 |  | | Washington, Fast. | | | | | | | Good Wednesday morning. Tips, comments, recipes? You know the drill. This is the Power Up newsletter – thanks for waking up with us. | | | On the Hill CONGRESS ON THE CLOCK: Lawmakers are up against the clock on major legislation, as they are set to blow past President Biden's deadline to pass a police reform bill by the first anniversary of George Floyd's death, along with the administration's Memorial Day target for progress in infrastructure negotiations. Before they head home for recess at the end of the week, Democrats in the Senate might also face another major roadblock if Senate Republicans filibuster the proposed congressional Jan. 6 commission on Thursday. Democrats need the support of 10 Republicans to avoid a filibuster. As it stands, only two GOP senators — Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Mitt Romney (R-Utah) — are planning to support legislation establishing an independent commission to investigate the Capitol insurrection of Jan. 6, our colleagues Peter Stevenson, Adrian Blanco and Daniela Santamariña report. - Eleven GOP senators have expressed an openness to supporting the legislation or said they're still considering whether to support the bill.
- Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) are leading informal talks to find a path forward for legislation that would create an independent commission to address the many unanswered questions about the Jan. 6 attack, a GOP Senate aide told Power Up.
 Benjamin Crump, along with Gianna Floyd, daughter of George Floyd, and her mother Roxie Washington, and others talk with reporters after meeting with President Joe Biden at the White House on Tuesday. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) | - Collins "is floating changes to the House-passed bill over her concerns that the staff of the commission could lean Democratic because of the power of chairman to influence hiring. She also said that that the investigation could last into in 2022, an election year that could make it vulnerable to political influences," CNN's Manu Raju and Ted Barrett report.
Two Democrats who have refused to eliminate the filibuster, Manchin and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), released a statement on Tuesday imploring Republicans to "work with us" on passing the bill. - "A bipartisan commission to investigate the events of that day has passed the House of Representatives with a bipartisan vote and is a critical step to ensuring our nation never has to endure an attack at the hands of our countrymen again," the statement said.
The possibility of Republicans first legislative filibuster over the Jan. 6 commission presents Democrats with an opportunity to ramp up pressure on people like Manchin and Sinema to get rid of the Senate rule that requires 60 votes to proceed on legislation. Manchin told reporters yesterday that he *still* isn't open to backing the nuclear option to blow the filibuster up — and added later in the day that his position wouldn't change if the GOP ultimately filibusters the Jan. 6 commission. Manchin's been a part of a small bipartisan group of senators "privately sketching out the contours of a new infrastructure package — and fresh ways to pay for it — that the lawmakers hope to sell to colleagues after negotiations between Republican senators and the White House stalled in recent days," our colleagues Seung Min Kim and Tony Romm scooped. - "The nascent plan is being drafted by more than a half-dozen lawmakers, including Republican Sens. Mitt Romney (Utah), Susan Collins (Maine) and Rob Portman (Ohio) and Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.). On Tuesday, Romney said the group, which is divided equally between Democrats and Republicans, has come to a 'pretty close consensus' on key elements of a blueprint that focuses largely on traditional infrastructure, such as roads, bridges, trains and broadband Internet."
- Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, the West Virginia Republican, "said her party plans to present its next counteroffer to the Biden administration Thursday morning. Republicans are discussing a proposal that would spend about $1 trillion over eight years, according to senators and aides, which the GOP says was the approximate top line that Biden agreed to when he met with them at the White House earlier this month," per SMK and Tony.
- Key point: "Without virtual unanimous support from rank-and-file Democrats, any threat from leaders to sidestep Republicans may carry little weight."
