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Giuliani hit with ethics charge by DC Bar over false election fraud claims

Rudy Giuliani was hit with an ethics charge by the Washington, D.C., Office of Disciplinary Counsel on Friday over his promotion of baseless claims about fraud in the 2020 presidential election before a federal court in Pennsylvania, jeopardizing his ability to practice law in the city.

The D.C. Bar’s disciplinary arm said that he had violated the Pennsylvania Rules of Professional Conduct by bringing a proceeding and asserting “issues therein without a non-frivolous basis in law and fact for doing so” and engaging “in conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice,” according to the filing.

The complaint said that Giuliani provided insufficient sourcing to prove his allegations that election fraud had taken place in Pennsylvania.

Giuliani “further justified his allegations of fraud against the” defendant counties in the case “by promising the district court that ‘statistical analysis will evidence that over 70,000 mail and other mail ballots which favor [President] Biden were improperly counted,’ … but Respondent should have known the ‘evidence’ he provided relied upon false or faulty statistics and analysis,” the complaint read.

The former New York City mayor also claimed he had 300 statements and affidavits that would have provided proof of said fraud taking place in the state, according to the filing.

But the complaint said that “the affidavits, declarations, and statements that he provided to the district court and other bodies were (a) unsupported, (b) unrelated to [former President] Trump voters, (c) involve conduct outside the seven Defendant Counties, and (d) by their own terms were isolated incidents that could not have affected the presidential election’s results by offsetting the Biden majority of over 80,000 votes.”

Giuliani was admitted to the D.C. Bar in 1976, but in 2002, his status became inactive. Last year, the New York Supreme Court’s appellate division suspended his law license in that state.

The Hill has reached out to Giuliani and a lawyer for Giuliani for comment.

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On The Money — Inflation worse than expected

Prices rose at an even faster rate in May. We’ll also look at where inflation hit the hardest last month, President Biden’s fighting words with big oil, and a stock selloff. 

But first, see why sriracha sauce might be the next product in short supply. 

Welcome to On The Money, your nightly guide to everything affecting your bills, bank account and bottom line. For The Hill, we’re Sylvan Lane, Aris Folley and Karl Evers-Hillstrom. Subscribe here.

Inflation soars as oil fuels price hikes

Consumer prices growth spiked in May as another surge in oil prices spurred inflation higher across the U.S. economy, according to data released Friday by the Labor Department. 

• The Labor Department’s consumer price index (CPI), a closely watched gauge of inflation, rose 1 percent last in May alone and 8.6 percent in the 12-month stretch ending in May. 
• Inflation landed far higher than the 0.7 percent monthly inflation rate projected by economists and jumped rapidly from a 0.3 percent monthly increase in prices in April. 
• The annual inflation rate also rose from 8.3 percent in April, where economists expected it to remain last month, to 8.6 percent. May’s annual inflation marked the fastest yearly growth in prices since inflation hit 8.9 percent annually in December 1981.

“Inflation is hitting not only the volatile food and energy categories, which themselves look to persist at high levels, especially food, but has moved deeply into services and shelter costs, while remaining high in goods categories we thought were cooling off,” said Robert Frick, chief corporate economist at Navy Federal Credit Union, in a Friday analysis. 

Sylvan breaks it down here. 

DRILLING DOWN

Biden bashes big oil: ‘Exxon made more money than God this year’ 

President Biden on Friday called out Exxon for raking in large profits while addressing high inflation and calling on Congress to act to tackle it. 

“Why don’t you tell them what Exxon’s profits were this year? This quarter? Exxon made more money than God this year,” he said in remarks at the Port of Los Angeles. “Exxon, start investing. Start paying your taxes.”

• Biden has called on Congress to pass tax reform to make the wealthiest Americans and big corporations pay what he argues is their fair share as a way to reduce inflationary pressures.  
• His remarks follow the release of data from the Labor Department earlier on Friday that showed the consumer price index rose 1 percent last month alone and 8.6 percent in the 12-month stretch ending in May. 
• Biden also took a stab at the shipping industry and major shipping companies on Friday. He called on Congress to pass a bill this month to cut shipping costs as another way to lower the price of goods. 

He said nine major ocean line shipping companies, which make up three consortiums, have raised their prices by as much as 1,000 percent, and Biden called on Congress to crack down on these corporations. 

“Every once in a while something you learn makes you viscerally angry, like if you had the person in front of you, you’d want to pop them,” he said, referring to the corporations. 

“Let those nine foreign shippers understand, the ripoff is over,” he said. 

The Hill’s Alex Gangitano has more here. 

Stocks fall sharply on inflation news

Stock markets fell sharply Friday on news that inflation is continuing to rise, hitting a 40-year year high of 8.6 percent. 

• The Dow Jones Industrial Average of major U.S. stocks fell nearly 2.75 percent. The S&P 500 index fell 2.91 percent, and the technology-heavy Nasdaq dropped more than 3.5 percent. 
• The bottom fell out of markets as a result of the latest inflation data from the U.S. Department of Labor. The rise constitutes a major blow to investor confidence, since it shows that prices following the onset of the pandemic have yet to hit a ceiling and could continue to rise. 

Tobias Burns has more here.

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CDC drops testing requirement for international flights 

The Biden administration on Friday announced that the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) will no longer require international U.S.-bound travelers to show a negative COVID-19 test as of Sunday.

The CDC said that the requirement is no longer necessary at this time thanks to the widespread availability of vaccines and treatments.  

The decision follows a lobbying blitz by travel and tourism interests, which have pressed the White House for months to lift the requirement through a series of meetings, letters and opinion pieces.

They argued that the rule was hurting demand for travel and noted that other countries, such as the United Kingdom and France, had already dropped similar restrictions.  

