| | | | | |  | | By Anna Palmer, Jake Sherman, Eli Okun and Garrett Ross | Presented by |  | | | LET'S PREFACE THIS BY SAYING no one has a damn bit of a clue when or how the legislative year will wrap up. If you're saying you do, you don't. If you're paying a consultant who is telling you they do, they're making it up. If you are a consultant who is saying you do -- come on. BUT HERE ARE A FEW OPERABLE DATA POINTS: -- IT LOOKS LIKE THE GOVERNMENT will be funded tonight through the end of next week. (Unless someone holds it up over something -- which we kind of doubt, but whatever, who knows.) That sets up yet another cliff Dec. 18. Caitlin Emma, Marianne LeVine and Andrew Desiderio on government funding state of play -- HOUSE AND SENATE COMMITTEES -- Republicans and Democrats -- have begun talking to each other about Covid relief. They're talking about non-controversial items such as renewing the Paycheck Protection Program, broadband and school funding. More from Heather Caygle and Burgess Everett THIS COULD HELP PREPARE the ground for some sort of very narrow Covid package. State and local aid and a liability overhaul seem quite far from being done, and many people in both parties are suggesting they won't get wrapped. But you can see the outlines of a narrow PPP/vaccine/direct checks (maybe!)/school funding bill coming together. -- COVID RELIEF is going to have to ride on government funding, which gives us another week or so of haggling. SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-Vt.) -- pushing hard for $1,200 checks -- to reporters in the Capitol: "Maybe we'll have Christmas Eve together." (h/t Bloomberg's ERIK WASSON) HERE WE GO … "U.S. health officials say authorization is imminent for Pfizer coronavirus vaccine," by Nick Niedzwiadek: "Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said Friday the Trump administration has informed Pfizer it intends to authorize its coronavirus vaccine for emergency use in the coming days. "Azar added that the first doses could be administered by early next week after federal officials put the finishing touches on warning labels and factual information for providers." POLITICO Happy Friday afternoon. POLITICO Europe is launching a PARIS PLAYBOOK, written by PAULINE DE SAINT REMY, in February. She previously worked for French radio network RTL. (Dual-language!) announcement | | A message from Blue Cross Blue Shield Association: Blue Cross and Blue Shield companies have committed more than $5.5 billion to help the nation address the COVID-19 outbreak, by providing premium relief, eliminating patient treatment costs, and enhancing access to telehealth. Learn more. | | | TRUMP GRUDGES REWRITING WORLD AFFAIRS … "Fallout between Trump and top GOP senator made Morocco-Israel deal possible," by Axios' Barak Ravid: "[Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.)] is Washington's most avid supporter of the Polisario Front — a Sahrawi rebel national liberation movement aiming to end Moroccan occupation of the Western Sahara. He has travelled many times to Algeria for meetings with Polisario leaders. Inhofe is one of Trump's closest allies in the Senate and has asked the president over the last two years not to recognize Moroccan sovereignty in the Western Sahara. … "[Jared] Kushner, [Avi] Berkowitz and [Nasser] Bourita effectively reached a deal a little more than a year ago, but Inhofe joined with then-national security adviser John Bolton to vehemently oppose it. Trump, who was close to Inhofe and needed his political support, agreed not to move forward with the deal. … "Relations between Trump and Inhofe soured about a week ago over the National Defense Authorization Act … Sources who were briefed on the matter told me Trump's chief of staff Mark Meadows, Kushner and Berkowitz saw this as an opening to get the Morocco deal done." CABINET JOCKEYING -- "California labor secretary in serious contention for Biden Cabinet," by Katy Murphy in Sacramento and Eleanor Mueller: "Julie Su, the daughter of Chinese immigrants and a longtime advocate for low-wage workers, would step into the role as the country reels from an economic crisis that has disproportionately burdened women, people of color and workers with less education. … "Many of these responsibilities dovetail with her current work in California, where she has overseen jobless benefits and worker safety as millions of Californians confront the pandemic. The state's coronavirus response provides some indication of how Su could tackle thorny federal issues — including mandatory