Morning Consult Washington: Senate Advances Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal
 

Washington

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July 29, 2021
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America’s Vaccine Holdouts Are Dug In

 

Yesterday, Reuters reported that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is planning to use leftover campaign funds to run ads in his home state encouraging people to get their COVID-19 shots.

 

Similar efforts from other Republican leaders in red states will likely be needed to sway the sizable chunk of right-leaning Americans who over the past two months have shown no increased inclination to get inoculated. As the highly contagious delta variant continues to spread through conservative bastions, our latest global vaccine polling shows 30 percent of U.S. adults remain uncertain about getting a shot or unwilling to do so, placing America behind 13 other countries on vaccine willingness.  See more on the data here

 

Top Stories

  • In a 67-32 vote, the Senate voted to take up a $1 trillion bipartisan bill with $550 billion in new public works spending for infrastructure such as roads, bridges and transit. President Joe Biden framed the measure as “the most significant long-term investment in our infrastructure and competitiveness in nearly a century,” but it still faces significant hurdles to enactment given Democrats’ slim majorities in both chambers. (The New York Times)
  • The Biden administration is planning to impose sanctions against Iran’s drones and guided missiles, according to U.S. officials, as Western security officials view Tehran’s precision-strike capabilities as a bigger immediate threat to American forces and allies than its nuclear enrichment. (The Wall Street Journal) With Iranian President-elect Ebrahim Raisi set to take office next week, U.S. officials are warning that the window for reviving the 2015 nuclear accords between Iran and world powers is closing and urging Iran back to the negotiating table. (Axios)
  • The Biden administration will not move forward with previously laid plans to phase out its use of the coronavirus-related public health order that has blocked migrants from seeking asylum due to the recent spread of the delta variant, according to sources. (Politico)
  • Democratic Rep. Conor Lamb is set next month to launch his campaign for the Democratic Senate nomination in Pennsylvania, according to sources. He would be the most conservative Democrat in the race to replace retiring Republican Sen. Pat Toomey, joining the state’s high-profile lieutenant governor, John Fetterman, and a handful of local officials. (Roll Call)
 

Chart Review

 
 

Events Calendar (All Times Local)

 

What Else You Need To Know

White House & Administration
 

Biden meeting with Democrats on DACA
Stef W. Kight, Axios

President Biden will meet with 11 Democratic members of Congress at the White House Thursday to discuss the next steps for providing a pathway to citizenship for undocumented migrants brought to the U.S. as children, a White House official told Axios.

 

Whistleblowers say they were told to downplay Covid outbreak among migrant kids at shelter
Julia Ainsley, NBC News

Two more whistleblowers have come forward to allege that children were mistreated by contractors and senior federal employee managers at a Department Health and Human Services migrant shelter in Fort Bliss, Texas, earlier this year, and also say HHS told them to downplay hundreds of Covid infections among children held at the facility.

 

Biden adviser Donilon touts infrastructure deal
Hans Nichols, Axios

One of President Biden’s closest advisers, Mike Donilon, believes swing voters want Congress to pass the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure deal, and embrace solutions where the two parties “meet in the middle,” according to a memo first reported by Axios.

 

The Justice Department Is Sending States A Second Warning About Partisan “Audits” Of The 2020 Election
Sarah Mimms, BuzzFeed News

The Justice Department on Wednesday issued a second warning to states considering their own so-called audits of the 2020 election, highlighting federal laws that those efforts may violate.

 

Biden’s new weapon against Covid-19: Don’t call it a mandate
Sarah Owermohle et al., Politico

The White House is readying its most aggressive action to date on Covid vaccinations. But it’s trying to avoid one word: mandate.

 

Germany Demands Fair Play From Biden on U.S. Travel Rules
Patrick Donahue, Bloomberg

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government charged President Joe Biden’s administration with hampering German business interests by continuing to restrict European travelers from entering the U.S.

 

The Biden administration imposes new sanctions on Syrian prisons and officials
Alan Rappeport, The New York Times

The Biden administration imposed new sanctions on a group of Syrian prisons and officials on Wednesday as part of its effort to pressure the government of President Bashar al-Assad to end human rights abuses.

