Politico

Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer formally submitted his retirement letter to the White House on Thursday, effective sometime this summer pending his successor’s confirmation.

Breyer said that he intends to step down from the bench during the high court’s summer recess — “typically late June or early July” — if a new justice is in place by that time.

In his letter, Breyer wrote that he “enormously appreciate[s] the privilege of serving as part of the federal judicial system” — a tenure that stretched more than four decades, including close to 28 years on the Supreme Court.

“My relations with each of my colleagues have been warm and friendly,” he wrote. “Throughout, I have been aware of the great honor of participating as a judge in the effort to maintain our Constitution and the rule of law.”

News of Breyer’s retirement surfaced Wednesday, though the 83-year-old jurist told President Joe Biden of his decision sometime last week. The move will give Biden an opportunity to install the first Black woman to the Supreme Court — fulfilling a campaign promise that the White House reaffirmed Wednesday — and replace the court’s oldest member with someone decades younger.

Regardless of whom Biden ultimately nominates, the balance of the court will still lean conservative after former President Donald Trump appointed three members during his four years in office.

Breyer had been under considerable pressure from the left agitating for him to step aside while Democrats have control of the White House and Senate — a campaign that rankled the longtime jurist, who has been protective of the Supreme Court’s reputation as a nonpartisan actor.

Madisen Williams drives a 2008 Hyundai with over 100,000 miles on it and a leaky hose.

A 33-year-old mother of two, the car allows her to move around Los Angeles to teach private youth dance lessons after Covid-19 forced schools to go remote. And when her next-door neighbor was murdered, the assurance of having a car convinced her to find a safer neighborhood — one without convenient public transportation — to raise her two kids.

As the car broke down in recent months, Williams leaned on the extra $500-a-month in her bank account that had come courtesy of President Joe Biden’s signature domestic policy to pay for repairs. It may not have been the central purpose of the policy, but it was a lifeline.

“It was perfect,” said Williams of the extended child tax credit, which made even families with the lowest incomes eligible for monthly payments that could total up to $3,600. “It was helping with fixing things.”

The payments Williams and millions of other families leaned on ended in December, the victim of a legislative expiration date and a Democratic party deadlocked over whether Biden’s agenda had gone too big, too fast. Those who had come to rely on the money for everyday tasks, future planning and to cover the rising costs of groceries, are confounded that congressional Democrats let this happen. The individuals interviewed for this article said they’d voted for Biden. Some suggested the process had soured them on politics entirely.

“I was thinking, this has helped so many people it would be political suicide to oppose something like this,” said Jessica Morrison, a Pennsylvania mother of two who had previously advocated alongside Democratic lawmakers for expanding the tax credit. “It’s totally upsetting.”

Lawmakers are currently scrambling to try to find a way to extend the expanded child tax credit, with the Biden administration stressing that it remains a priority. But there is no indication that an agreement is coming soon, if at all. And, in the interim, those who leaned on the policy to navigate the pandemic and lift their children out of poverty are struggling to adjust both their perceptions of political leaders and the day-to-day chaos of their own lives.

Recently, Williams’ car broke down in the middle of the street and wouldn’t start up again. The repair costs ran into the thousands, leaving her with no choice but to junk the car. She fears she won’t be able to keep teaching those private dance lessons. She also worries it will complicate the first steady job offer she’s gotten in months, because commuting one-way by bus would take three hours.

“When I heard about all the payments and the stuff they were trying to do for us, I was ecstatic because it meant at least they’re listening to somebody,” said Williams, as she grappled with the loss of that extra aid and the prospect it might never be restored. “But there are still so many factors they don’t understand.”

Less than a year removed from shepherding a historic expansion of the nation’s safety net that evoked comparisons to Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal, Biden’s efforts to cement that legacy is at risk. Inflation fears, deficit concerns and the political realities of a 50-50 Senate have upended the White House’s hopes of passing the Build Back Better agenda and, with it, the continuation of the expanded child tax credit.