• The travel industry pitched the Biden administration on the potential economic growth of dropping the testing requirement, estimating that it would increase travel spending in the U.S. by 12 percent. 
• Airlines, travel agencies and hotels said this week that the testing requirement was causing travelers to avoid the U.S., or in some cases fly to Canada or Mexico and enter the country by car.  

Karl has more here. 

Good to Know

Inflation is on the rise, putting a pinch on consumers, unnerving Wall Street and creating heavy political headwinds for President Biden and Democrats in this fall’s midterm elections. 

Prices spiked again in May as another surge in oil prices helped force the consumer price index (CPI) up 1 percent for the month and 8.6 percent over the 12-month stretch ending in May, according to the Labor Department. 

Here’s our list of some of the items that rose the most from May 2021 to May 2022.   

Here’s what else we have our eye on: 

• The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has denied a request by Amazon to close off public access to a hearing on the validity of a union’s historic win at a Staten Island warehouse. 
• The Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Thursday easily passed a resolution pressing NATO to quickly admit Finland and Sweden, a sign of bipartisan agreement about pushing back on Russian aggression.  
• Federal investigators are expanding their investigation into potential safety risks of Tesla’s Autopilot feature. 
• Health officials announced on Friday that the White House has ordered 500,000 more doses of a vaccine believed to be effective against monkeypox. 
• Mediaite: “Former Obama economist Jason Furman, after the latest record inflation numbers, said the U.S. economy is ‘not in a sustainable place right now.’” 

AND FINALLY: Check out The Hill’s photos of the week.

That’s it for today. Thanks for reading and check out The Hill’s Finance page for the latest news and coverage. We’ll see you next week.

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Energy & Environment —Biden EV pitch faces headwinds

The administration’s aggressive electric cars push may meet its match, a former Interior secretary may be headed back to Congress and Biden takes aim at Big Oil. 

This is Overnight Energy & Environment, your source for the latest news focused on energy, the environment and beyond. For The Hill, we’re Rachel Frazin and Zack Budryk. Someone forward you this newsletter? Subscribe here. 

Hurdles remain as Biden’s EV push comes to life 

President Biden’s push for more electric vehicles (EVs) on the road and more charging stations around the U.S. is gaining fresh traction while Americans continue to face historically high gas prices at the pump. 

The president has been focused on an ambitious climate agenda, which has largely stalled in the Senate, but federal funding for electric vehicle infrastructure manufacturing was passed in the bipartisan infrastructure law, which the president signed in November. 

• The law included $7.5 billion for electric vehicle chargers
• Since then, the Biden administration has allocated funding to kick-start programs with the goal of making electric vehicles more prevalent on American roads by the end of the decade. 

“I think the amount of money makes me optimistic. Of course, most of it is being distributed to the states, and the states are going to have to use that infrastructure money strategically. And that I believe is going to mean a heavy emphasis on making charging access available to apartment dwellers,” said Jenny Carter, assistant professor at the Vermont Law School Institute for Energy and the Environment. 

The goal: Biden’s targeted goal of 50 percent EV sale shares in the U.S. by 2030 also includes manufacturing a network of 500,000 chargers that will help make EVs accessible to all Americans for both local and long-distance drives. 

The White House has stressed its focus on equity in its push to get more EVs on the road, while electric cars are largely still considered an item for the wealthy or solely for people who can afford and have the space for chargers at their homes. 

“The challenge with electric vehicle charging, if you look at how people currently charge who own EVs, it’s all at home. People who own EVs tend to be higher income and have a garage or driveway,” said Tim Johnson, chair of the Master of Environmental Management Energy and Environment Program at Duke University. 

“Building our public charging network is critical really for half the U.S. households. What the administration is doing, yes, I think from the charger standpoint and the money going in, it’s critical. It compliments what the manufacturers are doing,” he added. 

Read more from The Hill’s Alex Gangitano. 

SPECIAL FEATURE

This week The Hill is exploring what’s next for electric and autonomous vehicles in the series “Driving Into the Future.“ Articles from Hill reporters and opinion contributors will be posted throughout the week here. 

Zinke clinches GOP nomination for House seat 

Former Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke is on track to return to the House of Representatives. 

Zinke is projected to beat out four other Republicans, including his main rival — surgeon Al Olszewski — in the GOP primary for Montana’s 1st Congressional District. The win makes him the heavy favorite to represent the district in Washington next year.  

The primary took place on Tuesday. The Associated Press called the race on Thursday at 7:52 p.m. ET. 

A refresher:

• Zinke represented Montana’s at-large congressional district from 2015 until 2017, when former President Trump tapped him to lead the Interior Department
• He resigned as Interior secretary in 2019 amid multiple investigations into his travel and potential conflicts of interest
• The allegations of wrongdoing have fueled attacks from Zinke’s primary rivals, who have raised questions about his ethics and behavior while serving in public office

Despite those controversies, Zinke is seeking to return to Washington, and he has the support of his former boss. Trump endorsed his congressional bid last month during a tele-rally for Zinke. 

Read more from The Hill’s Max Greenwood. 

Biden: ‘Exxon made more money than God this year’

President Biden on Friday called out Exxon for raking in large profits while addressing high inflation and calling on Congress to act to tackle it. 

“Why don’t you tell them what Exxon’s profits were this year? This quarter? Exxon made more money than God this year,” he said in remarks at the Port of Los Angeles. “Exxon, start investing. Start paying your taxes.” 

• Biden has called on Congress to pass tax reform to make the wealthiest Americans and big corporations pay what he argues is their fair share as a way to reduce inflationary pressures
• His remarks follow the release of data from the Labor Department earlier on Friday that showed the consumer price index rose 1 percent last month alone and 8.6 percent in the 12-month stretch ending in May

“But make no mistake about it, I understand inflation is a real challenge to American families. Today’s inflation report confirmed what Americans already know: Putin’s price hike is hitting America hard. Gas prices at the pump, energy and food prices account for half of the monthly price increases since May,” Biden said, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. 