workplace safety rules." POLITICO UH … WASN'T SHE A VP CONTENDER? … THE NEW YORKER'S @charlesbethea: "SOURCES: Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms was offered -- and declined -- the Ambassadorship to the Bahamas." COMING ATTRACTIONS -- "Biden's electors prepare to seal his victory, as Trump and coronavirus rage," by Kyle Cheney, Zach Montellaro and Holly Otterbein: "Monday's Electoral College vote formalizing Joe Biden's presidential win will be the culmination of months of orchestration by the Biden campaign to ensure minimum drama — and maximum coronavirus safety … "Interviews with 25 Democratic electors in five states Biden flipped, as well as Biden campaign and state party officials, reveal a determination to leave as little as possible to chance — a significant change for a process that has typically been a postelection afterthought. … [T]he Biden campaign has spent the days since Election Day making sure each of the president-elect's electors is armed with precise logistical information, transportation and a backup plan." MONEY TRAIN TO GEORGIA -- "Biden's presidential campaign, after winning Georgia, sending staff, money into two U.S. Senate races," by WaPo's Matt Viser: "In conjunction with the Democratic National Committee, the campaign has spent about $5 million in the runoff elections, according to a Biden campaign official, and is paying for about 50 staff members to continue working in the state. The campaign has also shifted about a dozen data analytics staff members to help the two Democratic Senate candidates." WaPo | | | | TRACK THE TRANSITION & NEW ADMINISTRATION HEADING INTO 2021: President-elect Biden is pushing full steam ahead on putting together his Cabinet and White House staff. These appointments and staffing decisions send clear-cut signals about Biden's priorities. What do these signals foretell? Transition Playbook is the definitive guide to one of the most consequential transfers of power in American history. Written for political insiders, it tracks the appointments, people, and the emerging power centers of the new administration. Track the transition and the first 100 days of the incoming Biden administration. Subscribe today. | | | | | NEXT STEPS ON THE VACCINE -- "Now that there's a coronavirus vaccine, how do you persuade people to take it?" by WaPo's Frances Stead Sellers: "In Philadelphia, public health officials think block captains may be more effective than football stars in persuading people to get coronavirus vaccines. Researchers in the Navajo Nation anticipate that directives about the shots will have to be reworded to resonate with Native people. … "[U]nlike well-oiled political machines, public health officials say they are having to quickly rethink communications strategies that have long been hampered by a lack of funding. At this politically charged moment, they also face the formidable obstacles of introducing a new product to people who distrust science and are receiving competing narratives from anti-vaccination campaigns." WaPo -- WSJ: "Whose Workers Are Most Essential? Meatpackers, Airlines Lobby for Covid-19 Vaccine Priority," by Sarah Krouse and Jacob Bunge: "Though the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has issued guidance on which Americans should be first in line for the initial doses, state governors have the final say—meaning the makeup of the priority line could vary widely by state. … "Businesses are focusing on where their workers rank in the subsequent wave of recipients, referred to in the federal rollout plan as group '1B.' That group includes essential workers needed to maintain basic services and spans professions as diverse as grocery-store cashiers, bus drivers, teachers and utility workers." AFTERNOON MUST READ -- "'I didn't make it': A Disney World waitress struggles to hold onto her middle-class life amid a pandemic and catastrophic layoff," by WaPo's Greg Jaffe in Orlando OUCH -- "Jobless Benefits Saved Them, Until States Wanted the Money Back," by NYT's Gillian Friedman: "Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, a federal program that covers gig workers, part-time hires, seasonal workers and others who do not qualify for traditional unemployment benefits, has kept millions afloat. The program, established by Congress in March as part of the CARES Act, has provided over $70 billion in relief. "But in carrying out the hastily conceived program, states have overpaid hundreds of thousands of workers — often because of administrative errors. Now states are asking for that