With Nick Wu, Burgess Everett, and Andrew Desiderio.

BIG BATTLE OVER BIG TECH: The House Judiciary Committee is slated to consider a package of sweeping bills today that would crack down on the country’s largest tech companies. After years of complaints from Congress about industry abuses, this proposal has gained broad bipartisan support. But Republicans are openly clashing with each other over how to go after Big Tech.

Like your jeans ripping at the seams on a dance floor for all to see, there are divisions in the GOP about reigning in Silicon Valley’s power that are spilling into public view. My colleagues and I report: “Some GOP lawmakers have blamed leadership-aligned lobbyists for working behind the scenes to tank the measures, while others in the conference claim their colleagues went behind leaders’ backs to hash out a deal with Democrats. The infighting...underscores that the thorny issue of antitrust laws doesn’t cut neatly across ideological lines, despite widespread agreement over the need to curb the power of tech giants.”

Big takeaways:

- The schism among conservatives has also led to some strange alliances: Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.) is linking arms on antitrust with GOP Reps. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) and Ken Buck (R-Colo.), a member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, and leading liberal Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) is co-sponsoring a bill with stalwart Trump backer Rep. Lance Gooden (R-Texas). But that means these very same Republicans are pitted against two powerful Trump allies: House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee.

- Jordan has repeatedly bashed the antitrust effort as a group of “Democrat bills,” despite Buck — one of his ranking members on a Judiciary subcommittee — drafting part of the language in the package.

- Another layer in the debate: The tech industry is one of the biggest political spenders in Washington. And GOP supporters of the bill have blamed “the D.C. swamp” for tainting Republicans views on the legislative effort. They say Big Tech has been aggressively seeking to influence their position on the bill — including Jeff Miller, a lobbyist linked to McCarthy.

More here from Mel, yours truly, and our tech wiz Emily Birnbaum: https://politi.co/3d8tmZA

Related: Tech giants, fearful of proposals to curb them, blitz Washington with lobbying, by NYT’s Cecilia Kang, David McCabe and Kenneth Vogel: https://nyti.ms/35Ji6Pd | Dark money groups battle bipartisan efforts to limit big-tech, by Open Secrets’ Anna Massoglia and Julia Forrest: https://bit.ly/35Jb1yb | Google, Amazon accuse lawmakers of harming small businesses as Big Tech antitrust bills move through Congress, by CNBC’s Lauren Feiner: https://cnb.cx/2Sjl9uc

RED HOT SUMMER: If you work in the Senate and have plans for the week of Aug. 9, you might want to put them on ice. That first week of the Senate’s scheduled August recess is on the potential chopping block given all the work Democrats are trying to complete this year, Burgess reports. No final decision has been made, but senators have quietly been advised to keep their plans for that week fluid. Republicans cut some of the August recess too, back when they ran the place.

POLICING PROGRESS (OR NOT): The bipartisan group of lawmakers working on police reform met again Tuesday for over an hour and a half in the office of Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), trying to make slow progress on an agreement. Depending on which member you talk to, they’re also trying to reach a framework deal by the end of this week.

Rep. Karen Bass (D-Calif.), the lead House Democrat in the room, said after their meeting that it’s “doable” to have a framework in place before the Senate leaves. The bill could be written while the Senate is out over the next few weeks and lawmakers could resolve their differences, she said. Or, “it could all blow up.”

The level of progress is also a subject of debate. They’re still negotiating over the “major items that need to be resolved,” Durbin said, though he thought “it’s a positive working environment.” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said there was a “general framework that we can all sort of conceptually agree to,” though “time will tell” whether it could “withstand” the drafting process or pressure from special interest groups.

One problem is Democrats are still waiting on a written counter offer from Republicans before they draft a proposal led by Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), according to Bass. Asked at which point she’d start to be concerned about the lack of a written Republican proposal, Bass said “today’s Tuesday” (and there are two days left in the Senate’s week).

PLAN B?: Democrats took a big L yesterday, no way around it. They failed to pass a key part of their agenda, a sweeping elections reform bill, which lacked any GOP support and even prompted doubts for some Dems. Not only that, but Democrats who hoped that they would make inroads towards gutting the filibuster if S1 failed instead saw moderate Dem senators harden in their vows to protect the 60-vote threshold.