The president said that there are more than “9,000 permits for drilling” but that the oil companies “are not drilling.” 

“Why don’t they drill more? Because they make more money not producing oil. Prices go up on the one hand. No. 2, the reason they are not drilling is they are buying back their own stock, should be taxed quite frankly. Buying back their own stock and not making new investments,” he said. 

Read more from The Hill’s Alex Gangitano. 

Price hikes from oil spiked monthly, annual inflation 

Consumer prices growth spiked in May as another surge in oil prices spurred inflation higher across the U.S. economy, according to data released Friday by the Labor Department. 

• The Labor Department’s consumer price index (CPI), a closely watched gauge of inflation, rose 1 percent last in May alone and 8.6 percent in the 12-month stretch ending in May
• Inflation landed far higher than the 0.7 percent monthly inflation rate projected by economists and jumped rapidly from a 0.3 percent monthly increase in prices in April
• The annual inflation rate also rose from 8.3 percent in April, where economists expected it to remain last month, to 8.6 percent
• May’s annual inflation marked the fastest yearly growth in prices since inflation hit 8.9 percent annually in December 1981

“Inflation is hitting not only the volatile food and energy categories, which themselves look to persist at high levels, especially food, but has moved deeply into services and shelter costs, while remaining high in goods categories we thought were cooling off,” said Robert Frick, chief corporate economist at Navy Federal Credit Union, in a Friday analysis. 

Rising prices for shelter, gasoline, and food powered most of the May spike in inflation, particularly after a brief dip in oil prices eased some pressure in April.

Energy prices rose 3.9 percent last month alone after falling 2.7 percent in April. Gasoline prices rose 4.1 percent in May and are now almost 50 percent higher than they were in May 2021. 

Read more from The Hill’s Sylvan Lane 

ON TAP NEXT WEEK

   Tuesday 

• The Senate Energy Committee will vote on whether to advance the nominations of David Applegate to direct United States Geological Survey, Carmen Cantor, to lead Interior’s insular and international affairs and Evelyn Wang to direct the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E). The votes will be immediately followed by a hearing to examine short term and long terms solutions to extreme drought in the western United States. Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Camille C. Touton will testify. 
• The House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis will hold a hearing titled “State Perspectives on Methane Pollution.” New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) and Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon (R) will testify. 

   Wednesday

• The Senate Environment & Public Works Committee will hold a hearing to examine a series of coastal and water-related bills 
• The House Agriculture Committee will hold a hearing titled “The Role of Climate Research in Supporting Agricultural Resiliency”

WHAT WE’RE READING

• 3M’s ‘Forever Chemicals’ Crisis Has Come to Europe (Bloomberg) 
• Exxon Mobil hit an all-time high this week. Here’s what comes next for the energy colossus, according to analysts (CNBC) 
• Louisiana is bracing for an LNG boom. The projects will emit millions of tons of greenhouse gases. (The Acadiana Advocate) 
• In Bolivia’s Amazon, wildcat gold mining boom stokes tension over environment (Reuters) 

And finally, something offbeat and off-beat: Let him in. 

That’s it for today, thanks for reading. Check out The Hill’s Energy & Environment page for the latest news and coverage. We’ll see you next week.  

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Hillicon Valley — Tesla faces federal investigators

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s investigation into Tesla’s driver assistance was upgraded this week andcould ultimately result in a major recall.

Speaking of electric vehicles, President Biden’s ambitious plan to expand their usage is being met with increased optimism. 

This is Hillicon Valley, detailing all you need to know about tech and cyber news from Capitol Hill to Silicon Valley. Send tips to The Hill’s Rebecca Klar, Chris Mills Rodrigo and Ines Kagubare. Someone forward you this newsletter? Subscribe here.

Tesla investigation upgraded  

Federal investigators are expanding their investigation into potential safety risks of Tesla’s Autopilot feature. 

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said Thursday that it is upgrading the probe of the feature launched in August to an engineering analysis, a more rigorous evaluation that can lead to a recall. 

The agency first opened the investigation following roughly a dozen crashes between Tesla cars with Autopilot engaged and parked emergency vehicles.  

The expanded probe will look at a total of 16 crashes to see whether Tesla’s automated driving features “may exacerbate human factors or behavioral safety risks by undermining the effectiveness of the driver’s supervision.” 

Tesla has defended its Autopilot and Full Self-Driving features as safer than normal driving, and stresses that drivers are told to remain engaged at all times. 

Read more. 

Electric vehicle challenges 

President Biden’s push for more electric vehicles (EVs) on the road and more charging stations around the U.S. is gaining fresh traction while Americans continue to face historically high gas prices at the pump. 

The president has been focused on an ambitious climate agenda, which has largely stalled in the Senate, but federal funding for electric vehicle infrastructure manufacturing was passed in the bipartisan infrastructure law, which the president signed in November. 

The law included $7.5 billion for electric vehicle chargers and since then, the Biden administration has allocated funding to kick-start programs with the goal of making electric vehicles more prevalent on American roads by the end of the decade. 

“I think the amount of money makes me optimistic. Of course, most of it is being distributed to the states, and the states are going to have to use that infrastructure money strategically. And that I believe is going to mean a heavy emphasis on making charging access available to apartment dwellers,” said Jenny Carter, assistant professor at the Vermont Law School Institute for Energy and the Environment. 

Read more on the challenges ahead. 

10 STRIKES YOU’RE OUT! 

Facebook is allowing marketplace buyers and sellers to violate its ban on gun purchases 10 times before they are kicked off the platform, according to a Thursday report from The Washington Post.  

The Post reported that Facebook’s guidelines also include a five-strikes system for gun sellers and buyers who call for violence or voice support for a “known dangerous organization” before they lose Facebook access. Facebook reportedly banned the private sale of guns on its website more than five years ago but has not publicly explained in much detail how the company enforces the ban.  

