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PRESENTED BY

BY JOHN BRESNAHAN, ANNA PALMER AND JAKE SHERMAN

THE TOP

New: A tech vendor that provides constituent outreach services to dozens of House offices was the target of a ransomware attack, according to House officials, lawmakers and aides familiar with the situation.

These House offices — nearly 60 from both parties — have been unable to retrieve some constituent information for several weeks while the vendor, iConstituent, tries to deal with the attack. The company is working with the Chief Administrative Officer of the House, Catherine Szpindor, to resolve the situation, but there’s frustration that the matter hasn’t been cleared up yet.

It’s also a sign that cyberattacks and ransomware, which have plagued executive branch agencies and Corporate America, are a problem for Congress too.

There’s no evidence that broader House IT systems have been hacked or compromised, CAO said. 

Here’s a statement from CAO on the iConstituent situation: “The Office of the Chief Administrative Officer was notified by iConstituent that their e-newsletter system was hit with a ransomware attack. iConstituent’s e-newsletter system is an external service available for House offices to purchase. At this time, the CAO is not aware of any impact to House data. The CAO is coordinating with the impacted offices supported by iConstituent and has taken measures to ensure that the attack does not affect the House network and offices’ data.”

The vendor targeted in the ransomware attack, iConstituent, offers a “Constituent Engagement Platform” used by a number of state, local and municipal governments, according to its website. The company provides a “single platform where you can easily connect with constituents, collaborate on casework, and manage all internal and external communications.” Users include the states of Georgia, Hawaii, and Nevada, as well as the cities of Los Angeles and East Palo Alto, Calif. The New York State Assembly is also listed as a client.

The most recent record of House office official payments — covering the first quarter of 2021 — shows more than 200 payments by congressional offices to iConstituent. The total for these payments runs into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Monthly “technology service contracts” range in cost from $1,200 to $1,550 for dozens of offices.

iConstituent did not respond to a request for comment.

Rep. Rodney Davis of Illinois, the top Republican on the House Administration Committee, said he “understands there is some frustration at the vendor in question here.”

ANGST

The left’s long summer

The Democratic majority in Washington is facing a daunting reality: For the moment, the dreams they had for this year aren’t coming true. They have a majority, yes, but they don’t have real control. And the frustration is growing daily.

Progressives can’t move Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) to support blowing up the filibuster. (Let’s just pretend they’re the only obstacle to removing the filibuster for the moment, although they aren’t.)

In fact, all the liberal angst toward Manchin and Sinema seems to be emboldening them, as the pair now fully embrace their role as Democratic dissenters. Manchin took to a West Virginia newspaper over the weekend to amplify his call to keep the filibuster once again. Sinema stood next to Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) — perhaps the next Republican leader! — and defended the 60-vote threshold. And let’s not forget Sinema’s famous Instagram pic, which is pictured above.

So Democrats have no pathway to get rid of the filibuster. Zero. Squaddush. Pack it in, ladies and gentlemen.

So, let’s review where Democrats are because they can’t blow up the filibuster. 

S.1 is in trouble. 

D.C. statehood is faring no better.

Immigration reform is nowhere.

The bipartisan Jan. 6 commission bill was filibustered.

Gun control is stalled.

The American Family Plan has big problems. The American Jobs Plan may not fare as badly, but it won’t survive intact. 

You can probably forget about a major rewrite of the tax code, although the White House and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen are pushing hard on a “global minimum tax.”

Progressives know that they got a big win in March with passage of the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan. They know President Joe Biden is trying to move a progressive agenda through his nominees, executive orders and policy decisions, but they still need Congress to pass big legislation. And that’s not happening, thanks in part to Manchin, Sinema and other moderates.

No one is publicly attacking Manchin or Sinema — and leadership has made clear that would be counterproductive — but there’s clearly serious tension within the caucus. 

Manchin will meet on Tuesday with the Rev. Al Sharpton, Sherilynn Ifill of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, National Urban League President Marc Morial and other civil rights leaders to talk about election reform. Manchin has said he would support the far less sweeping John Lewis Voting Rights Act, but that bill doesn’t have anything close to the GOP support it needs to pass either.

There’s also bound to be more discussion of this at the Democrats’ weekly policy lunch.

We did a round of interviews yesterday to take the pulse of Senate Dems. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) wouldn’t engage on the ideological divide among Democrats, saying the focus has to be on GOP efforts to change voting rights laws at the state level.

