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Presented by Amazon: POLITICO's must-read briefing on what's driving the afternoon in Washington. | | | | |  | | By Eli Okun | | | |  President Joe Biden this morning approved a major disaster declaration for Florida. | Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images | NO SHUTDOWN SHOWDOWN — The Senate looks on track to pass a continuing resolution this afternoon to keep the government open. Marianne LeVine and Caitlin Emma have the latest on Majority Leader CHUCK SCHUMER and Minority Leader MITCH McCONNELL previewing a smooth path to passage today. The House appears likely to pass the bill tomorrow, Caitlin says. BULLETIN — Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska and South Carolina today filed suit to try to block the Biden administration’s student loan debt forgiveness plan, AP’s Seung Min Kim scooped. The suit, which is filed in Missouri federal court, identifies Missouri’s loan servicer as the entity who will suffer harm from the policy, along with states who stand to have their revenue disrupted. It contends that the debt relief violates the Administrative Procedures Act and that the administration can’t make the move under the pandemic emergency declaration because President JOE BIDEN said on “60 Minutes” this month that the pandemic was over. At the same time, the Biden administration is commencing its loan forgiveness process today, CNN’s Betsy Klein and MJ Lee report. Officials emailed eligible Americans today previewing the program, which will open to applications next month. But concerns about legal vulnerability are already forcing the Biden administration to make changes: The Education Department now says it’ll exclude people whose debt is privately held from getting relief, Michael Stratford reports for Pros. LATEST ON HURRICANE IAN — Biden this morning approved a major disaster declaration for Florida, which can unlock additional aid for areas hit hard by Ian, per Kelly Hooper . Ian has now weakened to a tropical storm, but the National Hurricane Center predicted that it’ll return to hurricane status later today. Biden spoke with Gov. RON DeSANTIS this morning and will send FEMA Administrator DEANNE CRISWELL to the state Friday, the White House said. “Should Biden visit the state, he will have an opportunity to showcase the federal response — and his skills as consoler-in-chief — on DeSantis’s home turf,” Bloomberg’s Jordan Fabian writes. But “Ian also poses political risks for Biden” — particularly if it makes inflation worse. Biden said he plans to visit Florida and Puerto Rico when he won’t get in the way. We’re just beginning to get a picture of the damage the hurricane has wreaked: Millions of Floridians have lost power. Major pieces of infrastructure, including a bridge to Sanibel Island, look to have been significantly damaged. “This could be the deadliest hurricane in Florida’s history,” Biden said this afternoon, warning of “substantial loss of life.” Live updates from the Tampa Bay Times LIVE FREE OR DIE — A new Suffolk/Boston Globe poll out today has Democratic Sen. MAGGIE HASSAN ahead of DON BOLDUC 50% to 41%, in line with other recent surveys showing the incumbent with a decent lead. But, but, but: Not so fast, the Hassan campaign is warning. A note from her campaign manager to donors and outside groups Wednesday says “you should be leery of any public polling showing Senator Hassan leading this race outside the margin of error,” Axios’ Alayna Treene reports . “Our own internal polling shows that Don Bolduc is quickly consolidating the Republican base and is rapidly making up ground.” Bolduc, the memo says, is “well on his way to making this a tied race.” It’s an example of how some Democrats are wary of overconfidence against flawed GOP competition. It may also represent one campaign’s effort to keep spending from being diverted to other races. The memo Good Thursday afternoon.
