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Presented by Blue Cross Blue Shield Association: POLITICO's must-read briefing on what's driving the afternoon in Washington. | | | | | |  | | By Garrett Ross and Eli Okun | | | BUCKLE UP — President JOE BIDEN will head to the Hill to meet with House Democrats this afternoon, the White House announced. It’s Friday — except in the House, where it’s still technically Thursday because the session never gaveled out — and things are very much in flux. A two-hour House Democratic caucus meeting this morning did little to move the ball forward on the bipartisan infrastructure bill (aka the BIF). — Pelosi asked House Dems to physically stand up if they wanted the BIF to pass. “A lot of the room” stood, a source in the room told our colleague Sarah Ferris, underscoring the fact that the bill has wide support within the caucus. But a substantial portion remained seated. — Progressives are holding their ground: The left wing of the caucus is insisting that a mere agreement on a framework for the reconciliation bill is not enough for them to vote for the BIF. Instead, they’re demanding a vote on reconciliation, per Nicholas Wu. | • | Rep. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ (D-N.Y.): “We need a vote. We need to be real ... I know we're all committed to the same goal.” | • | Progressive Caucus Chair PRAMILA JAYAPAL (D-Wash.): “I have consistently said that we need a vote in the Senate because I want to make sure that there are no delays, that there are no mix-ups, that there are no mixed understandings about what the deal is … It’s both content and process.” (One big problem with that: Right now, there is no legislative text for the reconciliation bill.) | • | BUT, BUT, BUT: Jayapal later said this: “If there’s something else that’s short of a vote … that gives me those same assurances, I want to listen to that.” | | — Moderates aren’t happy: “I feel frustrated. I want to vote today on this package. I don't know what's gonna happen,” Rep. SCOTT PETERS (D-Calif.) said when he left the caucus meeting this morning, per Sarah. Dems may get another chance to iron out their differences this afternoon in another caucus meeting, Sarah reports. But the likelihood of a vote today appears slim. EYEBROW RAISER: PELOSI DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT SCHUMER’S MANCHIN AGREEMENT — Per CNN’s Daniella Diaz : “@DebDingell just said on CNN that Pelosi didn't know about @Sen_JoeManchin's document from July to Schumer about his topline of $1.5T for the economic document until this week. Notable.” SHOT … Heather Caygle (@heatherscope): “Moderates are speaking up, saying they need to pass BIF in part to reset the ‘Dems in Disarray’ narrative.” ANOTHER SHOT … Sarah Ferris (@sarahnferris): “‘If you want to write a story about Democrats in disarray, that is not the story,’ a passionate Rep. JAN SCHAKOWSKY scolds gaggle of reporters.” CHASER … SPOTTED: DOUG “Dems in Disarray” ANDRES — press secretary for Senate Minority Leader MITCH MCCONNELL — celebrating his birthday with a surprise birthday cake gifted to him by House Minority Whip STEVE SCALISE’s comms team — LAUREN FINE and MICHAEL COMER — his dad, GARY ANDRES, who works on the Ways and Means Committee, and SUZANNE YOUNGBLOOD of McConnell’s office. The cake reads, “It’s Doug’s Special Day and Dems are Still in Disarray,” and he’s wearing a “Dems in Disarray” shirt. Pic | | A message from Blue Cross Blue Shield Association: The United States has the highest maternal death rate of any developed country, with 60% of deaths being preventable. See how Blue Cross and Blue Shield companies are supporting healthier pregnancies and making childbirth safer. | | | CONGRESS VOTING RIGHTS LATEST — When he’s not gaggling with a mob of reporters or haggling on topline numbers and infrastructure details, Sen. JOE MANCHIN is hunting for GOP senators who will join a Democrat-led effort to pass an elections reform bill, Marianne LeVine reports, with “some Senate Republicans … engaging in preliminary discussions with him on the issue.” THE PARTIAL SHUTDOWN — Thousands of Transportation Department employees are facing furloughs today as Congress attempts to strike a deal on infrastructure that covers a certain portion of their agency, Tanya Snyder reports. “Absent either passage of the $550 billion infrastructure bill … or a short-term extension, furlough notices will go out sometime Friday for roughly 4,000 DOT employees.” — Rep. PETER DEFAZIO (D-Ore.) said this morning that Dems would move to pass a 30-day extension, but it will need unanimous support in the Senate if they want to get it done today. More on the developing situation from Congress Minutes COUNTDOWN TO DEFAULT — In private meetings this week, White House aides kicked the tires on whether the administration could continue making payments if the debt ceiling is breached, sources tell WaPo’s Jeff Stein and Tyler Pager. The conclusion? The White House “would be unable to avoid falling behind on obligations and catastrophic economic consequences even if the administration effectively tried to spend in defiance of the debt ceiling, according to one of the officials familiar with the deliberations.” In other words: it’s all on Congress. THE PANDEMIC — Supreme Court Justice BRETT KAVANAUGH tested positive for the coronavirus, the court announced today. Kavanaugh, 56, is experiencing no symptoms and has been fully vaccinated since January. He did not attend Justice AMY CONEY BARRETT’s formal investiture ceremony this morning. More from Quint Forgey BTW … Law360’s @JimmyHooverDC: “Justice [SONIA] SOTOMAYOR, a life-long diabetic, was only #SCOTUS member wearing a mask at Justice Barrett’s investiture today, per pooler @jessicagresko.” THE LATEST MILESTONE — 700,000 people in the U.S. have now died from the coronavirus, per NYT’s Julie Bosman and Lauren Leatherby, “a milestone that few experts had anticipated months ago when vaccines became widely available to the American public.” SOME GOOD NEWS — CDC Director ROCHELLE WALENSKY said at today’s briefing that the U.S. has seen a 15% decrease in coronavirus-related hospitalizations over the past week. — And Merck’s coronavirus pill “reduced by around 50% the chance of hospitalization