| | | | |  | | By Josh Sisco, Eli Stokols, Lauren Egan and Ben Johansen | Presented by Amnesty International USA; Oxfam America, American Friends Service Committee, Win Without War and Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft | Welcome to POLITICO’s West Wing Playbook, your guide to the people and power centers in the Biden administration. Send tips | Subscribe here | Email Eli | Email Lauren At its core, the White House’s annual budget request is really more about politics than policy — signaling the president’s priorities while leaving the tough funding choices to Congress. That’s why advocates were perplexed when Monday’s proposal for fiscal 2025 included language that would cut back future iterations of the Justice Department’s antitrust budget. It didn’t just come as the department is taking on some of the largest companies in the world but as President JOE BIDEN makes fighting corporate power a cornerstone of his domestic economic policy. The president’s antitrust enforcers are at the center of that and their work — including an expected DOJ case against tech behemoth Apple — is expensive. But tensions have flared recently around the pay structure for the DOJ’s antitrust division. While it and its sister agency, the Federal Trade Commission, are both given annual appropriations, a significant portion of their funds — especially in the antitrust division’s case — comes from fees that companies pay when they submit deals for an antitrust review. In 2022, those fees were raised significantly under legislation pushed by Sen. AMY KLOBUCHAR (D-Minn.) and Sen. CHUCK GRASSLEY (R-Iowa). But earlier this month, a congressional appropriations bill for the remainder of 2024 diverted a significant chunk of the fee revenue away from the antitrust division, which — due to a quirk of the budgeting process — has historically gotten fees in excess of what it’s budgeted. For the rest of the fiscal year, the appropriations committee said the antitrust division would be entirely fee-funded and set the topline number on what it could be given at $233 million, despite estimates that the agency would be in line for $278 million in fees. It also said anything in excess of that $233 million would be controlled by Congress and not the antitrust division. Those moves blindsided antitrust division leadership including Assistant Attorney General JONATHAN KANTER, as well as lawmakers like Klobuchar and Sen. ELIZABETH WARREN (D-Mass.) who have pushed for more funding for the DOJ and FTC. The White House initially defended the language in the appropriations bill, which passed Congress with bipartisan support. Last Tuesday, White House Press Secretary KARINE JEAN-PIERRE noted the 2024 antitrust division budget was still an increase from the previous year and said the totals represented a compromise where “no one got everything they wanted.” But Klobuchar, clearly peeved, gave a 20-minute speech on the Senate floor that same day saying the decision overrode the will of Congress when it increased merger fees in 2022. Two days later, she held a colloquy with Sen. JEANNE SHAHEEN (D-N.H.), who chairs the appropriations subcommittee which oversees the Justice Department, to extract a promise to push for the DOJ to receive all its share of the fees, regardless of what was appropriated. Tempers cooled some until this Monday, when the White House released its budget, which set the antitrust division’s appropriation at $288 million. But it also included the same language requiring any excess fees to be doled out by Congress. “The idea that [DOJ antitrust] will give you all these wins, and then you cut their funding doesn’t make a lot of sense,” said SACHA HAWORTH who runs the Tech Oversight Project. Compounding matters was confusion with the White House’s messaging. According to the actual budget document it released, fees in excess of the $288 million allocated to the antitrust division “shall be available in future fiscal years only to the extent provided in advance in appropriations acts.” Yet an accompanying fact sheet stated “the President will work with Congress to make fee funding from pre-merger filing fees mandatory, so that agencies would always have access to the full amount of fees.” The White House seemed to recognize it had a problem on its hands, offering a series of explanations and defenses of the budget language while reiterating its support for antitrust funding. On Monday, an administration official said that the White House was hamstrung by budget caps, and pledged to remove the language in 2026, before clarifying, moments later, that it will work with Congress to remove the language in 2025. “The President strongly supports increasing funding for antitrust enforcement,” said White House spokesperson MICHAEL KIKUKAWA, noting the increase in funds for the DOJ antitrust division. “Without constraints from the Fiscal Responsibility Act, the Budget would not have included a limit on the use of antitrust fees, and the President will work with Congress to make the antitrust division’s fee funding mandatory as soon as possible.” It all has left some antitrust advocates unsettled, even as they see the administration adjusting to their pushback. “I'm really glad that this one didn't just slip under the radar, and that the White House is moving in the right direction,” said EMILY PETERSON-CASSIN who works on competition policy at the progressive group Demand Progress. “Everyone’s watching them now. I think they get it.” MESSAGE US — Are you DANA SHUBAT, deputy chief of staff for the office of legislative affairs? We want to hear from you. And we’ll keep you anonymous! Email us at westwingtips@politico.com. Did someone forward this email to you? Subscribe here!
