| | | | | |  | | By Rachael Bade, Eugene Daniels, Ryan Lizza and Tara Palmeri | | | |  | DRIVING THE DAY | | The Summer Olympics officially ended this morning in Tokyo. But if you miss all the hurdle-jumping, grappling, surprising finishes, rah-rah boosterism and self-important pageantry, you're in luck: All will be on display this week on Capitol Hill as the BIF moves ever closer to the finish line. (Strained? Perhaps. But it's Sunday morning!) The BIF cleared a key hurdle Saturday in the Senate, as a move to end debate passed in a 67-27 vote. Among those 67 were 18 Republicans, including two who previously opposed the measure: Sens. JOHN CORNYN (Texas) and DEB FISCHER (Neb.). That's notable both as a clear sign of momentum, and in the fact that no Republican supporters jumped ship after this week's CBO score, which projected that the bipartisan bill will add $256 billion to the federal deficit over the next decade. What happens next? — First, the Senate has to sort through the many proposed amendments to the BIF. — One offered by Cornyn and Sen. ALEX PADILLA (D-Calif.) aims to ease restrictions on coronavirus relief aid to local governments. — More contentious are two dueling proposals over how Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are reported and treated by the IRS. On one side is a proposal backed by the crypto industry and authored by Sens. RON WYDEN (D-Ore.), PAT TOOMEY (R-Pa.) and CYNTHIA LUMMIS (R-Wyo.); on the other, an amendment backed by the White House and authored by Sens. MARK WARNER (D-Va.), ROB PORTMAN (R-Ohio) and KYRSTEN SINEMA (D-Ariz.). More on this from WaPo: "Senate sits divided on regulation of crypto industry" — As Marianne LeVine and Burgess Everett report , a lone Republican is slowing this amendment process down. Sen. BILL HAGERTY (R-Tenn.) said Saturday that he's "not inclined to expedite this process whatsoever," and that "there's no purpose, in my view, to allow an acceleration of that." (Worth remembering: In January, Hagerty hired 13 former Trump administration officials for his Senate office.) What does that mean for timing? Majority Leader CHUCK SCHUMER is hoping to wrap up the amendment process today, with an eye toward a full and final vote on BIF early this week (exact timing TBD). One X-factor to keep an eye on: former President DONALD TRUMP, who has vocally opposed the BIF. On Saturday, Trump issued a statement calling the bill a "disgrace," and declaring that "if MITCH MCCONNELL was smart, which we've seen no evidence of, he would use the debt ceiling card to negotiate a good infrastructure package." — That having been said, here's some food for thought: For all the talk of the GOP "civil war" carried out in primaries, Republican support for BIF is another way to gauge Trump's influence — and among Senate Republicans, the reaction to his opposition "was mostly yawns," as NYT's Luke Broadwater and Emily Cochrane write. Substantial Republican support for the measure "may signal his waning influence on Capitol Hill," the pair write. — On the other hand: Of the 18 Senate Republicans who voted for the BIF on Saturday, only five are considered likely to run for reelection in 2022: MIKE CRAPO (Idaho), CHUCK GRASSLEY (Iowa), JOHN HOEVEN (N.D.), LISA MURKOWSKI (Alaska) and TODD YOUNG (Ind.). The majority of those GOP incumbents who face voters in 2022 are with Trump on this. | | A message from Facebook: The internet has changed a lot since 1996 - internet regulations should too
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– Reforming Section 230 | | | OBAMA'S B-DAY BASH — Attendees of former President BARACK OBAMA's 60th birthday party operate by much the same rules as a proverbial fight club meeting: Don't talk about it. Guests to the buzzy soiree on Martha's Vineyard were — gasp! — even prevented from taking photos and posting on social media from the event. Even so, details were bound to leak out. And when they did, the Daily Mail (who else?) repeated them with tabloid gleefulness. "[D]etails of the exclusive party were revealed after two cannabis-smoking DJs posted a series of pictures and videos to social media, also flouting the rules on posting pictures from the event," the Daily Mail reports in a story that, true to form, has 12 bullet points beneath the headline. Other details from the party: — JOHN LEGEND sang "Happy Birthday" to Obama. Other guests included: BEYONCÉ and JAY-Z, CBS' GAYLE KING, ERYKAH BADU, BRADLEY COOPER, GEORGE CLOONEY, QUESTLOVE and TOM HANKS. — Guests were presented with custom-designed face masks and cocktail napkins emblazoned with a "44x60" logo (Obama being the 44th president, and this being his 60th b-day). — Among the amenities: "a specially constructed espresso martini bar, salt station and s'mores station." As the party wrapped up, a police officer was heard over the radio describing the resulting traffic situation as a "s---show." That may be true, but at least it sounds like a very ritzy s---show. Good Sunday morning. Thanks for reading Playbook. Drop us a line: Rachael Bade, Eugene Daniels, Ryan Lizza, Tara Palmeri. 