As for the police reform legislation named in honor of George Floyd, Rep. Karen Bass (D-Calif.), one of the three lawmakers leading negotiations, told the Washington Post Live that she "wasn't prepared" to offer a bill that doesn't address qualified immunity. Sens. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Tim Scott (R-S.C.), who are working with Bass on negotiations, said on Monday that they remained "optimistic" about a compromise. - "Bipartisanship is everything if we want to get the bill on President Biden's desk. The only way to do that is to bring a bipartisan bill in the Senate and I'm very hopeful that we will be able to accomplish that," Bass told ABC News. "We've all been working together."
| | | Global power STATUS QUO: "Secretary of State Antony Blinken pledged tens of millions of dollars in additional development assistance to the Palestinians on Tuesday as part of a plan to bolster a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas after 11 days of fighting," our colleague John Hudson reports. - "In his first diplomatic trip to the Middle East, Blinken also said the United States would reopen its consulate in Jerusalem, reversing a Trump administration decision that closed the office and downgraded U.S. ties with the Palestinians," John writes.
"But even as the administration takes steps to aid Gaza, its State Department has approved a $735-million sale of bombs to Israel, bypassing congressional opposition," Jewish Current's Alex Kane reports. A congressional aide confirmed to Power Up that the Biden administration last week officially approved of the $735 million sale of bombs to Israel. - "On May 21st, according to a congressional staffer, the department granted Boeing an export license for the sale of Joint Direct Attack Munitions and Small Diameter Bombs—two kinds of laser-guided munitions that were reportedly used by Israel in the 11-day attack on the Gaza Strip that ended on Friday with a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas," per Kane.
- "Together, these two developments—the commitment of humanitarian aid and the ongoing sale of weapons—suggest that the Biden administration's policy on Israel/Palestine will depart little from that of previous Democratic administrations," Kane writes.
Sanders responds: Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) spoke with Deputy Secretary of State Wendy R. Sherman, "who briefed the Senator on a number of steps the administration was preparing to take to address the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and across the Palestinian Territories," according to Sanders's office. - His office added: "While strongly supporting those steps, Senator Sanders also said that simply returning to the pre-war status quo was insufficient, that the deeper causes of the conflict, such as the Gaza blockade and evictions in Jerusalem, needed to be addressed. He also made clear that he and his colleagues would continue to push for greater debate to make sure that US arms sales do not support human rights abuses. Secretary Sherman committed to a continuing dialogue on these issues. As a result of this conversation, Senator Sanders has lifted his hold on State Department nominees."
 | | | BIDEN AND PUTIN WILL MEET IN JUNE: "Biden and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia have agreed to meet on June 16 in Geneva for a face-to-face encounter that comes at a time of fast-deteriorating relations over Ukraine, cyberattacks and a raft of new nuclear weapons Putin is deploying," the New York Times's David E. Sanger, Michael Crowley and Anton Troianovski report. "The summit is the first in-person meeting between the two leaders since Mr. Biden became president." - "The one-day meeting is expected to focus on ways to restore predictability and stability to a relationship that carries a risk of nuclear accident, miscalculation and escalation."
THE ON-AGAIN, OFF-AGAIN OLYMPICS: The Asahi newspaper, "one of Japan's most influential newspapers, itself an official sponsor of the Tokyo Olympics, called for the event to be canceled in an editorial Wednesday, the latest blow to the organizers's ambitions," per Bloomberg's Lisa Du. It is "scheduled to start July 23." | | | At the White House A TALE OF TWO MEETINGS: "President Biden met privately with a group of George Floyd's family members at the White House on Tuesday, assuring them he still hopes to sign police reform legislation named in honor of their brother, father and uncle, who was killed one year earlier by a Minneapolis police officer," our colleagues Matt Viser and Holly Bailey report. - "At the very moment that many in the family were gathered at the seat of American power, Floyd's younger sister Bridgett was at a memorial event in downtown Minneapolis, expressing her frustration over the lack of progress."
- "My message to the president: Get your people in order," she said.
- "She did not join her family in Washington, she said, because Biden had not reached his goal of signing the legislation by the anniversary of her brother's death. She didn't see the point in traveling to Washington unless it was for a bill-signing."