The program was supposed to have sold itself. It was passed as part of Biden’s Covid-relief package in the spring of 2021 and, almost immediately, began paying policy dividends. Early analyses showed most families put the payments toward buying food and clothing and paying essential bills. More than two in five recipients seized the opportunity to pay off debt. One Columbia University estimate credits the program for driving a nearly 30 percent reduction in child poverty by November — just four months after funds started going out.

“That’s a really big deal,” said Kristin Butcher, director of the Brookings Institution’s Center on Children and Families. “It’s hard to imagine a similar confluence of on-the-ground evidence that shows this seems to be having an immediate impact with a lot of longer-term evidence that it really matters.”

After some negotiation, congressional Democrats settled on including a year-long extension of the extended child tax credit as part of the BBB bill. But the party struggled to solve their internal divisions over the broader proposal. And Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) questioned the cost and long-term implications of the extended child tax credit specifically, while floating the idea of tacking on work requirements and implementing a lower income eligibility cap. With no agreement reached, the last of the payments were made on Dec. 15 and the program effectively expired.

Among those who benefited from the program, the enthusiasm they once felt for a White House that seemed refreshingly attuned to their needs has curdled into a sentiment increasingly familiar among Democratic voters: disillusionment.

“When [the payments] ended, I was in a bad mood for like three days, because that money was so helpful to us,” said Morrison. “I can’t even say it’s just Republicans. It’s definitely my own party, and I don’t see anything changing in the near future.”

Like many recipients, Morrison used her $550 a month to help with various expenses, from the mortgage to paying off credit card debt and dealing with unexpected emergencies. The flexibility to use that money for a range of financial needs is what set the child tax credit expansion apart from other safety net programs, economists said, fueling measureable drops in child poverty and food insecurity.

“To be able to just buy the basic necessities required to survive anywhere,” said Sharon Lungo, a single mother in Oakland, Calif., whose freelance work slowed during the pandemic. She had been receiving a $300-a-month payment under the program. “It means having food security. It means house security.”

Despite the dismay among those who were relying on the extended child tax credit and no longer are receiving it, the White House has signaled that it is ready to jettison the proposal as it moves a pared-down version of its BBB agenda. Biden earlier this month went as far as allowing he’s “not sure” the tax credit can be included in the revised social spending legislation Democrats are still trying to pass.

It was an admission that recipients across the nation said they interpreted as the White House effectively giving up on the policy — and bowing to pressure to “get back to normal” despite a still-raging pandemic and rising costs.

“He was the moderate guy, and what we got was moderate to little change,” said Karla Prater, a 30-year-old project manager who used the payments to buy essentials like diapers for her toddler, while tucking any leftover amount into a college fund. “It feels like we’re in an impossible situation. Unless you have family wealth, you can’t really move forward.”

On Wednesday, a handful of Democratic senators sent a letter to the White House urging Biden to prioritize extending the tax credit, calling it “a signature domestic policy achievement of this administration.” But their demands seem all but certain to run into the same hurdles as before, mainly the absence of Manchin’s support. The other avenues are not promising either. Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) has pitched an alternative proposal that would pay out $3,000 per child — and $4,200 for those under the age of five — in monthly installments. But it would also involve revamping other child poverty programs, and has yet to win any support from fellow Republicans.

A White House official insisted that Biden is still committed to reviving the tax credit, touting it as critical to fighting child poverty and providing support amid the pandemic. But the official declined to lay out any strategy for winning the votes needed to pass it into law. Some Democrats also argue that Republicans are primed to shoulder the blame for any fallout, contending that Biden need only be more aggressive in publicly faulting the GOP for their united opposition to his Build Back Better agenda.

Yet even among voters who recognize Republicans’ role in the stalemate, there remains plenty of disappointment with a Democratic Party that holds full control of Washington and is still falling well short of its stated ambitions.