9 THINGS WE READ THAT STUCK WITH US … — Amid a huge Covid-19 surge, Florida has set a new state record for number of hospitalizations each day for the past six days, reports the Miami Herald. — Over the past three decades, the median net worth of Black households with college grads who are in their 30s fell from roughly $50,400 to $8,200, per a WSJ analysis. (Yes, you read those numbers correctly.) — A contrarian take on the new eviction moratorium: It has neither an economic nor public-health rationale, writes WaPo's Megan McArdle. — "Get better lawyers." According to a NYT report, that's what Speaker NANCY PELOSI said to a Biden aide after being told that White House lawyers believed a nationwide evictions ban exceeded the government's legal power. — From Chalkbeat, the staggering full extent of "learning loss" in Newark, N.J., schools over the pandemic: Just 9% of students in grades 2-8 met state expectations in math, and 11% met expectations in reading. — "Our national conversation has reached the point where many Americans are done with any and all excuses offered by the unvaccinated," writes Sarah Smarsh in a NYT op-ed on "Covid rage." — Charlie Sykes in POLITICO Magazine on what he describes as the one place where GOP leaders take the spread of Covid very seriously: the border. — In a twist, activists opposed to abortion rights are "citing an unlikely authority for their arguments that Roe v. Wade is a misguided ruling," writes WaPo's Robert Barnes: RUTH BADER GINSBURG. — We don't actually "own" the digital books or movies we buy online from places like Amazon or Apple; we rent them. And that poses "a cultural, a political, even a civilizational danger," Maria Bustillos writes in The Nation. | | | |   | | | SUNDAY BEST … — Senate Judiciary Chair DICK DURBIN (D-Ill.) on what former acting A.G. JEFFREY ROSEN told the committee, on CNN's "State of the Union": "He told us a lot. Seven hours of testimony. … What was going on in the Department of Justice was frightening from a constitutional point of view. … I would like to bring in JEFFREY CLARK … He was the heir apparent in Trump's mind if Rosen was not going to do his bidding. And Rosen stood fast and didn't." DANA BASH: "The key question is whether the former president, when he was still president, tried to get Jeffrey Rosen to overturn the election results." Durbin: "It was not that direct, but he was asking him to do certain things related to states' election returns, which he refused to do. … It was real. Very real. And it was very specific. This president is not subtle when he wants something." — Sen. BILL CASSIDY (R-La.) on the infrastructure timeline, on "State of the Union": "Probably it's going to pass — we'll have a vote tonight [at] 7:30, and then another vote, if you just look at the clock playing out, sometime on Tuesday. So, it could go quicker, but it's going. And that's the good thing. It's going." — Sen. RICK SCOTT (R-Fla.) on the 2024 presidential race, on "Fox News Sunday": "I'm not planning to run." — Rep. CORI BUSH (D-Mo.) on what's next for the eviction ban if courts strike it down, on "State of the Union": "We have to do the work now to get this money out … into the hands of the people who need it the most. So we're telling tenants, we're telling landlords to go online, or show up at the clinics that are happening around the country and apply for this money. … Sixty days we may not have. So we are pushing really hard to make sure that people apply." — RANDI WEINGARTEN, president of the American Federation of Teachers, on vaccine mandates for teachers on NBC's "Meet the Press": "As a matter of personal conscience, I think that we need to be working with our employers, not opposing them, on vaccine mandates." PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN'S SUNDAY — The president has nothing on his public schedule. | | | | STEP INSIDE THE WEST WING: What's really happening in West Wing offices? Find out who's up, who's down, and who really has the president's ear in our West Wing Playbook newsletter, the insider's guide to the Biden White House and Cabinet. For buzzy nuggets and details that you won't find anywhere else, subscribe today. | | | | | | | PLAYBOOK READS | | | 
