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Presented by Facebook: POLITICO's must-read briefing on what's driving the afternoon in Washington. | | | | | |  | | By Garrett Ross and Eli Okun | | | IT’S GO TIME — Speaker NANCY PELOSI told House Democrats in a letter today that they would “move forward to pass two jobs bills next week: the Build Back Better Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Framework,” confirming our colleague Heather Caygle’s reporting Thursday night. But it’s still an open question what the final package will look like, even as the House Budget Committee released its legislative text. — Provisions that would allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices are back in, despite failing in front of the Energy and Commerce Committee earlier this month. — The proposed new Medicare dental benefits would now start in 2028 — which, as WaPo’s Jeff Stein notes, is not what the Biden administration has in mind: “WH wants to send new Medicare dental benefits out to millions of seniors as soon as next year, not at the very end of Biden’s potential second term.” — A carbon tax is now being explored as an alternative to the corporate and income tax hikes that were floated as pay-fors but which Sen. KYRSTEN SINEMA (D-Ariz.) opposes, NYT’s Jonathan Weisman and Coral Davenport report. “As negotiations continue, there may be changes,” Pelosi wrote in her letter, a nod both to the level of uncertainty and the divisions still roiling Democrats on the Hill. Meanwhile … House moderates are growing bolder, not more conciliatory. Sarah Ferris and Anthony Adragna report that roughly a dozen House moderates are now threatening “to bail on reconciliation if there's no infrastructure vote next week.” Worth noting: That number has grown over the course of the week, even as leadership attempted to de-escalate tensions with the moderates. And progressives aren’t budging, either. Rep. PRAMILA JAYAPAL (D-Wash.), the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, told reporters on Friday that even if a $3.5 trillion reconciliation package was voted on next week by the House, she would vote against the bipartisan infrastructure bill on Monday unless the Senate had already approved the reconciliation deal, per NBC’s Sahil Kapur: “‘It cannot pass,’ Jayapal told reporters, adding that ‘over half’ her 95-member caucus is prepared to vote against it. ‘I don’t bluff. I don’t grandstand. We just don’t have the votes for it.’” Even so, at her presser today, Pelosi had some advice for those doubting the viability of a successful vote on reconciliation next week: “Have a little patience. Follow it. See it unfold. We’re very encouraged.” DRAMA ON THE CAPITOL STEPS — Rep. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE (R-Ga.) crashed Dems’ “Building Back Better for Women” event on the steps of the Capitol this morning, getting into a shouting match with Reps. PETE AGUILAR (D-Calif.), DEBBIE DINGELL (D-Mich.) and BETTY MCCOLLUM (D-Minn.). “You should all be ashamed. Killing a baby up until birth is a lack of civility; it’s called murder,” Greene said to the throng of Democrats, per Congress Minutes. “You try being a Christian, and treat your colleagues decently,” Dingell replied. Video of the interaction … Another video BIDEN WEIGHS IN — In his first public comments on the matter since border patrol agents on horseback were photographed confronting Haitian migrants on the U.S.-Mexico border, President JOE BIDEN called the conduct of the officers “outrageous.” “I promise you those people will pay. They will be investigated. There will be consequences,” Biden told reporters today. “It’s dangerous. It’s wrong. It sends the wrong message around the world and sends the wrong message at home. It’s simply not who we are.” 50-second clip FOR YOUR RADAR — Two co-hosts of ABC’s “The View” were asked to leave the table abruptly this morning after testing positive for the coronavirus, forcing VP KAMALA HARRIS (who had flown to New York to appear on the show earlier today) to conduct her interview remotely. “The two hosts, SUNNY HOSTIN and ANA NAVARRO, were fully vaccinated and contracted breakthrough cases of the virus, co-host JOY BEHAR said.” Clip of Hostin and Navarro leaving the set … More from Claire Rafford Happy Friday afternoon. | | A message from Facebook: Why Facebook supports reforming Section 230
The internet has changed a lot in the last 25 years—the last time comprehensive internet regulations were passed.