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| | THE RENT IS TOO DAMN HIGH: And Biden knows it. The president has expressed concern to aides that the high cost of housing is undermining his economic pitch to voters, our ADAM CANCRYN, EUGENE DANIELS and KATY O’DONNELL report. Biden has pressed his senior staff on how to make housing more affordable and available, quizzing aides on mortgage rates and housing data, according to the trio. He’s made it clear that the challenges of buying a home is top of mind for people he talks to nationwide — and wants it to be a top priority as the general election campaign gears up. “Biden has sought to hone his message on the issue, asking aides to walk him through the impact that high-level housing trends have on individuals’ everyday costs,” they write. HOW WILL PEOPLE GET THEIR KATE MIDDLETON EXPLAINERS?? President Biden is hearing warnings from Democratic strategists and White House allies that a potential TikTok ban could have serious consequences for youth engagement this fall, our ELENA SCHNEIDER reports. On Wednesday, the House passed legislation forcing TikTok’s Chinese owner to either sell the app to an American owner or face a nationwide ban for six months. The bill has an uncertain path (but not a foreclosed one) in the Senate, and Biden has pledged to sign it if it gets to his desk. But some Democrats fear that a ban could depress voter turnout among younger generations, who — like us — spend hours just…. scrolling. “This legislation, I think, is a mistake,” said Rep. MAXWELL FROST (D-Fla.), the first Gen Z member of Congress and a member of the Biden campaign’s advisory board, who added that it “should be a political concern” for Democrats courting young voters. AN HISTORIC VISIT: Vice President KAMALA HARRIS visited a Planned Parenthood clinic in Minnesota on Thursday, becoming the first sitting president or vice president to visit an abortion provider, our ANDREW HOWARD and Eugene Daniels report. The news, which was first reported by NBC, is fairly remarkable when one thinks about where Democrats (including Biden) were on abortion during the Clinton years. But it underscores both the post-Dobbs political realities as well as Harris’ commitment to making reproductive rights a key component of the campaign’s reelection strategy. During the visit, Harris said she was there to uplift the work being done in Minnesota to protect reproductive rights and because of how many people are “silently suffering” since the overturning of Roe v. Wade. The trip is the sixth stop on Harris’ “Fight for Reproductive Rights” tour, which she launched in January. It also comes as Biden faces increasing pressure from the left for tiptoeing around the term “abortion” while discussing the issue. WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE WANTS YOU TO READ: This piece by The Atlantic’s ADAM SERWER, “How Hur Misled the Country on Biden’s Memory.” The transcripts of Biden’s interviews, Serwer writes, “illuminate Hur’s summary as uncharitable at best.” Spokesman for oversight and investigations IAN SAMS posted the piece on X, as did communications director BEN LABOLT. And probably this column from Politico Magazine’s JACK SHAFER: “Why is the press prejudiced against a Biden-Trump rematch?” Shafer suggests polls showing voter displeasure with the general election rematch “offered an incomplete picture of voter sentiment” and are clearly contradicted by the ease with which both 46 and 