Facebook spokesman Andy Stone told the Post that the company takes down posts that violate its policy quickly and applies increasingly severe consequences for repeat offenders, up to permanently suspending an account.  

“If we identify any serious violations that have the potential for real-world harm, we don’t hesitate to contact law enforcement,” Stone said. 

He said almost 90 percent of those who receive one strike will not receive more than one additional one, adding that violators are mostly unaware of Facebook’s policies and don’t violate them again once they are told about it. 

Read more. 

AMAZON HEARING STAYS PUBLIC  

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has denied a request by Amazon to close off public access to a hearing on the validity of a union’s historic win at a Staten Island warehouse. 

The e-commerce giant, which is petitioning to overturn the Amazon Labor Union’s win, was seeking to restrict who could view the hearing, which is starting Monday and is being held on Zoom. 

An NLRB officer denied the request in a filing Thursday, noting that the agency’s “hearings are not secret.” 

“Accordingly, preventing the public from viewing its important processes is not an option,” Cornele Overstreet, the regional director overseeing the hearing, wrote.  

“That this case has garnered national and international attention from outside parties only further solidifies the importance of allowing public observation, as employees and members of the public can be better informed of the purposes and policies of the Act,” he added. 

Read more about the decision. 

BITS & PIECES

An op-ed to chew on: Making cities green using digital technology 

Lighter click: Mondays am I right? 

Notable links from around the web: 

Wickr, Amazon’s encrypted chat app, has a child sex abuse problem — and little is being done to stop it (NBC News/ Ben Goggin) 

Firefox and Chrome are squaring off over ad-blocker extensions (The Verge / Corin Faife) 

Meta knew its apps harm teens’ mental health, families allege in suits (The Washington Post / James Bikales) 

One more thing: Prime time

Nearly 20 million people watched Thursday night’s first hearing of the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol across broadcast and cable news, according to preliminary ratings figures from Nielsen. 

Each of the major television news networks pre-empted their regularly scheduled programming on Thursday to show continuous live coverage of the two-hour hearings.  

• ABC took the largest haul of viewers, earning 4.8 million viewers
• NBC and CBS carried 3.5 million and 3.3 million, respectively
   
• On cable, MSNBC pulled in a whopping 4.1 million viewers during the hearings, nearly four times what the network averages on a typical weeknight

That’s it for today, thanks for reading. Check out The Hill’s Technology and Cybersecurity pages for the latest news and coverage. We’ll see you next week.

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Defense & National Security — The road ahead for Jan. 6 panel 

The House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol held its first public hearing in months last night and left viewers with a roadmap of what’s to come.   

We’ll recap the hearing and look at what to expect. Plus, we’ll talk about Defense Secretary Lloyd’s Austin warning to his Chinese counterpart over Taiwan.  

This is Defense & National Security, your nightly guide to the latest developments at the Pentagon, on Capitol Hill and beyond. For The Hill, I’m Jordan Williams. A friend forward this newsletter to you? Subscribe here.

Panel outlines next moves after prime-time hearing 

The House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol outlined its next moves during its Thursday night hearing.  

Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), the committee’s vice chair, spent her opening remarks detailing how the panel will break down how former President Trump engaged in a “sophisticated seven-part plan” to remain in power.   

But first, about last night:

• The committee put former President Trump in the middle of a coordinated effort to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and remain in power.
• The committee also heard from Capitol Police Officer Caroline Edwards and filmmaker Nick Quested, who testified about the right-wing group Proud Boys’ role in the attack

But the panel also used the words of those closest to the former president to make the case that he was at the center of a coordinated effort to overturn the election.  

This included video of former Attorney General William Barr telling investigators that he said Trump’s claims about voter fraud were “bullshit.” In a separate video, Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump said that she accepted what Barr said.  

The committee also shared testimony from Trump’s former campaign adviser Jason Miller and Jared Kushner, the former White House senior adviser who is married to Ivanka Trump.  

What to expect moving forward: Here’s what Cheney said the panel’s subsequent hearings will focus on:  

• During the panel’s second hearing, which is Monday, the panel will argue that Trump knew his claims of widespread voter fraud were baseless.  
• In the third hearing, the committee will make the case that Trump planned to replace Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen so that the Justice Department would spread his election fraud claims.  
• The fourth hearing will focus on Trump’s efforts to pressure former Vice President Mike Pence to overturn the results of the 2020 election. 
• The fifth hearing will focus on Trump’s efforts to pressure state legislators into challenging election results. 
• The final two hearings will focus on how Trump “summoned a violent mob and directed them, illegally, to march on the U.S. Capitol,” Cheney said.  

Upcoming witnesses: Former acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen will testify before the committee alongside his deputy Richard Donoghue and Steven Engle, then the head of the Office of Legal Counsel.  

The committee previewed that Justice Department officials would be front and center in its Wednesday review of Trump’s attempt to topple his own leadership and install a mid-level attorney who would forward his claims of election fraud. 

In addition, former Fox News editor Christ Stirewalt said on NewsNation’s “Morning in America” that he will testify next week. Stirewalt was part of the Fox New team that made the decision to call Arizona for Joe Biden on election night. He was later ousted from the network following the 2020 election.  

Last month, Stirewalt was hired by NewsNation, which is owned by The Hill’s parent company, Nexstar Media Group. 

Check out The Hill’s coverage of last night’s hearing 

• Five takeaways on the Jan. 6 panel’s public case against Trump 
• The five most dramatic moments from the Jan. 6 hearing 
• Trump says Ivanka was ‘checked out’ following Jan. 6 public hearing 

Austin warns Chinese counterpart on Taiwan  

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin warned his Chinese counterpart during their first face-to-face meeting on Friday that Beijing must “refrain from further destabilizing actions toward Taiwan.”