"The different approaches within the family reflect the broader public feelings of optimism that systemic change is possible, and dimming hopes, given it hasn't come a full year after the uprising spurred by Floyd's death." - "While the House in March passed the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, the bill remains stalled over differences in several provisions … The biggest sticking point is over ending qualified immunity, which would make it easier for individual law enforcement officers to be sued over their actions on the job."
| Meanwhile, Darnella Frazier, the teen who recorded Floyd's death, released a statement Tuesday saying her video "put his murderer away." |  | | | More: Read how the "murder of Floyd sparked moments of reckoning that reverberated far beyond the United States" to Australia, Brazil, Britain, France, Germany and Italy.  Police officers on horseback stand next to demonstrators blocking the road outside the Houses of Parliament in London on May 31, 2020.(Matt Dunham/AP Photo) | | | | From the courts PROSECUTOR IN TRUMP CRIMINAL PROBE CONVENES GRAND JURY: "Manhattan's district attorney has convened the grand jury that is expected to decide whether to indict former president Donald Trump, other executives at his company or the business itself, should prosecutors present the panel with criminal charges," our colleagues Shayna Jacobs and David A. Fahrenthold report. - "The move indicates that District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr.'s investigation of the former president and his business has reached an advanced stage after more than two years. It suggests, too, that Vance thinks he has found evidence of a crime — if not by Trump, by someone potentially close to him or by his company."
In other Trump-related news, Stephen K. Bannon's fraud case has been dismissed. "A federal judge on Monday formally dismissed the fraud case against Bannon, the conservative provocateur and ex-adviser to Trump, ending months of litigation over how the court system should handle his pardon while related criminal cases remain unresolved," per Shayna. - "It is unclear whether the Manhattan U.S. attorney's office, which brought the case, intends to appeal the judge's ruling."
| | | In the agencies AN AGENCY ON PROBATION: "At the detention centers and county jails that the Trump administration once filled with immigrants facing deportation, thousands of beds are now empty," our colleagues Nick Miroff and Maria Sacchetti write. "The Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers that Trump lavished with praise have far less to do on the streets of U.S. cities these days." - "Under new Biden administration rules curtailing immigration enforcement, ICE carried out fewer than 3,000 deportations last month, the lowest level on record. The agency's 6,000 officers currently average one arrest every two months."
- "ICE under Biden is an agency on probation. The new administration has rejected calls from some Democrats to eliminate the agency entirely, but Biden has placed ICE deportation officers on a leash so tight that some say their work is being functionally abolished."
- "DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced plans last week to shutter two ICE detention centers, but in an interview [with our colleagues] he said he does not want to reduce ICE staffing or funding. He wants to reorient ICE, not shrink it."
What to watch: "The Biden administration is preparing to release its first Department of Homeland Security budget request this week, and immigrant advocates want deep cuts to ICE." TOP U.S. HEALTH OFFICIAL CALLS FOR FOLLOW-UP INVESTIGATION INTO PANDEMIC'S ORIGINS: Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra "called for a swift follow-up investigation into the coronavirus's origins amid renewed questions about whether the virus jumped from an animal host into humans in a naturally occurring event or escaped from a lab in Wuhan, China," our colleagues Yasmeen Abutaleb, Shane Harris and Ben Guarino report. - "Becerra's remarks signaled that the Biden administration would continue to press the WHO to expand its investigation to determine the virus's origins."
| | | The campaign THE 2020 FALLOUT CONTINUES: "Michigan's top election official and the company whose voting equipment has been the subject of baseless claims of fraud are cautioning local governments in the state that outside audits of the 2020 election results like the one underway in Maricopa County, Ariz., would be illegal and would void the machines's security warranties," our colleague Amy Gardner reports. - "The warnings come amid a growing campaign by Trump and his supporters to pressure county governments to launch audits reviewing ballots cast in the last presidential election … State leaders, Dominion officials and local residents are now trying to block such examinations sought by activists in several Michigan counties."
- Jonathan Brater, director of the Michigan Bureau of Elections: "Interest in granting access to unqualified third parties to conduct a 'forensic audit' may stem from misplaced reliance on ongoing misinformation, which has been repeatedly, comprehensively, and definitively debunked."
- Dominion Voting Systems: "Remember, your voting system is deemed critical infrastructure by the U.S. government and should be utilized, maintained and protected as such."
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