Monday News & Notes
NOVEMBER 15, 2021 -- CONTINENTAL CONGRESS AGREES TO ADOPT ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION, 1777
•Big Monday for President Biden, who signs the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill at 3 p.m. and holds a virtual meeting this evening with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
•Stephen K. Bannon turned himself in to the FBI’s Washington field office Monday after the Justice Department indicted the former Trump adviser with two counts of contempt of Congress, for failing to respond to a subpoena from the 1/6 House select committee (NPR).
Build Back Better This Week? – Democrats in the House of Representatives expect to pass President Biden’s $1.75 trillion social safety net Build Back Better bill this week, but “this week” could mean “by the weekend” or even “early next week.” Whether even “this year” is realistic, Congress members’ desire to take their Thanksgiving week break adds extra pressure, according to Punchbowl News. Progressives and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-CA, want a vote this week, and moderates led by Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-NJ, “see no reason for a delay” on the vote, according to the Punchbowl News report.
And Then There’s the CBO: However, the Congressional Budget Office is expected to update today its timetable for the scoring of the BBB. Moderate Democrats, including Sen. Joe Manchin III of West Virginia, want to see that the program is fully funded. The CBO probably won’t release anything until Thursday.
Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-NY, says the Senate cannot complete its “Byrd Bath” until it receives the CBO report, anyway. So the bill potentially could sit in the Senate between Thanksgiving and New Year’s 2022.
The ‘Byrd Bath’ is – Late-Sen. Robert Byrd’s, D-WV, rule that prevents extraneous provisions tacked on to a budget reconciliation bill, and thus potentially be approved without filibuster challenges. Byrd sponsored the rule, which the Senate adopted in 1985-86, according to Congressional Research Service.
Fun Fact: Upon Byrd’s death in 2010, then-Gov. Joe Manchin, D, of West Virginia, named Carte Goodwin to fill out the rest of his term. When Goodwin chose not to run for re-election in November 2010, Manchin ran for the Senate seat himself. The rest is Democratic Party history.
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There Will be Oil – At what price? Gasoline and diesel, and home heating oil prices are at the forefront of inflation fears that continue to dog President Biden’s agenda. Opposition to his Build Back Better program, now set at $1.9 trillion, is tied to the 6.2% annual inflation rate the Commerce Department reported last week.
Republicans and other opponents of the Build Back Better program say they worry this part of Biden’s agenda, in particular, will only fuel the high inflation rate. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellin says inflation will come down as supply chains open up next year. In other words, the beginning, or the middle, or worst-case scenario for the Democrats, near the end of the midterm elections.
But oil prices tend to be controlled by Big Oil. There are no signs yet of delivery problems to the pump. AAA, by the way, says the national average price of regular gas is $3.415/gallon as of Monday, up from $2.126/gal November 15, 2020. Diesel averages $3.646/gal, versus $2.386/gal a year ago.
United Nations Climate Change Summit, Blah, Blah, Blah: Big Oil has been in a constant fight for years to slow the advance of the renewable energy industry. Oil price spikes come at the convergence of a restart of world economies after the pandemic shutdown and of the fairly ineffective COP26 United Nations climate change conference in Glasgow, Scotland. The nations did not meet summit goals of a plan to reduce global warming by 1.5 degrees Celsius per year.
According to The Washington Post, the COP26 summit ended last weekend with nearly 200 countries agreeing to ramp up carbon-cutting commitments, phase out some fossil fuels and increase aid to poorer countries to help them convert to renewable energy sources. But language to “phase out” coal was watered down to “phase down” coal after a last-minute request by the world’s two most populous countries, China and India.
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Washington Real Estate News – The Trump Organization is selling its lease for its hotel in Washington, D.C.’s Old Post Office for $375 million, The Wall Street Journal scooped over the weekend. Subject of House committee investigations and hearings on conflicts of interest and the emoluments clause involving former President Trump, the hotel’s lease was sold to CGI Merchant Group, a Miami-based investment firm. The federal government still owns the building.
Elsewhere within the District, friend-of-Trump Peter Thiel has been identified by Politico as the purchaser of Wilbur and Hilary Geary Ross’ 10,000-square-foot house in the Woodland-Normanstone neighborhood for $13 million. Wilbur Ross was Trump’s Commerce secretary. Thiel is the German co-founder of PayPal, who secretly funded Hulk Hogan’s lawsuit against Gawker.com, putting the media outlet out of business, and was known for his speech praising Trump at the 2016 GOP Convention. He has made separate $10 million donations to super PACs supporting the 2022 House candidacies of J.D. Vance in Ohio and Blake Masters in Arizona, according to Politico.
Note: The soon-to-be ex-Trump Hotel (no recounts, please) may go from being a meeting place for Republican power brokers to a meeting place for Democratic and Republican power brokers. The former Ross residence? Not so much.
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Leahy to Retire – Vermont’s senior U.S. senator, Democrat Patrick Leahy, 84, has announced he will not run for re-election in 2022, NPR reports. Leahy is serving his eighth term in the Senate.
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O’Rourke Shoots for Texas Gubernatorial Race – Will his third campaign be a charm? Former El Paso congressman Beto O’Rourke has announced he will run for the Democratic nomination to challenge Republican Gov. Gregg Abbott’s re-election next year, The Texas Tribune reports. O’Rourke conducted a high-profile challenge to Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, R, in 2018, and entered the race for the Democratic presidential nomination last year.
--Edited by Todd Lassa and Nic Woods