CBC readies agenda for a Democratic House
Plus: Durbin and Booker defend First Step Act ahead of SCOTUS, Pallone probes airlines over surveillance pricing and Ossoff seizes on Collins’s Jan. 6 comments.
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THE LINEUP
CBC readies agenda for Democratic House
Durbin, Booker defend First Step Act ahead of SCOTUS
Pallone probes airlines over surveillance pricing
Ossoff seizes on Collins’s Jan. 6 comments
THE LEAD
👋🏾 HI, HEY, HELLO! Welcome back to Congress Nerd Daily. I hope today was everything for you.
Leavitt to leave WH: White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt will step down at the end of the month to spend more time with her family, President Donald Trump announced this afternoon. Trump said Leavitt will remain one of his “top outside advisors” and an influential Republican voice as the party works to win the midterm elections. He did not announce her successor. Leavitt has served as press secretary since Trump returned to office in January 2025.
Inflation cools as Fed weighs weaker jobs market: Consumer prices rose 0.1 percent in July and 3.4 percent from a year earlier, down from a 3.5-percent annual rate in June, while core inflation ticked down to 2.5 percent annually. Shelter accounted for roughly two-thirds of the monthly increase, while energy prices fell 1.5 percent but remained 14.7 percent higher than a year ago. The cooler inflation reading, combined with a surprisingly weak July jobs report that showed the economy lost 23,000 jobs, has shifted expectations ahead of the Fed’s September meeting, with financial markets increasingly betting policymakers will hold interest rates steady rather than resume rate hikes.
Democratic voters keep choosing change: Tuesday’s primaries offered another sign of Democratic voters’ impatience with the status quo. Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan easily defeated Rep. Angie Craig for the Democratic Senate nomination, delivering progressives another major win a week after Abdul El-Sayed upset Rep. Haley Stevens in Michigan. But in Wisconsin, Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley narrowly defeated democratic socialist state Rep. Francesca Hong for the gubernatorial nomination after making electability against Republican Tom Tiffany central to his closing argument. And in Connecticut, former Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin soundly ousted 14-term Rep. John Larson in a generational rather than ideological revolt. The results suggest the defining mood of the Democratic primaries may be less left versus center than an appetite for change—with electability still capable of putting limits on it.
CBC readies its majority agenda: The Congressional Black Caucus is putting the finishing touches on an affirmative agenda outlining what its members want Democrats to prioritize if they retake the House this fall, according to a CBC and a person familiar with the planning.
The caucus hopes to release the agenda in September, shortly after lawmakers return from the August recess and in time for the final October campaign sprint, the person said.
The agenda would give the CBC a governing blueprint before voters decide control of the House and put down a marker for what one of the Democratic Caucus’s most influential blocs expects from a potential majority.
CBC Chair Yvette Clarke (D-N.Y.) told me just before the House left Washington last month that restoring federal voting-rights protections sits at the top of the caucus’s list...
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THE POWERS THAT BE
Durbin, Booker defend First Step Act ahead of SCOTUS: Senate Judiciary Ranking Member Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) filed an amicus brief urging the Supreme Court to reverse a Fifth Circuit ruling that limits how federal prisoners can enforce earned-time credits under the bipartisan First Step Act…
THE POLICY DESK
Pallone probes airlines over surveillance pricing: House Energy and Commerce Ranking Member Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) has asked eight major US airlines whether they use customers’ personal information and artificial intelligence to determine how much individual travelers pay for flights…
THE TRAIL
Ossoff seizes on Collins’s Jan. 6 comments: Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) called on Republican Senate nominee Mike Collins to retract his support for taxpayer-funded payments to people involved in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, escalating one of the first major contrasts of their Georgia general-election matchup…