 | BY GLORIA GONZALEZ | Presented by Citi | | 
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) arrives for a classified briefing for senators at the Capitol on Oct. 18, 2023. | Nathan Howard/AP | CRUNCH TIME — A push to force the U.S. government to pay for the harms caused by its testing of nuclear weapons on U.S. soil has brought together the strangest of congressional bedfellows on a desperate mission. And it runs up against a hard deadline tomorrow. Two Missouri lawmakers, Democratic Rep. Cori Bush and GOP Sen. Josh Hawley, are at odds on almost everything. Bush has called for Hawley’s expulsion from Congress . Hawley has pejoratively described Bush’s “Defund the Police” stance as “the future of the Democratic Party.” They couldn’t be further apart on key 2024 issues like immigration and the war in Gaza. But they are both deeply concerned about those in their state affected by uranium poisoning from processing nuclear weapons and have been fighting to get their residents — and people in other states who have been affected — added to the program. The situation looks dire, with the law set to expire on Friday and no vote on it scheduled in the House. At issue is the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act , a program that was created to pay for health care and other associated costs for those made sick by the nuclear weapons industry. But the law didn’t cover everyone, including New Mexico residents living downwind of the Trinity test — the first detonation of a nuclear weapon, conducted as part of the Manhattan project — and Missouri residents affected by uranium processing. A bill led by Hawley and Rep. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) would both extend the RECA and expand it to cover those at risk communities. It passed the Senate in March. But despite their efforts and Bush’s advocacy, RECA is in trouble. The law will sunset tomorrow and House Speaker Mike Johnson has refused to bring the extension to the floor. The bill has a $50 billion price tag attached, which critics say is too much to spend on the program. If this bipartisan effort falls short, the Justice Department must receive all remaining RECA claims by Monday. This leaves people sickened by radiation contamination and currently eligible for benefits mere days to get their claims in. Others will continue to be locked out of the program completely and have to pay for their expensive medical care out of their own pockets. In a sign of the urgency of the issue, Bush, a member of the far-left group of lawmakers known as ‘The Squad,’ has unapologetically aligned herself with Hawley, a populist conservative who is loathed by the left — despite the fact that Bush is currently locked in a heated primary battle. “When you have Cori Bush and Josh Hawley on the same side, fighting for the same thing, for Missourians, you need to listen,” Bush said in comments directed at Johnson at a recent press conference . Since the White House has already thrown its support behind the bill, House passage is the last hurdle. As a result, Johnson is getting heat both from the left and the right on the issue. But the speaker has not budged on it, though he did back down last week from plans to put forward a competing bill that would simply extend the program for two years. Opponents of the expansion of benefits have said it will cost too much. But Tina Cordova, a cancer survivor and co-founder of the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium fighting for coverage for New Mexico “downwinders,” rejected those arguments, saying Monday “that cost has been readily passed off to American citizens for far too long.” Hawley has consistently chided and prodded Johnson for his failure to bring the RECA expansion bill to a floor vote — and even voters and advocates not normally on his side are happy to work with him. “I may not agree with him politically, but he’s been a huge champion on this,” said Mary Dickson, a thyroid cancer survivor who is advocating for her community in Utah to be included in an expanded RECA. “The government has an absolute responsibility to take care of those they knowingly harmed.” Lilly Adams, senior outreach coordinator for the global security program of the Union of Concerned Scientists, said the unusual sight of Democratic lawmakers like Bush and Lujan working alongside Hawley and hard-right Rep. Eli Crane (R-Ariz.) “speaks to how common sense this issue is.” “Our position has always been that this shouldn’t be about the money, this is about the people and doing what is right,” she said. But without a last second change of heart from Johnson, this rare bipartisan effort will fall short. Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. Reach out with news, tips and ideas at nightly@politico.com . Or contact tonight’s author at ggonzalez@politico.com or on X (formerly known as Twitter) at @ggonzalez2176 .
