| | | | | | | Presented By Google | | | | Axios AM | | By Mike Allen · Jun 22, 2022 | | Good Wednesday morning. Smart Brevity™ count: 1,472 words ... 5½ mins. Edited by Noah Bressner. ⚡ Situational awareness: The Senate voted 64-34 to advance a gun-safety bill, with 14 Republicans joining all 50 Dems on the procedural motion. Go deeper. | | | | | | 1 big thing: Biden calls for 3-month gas tax holiday |  | | | Illustration: Brendan Lynch/Axios | | | | New at 5 a.m.: President Biden today will call on Congress to suspend the federal gas tax for three months — through September — and ask states to do the same, Axios' Hans Nichols reports. - Biden will also demand that oil and gas companies boost production and pass on any savings directly to consumers, according to administration officials.
Why it matters: Democrats know that $5 dollar-a-gallon gas is a daily — and politically deadly — reminder that the country's annual inflation rate has soared to 8.6% under Biden's watch. - Temporarily eliminating the federal gas tax is one of the few options that Biden and Congress have to address gas prices, which have risen about $2 dollar-a-gallon since Russia began massing troops on Ukraine's border last year.
- Convincing Saudi Arabia to pump more oil is another prong in the White House strategy to bring down prices, driving Biden's visit to the kingdom next month.
Reality check: Economists from both parties have been deeply skeptical for years that suspending the tax can actually lower prices at the pump. The math: Biden officials claim that eliminating the state and federal taxes, as well as convincing oil and gas companies to pass on any savings to consumers, can lower the price of gas by about $1 per gallon. - A three-month suspension of the 18.4-cent-a-gallon tax on gas (24.4 cents for diesel) will cost the government approximately $10 billion. Revenue from the tax is dedicated to the Highway Trust Fund to help build federal roads and bridges.
- Biden wants Congress to divert other revenue toward the trust fund to ensure that long-term infrastructure projects are funded.
👀 What we're watching: Biden seems comfortable antagonizing the very industry leaders he needs to increase domestic oil production. - Chevron CEO Michael Wirth yesterday wrote to Biden to request he take a more collaborative approach and offer less "political rhetoric."
- Asked about Wirth's letter, Biden told reporters: "He's mildly sensitive. I didn't know they'd get their feelings hurt that quickly."
Share this story ... Go deeper: White House fact sheet. |     | | | | | | 2. 🗳️ D.C.'s new "mayor for life" | | Mayor Muriel Bowser at Franklin Hall last night. Photo: Craig Hudson for The Washington Post via Getty Images D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser won her Democratic primary, putting her on track for a third term leading the nation's capital, Axios D.C.'s Cuneyt Dil writes. - Why it matters: She bested challenges from the left after campaigning to hire more police officers to rein in rising crime and continue her investments in affordable housing.
- Bowser will be the first since "Mayor for Life" Marion Barry to win more than two mayoral races.
Zoom in: Bowser, who got 50% in a four-way race, said her victory was a vindication of her leadership over schools, homelessness and blueprint for fighting crime with more police support. - "Today, I stand in the footsteps of Marion Barry," Bowser told a cheering group of supporters at Franklin Hall bar in Northwest.
Zoom out: The city's Democratic race mirrored the same nationwide divisions between moderates and progressives — especially when it came to tackling violence. - The District had witnessed 97 homicides by Election Day, up 15% from the same point in time last year, when killings hit an 18-year high.
- Bowser supported increasing the police force to 4,000 officers. Her top two opponents — Robert White and Trayon White, who are unrelated — opposed the idea and said they would invest more in other crime intervention strategies.
Between the lines: The District has grown more prosperous since Bowser took office in 2015, with its budget growing 50% to $19.5 billion. - Development has boomed, with new apartments and office towers sprouting in trendy neighborhoods.
- That growth has come with rising rent and home prices.
The bottom line: Bowser has avoided groundbreaking crises that led to the downfall of previous District politicians. Katie Britt and family at her victory party last night in Montgomery, Ala. Photo: Mickey Welsh/Montgomery Advertiser via USA Today Network Alabama runoffKatie Britt — former chief of staff to retiring Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), and endorsed at the last minute by President Trump — won Alabama's Senate runoff, defeating Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.). - Why it matters: Britt gained momentum in recent weeks and was boosted by Trump, who had endorsed Brooks (who ran as "MAGA Mo"), then un-endorsed him.
Go deeper ... Last night's takeaways. | | | | | | | | 3. FDA targets most nicotine in cigarettes |  | | | Illustration: Allie Carl/Axios | | | | The Biden administration wants to make the tobacco industry cut back the amount of nicotine in cigarettes sold in the U.S. to non-addictive levels, Axios' Tina Reed reports. - Why it matters: The bid to essentially take the buzz out of smoking cigarettes would be unprecedented in the long-running public health fight to curb tobacco use.
