McConnell Vows ‘Hell of a Fight’ on Dem Infrastructure Plans

By Yuval Rosenberg

House Problem Solvers Caucus Backs Infrastructure Deal;
McConnell Vows 'Hell of a Fight'

The House Problem Solvers Caucus on Tuesday endorsed the
infrastructure deal negotiated by a bipartisan group of senators
and the White House, broadening the base of support for the
agreement and signaling that the framework could draw some
Republican backing in the House. If the group’s 29 Republican
members vote in favor of the package, Democrats could afford to
lose the votes of some skeptical progressives and still pass the
legislation.

At the same time, the Problem Solvers urged that the legislation
be brought up for a stand-alone vote in the House — potentially
creating a problem for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), who has
insisted that the package will only be considered alongside a
larger one focused on caregiving and climate change that Democrats
are likely to try to pass on a partisan basis.

The Problem Solvers Caucus said it “strongly supports” the
Senate deal and noted that the framework closely aligns with an
infrastructure
proposal it released last month. “In light of the
bipartisan, bicameral genesis of the framework, we encourage an
expeditious, stand-alone vote in the House and thank our bipartisan
Senate partners and the Biden Administration for working so closely
with us to demonstrate that cooperation is still possible in
Washington,” the group
said.

Democratic resistance in the Senate: Key Senate Democrats
are expressing concern about the proposed financing for the deal
and calling for higher corporate tax rates instead of repurposing
unspent Covid relief funds for unemployment benefits and state
aid.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden (D-OR) has been
working on his own proposal to pay for an infrastructure package,
according to
The Hill: “The Oregon Democrat is focused on
raising an estimated $1 trillion from corporations as well as more
than $300 billion from taxing unrealized capital gains, according
to a source familiar with internal Democratic discussions.”

Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD), another member of the Finance Committee,
also questioned the proposed pay-fors in the infrastructure deal.
He said negotiators “used every conceivable thing other than normal
increases in fees or taxes to pay for it,” according to The
Hill.

McConnell vows a ‘hell of a fight’ coming: Senate
Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said Tuesday that
Republicans would push back against Democratic attempts to use a
special process called reconciliation to pass that broader spending
package without GOP support. "The era of bipartisanship on this
stuff is over,” McConnell
said at an event in Kentucky. “This is not going
to be done on a bipartisan basis. This is going to be a hell of a
fight over what this country ought to look like in the future and
it's going to unfold here in the next few weeks. I don't think
we've had a bigger difference of opinion between the two
parties."

McConnell also reiterated his insistence that the bipartisan
package be “credibly paid for, as opposed to adding it to the
debt,” but added that there may be a path forward on that
infrastructure legislation.

The bottom line: It’s not clear whether Democrats who
have threatened to oppose the bipartisan package would ultimately
buck President Biden if he presses for them to fall in line, but
key elements of the deal continue to face resistance from both the
left and right. The legislation, which is still being crafted,
still faces plenty of hurdles — and Democrats have yet to agree on
the specifics of their partisan bill, with progressives and
moderates reportedly trillions of dollars apart.

Pentagon Cancels $10 Billion Contract With Microsoft

The Department of Defense said Tuesday that it has canceled a
massive contract for cloud services with Microsoft.

Awarded in 2019, the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure
(JEDI) contract could have been worth upwards of $10 billion over
10 years. But the agreement to provide immense storage and
computing power to soldiers in the field and commanders at the
Pentagon was controversial from the start, with Amazon charging
that the contract award was tainted by political considerations in
the Trump administration. Former President Donald Trump has engaged
in a long-running public feud with Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who
also owns The Washington Post.

The Pentagon said the cancelation was driven by changing
technological needs and capabilities, which have emerged during the
ongoing litigation over the original contract. “With the shifting
technology environment, it has become clear that the JEDI Cloud
contract, which has long been delayed, no longer meets the
requirements to fill the DoD’s capability gaps,” the Pentagon said
in a statement.

What’s next: The Pentagon isn’t giving
up on cloud computing and will now focus on what it calls Joint
Warfighter Cloud Capability. According to
Defense News, the JWCC will operate through a
“multi-cloud, multi-vendor indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity
contract” that is expected to cost billions of dollars, with new
agreements expected to be signed by April 2022.

Biden: ‘We Can’t Get Complacent Now’ in Covid Fight

President Biden on Tuesday hailed the progress that nation has
made in fighting the Covid-19 pandemic but warned against
complacency and again urged unvaccinated Americans to get their
shots, especially given the emergence of the highly transmissible
delta variant.

Biden said that more than 182 million Americans have received at
least one vaccination shot, including nearly 90% of seniors and 70%
of adults over age 27. By the end of the week, Biden predicted, 160
million Americans will be fully vaccinated, reaching a target Biden
had set for July 4.

The administration fell short of reaching the president’s goal
of having at least 70% of Americans receive at least one shot by
Independence Day. Biden outlined five ways his administration would
focus on over the rest of the summer to promote vaccinations and
make the shots more accessible. Biden said the effort would center
on providing shots at local pharmacies, doctor’s offices, work
places and mobile clinics. He said that special emphasis would be
placed on getting vaccines to pediatricians and other health care
providers for younger Americans.

About 1,000 counties in the U.S. have vaccination rates below
30%, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention,
told reporters last week.

“We can’t get complacent now,” Biden said Tuesday. “The best
thing you can do to protect yourself and your family and the people
you care about the most is get vaccinated. … It’s the patriotic
thing to do.”

Number of the Day: $13,000

The U.S. spent more than $40 million building a bridge
over the Panj River at Sher Khan Bandar, Afghanistan, connecting
the war-torn nation to Tajikistan, but the key piece of
infrastructure has now fallen into the hands of the Taliban – and
is providing a nice source of revenue for the militant Islamic
group. Customs fees collected at the 2,204-feet-long bridge amount
to about 1 million afghanis a day, or roughly $13,000, The Wall
Street Journal
reports. “The tax that used to be taken by the
government is now taken by the Taliban,” a local businessman told
the Journal, adding that the Taliban charges less than the
government had.

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