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A message from Citi: Global supply chains are undergoing monumental shifts. Supply chains, energy lanes, and financial flows have evolved in today’s dynamic global landscape – and resilience is crucial to ensure companies can adapt amid disruptions and changing demands. This report, published by Citi experts on the evolution of global supply chains, highlights the profound challenges many corporates are actively navigating. Learn more in the Citi GPS Report, The Future of Global Supply Chain Financing. | | | | | — Biden in Normandy says he prays Americans don’t become isolationists: President Joe Biden used the 80th anniversary of D-Day today to warn against the spread of isolationism and to promise that the U.S. would “not walk away” from Ukraine. Speaking before a crowd of aging WWII veterans, many over 100 years old and wheelchair bound, Biden pointed to the beaches of Normandy, where he spoke, as “a powerful illustration of how alliances make us stronger. It was, he remarked, “a lesson that I pray Americans never forget.” — Steve Bannon ordered to prison while he challenges his conviction for defying Jan. 6 committee: A federal judge has ordered Steve Bannon, a longtime ally of former President Donald Trump, to report to prison by July 1 for his conviction for defying a subpoena from the Jan. 6 committee. U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols, a Trump appointee, previously paused Bannon’s four-month sentence while he appealed his conviction. But today, Nichols ruled that the original reasons for the postponement no longer apply because a D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals panel ruled strongly and unanimously last month against Bannon’s position. Bannon intends to continue appealing the case to the full bench of the D.C. Circuit and the Supreme Court. — Hunter Biden was using drugs around the time he bought a gun, Hallie Biden says: Hunter Biden’s sister-in-law and former romantic partner, Hallie Biden, took the stand at his trial on gun-related charges today and told jurors she believed he was using cocaine around the time he bought a pistol in the fall of 2018. Federal prosecutors asked Hallie about a series of text messages she exchanged with Hunter in the days after he bought a Colt revolver on Oct. 12, 2018. In the texts, Hunter said he was “waiting for a dealer named Mookie” and said he was “sleeping on a car smoking crack.” The texts, along with Hallie’s testimony, are pivotal evidence as prosecutors try to prove that Hunter was an active drug user when he purchased the firearm.
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| | THE GOLD STANDARD OF POLICY REPORTING & INTELLIGENCE: POLITICO has more than 500 journalists delivering unrivaled reporting and illuminating the policy and regulatory landscape for those who need to know what’s next. Throughout the election and the legislative and regulatory pushes that will follow, POLITICO Pro is indispensable to those who need to make informed decisions fast. The Pro platform dives deeper into critical and quickly evolving sectors and industries—finance, defense, technology, healthcare, energy—equipping policymakers and those who shape legislation and regulation with essential news and intelligence from the world’s best politics and policy journalists.
Our newsroom is deeper, more experienced, and better sourced than any other—with teams embedded in the world’s most active legislative and regulatory power centers. From Brussels to Washington, New York to London, Sacramento to Paris, we bring subscribers inside the conversations that determine policy outcomes and the future of industries, providing insight that cannot be found anywhere else. Get the premier news and policy intelligence service, SUBSCRIBE TO POLITICO PRO TODAY . | | | | | | | ANGER MANAGEMENT — President Joe Biden enraged progressives this week when he clamped down on asylum at the southern border. Now he’s looking at policies that may appease them , reports POLITICO. The administration is considering new actions for undocumented immigrants, lawmakers and immigration advocates say. The internal discussions come after Biden officials have spent months crafting Tuesday’s new border restrictions, with top aides fixated on beating back GOP criticism over the president’s handling of immigration. NO PARDON FOR HUNTER — President Joe Biden today ruled out the possibility of pardoning his son , Hunter Biden, if he is found guilty of illegally possessing a gun as the trial nears a verdict in Delaware. In an interview commemorating the 80th anniversary of D-Day in France, the president told ABC’s David Muir that he would both accept the outcome of the trial and rule out using his pardon powers to intervene if his son is found guilty. Asked about each, Biden only answered with one word: “yes.” CERTIFICATION FIGHT — The past four years have been filled with battles over all sorts of election arcana, including one that had long been regarded as an administrative afterthought — little-known state and local boards certifying the results. With the presidential election looming in November, attorneys are gearing up for yet more fights over election certification, especially in the swing states where the victory margins are expected to be tight, writes the Associated Press. Even if those efforts ultimately fail, election officials worry they’ll become a vehicle for promoting bogus election claims. PARTY CRASHER — Amid voter disenchantment with a Trump-Biden rematch, third-party activist Joseph Wendt started to think 2024 could transform American politics, reports The Bulwark. And Robert F. Kennedy Jr. might be the candidate to do it. So Wendt started the process of reconstituting the long-defunct Natural Law Party of the United States with the Federal Election Commission and he resurrected its Florida branch. He planned to hold a convention and nominate Kennedy for president so that RFK could appear on the Florida ballot as the Natural Law Party candidate. Kennedy’s campaign loved the idea. And the two sides started talking money. Wendt signed a $10,000-a-month consulting contract with Kennedy’s campaign on February 24. Bureaucratic delays and mistakes turned into mistrust. A bitter rift grew. Wendt was ultimately paid nothing. And he lost control of the Natural Law Party of the United States, which was taken over by Kennedy allies. Now Wendt, a 39-year-old Lyft driver, wants the national Natural Law Party back in his control . He calls the Kennedy campaign unethical “swindlers.” Kennedy campaign officials fired back, accusing Wendt of illegally “hijacking” the national party and trying to “blackmail” the campaign, and suggesting to him that his actions amounted to “extortion.”