Austin met with Gen. Wei Fenghe, China’s minister of national defense, on the sidelines of the annual Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, according to a statement from the Pentagon. 

What Austin said: Austin reiterated that the “U.S. remains committed to our longstanding one China policy, which is guided by the Taiwan Relations Act, the Three U.S.-China Joint Communiques, and the Six Assurances,” the department said. 

“The Secretary reaffirmed the importance of peace and stability across the Strait, opposition to unilateral changes to the status quo, and called on the PRC to refrain from further destabilizing actions toward Taiwan,” it added. 

Tensions over Taiwan: Tensions grown between the U.S. and China over Taiwan, and Washington’s fears have only increased amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. 

• During his first trip to Asia as president in May, President Biden stoked tensions when we said that the U.S. would be willing to defend Taiwan if China tried to invade
• Two days later, China conducted a military drill near Taiwan

What else was said: In addition to Taiwan, Wei and Austin discussed “global and regional security issues,” including North Korea and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Pentagon said. 

The Pentagon chief “discussed the need to responsibly manage competition and maintain open lines of communication,” the Pentagon said. 

“The Secretary underscored the importance of the People’s Liberation Army engaging in substantive dialogue on improving crisis communications and reducing strategic risk,” it added. 

Something to watch for: Austin is scheduled to speak at the Shangri-La Dialogue tonight at 8:30 p.m. E.T. His speech will focus on “Next Steps for the United States’ Indo-Pacific Strategy.”  

Read the story here.

Military reports first monkeypox case 

The Pentagon on Friday confirmed its first known case of monkeypox in the U.S. military.  

An active-duty service member based in Germany recently tested positive for the virus, a spokesperson for the Defense Department confirmed to The Hill.   

• NBC News, which first reported the case, was told that the unidentified individual was seen and treated at the Stuttgart Army Health Clinic
• The individual is now in isolation in their on-base quarters

Risk remains ‘very low:’ Navy Capt. William Speaks, a spokesman for U.S. European Command, told NBC that public health officials have found that the risk to the overall population is “very low,” as the case is part of the West African strain, a generally mild version with limited human-to-human transmission.  

He added that contact tracing is being done for clinic staff who saw the patient “as a precautionary measure.” 

About monkeypox:

• As of this week, monkeypox has been found in 15 states and Washington, D.C., just weeks after it was first detected in the U.S
• The total number of cases has so far been less than 50, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).   

The CDC has stressed that the virus — spread through prolonged skin-to-skin contact or through contaminated fabric like clothing or bed sheets — is not a high risk to the public.   

Belonging to the family of viruses that includes smallpox, monkeypox lasts from two to four weeks, and an infected person can see painful rashes and lesions. The person is no longer contagious once the lesions heal.   

Read the story here. 

ON TAP MONDAY

• The Atlantic Council will host an event entitled “Pressure points: Where the war in Ukraine is being decided” at 10 a.m. 
• The House Select Committee Investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 Attack on the U.S. Capitol will hold a hearingat 10 a.m. 
• The Brookings Institution will hold a discussion on “Allies: How America failed its partners in Afghanistan” at 10:30 a.m. 
• The Belfer Center will hold a seminar on “Future Directions in the Study of Nuclear Disarmament” at 11 a.m. 
• The Wilson Center will host a discussion on “The Marshall Plan at 75: Lessons for Ukraine?” at 2 p.m. 
• The Senate Armed Services subcommittee on Strategic Forces will hold a closed markup of the Fiscal Year 2023 National Defense Authorization Act at 5:30 p.m.  

WHAT WE’RE READING

• Biden: Jan. 6 hearings important so ‘American people understand what truly happened’ 
• All four crew survive Navy helicopter crash in California 
• Senate panel approves Finland, Sweden’s bid to join NATO 

That’s it for today. Check out The Hill’s Defense and National Security pages for the latest coverage. See you Monday!

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Health Care — US scraps international testing rule

If you’re a cat person, check out this video of a cat fighting off a coyote on a porch and holding its own.

Today in health care, you won’t need a negative COVID test to enter the U.S. by air anymore. We’ll dive into the decision.  

Welcome to Overnight Health Care, where we’re following the latest moves on policy and news affecting your health. For The Hill, we’re Peter Sullivan, Nathaniel Weixel and Joseph Choi. Subscribe here.

Biden officials ending international travel requirement

Another crisis-era COVID rule is being lifted.

The Biden administration announced Friday it is ending a requirement that international travelers test negative for the coronavirus before coming to the U.S.

• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) “has determined based on the science and data that this requirement is no longer necessary at this time,” a senior administration official said.
• The requirement ends at 12:01 a.m. Sunday.  

Between the lines: Some experts had noted that the requirement did not seem to be serving much purpose, given that COVID-19 is already circulating widely within the United States, and land border crossings are not subject to the same requirement.   

The travel industry had also lobbied to remove the requirement, saying it was no longer needed.

Sign of a new era: The move is another sign of a new stage of COVID-19 where some of the measures designed when the virus was seen as an overwhelming crisis are being wound down.

• “We are able to take this step because of the tremendous progress we’ve made in our fight against the virus: We have made lifesaving vaccines and treatments widely available and these tools are working to prevent serious illness and death, and are effective against the prevalent variants circulating in the U.S. and around the world,” the senior administration official said.   

Read more here. 

TRAVEL INDUSTRY CHEERS

Airlines and travel groups cheered the Biden administration’s decision to lift its COVID-19 testing requirement for air travelers entering the U.S., a long-sought victory for the industry.

It follows a lobbying blitz: Travel and tourism interests have pressed the White House for months to lift the requirement in a series of meetings, letters and opinion pieces. They argued that the rule was hurting demand for travel and noted that other countries such as the U.K. and France had already dropped similar restrictions.  