The FDA can't just ban cigarettes, but can create "product standards" that make them less attractive, experts say. The agency yesterday proposed a rule to establish a maximum nicotine level in cigarettes and other certain finished tobacco products. - The cap on nicotine would also discourage young people from getting a cigarette addiction to begin with, regulators said.
👀 What we're watching: The plan is sure to face vigorous opposition from tobacco interests, as well as libertarian-leaning consumer freedom groups. - Rachel Cassidy, an associate professor in the Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies at Brown, said: "In some of my own research, we've seen teens might think they're safer, which they are not. They're less addictive but they're not safer."
Share this story. | | | | | | | | A message from Google | | Google is helping build a safer open source software ecosystem | | |  | | | | At the Open Source Security Foundation (OSSF) Summit, Google announced the Open Source Maintenance Crew. This staff of Google engineers will work closely with partners to improve the security of critical open source projects to help protect businesses, governments and users. Learn more. | | | | | | 4. 💰 A first for U.S. currency |  | | | Photo: Treasury Department | | | | President Biden said his treasurer of the United States will be Lynn Malerba, lifetime chief of the Mohegan Tribe — the first Native American to hold the position. - Why it matters: New U.S. currency will be signed by Malerba and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen — the first time the signatures of two women will appear on our bills.
- Yellen said it's the first time a Native American woman's signature will be on the currency.
Above: Yellen visited Malerba yesterday at the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota. Malerba will lead Treasury's new Office of Tribal and Native Affairs. | | | | | | | | 5. 🏛️ 1/6 hearing's democracy "heroes" | | Yesterday's opening witnesses: Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers (R), Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) and Gabe Sterling, his COO. Photo: Doug Mills/The New York Times via Getty Images Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), a member of the House Jan. 6 committee, told yesterday's hearing about this revelation from text messages: - Mark Meadows, chief of staff to President Trump, wanted to send Georgia election investigators "a sh**load of POTUS stuff" — coins and autographed MAGA hats — as they investigated claims of voter fraud.
- "White House staff intervened to make sure that didn't happen," Schiff said.
Why it matters: Hearing 4 documented the extent of Trump's pressure campaign on election workers, Axios' Alayna Treene and Emma Hurt report. Zoom out: Committee Chair Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) praised "heroes" in several key states who "stood between Donald Trump and the upending of American democracy." - "Democratic institutions aren't abstractions or ideas," he said. "They're local officials who oversee elections. Secretaries of state."
Photo: Jacquelyn Martin/Ap Above: Wandrea "Shaye" Moss, a former Georgia election worker, is comforted by her mother, "Lady Ruby" Freeman, at yesterday's hearing. - In the aftermath of the election, Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani released a video claiming Moss and Freeman colluded to commit voter fraud.
- Moss testified that on the video, her mother wasn't passing her a USB drive. It was a ginger mint.
Moss testified that the resulting death threats and racist taunts "have "turned my life upside down. I no longer give out my business card." - "I don't want to go anywhere with my mom, because she might yell my name out over the grocery aisle or something. ... All because of lies. For me doing my job — same thing I've been doing forever."
Go deeper: Yesterday's transcript. | | | | | | | | 6. 🔎 Watergate digitized |  | | | U.S. v. Liddy Government Exhibit 133: Two Bell & Howell microphones in ChapStick tubes, 1972. Photo: National Archives | | | | Paper records, exhibits and artifacts from the Watergate trial have been digitized for the first time as the nation marks the 50th anniversary of the June 1972 break-in, Axios' Russell Contreras reports. - Materials from U.S. v. G. Gordon Liddy are now available in the National Archives Catalog and can be viewed via a new website, rather than exclusively in person in College Park, Md.
The intrigue: The records include images of screwdrivers, lockpicks, business cards, surgical gloves, a room key for the Watergate, and the microphone hidden in ChapStick tubes. | | | | | | | | 7. 💉 Where to get COVID vaccine for kids under 5 | | A 4-year-old gets his COVID vaccine yesterday at Skippack Pharmacy in Schwenksville, Pa., outside Philadelphia. Photo: Hannah Beier/Reuters Parents can now schedule COVID vaccine appointments for children under 5 at doctors' offices and major retailers — CVS, Walgreens, Walmart, Rite Aid, Costco, Kroger and more. | | | | | | | | 8. 🏀 NBA ratings up | Steph Curry yells during the Warriors' championship parade in San Francisco on Monday. Photo: Cary Edmondson/USA Today Sports 14 million people watched the Golden State Warriors win their fourth NBA championship since 2015 by beating the Boston Celtics in Game 6 of the NBA Finals, per AP. - The series averaged 12.3 million viewers for ABC — 24% more than the 2021 series between Milwaukee and Phoenix.
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