CONGEST with $\Delta^ 2+ 1$ colors. For $\Delta\gg\operatorname {poly}\log n $, this
improves exponentially on the $ O (\log\Delta+\operatorname {poly}\log\log n) $ algorithm of
[Halld\'orsson, Kuhn, Maus, Nolin, DISC'20]. Our study is motivated by the ubiquity and
hardness of local reductions in CONGEST. For instance, algorithms for the Local Lov\'asz
Lemma [Moser, Tardos, JACM'10; Fischer, Ghaffari, DISC'17; Davies, SODA'23] usually …