| | | | | |  | | By Katherine Tully-McManus | Presented by The American Petroleum Institute (API) | With an assists from Betsy Woodruff Swan and Olivia Beavers CUE THE DRAMA, HERE COMES VOTE-A-RAMA — After months of negotiation and days of debate, the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill is set to clear the Senate this morning and move onto the House's court. The final vote is set for 11 a.m., under an agreement struck Monday night to avoid a vote at 3 or 4 Tuesday morning. The House, which left for its August recess weeks ago, could return to Washington early for votes on the budget. But for now, the fiscal framework is in the Senate's lap. And that means the punishing procedural tradition known as vote-a-rama. As part of the deal that spared the Senate an early vote, there was also an agreement to use less than the allowed 50 hours of budget debate divided equally between both sides ahead of the vote-a-rama. That doesn't mean it will be easy. "We will move immediately to proceed to the budget resolution with reconciliation instructions and expect to move to a vote-a-rama shortly thereafter," Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Monday night, teeing up post-infrastructure action. Still up in the air is just how much of the 50 hours will be used before voting begins. Both sides are expected to yield back lots of their time, but Republicans warned Monday that there are a slew of technical changes that will require amendments. And amendments take time. Are you ready for vote-a-rama? It's the third one this year (oof) and Republicans have pledged a robust and no-holds-barred amendment process. Amendments during the vote-a-rama are nonbinding, but they serve a larger political purpose for the minority, allowing them to force votes on sticky issues and put the majority on the spot. The resolution instructs a slate of committees to draft their own portions of the $3.5 trillion social spending package by Sept. 15. Those instructions officially kick off the reconciliation process that Democrats plan to use to pass the measure without any Republican support. Related: Democrats' infrastructure visions take a bipartisan detour, from Tanya Snyder | | | | SUBSCRIBE TO "THE RECAST" TODAY: Power is shifting in Washington and in communities across the country. More people are demanding a seat at the table, insisting that politics is personal and not all policy is equitable. The Recast is a twice-weekly newsletter that explores the changing power dynamics in Washington and breaks down how race and identity are recasting politics and policy in America. Get fresh insights, scoops and dispatches on this crucial intersection from across the country and hear critical new voices that challenge business as usual. Don't miss out, SUBSCRIBE . Thank you to our sponsor, Intel. | | | | | FIRST IN HUDDLE: EX-MUELLER TEAM MEMBER CIRCLES BACK — Greg Andres is probably best known for his work on a team investigating people in former President Donald Trump's orbit. Now, he's representing one of them. The partner at Davis Polk is shepherding former top DOJ official Richard Donoghue through a bevy of congressional probes related to Trump's final weeks in office, two people familiar with the matter confirmed to POLITICO's Betsy Woodruff Swan. The select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol is expected to question Donoghue, now that they've taken over the probe of Trump's DOJ. Just a few years ago, Andres was on special counsel Robert Mueller's team that scrutinized top Trump administration officials and allies for any connections to the Kremlin. He led the prosecution of Trump's former campaign chief Paul Manafort. Donoghue, meanwhile, served in the Trump administration as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York and later as a top DOJ official. In the final weeks of the Trump administration, he pushed back against the president's efforts to dragoon the Justice Department into helping him overturn the 2020 election. GOOD MORNING! Welcome to Huddle, the play-by-play guide to all things Capitol Hill, on this Tuesday, Aug. 10. Hope you have your snacks packed and hydration ready, because we're heading toward a vote-a-rama. MONDAY'S MOST CLICKED: How cryptocurrency became a powerful force in Washington, from the Washington Post TROUBLE WITH THE LAW — The lawyer representing three House Republicans in their lawsuit against Speaker Nancy Pelosi over mask mandate fines has had his own run-ins with the law. Chris Wiest, the lawyer for Reps. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Ralph Norman of South Carolina, had previously been suspended by the Ohio and Kentucky bar associations over insider trading, according to court and Securities and Exchange Commission documents. In 2014, Wiest bought 35,000 shares of stock in a company that his employer was considering acquiring. He faced sanctions, including giving up the profits of the illegal activity. He was also suspended from practicing law by both bar associations for two years. Wiest, whose current practice includes constitutional and business law, said in a statement that his law license is in "good standing" in every state where he is admitted to the bar. He suggested that the SEC investigation he faced may have been politically motivated, adding that "perhaps it is just a coincidence" it arose while he was "involved in a highly contentious judicial speech case affecting every judicial campaign in the Sixth Circuit, including races in Ohio and Kentucky." He also touted his experience handling Covid-19 mandate cases in various courts when discussing why his clients went with him. Olivia has more on the trio's court challenge and their lawyer's own history on different sides of the law: https://politi.co/3lOGCHH | | | | A message from The American Petroleum Institute (API): The American Petroleum Institute (API) released a new analysis of the natural gas and oil industry's impact on the U.S. economy and highlighted its importance to the nation's post-pandemic recovery. The industry is a driver of every sector of the U.S. economy, supporting 11.3 million total American jobs in 2019 across all 50 states. The industry's total impact on U.S. GDP was nearly $1.7 trillion , accounting for nearly 8% of the national total in 2019. | | | DEBT DOUBLE-DARE — There's a dangerous game of fiscal chicken brewing. Democrats are leaving a debt limit increase out of their go-it-alone reconciliation package. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is dug-in on his commitment to not provide Republican votes to raise the debt limit under regular order. "It amounts to a dare for Democrats: Either they pass a debt increase on party lines or potentially own the toxic politics of a credit default as Republicans stand on the sidelines," write Burgess, Heather and Sarah. https://politi.co/3fOkhq5 But the brinkmanship isn't weighing on everyone. "I am predicting, with absolute certainty, it will resolve itself uneventfully. Because it always does," Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) said. PAUSE ON PAWS FOR VETERANS LIFTED — One of the more effective treatments for combat-related mental health conditions has been caught up in more than a decade of slowdowns and stalled legislation. But that changed late last week, when the Senate passed on a voice vote a measure called the Puppies Assisting Wounded Servicemembers for Veterans Therapy Act, or PAWS Act. The House already passed the bill back in May, so now it awaits President Joe Biden's signature. The bill directs the Department of Veterans Affairs to carry out a pilot program on dog training therapy and would authorize the VA to provide service dogs to veterans with mental illnesses. Previously, service dogs were only provided for mobility issues, not mental health. CQ Roll Call's Mark Satter digs into why the bill finally moved: https://bit.ly/3s3BHE7 | | | | Be a Policy Pro. POLITICO Pro has a free policy resource center filled with our best practices on building relationships with state and federal representatives, demonstrating ROI, and influencing policy through digital storytelling. Read our free guides today . | | | | | PROSECUTIONS AND PRICE TAGS — Beryl Howell, chief judge of the federal court in Washington deluged with more than 550 prosecutions related to the attack on the Capitol, wants to know why restitution for damages doesn't compare with the true costs of Jan. 6. Howell was puzzled why prosecutors are using a sum of about $1.5 million to calculate restitution in the cases, while Congress agreed last month to appropriate $521 million to the National Guard for costs incurred in providing security for the Capitol for four months after the Jan. 6 assault. Biden signed the bill on July 30, writes Josh Gerstein. "Would you explain the U.S. Attorney's Office's reason to limit restitution to a little less than $1.5 million in repairs to the building itself, when the total cost of this riot to the American taxpayers is half a billion?" the judge asked. More on the money mismatch here: https://politi.co/37wCjIS ACCESSIBILITY UNDERCOUNT — The latest biennial report from the Office of Congressional Workplace Rights for the 115th Congress rounded up close to 2,000 barriers to accessibility around the Capitol complex, but the report doesn't include findings about Hart Senate Office Building. Not to mention that the 115th Congress ended in 2019, making the "latest" report woefully out of date. Roll Call's Chris Marquette has more on this accessibility status update for Capitol Hill: https://bit.ly/3Azisp3 JEFFRIES DEEP DIVE — House Democratic Caucus Chairman Hakeem Jeffries spent time with Edward-Isaac Dovere in Brooklyn and Washington for this exploration of what post-Pelosi Democratic leadership could look like: https://bit.ly/3izKkTN (Featuring an action shot of a classic Jeffries seersucker and sneakers look from June.) | | | |   | | | TRANSITIONS Maria Papakonstantinou is now communications director for Rep. Buddy Carter (R-Ga.). She most recently was an associate producer at Fox News.
Brian Dusek is now deputy press secretary for Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska). He most recently was a communications intern for CBS News.
Andrew Scibetta is now communications director for Rep. Carolyn Bourdeaux (D-Ga.) from California Democrat Rep. Lou Correa's office. TODAY IN CONGRESS: The House not in session [check on pro forma] The Senate convenes at 9:30 a.m. with a vote scheduled for 11 a.m. AROUND THE HILL 2 p.m. Senate Democrats and Senate Republicans hold their separate post-policy lunch news conferences. 3 p.m. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn) joins a virtual event on vaccine misinformation with Chelsea Clinton and others. 4:30 p.m. Speaker Nancy Pelosi holds an event in San Francisco on rental assistance. TRIVIA MONDAY'S WINNER: Clem Balanoff correctly answered that air conditioning, or "manufactured weather" as it was called at the time, was first installed in the Senate chamber in 1929. TODAY'S QUESTION: The longest vote in modern Senate history took place during a vote-a-rama. When did it happen, how long did it last and what was the topic of the vote? The first person to correctly guess gets a mention in the next edition of Huddle. Send your answers to ktm@politico.com GET HUDDLE emailed to your phone each morning. Follow Katherine on Twitter @ktullymcmanus.
| | | | A message from The American Petroleum Institute (API): The American Petroleum Institute's recently released PwC study shows how the natural gas and oil industry is essential to economic recovery in other sectors, like manufacturing, agriculture, industrial and more, as well as opportunities for job creation. As economic activity, travel patterns and consumption continue to grow during the post-pandemic recovery, the U.S. Energy Information Administration expects global oil and liquid fuels consumption to surpass 2019 levels in 2022. In addition to accounting for nearly 8% of the U.S. GDP in 2019, the natural gas and oil industry generated an additional 3.5 jobs elsewhere in the U.S. economy for each direct job in the U.S. natural gas and oil industry. Learn how the industry is powering each state's economy by using the interactive map linked here. | | | | | | | Follow us | | | | |
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