As my colleagues Burgess and Marianne report: “It gets worse for Biden’s party: Now that the GOP has rejected debating the legislation that would overhaul federal elections, Democrats are without a new strategy to show party activists some momentum before the 2022 midterms. At the moment, the party doesn’t have a backup plan on elections and Democratic senators acknowledged their internal maneuvering over the filibuster has only begun after months of dominating their time in control of Washington.”

Since gutting the filibuster is a no-go, Democrats could move their election reforms push forward by:

1-Breaking up the bill into pieces

2-Making another push in the fall on election voting reforms

3-Putting elections spending in a reconciliation bill

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) has not tipped his hand as to what are Democrats next steps, either publicly or privately to his caucus, but he says Democrats “have several, serious options for how to reconsider this issue” and “are going to explore every last one.”

More here from Burgess and Marianne on where a stalled S1 leaves Democrats: https://politi.co/3wRpuUn

Related: Democrats signal a shift toward accepting voter ID laws, by WaPo’s Cleve Wootson Jr. and Mike DeBonis: https://wapo.st/3vSfqJD | Psaki: Lawmaker critiques of Biden on voting rights ‘a fight against the wrong opponent’, by our Quint Forgey: https://politi.co/3xNa0AP

GOOD MORNING! Welcome to Huddle, the play-by-play guide to all things Capitol Hill, on this Wednesday, June 23, where your Huddle host is going to disturb all of you Subway sandwich fans.

TUESDAY’S MOST CLICKED: Kansas City Star’s story on Missouri Senate candidates Eric Greitens and Mark McCloskey pushing election conspiracies was the big winner.

SOME HUDDLE NEWS: It has been an honor being your Huddle host these past six months, but starting next month, I will be transitioning off the newsletter to cover House Republicans full-time for our great Congress team. We are really excited to announce that Katherine Tully-McManus, a 10-year veteran of CQ-Roll Call, will be taking over the Huddle reins. Our congressional editor Elana Schor describes Katherine as “someone who could balance humor with deep experience understanding the rhythms of Congress.”

Her first day will be July 13, so please be sure to welcome her with tips, dog and cat pictures, political haikus, and puns! Also be sure to stay tuned for more exciting announcements about Huddle’s growth… Read the full announcement here.

COMING UP THIS WEEK? Pelosi to announce this week whether she will create Jan. 6 select committee, by Sarah and Nick: https://politi.co/3j5h4VC

CHERRY ON TOP? President Joe Biden may want to have his cake and eat it too by having both an infrastructure deal with the GOP and a sprawling spending package for his own party, but time is running out and there is still no guarantee the bipartisan proposal will pass.

Laura Barrón-López and Sarah report: Today, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Schumer and a group of White House officials will meet to discuss both Biden’s conversations with rank-and-file Republicans and the party’s plans to make use of reconciliation, my colleagues report. White House aides set to attend include director of the Office of Management and Budget Shalanda Young, Domestic Policy Council head Susan Rice, head of the National Economic Council Brian Deese, Legislative Affairs director Louisa Terrell, and White House counselor Steve Ricchetti, according to a source familiar with the meeting.

Time is running out, with the Senate soon leaving town until mid-July. And Biden’s congressional allies are growing increasingly restive.

“We have made our position clear that the possibility of a bipartisan deal depends on a commitment to move forward on reconciliation,” Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) said yesterday.

This comes after yesterday, when Senate negotiators and White House officials huddled together but their meeting ended not with a breakthrough, but with more roadblocks over how to pay for the package. The biggest sticking point right now is pay-fors.

“It’s gotten more complicated with the pay-fors,“ Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) said. “There’s a number of things they ruled out previously and there’s even a bigger hole now.”

More here from Laura Barrón-López and Sarah: https://politi.co/3d5606O

Related: Infrastructure talks focus on how to pay for bipartisan package, by WSJ’s Andrew Duehren and Kristina Peterson: https://on.wsj.com/2SOJxEx | Sanders signals openness to adjusting SALT cap to retain key votes as he maneuvers to pass Biden’s agenda, by NYT’s Emily Cochrane: https://nyti.ms/3gYYb40

POSSIBLE PAY-FOR? Senate Finance Chair Ron Wyden yesterday laid out a proposal for curbing prescription drug prices, an outline that comes as Dem lawmakers are facing increasing pressure to use the reforms to pay for other priorities in a massive infrastructure package.

