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PRESENTED BY

BY JOHN BRESNAHAN, ANNA PALMER AND JAKE SHERMAN

THE TOP

Welcome back. Congress is returning to town today for the first time in two weeks. Pumped? We are. The House comes in tomorrow, and the Senate comes in this afternoon at 3 p.m., with its first vote at 5:30 p.m.

It’s now the beginning of a long slog to pass (or not) some version of President Joe Biden’s massive infrastructure package, the American Jobs Plan. The next four to six weeks are going to be critical. Here are some things to watch to understand if things are on track, or if they’ve gone wildly astray.

→ Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.), the chairman of Transportation and Infrastructure, has said he wants to get a bill written and through his committee by May. That will be key to getting a package through the House by July 4th, as Speaker Nancy Pelosi has said is her goal. 

→ Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) is crucial to anything Biden wants to get done in the Senate. Where does he land on the corporate tax rate? Does he draw a hard line on using reconciliation? All of these decisions are key because, let’s be real, this guy is the biggest power player in the 50-50 Senate.

→ Inflation and the economy. You will hear a lot of talk over the next few weeks about whether the Biden plan and the trillions of dollars Democrats want to pump into the economy will spike inflation. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell played down those fears last night during an interview on CBS’ “60 Minutes.” “We can afford to wait to see actual inflation appear before we raise interest rates,” Powell said.

→ The White House released the names of lawmakers coming to the White House today to meet with Biden and VP Kamala Harris. Here they are: 

House: Reps. Don Young (R-Alaska), Don Payne (D-N.J.), Garret Graves (R-La.) and David Price (D-N.C.). 

Senate: Sens. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), Deb Fischer (R-Neb.) and Alex Padilla (D-Calif.).

Note who isn’t on this list: Any of the middle-of-the-conference Republicans like Sen. Mitt Romney (Utah), Susan Collins (Maine) or Lisa Murkowski (Alaska). Young undoubtedly loves big infrastructure spending bills since he wrote one as a committee chair — named it after his wife! — but these aren’t exactly centers of influence among Republicans. Yet we believe that the White House is going to make a somewhat serious effort to talk to the GOP this time around. We’re not suggesting that either side is going to move too far. But we’re interested to see how they handle this round of “appearing bipartisan.”

Both sides face big decisions fairly quickly here. Democrats have the biggest decisions to make. If Biden, Pelosi, and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) don’t believe that Republicans are bargaining in good faith or that a deal can be reached, they’ll go the reconciliation route. That means they will have to either seek to amend the FY 2021 budget resolution or do an FY 2022 resolution providing instructions to the committees on what to do for the package. Either way, in the Senate, that means another vote-a-rama.

All that jockeying officially starts today. It could be a big moment both in Biden’s presidency, as well as impacting what happens in next year’s midterms. So we’ll be following it very closely.

BTW, if you’re tracking nominations, Schumer has filed cloture on the following noms: Polly Ellen Trottenberg for Transportation, Wendy Sherman for State, Gary Gensler for the SEC and Brenda Mallory for CEQ. Trottenberg will come up this evening at 5:30 p.m. The Senate will also vote to advance a Covid-19 hate crimes bill. 

NO OBSERVATIONS TIME!

Who wants to bet how McConnell will react to Trump?

If you spent any part of this weekend on Twitter or anywhere on Earth, you know that former President Donald Trump took a whack at Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). Trump said McConnell didn’t have the courage to overturn the election, and called him a “dumb son of a bitch.” Trump also said McConnell didn’t thank him for nominating his wife as Transportation secretary.

McConnell has basically decided he’s through with Trump and not interested in engaging on the topic — at all. 

So here’s a guess about how this will all play out: Reporters will spend a couple days trying to get McConnell to talk about Trump’s comments. McConnell won’t bite. He’ll stroll past us and look directly ahead as if we aren’t talking at all. Maybe — just maybe — he’ll engage on Trump talking about his wife, Elaine Chao. But the way McConnell sees it, the best answer is that he’s in power and Trump is at home gabbing and that’s victory enough.

THE MONEY GAME

This is a big week for campaign nerds, since first quarter fundraising numbers are already coming in and are due on Thursday.

→ One interesting nugget: Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), who is retiring at the end of this Congress, has $9.7 million in his campaign account.