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| BATTLE FOR THE SENATE ANECDOTE OF THE DAY — The L.A. Times’ Freddy Brewster went to Landon, Ohio, and found a very touchy J.D. VANCE campaign: “When asking if he prefers Skyline Chili or Gold Star Chili — two Cincinnati staples — a Times reporter was chastised by Vance’s press secretary for not asking her for permission to ask the candidate a question.” Many Republican voters say they’re backing Vance out of loyalty to party and DONALD TRUMP more than the candidate. NEVER TWEET — The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Daniel Bice runs down several of Wisconsin Lt. Gov. MANDELA BARNES’ more than 18,000 tweets over the past decade, some of which read like an attack ad-maker's dream: “I really could not care less about a 2nd Amendment ‘right’.” “Donald Trump is a Russian spy. Believe me.” “The election was, rigged?” (That last one is from Nov. 9, 2016.) WITH FRIENDS LIKE THESE — Republican senators are frustrated that Sen. MITT ROMNEY (R-Utah) isn’t backing Sen. MIKE LEE (R-Utah) in his reelection bid, they tell The Federalist’s Mollie Hemingway. “I don’t know what he thinks he’s doing, but it’s not going over well, particularly with the [senators] who are up for chairmanships,” one senator says. BATTLE FOR THE HOUSE SWING-DISTRICT DISPATCH — In Omaha, Neb., and surrounding areas, WSJ’s Dante Chinni finds some signs that abortion may give Democrats a real shot at unseating Republican Rep. DON BACON. The big question, as in so many districts, is whether abortion rights and concerns about the GOP’s shift to the right will outweigh questions about inflation, crime and immigration. Democrat TONY VARGAS hopes to boost Latino turnout and is playing up bipartisanship rather than abortion or Jan. 6. — Bacon had an emergency appendectomy late Wednesday night, per the Omaha World-Herald . He’s expected to get out of the hospital later today. TRADEMARK TROUBLES — “Feathers ruffled,” Matt Friedman writes for Congress Minutes: “Convenience store chain Wawa is accusing a New Jersey congressional candidate of plucking his campaign’s goose logo straight from their archives.” BATTLE FOR THE STATES LEDE OF THE DAY — “Here was a debate that KATIE HOBBS wanted to have,” NYT’s Jack Healy and Jazmine Ulloa write from Phoenix. The Arizona Democratic gubernatorial nominee had been dodging formal debates with bombastic far-right KARI LAKE, from whom the low-key Hobbs has struggled to pull away in the polls. But Hobbs is recentering abortion in her campaign in the wake of a new Arizona court ruling, which could inject some momentum into Democrats’ efforts. Still, they find some Dems in the state worried that Hobbs isn’t doing enough: “Supporters say she is genuine and caring, but even on the most comfortable terrain, she sometimes sticks to the script.” DOWN BALLOT — “In Minnesota, abortion key to Keith Ellison’s 2nd term hopes,” by AP’s Steve Karnowski in Minneapolis: “Now locked in a tough reelection fight, he’s arguing that he’s been far less of a partisan warrior than his critics claim. … His Republican opponent, hedge fund lawyer Jim Schultz, says Ellison deserves much of the blame for the surge in violent crime … Ellison has used this summer’s U.S. Supreme Court decision rolling back abortion rights to rally Democrats and suburban swing voters. He’s also urged those voters to look at his work on more everyday issues such as affordable health care and prescription drugs, consumer and business fraud protections and protections for workers against wage theft.” HOT POLLS — Wisconsin: Good news for Republicans: Sen. RON JOHNSON is above 50%, leading Barnes 51% to 46%, per AARP/Fabrizio. And TIM MICHELS leads Democratic Gov. TONY EVERS 50% to 47%. — Pennsylvania: Another poll showing a tightening Senate race and a bigger Democratic gubernatorial lead: Franklin & Marshall has JOHN FETTERMAN up 47% to 43% over MEHMET OZ among likely voters, while JOSH SHAPIRO leads DOUG MASTRIANO 52% to 42%. HOT ADS Via Steve Shepard — Texas: The big-spending, dark-money group Coulda Been Worse takes aim at Gov. GREG ABBOTT and Lt. Gov. DAN PATRICK in its latest ad , hitting both men on the February 2021 winter storm that crippled the state’s energy grid. “Hundreds died,” a narrator for the group says — adding at the end of the 60-second spot: “And the damn grid still isn’t fixed.” — Georgia: RAPHAEL WARNOCK’s new ad finds the Democratic senator waist-deep in peanuts, touting his support for one of his state’s signature crops.