 
Congress
 

Sinema doesn’t support Democrats’ $3.5T bill, clinches bipartisan infrastructure deal
Yvonne Wingett Sanchez, Arizona Republic

Sen. Kyrsten Sinema does not support Democrats’ $3.5 trillion budget plan that aims to deliver major components of President Joe Biden’s economic agenda that Democrats hope to pass after moving a separate bipartisan infrastructure deal that Sinema negotiated. Sinema, D-Ariz., told The Arizona Republic on Wednesday she had reviewed the Senate Budget Committee’s spending framework and has told Senate leadership and Biden that she supports many of its goals, including job growth and American competitiveness.

 

House passes first $67B in funding bills amid bid to bolster government spending
Caitlin Emma and Jennifer Scholtes, Politico

House Democrats passed their first two spending bills Wednesday as the next government shutdown threat looms nine weeks away, an attempt to display unwavering “unity” among the ranks of their slim majority to bolster the party’s negotiating stance.

 

Democrats craft revised voting rights bill, seeking to keep hopes alive in the Senate
Mike DeBonis, The Washington Post

Senate Democrats are preparing to release a revised voting rights bill as soon as this week, hoping to keep the legislation alive a month after Republicans blocked the consideration of a previous, more sweeping proposal.

 

House Republicans refuse to follow new mask mandate, leading Pelosi to call McCarthy a ‘moron’ for his comments
Marianna Sotomayor and John Wagner, The Washington Post

House Republicans on Wednesday angrily criticized a new order from the Capitol Hill physician to wear masks inside the Capitol due to the spread of the delta variant of the coronavirus, leading Speaker Nancy Pelosi to call House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy a “moron” over his argument that the decision was not based on science.

 

Republicans Threaten to Oppose Treasury Picks Over Nord Stream 2
Daniel Flatley and Nick Wadhams, Bloomberg

Senator Pat Toomey and 11 other Republicans on the Senate Banking Committee are threatening to block two Treasury nominees unless the Biden administration reverses its stance on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline from Russia to Germany and imposes new sanctions on the project.

 

Turns Out Mo Brooks Was Wearing Body Armor to Trump’s Very Peaceful Jan. 6 Rally
Jim Newell, Slate

Rep. Mo Brooks may be done with Jan. 6, but Jan. 6 isn’t done with him. The Alabama representative, notorious for his speaking role at the Jan. 6 rally leading up to the invasion of the Capitol, did not watch Tuesday’s first hearing of the House select committee investigating said invasion.

 
General
 

Census may delay data release if forced to disclose records
Mike Schneider, The Associated Press

The U.S. Census Bureau could be forced to delay even further the release of redistricting data used for drawing congressional and legislative districts if it’s ordered to disclose more records in response to a lawsuit, the agency’s chief scientist said in court papers this week.

 

Pfizer data suggest third dose of Covid-19 vaccine ‘strongly’ boosts protection against Delta variant
Jacqueline Howard, CNN

A third dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine can “strongly” boost protection against the Delta variant — beyond the protection afforded by the standard two doses, new data released by Pfizer on Wednesday suggests.

 

AstraZeneca to seek U.S. approval of Covid vaccine by end of the year
The Associated Press

AstraZeneca said Thursday that it intends to seek U.S. authorization for its Covid-19 vaccine in the second half of this year, offering a new timetable for the much-delayed application.

 

Sandy Hook Families Offered $33 Million Settlement by Gun Maker Remington
Zusha Elinson, The Wall Street Journal

Remington Arms Co. has offered to pay nearly $33 million to settle claims that its marketing practices were in part responsible for the Sandy Hook school massacre that left 20 first-graders and six faculty dead, according to court documents.

 

As Trump pushed for probes of 2020 election, he called acting AG Rosen almost daily
Josh Dawsey and Devlin Barrett, The Washington Post

President Donald Trump called his acting attorney general nearly every day at the end of last year to alert him to claims of voter fraud or alleged improper vote counts in the 2020 election, according to two people familiar with the conversations.

 

Appeals court deals setback to Trump in fraud suit
Josh Gerstein, Politico

A federal appeals court has rejected an attempt by former President Donald Trump and three of his children to force arbitration in a class-action lawsuit accusing him of fraud during the decade he spent as a pitchman for ACN, a business services company featured on “Celebrity Apprentice.”

 

Jared Kushner to leave politics, launch investment firm
Steve Holland, Reuters

Jared Kushner, a top adviser to former President Donald Trump, plans to launch an investment firm in coming months, a move that will take him away from politics for the foreseeable future, sources familiar with the plan said on Wednesday.