money back. The notices come out of the blue, with instructions to repay thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars. … Many who collected payments are still out of a job, and may have little prospect of getting one. Most had no idea that they were being overpaid." THE NBC NEWS HOMEPAGE today is devoted to one topic: "How America Gave Up. And how we fight back" | | | | LISTEN TO THE NEW SEASON OF GLOBAL TRANSLATIONS PODCAST: Our Global Translations podcast, presented by Citi, examines the long-term costs of the short-term thinking that drives many political and business decisions. The world has long been beset by big problems that defy political boundaries, and these issues have exploded over the past year amid a global pandemic. This podcast helps to identify and understand the impediments to smart policymaking. Subscribe for Season Two, available now. | | | | | A POX ON BOTH THEIR HOUSES … "America's Bipartisan COVID-19 Illiteracy," by The Atlantic's Derek Thompson: "[I]t's not just Donald Trump, many Republican state leaders, and several thousand COVID-19 deniers who have waged a war against scientific comprehension. … Even if we narrow our focus to blue territories, however, nonsense abounds—nonsense, granted, that is more likely to result in mass confusion and annoyance than mass infection. … "The epidemiological evidence was never that complicated, and neither was devising a sensible national strategy to get us through the winter. … This sort of straightforward, rules-and-reasons approach would treat citizens like they're intelligent people who care about the motivations of public-health laws. Instead, we've gotten a lot of bad rules with equally bad or nonexistent justifications." Atlantic RIPPLE EFFECT -- "A pandemic side effect: Used masks polluting California coastal waters," by WaPo's Scott Wilson in Tiburon, Calif.: "Now another unwelcome and potentially enduring side effect of the coronavirus pandemic has emerged: the masks, gloves, disinfectant wipes and other items of 'personal protective equipment' meant to save lives are also polluting the environment. … "[M]any are careless with the new accessory and, in windy places like many along this state's 840-mile coast, the masks and other products are ending up on sidewalks, skittering into storm drains, blowing onto beaches and ending up in the Pacific Ocean and its bays. And this is before the state's traditional rainy season, which washes urban flotsam and jetsam into the sea. It is due to begin this month. Many types of masks, including the most common surgical variety, contain plastics that taint ocean ecosystems and disrupt marine food chains." WaPo DON'T TELL THE PRESIDENT -- "Trump is losing Twitter followers as Biden gains nearly 2 million heading to White House," by WaPo's Cat Zakrzewski YANG GANGS OF NEW YORK -- "Is Andrew Yang Running for Mayor? All Signs Point to Yes," by NYT's Emma Fitzsimmons: "Mr. Yang is not expected to announce his bid until next month, but with the Democratic primary less than seven months away, he has begun to make overtures to several of the city's political power brokers. "He met with Corey Johnson, the speaker of the City Council, in a video call on Tuesday to seek his advice about running for mayor. He plans to visit the Rev. Al Sharpton, the Harlem kingmaker — a rite of passage for any serious candidate — in person next week when he returns to the city from Georgia, where he has been trying to help Democrats win the U.S. Senate." NYT MEDIAWATCH -- WaPo has named Gerry Shih its next India bureau chief and Michelle Ye Hee Lee its next Tokyo bureau chief, effective next summer. Shih most recently has covered China. Announcement … Lee most recently has covered money and influence. Announcement WELCOME TO THE WORLD -- Megan Christin, director of comms for the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and her husband welcomed Grace Erhardt Christin, their third kid, on Thursday. BONUS BIRTHDAY: NRCC's Molly Abboud (h/t brother Mike) | | | | A message from Blue Cross Blue Shield Association:   Taking action to fight the pandemic. See how we're meeting the challenge. | | | | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Subscribe to the POLITICO Playbook family Playbook | Playbook PM | California Playbook | Florida Playbook | Illinois Playbook | Massachusetts Playbook | New Jersey Playbook | New York Playbook | Brussels Playbook | London Playbook View all our politics and policy newsletters | | Follow us | | | | |
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