• Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) is poised to release the text of his permitting reform legislation today, a measure he said will be included in a must-pass continuing resolution that would fund the government past Sept. 30. Manchin’s bill includes some environmental protections sought by progressives, but clashes with legislation sponsored by Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) that has 46 GOP co-sponsors. (Roll Call)
• The House’s select Jan. 6 committee will hold what could be its final hearing next Wednesday, according to the panel’s chairman, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.). It isn’t clear whether the hearing will feature live witness testimony, but Thompson said unlike the previous hearings, this one will allow every member of the committee to “have a role.” (Axios)
• The Senate Leadership Fund, a super PAC aligned with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), has canceled its spending in the Arizona Senate race, expressing confidence that other outside groups will assist Republican nominee Blake Masters in his tough bid against Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly. The move, which comes as McConnell and billionaire Peter Thiel are set to host fundraisers for Masters, frees up $9.6 million for the group to spend in Georgia, New Hampshire and Nevada. (Axios)
• Attorneys for Donald Trump faced tough questions from a special master about their refusal to corroborate the former president’s claims that he declassified highly sensitive documents the FBI found at his Mar-a-Lago resort. While Trump’s lawyers argued that answering such questions could harm Trump in a potential criminal case, their refusal to answer could prompt the special master to agree the documents are still classified, in a win for the Justice Department. (The Washington Post)

Happening today (all times local):

• 10 a.m. Big bank CEOs testify to the House Financial Services Committee.
• 10 a.m. Senate in session.

GOP Governors’ Interstate Migrant Maneuvers Divide Voters
Morning Consult

Biden at UN to call Russian war an affront to body’s charter
Aamer Madhani, The Associated Press

President Joe Biden is ready to make the case to world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly that Russia’s “naked aggression” in Ukraine is an affront to the heart of what the international body stands for as he looks to rally allies to stand firm in backing the Ukrainian resistance.

Biden to Skip UN Meeting as Climate Change Moves to ‘Back Burner’
Jennifer A Dlouhy et al., Bloomberg

President Joe Biden is set to miss a United Nations roundtable on climate action Wednesday afternoon in New York, stoking concern that other G-7 leaders will also forgo the session meant to help pave the way for international global warming negotiations later this year.

FEMA tells a skeptical Puerto Rico that this time won’t be like Hurricane Maria
Reis Thebault et al., The Washington Post

Five years after the federal government bungled its response to catastrophic Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico, the U.S. agency tasked with reacting to major disasters is under pressure again after this week’s Hurricane Fiona battered the territory’s infrastructure, flooded communities and left the island without electricity.

Legal Challenges to Student Loan Forgiveness Loom Before Midterms
Gabriel T. Rubin and Jacob Gershman, The Wall Street Journal

The Biden administration and Republican opponents of mass student debt cancellation appear headed for a legal confrontation with hundreds of billions of dollars at stake just weeks before the November midterm elections.

DHS rejects plan to protect election officials from harassment as midterms loom
Sean Lyngaas, CNN

The Department of Homeland Security’s cybersecurity agency this summer turned down a multimillion-dollar proposal to protect election officials from harassment ahead of the midterm elections, multiple people familiar with the matter told CNN.

FDA releasing millions of Moderna boosters as states warn of shortages
Dan Diamond, The Washington Post

The federal government is releasing millions of Moderna booster shots that were delayed by the Food and Drug Administration as a result of a safety inspection at an Indiana packaging plant, even as states report shortages and encourage patients to use Pfizer boosters instead.

Feds accuse 47 people of stealing cash meant to help feed needy kids in ‘staggering’ Covid scheme
Ken Dilanian, NBC News

Federal prosecutors announced charges Tuesday against 47 people accused of carrying out the biggest Covid fraud scheme to date, a theft of $250 million through what officials described as a brazen and staggering plot that exploited a federal program designed to feed needy children in Minnesota.

House to vote on election law overhaul in response to Jan. 6
Mary Clare Jalonick, The Associated Press

The House will vote on an overhaul of a centuries-old election law, an effort to prevent future presidential candidates from trying to subvert the popular will.

Manchin and Capito hit pothole on Country Roads

Burgess Everett and Marianne Levine, Politico

The West Virginia senators have an uncommonly close cross-aisle relationship. That doesn’t mean Shelley Moore Capito will fight for Joe Manchin’s permitting priorities.

