| CONGRESS & INVESTIGATIONS: With only seven legislative days standing between House members and a six-week August recess, crunchtime has arrived on Capitol Hill as lawmakers look to strike a budget and debt ceiling deal. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told reporters at the White House that a budget accord could be struck in the near future, but remained cautious while many moving parts remain in play. "I think we’re very close to a deal. But as you know these deals are complicated," Mnuchin said, adding that if lawmakers are unable to agree before the August recess, he expects Congress to at least raise the debt ceiling (The Hill). "Of course I expect the debt ceiling to be raised on time because I would say ... there’s no uncertainty that neither party nor anybody wants to put the credit risk of the United States government at risk," Mnuchin said. "So yes, I expect that the debt ceiling will be raised." Mnuchin’s remarks came on the heels of letters he sent to congressional leaders on Friday urging them to act on the debt ceiling before recess kicks off, noting the government could hit its borrowing cap in early September. Lawmakers are slated to return from recess on Sept. 9. Despite his optimism that lawmakers will vote to raise the debt ceiling before August, Pelosi tossed cold water on that possibility, telling him in a phone call late Monday that is not something that’s “acceptable to our caucus” and won’t pass if put on the floor. She also told Mnuchin that while they still hope to reach a spending deal by the end of next week, they will not allow the White House to dictate terms of negotiation (The Washington Post). Mnuchin and Pelosi have held phone calls almost daily over the past week, and if there’s agreement, it could represent a blow to hardliners who resist increased federal spending. As with past negotiations, any deal hinges on Democrats receiving funding increases and Republican defense hawks winning a bigger piece of the pie for the Pentagon (The Associated Press). The Hill: White House projects $1 trillion deficit for 2019. 
> Contempt: The House is set to vote Tuesday on whether to hold Attorney General William Barr and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross in criminal contempt for not complying with congressional subpoenas on the thwarted attempts to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census. The vote comes amid the continued effort by Democrats to conduct oversight of the administration, which has included subpoenas of more than two dozen administration officials, many of whom have stonewalled and ignored them. Previously, the House Oversight and Reform Committee voted to hold Barr and Ross in contempt ahead of the July Fourth recess (The Hill). Bloomberg: Kellyanne Conway skips House hearing despite subpoena. > Pentagon: Defense Secretary nominee Mark Esper will face senators on Tuesday who are eager to fill a leadership hole that has languished empty for months after the resignation of former Defense Secretary James Mattis and the failed nomination of former acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan. Esper has won praise from both sides of the aisle as a known quantity who worked well with Congress in his previous job as Army secretary, but he’s expected to face tough questions from everything on his history as a lobbyist to the Trump administration’s strategy for dealing with Iran amid spiking tensions. The permanent spot atop the Pentagon has remained open for 208 days after Mattis resigned over the president’s decision to remove troops from Syria (The Hill). > House Democrats: While Ocasio-Cortez remains embroiled in her fight with Trump, her chief of staff is facing problems on the homefront as he draws the ire of House Democrats over his attacks on Pelosi and Democratic leadership. Saikat Chakrabarti has gotten under the skin of some of his boss’s colleagues as he attacks Democratic lawmakers by name on social media — a rarity — but Chakrabarti isn’t a run-of-the-mill aide. He’s a tech entrepreneur who left Silicon Valley to become more involved in political activism and who helped recruit Ocasio-Cortez to Congress (The Hill). Elsewhere in Congress … Former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer will be on Capitol Hill today to brief lawmakers on both sides of the aisle on how spending and taxing decisions are playing out across the country. Ballmer founded USAFacts in 2015, a non-partisan, nonprofit initiative to provide one-stop shopping for key government data, which often is challenging to locate on its own. *** 2020 POLITICS & CAMPAIGNS: While the top tier candidates vying for the Democratic nomination had already released their second quarter fundraising totals, most of the middle and lower tier candidates waited until close to Monday night’s deadline to release their numbers. No candidate outside of the top five contenders — Vice President Joe Biden, South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg, Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), Warren and Sanders — all of whom raised north of $12 million, raised more than $5 million during the second quarter, with Rep. Beto O’Rourke’s (D-Texas) total raising the most eyebrows after his shock-and-awe first quarter (The Hill). After raising $9.4 million in the first 18 days of his presidential bid, O’Rourke’s second quarter total plummeted to $3.6 million, raising questions about his viability moving forward in the 2020 race. Not only was his total far less than the first quarter figure, but he posted stronger fundraising numbers throughout 2018 during his Senate run against Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas). Making matters worse, O’Rourke did not register once in a poll of New Hampshire registered voters released Monday by St. Anselm College (The Hill). One thing O’Rourke does have going for him that other lower-tier candidates do not: his fundraising has allowed him to reach the debate stage in September under Democratic National Committee rules, having eclipsed the necessary 130,000 donors in a requisite number of states. It’s turning out to be a high bar for some candidates to meet (Politico). Another candidate who struggled fundraising wise is Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), who was unable to put together a strong quarter after posting underwhelming figures in the first quarter. She raised only $2.3 million, with the likes of Andrew Yang, Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) and Washington Gov. Jay Inslee all eclipsing her total. She still has over $8 million in the bank thanks to transfers from her Senate account. Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) both of whom are firmly in the second tier of candidates, raised $4.5 million and $3.9 million, respectively. Klobuchar’s campaign announced it eclipsed 100,000 unique donors, while Booker is closing in on that figure. The Washington Post: Low-polling Democratic presidential candidates spent almost all the money they raised in the second quarter. Reuters: Democratic presidential hopefuls spend heavily on digital ads, staff. The Wall Street Journal: Underdogs in 2020 Democratic field face a reality check. The New York Times: Trump campaign invests big in small donors, and reaps rewards. Politico: GOP mega-donors pour money into Trump campaign. 
> Netroots Nation: Progressive voters want nothing more than to defeat the president in 2020, and they’re ready to back anyone who emerges from the Democratic primary fight to do so. As Miranda Green reports from the Netroots Nation convention, many in the crowd expressed a willingness to back whoever wins the party’s nomination — even if a centrist candidate emerges who they could never support in a primary contest. Most voters at the conference indicated their top candidates are Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). One attendee said she'd vote for Mickey Mouse if he were the candidate, noting a shift in perspective from previous years, particularly 2016, when many supporters of Sanders refused to support Hillary Clinton come election day. Only a handful of attendees said they would likely back a third-party candidate if Warren or Sanders didn’t get the nod. The Associated Press: Biden draws line against progressives on health care. The Washington Post: Dow breast implant case spotlights Warren’s work helping big corporations navigate bankruptcies. Politico: Harris wins endorsement of civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump. | 
No comments:
Post a Comment