Playbook PM: Dems' deadline looms as deal nears

From: POLITICO Playbook - Friday Oct 22,2021 05:10 pm

Oct 22, 2021

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SIREN — The Supreme Court has agreed to hear arguments on Texas’ abortion ban, but declined for a second time to temporarily halt the law as litigation proceeds over its constitutionality, Josh Gerstein reports . “The justices will take up a pair of challenges to the law on a highly accelerated timetable with arguments scheduled for Nov. 1, the court said in an order issued Friday.”

SPOTTED: A young ERIC ADAMS in the music video for the NOTORIOUS B.I.G.’s 1994 single, “Juicy.”

DEMS IN THE RED ZONE — As Democrats run up against their unofficial deadline for a reconciliation package deal, the question on everyone’s minds is: Can it get done today?

The answer appears to be … probably not. But it sounds like they’re close.

After a breakfast meeting with President JOE BIDEN (in person) and Senate Majority Leader CHUCK SCHUMER (via Zoom), Speaker NANCY PELOSI “seemed upbeat … telling reporters she believed a deal was within reach, though repeatedly declining to say whether it could happen today,” our colleagues Burgess Everett, Heather Caygle, Sarah Ferris and Marianne LeVine report.

“Several sources with knowledge of the intensifying talks said they doubted a deal could come together on Friday given where things stand between Biden and Sens. JOE MANCHIN (D-W.Va.) and KYRSTEN SINEMA (D-Ariz.). But Democrats are ending the week with far more clarity from that duo than they began, giving the party increasing confidence it can land a framework for the bill this month.”

House Majority Leader STENY HOYER said today he hopes to bring the infrastructure bills “to the floor next week if they’re ready.”

It sure seems like the ball is on the goal line. The question is what’s in the Dems’ gameplan to push this thing into the endzone.

Happy Friday afternoon. An item in Thursday’s Playbook PM mistakenly stated that Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has been at dinners where top donors want him to run for president. The dinners have been happening without him. We corrected the item shortly after it published, and just wanted to disclose that here.

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POLICY CORNER

NEAR-RECORD DEFICIT FOR 2021 — The U.S. budget deficit totaled $2.77 trillion for 2021, “the second highest on record but an improvement from the all-time high of $3.13 trillion reached in 2020,” AP’s Martin Crusinger reports. “The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office expects the deficit will fall to $1.15 trillion in the current budget year, which began Oct. 1, and will dip below $1 trillion for three years from 2023 through 2025 before rising again above $1 trillion for each year through 2031. That forecast does not include the spending that will occur if Biden is able to get two pending measures through Congress.”

AFGHANISTAN FALLOUT

WHO’S LEFT ON THE GROUND — Close to 200 Americans are still left in Afghanistan waiting to be evacuated, CNN’s Jennifer Hansler reports . “The State Department informed congressional staff Thursday that it is in touch with 363 U.S. citizens in Afghanistan, 176 of whom want to leave, two sources familiar with the call told CNN,” Hansler writes. “Thursday's numbers — combined with evacuation figures since August 31 — present a far higher count of Americans looking to leave Afghanistan than the administration publicly estimated at the time of the U.S. withdrawal.”

CONGRESS

WHOSE GRIPE IS IT ANYWAY? — Ben Jacobs sums up the state of the Democratic Party succinctly in N.Y. Mag today : “The dirty secret in Washington right now is that everyone can be Joe Manchin or Kyrsten Sinema if they want. If any Democrat has a pet issue or a particular gripe, they can derail the tortuous negotiations over the massive social-spending bill being pushed by the Biden administration.” Jacobs takes a scalpel to one of the outstanding issues that still threatens to upend the negotiations: the state and local tax deduction.

HEADS UP — Rep. BENNIE THOMPSON (D-Miss.), the chair of the Jan. 6 select committee, said today that he expects his panel will hold another hearing before Thanksgiving, Nicholas Wu reports.

BACKSTORY — Hailey Fuchs and Olivia Beavers pull the curtain back on the contributions at the center of the DOJ’s recent indictment of Rep. JEFF FORTENBERRY (R-Neb.) — donations that “underscore how eager members of Congress often are to raise money, even when there are red flags around it. They also add a layer of intrigue to a story of global influence-peddling involving an embattled Nigerian billionaire and a sitting member of Congress whose future in the chamber is now in peril.”

TRIVIA TIME — As of today, Sen. PATRICK LEAHY (D-Vt.) is now the fourth-longest serving senator in U.S. history, passing the late TED KENNEDY. Do you know which three former senators are ahead of him? Email us at playbook@politico.com. We'll reveal the answers in Monday's Playbook PM and give a shoutout to the first person to respond with all three correct answers.

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

MOVING ON UP — NEERA TANDEN has been named White House staff secretary and “will also retain her current title of White House senior adviser, which has allowed her to advise the president on a wide range of issues,” WaPo’s Michael Scherer reports.