‘Unchecked’ book excerpt: Inside McConnell’s decision not to convict Trump
Rachael Bade and Karoun Demirjian, The Washington Post

Mitch McConnell sat in his office on Tuesday, Jan. 26, 2021, agonizing over how to cast what he knew would be one of the most pivotal votes of his career. Since the harrowing events of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, the Senate GOP leader — recently demoted to the minority — had been all but certain that his party was finally going to shun Trump, a development he’d welcomed with a sense of relief. 

McCarthy reaches for the GOP’s brass ring: A unifying agenda
Olivia Beavers, Politico

Kevin McCarthy will announce it in a red Pittsburgh suburb, not on the Capitol steps. In most other ways, though, his Friday GOP agenda rollout will mirror Newt Gingrich’s 28-year-old Contract With America.

Three-way House GOP whip race breaks into public view
Emily Brooks, The Hill

A race for Republican House whip in the next Congress that has been brewing in the shadows for months is spilling out into the open, with three contenders courting support from colleagues in the last days before members return to their districts ahead of the midterm elections: Reps. Jim Banks (Ind.), Tom Emmer (Minn.) and Drew Ferguson (Ga).

The right tries to squeeze McCarthy
Jake Sherman and John Bresnahan, Punchbowl News

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is no stranger to pressure from the right. In 2015, the hardline conservative House Freedom Caucus, led by Reps. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) and Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), launched a crusade to ensure the California Republican didn’t succeed John Boehner as speaker.

Fears of Fed-induced pain grow, from global recession to deflation
Victoria Guida, Politico

The Federal Reserve is poised to deploy another supersized interest rate hike to fight the sharpest price surge in 40 years, a move that has drawn remarkably little political pushback despite rising market anxiety just weeks before an election.

Russia’s Invasion Shadows U.N. Assembly Amid ‘Colossal Global Dysfunction’
Farnaz Fassihi and Alan Yuhas, The New York Times

Presidents Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey and Emmanuel Macron of France used the gathering as a stage to cast themselves as would-be peacemakers in the war in Ukraine.

Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Return to Center Stage. Their Own.
Nicholas Kulish, The New York Times

After a six-year hiatus, the Clinton Global Initiative returned to New York City this week, bringing together leaders from the worlds of nonprofit, government and business, with a few celebrities sprinkled in for good measure. It has been an eventful few years since they last gathered in 2016.

Bret Baier Wanted Fox to Rescind Arizona Call, ‘Put It Back’ in Trump’s ‘Column’
Justin Baragona, The Daily Beast

Fox News chief political anchor Bret Baier wanted to “give into” then-President Donald Trump’s demands that the network reverse its correct 2020 election night call of Joe Biden winning Arizona, reportedly telling executives they should “put it back” in Trump’s “column.”

Trump’s ‘big lie’ fueled a new generation of social media influencers
Elizabeth Dwoskin and Jeremy B. Merrill, The Washington Post

Three days after the 2020 election, Kyle Becker, a former Fox News producer with a modest 15,000 Twitter followers, began tweeting feverishly about election fraud.

Trump to Face Sexual Battery Suit Under New ‘Survivors’ Law
Jose Pagliery, The Daily Beast

Donald Trump has faced a defamation suit from journalist E. Jean Carroll over her allegations that Trump raped her. Now she’s escalating the suit.

How Republicans Could Win Control of the House
Lazaro Gamio et al., The New York Times

The political winds that once favored Republicans in the coming midterm elections appear to have shifted in the Democrats’ favor, but in the quest for the House, geography may be destiny. Many congressional district lines were redrawn this year to favor one party or the other so much that even a hurricane-force gale cannot overcome the new built-in biases.

McConnell hosting fundraiser for Georgia Senate candidate Walker
Brad Dress, The Hill

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) will host a fundraiser Thursday evening for Georgia Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker.

Will North Carolina’s Senate Race Break Democratic Hearts Again?
Jonathan Weisman, The New York Times

Since a blue wave in the state in 2008, winning elections hasn’t been easy for Democrats. But polling is evenly divided as Cheri Beasley and Ted Budd compete.