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Palestinians mourn relatives killed in an Israeli strike on a U.N.-run school in the Nusseirat refugee camp in Gaza Strip, June 6, 2024. | Abdel Kareem Hana/AP | SCHOOL STRIKE — An Israeli strike early today on a school sheltering displaced Palestinians in central Gaza killed more than 30 people , including 23 women and children, according to local health officials. The Israeli military said that Hamas militants were operating from within the school. It was the latest instance of mass casualties among Palestinians trying to find refuge as Israel expands its offensives in the Gaza Strip. A day earlier, the military announced a new ground and air assault in central Gaza, pursuing Hamas militants it says have regrouped there. Troops repeatedly have swept back into sections of the Gaza Strip they have previously invaded, underscoring the resilience of the militant group despite Israel’s nearly eight-month onslaught in the territory. Witnesses and hospital officials said the predawn strike hit the al-Sardi School, run by the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees known by the acronym UNRWA. The school was filled with Palestinians who had fled Israeli offensives and bombardment in northern Gaza, they said. Ayman Rashed, a man displaced from Gaza City who was sheltering at the school, said the missiles hit classrooms on the second and third floor where families were sheltering. He said he helped carry out five dead, including an old man and two children, one with his head shattered open. “It was dark, with no electricity, and we struggled to get out the victims,” Rashed said.
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3.75 percent The benchmark interest rate in the European Union , after the European Central Bank cut its key interest rate by a quarter of a point, down from 4 percent. That’s ahead of the Federal Reserve in the United States, which still has yet to cut rates, though economists and investors expect one to two cuts this year. |
| | | AN ORAL HISTORY OF D-DAY — Eighty years ago today, hours before the Allied forces launched a million personnel across the English Channel to fight Hitler’s Third Reich in Fortress Europe, U.S. and British paratroopers painted their faces black, shaved their heads, handed letters to loved ones out the windows of their planes and took to the sky. Some would never again feel the ground beneath their feet. Some would drown in the flooded fields below them. One would have his cigarettes shot out of his pants mid-air. But all of them, together, would triumph in perhaps the greatest undertaking in all of human history, defeating fascism in Europe and changing the world forever. In a POLITICO Magazine excerpt from his new book, When the Sea Came Alive: An Oral History of D-Day , Garrett Graff tells the harrowing story of the men who leaped from planes into the world’s greatest battle. A D-DAY PRAYER — Listen to the FDR Library’s recording of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s national radio broadcast on June 6, 1944, as Allied troops land in Normandy in an attempt to liberate France. IKE’S ORDER OF THE DAY — General Dwight D. Eisenhower's Order of the Day for June 6, 1944 served as his D-day statement to soldiers, sailors, and airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force . “You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade, toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you,” he wrote. “The hopes and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you. In company with our brave Allies and brothers-in-arms on other Fronts, you will bring about the destruction of the German war machine, the elimination of Nazi tyranny over the oppressed peoples of Europe, and security for ourselves in a free world.”
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On this date in 1944: American soldiers and supplies arrive on the shore of the French coast of German-occupied Normandy during the Allied D-Day invasion in World War II. | AP | Did someone forward this email to you? Sign up here .
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A message from Citi: Global supply chains are undergoing monumental shifts.
For the last several decades, there was a strong emphasis on sourcing and moving manufactured goods as efficiently as possible to cut costs. But the geopolitical and macroeconomic shocks of late have upended this approach, and the landscape is now reaching a critical tipping point.
Resilience is crucial to ensure companies can adapt to meet changing demands and ensure continuity in the face of disruptions – and true resilience comes from open markets and robust and diversified supply chains.
This report, published by Citi experts on the evolution of global supply chains and backed by survey responses from the world’s most complex multinationals and SMEs around the world, highlights the profound challenges many corporates are actively navigating.
Explore in-depth analysis in the Citi GPS Report, The Future of Global Supply Chain Financing. | | | | |
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