Crooked Media - What A Day: Rule story, bro!

It’s all over but, uh, the writing of the reconciliation bill, weeks of debate in both the House and Senate, the passing of the reconciliation bill, and, if you’re Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NOLABELS), the crying.
 

• By a vote of 220-212 Tuesday evening, the House set the stage for an early-autumn Build Back Better bonanza. Under the just-passed rule, the House can now begin legislative work on a budget-reconciliation bill, which Democrats hope to use to fill out the rest of President Biden’s economic agenda. It also paved the way for the House to pass the updated John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act on Tuesday, and to schedule a future vote on the bipartisan infrastructure bill.
   
• The success of this key procedural vote came despite a late effort by Gottheimer and eight other House centrists to force immediate passage of the Senate infrastructure bill, which would have shattered the coalitions supporting both halves of Biden’s legacy initiatives. Though numerous enough in theory to destroy the party’s governing plans, the centrists succeeded mostly in pissing off everyone else in the Democratic caucus, including the moderates. “It’s time to fold,” said one vulnerable House Dem.
   
• Gottheimer et al did extract a commitment from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to let him derp another day pass the Senate infrastructure bill by September 27. In practice, that may just serve as a deadline for the House to pass both infrastructure bills within the next month. House progressives continue to insist they'll vote against the bipartisan infrastructure bill unless the larger, more progressive Build Back Better Act passes first or at the same time. In a statement Tuesday afternoon, Pelosi committed to “pass the bipartisan infrastructure bill” by the end of September, and also to “vote on a Build Back Better Act that will pass the Senate.”

The big question may be whether Democrats have bitten off more than they can chew.
 

• Pelosi’s statement suggests she and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer have less than five weeks to hash out a Build Back Better reconciliation bill that members from all factions of the party will commit to supporting. That bill would have to pass the House before or in tandem with the Senate infrastructure bill, after which Senate Democrats would have to debate and vote on the reconciliation bill themselves (meaning the House might have to vote for it a second time). 
   
• Sound like a lot to juggle in a month? Well, consider that Congress also has to pass annual appropriations to keep the government from shutting down. And it has to increase the debt limit. And, ideally, it also has to pass democracy-protection legislation. To that end, House Democrats passed their updated John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act by a vote of 219-212 Tuesday, but that bill will remain stuck in the Senate unless Sens. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) also agree to change the filibuster rules, and quickly.

Rebecca Nagle is back with a brand new season of This Land. In this season, Rebecca takes you inside her year-long investigation into a series of custody battles over Native American children. Along the way she discovers how the most powerful people on the far right are using this moment to quietly dismantle American Indian tribes and advance a conservative agenda. The first two episodes are out now. Listen and subscribe to This Land wherever you get your podcasts.

Kathy Hochul took the oath of office to become Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-NY) at 12:01 a.m. on Tuesday. In her inaugural address this afternoon, she pledged to impose vaccine requirements on New York state school staff, and a mask requirement on anyone who sets foot on school grounds. In the moments before his resignation took effect, former-Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-NY) commuted the 75-years-to-life sentence of David Gilbert, a member of the Weather Underground whose accomplices killed two police officers during an armored-car robbery 40 years ago. The commutation makes Gilbert eligible for parole, and assures him a parole hearing in the coming weeks. Cuomo cited Gilbert’s work in AIDS education in a statement accompanying the clemency. Gilbert’s son, Chesa Boudin, is currently San Francisco's district attorney. "My heart is bursting,” he tweeted Tuesday. “On the eve of my first child's birth, my dad - who's been in prison nearly my entire life - was granted clemency. He never intended harm, yet his crime devastated many families. My heart breaks for the families that can never get their loved ones back.”

• CIA Director William Burns held an undisclosed meeting in Kabul on Monday with Taliban leader, Abdul Ghani Baradar, likely to discuss the August 31 deadline for the U.S. to complete its evacuation from Afghanistan. President Biden has faced pressure from allies in recent days to extend that deadline, and has reportedly made contingency plans in the event that he deems it necessary.
   
• House intelligence committee chairman Adam Schiff told reporters Monday that he doubts the evacuation will be complete by the end of the month, though the pace of departures from Kabul airport has increased dramatically in the past week. 
   
