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PRESENTED BY

BY JOHN BRESNAHAN, ANNA PALMER AND JAKE SHERMAN

THE TOP

President Joe Biden couldn’t get an infrastructure deal with one generally reasonable Senate Republican. So now he’s going to try to find a deal with 20 Republicans and Democrats who agree on very little. Oh, and by the way, time is short. Makes sense, right?

It does and it doesn’t. Let us explain.

Background: Biden broke off GOP-leadership sanctioned infrastructure negotiations with Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) on Tuesday after several weeks of polite but futile back-and-forth. The two sides were hundreds of billions of dollars apart on overall spending, and equally far apart on how to pay for it all. Biden and Democratic congressional leaders want to raise corporate taxes, while also hiking taxes for those Americans making over $400,000 annually. Republicans instead proposed user fees and “repurposing” unspent Covid relief funds. So no deal was possible.

Biden has now turned to the “G20” group, a faction of 10 Senate Democrats and 10 Republicans that want to move past the partisan stalemates of recent years and make deals. In this instance, it will be a sub-group led mainly by Sens. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) and Rob Portman (R-Ohio). Can they reach a deal? Unclear. But this group huddled for several hours in the basement of the Capitol on Tuesday night, and Sinema has urged her Democratic colleagues to let her explore this opportunity. So we’ll see what happens.

Why this is smart for Biden: The White House seems driven, at least in part, by fulfilling Biden’s campaign-season claim that he’s a longtime bipartisan dealmaker. However, we haven’t seen much — erm, any — of that deal-making prowess since he became president. Biden has played hard toward his progressive base, which really helped vault him into the Oval Office. Yet not quite five months in, Biden’s entire presidency needs to become more focused on keeping Sinema and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) happy. Why? Because they’re the votes that Democrats need. Sorry if this upsets your sensibilities. We didn’t create the game; we’re just explaining it.

So Biden and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer need to show Manchin and Sinema that they’re doing everything they can to help their efforts succeed. And what would make Manchin and Sinema happier than a bipartisan group of lawmakers sitting in a room tossing ideas around to try to get a deal? Remember, both Manchin and Sinema — but especially Manchin — have this thing about bipartisanship. So either this G20 group talks for a while and gets a deal, or they don’t. Either way, it benefits Biden and Schumer.

Why this is a bad idea for Biden: 1) Time isn’t on Biden’s side. It’s June 9 and Democrats don’t even have a shell of an infrastructure bill worked out yet. 2) These kinds of talks can go on forever. Take it from three people who’ve covered negotiations that last way too long. When do they cut this off? Who cuts it off? Why do they cut it off? 

What’s in the mix: We’ve talked to a bunch of people involved in the discussions and it’s easier to say what’s off the table rather than what’s on. But the group seems to be interested in an eight-year infrastructure bill that spends somewhere around $1 trillion. Tax hikes seem to be completely off the table. They’re working with some of the same pay fors as Capito was — user fees and redirected Covid relief funds chief among them. There’s been discussion about a “vehicle miles traveled” fee for electric vehicles, and other creative ways to get infrastructure funding to states without increasing the federal deficit. A carbon tax is not part of these discussions, Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) said Tuesday.

Note: The Problem Solvers Caucus — led by Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) — endorsed a $761.8 billion bill yesterday. That’s modestly significant, since the group includes 29 House Democrats and 29 House Republicans. 

The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee will begin a markup today on the $547 billion, five-year INVEST in America Act, a major surface transportation reauthorization bill. Here’s a section-by-section summary of that bill.

This is the major infrastructure bill that Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has promised to pass by before the July 4 recess.

There’s already a couple hundred amendments filed to that legislation, so it will take Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) and the rest of the committee a couple of days to finish.

Also, Senate Budget Committee Chair Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) — who has wanted to pull the plug on these bipartisan talks for a while now and have Democrats move ahead on their own — says he’ll do a multi-trillion dollar reconciliation bill in July, which is in line with Schumer’s statements.

“I don’t know if you can do it in June, maybe in July,” Sanders told us yesterday when asked about his timeline for moving a budget resolution, followed by a big reconciliation package.

Sanders also confirmed that the reconciliation bill will include Biden’s American Jobs Plan and American Family Plan, which have a combined $4 trillion price tag.

Sanders is supposed to meet with House Budget Committee Chairman John Yarmuth (D-Ky.) this week to discuss timing. Yarmuth is planning to introduce his own $1.5 trillion “deeming resolution” next week so appropriators can begin work on the FY 2022 spending bills, Politico reported.