or death for patients at risk of severe disease, according to interim clinical trial results announced on Friday,” Reuters’ Deena Beasley reports. Merck and its partners will now seek an emergency use authorization. | | | | INTRODUCING CONGRESS MINUTES: Need to follow the action on Capitol Hill blow-by-blow? Check out Minutes, POLITICO’s new platform that delivers the latest exclusives, twists and much more in real time. Get it on your desktop or download the POLITICO mobile app for iOS or Android. GET A FIRST LOOK AT CONGRESS MINUTES HERE. | | | | | THE WHITE HOUSE HEADS UP — Biden is planning to convene a group of 30 countries later this month for a meeting to crack down on ransomware across the globe, CNN’s Sean Lyngaas reports. “The goal of the alliance will be ‘to accelerate our cooperation in combatting cybercrime, improving law enforcement collaboration, stemming the illicit use of cryptocurrency, and engaging on these issues diplomatically,’” according to a statement obtained by CNN. WHAT DEM CAMPAIGNS ARE READING — Are Biden’s lagging approval numbers a passing moment or a lasting malady infecting the Democratic Party heading into what is expected to be a bruising midterm season? The answer, according to NYT polling guru Nate Cohn, is that it’s too soon to tell — but “for now, the differences in attitudes about Mr. Biden between men and women, young and old, Hispanic and non-Hispanic and perhaps even white and Black have grown unusually small. The pattern defies the decades-long tendency for Democrats to fare better among women than men, and among the young than the old.” WHAT’S THE SITUATION — The Situation Room is due for an upgrade, sporting some equipment that hasn’t been updated in 15 years (for reference, the iPhone didn’t exist 15 years ago). Now, the overhaul effort may be getting a boost from the Pentagon, which “has proposed shifting almost $46 million previously approved for other programs to accelerate an ongoing overhaul, adding to about $44 million backed by Congress for the project since fiscal 2017 and $10 million requested for fiscal 2022, according to Pentagon budget documents,” Bloomberg’s Anthony Capaccio and Jennifer Jacobs report. THE JUDICIARY NOW WE GOT BAD BLOOD — Justice SAMUEL ALITO’s public defense of the court’s actions on the Texas abortion ban this week were just the latest in what CNN’s Joan Biskupic writes is a “new level of defensiveness and anger” among the Supreme Court, “showing irritation with public expectations, the news media and one another. … Rarely have so many justices uttered such provocative, off-the-bench comments at the same time. Some are at cross purposes, but they all highlight the potential for declining confidence in America's highest court.” ABORTION ON THE DOCKET — The Biden administration’s attempt to “land the first legal blow” against Texas’ abortion ban went before a federal judge this morning, AP’s Paul Weber writes in Austin, Texas. | | | | 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. | | | | | THE ECONOMY IN REAL LIFE — WaPo’s Chris Dixon, Dan Michalski, Erin Chan Ding, Mary Beth Gahan, Lori Rozsa and Hannah Bae have a deeply reported piece with six portraits of what life is like for those who have relied on unemployment benefits over the past 18 months. “Some have started new jobs, out of necessity as much as choice. Some haven’t stopped worrying about how to stay afloat. … They make clear that the country’s recovery still has far to go.” TRENDING UP — “Consumer spending picked up in August, a sign the U.S. economic recovery is gaining steam heading into the fall,” WSJ’s Sarah Chaney Cambon writes . “Personal outlays on goods and services rose 0.8% in August from the month before, after a 0.1% decrease in July, the Commerce Department reported Friday.” IS THE ECONOMY STUPID? — NYT’s Neil Irwin takes a look at a paper out of the Fed that is stirring the economic world, begging the question whether anyone really knows how the economy works. The paper, written by senior adviser JEREMY RUDD, “disputes the idea that people’s expectations for future inflation matter much for the level of inflation experienced today” and is indicative of a “broader rethinking of core ideas about how the economy works and how policymakers, especially at central banks, try to manage things.” AMERICA AND THE WORLD — North Korea on Thursday tested out a fourth weapons launch in recent weeks, this time a new anti-aircraft missile, AP’s Hyung-Jin Kim reports in Seoul, South Korea. “South Korea, Japan and the United States typically publicly confirm North Korean ballistic missile launches, which are banned by U.N. resolutions, soon after they occur. But they did not do so for Thursday’s, indicating the weapon tested may have been a different kind.” PLAYBOOKERS THAT WAS QUICK: We recently noted that former ’90s political rivals Lanny Davis and Bob Livingston, who are now lobbyists, had taken on a controversial new client: Libyan warlord Khalifa Haftar. Well, Davis tells us that he and Livingston have severed ties with Haftar as of Thursday. In a statement shared exclusively with Playbook , Davis said, “We offer the Field Marshal our best wishes that he can carry out the commitment he made to us leading us to represent him under FARA and as stated in our mission statement in our contract: That he will continue to support the UN-supervised free and fair elections as scheduled on 24 December 2021, with the objective of a unified and peaceful Libya that respects the rule of law and the human and political rights of all Libyans, men and women.” Davis declined to comment further on why the lobbyists severed ties with the warlord — sorry, field marshal — but it’s perhaps notable that Haftar never issued a public statement endorsing the Libyan election process and respect for human rights. TRANSITION — Max Baker is joining the Clyde Group as a senior account executive for public affairs. He most recently has been digital director for Sen. Amy Klobuchar’s (D-Minn.) political operation. | | | | A message from Blue Cross Blue Shield Association:   Blue Cross and Blue Shield companies are supporting healthier pregnancies and making childbirth safer. See how. | | | | | | | 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 | | | | |  |