“Lifting this policy will help encourage and restore air travel to the United States, benefiting communities across the country that rely heavily on travel and tourism to support their local economies,” Nicholas Calio, president of Airlines for America, a trade group that represents the top U.S. carriers, said in a statement. 

“We are eager to welcome the millions of travelers who are ready to come to the U.S. for vacation, business and reunions with loved ones.”  

The travel industry pitched the Biden administration on the potential economic growth of dropping the testing requirement. The U.S. Travel Association released an analysis this month finding that making the change could increase travel spending in the U.S. by 12 percent, bringing in an additional $9 billion.    

Read more here. 

Feds buy 500K more vaccine doses to fight monkeypox

Health officials announced Friday that the White House has ordered 500,000 more doses of a vaccine believed to be effective against monkeypox.

• These are liquid, frozen doses of the Jynneos smallpox vaccine, Dawn O’Connell, assistant secretary for preparedness and response for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), said during a press briefing.
• While there are currently no vaccines or antivirals specifically designed to treat monkeypox, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has authorized Jynneos for use in adults to prevent monkeypox infections.

The order announced on Friday is expected to be delivered later this year. 

The current supply: O’Connell also stated that the U.S.’s Strategic National Stockpile (SNS) currently has 72,000 doses of Jynneos in its immediate inventory and an additional 300,000 are expected to arrive in the next few weeks.

The drug is created by Bavarian Nordic, a biotech company headquartered in Denmark.

• The SNS also has more than 100 million doses of the ACAM2000 smallpox vaccine, though health officials noted there has been a preference for Jynneos.
• ACAM2000 is an older vaccine and comes with some side effects that may make providers concerned, including muscle pain, rashes and nausea.

Read more here. 

MILITARY CONFIRMS ITS FIRST CASE OF MONKEYPOX

The Pentagon on Friday confirmed its first known case of monkeypox in the U.S. military. 

• An active-duty service member based in Germany recently tested positive for the virus, a spokesperson for the Defense Department confirmed to The Hill.   
• NBC News, which first reported the case, was told that the unidentified individual was seen and treated at the Stuttgart Army Health Clinic and is now in isolation in their on-base quarters. 

What they’re saying: Navy Capt. William Speaks, a spokesman for U.S. European Command, told NBC that public health officials have found that the risk to the overall population is “very low,” as the case is part of the West African strain, a generally mild version with limited human-to-human transmission.

He added that contact tracing is being done for clinic staff who saw the patient “as a precautionary measure.”  

The CDC has stressed that the virus — spread through prolonged skin to skin contact or through contaminated fabric like clothing or bed sheets — is not a high risk to the public.   

Read more here.

CDC data reveals new overlap

Reports of increased substance use and rising rates of mental health disorders throughout the past few years are nothing new, especially as Americans struggled with the economic and humanistic toll of the COVID-19 pandemic.

But data released Friday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) document to what extent these two conditions overlap.

According to the center’s latest Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, in 2019 at least one-third of adults assessed for substance use at treatment centers reported severe psychiatric problems.

Although the current data were collected prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, authors noted future research will focus on the crisis’ impact on trends.

• In 2019, more than 65 million adults self-reported binge drinking while more than 35 million reported using illicit drugs during the past month, authors explained, noting individuals with substance use disorders are at an increased risk for overdose and other poor health outcomes.
• A total of 49,138 individuals were assessed at 339 treatment centers across 37 states. All individuals were at least 18 years of age, and the most commonly reported substances used in the past month were alcohol, followed by cannabis, misuse of prescription opioids and illicit stimulants, among others. 

Read more here. 

WHAT WE’RE READING

• Are these Cocoa Krispies-loving hamsters a key to cracking long Covid? (Stat) 
• Report reveals sharp rise in transgender young people in the U.S. (New York Times) 
• Some monkeypox patients also have sexually transmitted diseases, CDC says (CNBC) 

STATE BY STATE

• Grassroots groups lead way on closing Colorado’s infant mortality gap (Kaiser Health News) 
• ‘Not going away’: Northeast Florida COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations rising (News4Jax) 
• Oklahoma’s Abortion Law Raises Questions About N.C.A.A.’s Softball World Series (The New York Times)  

That’s it for today, thanks for reading. Check out The Hill’s Health Care page for the latest news and coverage. See you next week.

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Equilibrium/Sustainability — Achilles heel of the renewables push

The push to decarbonize the U.S. energy system faces a major potential hurdle: Lack of storage space.

Battery storage systems are essential to buffer energy grids at night, when the sun is no longer powering solar panels, and during times when wind isn’t pushing turbines.

But a combination of supply chain and labor issues have led around a dozen battery storage projects to be canceled or postponed — threatening the campaign to get U.S. grids to zero emissions by 2035, Reuters reports.

Under the current system, there’s no alternative for times of low renewable supply other than burning fossil fuels — even in states like California that are ahead of the curve on using renewables to meet grid needs, the nonprofit Earthday.org reported.

But for California to perpetually meet its grid needs using renewables, it would require solar and wind projects to expand three times as fast — and battery storage projects to expand eight times as fast, according to Earthday. 

Also of note: This need for a rapid scale-up is one reason why U.S. Climate Envoy John Kerry on Thursday called the energy transition market “the largest market the world has been staring at.”

Welcome to Equilibrium, a newsletter that tracks the growing global battle over the future of sustainability. We’re Saul Elbein and Sharon Udasin. Send us tips and feedback. Subscribe here.

Today we’ll look at a chemical cocktail that may be limiting male fertility and examine how a New York City plan to reduce traffic is, well, gridlocked. But first, we’ll look at the lethal heat wave facing the West this weekend and how one city is taking action.

US West faces lethal heat wave

Cities across the country are racing to deal with a high pressure system that is covering the Western U.S. this weekend, leading to record and even potentially deadly temperatures. 