“It’s reinforcing an incorrect meme that started out that the Democrats don’t get things done — [they] don’t get things done that deliver on our kitchen table,” said Celinda Lake, a Democratic strategist and one of the lead pollsters for Biden’s 2020 campaign. “The public is sick of process. They could care less about process.”

Perhaps more ominous for Democrats’ prospects are the odds that the poverty and food security gains the party locked in become undone later this year, as families struggling with the same pandemic begin feeling the full absence of the extended child tax credit.

“People who are using this money to purchase nutritious food, they will either begin taking on more debt or we will see food insecurity rise,” said Elaine Maag, a senior fellow at the Urban Institute’s Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center. “It sort of shows having people live in poverty is a policy choice.”

For Williams, the Los Angeles mother of two, those effects are already taking hold. A native of the area, she’s been on her own since age 16, bouncing between homelessness and youth shelters as a teenager before finding her footing — only to then endure a failed business venture and a ruinous divorce. But her dance company had shown promise, with deals to run programs for kids in a few schools and parks. Even after the pandemic shut those down, Williams had managed to keep things running, albeit on a shoestring budget.

Now, the halting of the child tax credit payments means no spare cash for a new car, which means no easy way to get to the job she’d hoped would provide a steady paycheck, and no clear idea of what new hardships might lay ahead.

“It sucks that if you have no money, you can’t make money,” Williams said. “I went through all this stuff to try to climb up. And then well, dang, I’m only one step away from being homeless again.”

Aaron Lorenzo contributed to this report.

The United States has delivered a written response to Russia addressing Moscow’s security demands, Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced on Wednesday, as Washington continues to pursue diplomacy aimed at diverting a potential Russian invasion of Ukraine.

But it remains unclear how the document will deescalate the tense security situation along the Russia-Ukraine border, as Washington has already ruled out Moscow’s major requests: that NATO pull back its presence in the Baltics and Eastern Europe, and that Ukraine and Georgia be permanently barred from joining the military alliance.

“Without going into the specifics of the document, I can tell you that it reiterates what we’ve said publicly for many weeks and, in a sense, for many years,” Blinken told reporters at a news conference. “That we will uphold the principle of NATO’s ‘open door,’ and that’s … a commitment that we’re bound to.”

The written response, which U.S. Ambassador to Russia John Sullivan delivered to Moscow, was “fully coordinated” with Ukraine and European allies, Blinken said, and it “sets out a serious, diplomatic path forward, should Russia choose it.”

The written response has been shared with Congress, and Blinken is scheduled to brief congressional leaders on the document later Wednesday. It will not be released publicly, however, “because we think diplomacy has the best chance to succeed if we provide space for confidential talks,” Blinken said.

NATO also plans to deliver its own document to Russia that “fully reinforces” the United States’ response and outlines “ideas and concerns about collective security in Europe,” Blinken added.

Earlier Wednesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov threatened further aggression if the United States’ written response did not satisfy Russia. “We won’t allow our proposals to be drowned in endless discussions,” he said, adding that if “the West continues its aggressive course, Moscow will take the necessary retaliatory measures.”

Blinken’s remarks on Wednesday came after his meeting in Geneva last Friday with Lavrov, during which Blinken pledged to present Russia with a written record of Washington’s concerns about Moscow’s behavior and proposals aimed at resolving the security crisis sometime this week.

Blinken said he expects to speak with Lavrov again “in the coming days, after Moscow has had a chance to read” the United States’ written response “and is ready to discuss next steps.”

State Department spokesperson Ned Price said on Monday that the United States did “expect to be in a position to send a written response this week” to Russia, but that U.S. officials were first “sharing those ideas” with European allies and “taking their feedback.”

White House press secretary Jen Psaki suggested on Tuesday that it was unlikely the written response would be made public, as “paper that is part of negotiations or discussions … is typically not” shared outside of government channels.

