were a series of policies that Congress had enacted throughout 2020, as well as a whole other series of proposals that Democrats unsuccessfully tried to convince former President Donald Trump to enact. The new Biden administration repackaged it all with a somewhat Trumpian name, “The American Rescue Plan.” 

But in reality, it’s more “Heroes Act II, The Sequel.” Democratic leaders essentially plussed up a number of areas that were underfunded (in their view) and enacted the policies that Trump wouldn’t (big state and local aid package). Yet an infrastructure package is different. Governors will have to be involved in this package. Numerous industries have a direct stake in the outcome and they will be fighting for their provisions. There’s decades of history here with entrenched interests. Only the White House can really push this all the way through both chambers.

8) Who will be in the lead for the administration? We get this question a lot. Will it be Biden himself? Ron Klain? Buttigieg, who just might be interested in a big policy victory to set up a political future? Kamala Harris? The jockeying for position will be fascinating to watch.

9) How expansive does Washington define “infrastructure?” This is actually a key question. Any infrastructure bill will have to include a pile of green policies. How big is that pile and can Republicans stomach it? Everyone is going to view this bill as a vehicle to get their policies through the Congress. 

Reminder … We want you! Calling all chiefs of staff, staff directors, legislative directors, comms directors and press secretaries: Join our monthly survey of top Capitol Hill aides. We want to know what you think on key issues. Anonymity guaranteed. Sign up here

THE FREEDOM TO OBJECT

The continuing dismantling of the House

Remember the House Freedom Caucus? You know, the crew that helped overthrow John Boehner and then tortured Paul Ryan in his tenure.

Well, Texas Republican Rep. Chip Roy and the Freedom Caucus blew up the House’s schedule Monday, and they’re promising more unless some changes are made. The issue now is whether Democrats and senior Republicans try to mollify them, or instead just roll them. 

Here’s what happened: Democrats had 13 non-controversial bills on the floor that they were looking to pass by voice vote. Three of these bills were authored by Republicans. When we say non-controversial, we really mean they were non-controversial. One of the bills would have awarded congressional gold medals to the U.S. Capitol Police and other law-enforcement agencies who protected the Capitol during the Jan. 6 insurrection. The legislation was sponsored by Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), the entire Democratic and GOP leadership, and 300 other members. This doesn’t happen very often. 

But the leadership needed the unanimous consent of all members of the House to pass the bills without a recorded vote. Roy and other members of the Freedom Caucus objected to the unanimous-consent request, and said they would force a recorded vote. A recorded vote on 13 bills in the age of Covid would take about six hours. Democrats didn’t have time to schedule them, so the bills were pulled.

If the House can’t pass non-controversial measures like this by unanimous consent, it’s a big problem and will slow everything down. 

Roy had words with House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), but they didn’t solve their differences. “We just continue to have this institution not being run in a way where we have open debate, open engagement,” Roy complained. “We’ve got a frigging fence with razor wire. We got proxy voting. Why are we just greasing the skids on a Monday and pushing through 13 suspension bills?”

Is this a one-time wrench in the process, or will the Freedom Caucus continue to do this?

“We’ll talk generally whether we should continue to let these things move,” Roy said when asked. “We’ll have a discussion in the next few days about what we want to do.” As for his discussion with Hoyer, all Roy would say was “We had a great conversation.”

“Steny and I have been having a really good debate about the need for regular order and opening this place back up,” Roy said. “But he’s got a conference to run. I get it. We’ll keep working through it and see what happens over the next couple days.”

In private, the Democratic leadership was pretty unhappy with Roy and talked about ending consideration of suspension bills, which would upset both Democratic and GOP lawmakers. Or Democrats could just set up votes on all these bills, which would take forever but prove the point that they will continue to run the floor as they see fit.

EARMARK UPDATE

Republicans debate earmarks, but no conclusion

House Republicans debated the return of earmarks last night in a private meeting, and the discussion broke down along familiar lines. A small clutch of lawmakers on the right end of the conference suggested that earmarking encourages more spending. But a huge chunk of the conference seems either indifferent or believes that if they don’t find a way to live within the Democrats new earmarking rules, they’ll be at a disadvantage because federal bureaucrats will direct spending instead of Republican lawmakers. The GOP leadership didn’t take a position. Rep. Kay Granger of Texas, the top Republican on Appropriations, argued in favor of earmarking.