45 coasted to their parties’ nominations. And, as if he were eavesdropping on a White House briefing for outside allies, Shafer accuses the press of chasing stories framed around those polls “with the blindness of a tightly formed pack.” SIREN ::: NEW POLL ::: SIREN: A new poll today from Quinnipiac University… [just kidding, Jack] WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE DOESN’T WANT YOU TO READ: This piece by Mother Jones’ OLIVER MILMAN and NINA LAKHANI, detailing how Biden, who has been touted as America’s first climate president, is backtracking on many of his administration’s climate priorities. One example they point to is a recent announcement from the Environmental Protection Agency delaying a regulation aimed at reducing emissions from existing gas power plants until likely after the November election, a move that may jeopardize the president’s goal of cutting carbon emissions in half by 2030. MORE REBUKE: A group of over three dozen Arab, Muslim and Palestinian-American leaders protested a White House effort to meet with community organizations in Chicago over the administration’s stance on the Israel-Hamas conflict, our SHIA KAPOS and Adam Cancryn report. Several said they declined invitations to attend. In a joint letter to the White House, the groups blasted the effort as an attempt to “whitewash months of White house inaction,” arguing it is pointless to meet until Biden agrees to a ceasefire.
| | | | A message from Amnesty International USA; Oxfam America, American Friends Service Committee, Win Without War and Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft: More than 30,000 civilians have been killed in Gaza, including 13,000 children. Two million people are at risk of starvation and children are already dying because of hunger. As the Israeli government’s closest ally, the United States must use its influence to bring about an end to the hostilities while suspending weapons transfers to the government of Israel. President Biden, you have the power to end this. Permanent Ceasefire now! | | | | | KNIVES OUT: The Democratic National Committee is putting together its first team aimed at combating third-party and independent presidential candidates, establishing a new PAC called Clear Choice, WaPo’s MICHAEL SCHERER reports. Veteran party leader MARY BETH CAHILL will join the effort as a senior adviser, and longtime Democratic operative LIS SMITH, known to enjoy a good shiv, will serve as communications adviser. The group will craft text messages, develop research and push storylines aimed at dissuading voters from backing candidates such as attorney ROBERT KENNEDY JR. and activist CORNEL WEST.
| | PERSONNEL MOVES: RACHEL NIEMERSKI has been promoted to be deputy director of external affairs at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, our DANIEL LIPPMAN has learned. She most recently was associate director of national programs. — DAVID HAYES, former senior White House special assistant for climate policy, has joined the board of Vaulted, a biomass carbon removal and storage carbon removal company founded last year. — JOSH NUDELMAN, associate director in the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, is departing to join Massachusetts Gov. MAURA HEALY’s team as her new director of federal affairs. — KATIE PETERSEN is now the deputy speechwriter to acting Labor Secretary JULIE SU. She previously was press secretary and digital director for Rep. LORI TRAHAN (D-Mass.)
