Senate

United States senators released a highly anticipated infrastructure legislation package, which would fulfill one of President Joe Biden's major policy priorities. The bill is worth nearly $1 trillion (€842 billion) and calls for $550 billion in added federal spending. Among the major new investments would be $110 billion for roads and bridges; $39 billion for public transit and $66 billion for rail; $55 billion for water and wastewater infrastructure; as well as billions for airports, ports, broadband internet and electric vehicle charging stations. Ten key senators and their staff labored over the weekend to produce 2,700 pages of the bill, which will soon be subject to the amendment process, where senators try to add or remove sections within it. Watch video 03:49 G7 leaders agree plan to counter China's influence Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is hoping that the bill will not get stuck in this stage. "We haven't done a large, bipartisan …

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Jesus Lopez says he feels like a stranger in the place he was born. He's from Guadalajara, Mexico, but his life was in Chicago. After 15 years in the city, he was deported a year ago during the COVID-19 pandemic. “I want to go back because I belong there, that's where I have my friends, my family,” said the 25-year-old, once a recipient of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program that gives protections to immigrants brought to the U.S. as children. Lopez, who said he didn't renew his spot in the program because he couldn't afford it, hopes to benefit from new efforts by advocates, groups and attorneys to bring back immigrants they believe were unfairly deported from the United States. With President Joe Biden in office, one of the new proposals from advocates urges creating a centralized Department of Homeland Security office to consider requests from deported immigrants trying to reunite with their families in the U.S. “We have deported hundreds of …

[Read more...] about Advocates in US push new efforts to bring back deportees

The Biden administration has signaled its commitment to tackling the financial risks posed by climate change through executive orders and key appointments. But advocates say the president is missing an easy opportunity for big climate progress: divesting the Thrift Savings Plan (TSP), the federal employee pension fund. The TSP is the largest defined contribution plan in the world, with assets worth nearly $700 billion. It has also steadfastly refused to embrace the growing trend of pensions divesting from fossil fuels, since its governing body, the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board (FRTIB) says it does not have the authority to divest from fossil fuel assets. But other public pension funds have done exactly that. In June, Maine became the first state to order its public pension funds, worth about $17 billion, to divest from fossil fuels through legislation. Earlier this year, three New York City pension funds announced that they would be divesting about $4 billion worth of …

[Read more...] about The easy climate-change win that Rashida Tlaib backs but Joe Biden is failing to seize

President Donald Trump 's positive diagnosis for the coronavirus throws a wrench into his campaign plans, but Senator Lindsey Graham plans to proceed with Judge Amy Coney Barrett's confirmation to the Supreme Court as planned. Kevin Bishop, a spokesperson for Graham, who heads the Senate Judiciary Committee, told Newsweek the process of confirming Barrett to the court is continuing with "no change." Hearings before the committee are set to begin October 12, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is committed to bringing Barrett's nomination to the floor for a vote. Trump announced early Friday morning that he and first lady Melania Trump had tested positive for the virus and that they were quarantining. According to guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the couple should isolate themselves for a minimum of 10 days after a positive test result, and anyone who had "close contact" with them should quarantine for 14 days since their last …

[Read more...] about Trump’s COVID diagnosis won’t delay Amy Coney Barrett SCOTUS nomination hearings

As President Donald Trump and his officials working for the White House and his campaign claim—without evidence—there is rampant voter fraud, Democrats are "stealing the election" and that legally-cast ballots should not be counted, Republicans on Capitol Hill have cautiously shied away from that false narrative to craft their own. Rather, GOP lawmakers are saying the campaign either needs to show evidence of their voter fraud claims in court or accept the results, which appeared on track Friday night to award the presidency to Joe Biden . The race had not yet officially been called. "The courts are here to apply the laws & resolve disputes," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said in a tweet, along with advocating for all legal votes to be counted. "That's how Americans' votes decide the result." The No. 4 Senate Republican, Roy Blunt of Missouri, put it bluntly—as he so often does—that it was time for Trump campaign lawyers to take over. "At some point," …

[Read more...] about Republicans to Trump on baseless election fraud claims: Show us the evidence