Yeah, it’s a lot of moving parts. We’ll keep you up to speed on what you need to know.

CNN: "Democrats fear Biden’s agenda may be squandered as they pressure key moderates to abandon Senate GOP,” by Manu Raju and Lauren Fox

Politico: “Why bipartisanship won’t get any easier in the Senate,” by Marianne Levine, Andrew Desiderio and Burgess Everett

UPDATE

Police reform negotiators circulating text

Negotiators trying to find a police reform deal have begun circulating text for review, according to multiple sources involved in the process.

All parties seem extraordinarily bullish that they will be able to wrap a deal this week or next week.

We sussed out one detail on the way the group plans to handle qualified immunity, the controversial legal doctrine that prevents police officers from being sued. The bipartisan group plans to allow alleged victims of police brutality to sue either police departments, cities or whatever governmental agency has control over police officers, but not the officers themselves, according to sources involved in the talks. 

This could lead to big changes how police departments nationwide operate, yet still be acceptable to politically powerful police unions.

Other provisions under discussion would cut down or bar the use of chokeholds, restrict transfer of surplus military gear to police departments, and develop a national registry of police officers fired for illegal behavior. 

Another issue that has been under discussion is Section 242, which deals with state actors denying someone their civil rights. It’s another sensitive topic for negotiators.

IMMIGRATION SCOOP

Bipartisan Senate immigration group set to meet this week

A bipartisan group of senators led by Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) is set to meet Wednesday to discuss immigration reform. 

The group is focusing on three different pieces of legislation — two House-passed bills dealing with Dreamers and migrant farm workers, as well as a proposal from Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) and John Cornyn (R-Texas) to deal with the huge migrant wave at the U.S.-Mexico border. They want to see whether this can be assembled into one broader package for Senate action.

“Those three bills are under active consideration,” Durbin told us Tuesday. “We’re trying to find a way to combine them into a bipartisan product that will get at least 10 Republican votes.”

When asked whether Democrats would include immigration provisions in an upcoming reconciliation package — meaning they could be passed with just Democratic votes if there’s no deal — Durbin acknowledged it was under consideration, although at this point, he wants an agreement with Republicans.

“We’re not ruling it out, but I want to try to see what we can accomplish on a bipartisan basis,” Durbin said.

Republicans privately praised Durbin’s handling of the negotiations, as immigration is a hugely politically charged issue in the post-Donald Trump era, but they also say it’s difficult to see how a deal can be reached right now.

THE VP’S NORTHERN TRIANGLE TRIP

How Kamala’s trip is playing

Yowza. Two tough stories on the front page of the Los Angeles Times.

MOMENTS

The president is heading to Europe. We’ll use the East Coast time zone here all week when talking about his trip.

8:10 a.m.: President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden will leave the White House for Andrews. They will take off at 8:30 a.m. Jen Psaki and Jake Sullivan will brief on board Air Force One en route to Europe. 

3 p.m.: The Bidens will land at Royal Air Force Mildenhall, United Kingdom.

3:45 p.m.: The Bidens will speak to Air Force personnel.

4:30 p.m.: The Bidens will leave Mildenhall for Cornwall, and they will arrive at 5:55 p.m.  

6:40 p.m.: The Bidens will arrive in St. Ives.

CLIP FILE

NYT

→ “Biden Aims to Bolster U.S. Alliances in Europe, but Challenges Loom,” by Michael Shear and David Sanger: “It should not be that hard to be an American leader visiting Europe for the first time after President Donald J. Trump. But President Biden will face his own challenges when he departs on Wednesday, especially as the United States confronts a disruptive Russia and a rising China while trying to reassemble and rally the shaken Western alliance as it emerges from the coronavirus pandemic.

“Mr. Biden, who will arrive for a series of summit meetings buoyed by a successful vaccination program and a rebounding economy, will spend the next week making the case that America is back and ready to lead the West anew in what he calls an existential collision between democracies and autocracies.”

WaPo

→ “Senate approves sprawling $250 billion bill to curtail China’s economic and military ambitions,” by Tony Romm

→“Terry McAuliffe wins Democratic nomination for Virginia governor,” by Gregory S. Schneider, Laura Vozzella and Antonio Olivo in Richmond

→ “Andrew Cuomo’s administration contends with investigative scrutiny on multiple fronts,” by Josh Dawsey

AP

→ “On 1st overseas trip, Biden to assure allies and meet Putin,” by Jonathan Lemire and Aamer Madhani

Detroit News

→ “Ex-congressman Paul Mitchell says he has stage IV renal cancer,” by Charles Ramirez

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Editorial photos provided by Getty Images