“What I’m worried about are Republicans who want to keep American citizens from voting,” Warren told reporters on Monday.

“Lots of people talk about the window closing. But it hasn’t closed yet, so I’m just going to keep on pushing,” Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) said. “Anyone who feels strongly about an issue wants to see quick action. But anyone who’s been around a while knows we’ve got to keep working.”

But patience is clearly wearing out for a number of progressives, who want to get on with lining up 50 Senate Democrats behind their own infrastructure plan — some version of Biden’s American Jobs Plan and American Family Plan — and pass it using reconciliation.

“These negotiations cannot go on and on and on,” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), chairman of the Budget Committee, complained Monday night during an appearance on MSNBC. “In my own view, do I believe we will have 10 Republican votes to do something significant on physical infrastructure, for climate, for human infrastructure, for health care, for education? No, I don’t.”

The former Democratic presidential candidate also doesn’t believe the Senate can pass some infrastructure elements on a bipartisan basis, with the rest favored by progressives going into a reconciliation bill. 

“I personally believe the Republicans are not serious about anything that’s significant,” Sanders said. “I have my doubt that if you pass something, it will give people an excuse to say, ‘Well, we did something. We don’t have to do anything more.’”

Sanders added that he’s already drafting a reconciliation bill combining elements of both Biden proposals, which have an aggregate price tag over $4 trillion. “We’re working on it right now,” Sanders told MSNBC’s Chris Hayes.

However, it’s worth noting that the Senate Budget Committee hasn’t passed a budget resolution yet, which it will need to do — in the committee and on the floor — before reconciliation can start. The House Budget Committee will have to do the same. So any reconciliation bill is weeks away at this point, even under the most optimistic schedule. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) has said the Senate will deal with this in July, and that seems a likely timeline at this point.

The bottom line is this: Manchin and Cinema are Democratic senators, and majority makers for the party. In order to govern, Democrats need to cater to them. They may not like it, but they do. They need to start reorienting their thinking toward what Manchin and Sinema will vote for. Or win more seats in the Senate — that would make things a bit easier for them.

The coverage:

NYT: “Dreams of Ending the Filibuster Dashed, Democrats Rethink Strategy,” by Jonathan Weisman and Katie Rogers

Politico: “The left hates Joe Manchin. His fellow Senate Dems are staying quiet.” by Burgess Everett and Marianne Levine

WaPo: “Democrats grapple with way forward on Biden agenda after Manchin throws up roadblocks,” by Mike DeBonis and Sean Sullivan

THE BEARS OUT OF HIBERNATION

Capito sounds negative on infrastructure​

President Joe Biden and Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) are expected to speak again on Tuesday as part of their ongoing negotiations on a bipartisan infrastructure package, but the chances of a deal seem to be fading by the day.

“We’ll see, we’ll see,” Capito said on Monday night as she strode into Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky.) office for a weekly session with other GOP leaders. “I mean, I think the president said we don’t measure up. We’ll just have to see where the conversations are.”

So what’s next if the Biden-Capito talks fail? Plan B. There’s a bipartisan group led by Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), Mitt Romney (R-Utah), Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and others. They’re expected to meet as early as today, according to sources close to the group. This group is looking at a roughly $900 billion “hard” infrastructure plan that focuses on traditional infrastructure projects — road, bridges, tunnels, airports, ports, etc. That’s the easy part.

How they’re going to pay for it all is the problem. The pay-for won’t be tax increases because Republicans will never go for that. User fees won’t fly with Democratic leaders or the White House. Neither will “repurposed” Covid relief funds; Biden and senior administration aides have made that clear in talks with Capito.

But this group always saw itself “as a backup to Capito if that fell apart, and it looks like it is,” a Republican senator told us privately on Monday. This “G20” group, as it’s informally known, hopes to build a deal from the middle out. Find enough votes in the center with 10 Democrats and 10 Republicans that the leadership and White House will go along with it. A long shot, but this is where attention will shift for the moment, assuming the Biden-Capito talks have really fizzled out.

UPDATE

Police reform negotiators see bill late this week, early next week

The lawmakers working on a police reform deal say they aim to release a bill as early as the end of this week.

“We’re making a lot of progress,” Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) told us last night. “[Sen.] Tim [Scott] put a good deadline on that, and I’m hoping we’re going to meet that.” 

Scott has said that he believes June is the drop-dead deadline for a bill to get through Congress.

