Tipsheet: Congress barrels toward debt cliff

View in your browser     Congress barrels toward debt cliff By Jordain Carney   Congress is barreling toward a fight as soon as next month over raising the debt ceiling, creating a huge challenge for President Biden and Democratic leaders in Congress. Under a 2019 deal during the Trump administration, Congress agreed to let the government borrow through July 31.The Treasury Department at that point can take what’s known as extraordinary measures to keep the government solvent, but it’s unclear how long it will be able to do this. In the Senate, raising the debt ceiling is subject to the filibuster, meaning Democrats will need GOP support. Read the full story here     Democrats facing tough reelections back bipartisan infrastructure deal By Brett Samuels and Alexander Bolton   Senate Democrats in tough races next year, namely Sens. Mark Kelly (Ariz.) and Maggie Hassan (N.H.), say it's more important for an infrastructure spending bill to be bipartisan than for it to fit in all the priorities that President Biden has outlined and his party base are clamoring for. Read the full story here     Ron Johnson booed at Juneteenth celebration in Wisconsin By Caroline Vakil   Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.) was met with boos while attending a Juneteenth celebration on Saturday in Milwaukee, Wisc., WDJT reported. Read the full story here     Truck kills one, barely misses Wasserman Schultz at Florida Pride event By Caroline Vakil   A pickup truck ran over two people, killing one of them, and narrowly missing a member of Congress during a pride parade in Florida on Saturday evening, according to WPLG Local 10. Read the full story here       64 percent of Iowans say 'time for someone else' to hold Grassley's Senate seat: poll By Sarah Polus   Nearly two-thirds Iowa voters think Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) should not run for reelection, according to a new poll released Saturday. Read the full story here     Harris rebounds after difficult trip By Amie Parnes and Brett Samuels   Vice President Harris looked on with a smile as President Biden got down on his knees Thursday to greet 94-year-old Opal Lee at a ceremony making Juneteenth a federal holiday. Read the full story here     VA moving to cover gender affirmation surgery through department health care By Celine Castronuovo   The Department of Veterans Affairs is moving to make gender-affirming surgeries covered by the department's healthcare, Secretary Denis McDonough announced Saturday. Read the full story here     Teachers on edge over critical race theory debate By Aris Folley   Teachers across the country are on edge amid the heated national debate over critical race theory, as Republican lawmakers in multiple states have passed or introduced legislation that would limit how race and racism are discussed in classrooms. Read the full story here     Editor of Capital Gazette leaving three years after deadly newsroom shooting By Lexi Lonas   The editor of the Capital Gazette is leaving the newspaper three years after a gunman opened fire on the newsroom in Annapolis, Md., killing five employees. Read the full story here     Bidens announce death of their German shepherd, Champ By Marina Pitofsky   President Biden and first lady Jill Biden’s German shepherd Champ died this week. Read the full story here     Joe Biden the statesman By Harlan Ullman   OPINION | If anyone thought that 36 years in the Senate, chairing the Judiciary and Foreign Affairs Committees and eight years as vice president was not more than enough preparation for a president, especially regarding national security, that notion was shattered this week. Even honest conservative critics should give some credit to President Biden for a successful trip to Cornwall, Brussels and Geneva. Read the full story here     How 'compounding pharmacies' can prevent the next drug crisis By James Broughel   OPINION | As the last year-plus has shown, regulations that seem to make sense in ordinary times can sometimes be revealed to have serious shortcomings during an emergency. In the public health sphere alone, regulations governing telehealth services, occupational licenses, and the authority of pharmacists to test for and immunize against COVID-19 have been relaxed or waived altogether. If these regulations (and others) had not been scaled back, the devastation wrought by the pandemic could have been far worse. Read the full story here     The Washington Post: Biden fights to sell democracy abroad when it faces challenges at home By Ashley Parker, Anne Gearan and Sean Sullivan   As President Biden hopscotched across Europe, his most prominent message was the need for democracy to prevail over autocracy. But in fighting for democratic values abroad, he risks seeming as if he is looking past the threats in the U.S. Read the full story here     Reuters: Cheers and quiet reflection as US crowds mark Juneteenth By Brendan O'Brien and Rich McKay   Marching bands sparked loud cheers and quieter reflections about racial justice from crowds gathered on Saturday to mark Juneteenth as a new U.S. federal holiday commemorating the end of the legal enslavement of Black Americans. Read the full story here     NBC News: Derek Chauvin sentencing thrusts Minnesota Judge Peter Cahill back into spotlight By Janelle Griffith   Judge Peter Cahill, who has served on the bench in Hennepin County for 14 years, could sentence Derek Chauvin to as little as probation or more than 30 years in the murder of George Floyd. Read the full story here     The New York Times: For Biden, Iranian hard-liner may be best path to restoring nuclear deal By David E. Sanger and Farnaz Fassihi   The next six weeks before a new government takes office in Tehran may be a unique window for clinching an agreement that Iran’s leadership has been delaying. Read the full story here     The Associated Press: Hard-line judiciary head wins Iran presidency in low turnout By Jon Gambrell   Iran’s hard-line judiciary chief won a landslide victory in the country’s presidential election, a vote that both propelled the supreme leader’s protege into Tehran’s highest civilian position and saw the lowest turnout in the Islamic Republic’s history. Read the full story here         Did a friend forward you this email? Sign up for The Hill Tipsheet       Forward this Tipsheet   You Might Like       Privacy Policy  |  Manage Subscriptions  |  Unsubscribe  |  Email to a friend  |  Sign Up for Other Newsletters   The Hill 1625 K Street, NW 9th Floor, Washington DC 20006 ©2021 Capitol Hill Publishing Corp., a subsidiary of News Communications, Inc.

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