| | |  | BY ELANA SCHOR | Presented by |  |
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| With help from David Giambusso THE BFD THAT’S NOT IN S. 1 — The massive elections bill that Senate Democrats plan to call up Tuesday (it won’t go well for them) is viewed by many in the party as a necessary response to GOP attempts to restrict ballot access in the aftermath of former President Donald Trump’s defeat in 2020. Yet the bill is silent on a critical tool that Trump’s supporters used to question the results of the 2020 election: objecting to congressional certification of specific states’ Electoral College votes. The legislation that Democrats stamped with the meaningful number of “1” includes an array of provisions, shaped in advance of Trump’s loss, that are designed to make voting in America easier. But after a post-election transition that saw Trump impeached for the second time after repeatedly encouraging his backers to subvert Electoral College certification, and a Capitol riot that sought the same goal, lawmakers in both parties have held next to no open debate about whether to change that process. (Certification is addressed in the Constitution but dealt with in detail in the Electoral Count Act of 1887, passed after the contested election of 1876.) The topic has barely come up during debate on the behemoth elections bill. In some ways, the bipartisan lack of interest in debating Electoral College certification isn’t surprising. President Joe Biden favored the status quo while beating several 2020 Democratic primary rivals who wanted to do away with the Electoral College. And while it’s noteworthy that eight Senate Republicans and 139 House Republicans challenged at least one state’s electoral certification on Jan. 6 and in the early hours of Jan. 7, after the insurrection interrupted them, Democrats — including then-Sen. Barbara Boxer of California — used the certification process to raise their own objections to President George W. Bush’s victory in Ohio in 2004. Even so, the inattention Congress is giving to the process by which it OKs state-level election results speaks to a failure of imagination by both parties. Democrats have lamented the unwillingness of their political opponents to engage in a good-faith discussion about election integrity, but even conservative lawmakers are aware that this year’s certification set a potentially disturbing precedent that both parties might exploit in the future. Earlier this year, seven House Republicans made a stirring case for why it was in the GOP’s self-interest to accept Biden’s win and certify the votes in the disputed states. “If we perpetuate the notion that Congress may disregard certified electoral votes — based solely on its own assessment that one or more states mishandled the presidential election — we will be delegitimizing the very system that led Donald Trump to victory in 2016, and that could provide the only path to victory in 2024,” those seven Republicans wrote, days before the certification vote that devolved during the deadly riot. Some of those seven Republicans might be open to a debate on how to make it harder for Congress to overturn a presidential election by refusing to certify the electoral votes of crucial states. Still, we won’t be seeing that debate this year — and if it can’t happen during a year when certification objections helped propel an insurrection, it may never happen. Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. The Atlanta Hawks owe us. The only NBA head coach Nightly ever interviewed, then-Hawks coach Lloyd Pierce, appeared in our June 16, 2020 edition. One year later? June 16, 2021, a night when the Hawks came back from 26 points down to stun the Philadelphia 76ers . They’re now in the Eastern Conference Finals for only the second time in Atlanta history. Our Renuka Rayasam is an Atlanta native, and our Tyler Weyant shares an alma mater with Game 7 star Kevin Huerter. Is this all coincidental, superstitious piffle? Probably, but that won’t stop us from heading to Centennial Park for the championship parade in July. (NBA coaches, feel free to reach out to us now to ensure success in next year’s playoffs, even at the cost of your job.) Reach out with news, tips and ideas for us at eschor@politico.com , or on Twitter at @eschor.
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A message from Amazon: A recent study from the University of California-Berkeley and Brandeis University found that when Amazon raised their wage to $15/hr, the average hourly wage in the surrounding area rose by 4.7% as other employers followed their lead. Learn more about what else the research found . | | | | | | 
New York City mayoral candidate Kathryn Garcia campaigns in the Sunset Park neighborhood of Brooklyn the day before the Democratic primary in New York City. | Getty Images | PUT YOUR GRACIE MANSION REDECORATOR ON STANDBY — Voting concludes Tuesday night in New York City’s Democratic primary, but the election will be far from over. We’ll be watching a few key things on Election Day. Here’s a rundown from POLITICO’s City Hall editor, David Giambusso: Who’s going to win? It will be hard to say even after the results come in. With the dawn of ranked-choice voting in New York, there’s a chance the person with the most first-place votes won’t come out ahead when voters’ subsequent picks are tabulated. If the margin is close, we could have a situation where frontrunner Eric Adams comes in first on election night but ultimately loses to leading contenders Andrew Yang, Kathryn Garcia or Maya Wiley. If it’s not all that close, Adams looks poised to win. When will we know? Not for at least a week, for sure. The notoriously error-prone Board of Elections is about to undertake the biggest ranked-choice voting election in American history. The board plans to issue preliminary results Tuesday night, but it won’t tabulate ranked-choice votes until next week. Then it will be at least another week until absentee ballots are counted — which could stretch the final tally into July. Will anyone claim victory? Adams is likely to project himself as the winner if he ranks first Tuesday night. He’s been preemptively calling into question the ranked-choice system and blasted his competitors Andrew Yang and Kathryn Garcia for forming an alliance over the weekend. They campaigned together, and Yang asked his voters to rank Garcia second on their ballots. A lawsuit wouldn’t change the outcome, but we’re bracing for a legal fight the likes of which we haven’t seen for a long time if the first-place winner Tuesday doesn’t ultimately prevail. Is anything else happening? Yes! Manhattan voters are also picking a DA after Cy Vance Jr. declined to run again. The New York Times has a good roundup of that race which, because it’s considered a state election, will not be using the ranked-choice system. But voters are also picking a city comptroller using ranked-choice, as well a big chunk of the 51-person City Council. What do the voters say about the new system? New Yorkers are used to having a lot of variety, but some will have about 20 choices on the ballots depending on what district they’re in. We’ll be at the polls to see if they used the new system, and ranked five people, if they simply blew it off and ranked one, and whether they want to use the new system next time.