PHOTO OF THE DAY: Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.) rides a Senate elevator Saturday as he slows the progress of the infrastructure bill through the chamber. | Sarah Silbiger/Getty Images | THE WHITE HOUSE NO SUMMER VACAY — "'Always working': Biden eyes 1st summer getaway as president," by AP's Darlene Superville and Aamer Madhani: "After more than six months of work combating the coronavirus, negotiating a bipartisan infrastructure bill and repairing the U.S. image abroad, Biden should be heading out on vacation and a traditional August break from Washington. But with legislative work on the infrastructure bill keeping the Senate in session for a second straight weekend, and likely through next week, Biden hasn't gone far — just home to Wilmington, Delaware, as he has done most weekends since taking office. … "Biden will spend some of next week at the White House before he decamps again, either for Delaware — he also owns a home in Rehoboth Beach — or Camp David, the official presidential retreat in Maryland's Catoctin Mountains, [press secretary JEN] PSAKI said." CONGRESS WHERE MANCHIN STANDS — "Sen. Joe Manchin signals he won't back renewal of federal jobless aid for gig workers and long-term unemployed past Labor Day," by Insider's Joseph Zeballos-Roig: "Sen. JOE MANCHIN of West Virginia indicated on Saturday he would not back including an extension of federal aid for gig workers and long-term unemployed Americans past Labor Day in a Democrat-only package. "'I'm done with extensions,' he told Insider. 'The economy is coming back.' Manchin went on: 'Look guys, read your own print. Read your own print. The economy is stronger now, the job market is stronger. Nine million jobs we can't fill. We're coming back.' "The West Virginia senator's opposition would effectively kill the renewal of those federal aid programs, given all 50 Senate Democrats need to back the party-line bill for it to clear the upper chamber. Democrats are drafting the initial bill, which will pass through the reconciliation process requiring only a simple majority vote sometime this fall." POLICY CORNER DEEP DIVE — "Why OSHA won't protect workers from climate change," by Ariel Wittenberg and Zack Colman: "There is no federal standard protecting [laborers] from heat, which killed 815 workers between 1992 and 2017 and seriously injured 70,000 more, according to federal records. More heat deaths are likely in the coming years as climate change turbocharges temperatures to make heat waves even hotter and last longer." PANDEMIC THE HOT ZONE — "Florida adds 134,506 coronavirus cases, 616 deaths in the past week," by Tampa Bay Times' Ian Hodgson: "Florida's positivity rate rose to 18.5 percent in the past week, up from 18.1 percent the week before. Before reopening, states should maintain a positivity rate of 5 percent or less for at least two weeks, according to the World Health Organization. A positivity rate of 5 percent or less indicates testing is widespread enough to capture mild, asymptomatic and negative cases." RETURN OF THE MASK — "Top U.S. chains are reinstating their mask requirements," by CNN's Nathaniel Meyersohn AMERICA AND THE WORLD PULLOUT FALLOUT — "The Taliban seize Kunduz, a key city in northern Afghanistan," by NYT's Christina Goldbaum, Najim Rahim, Sharif Hassan and Thomas Gibbons-Neff: "The Taliban seized the city of Kunduz in northern Afghanistan on Sunday, officials said. It is the first major city to be overtaken by the insurgents since they began their sweeping military offensive in May. … It was also the third provincial capital to be overtaken by [the] Taliban in three days." | | A message from Facebook: Why Facebook supports updated internet regulations
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See how we're taking action on key issues and why we support updated internet regulations. | | | BEYOND THE BELTWAY CUOMO LATEST — "In public, Cuomo cast himself as an advocate of women. In private, women say, he was harassing them at the same time," by WaPo's Michael Scherer and Josh Dawsey: "Over and over again, the investigation found, [New York Gov. ANDREW CUOMO ] behaved in private exactly in the manner that he repeatedly condemned in public — making lewd comments to young women, kissing aides on the mouth, having others sit on his lap and repeatedly touching women inappropriately. Some of the alleged harassment happened in chance encounters: An employee of a utility company said that when she went to shake his hand on a rope line after an event, the governor traced his fingers along a logo printed across the chest of her shirt, leaving her feeling 'profoundly humiliated.' "Through it all, the governor publicly maintained the posture of a crusader for women's rights, leading what he called a 'societal change' in the way powerful men treated women. His administration, according to the attorney general's office, broke the state's own laws that the governor had hailed by retaliating against a victim. In