| | |  | BY ELANA SCHOR | | With help from Tyler Weyant TIME IS ON YOUR SIDE, TILL IT’S NOT — The culture clash between the House and Senate is an old Hill standby, a flashpoint as antique as the Capitol’s tilework. But the chambers’ divergent handling of the calendar lately does give us some important signs for the future. (Or what Sen. Jon Tester might call “crystal ball,” um, stuff.) In the Senate, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is steering a $550 billion physical infrastructure deal alongside a still-forthcoming $3.5 trillion social spending plan. It’s the same “two-track” approach Democratic leaders have talked about for weeks, but so far Schumer is employing a time management strategy that shows he understands the potential for unpredictable surprises to upend his best-laid plans. He’s running out the clock like a football coach in the playoffs, pushing ahead and warning of a shorter August recess as Republicans prepare for him to “grind us down,” as one told our Marianne LeVine. Schumer could afford to take his time because he had a White House so interested in a deal that it extended the first, failed round of failed cross-aisle infrastructure talks way back in May. Meanwhile, the White House — and all of Washington — knew a month in advance that any CDC extension of the federal evictions moratorium past its July 31 expiration could run into trouble at the Supreme Court when Brett Kavanaugh indicated he would oppose such an extension.
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A view of the U.S. Capitol. | Drew Angerer/Getty Images | Yet House Democrats were still left short of time on Friday after their leaders broke into a last-lap sprint to preserve the evictions moratorium. The dash fell short, as the party failed to find the votes within its own ranks for a move that could have kept millions of people in their homes while Covid’s Delta variant continues to spike. The White House didn’t ask Congress to step in until days before the moratorium’s expiration, House Dems said. Still, their inability to manage the ticking clock leaves them with several progressives camped out on the Capitol steps to push their party to act. “We cannot in good faith blame the Republican Party when House Democrats have the majority,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), one of those progressives who visited the steps, told CNN’s Jake Tapper on Sunday of the evictions fiasco. In fact, even if House Democrats had been able to pass a bill extending the moratorium, it would likely have gotten blocked by the Senate GOP. Speaker Nancy Pelosi acknowledged that reality in a Sunday night statement alongside other party leaders, but by then Democrats had run out of the luxury of time to refine their message. This tale of two chambers and two issues is instructive as we look ahead to an even more frenetic September in Congress. Schumer has managed the Senate adroitly, but the bipartisan infrastructure bill and the social spending plan are still shy of the president’s desk. That’s on top of a debt limit in need of lifting and a government in need of funding by October. A short timetable might prove effective in getting enough senators to back a deal written by their colleagues, but it doesn’t smooth ruffled feathers among House lawmakers — especially not when internal messaging isn’t aligned. Crises like this summer’s expiring evictions moratorium are bound to pop up out of left field. Even plans as firm as the Senate’s appear this week need to be able to withstand shocking twists, whether it’s a last-minute White House request to help renters or a coronavirus case across the aisle. (Get well soon, Sen. Graham.) Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. Reach out with news, tips and ideas for us at nightly@politico.com. Or contact tonight’s author at eschor@politico.com and on Twitter at @eschor.
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| | A message from AT&T: Accessible, affordable broadband helps communities reach their American Dream. That’s why AT&T is making a $2 billion, 3-year commitment toward helping close the digital divide, so more low-income families have the ability to succeed. Find out how. | | | | | — Lindsey Graham tests positive for Covid-19: Sen. Lindsey Graham said today he had tested positive for Covid-19 despite being vaccinated , saying that he had only mild symptoms and emphasizing that he was grateful to have gotten the shot. “I was just informed by the House physician I have tested positive for #COVID19 even after being vaccinated,” the South Carolina Republican wrote on Twitter. “I started having flu-like symptoms Saturday night and went to the doctor this morning.” — Biden administration sued by ACLU over migrant expulsions: The American Civil Liberties Union announced today it will resume a lawsuit against the Biden administration to force an end to the use of a provision of U.S. health code known as Title 42 to expel migrant families arriving at the border. “It’s clear there’s no end in sight to Title 42 and we will pursue an immediate injunction,” said Lee Gelernt, deputy director of the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project. “The Biden administration asked for some time to repair the damage done by the Trump administration to the asylum process, but it has now been seven months. That’s a more-than-sufficient amount of time.” — CIA feud complicates Jan. 6 probe: A long-percolating conflict between two prominent alumni of the CIA’s secretive internal watchdog office has burst into public view, creating a headache for the House’s investigation of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. David Buckley is the top Democratic staffer on the select committee investigating the insurrection. But 11 years ago, he was a CIA inspector general who made clear upon taking office that he wanted a cultural shift: Buckley sought a more aggressive approach to rooting out alleged wrongdoing in the agency, prioritizing probes that could lead to criminal prosecutions over inside-the-family resolutions, according to multiple people familiar with the dynamics there. — House Democrats press Biden, states to avert eviction catastrophe: Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the leadership of the Congressional Black Caucus ramped up pressure on Biden today to renew a federal eviction ban that lapsed this weekend , as local officials scrambled to contain the fallout. Pelosi told House Democrats that Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen would brief them Tuesday morning on the distribution of $46.5 billion in rental assistance authorized by Congress. State and local governments, with oversight from Treasury, disbursed just 6.5 percent of the money in the first six months of the year, amplifying fears that millions of Americans were at risk of homelessness without the eviction ban in place.