As for President Joe Biden’s involvement in the drafting of the written response, Psaki said Biden “certainly engages [with], is briefed [on], and approves every component of our response and our efforts in this process.”

President Joe Biden on Monday called a reporter a “stupid son of a bitch” after he was asked whether inflation was a “political liability in the midterms.”

It wasn’t just any reporter. It was Fox News’ Peter Doocy, the network’s rising star who is known for needling the president and for his clashes with White House press secretary Jen Psaki during daily briefings.

It didn’t seem as if Biden was speaking directly to Doocy, though it’s unclear whether the moment was a hot-mic mistake or meant for the room to hear. The exchange happened during Biden’s meeting with the White House Competition Council, where he discussed his work to lower rising prices.

Following Biden’s remarks, journalists began shouting questions at the president as they were ushered out of the room.

“Do you think inflation is a political liability in the midterms?” Doocy asked.

The president, who is known for having a short temper and not the cleanest of vocabularies during heated moments,spoke right above his microphone.“It’s a great asset — more inflation,” Biden said, shaking his head. “What a stupid son of a bitch.”

It didn’t take long for Fox to blast the exchange: “Biden blows up at Peter Doocy,” the chyron read.

Fox’s Jesse Watters, talking to Doocy on air, made a joke of the moment. “Doocy, I think the president’s right. You are a stupid SOB,” he said.

“Nobody has fact-checked him yet and said it’s not true,” Doocy quipped.

Last week, Biden took questions from reporters for 111 minutes at the White House, answering on everything from Covid missteps and his Build Back Better agenda to Russia and Ukraine.

Washington’s top lobbying firms reported record lobbying revenues in 2021, and perhaps no one benefited more than lobbying shops with ties to President Joe Biden and his administration.

At Putala Strategies, a firm run by Chris Putala, a former aide to Biden from his time on the Senate Judiciary Committee, annual lobbying revenues soared from $1.3 million in 2020 to $4 million in 2021 — an increase of more than 200 percent — according to a review of lobbying disclosures.

Putala signed more than a dozen new clients in 2021, including the powerful drug lobby the Pharmaceutical Research & Manufacturers of America and the company behind the KeystoneXL pipeline, both of which were fighting unfavorable policy proposals from Biden. That’s nearly as many as the one-man firm signed in the entire decade prior. (Putala signed no new clients between 2016 and 2020, when his former boss was no longer in office, according to lobbying disclosures.)

Lobbying disclosures show that throughout the year, Putala lobbied the White House or the Executive Office of the President on behalf of several prominent corporate clients including T-Mobile and Comcast. Putala also lobbied the White House on behalf of several tech trade associations, the Entertainment Software Association and the NCTA — The Internet & Television Association, as well as the U.S. subsidiary of the Dutch chipmaker ASML. Putala did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Jeff Ricchetti, the brother of top Biden adviser Steve Ricchetti, saw lobbying revenues continue to climb for his firm Ricchetti Inc., a trend that began in 2020 when Biden became the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.

Ricchetti’s firm brought in $3.2 million in lobbying fees in 2021, up from $1.3 million in 2020 — a 150 percent increase. Ricchetti did not report lobbying the White House for any of his clients last quarter, having formally sworn off lobbying the West Wing amid backlash over a growing contingent of family members joining the Biden administration.

Still, he reported lobbying the House and Senate for a number of blue chip companies including Amazon and General Motors, the pharmaceutical companies Horizon Therapeutics and GlaxoSmithKline and Finseca, a trade group representing life insurers and financial planners, all on key parts of Biden’s legislative agenda. Ricchetti did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

At TheGROUP D.C., where Sudafi Henry, Biden’s former vice presidential director of legislative affairs, is a partner, annual lobbying revenues more than doubled from $3.6 million in 2020 to $7.5 million in 2021. The firm also employs Kwabena Nsiah, who served as chief of staff to Biden’s top Hill liaison Cedric Richmond during Richmond’s time in the House. Nsiah was also a congressional aide to former Rep. Xavier Becerra, now Biden’s Health and Human Services secretary.