• About 35 million people from California to Texas (a tenth of the U.S. population) are under heat advisories this weekend — and high temperatures are moving east, CNN reported.
• Seventy-five cities stand poised to break daily record temperatures. 

The heat wave stems from a colossal high pressure zone that’s settled over the U.S. Southwest, Bloomberg reported.

Then there’s the drought: Water serves as a buffer against wild temperature swings — a reason coastal areas tend to be more temperate than inland ones. 

That means the near-historic lack of water across the West is also contributing to record temperatures, according to a study from Texas A&M. 

“It takes energy from the sun to evaporate water from the ground and from plants,” A&M climate expert John Nielsen-Gammon said in a statement.  

• June in Texas is usually wet — but this year it’s been bone-dry, meaning little relief before the usual July drought, Nielsen Gammon said.
• “If there’s no water left, all of the absorbed energy goes into heating the ground and driving up temperatures during the day. So the dry conditions right now are a harbinger of heat for much of the summer,” he added. 

Other parts of the West, however have had wetter Junes — with Colorado even receiving a spate of late-season snow, according to Colorado Springs-based news station KOAA. 

California steaming: California is also expecting temperatures well over 100 degrees — with inland Los Angeles significantly hotter than the coastal city’s richer coastal zones, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The heat is also leading to a dangerous increase in ozone levels, the Times reported.

•  Heat leads to greater emissions of ozone-causing chemicals — used to run, for example, air conditioners.
• Higher temperatures also speed up both the evaporation of those chemicals and their reaction with the atmosphere, while stifling winds that would otherwise blow away dangerous fumes, according to the Harvard Gazette. 

LEARNING FROM PHOENIX

One key metro area leading the country in its handling of dangerous heat is Phoenix, the first U.S. city to create a designated Heat Response and Mitigation Office.

What it’s doing: Phoenix chief heat officer David Hondula told Equilibrium his office has largely been concerned with making sure people living on the street know about cooling centers and water stations to get them through the heat wave alive.

• “We’re doing the best we can to get the word out about the network of 100 or more regional cooling centers and hydration stations,” he said.  
• “We have teams of city employees and volunteers who are out streets that are just out every morning trying to put water and heat relief supplies in people’s hands,” Hondula added. 

Sweltering conditions: Phoenix is expected to top 113 degrees Fahrenheit for three consecutive days this weekend, The Guardian reported. The temperature also won’t fall below 80 degrees until next week, according to the newspaper.

• High nighttime temperatures might represent an even greater danger than those in the daytime, because they give the body no time to cool off and reset, heat scientist Ladd Keith of University of Arizona told Equilibrium.
• “It’s not the first night — it’s usually like the second or third or fourth night where you start to see the illnesses and deaths,” Keith said. 

Lethal for the poor and unhoused: While those temperatures are inconvenient for those with functional air conditioning, they can be lethal for those without it — generally either because they are without housing, can’t afford their bills or need repairs, Hondula told Equilibrium.

“Our best estimate is that somebody who is unsheltered has approximately a two times higher risk of suffering a heat-associated death than somebody who has regular stable housing,” Hondula said. 
 

This year is already deadly: Maricopa County, where Phoenix is located, is already investigating 30 potential heat-related deaths.

Chemical combo impacting sperm count: study 

A blend of chemicals found in most people’s bodies may be associated with a widespread plunge in male fertility, a new study has found.

Sperm counts have dropped by more than a half in the past 40 years, according to the study.

Authors attributed the drop to “daily exposure to a mix of hormone-disrupting chemicals,” or those that increase or decrease the body’s hormonal activity.

• This combination of compounds — found in items like milk cartons, canned tuna, receipts and acetaminophen — have a “cocktail effect way more dangerous than any single substances,” according to the scientists, who published their findings in Environment International on Friday.

The toxicologists involved in the study, based at British and Danish institutions, analyzed levels of mixtures of chemicals like bisphenols, dioxins, phthalates and paracetamol in the urine of 98 Danish men ages 18 to 30.

• They found that every single man tested had concentrations that were higher than those considered safe, with some up to 100 times higher than safe levels. 

The danger starts in-utero: Because important steps in male sexual development begin during the mother’s pregnancy, the authors warned in a statement that “developing babies are most at risk.”

While France specifically bans bisphenol A — known commonly as BPA — from coming into contact with food, the researchers stressed the importance of extending this ban to apply to all bisphenols in all countries.

Read more here

NYC congestion pricing program faces further delays

Manhattan’s notorious traffic issues aren’t going away anytime soon, with a long-awaited congestion pricing plan facing further delays.

“We submitted our plans on time to Washington in February, and by March, the federal government came back with over 400 questions and areas they want us to make adjustments,” New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) told reporters Thursday, according to Reuters.

“It’s probably not going to happen right now because we cannot get the necessary approvals from the federal government,” she added.  

What’s the congestion plan, again? New York wants to charge a daily toll for vehicles in Manhattan’s “Central Business District,” a zone that stretches from 60th Street in Midtown down to the island’s southern tip in Battery Park, Reuters reported.

The Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) would receive 80 percent of the fees, which would be used to improve the city’s subways and buses, while 10 percent each would go to the Long Island Railroad and Metro-North, according to the outlet.

A big delay: While state lawmakers approved the plan in April 2019, with intentions of launching it in January 2021, it requires federal sign-off. Asked by reporters if the toll program would begin by December 2023 — a new date set by the MTA last year — she responded that deadline would not likely be met, The Daily News reported.

• The Transportation Department’s Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) must agree to New York’s plans because the state receives federal funding to maintain many Manhattan streets, The New York Daily News noted.
    
• FHWA’s deputy administrator, Stephanie Pollack, told reporters that the agency was working to resolve questions and that it had found “a path forward or a resolution” to almost all such issues, according to Reuters.

SPECIAL FEATURE

This week The Hill is exploring what’s next for electric and autonomous vehicles in the series “Driving Into the Future.“ Articles from Hill reporters and opinion contributors can be found here.