Expect more conversation this morning during the regularly scheduled GOP weekly conference meeting. We imagine Republicans won’t make a decision until Democrats begin earmarking and the GOP is forced to choose. One senior Republican said “75 percent” of Republican lawmakers would back earmarks “right now” if it were a secret ballot vote, but we’ll see how this plays out in coming weeks.

FIRST LOOK

New video from Rep. Eric Swalwell

Here’s a new video from Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.), which is pretty clear in its target: Senate Republicans. Swalwell partnered on this with Eleven Films. The music is The Chicks’ “March March.”

MOMENTS

10 a.m.: House Republicans will hold a news conference after their weekly meeting. 

10:15 a.m.: President Joe Biden and VP Kamala Harris will receive the daily intelligence briefing.

10:30 a.m.: House Democratic leaders will speak to the press after their weekly meeting.

11:45 a.m.: Biden will visit a small business that benefited from the PPP.

1:30 p.m.: Jen Psaki and the NEC’s Bharat Ramamurti will brief.

CLIP FILE

NYT: “Biden Faces Challenge From Surge of Migrants at the Border,” by Zolan Kanno-Youngs and Michael D. Shear: “Thousands of migrant children are backed up in United States detention facilities along the border with Mexico, part of a surge of immigration from Central Americans fleeing poverty and violence that could overwhelm President Biden’s attempt to create a more humane approach to those seeking entry into the country. …

“The problem for the administration is both the number of children crossing the border and what to do with them once they are in custody. Under the law, the children are supposed to be moved to shelters run by the Health and Human Services Department, but because of the pandemic the shelters until last week were limiting how many children they could accommodate.”

“Biden Will Revisit Trump Rules on Campus Sexual Assault,” by Katie Rogers and Erica L. Green 

“Tech’s Legal Shield Appears Likely to Survive as Congress Focuses on Details,” by David McCabe: “Former President Donald J. Trump called multiple times for repealing the law that shields tech companies from legal responsibility over what people post. President Biden, as a candidate, said the law should be “revoked.”

“But the lawmakers aiming to weaken the law have started to agree on a different approach. They are increasingly focused on eliminating protections for specific kinds of content rather than making wholesale changes to the law or eliminating it entirely. That has still left them a question with potentially wide-ranging outcomes: What, exactly, should lawmakers cut?”

“Pandemic Relief Bill Fulfills Biden’s Promise to Expand Obamacare, for Two Years,” by Sheryl Gay Stolberg:  President Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill will fulfill one of his central campaign promises, to fill the holes in the Affordable Care Act and make health insurance affordable for more than a million middle-class Americans who could not afford insurance under the original law.

“The bill, which will most likely go to the House for a final vote on Wednesday, includes a significant, albeit temporary, expansion of subsidies for health insurance purchased under the act. Under the changes, the signature domestic achievement of the Obama administration will reach middle-income families who have been discouraged from buying health plans on the federal marketplace because they come with high premiums and little or no help from the government.”

WaPo: “Airlines, public transit agencies say $1.9 trillion relief plan would prevent deep cuts, job losses,” by Lori Aranati

“Relief bill is most significant legislation for Black farmers since Civil Rights Act, experts say,” by Laura Reiley

CNN: “Biden German Shepherd has aggressive incident and is sent back to Delaware,” by Kate Bennett

AP: “Trial for ex-cop charged in Floyd’s death forges on, for now,” by Amy Forliti and Steve Karnowski

JOB MOVES

Cheney brings on Paul Ryan aide

Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), the No. 3 House Republican leader, has hired Kevin Seifert to consult on political strategy. 

Seifert is a longtime political aide to former Speaker Paul Ryan. He was the executive director of Ryan’s political organization, Team Ryan and still advises the Wisconsin Republican on political matters. Seifert sits on the board of Ryan’s American Idea Foundation. 

Seifert will help Cheney scale her political organization and will work with the NRCC and members of the House Republican Conference. 

"Liz Cheney is a principled, conservative leader who always fights for the best interests of Wyoming. Our conference and our party are better off with Liz’s voice in Congress," Seifert said in an email. "I’m honored to help her and House Republicans take back the majority in 2022."

Here’s why this is interesting: This is bringing a new level of professionalization to Cheney’s operation, which, as you know, has been under attack of late.  

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