Facebook supports updated regulations —like reforming Section 230, to set standards for the way larger tech companies enforce rules about content. | | | THE PANDEMIC BOOSTER BUSINESS — Biden announced today that booster shots would begin shipping out this week for those individuals who are over age 65 or at high risk. More from Erin Banco But CDC Director ROCHELLE WALENSKY was sure to note in a briefing today that it is still the unvaccinated who have the power to turn the tide. “I want to be clear: We will not boost our way out of this pandemic,” she said. TALES FROM THE FRONT LINES — While the CDC tries to ramp up its response as the Delta variant ravages much of the country and the holiday season looms around the corner, Walensky is finding agency staff are burnt out and fatigued, Erin also reports. CDC officials “described an intense summer marked by demands to digest complex data in record time as the government raced to update policies on vaccines, masks and travel in the face of Delta.” COUNTDOWN TO DEFAULT SOONER THAN LATER — The Bipartisan Policy Center is out with a new analysis of the debt-limit situation today, and the news isn’t too peachy. “The federal government could run out of cash and start missing payments on things as diverse as Social Security and military pay sometime between Oct. 15 and Nov. 4,” NYT’s Alan Rappeport writes, a window that is narrower than previously expected. CONGRESS ABORTION RIGHTS BILL PASSES HOUSE — The House passed legislation today that “would create a statutory right for health-care professionals to provide abortions” on the heels of Texas’ new abortion law, WaPo’s Felicia Sonmez and Ann Marimow report. The House voted 218-211 on the measure, with Texas Rep. HENRY CUELLAR the only Democrat to vote against the bill. All Republicans voted no, per CNN’s Kristin Wilson. — Senate Majority Leader CHUCK SCHUMER is expected to bring up the bill in his chamber, a Democratic aide told WSJ’s Eliza Collins, but the measure faces long odds of reaching the 60-vote threshold needed to avoid a filibuster. BREAKING BAD — Rep. BENNIE THOMPSON (D-Miss.), the chair of the committee investigating Jan. 6, had strong words this morning as his panel seeks to enforce subpoenas for former Trump officials. Thompson said he would do “whatever the law allows us to do” to ensure their cooperation. Asked if that includes contempt hearings, Thompson said: “If that’s in the law, we’re prepared to do it.” He added that while he hasn’t specifically raised the possibility of contempt hearings with DOJ, there has been “an ongoing conversation” with the department. (h/t Kyle Cheney) | | | | TELL US WHAT YOU THINK: Do you listen to POLITICO podcasts? We want to hear from you! Tell us what you like, what you could do without, and what you want to see in the future from the POLITICO Audio team! Your responses will help us improve our offerings and tailor our podcast content to better fit your needs. Find the survey here. | | | | | POLITICS ROUNDUP GOING BACK TO CALI — Rep. KAREN BASS (D-Calif.) is preparing to launch a campaign for mayor of Los Angeles, WaPo’s Sean Sullivan and Tyler Pager report. The scoop, though, was apparently there for the taking: “A POLITICO reporter also overheard [Bass] discuss her plans on a phone call. ‘I’m going to officially announce a run for mayor,’ she said on a phone call walking out of the House chamber,” Nicholas Wu writes. DEEP DIVE — Michael Kruse takes a peek behind the curtain of how one man has turned a local Republican party in Strongsville, Ohio, into something that, Michael writes, is “emblematic of the nationalization of our grassroots political life: the apocalyptic pitch, the hostile, conspiratorial talk, the obliteration of any semblance of a lull between elections” that manifests as “an on-the-ground, scale-model glimpse at the building of a bridge from Trump 2020 to the impending possibility of Trump 2024.” POLICY CORNER COMING UP SHORT — Less than 17% of federal rental aid has been disbursed by state and local officials as of this month, according to new data released by the Treasury Department today. “The slow pace of aid distribution indicated that the United States still faces a potential eviction crisis stoked by the Covid-19 pandemic,” Katy O’Donnell writes. TAX THE RICH? WELL, MAYBE NOT — Biden has long pitched his economic agenda as one that would address highly profitable companies avoiding corporate taxes. But that reality doesn’t seem to be one on the immediate horizon. While the “Democratic proposal approved this month by the House Ways and Means Committee would sharply raise taxes on U.S. corporations,” WSJ’s Richard Rubin writes, the bill “doesn’t touch the main reasons why profitable companies sometimes don’t pay taxes, including accelerated depreciation of investments and tax credits for activities such as research and development.” INFRASTRUCTURE YEAR WILDEST DREAMS — Bridges. Coal mines. Highways. Ferries. Trains. These are just some of the priorities for state and local officials as they imagine what the trillions of dollars in federal funding that Congress is haggling over could do for their communities. NYT’s Zach Montague and Emily Cochrane have a look at the wishlists for more than a dozen states across the country. | | | | BECOME A GLOBAL INSIDER: The world is more connected than ever. It has never been more essential to identify, unpack and analyze important news, trends and decisions shaping our future — and we’ve got you covered! Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, Global Insider author Ryan Heath navigates the global news maze and connects you to power players and events changing our world. Don’t miss out on this influential global community. Subscribe now. | | | | | AMERICA AND THE WORLD MODI OPERANDI — As he prepares to meet with Biden today, Indian PM NARENDRA MODI is coming with a spirit of working together, but also questions and concerns following America’s Afghanistan withdrawal, WaPo’s Gerry Shih reports from New Delhi. Biden “needs to assuage concerns in India, a geopolitically isolated partner that is juggling a tense rivalry with China to its east, but also threats from its west in the form of Islamist militant groups in Pakistan and Afghanistan that see India as a mortal enemy.” IRAN SO FAR AWAY — Iran says it would be ready to return to nuclear negotiations “very soon” — if not for the “negative sign” from the U.S., Iranian Foreign Minister HOSSEIN AMIRABDOLLAHIAN told NBC . “They say, ‘We are ready to return to the fulfillment of our commitments.’ However, there is no action taken in order to show and prove the true will to the new Iranian administration, to the Iranian nation. And worse than that, simultaneously, they have managed to put on new sanctions,” Amirabdollahian said. HEADS UP — DOJ reached an agreement with Huawei finance chief MENG WANZHOU “to return to her home in China nearly three years after she was detained in Canada on behalf of the U.S.,” WSJ’s Aruna Viswanatha, Dan Strumpf and Jacquie McNish report. BEYOND THE BELTWAY CLIMATE FILES — It’s about to get a lot more expensive to live in coastal cities near the water. That’s because federal subsidies for flood insurance are on their way out as part of a “nationwide experiment in trying to adapt to climate change,” NYT’s Christopher Flavelle writes. “Federal officials say the goal is fairness — and also getting homeowners to understand the extent of the risk they face, and perhaps move to safer ground, reducing the human and financial toll of disasters.” THEY SAID THIS DAY WOULD NEVER COME — Former President BARACK OBAMA and MICHELLE OBAMA will join Illinois Gov. J.B. PRITZKER and Chicago Mayor LORI LIGHTFOOT for a ceremony to break ground on the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago on Tuesday, per AP’s Darlene Superville. MEDIAWATCH — SHELLEY ROSS writes for NYT Opinion: “Chris Cuomo Sexually Harassed Me. I Hope He’ll Use His Power to Make Change”: “‘Now that I think of it … I am ashamed,’ read the subject line of a 2005 email [CHRIS] CUOMO wrote me, one hour after he sexually harassed me at a going-away party for an ABC colleague. At the time, I was the executive producer of an ABC entertainment special, but I was Mr. Cuomo’s executive producer at ‘Primetime Live’ just before that. … “When Mr. Cuomo entered the Upper West Side bar, he walked toward me and greeted me with a strong bear hug while lowering one hand to firmly grab and squeeze the cheek of my buttock. ‘I can do this now that you’re no longer my boss,’ he said to me with a kind of cocky arrogance. ‘No you can’t,’ I said, pushing him off me at the chest while stepping back, revealing my husband, who had seen the entire episode at close range. We quickly left. … [M]y question today is the same as it was then: Was he ashamed of what he did, or was he embarrassed because my husband saw it?” PLAYBOOKERS SPOTTED at a party to celebrate the paperback version of Nina Jankowicz’s “How to Lose the Information War: Russia, Fake News, and the Future of Conflict” ( $16.15) on Thursday night on Maxwell’s outdoor patio, where guests dined on charcuterie and grilled cheese sandwiches: Alex Vindman, Mike Stein, Rachel Rizzo, Natalia Antonova, Courtney Callejas, Pete Kiehart, Laura Lippman, Lisa Kaplan and RaeJean Stokes. MEDIA MOVES — Isaac Dovere is joining CNN as a senior reporter. He currently is a staff writer at The Atlantic and is a POLITICO alum. … Phillip Jackson is joining HuffPost as a social justice reporter based in D.C. He previously was a criminal justice reporter for the Baltimore Sun. | | | |   | | | | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Subscribe to the POLITICO Playbook family Playbook | Playbook PM | California Playbook | Florida Playbook | Illinois Playbook | Massachusetts Playbook | New Jersey Playbook | New York Playbook | Brussels Playbook | London Playbook View all our politics and policy newsletters | | Follow us | | | | |  |