• The Supreme Court's six conservative justices have ordered the Biden administration to reinstitute Trump's "remain in Mexico" policy, with no explanation.
   
• The House select committee investigating the January 6 insurrection will seek phone records from several telecom companies, including those belonging to members of Congress. 
   
• Confirmed coronavirus infections have quadrupled in South Dakota in the past two weeks. The Sturgis "Motorcycles And COVID Are Both Awesome" Rally began there two and a half weeks ago and ended on August 15.
   
• A bunch of current and former members of Congress, including Sens. Joe Manchin (D-WV), Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ), Mark Warner (D-VA), and Angus King (I-ME) contributed to the legal defense fund Sen. Richard Burr (D-NC) set up after he got caught dumping hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of stock last February, right before the market crashed. Awesome. 
   
• Vice President Kamala Harris left Singapore en route to Vietnam three hours behind schedule after embassy workers in Hanoi reported symptoms consistent with what’s become known as “Havana Syndrome.”
   
• Herschel Walker will run for Senate in Georgia as a Republican. Here’s a bit more about Herschel Walker.
   
• States that pre-emptively ended their pandemic unemployment benefits made it harder for people seeking work to find jobs, by forcing other, more-favored workers back into the workforce.
   
• Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts has died at age 80.
   
• A Florida Republican operative is opening a Florida-themed bar in Washington, DC's Navy Yard neighborhood—useful information for if you're ever in Navy Yard looking for some people to cropdust. 

Despite House passage of the updated John Lewis Voting Rights Act on Tuesday, civil-rights leaders’ frustration with President Biden and Democrats in Congress has begun to boil over as the summer drags on and hope for legislation to protect voting rights continues to dim. The anger stems as much from the fact that two key Democrats, Sens. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ), continue to oppose the filibuster reforms that would be required to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and the For the People Act, as from Biden’s unwillingness so far to publicly embrace filibuster reform and pressure them to change their minds. “We organized in November to put people in office to address the issue of voter suppression,” NAACP President Derrick Johnson told Vanity Fair. “We did not organize in November to let elected officials off the hook to organize again and overcome a new hurdle.” Johnson and other activists have pressured Dems to prioritize voting rights all year, but their public criticism has grown more pitched in recent weeks, as the window to protect democracy in time for the 2022 election closes. “[T]he most aggressive, well-funded, most targeted attack on the Black electorate that I’ve seen in my lifetime is afoot,” said Nsé Ufot, CEO of the New Georgia Project, “[and] we can’t even get the president of the United States to say the word ‘filibuster,’ let alone organize against it.”

Tell the Biden Administration to Cancel Student Debt

The cost of higher education has grown exponentially in our country, placing it out of reach for most students and families unless they agree to take on huge amounts of debt. Over 44 million Americans carry more than $1.7 trillion of student debt. This crushing burden is preventing millions from buying homes, starting businesses, saving for retirement, or even starting families: And that reality falls heaviest on communities of color – particularly Black people and especially Black women – as a direct result of systemic racism.

That's why we’re urging the Biden Administration to cancel up to $50,000 in student debt per borrower by the end of 2021 – and we need as many people with us as possible. Add your name to our petition to join us in action today.

Canceling student debt can help close the racial wealth gap by over 20 percent – securing financial stability and economic mobility for Black, Latinx, and other people of color who are disproportionately burdened by loans, while addressing the debt crisis for millions.

It’s a common-sense solution and there is no reason to wait: Sign our petition telling the Biden administration to cancel $50,000 of student loan debt per eligible borrower now.

Thanks for taking action,

The ACLU Team

President Biden is reportedly considering invoking his parole authority to allow Afghans who have completed security screenings but have outstanding visa paperwork to come to the United States.

The Pennsylvania Reapportionment Commission will count state prisoners as residents of their home districts, rather than of their correctional facilities, in the coming redistricting.

The Idaho Supreme Court has struck down as unconstitutionally burdensome new restrictions on the state’s ballot-initiative process, which Republicans imposed in retaliation against voters for adopting Medicaid expansion by referendum.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has reversed a Trump-era decree that required Duck Stamp Contest entrants to depict hunting imagery in their submissions, a rule that effectively transformed it into the [wait...] Sitting-Duck Stamp Contest [wasn’t that fun?].