BIDEN’S CLIMATE REALITY — Biden wants to show the world that he is committed to climate solutions when he and nearly a dozen Cabinet members arrive at next month’s global summit in Glasgow — despite the fact that Congress has yet to lend his agenda a hand. WSJ’s Andrew Restuccia and Timothy Puko report that Biden’s aides are working on a new U.S. climate strategy that will outline options for meeting the target, but it may not be released publicly in time for the summit. U.S. officials believe there are multiple pathways for meeting the target, but expect to rely at least in part on the remaining climate measures in the scaled-back legislation, like renewable-energy tax credits.”

THE PANDEMIC

THE VACCINATION EFFORT — Pfizer said today that its Covid vaccine is 90.7% effective in children between the ages of 5 and 11, CNN’s Jamie Gumbrecht reports. “Pfizer/BioNTech are seeking FDA emergency use authorization of a two-dose regimen of their 10-microgram dose for children ages 5 to 11. The two doses would be administered three weeks apart.”

WHO OWNS THE VACCINES? — State and local health officials across the country have had the idea to donate expiring vaccine doses to other countries in need of aid. But the Biden administration has consistently denied requests to carry out donations, WaPo’s Kevin Sieff and Dan Diamond report. “The reason, White House officials say, is that vaccines in the United States are the property of the federal government, not the cities or states in which they are distributed.”

BEYOND THE BELTWAY

WHERE ARE THE JOBS? — Business leaders and GOP governors insisted earlier this year that if a $300-a-week supplement for unemployed Americans was cut off, jobs would naturally start to get filled again. But that hasn’t been the case, at least not yet, AP’s Christopher Rugaber and Casey Smith write in Indianapolis . “In states that cut off the $300 check, the workforce — the number of people who either have a job or are looking for one — has risen no more than it has in the states that maintained the payment.”

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.

JUDICIARY SQUARE

BIDEN’S NEW BATTLEGROUND — The Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals covers Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi and has 17 active judges — 12 of whom are Republican appointees, of which six were placed there by former President DONALD TRUMP. Now, this conservative hotbed is destined to become the de facto battleground for conservative challenges to the Biden administration’s agenda, WSJ’s Brent Kendall writes.

VALLEY TALK

BEHIND THE SCENES — When Facebook whistleblower FRANCES HAUGEN wanted to come forward, she turned to a nonprofit that “has helped tipsters like the intelligence official whose revelations about Donald Trump’s Ukraine phone call led to the former president’s impeachment and the photographer who leaked a photo of RICK PERRY, during his time as energy secretary, hugging a coal baron,” WaPo’s Reed Albergotti writes. The organization, Whistleblower Aid, was taking a risk in bringing Haugen on as it seeks to expand and make it easier for clients to expose bad actors. It appears to be paying off.

AMERICA AND THE WORLD

CHINA COLLECTING GENETIC DATA — The National Counterintelligence and Security Center is warning of Chinese firms that are “collecting genetic data from around the world, part of an effort by the Chinese government and companies to develop the world’s largest bio-database,” NYT’s Julian Barnes reports in Bethesda, Md. “The American private sector has long been in the cross hairs of China and other countries trying to steal American technology and intellectual property. Other countries like Russia also remain a threat, but the economic might of China makes it the biggest threat, officials said.”

AUF WIEDERSEHEN — EU leaders and former President BARACK OBAMA toasted outgoing German Chancellor ANGELA MERKEL at a summit today, AP’s Raf Casert reports in Brussels. “So many people, girls and boys, men and women, have had a role model who they could look up to through challenging times,” Obama said. “I know because I am one of them.” Obama’s video message

PLAYBOOKERS

PLAYBOOK METRO SECTION — Metro service will remain limited through at least Oct. 31 as an NTSB investigation continues, the agency said today, per WaPo’s Justin George and Ian Duncan.

SPOTTED at an event on Thursday night, which raised over $275,000, to help launch the new LGBTQ Action Committee backed by the DCCC at the home of Jason Mida and Drew Hammill: Nancy Pelosi (who addressed the current negotiations, calling them Dems’ “current exuberance,” and her confidence in the party winning more seats in the midterms), Tim Gunn (who walked 12 blocks by himself from Union Station to the event), Reps. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-N.Y.), Angie Craig (D-Minn.), Sharice Davids (D-Kan.), Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.), Chris Pappas (D-N.H.), Mondaire Jones (D-N.Y.), Mark Takano (D-Calif.) and David Cicilline (D-R.I.), Steve Elmendorf, Tiffany Muller, Alex Slater, David Reid, Tonio Burgess, Brian Bond and Chris Anderson.

SPOTTED at a VIP reception for the Ireland Funds at the Phoenix Park Hotel on Thursday night: Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Reps. Richard Neal (D-Mass.), Sean Patrick Maloney (D-N.Y.), Brendan Boyle (D-Pa.) and Bill Keating (D-Mass.), British Ambassador Karen Pierce, Irish Ambassador Daniel Mulhall, Randy Florke, Andrew Elliot, James Hooley, John McCarthy, Trevor Ringland, Susan O’Neill, Susan Davies, Stella O’Leary, Thomas Quinn, Elizabeth Frawley Bagley and Tony Culley-Foster.

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