Friday Follow-up

Taking another look at issues from the week.

Monarch butterflies alive and well in North America

• A Galápagos tortoise believed to be extinct made headlines this week when researchers confirmed that it was actually alive. In other promising animal news, a University of Georgia team has found that monarch butterflies — which had previously been dying off —  are now thriving in North America. 

Goldman Sachs invests $100 million in sustainable textile firm 

• We took a look at a $250 million investment from major brands into sustainable fashion. Goldman Sachs’s asset-management branch has now announced a $100 million investment in sustainable textile company Recover, personal finance site Mint reported. 

Forest Service struggling to pay people to fight fires, chief says

• We explored earlier this week an escaped Forest Service burn in New Mexico doesn’t justify abandoning the practice. On Thursday, Chief Randy Moore told the Senate that a major handicap the service is facing — for both planned and unplanned blazes — is a chronic shortage of manpower, WildfireToday reported.

Please visit The Hill’s Sustainability section online for the web version of this newsletter and more stories. We’ll see you next week.

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Human trafficking is not a topic at Summit of the Americas

The Summit of Americas is ironically gaining more coverage about who didn’t show than who did. As Biden and other heads of state reel in on the importance of democracy and regional alignment, the most important voices — marginalized communities vulnerable to human trafficking and exploitation—have been barred from the table. And we will feel the consequences for years to come. 

With an unprecedented influx of mass migration across the region, the Americas have a shared benefit of implementing a humane immigration policy framework, and addressing the inhumane conditions at the border that foster trafficking. Operation Lost Souls is an example of what happens when our only solution to the exploitation of vulnerable immigrant communities is law enforcement. Lives are lost, people are trafficked, and the root causes of poverty continue to be exacerbated. Can we really defend the quality of life across the region if exploited children at the borders is status quo?

The Summit of the Americas presented a historic opportunity to resolve how we collectively support scores of migrants across the region while addressing the root causes of exploitation. Unstable governments, colonial American influence, relentless intergenerational poverty, systemic discrimination against women and indigenous communities, and high unemployment rates cause people to flee unpredictably, adding pressure to an already unintegrated and weak immigration system. All nations, immigration experts, human rights organizations, anti-trafficking advocates, and social justice organizers should have had a seat at the table to guide multi-prong solutions to an ongoing regional crisis. Instead, few were invited, few were heard, and few will benefit.

An intersectional approach to preventing human trafficking could have been the issue that brought a variety of public and private stakeholders together. Not only is it a shared problem across the Americas, but an intersectional lens to preventing trafficking could have been a shared solution to addressing the overarching themes of the Summit: resiliency, sustainability, and equity. A report by the Department of State shows how countries throughout the Americas have significant trafficking issues. The recent Supreme Court case Biden v. Texas, underscores the imperative need for the Summit to directly address these issues. And yet, the Summit still shadowboxed the issue of human trafficking. 

Trafficking is a byproduct and result of overlapping societal issues that derive from poverty, systemic marginalization, and poor intergovernmental strategies that fail to provide international safety nets for the most vulnerable communities. Trafficking is a complex issue that finds resolve through climate justice, immigrant justice, economic justice, racial justice, and governmental accountability. When we collectively examine the root causes of trafficking through an intersectional lens, we are better equipped to protect vulnerable populations across the region. And what better place to dissect this regional issue than the Summit of the Americas?

Leaders of the Summit must be held accountable for not just overlooking survivors of human trafficking at this moment, but for failing to address how the economic, political, and social systems of their respective countries have enabled human trafficking across the Americas. Survivors deserve a seat at the head of the table. 

Heads of government don’t always get it right. Legal and policy experts, organizers, and direct-service-providers are the most equipped to provide structure and feedback to regional issues that require collective cooperation for the betterment of all nations in the Americas. 

How will we ever solve our regional issues if only a select few are invited to the party?

Joseph Villela is State Policy Director at Sunita Jain Anti-Trafficking Initiative at Loyola Law School.

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Bailey leads Irvin in Illinois GOP governor primary: poll

Illinois state Sen. Darren Bailey is leading Aurora, Ill., Mayor Richard Irvin by 15 percentage points among Illinois Republican primary voters in the gubernatorial primary, according to a poll released on Friday.

A Chicago Sun-Times/WBEZ poll, which was conducted by Public Policy Polling, found 32 percent of likely Republican primary voters in the state would vote for Bailey, also a third-generation farmer, should the primary be held that at the time of the polling. Seventeen percent said they would vote for Irvin.

Venture capitalist Jesse Sullivan (R), received 11 percent support, while former Illinois state Sen. Paul Schimpf, businessman Gary Rabine and attorney Max Soloman all received less than 10 percent.

Twenty-seven percent of primary voters said they were unsure, according to the poll, which could mean that some voters are still unfamiliar with some of the candidates.

Illinois’ primary is on June 28.

The latest polling is a stark contrast to a WGN-The Hill-Emerson College poll last month that showed Bailey with 20 percent of the support from likely Republican voters compared to Irvin’s 24 percent.

Bailey has sought the support of former President Trump and traveled to Mar-a-Lago in April for a fundraiser for Rep. Mary Miller (R-Ill.) that the former president was hosting, according to Politico. Meanwhile, Irvin is considered the preferred candidate among establishment Republicans, the news outlet noted, and has been viewed as a mainstream candidate within his party.

Incumbent Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) only has one challenger in his primary — nurse Beverly Miles — though Pritzker, a hotel magnate, has name recognition and money.

The governor’s race will likely be an uphill battle for Republicans. The non-partisan Cook Political Report rates the seat as “solid Democrat.” 

The Chicago Sun-Times/WBEZ poll was conducted between June 6 and June 7 with 677 likely Republican primary voters. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.8 percentage points.

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