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| | DON'T MISS THE MILKEN INSTITUTE FUTURE OF HEALTH SUMMIT: POLITICO will feature a special edition of our Future Pulse newsletter at the 2021 Milken Institute Future of Health Summit. The newsletter takes readers inside one of the most influential gatherings of global health industry leaders and innovators who are turning lessons learned from the past year into a healthier, more resilient and more equitable future. Covid-19 threatened our health and well-being, while simultaneously leading to extraordinary coordination to improve pandemic preparedness, disease prevention, diversity in clinical trials, mental health resources, food access and more. SUBSCRIBE TODAY to receive exclusive coverage from June 22-23. | | | | | | | — Senate’s bipartisan infrastructure deal nears its big reveal: The Senate’s bipartisan group is racing to finalize an accord on infrastructure , hoping to clinch a deal totaling $579 billion in new spending as soon as this week. The group of 21 senators, roughly evenly split between both parties, is sketching out its spending plan in far greater detail than previously reported, with a four-page breakdown circulating Capitol Hill and reviewed by POLITICO. But the effort is still a work in progress, with senators set to meet again tonight and staff working near-constantly to refine the numbers. — Supreme Court rules in favor of athletes in NCAA compensation case: The Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s restrictions on education benefits for players violate the nation’s antitrust laws . The 9-0 decision represents a landmark victory for college players and a significant moment in the history of college athletics, as lawmakers in Congress and statehouses weigh new laws to allow athletes to profit from personal endorsements and sponsorships. The ruling is likely to allow colleges to offer topflight football and basketball players pricey enticements related to their education — such as thousands of dollars in cash awards for maintaining a high GPA or making progress toward graduation, or graduate school scholarships and study abroad opportunities.
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| — White House: Biden’s Catholic faith is not ‘political’: White House press secretary Jen Psaki said today that Biden did not interpret his Catholic faith “through a political prism,” declining to comment on a recent decision by U.S. Catholic bishops that could result in a rebuke of the president for his views on abortion. “Joe Biden is a strong man of faith. And as he noted just a couple of days ago, it’s personal. He goes to church, as you know, nearly every weekend. He even went when we were on our overseas trip,” Psaki told reporters — referring to the president and first lady’s attendance at a Sunday service last week at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in the English seaside town of St. Ives. — U.S. imposes sanctions on Belarus in response to forced landing of Ryanair flight: The Biden administration announced a wave of sanctions today targeting Belarusian individuals and entities tied to the arrest of an opposition journalist who was apprehended from a commercial flight that was forced to land in Belarus last month. The new sanctions were launched in coordination with Canada, the United Kingdom and the European Union. — Biden weighs ban on China’s solar material over forced labor: The Biden administration is considering banning imports of a critical solar panel material from China’s Xinjiang region, according to four people familiar with the administration’s plans, a move that would assuage bipartisan pressure to crack down on human rights abuses but could undermine the White House’s aggressive climate change goals.
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| | | | | KEEP DELAYING THAT CANADA’S WONDERLAND TRIP — Canada laid out details today of looser border restrictions starting July 5 for fully vaccinated citizens, residents and other eligible individuals. But the Trudeau government still has no timeline for when it will crack open its door to nonessential foreign travelers, Andy Blatchford writes. “I understand the frustration of people who want certainty around what will happen next,” Health Minister Patty Hajdu said at a press conference today during which government officials were pressed repeatedly for specific targets. “Of course, the virus has thrown us a number of curve balls over the last year and a half.” Hajdu did provide one milestone the country hopes to achieve — full vaccination of at least 75 percent of Canada’s population. She added that Canada is closely watching domestic rates of hospitalization, Covid-19 case counts and the virus’ evolution internationally. The changes announced today mark the first phase of Canada’s easing of public-health measures at its frontier. The steps come a few days after Ottawa announced that both the U.S. and Canada agreed to keep the crossings closed to nonessential international travelers until at least July 21.
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$3,506 The amount spent on Facebook ads, starting late last week, by Save America Joint Fundraising Committee, a joint venture between Trump’s Save America leadership PAC and his Make America Great Again PAC. The ads, promoting Trump’s upcoming rally outside Cleveland, Ohio and calling for donations to his fund, come after the social media giant banned the ex-president from using the site. |
| | | BREAKING UP IS HARD TO DO — There’s a new sheriff in town. Lina Khan, a staunch critic of Silicon Valley giants, has taken the reins at the FTC. In the latest POLITICO Dispatch, Leah Nylen looks at what Kahn’s ascension — and a new package of antitrust bills — could mean for Big Tech.
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“I think I sort of once was lost and now I’m found. I lived my authentic life a long time. I think this job tightened me too much. Or I let it tighten me. I think I’m going back to who I am.” — BILL DE BLASIO TO RUBY CRAMER, REFLECTING ON HIS LEGACY AS NYC MAYOR. READ RUBY'S STORY TUESDAY MORNING IN POLITICO |
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A message from Amazon: Since 2009:
- Food and beverage costs have increased by 18%
- Transportation costs have increased by 16%
- Housing costs have increased by 23%
- Medical costs have increased by 32%
- The $7.25 federal minimum wage has increased by 0%
Amazon’s $15 an hour starting wage helps employees provide for their families and boosts local economies. Learn more. | | | Did someone forward this email to you? Sign up here. | |
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