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PRESENTED BY

BY JOHN BRESNAHAN, ANNA PALMER AND JAKE SHERMAN
WITH MAX COHEN AND CHRISTIAN HALL

THE TOP

Strap in for what’s going to be a big week on Capitol Hill. There will be a lot of talk on topics including voting rights and election reform, immigration, gun control, police reform, Afghanistan, the debt limit and various nominations, including David Chipman for ATF. But here are the top three issues that will get the most focus this week:

→ News on bipartisan infrastructure negotiations: Democratic negotiators on Capitol Hill and in the White House, sent their GOP counterparts a “global offer” to resolve all the outstanding issues Sunday night, according to a Democratic source close to the talks.

Transit funding is the biggest remaining challenge in the talks, but highway-bridge money is unresolved too, as is water infrastructure, broadband, Davis-Bacon provisions, and how much unspent Covid relief money to use as a pay for, GOP and Democratic sources said.

This is the critical moment for the bipartisan group of 10 senators known as the “G10.” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has to get moving on the Democrats’ $3.5 trillion budget resolution, which is the key to President Joe Biden’s legislative agenda. To do that, Schumer and the White House need clarity on whether the bipartisan infrastructure negotiations can lead to a deal this week or not. It seems unlikely that these discussions can move ahead without that being resolved.

Which is why this “global offer” is so important. A breakthrough here will be a huge boost for the bipartisan group, led in this case by Sens. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) and Rob Portman (R-Ohio). If an agreement doesn’t look imminent, Schumer and the White House will come under intense pressure from other Democrats to move on. Schumer and Biden both want this deal, so the next day or two could see some dramatic shifts.

Portman sounded optimistic during an appearance on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday, although his fellow Republicans are more cautious in private.

“We’re about 90% of the way there — I feel good about getting that done this week. We have one issue outstanding, and we’re not getting much response from the Democrats on it,” Portman added. “It’s about mass transit. Our transit number is very generous.”

Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) was upbeat as well about the prospect for a deal during an appearance on "Fox News Sunday." “I believe we will,” Warner said when asked whether a deal would happen.

One thing to remember — this proposal has not yet been scored by the Congressional Budget Office, which won’t do anything until it sees the actual bill in legislative form. That’s been a problem especially on the GOP side as the bipartisan group searches for more Republican support.

→ Jan. 6 select committee: Speaker Nancy Pelosi stunned Republicans a few weeks ago when she named Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) to the Jan. 6 select committee. And she stunned them again last week when she rejected House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s selection of Reps. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Jim Banks (R-Ind.) to the panel. McCarthy then pulled all his Republicans from the select committee, furious at Pelosi’s action.

Pelosi pulled another power move on Sunday when she named another Republican to the select committee, Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois. The select committee now has nine members, all of them selected by Pelosi. There’s no other committee in Congress where one party enjoys that kind of advantage.

McCarthy complained about Pelosi’s latest decision, but there’s not much he can do about it: “The Speaker has structured this select committee to satisfy her political objectives. She had months to work with Republicans on a reasonable and fair approach to get answers on the events and security failures surrounding January 6 … Instead, she has played politics.”

Yet to be candid, McCarthy has been outmaneuvered by Pelosi on this issue since the speaker first floated the idea in mid-February of bipartisan commission to investigate the Jan. 6 insurrection. Part of the reason for this is structural, and part is political.

McCarthy is playing a terrible hand here. He’s trapped politically between the Democrats and former President Donald Trump. Democrats want someone to pay for Jan. 6, and not just the Trump supporters who viciously attacked the U.S. Capitol Police and illegally entered the building. And Trump, as is clear from his Arizona rally over the weekend, is still claiming the election was stolen from him, which is the same false assertion he used to foment the Jan. 6 attack. McCarthy needs Trump heading into 2022 elections — or at least he needs Trump not going after vulnerable House Republicans — so McCarthy has to stay loyal to the former president. It’s a lose-lose for McCarthy. 

Pelosi has a big advantage. Senate Republicans blocked a bipartisan commission after the House passed it. The House then passed a resolution creating a select committee. This allows Pelosi to do what she wants pretty much. And like the Trump impeachment proceedings, Pelosi is running things. She handpicked the chair and members. Her office announced the first hearing. Her office announced the panel’s staff. This will unfold as she sees fit. 

So the Jan. 6 select committee hearings will start on Tuesday. The first hearing features four officers from the U.S. Capitol Police and Metropolitan Police Department describing what they saw happen to their colleagues that day at the hands of Trump supporters. It’s made-to-order for TV, and there won’t be anyone on the dais defending Trump, McCarthy or the GOP leadership. It’s about as bad for McCarthy and the Republicans as it can get. Now, it may not mean anything in 2022. Republicans may very well retake the House; in fact, they’re favored to do so. But it’s still a bad look for them.

→ Appropriations: The House will vote this week on a $900 billion-plus “minibus” appropriations bill that covers funding for a big chunk of the federal government. It’s a combination of seven individual appropriations bills mashed together into one package. Democratic leaders felt good about the outlook for the bill on Sunday night, as they’re not seeing any major issues that could derail it at this point. “Cautiously optimistic” is the operative phrase.

That’s a good thing because up until this point, Congress has done bupkus on FY 2022 spending bills. There’s only 66 days until Sept. 30, which is when government funding runs out. There won’t be a shutdown — at least we don’t see that happening — although major challenges remain on both government funding and boosting the debt ceiling.

Behind the scenes, though, there’s an effort by House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and Appropriations Committee Chair Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) to get three more spending bills done before week’s end, when the House is set to leave town until Sept. 20. Yes, you read that correctly.