Like other firms with ties to Biden or his aides, TheGROUP boasts a growing roster of major corporate clients, from Pfizer to Lyft to Facebook parent company Meta.

According to disclosures, Henry, Nsiah and their firm lobbied the White House on behalf of several of those clients over the past year, including Abbott Labs (one of the major manufacturers of Covid tests), the American Health Care Association, the U.S. Black Chambers Inc., Charter Communications, Dell and Pfizer. It was the first time the firm has ever reported lobbying the White House. TheGROUP did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Putala, Richetti and TheGROUP weren’t the only firms reaping the benefits of the handover from Republican to Democratic control of Washington last year. K Street shattered lobbying fee records they set only a year prior, as a new administration and an all-Democratic Washington worked to enact trillions of dollars in new spending while cracking down on an array of sectors from the tech industry to fossil fuels and pharmaceuticals.

The passage of yet another coronavirus relief package in the spring and the bipartisan infrastructure bill in the fall, along with the on-again-off-again negotiations on another $1 trillion-plus social spending and climate package, drove new clients from new industries into lobbyists’ arms.

The new White House even lured one of K Street’s biggest names back into the influence game. Tony Podesta, the Democratic super lobbyist whose eponymous firm The Podesta Group collapsed after it came under scrutiny from special counsel Robert Mueller, reemerged on the lobbying scene this year, bringing in $1 million from the blacklisted Chinese telecom giant Huawei in just six months of work, lobbying disclosures show.

President Joe Biden’s first year in office has been tumultuous, marked by domestic and international challenges that have overshadowed the administration’s wins. Playbook author Eugene Daniels talks with Cedric Richmond, Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement, about Biden’s plans for a rebound and checks in with White House correspondent Laura Barrón-López to assess the new strategy.

On why Americans are disapproving of the Biden Administration right now:

“I think people are exhausted living their daily lives right now. We’re trying to prevent ourselves, we’re trying to prevent our families from getting Covid. We’re trying to make sure our kids can go to a real school as opposed to virtual learning. Because of that, the focus is not on politicians. At the appropriate time, I think we’ll be able to go out and tell our story.” — Richmond.

On working under the pressures of different progressive activists and interests:

“I think that the pressures are real and our activists and coalitions are doing exactly what they’re supposed to do, which is push. I think that I bring a unique perspective to the job because I can give them a reality check sometimes on what it means to pass legislation and what it takes to pass legislation. That’s what they do and that’s how you move the needle. But the other thing I will say, though, is we will not compromise our values based on it. So even when our party and our activists push to not fund police, that’s not who we are. We put another $300 million in there for community policing because we believe that’s the best way to get to constitutional policing. But it’s also the best way to keep our communities safe, especially black and brown communities. I use that as an example that we won’t always agree with all of our allies, but we respect them and we consider them valued partners.” — Richmond.

On the Biden Administration fulfilling campaign promises:

“I think that our goal is to keep our promises and meet the challenges as we face them. Let’s take the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, which is very important to the president, very important to Congress, very important to the community. Because of just the raw math on the votes and getting it across the finish line in the Senate, because it failed in Congress, we’re acting from the executive branch. With federal law enforcement, we banned chokeholds, we limited no-knock warrants. We mandated body cameras. We’re doing all of those things and then we’re going to do another executive order on policing. We have the ability to do some things, but some things you can only do through legislation, an act of Congress. But where there are things we can do on our own, we are doing those things to keep our promises. An act of Congress is a difficult thing to do. It’s nearly impossible in a 50-50 Senate, but we have confirmed a record number of judges in the first year. We’ve passed two big pieces of legislation that we believe are consequential, and we’re going to get the third big piece through. But yeah, we have limitations based on the numbers in the Senate and the House.” — Richmond.