all, he harassed 11 women in violation of state and federal laws, the investigation found." — "Albany sheriff says he won't rush or delay Cuomo investigation 'because of who he is,'" by NBC's Minyvonne Burke DESPITE THE NEW SESSION — "Texas Democrats continue holdout, don't show for new session," by AP's Acacia Coronado and Paul Weber: "Texas Democrats still refused to return to the state Capitol on Saturday as Gov. GREG ABBOTT began a third attempt at passing new election laws, prolonging a monthslong standoff that ramped up in July when dozens of Democratic state lawmakers left the state and hunkered down in Washington, D.C. … "But there were also signs the stalemate may be thawing. Two of the Democrats who decamped last month returned to Austin Saturday, and one of them said enough of his colleagues may also begin trickling back to secure a quorum next week. And, notably, Republicans did not invoke a procedural move that would give [state House Speaker DADE] PHELAN the authority to sign arrest warrants for missing lawmakers, as they did when the Democrats left town." IN CLIMATE CHANGE NEWS — "Dixie Fire becomes largest single wildfire in California history," by Colby Bermel: "The fire, which has burned for 23 days and forced mass evacuations, razed the Gold Rush town of Greenville on Thursday, destroying 91 buildings and damaging five others. Smoke from the blaze has blown to lower parts of Northern California, including the state capital of Sacramento where the air quality index on Friday reached 'unhealthy' levels." TRUMP CARDS YIKES — "Trump's Repeating Donation Tactics Led to Millions in Refunds Into 2021," by NYT's Shane Goldmacher: "The aggressive fund-raising tactics that Trump deployed late in last year's presidential campaign have continued to spur an avalanche of refunds into 2021, with Mr. Trump, the Republican Party and their shared accounts returning $12.8 million to donors in the first six months of the year, newly released federal records show. The refunds were some of the biggest outlays that Mr. Trump made in 2021 as he has built up his $102 million political war chest — and amounted to roughly 20 percent of the $56 million he and his committees raised online so far this year." | | | | 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. | | | | | | | PLAYBOOKERS | | SPOTTED: Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Jon Tester (D-Mont.), Chris Coons (D-Del.), Mark Warner (D-Va.), Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.), Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), Angus King (I-Maine), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) at dinner together outdoors at La Collina on Saturday night. … Chasten Buttigieg and Emily Voorde at The Duck and The Peach on Saturday morning. TRANSITION — Blake Ruppe is joining Fox News as media guest greeter for the D.C. bureau. He previously was scheduler for Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-Texas). WEDDING — Adrienne Jackson, a lobbyist at Arnold and Porter, and Andrew Neely, deputy policy director of the Senate Commerce GOP, got married July 31. They met working in Sen. Jim Inhofe's (R-Okla.) office in 2015; he was on the EPW Committee staff at the time and she was in the personal office. Instapics HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin … White House chief of staff Ron Klain … CNN's Kylie Atwood … Virginia Heffernan ... Ken Cook of the Environmental Working Group … Will Caggiano … Jay Gertsema ... Dee Ertukel … ABC's Claire Brinberg ... Tyler Bowders ... Emily Rogers ... Jonah Seiger ... Samantha Cantrell of Rep. Carol Miller's (R-W.Va.) office … George Paul Tzamaras of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (61) … Joanna Duchesne of Rep. Ted Lieu's (D-Calif.) office … David Friedman … Mike Biundo … Catharine Cypher … WaPo's Jackson Diehl ... James Feinstein … Hayley Matz Meadvin … Michael Toner … POLITICO's Abigael Khuu, Daniela Falvo, Matt Trujillo and Trent Hunter … Mike Dankler ... Jonah Seiger ... Jeff Chu ... CBS' Lance Frank ... DLA Piper's Jim Blanchard ... Habib Durrani ... Kristina Dei ... David Bass of Raptor Strategies … Josh Sternberg ... Mike Schwartz … Teach for America's Joe Walsh ... Saint Vincent and the Grenadines PM Ralph Gonsalves … Marc Ambinder Send Playbookers tips to playbook@politico.com . Playbook couldn't happen without our editor Mike Zapler, deputy editor Zack Stanton and producers Allie Bice, Eli Okun and Garrett Ross. | | | | Sponsored Survey SHARE YOUR OPINION: Please take a short, 3-question survey about one of our advertising partners. | | | | | | | 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 political and policy newsletters | | Follow us | | | | |
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