Hoyer and DeLauro are trying to run all the traps on the Legislative Branch, Commerce-Justice-Science and State-Foreign Ops funding bills. There’s lot of issues — both more police funding and more money to investigate police misconduct, immigration, Israel, a big increase in funding for Congress, more money for party leaders, and earmark problems. All of this has to be sorted out to bring any of these bills to the floor.

If these concerns can be resolved, then some or all of the three bills may be added to the minibus package. Or they could be voted on individually, as time permits. Just know that Hoyer and DeLauro are scrambling to do this.

THE MONEY GAME

HMP pulls in nearly $15 million

House Majority PAC, the House Democratic super PAC, raised $14.9 million during the first half of 2021 and has more than $13.5 million in the bank. This is double what HMP raised or banked in the first half of 2019, which was the last off-year. HMP spent $160 million during the 2020 cycle.

Remember: Super PACs can accept unlimited sums, and every donation is reported to the Federal Election Commission and publicly reported. House Majority PAC has an affiliated non-profit called House Majority Forward, which does not have to disclose its donors.

NEW

Peter Hamby interviews Jen Psaki on Snap’s "Good Luck America"

Peter Hamby has had a great string of interviews for Snapchat’s “Good Luck America.” He interviewed President Joe Biden, Dr. Anthony Fauci, and this morning, he’s dropping a conversation with Jen Psaki, White House press secretary. 

Here’s a bite from the interview, on why Psaki engages with Fox News:

“Well, first we don’t do a lot of the personalities on Fox. Look, I would say that the President’s number one goal still is beating the pandemic. Our objective is to put people back to work and we need to talk to Fox and Fox viewers in order to do that. Now, they are not waiting for the president, the vice president, me, other people from the administration to tell them what to do, but they might listen to medical experts or some of our doctors, they might. There might be  information that strikes them because it’s so fact-based, if we convey it to Fox that they may hear that.  

“And I think our view at this moment is we don’t have to approve — we don’t — of everything they do editorially, of everything their personalities say and do, but it is still a platform for us to communicate with the public. And frankly, the other piece of it is getting in a fight with Fox News at this point in time for the administration isn’t particularly constructive coming off of an administration that completely destroyed trust in media trust in institutions. That’s not the fight we want to fight right now. Right? We want to fight a fight about getting the pandemic under control and things that actually impact people’s lives.”

PANDEMIC FUNDING

Cryptocurrency billionaire running ads on pandemic funding

A new organization called Guarding Against Pandemics has launched TV and digital ads in the D.C. market urging Congress to approve $30 billion in pandemic prevention funding included in President Joe Biden’s American Jobs Plan.

Sam Bankman-Fried is bankrolling Guarding Against Pandemics. The group is spending $100,000 on cable TV ads, and another $28,000 on digital ads on YouTube, the Washington Post and Politico, according to his brother, Gabriel Bankman-Fried. The organization may step up its spending and expand into print and podcasts.

Bankman-Fried was one of Biden’s biggest donors during the 2020 campaign, giving more than $5 million to the Biden campaign and groups that backed the now president. Bankman-Fried founded a cryptocurrency exchange called FTX, and has an estimated net worth of more than $10 billion, according to some news reports.

The $30 billion that Biden has called for on pandemic preparation may be slashed to $5 billion, according to some reports, which Bankman-Fried’s group is trying to head off.

“Guarding Against Pandemics (GAP) advocates for public investments to prevent the next pandemic. Right now, that means fighting for President Biden’s $30 billion pandemic preparedness funding request in the American Jobs Plan,” said Gabriel Bankman-Fried in a statement. “As the Delta variant rages on, we cannot get complacent. GAP is calling on Congress to deliver on President Biden’s promise to keep America safe by ensuring this vital funding remains in the final package.”

PUNCHBOWL NEWS EVENTS

The Road to Recovery Series

WEDNESDAY, JULY 28 @ 8:45 A.M.

We invite you to join us for a timely conversation with Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) about small businesses, access to capital and the economic recovery.  This conversation is the first in a three-part series sponsored by Goldman Sachs 10,000 Businesses. Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon will join Anna and Jake afterward for a fireside chat.

MOMENTS

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

11:10 a.m.: Biden will speak to mark the 31st anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

12:30 p.m.: Jen Psaki will brief. 

2 p.m.: Biden will meet with Mustafa Al-Kadhimi, the prime minister of the Republic of Iraq.

CLIP FILE

Bloomberg

→ “China Unloads Grievances in U.S. Talks, Says Ties in ‘Stalemate’”

CNN

→ "GOP Rep. Clay Higgins says he has Covid," by Morgan Rimmer and Daniella Diaz

NYT

→ “As China Boomed, It Didn’t Take Climate Change Into Account. Now It Must.” by Steven Lee Myers, Keith Bradsher and Chris Buckley

→ “U.S. General Won’t Commit to Ending Airstrikes on Taliban,” by Adam Nossiter in Kabul

→ “Nancy Mace Called Herself a ‘New Voice’ for the G.O.P. Then She Pivoted.” by Catie Edmonson in Mount Pleasant, S.C.

WaPo

→ “As coronavirus surges, GOP lawmakers are moving to limit public health powers,” by Francis Stead Sellers and Isaac Stanley-Becker

→ “New Jersey Democrats want ‘fairness’ in Biden’s trillion-dollar agenda. They’re in for a fight.” by Mike DeBonis

WSJ

→ “Covid-19 Pill Race Heats Up as Japanese Firm Vies With Pfizer, Merck,” by Peter Landers

AP

→ “Senators race to seal infrastructure deal as pressure mounts,” by Hope Yen and Lisa Mascaro

Politico

→ “Manchin weighs another term as his influence peaks,” by Burgess Everett

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Editorial photos provided by Getty Images