Old money: How retirees are funding and fueling political candidates unlike ever before
Madison Hall, Insider

Roy Podorson, 81, of Wilmington, Delaware, was so afraid the United States was “turning into a third-world country” in the 2020 election cycle that he spread more than 450 donations among various Republican PACs and candidates.

Migrants sue Florida governor over Martha’s Vineyard flights
The Associated Press

Venezuelan migrants flown to the upscale Massachusetts island of Martha’s Vineyard sued Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and his transportation secretary Tuesday for engaging in a “fraudulent and discriminatory scheme” to relocate them.

Delaware braces for migrant flight in U.S. political standoff
Ted Hesson and Trevor Hunnicutt, Reuters

Local government officials, advocates and reporters swarmed a small coastal airport near President Joe Biden’s vacation home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, on Tuesday in anticipation of a possible flight carrying migrants from Texas.

GOP attorneys general back Trump in court fight over Mar-a-Lago documents
Andrew Jeong and Amy B Wang, The Washington Post

Texas’s Ken Paxton and 10 other GOP state attorneys general came to the defense of former president Donald Trump on Tuesday in his legal fight over documents the FBI seized last month, filing an amicus brief in a federal appellate court that argued the Biden administration could not be trusted.

Jackson water crisis spurs calls to bring the federal hammer down on Mississippi
Annie Snider, Politico

Advocacy groups that see racial bias as a major cause of the water crisis in Jackson, Miss., are debating new strategies for taking the Republican-controlled state government out of the lead role when it comes to steering federal spending in its capital city.

Visa, Mastercard, Amex Face Calls From GOP Attorneys General to Abandon Gun-Shop Code
AnnaMaria Andriotis, The Wall Street Journal

Republican attorneys general of 24 states are warning Visa Inc., Mastercard Inc. and American Express Co. not to move forward with their plan to add a new code to identify when purchases are made at firearms retailers.

The ‘Cost’ of Voting in America: A Look at Where It’s Easiest and Hardest
Nick Corasaniti and Allison McCann, The New York Times

Voters in New Hampshire and Mississippi face the highest personal cost in the country in terms of the time and effort required to cast a ballot, according to a new academic study. Voters in Oregon and Washington have it the easiest.

Top aide to GOP approps leader heads to K Street
Caitlin Oprysko, Politico

Cole Rojewski, who is chief of staff to the top Republican on the powerful House Appropriations Committee, Rep. Kay Granger (R-Texas), has decamped for K Street to hang a shingle with another longtime GOP staffer.

U.S. bank CEOs set for congressional grilling by Democrats and Republicans
Pete Schroeder, Reuters

The chief executives of JPMorgan, Bank of America, Citigroup, Wells Fargo and other major U.S. banks are set to be grilled by both Democratic and Republican lawmakers on Wednesday on the economy, consumer protections and the lenders’ stance on fossil fuel lending and firearms, among other issues.

Business groups take aim at chronic rail disruptions after strike threat
Karl Evers-Hillstrom, The Hill

President Biden, rail workers unions and railroads avoided a nationwide shut down last week that would have devastated an already ailing U.S. economy. But business groups argue that there is more to be done to address poor rail service, which they say has magnified red-hot inflation. 

Inside Shaun King’s Shadowy $6.7 Million Nonprofit
William Bredderman, The Daily Beast

Shaun King’s Grassroots Law Project amassed and spent millions after George Floyd’s murder—including six-figure payouts to himself and allied consultants.

The U.N. is getting Ukraine surprisingly right
David Ignatius, The Washington Post

As President Biden and other world leaders gather in New York this week to address the U.N. General Assembly, there’s an unusual twist: The United Nations, so often derided as a useless forum for debate rather than action, is working aggressively to contain the damage from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Midterm elections could set another turnout record this year
Nathan L. Gonzales, Roll Call

In a rare moment of unity, Republicans and Democrats are poised to come together to set yet another turnout record in the 2022 elections.

‘Are the Polls Wrong?’ Is the Wrong Question
Stephen Clermont, Politico

If you, like me, obsessively follow elections, the next 50 days will be filled with predictions, freakouts and contradictory data. I have already had several friends and family members send me the New York Times’ “Are the Polls Wrong Again?” piece, panicked that Democrats could be leading by too much in some Senate races.