 
Campaigns
 

Get into details about Biden’s plans and beware of GOP inflation attacks, Democratic group advises
Annie Linskey and Michael Scherer, The Washington Post

Don’t say “broadband access.” Do say “high-speed Internet.” When it comes to visuals, images of children drinking water are more compelling than pictures of youngsters washing their hands.

 

Charlie Kirk’s pro-Trump youth group stokes vaccine resistance as covid surges again
Isaac Stanley-Becker, The Washington Post

A young emergency room doctor stood before dozens of students in a Tampa convention center this month and gave them a script for resisting coronavirus vaccines.

 

Gavin Newsom Has Reason To Worry
Nathaniel Rakich and Geoffrey Skelley, FiveThirtyEight

It’s official: For only the fourth time in U.S. history, a state will hold an election on whether to recall its governor midterm. The long-expected gubernatorial recall election in California is set for Sept. 14, and 46 candidates (not including the governor himself, Democrat Gavin Newsom) have officially qualified to run.

 

The Beltway Can’t Stop Talking About Him. The Voters He Needs Barely Know Him.
Sheehan Hannan, Politico

Patrick Closser takes the political temperature most days from his drive-through window here. The ring-ding sound of another car approaching the little hut at Casey’s Carry Out & Drive Thru for beer, cigarettes, soda or candy is to Closser also a sign of an approaching constituent.

 

Trump tries to sabotage the Biden infrastructure deal
Meridith McGraw, Politico

Donald Trump tried and failed to pass an infrastructure bill so many times over the course of his presidency that his attempts were reduced to a punchline. Now out of office, Trump is trying to ensure that his successor, Joe Biden, suffers the indignity of the “infrastructure week” jokes as well.

 

Trump team blames conservative for loser endorsement
Jonathan Swan, Axios

Donald Trump’s advisers are angry at David McIntosh, president of the conservative Club for Growth, for persuading the former president to endorse a losing candidate in the special election for Texas’ 6th District.

 
States
 

Texas Gov. Abbott bans ground transport of potentially infected migrants into communities
Andrew Mark Miller, Fox News

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed an executive order Wednesday banning the ground transportation of migrants who are potentially infected with COVID-19 into communities within the state.

 

Georgia Republicans take first step to Fulton elections takeover
Ben Brasch, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Georgia Republicans have taken the first step on their freshly blazed path toward a possible takeover of Fulton County’s elections. A letter obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution shows two dozen state senators support a performance review of Fulton elections chief Richard Barron.

 

GOP liaison to Arizona reverses course after vowing to resign
Allan Smith and Jane C. Timm, NBC News

The Republican serving as liaison between the Arizona state Senate and the private company conducting a partisan ballot review said Wednesday that he intended to resign, then walked it back.

 

Arizona’s GOP ballot review has raised more than $5.7 million in private donations, organizers say
Rosalind S. Helderman, The Washington Post

A private contractor conducting a Republican-commissioned review of 2020 presidential ballots in Arizona’s largest county announced late Wednesday that it has collected more than $5.7 million in private donations to fund the process.

 
Advocacy
 

Washington’s Oil Lobby Pivoted on Climate Change—and Made No One Happy
Timothy Puko and Ted Mann, The Wall Street Journal

The American Petroleum Institute, Washington’s biggest lobby for the oil-and-gas industry, spent decades leveraging its financial muscle to fight almost every green initiative in its path.

 

K Street clamors for Democratic Hill aides, who don’t want to leave
Kate Ackley, Roll Call

It seems obvious enough that with their party in power, Democratic staffers on Capitol Hill would be in high demand: on K Street, in the Biden administration and in burgeoning political campaigns. But the level of clamoring for them, especially in the booming lobbying sector, has surprised even veteran observers of the revolving door. 

 
Opinions, Editorials and Perspectives
 

Remote Testimony Is a Major Upgrade for Congress
Raul Grijalva, Bloomberg

As a pandemic safety measure, the U.S. House of Representatives began in May 2020 to hold committee hearings remotely so that witnesses could testify from home rather than in a crowded hearing room. This allowed people of all backgrounds, not just those who already live near Washington or who are able to fly there on short notice, to have their say before Congress.

 

Senate infrastructure deal is a win for bipartisanship, thanks to Sen. Sinema
Sen. Thom Tillis, NBC News

I remember the angry texts, emails and calls. In April 2017, many of my Republican friends and constituents questioned why, only months after President Donald Trump was sworn in, I joined 60 of my Senate colleagues in sending a bipartisan letter to Senate leadership calling for the filibuster to be preserved.

 
Morning Consult