In the early hours of Wednesday morning, President Donald Trump prematurely declared election victory in a televised address to the nation as he trailed Democratic Presidential Nominee Joe Biden in electoral college votes. Trump also said that he would ask the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene in the election process. The president accused Democrats of trying to "disenfranchise" the people who had voted for him. He called the election "an embarrassment to our country" and said he wanted all voting to stop. "We want the law to be used in a proper manner so we'll be going to the U.S. Supreme Court," Trump said. "We want all voting to stop. We don't want them to find any ballots at four o'clock in the morning and add them to the list." As vote counting proceeded, Trump's campaign filed a series of lawsuits in three battleground states throughout the day seeking to halt ballot counting. He has also demanded a recount in Wisconsin. Michigan—16 Electoral College votes Trump's …

[Read more...] about All the demands and allegations in the Trump presidential election lawsuits

Michigan Senate Republicans unanimously passed three bills Wednesday that would require a photo ID for all in-person voters in the state, along with extra identification measures for mail-in voters. The united GOP effort outweighed unified rejection from the Democrats , adding Michigan to a number of states pursuing tighter voting regulations. Governor Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, plans to veto the bills if they make it to her desk, the Associated Press reported. However, the Michigan Legislature has the ability to finalize citizen-introduced bills such as the ones voted on Wednesday. Currently, citizens of Michigan who don't have photo identification when voting in person can still cast a ballot if they sign an affidavit at their polling location, a provision used by more than 11,000 voters in the November 2020 election. The proposed legislation would prohibit this process. Instead, voters without identification would be able to cast a provisional ballot and confirm their …

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President Biden announced his fourth round of judicial nominees on Tuesday, bringing his number of nominations to 24 in his first 150 days. President Trump nominated 15 by this time in 2017. Biden nominated five new judges to federal courts and two to D.C. district courts. A statement from the White House with the announcement said the candidates are "extraordinarily qualified, experienced and devoted to the rule of law and our Constitution." "President Biden has spent decades committed to strengthening the federal bench, which is why he continues to move at an unparalleled speed with respect to judicial nominations. His first judicial nominations announcement was made faster than that of any new President in modern American history, and today's announcement continues that trend," the statement said. With the new slate of candidates, 21 of Biden's 24 nominations are women, and more than half of them come from diverse backgrounds. He has nominated more minority women to the …

[Read more...] about Joe Biden has nominated 24 federal judges in his first 150 days as president, compared to Trump’s 15

Vice President Kamala Harris announced on Tuesday that 860 community development financial institutions (CFDIs) will receive $1.25 billion to help the economy recover COVID-19, the Associated Press reported. CFDIs help small businesses get loans that the would otherwise be turned down for from major banks, a problem that hits minority business owners in particular. "Traditional banks have not always seen or understood the vision of women, small business owners, small business owners of color, small business owners who serve low-income communities," Harris said. She added that CDFIs "add value to those communities, and by extension, to our entire nation." For more reporting from the Associated Press, see below. "President Joe Biden and I knew that more than repair, we must re-imagine our economy," Harris said during an event at the White House. "Small businesses, of course, are at the center of this re-imagining." Harris has focused on small businesses from the start …

[Read more...] about 860 community development institutions getting $1.25B to boost post-COVID recovery

Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Tuesday that he launched a 2022 political action committee to help Republicans retake control of federal and state legislative bodies, something he predicts will be propelled by anger over Democrats ' H.R.1 voting rights bill. Pompeo, one of former President Donald Trump 's most loyal supporters, told Breitbart News Daily that he launched the Champion American Values PAC (CAVPAC) to boost down-ballot GOP candidates in the 2022 midterm state and congressional elections. Pompeo said Trump's energetic base voters across the country are seething over the Democrat-backed "For the People Act" bill, also called H.R.1, which he and Senate Majority Mitch McConnell have warned would doom the GOP in future elections if passed. Pompeo suggested moderate Republicans will be voted out of office by pro-Trump conservatives in 2022. Pompeo has for months warned Republicans that H.R.1, a bill currently in Congress which would ease mail-in …

[Read more...] about Mike Pompeo says GOP must “control state legislature” in 2022, block HR1 at all costs