View in web browser

PRESENTED BY

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

THE TOP

5 Questions With … Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.

 As Democratic-controlled House committees scramble to craft a massive $3.5 trillion reconciliation package covering big chunks of President Joe Biden’s legislative agenda — or attempt to, at least — we’re closely following all the key players in the process.

One of those members to watch is Jayapal, chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. Bres interviewed the third-tern lawmaker yesterday. You can watch it here, and it’s embedded above (obviously).

Jayapal, a fierce advocate for increased spending on social programs — “human infrastructure” — has pushed hard for the biggest reconciliation package that her fellow Democrats will support. Like Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Jayapal initially wanted to see a reconciliation package in the $6 trillion to $10 trillion range. The House approved a budget resolution on Tuesday authorizing a $3.5 trillion package. 

Now Jayapal wants all Democrats — progressives and moderates alike — to support that package. Jayapal and other progressives have warned that if moderate Democrats don’t vote for the reconciliation package, then progressives won’t back the $1 trillion bipartisan Senate infrastructure bill favored by moderates. Moderates in the House and Senate have said they will not back a $3.5 trillion package. They want to scale back the bill, so you can see the tension points here. 

We talked about reconciliation, relations between progressives and moderates inside the House Democratic Caucus, and what impact the Biden agenda could have on the 2022 midterms. Here’s some highlights from our interview:

→ On why progressives want to vote on the reconciliation package before taking up the bipartisan Senate infrastructure bill: “[T]he reality is, the totality of the Biden agenda, the Democratic agenda that we ran on and we now have to deliver on, is really contained within the reconciliation bill. So let’s pass that first, and then we’ll make sure we send both bills to the president’s desk to sign.”

→ Jayapal downplayed policy differences between Democratic progressives and moderates, yet she also said it was critical for the party to pull together now: “This very small group of people, my colleagues, that sort of have gotten a lot of attention in the last couple of days, I just want to remind people that this is the Democratic agenda. This is President Biden’s agenda. This is the agenda of the speaker, of the Senate majority leader, and — of course — the vast majority of our caucus who wanted to get a [budget] resolution done and want to pass a three-and-a-half trillion dollar bill that invests in these critical priorities and allows people to wake up in the morning and feel differently about their lives and their livelihoods.” 

→ While some of her colleagues are worried about the prospect of losing the majority in 2022,  Jayapal said it’s imperative for Democrats to come through on what they promised voters: “If we deliver these things, I believe we will hold the House. If we don’t deliver these things, I think we could lose the House.”

KNOW BEFORE YOU GO

New: The House reconciliation markup schedule

You’re going to want to copy and paste, screenshot or otherwise save this. Here’s the House’s tentative reconciliation markup dates. We’ll repeat — this is a tentative schedule. Committee dynamics are fluid, and some panels are moving more quickly than others. But this will give you an idea of how fast everything is happening in the House.

W​​hy should you care? If you’re reading this you know why. The multi-trillion dollar reconciliation package — President Joe Biden’s agenda —  will make its way through the House and Senate in the coming months. The first step is marking up various pieces of the package by a dozen House committees. There’s a non-binding Sept. 15 deadline to complete their work. Everything will then be sent to the House Budget Committee, which assembles the final package and votes it out. Then it’s onto Rules, and finally, a House floor vote. House Democratic leaders are hoping to be done by the end of September, but that’s a super ambitious timetable. So we’ll see what happens.

Thursday, Sept. 2

→ Natural Resources (11 a.m., Remote)

→ Oversight (11 a.m)

Thursday, Sept. 9

→ Education and Labor (12 p.m., Remote)

→ Science, Space and Technology (Remote)

→ Small Business (10 a.m., Hybrid)

→ Veterans Affairs (2 p.m.)

→ Ways and Means 

Friday, Sept. 10

→ Ways and Means

→ Agriculture (Hybrid)

→ Homeland Security (Remote) 

Monday, Sept. 13

→ Ways and Means 

→ Energy and Commerce (Hybrid)

→ Financial Services (10 a.m.)

→ Judiciary 

Tuesday, Sept. 14

→ Ways and Means

→ Transportation and Infrastructure (10 a.m., Hybrid)

Some of the most interesting action will come in Ways and Means and Judiciary. Ways and Means will consider tax increases — a blockbuster issue — while Judiciary will be forced to sort out what kind of immigration policy will end up in the reconciliation package.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Wednesday that the House will be working closely with the Senate to craft a package that can withstand the complicated “Byrd Rule” in the Senate. That rule mandates a half-dozen tests that individual policy provisions must meet to be included in reconciliation. It’s a hyper-complex process, and Senate Democrats have already been conferring with the Senate parliamentarians to hash out some policy questions. But Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough can’t formally rule on anything until her office sees legislative text, and that hasn’t happened yet. So the product that emerges from these markups could be altered significantly.

VOTING RIGHTS

58 years later, Martin Luther King III will lead a D.C. march for voting rights

Fifty-eight years after his father’s historic “I Have a Dream” speech, Martin Luther King III will help lead one of two big voting rights marches in Washington this Saturday. Tens of thousands of protestors are expected to attend the dual events on the National Mall despite the ongoing pandemic to demand Congress pass new voting rights legislation.

There will be marches in other major cities as well, including Atlanta, Miami, Houston and Phoenix, as part of the “March On for Voting Rights,” according to group’s website. The “Make Good Trouble Rally” — the iconic catchphrase of the late Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) — will take place at the Lincoln Memorial simultaneously.