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| — NIH director: ‘We want to avoid lockdowns at all costs’: One of the nation’s top public health officials said today that the Biden administration was seeking “to avoid lockdowns at all costs” due to a precipitous rise in cases of the Covid-19 Delta variant that has prompted a reversal of federal masking guidance and resulted in more stringent coronavirus-related orders across the country. Urging greater numbers of people to get vaccinated, Francis Collins — director of the National Institutes of Health — reported that “most of the projections say we’re in for a really tough August, September, October,” and warned Americans would be forced to adopt unpopular mitigation measures to stave off the widespread lockdown directives that the country endured earlier in the pandemic.
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| | STEP INSIDE THE WEST WING: What's really happening in West Wing offices? Find out who's up, who's down, and who really has the president’s ear in our West Wing Playbook newsletter, the insider's guide to the Biden White House and Cabinet. For buzzy nuggets and details that you won't find anywhere else, subscribe today. | | | | | | | Nightly asked you: As the Delta variant leads to increased cases around the nation, are you changing your behavior this summer? Your select, lightly edited responses are below: “I am avoiding unnecessary crowds, masking indoors, and went to only two restaurants this whole summer — one with outdoor seating, the other with six feet of distance. I am vaccinated, but I feel the push of Delta on our heels. I am afraid of the next 6-8 weeks, when schools are set to open.” — Karen Shull, librarian, Oswego, N.Y. “Though I enjoyed a few weeks of mask-free dance fitness classes at my gym (which gives out bracelets for those who show proof of vaccination), I put my mask back on today for class, even though everyone around me had a magic bracelet. It’s Delta Dawn. And I want no part of it.” — Sarah Greene, health services researcher, Seattle “I’ve been wearing my mask whenever I leave my home even though I’m fully vaccinated. I have a front-facing job in the tourism industry and don’t trust my coworkers and guests to be responsible about Covid-19.” — Kathryn Elsayed, hotel front desk clerk, Atlantic City, N.J. “The need to revert to earlier protective behavior is obvious and sad. Masks anywhere indoors except my home and close contacts who are also vaccinated and extremely careful. Masking, maintaining distance, foregoing indoor restaurant dining, movie theaters, concerts. Even though we live in Marin County, the most highly vaccinated county in California, as an elder it behooves me to forego all this and go back, regretfully, to well-learned earlier behavior.” — Pat Kunstenaar, psychologist, Woodacre, Calif. “As a small mom and pop beach store with visitors from all over the East Coast and Midwest, we have worn masks all summer and will continue to do so. While we have allowed our vaccinated adult employees to choose whether or not to wear a mask, we will require them to wear them once again if Gov. Roy Cooper makes any changes to the current North Carolina rules.” — John Hobgood, beach store owner, Sunset Beach, N.C.
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| | | COVID COURT IS BACK IN SESSION — With the Delta variant on the loose, Covid cases on the rise, more reports of breakthrough infections and vaccinations stalling, things are as confusing as ever. So Judge Renu is back in session to help answer your questions about navigating this stage of the pandemic. Do you have an unresolved disagreement over Covid risk management with a relative or colleague? Or do you have questions about the virus or vaccine that haven’t been answered? Ask Renu to issue a ruling! Email your pandemic disputes to nightly@politico.com.
| | HEAT WAVE SUMMER TOUR HEADS ACROSS THE POND — Europe roasted under one of its worst heat waves in decades today , as scientists and governments prepared to sign off on a major new warning about the severity of climate change. Temperatures in Greece were forecast to approach Europe’s all-time record of 48 degrees Celcius and wildfires raged in Turkey, Greece, Italy and Finland. While parts of Europe burned, negotiations between governments and scientists over the final wording of a major compilation of the last seven years of climate science were taking place online. The U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change sixth Assessment Report, to be released on Aug. 9, is expected to draw clearer conclusions than ever before about the links between climate change and extreme weather, such as heat waves. The IPCC produces major summaries of the state of climate science roughly every six or seven years. The first section of the sixth edition comes during a barrage of extreme weather events across Europe, Africa, Asia and North America, which have been linked to climate change.
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| | | COVER STORY — Nightly’s Tyler Weyant emails: Right before the weekend started, I texted a friend of mine who was away on a four-day trip: “When you get back, indoor mask mandate will be back on.” The response I got: “Yeah, I heard. So exciting.” The above exchange was pretty much the vibe pulsing through This Town the past few days. I wrote in May about the symbolic messages many in D.C. were transmitting while wearing masks around town. Now, with a new indoor mask mandate in effect as of Saturday morning, things are a little different. Outdoor masking seems to have more or less disappeared. I hit three of Washington’s four quadrants this weekend, and indoors, most people were wearing masks, whether at the Starbucks in Adams Morgan or the clubhouse at Langston Golf Course. But those who weren’t didn’t get the stares that three months ago were standard issue for the Covid busybody set here. But beyond our mask malaise are the news stories that, for us, are tales of neighbors. Washington’s Mayor Muriel Bowser had an active weekend, from visiting with Dave Chappelle to officiating a wedding, with plenty of pictures and seemingly no masks. And Sen. Graham’s positive test today , after a weekend spent with Joe Manchin, will have unpredictable ramifications for Biden’s domestic agenda as well as the District’s mask fatigue. Add it all up, and D.C. just seems to have taken on a sticky, humid bummer-summer attitude. The city’s residents followed the rules and then some for much of the pandemic. It’s true that we have just a 56 percent vaccination rate, which is good but not great. Still, many, particularly in D.C.’s Northwest, probably assumed that the Delta variant was someone else’s problem, somewhere else. We ate our vegetables and cleaned our plate, only to be met with more vegetables.
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