Wyden is pitching this new framework as building off of the bipartisan plan that he and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) put forward last Congress, but which never reached the floor for a vote due to opposition from GOP leaders. Per our Alice Miranda Ollstein: “It would also include provisions similar to the House’s landmark drug pricing bill, H.R. 3 (117), that would empower Medicare to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies and apply those lower prices across other public and private insurance programs.”

“To me, the real key here is what I’ve been focusing on with members: showing that the affordability of medicine and the importance of encouraging scientific innovation and breakthroughs are not mutually exclusive,” the Oregon Democrat said. “It’s possible to do both.”

Wyden is talking to senators on both sides of the aisle, but not all Dems are on board…

More here from Alice: https://politi.co/3gU56v5

Related: House Democrats urge Biden to extend eviction ban, our Katy O’Donnell reports: https://politi.co/2TSWf55

PUSHED BACK: The Senate Foreign Relations Committee is punting on a vote to repeal two outdated war authorizations for Iraq. Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), the panel’s chairman, granted a request from Republicans to delay the proceedings until after committee members receive a classified briefing on the matter. Menendez said during Tuesday’s markup that the briefing would take place in mid-July when senators return from the Independence Day recess.

Schumer has already vowed to put the measure on the Senate floor later this year. The House voted last week to repeal the 2002 authorization for the use of military force in Iraq, which authorized U.S. military operations against Saddam Hussein’s government. The Senate bill, though, includes the 1991 authorization in addition to the 2002 one.

ON BOARD: Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin publicly announced his support for long-debated changes to how the military prosecutes cases of sexual assault for the first time yesterday. Specifically, Austin supports removing the chain of command from handling sexual assault and other related crimes and instead allowing independent military lawyers take care of them. The change follows recognition by military leaders that after multiple failed attempts to make progress in addressing sexual assault in the military, it is time for changes.

More here: https://politi.co/3gOQiiM

TRANSITIONS

Meyer Seligman has been named DOE’s National Renewable energy Laboratory’s director for government relations. Seligman has been a professional staff member for the Senate Appropriations Energy and Water Development Subcommittee.

Jared Mullendore is joining the Renewable Fuels Association as its new director of government affairs. Mullendore has previously served as district director for former Rep. Abby Finkenauer (D-Iowa) and as a staffer for former Rep. David Loebsack (D-Iowa).

TODAY IN CONGRESS

The House will meet at 10 a.m.

The Senate meets at 2 p.m.

AROUND THE HILL

9 a.m.: Reps. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.), Mike Turner (R-Ohio), and their House co-leads will introduce the Vanessa Guillén Military Justice Improvement and Increasing Prevention Act with Pelosi and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.). (HVC 201)

10 a.m.: Rep. John Curtis (R-Utah) and others will introduce the Conservative Climate Caucus. (House Triangle)

10 a.m.: In the House, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley will testify before the Armed Services Committee. HUD Secretary Marcia Fudge will testify before the Budget Committee. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland will testify before the Natural Resources Committee. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson will testify before the Science Committee.

10 a.m.: Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm and Veterans Affairs Secretary Denis McDonough will testify before Senate Appropriations subcommittees about their departments’ fiscal year 2022 Budget submission.

10:15 a.m.: Dem Caucus Chairman Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.) and Vice-Chair Rep. Pete Aguilar (Calif.) will hold a press conference. (CVC 217)

10:20 a.m.: McCarthy and other House Republicans will hold a China COVID-19 accountability press conference.

1:30 p.m.: Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) will hold a press conference to introduce a resolution to censure Biden.

2 p.m.: FBI Director Chris Wray and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will testify before Senate Appropriations subcommittees about their respective agency’s Fiscal Year 2022 budgets.

2 p.m.: FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell will testify before a House Transportation subcommittee.

TRIVIA

TUESDAY’S WINNER: David DeAngelo was the first person to guess that a fist fight led the Senate to adopt new rules on decorum and behavior in 1902.

TODAY’S QUESTION: From David: Who is the only currently serving U.S. Senator to have also been a member of the House and their state’s Governor?

The first person to correctly guess gets a mention in the next edition of Huddle. Send your answers to [email protected]m.

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