| | | | A message from Amnesty International USA; Oxfam America, American Friends Service Committee, Win Without War and Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft:   | | | | | FIRST IN WEST WING PLAYBOOK: More than two in five voters — 43 percent — now say immigration is one of their top issues, falling only behind inflation, according to a new battleground poll from the Global Strategy Group on behalf of Immigration Hub, a top immigration advocacy group. The poll was first shared with our MYAH WARD. Sixty-five percent of voters said Congress should’ve passed the bipartisan deal that collapsed last month. The poll also found that voters support a mix of solutions that include pathways for Dreamers and long-time undocumented residents, as well as border security measures such as increased screening capacity at the border to find fentanyl, new migrant processing centers and increasing the number of border patrol agents. Policies such as an asylum ban and separating families at the border were least popular, at 34 percent and 21 percent, respectively. The groups sent the new data to the White House in a memo this week, urging Biden to take a balanced approach to the border. AS BLUNT AS IT GETS: Senate Majority Leader CHUCK SCHUMER on Thursday called for new elections in Israel, labeling Israeli Prime Minister BENJAMIN NETANYAHU an “obstacle for peace,” our ANTHONY ADRAGNA reports. Schumer urged the Israeli government to “do better,” citing the tens of thousands of Palestinian casualties at the hand of Netanyahu’s government. Spokesman JOHN KIRBY said Schumer gave the White House a heads up. But they didn’t presume to tell him not to speak his mind. OK, WE GET IT: It is clear that the Dune-West Wing Playbook fan overlap is real. In yesterday’s edition, we asked an important question raised by NEERA TANDEN and DAVID ROBERTS: How do Fremen dismount the worms in Dune? Boy, did this set folks off. “This is not hard, you have to read the books!” one reader wrote to us. “Riding sandworms is a crucial Fremen skill… Fremen wait for the sandworms to get tired before dismounting,” they added. MATT DIAZ, associate director for economic agency personnel at the White House, was much more patient with our amateur Dune knowledge, providing quite the detailed explanation. But he pushed back a bit on our first reader’s answer. “It should also be noted that riders don’t always have the luxury of waiting for a sandworm to tire before dismounting,” he explained. “Jumping off an active sandworm is a dangerous prospect, not only because of the speed at which it moves, but because of the quicksand-like property the landscape around a moving sandworm takes on.” This got us thinking. Is Fremen the plural of Freman? And, if so, do they dismount or does he dismount. And while we’re at it: are there Frewoman, or Frewomen?
|  | | We would ask you to email us your thoughts and answers but we know you’re going to do it anyways.
| | US ambassador hits out at Hungary’s ‘unhinged’ anti-American messaging (The Guardian’s Lili Bayer) Critics are blasting Biden for taking ‘a destructive California idea national’ for gig workers. Here’s what he really did (LAT’s Noah Bierman) Can Democrats Make 2024 the Abortion Election? (NYMag’s Gabriel Debenedetti) Cities Face Cutbacks as Commercial Real Estate Prices Tumble (NYT’s Alan Rappeport)
| | | | A message from Amnesty International USA; Oxfam America, American Friends Service Committee, Win Without War and Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft: President Biden: The Israeli government’s ruthless bombardment continues to kill Palestinians in Gaza every day. We need a permanent ceasefire immediately, and the US must suspend weapons transfers to the government of Israel now. More than 30,000 people have been killed, and over 70,000 and counting have been wounded. As 2.3 million Gazans are at risk of starvation, convoys delivering life-saving aid are being blocked and attacked, and hospitals are being bombed.
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. President Biden, if you don’t act now, many more people will be killed. | | | | | If you ever have a desire to take up beekeeping, JENNIFER HUNT, senior adviser in the office of public engagement, should be your first call. Hunt, who keeps bees in the backyard of her home outside of D.C. (her neighbors must love her), knows first hand how much of a grind beekeeping can be. It’s a commitment that, although rewarding in the long run, may not be for everyone. TLDR on the process: In your first year having bees, which Hunt calls “the building year,” you allow for the queen bee to do her thing and prep for the treacherous winter months. If the bees make it out alive, the second year is when the real fun comes and you can collect the honey. “My favorite part is being able to gift the honey I collect,” Hunt said. “People get so happy when they get it.” Hunt made sure to point out a cameo one of her plastic bear containers of honey got on second gentleman DOUG EMHOFF’s Instagram in September. But she said she’s skeptical about whether she can compete with the hives on the White House campus.
|  | | | ANTHONY HOPKINS. In 1995, he played RICHARD NIXON in OLIVER STONE’s 1995 film “Nixon,” and two years later played JOHN QUINCY ADAMS in STEPHEN SPIELBERG’s “Amistad.” A CALL OUT! Do you think you have a harder trivia question? Send us your best one about the presidents, with a citation or sourcing, and we may feature it! Edited by Sam Stein.
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