POLICING IN AMERICA

The Derek Chauvin case resumes this morning and another Black man was shot by police in a Minneapolis suburb over the weekend during a traffic stop. This has inflamed tensions. From the Star Tribune:

Relatives of Daunte Wright, 20, who is Black, told a tense crowd gathered at the scene in the northern Minneapolis suburb Sunday afternoon that Wright drove for a short distance after he was shot, crashed his car, and died at the scene.

Protesters later walked to the Brooklyn Center police headquarters near N. 67th Avenue and N. Humboldt Avenue and were locked in a standoff with police in riot gear late Sunday night. Officers repeatedly ordered the crowd of about 500 to disperse as protesters chanted Wright’s name and climbed atop the police headquarters sign, by then covered in graffiti. Police used tear gas, flash bangs and rubber bullets on the crowd.

National Guard troops arrived just before midnight as looters targeted the Brooklyn Center Walmart and nearby shopping mall. Several businesses around the Walmart were completely destroyed, including Foot Locker, T Mobile, and a New York men’s clothing store.

Meanwhile in Virginia … WaPo: “Officer fired amid call from Va. governor for investigation into pepper-spraying of Black Army officer,” by Rachel Chauvin: “Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam said Sunday he is directing Virginia State Police to investigate a traffic stop during which two police officers held an Army second lieutenant at gunpoint months ago in the southeast part of the state. Town officials said later that night that one officer was fired.

“Northam (D) said the incident — in which body-camera footage shows police pepper-spraying, striking and handcuffing Caron Nazario — ‘is disturbing and angered me.’ Nazario, 27, who is Black and Latino, filed a lawsuit this month against Windsor officers Joe Gutierrez and Daniel Crocker that alleges excessive force due to racial profiling."

BOEHNER COVERAGE

Former Speaker John Boehner’s book "On the House" is out tomorrow. It’s currently No. 1 on Amazon — that’s really impressive. 

USA Today’s Susan Page interviewed Boehner in Marco Island, Fla., and Boehner is on the cover of today’s paper. 

Here’s the headline: “John Boehner on how history will judge presidents he’s known. Trump: ‘I don’t think very well’

MOMENTS

10 a.m.: President Joe Biden will receive his intelligence briefing.

11 a.m.: The Covid-19 team will brief the press.

Noon: Biden will “briefly” join a CEO summit on semiconductors and supply chains. 

12:15 p.m.: Jen Psaki will brief reporters.

1:45 p.m.: Biden and VP Kamala Harris will meet with Republicans and Democrats on infrastructure.

CLIP FILE

NYT

→ “‘Like the Tiger King Got Elected Tax Collector’: Inside the Case That Ensnared Matt Gaetz,” by Patricia Mazzei, Mike Schmidt and Katie Benner in Lake Mary, Fla.

→ “Biden’s Infrastructure Push Spurs a Flurry of Lobbying in Congress,” by Emily Cochrane, Pranshu Verma and Luke Broadwater

→ “N.R.A. Chief Takes the Stand, With Cracks in His Armor,” by Danny Hakim and Mary Williams Walsh

WaPo

→ “Facing GOP opposition, Biden seeks to redefine bipartisanship,” by Ashley Parker

→ “Mexico’s new migrant policy adds to Biden’s border woes,” by Mary Beth Sheridan

WSJ

→ “CEOs Plan New Push on Voting Legislation,” by Emily Glazer, Chip Cutter and Te-Ping Chen: “Dozens of chief executives and other senior leaders gathered on Zoom this weekend to plot what several said big businesses should do next about new voting laws under way in Texas and other states.

“Kenneth Chenault, the former chief executive of American Express Co. , and Kenneth Frazier, CEO of Merck & Co., urged the leaders to collectively call for greater voting access, according to several people who attended. Messrs. Chenault and Frazier cautioned businesses against dropping the issue and asked CEOs to sign a statement opposing what they view as discriminatory legislation on voting, the people said.”

→ “CEO Pay Surged in a Year of Upheaval and Leadership Challenges,” by Theo Francis and Kristin Broughton

AP

→ “Iran blames Israel for sabotage at Natanz nuclear site,” by Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates: “ Iran on Monday blamed Israel for a sabotage attack on its underground Natanz nuclear facility that damaged the centrifuges it uses to enrich uranium there, warning that it would take revenge for the assault.”

Politico

→ “Biden’s infrastructure plan heads for the Senate shredder,” by Megan Cassella 

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