King will be joined on Saturday by the Rev. Al Sharpton, Alejandro Chavez, grandson of Cesar Chavez, and representatives from a host of civil rights, progressive policy groups and labor unions, including the Drum Major Institute, the National Action Network, March On, Future Coalition, SEIU, 51 for 51, and dozens of other organizations.

“Fifty-eight years ago, my father and a team of people, leaders, joined together. And of course he shared his vision for the nation in the ‘I Have a Dream’ speech,” King told us in an interview. “Fifty eight years later, we’re focusing this anniversary on the issue of voting rights.”

Voting rights and election integrity have become huge national flashpoints following the November election. False claims by former President Donald Trump and his supporters that the election was stolen have led to a wave of legislation in GOP-controlled states imposing new voting restrictions. This includes Florida and Georgia, while Texas lawmakers have been locked in a dramatic stalemate over the issue. Democrats, in turn, have sought to push legislation through Congress — the For The People Act — making sweeping changes in how elections are conducted nationally, only to be blocked by a GOP filibuster in the Senate.

“All of a sudden … 18 states have passed legislation. It could be 19 shortly,” King noted. “As many as 30 or 35 states may pass regressive legislation. Not legislation that expands the right to vote and makes it easier for people to vote.”

The House passed the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act on Tuesday, a Democratic-authored bill that would restore portions of the 1965 Voting Rights Act struck down by the Supreme Court several years ago.

No House Republicans voted for the measure, however. And like the For The People Act, GOP leaders have attacked the new proposal as a “Democratic power grab” that would dramatically lessen the Republican Party’s ability to win elections if it were enacted.

Under heavy pressure from their base on the issue, the overwhelming majority of Senate Democrats want to limit or even get rid of the filibuster altogether in order to pass election reform legislation. But Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), among others, refuse to go along with this push. And as long as the 60-vote threshold stays in place, no voting rights or election reform bill is going to pass.

“This is critically important. It should be the most important issue,” King said of voting rights. “I know the president has a lot on his plate, particularly with Afghanistan, the Delta variant — there are many, many issues. But in terms of getting things done, there’s nothing more important than voting rights getting expanded.”

→ WaPo: “Voting rights protests: D.C. expected to host thousands amid delta variant concerns,” by Ellie Silverman

THEY’RE BACK

Congressional delegations are back in business

One of the big changes in Capitol Hill life during the pandemic was that Congress didn’t authorize congressional delegation travel — especially for trips to Afghanistan. We’re looking at you, Reps. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.) and Peter Meijer (R-Mich.).

But going through House records, we noticed the first large-scale congressional delegation of 2021. A sizeable group of lawmakers traveled to Austria, Estonia, Bulgaria and Norway July 3-July 11. GOP Sens. John Cornyn (Texas), Roger Marshall (Kan.), Mike Crapo (Idaho), Deb Fischer (Neb.), Richard Shelby (Ala.) and John Kennedy (La.) appear to have been in Slovenia.

JOB MOVES

→ Bruce Andrews is joining Intel as the semiconductor giant’s corporate vice president and chief government affairs officer. This is a huge job in the tech space. Andrews has been at SoftBank as their co-head of government affairs. More on that

→ Ward Baker’s firm, Baker Group Strategies, has named Gillum Ferguson as director of communications and media in D.C  He will lead the D.C. office. He was at Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s (R-Ala.) office and was press secretary for Tennessee GOP Gov. Bill Lee. 

MOMENTS

8:30 a.m.: President Joe Biden will receive his intelligence briefing.

9:15 a.m.: Biden will get a briefing on Afghanistan. 

10:30 a.m.: The Covid-19 response team will brief reporters

11:30 a.m.: Biden will meet with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett.

Noon: Jen Psaki will brief.

3 p.m.: Biden will meet with governors who have offered to house or resettle Afghans.

CLIP FILE

NYT

→ “At Least 250,000 Afghans Who Worked With U.S. Haven’t Been Evacuated, Estimates Say,” by Lauren Leatherby and Larry Buchanan

→ “U.S., others warn of threat at airport in Kabul and tell citizens to leave immediately,” by Eric Schmitt and Traci Carl

→ “The Latest G.O.P. Schism: How to Handle Afghan Evacuees,” by Annie Karni

WaPo

→ “Taliban show off U.S.-made weapons and gear in a bid to intimidate, project authority,” by Alex Horton

→ “As Aug. 31 deadline looms, United States, European nations accelerate Afghanistan evacuation effort,” by Missy Ryan, Karoun Demirjian, John Hudson and Dan Lamothe

→ “In quest for legitimacy and to keep money flowing, Taliban pushes for political deal with rivals,” by Susannah George in Kabul

WSJ

→ “Biden Administration Likely to Approve Covid-19 Boosters at Six Months,” by Stephanie Armour and Jared Hopkins

→ “U.S. Still Searching for Americans in Afghanistan as Deadline Closes In,” by Nancy Youssef, Saeed Shah and Courtney McBride

→ “CIA, U.S. Troops Conduct Missions Outside Kabul Airport to Extract Americans, Afghan Allies,” by Gordon Lubold, Warren P. Strobel and Jessica Donati

Miami Herald

→ “A divided Florida awaits ruling on school masks as trial closes,” by Ana Ceballos and Jeffrey S. Solochek

Enjoying Punchbowl News AM?

Subscribe 10 friends with your unique link (below) and get a Punchbowl News hat!

Your referral link is: 

You can see all the rewards in here!

Or share via

You currently have: 0 referrals

Editorial photos provided by Getty Images