| | | | HAPPENING NOW - MILKEN INSTITUTE ASIA SUMMIT : Go inside the 9th annual Milken Institute Asia Summit, taking place from September 28-30, with a special edition of POLITICO’s Global Insider newsletter, featuring exclusive coverage and insights from this important gathering. Stay up to speed with daily updates from the summit, which brings together more than 1,200 of the world’s most influential leaders from business, government, finance, technology, and academia. Don’t miss out, subscribe today. | | | | | TRUMP CARDS FOLLOWING THE MONEY — The American Freedom Tour is having trouble paying its bills, ticking off Trump allies over canceled events and unmet obligations after it organized Trump’s post-presidency speeches, WaPo’s Josh Dawsey and Isaac Arnsdorf report. AMERICA AND THE WORLD SPY SHOCKER — Reuters’ Joel Schectman and Bozorgmehr Sharafedin have a stunning new yearlong investigation that uncovers CIA negligence and sloppiness with its informants in Iran — imperiling them, landing them in prison and failing to help them or their families. The six Iranians who were convicted of espionage between 2009 and 2015 tell Reuters of CIA missteps and overly aggressive tactics that put them at risk. And “the now-defunct covert online communication system that [GHOLAMREZA] HOSSEINI used – located by Reuters in an internet archive – may have exposed at least 20 other Iranian spies and potentially hundreds of other informants operating in other countries around the world.” BREAKING — The U.S. charged Russian oligarch OLEG DERIPASKA with sanctions violations and obstruction of justice. FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — A new transatlantic poll from J.L. Partners and the Atlantic Future Forum compares opinions from the U.S. and U.K. — with some interesting results about the state of the world. Findings that stood out to us: Americans are less willing to sacrifice for Ukraines than Brits are. Fifty-eight percent of U.S. respondents want to prioritize getting costs down, while 42% say we should help Ukraine even if it triggers higher prices. But 57% of Americans say they’d support sending ground troops to Europe to take on Russia if Moscow invades a NATO ally. That’s not true of Taiwan: The same percentage oppose sending ground troops if China invades. Sign of the times: While Brits say Russian President VLADIMIR PUTIN is the greatest threat to Western democracy, Americans are evenly split among Putin, Democrats and Republicans. The full poll THANKS FOR STOPPING BY — Just after VP KAMALA HARRIS left the Korean Peninsula today, North Korea conducted its third round of missile testing in a week, sending two short-range ballistic missiles into the water, per the AP. KHASHOGGI UPDATE — The Public Interest Declassification Board advised Biden in June to declassify the full intelligence report on JAMAL KHASHOGGI’s murder, but he still hasn’t done so, WSJ’s Dustin Volz scooped. “It couldn’t be determined what information is contained in the Khashoggi intelligence report that has not already been made public, or whether it is substantive in nature. Transparency advocates say its delayed release points to a larger problem of overclassification and the need for broad reforms.”
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Vanessa enrolled in one of Amazon’s technical training programs for associates to grow their careers and earning potential. She’s one of the 300,000 employees Amazon is committed to training by 2025. Read her story. Sponsored by Amazon   | | | THE ECONOMY THE UNEMPLOYMENT PICTURE — New jobless claims fell last week to 193,000, the lowest level since April. That shows continuing strength in the labor market — another indicator that we’re not in recession territory, but also that the Fed’s battle to soften labor and bring down inflation still has a ways to go. More from CNBC ON THE HOME FRONT — Mortgage rates rose to 6.7% this week, the highest they’ve been since 2007, per new Freddie Mac data out today. “The long-awaited shift — from white-hot housing market to something more normal — is playing out across the country,” in part thanks to Fed moves to rein in inflation, WaPo’s Rachel Siegel and Kathy Orton report. BEYOND THE BELTWAY THE OTHER STORM — One-fifth of Puerto Rico is still without power two weeks after Hurricane Fiona, on top of a panoply of other lingering crises — and advocates on the island are fearful that Ian may distract from its ongoing needs, Gloria Gonzalez reports . “They also worry about the imbalance in political clout: Florida … has received major federal funding after previous storms. Puerto Rico … is only now starting to see the billions in federal dollars set aside for the island after 2017’s Hurricane Maria.” THE PANDEMIC WHAT SAM BANKMAN-FRIED IS READING — The U.S. responses to the coronavirus and then monkeypox laid bare that the federal government is poorly prepared to handle new infectious diseases — which are only going to keep arriving in the years to come, NYT’s Apoorva Mandavilli reports. More than a dozen experts tell her that a “muddled response to future outbreaks seems almost inevitable,” thanks to issues with underfunding, data and balkanized public health structures. “This is the new normal,” one warns. “It’s like the levees are built for the one-in-a-100-years crisis, but then the floods keep happening every three years.” CONGRESS STOCK AND TRADE — House Majority Leader STENY HOYER, who reportedly opposes House Dems’ bill to ban government officials from trading stocks, told CNN’s Daniella Diaz that there’ll be “probably no vote this week” on the bill — likely its last opportunity before the midterms. ACROSS THE AISLE — Rep. MARY PELTOLA (D-Alaska) didn’t just hire her Republican predecessor’s chief of staff — she has more Republicans and independents on her staff than Democrats, Roll Call’s Jim Saksa reports. Two of them, ALEX ORTIZ and JOSH WILSON, “described themselves as GOPers who decided to work specifically for Mary Peltola, not Republican reprobates.” “I think he’d be very happy right now,” Ortiz says of the late Rep. DON YOUNG.
