Principals

☞ White House: President Biden meets today with Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson. They’ll discuss Stockholm’s NATO membership bid, which faces continued opposition from Turkey and Hungary, as well as the war in Ukraine. The U.S. and other NATO members also backed an extension of Jens Stoltenberg’s term as secretary general ahead of the alliance’s upcoming summit in Vilnius.

☞ Senate: How tough has it been to confirm Biden’s executive branch nominees? New data from the Partnership for Public Service shows the president’s picks have faced nearly 200 cloture votes — more than Clinton, Obama, and Trump dealt with during their entire presidencies. Political appointees are waiting an average of 163 days to be confirmed, on par with Trump’s but far longer than nominees of prior presidents.

☞ House: Members have filed 1,426 amendments to this year’s National Defense Authorization Act, which the full House is expected to consider when Congress returns to Washington next week. Not all will get a vote. One to keep an eye on, though: A GOP measure that would end the Pentagon’s policy of reimbursing service members for their expenses when they travel to get an abortion, an issue that’s led Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., to blockade military promotions in the upper chamber.

☞ Outside the Beltway: It was a grim holiday weekend in terms of gun violence across the country: On Tuesday evening, a shooter killed five people and injured two others in southwest Philadelphia. Police said the suspect, who wore body armor and carried an assault rifle, shot people seemingly at random. The mass shooting in Philadelphia followed two others over the weekend — one in Fort Worth, Texas that killed three people and injured eight, and another at a block party in Baltimore on Saturday that killed two young people and injured 28 others.

A federal judge in Louisiana has blocked Biden administration officials from asking social media platforms to remove “content containing protected free speech.” The ruling came in a lawsuit led by a group of Republican state attorneys general accusing the federal government of overreaching in its efforts to combat COVID-19 vaccine disinformation. In the decision, Judge Terry Doughty, a Trump appointee, likened the federal government’s actions during the pandemic to the “Ministry of Truth” from George Orwell’s 1984.

The Secret Service is investigating a white powder suspected of being cocaine that was found in the White House over the weekend to figure out how it got into the building. The substance was discovered in a “work area” in the West Wing.

The Supreme Court’s ruling ending affirmative action continues to reverberate: Three Boston-based activist groups filed a lawsuit challenging legacy admissions at Harvard, accusing the policy of discriminating against Black, Hispanic, and Asian students while giving preference to less qualified white students who have connections to alumni. Meanwhile, former Trump adviser Stephen Miller threatened to sue schools that don’t adhere to the high court’s ruling blocking the consideration of race in admissions late last week.

China said it would impose restrictions on exports of gallium and germanium, two rare metals used in the production of semiconductors, beginning in August in what is widely perceived as retaliation against chip controls imposed by the U.S. and some of its allies. Meanwhile, the U.S. is planning to impose its own restrictions on Chinese companies’ access to cloud computing services from U.S. providers like Microsoft and Amazon, according to the Wall Street Journal.

— Morgan Chalfant

Punchbowl News: Punchbowl has six reasons why this summer is shaping up to be a tough one for Biden’s domestic agenda, including a federal judge’s ruling limiting White House communication with social media companies, the Supreme Court’s decision striking down the president’s student loan forgiveness program, and his Labor secretary’s stalled nomination.

Playbook: Rep. Adam Schiff, the California Democrat running for Dianne Feinstein’s seat, seems to have broken the fundraising record for the second quarter in a non-election year by piling up $8.1 million. Schiff has been fundraising off GOP efforts to censure him. Politico also has the details on Biden officials’ travel this week to pitch “Bidenomics.”

The Early 202: The Washington Post looks at the candidacy of Sarah McBride, a Delaware state senator who could become the first transgender member of Congress. McBride, who used to work for Biden’s son Beau and has received support from Delaware Senate candidate Lisa Blunt Rochester, is running amid growing anti-trans rhetoric and legislation from Republicans.

How C-SPAN got more fun

THE NEWS

Speaker Kevin McCarthy has expanded the use of cameras in the House chamber after his own contested speaker’s race turned into a riveting reality TV show.

Viewers now get a broader glimpse of Congress in action. There’s an expanded view of lawmakers roaming the floor during votes, where you may see footage of Rep. Grace Meng, D-N.Y., running into the chamber minutes before a vote closes. Or you could have witnessed the exchange between Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R- La., and members of the House Freedom Caucus just before they tanked the rule on gas stoves. And viewers can sometimes get seconds-long shots of the electronic vote board on the balcony above the rostrum, a spectacle previously only available to members, guests, and reporters in the room.

“As part of the re-opening of the Capitol under Speaker McCarthy, the public has been able to have greater access and visibility to the entire legislative process, including new angles during regular business in the chamber,” a spokesperson for McCarthy told Semafor.

There are nine different cameras inside the House chamber operated by the House Recording Studio, under the purview of the office of the Chief Administrative Officer, an appointed position determined by a majority vote at the start of every Congress. Outside of special events like the State of the Union or joint addresses, the only cameras covering the House are run by the government. C-SPAN is given access to the government-manned cameras to broadcast nationally.

The 15-vote speaker’s race offered a five-day bonanza of unprecedented video footage. C-SPAN’s camera (which was on pool duty for the broader media) shot freely throughout the chamber, capturing part of that near-confrontation between Reps. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla. and Mike Rogers, R-Ala. At the time, House members-elect had not been sworn in nor had they voted on a speaker, meaning there were no rules or decisions in place governing how the cameras operated. The moment prompted calls for more camera access from the public and members, including the newly minted C-SPAN star Gaetz, who introduced an amendment requiring the speaker to allow C-SPAN permanent access on the House floor.

THE VIEW FROM C-SPAN

While C-SPAN has more variety in its on-air footage now, they still aren’t allowed to bring their own cameras into the chamber, which they did during the speaker’s race.

The independently-operated network has written letters to the speaker asking that he revisit the rules to allow them, and other independent accredited journalists, to cover key legislative sessions themselves in addition to using the House-provided feeds. But nothing has changed outside of the new perspectives from the House Recording Studio, Richard Weinstein, the Vice President of Content for C-SPAN, told Semafor.

“We too noticed those changes and I welcome those changes,” Weinstein said. “I think that it’s an improvement over what had existed previously in terms of the more static shots of the dais and the podium.”

KNOW MORE

Viewers can also expect new virtual reality footage from the latest joint address with India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The House used two VR cameras and will feature never-before-seen video of an “up-close” view of McCarthy gaveling in at the rostrum, a balcony view, and a roaming shot of Modi walking down the center aisle in a soon-to-be-released video.

The speaker launched the VR project for the first time during South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol’s joint address, where a single 360-degree VR camera was used to capture unique points of view of the event.

Bonnie Glaser is managing director of the German Marshall Fund’s Indo-Pacific program.

Stories that are being largely ignored by either left-leaning or right-leaning outlets, according to data from our partners at Ground News.

WHAT THE LEFT ISN’T READING: California’s reparations task force recommended eliminating child support debt for Black residents of the state.

WHAT THE RIGHT ISN’T READING: Former President Trump said during his 2016 campaign that a president facing indictment would “cripple operations” of government and trigger a “constitutional crisis.” He made the comments, which were surfaced by CNN, in reference to Hillary Clinton during the investigation into classified emails held on her private server, which didn’t result in any charges.