“I’m still cautiously optimistic,” Scott told us. “It’s been a very busy week in kind of conversing over the topics, we’ll probably have something worthy of discussing maybe the end of this week or Monday, Tuesday next week.” 

Qualified immunity — the doctrine that prevents people from suing police officers — is still among the sticking points. Scott told us he will not move on that topic.

STATE OF THE ART

Group to run ads in Maine and Ariz. on D.C. statehood

With a Senate hearing coming up on D.C. statehood, a pro-statehood group is launching ads in Maine and Arizona targeting some key Democratic senators.

Defend American Democracy is spending “six figures” on TV ads targeting Sens. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) and Angus King (I-Maine) on S. 51, a bill that would make D.C. the 51st state.

The ads point out that tens of thousands of military veterans reside in the District of Columbia but lack full representation in Congress because the district isn’t a state. Here is the ad in Maine, and here is the ad in Arizona.

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee is scheduled to hold a hearing on the bill on June 22, according to its lead sponsor, Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.).

Forty-five Democrats have signed onto the D.C. statehood bill, but not Kelly, King or Sinema. Sinema also serves on the Homeland Security panel. 

Senate Republicans, of course, are uniformly opposed to the legislation, since any senators from D.C. will almost certainly be Democratic. And there’s no way Republicans are going to ever agree to adding two more Democratic votes.

MOMENTS

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

10:15 a.m.: The Covid response team will brief reporters.

11:05 a.m.: Vice President Kamala Harris and Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador will witness a MOU signing in Mexico City to “establish a strategic partnership to cooperate on development programs in the Northern Triangle.”

11:10 a.m.: Harris and AMLO will take a photo.

11:20 a.m.: Harris will have a bilat with AMLO.

1 p.m.: Jen Psaki will brief reporters with Deputy Director of the National Economic Council Sameera Fazili, and Senior Director for International Economics and Competitiveness Peter Harrell.

2 p.m.: Senate Republicans and Democrats will speak after their lunches in the Capitol. 

2:40 p.m.: Harris will meet with female entrepreneurs at the Sofitel Mexico City Reforma.

4 p.m.: Harris will meet with labor leaders at the Sofitel.

5:35 p.m.: Harris will speak and take questions from reporters at the Sofitel.

6:35 p.m.: Harris will participate in a virtual meet and greet with embassy employees. 

7:45 p.m.: Harris will leave Mexico City for D.C. She’ll arrive at Andrews at 11:35 p.m.

House Democrats have a 4 p.m. call today about the “she-cession … Supporting working women after Covid-19.” Speakers include Melinda French Gates.

CLIP FILE

Axios

→ “Senate report: Failure to relay intelligence permitted Jan. 6 attack,” by Alayna Treene and Orion Rummler

You can read the USCP statement on that Senate report here. 

NYT

→ “Biden Justice Department Seeks to Defend Trump in Suit Over Rape Denial,” by Alan Feuer and Benjamin Weiser: “on Monday night … [Biden’s] own Justice Department essentially adopted Mr. Trump’s position, arguing that he could not be sued for defamation because he had made the supposedly offending statements as part of his official duties as president.

“In a brief filed with a federal appeals court in New York, the Justice Department acknowledged that Mr. Trump’s remarks about Ms. Carroll were ‘crude and disrespectful,’ but the department also claimed that the Trump administration’s arguments were correct — a position that could lead to Ms. Carroll’s lawsuit being dismissed.

→ “Virginia’s Democratic Primary Races: What to Watch For,” by Jonathan Martin

WaPo

→ “GOP governors are cutting unemployment aid. Some have ties to businesses that may benefit.” by Yeganeh Torbati

→ “As leaders gather for G-7, a key question: Will rich countries help poor ones grapple with climate change?” by Brady Dennis

WSJ

→ “Federal Prosecutors Subpoena Material Related to Andrew Cuomo’s Book,” by Jimmy Vielkind and Corinne Ramey: “Federal prosecutors have subpoenaed material related to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s recent memoir as part of their probe into Covid-19 deaths in the state’s nursing homes, people familiar with the matter said.

“Prosecutors working for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York in Brooklyn asked for communications related to Mr. Cuomo’s October 2020 book, ‘American Crisis,’ including contracts and materials used to pitch the book to publishers, the people said. They said the subpoenas indicated prosecutors are interested in nursing-home issues in the book, which more broadly recounted the governor’s response to the pandemic.”

AP

→ “Pipeline exec to face Congress as US recovers most of ransom,” by Eric Tucker and Ben Fox

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