On Biden’s goals for getting more input and reaching out more to Americans:

“He’s our best messenger. People trust him. People believe him. He’s an honest person and people believe that he is genuine and is sincere in his ability or his desire to improve their lives. I think that they need to hear that from him. They need to see him and he can talk about all the things that we’re delivering while he’s out there.” — Richmond.

On his advice for advocates, activists and voters writ large:

“I would tell them to pay attention to the things we’ve been able to achieve, because I think that that is important, that people understand that government does work and that we are delivering. If you look at the story of Lyndon Johnson and the Voting Rights Act, he spent all his political capital to pass the Civil Rights Act in ‘64. When those leaders went to him in ‘65 to say “We need a Voting Rights Act,” he said he didn’t have the capital or the ability to do it. He wanted to do it. He just didn’t have the ability to do it. And he asked him to go out and make him do it, which he was saying, ‘Please go out and create the environment in which I can do it. I have the will. I need a way.’” — Richmond.

On President Biden’s election integrity comments and the administration’s stance on the 2022 election:

“I think what the president was doing was raising the issue and highlighting that a lot of these bills that are being passed around the country by Republican legislatures on party-line votes could pose a problem in the 2022 election, especially if you look at some of the laws that would allow people to subvert the election or ignore the will of voters. So I think that in his way, he was highlighting the fact that there are threats out there, and I think that those threats are real. He ran for president three times. He lost twice. He didn’t challenge the results of elections. We understand that if you lose an election, you lost a contest of ideas and go get some better ones, go work harder. Don’t go pick who can vote and who can’t vote, put burdens in front of people. So no, he was not challenging that aspect of it. I think that he was highlighting the threats that are out there.” — Richmond.

President Joe Biden on Wednesday committed to Vice President Kamala Harris as his running mate in 2024 when he runs for reelection.

“Yes and yes,” Biden responded during his first news conference of the year when a reporter asked whether Harris would be on his ticket and whether he thought she was doing a good job facilitating voting rights policies.

When asked to elaborate, Biden said, “There’s no need to.”

“She’s going to be my running mate, number one,” he said. “And number two, I did put her in charge. I think she’s doing a good job.”

Speculation has arisen about whether Biden would run for president in 2024. However, the president has maintained that he will seek reelection as long as he is “in good health,” he said in an interview with ABC’s David Muir in December.

Former President Donald Trump also seems to be gearing up for a possible 2024 run. Biden responded to Muir by saying that the possibility of facing Trump again would “increase the prospect of running.”

President Joe Biden touted his administration’s efforts to keep schools open during the pandemic on Wednesday as some schools are returning to remote instruction because of the Omicron variant.

Biden said that while some school buildings have temporarily shut down, the vast majority have continued to conduct in-person instruction. He credited billions in funding passed as part of last year’s American Rescue Plan, as well as his administration’s vaccination initiatives, for helping students and educators stay in school and minimize learning disruption.

“Very few schools are closing,” Biden said to reporters during a press conference marking his first year in office.

The issue was highlighted during a standoff between Chicago’s teachers union and Mayor Lori Lightfoot earlier this month that led to days of canceled classes before an uneasy truce was struck.

Biden quibbled with the media’s framing of the issue, saying it gives the public an inaccurate sense of how many schools are closed.

“It’s always going to get [on the] front page,” Biden said of local school closures. “It’s always going to be the top of the news.”

But he also said that schools should have the tools necessary to operate safely, and predicted that closures will begin to dissipate. Biden, who closely aligned himself with educators during his presidential campaign, conceded that some schools may not have prudently used the resources available to them

“All that money is there,” he said. “There’s billions of dollars made available that’s there.”

The administration has repeatedly said that schools can operate safely, even as the virus rips through communities and leaves many districts with staffing shortages and students isolating at home.

Nevertheless, Republicans have sought to pin the recent spate of closures in Chicago and elsewhere on Biden and Democrats for not doing enough to push back on groups advocating for temporary closures.