| | | | SUBSCRIBE TO POWER SWITCH: The energy landscape is profoundly transforming. Power Switch is a daily newsletter that unlocks the most important stories driving the energy sector and the political forces shaping critical decisions about your energy future, from production to storage, distribution to consumption. Don’t miss out on Power Switch, your guide to the politics of energy transformation in America and around the world. SUBSCRIBE TODAY. | | | | | PLAYBOOKERS OUT AND ABOUT — The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law held its annual Higginbotham Leadership Awards Gala on Wednesday night in New York, “to celebrate leaders who demonstrate a commitment to racial and social justice.” SPOTTED: Del. Stacey Plaskett (D-U.S. Virgin Islands), Tracee Ellis Ross, Sunny Hostin, Kimberlé Crenshaw, Stephen Squeri, Laureen Seeger, Damon T. Hewitt, Teresa Roseborough, Shira Scheindlin, Danielle Holley and Joe West. — SPOTTED at a fundraiser supporting “Jacob’s Fund” at Family Equality on Wednesday night hosted by the National Association of Manufacturers’ Jay Timmons and Rick Olson: Sens. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) and Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Josh Bolton, Barbara Comstock, Bill Graves, Don McGahn, Rip Sullivan, Alex Vogel and Virginia state Sens. Jill Vogel and Adam Ebbin. MEDIA MOVES — Mel Leonor Barclay and Grace Panetta are joining The 19th’s politics team as reporters. Barclay currently is a newsletter writer for States Newsroom and is a POLITICO alum. Panetta previously was a senior politics reporter for Insider. TRANSITIONS — Yael Eisenstat is joining the Anti-Defamation League as VP and lead of its technology unit, WaPo reports. She most recently was senior adviser for tech and democracy at the Institute for Security and Technology, and has been a prominent Facebook critic since leaving the company as head of election integrity for political ads in 2018. … Sruthi Prabhu is now SVP on the federal relations team at Bank of America. She previously was an adviser for Rep. Trey Hollingsworth (R-Ind.). … … Scott Rayder is now VP and division manager for Leidos’ climate, energy and environment portfolio. He previously was the first chief of staff at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. … Michael Reynolds is now senior public policy adviser for Baker Donelson’s government relations and public policy group. He previously was deputy policy director for aviation and space for the Senate Commerce Committee. … Kyle Smithwick is now deputy chief oversight counsel on the House Financial Services Committee. He previously worked for the House Judiciary Committee. WELCOME TO THE WORLD — Michael Short, a managing director at Penta Group, and Natalie Strom Short, an SVP at Edelman Smithfield, welcomed Benjamin David Short on Friday. He came in at 7 lbs, 3 oz. Pic … Another pic — Grant Gardner, director for U.S. government relations and regulatory affairs at AMD and a Trump Commerce and John Boehner alum, and Seton Gardner, who works in government operations at Boeing and is a John Boehner alum, recently welcomed Hazel Matan Gardner, who joins big sister Grace. Pic
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