Biden is slated to host his first meeting with Republican and Democratic leadership from the House and Senate since taking office on May 12 at the White House. The talks are also expected to intensify as lawmakers return from recess and Capito is scheduled to visit the President once again.
Police reform
Serious bipartisan talks over legislation to overhaul policing between Republican Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina and Democratic Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey and Democratic Rep. Karen Bass of California are also expected to continue this week as the lawmakers leading an effort to broker a deal say they are making progress, despite thorny unresolved issues.
- No-knock warrants.
- A ban chokeholds except in life-threatening situations.
- Limits on equipment the Defense Department can send to state and local police departments.
Two major issues remain. One of them is qualified immunity, which protects police officers from civil lawsuits. The other includes Section 242, a part of federal law which sets the standard for criminally prosecuting police officers.
Election overhaul and gun legislation
In the Senate, Democrats also want to take action on a sweeping voting bill and gun legislation, though neither priority is on track to have the votes to overcome a filibuster and pass out of the chamber.
Voting bill. While it won’t have the 60 votes to pass out of the Senate, taking up the voting legislation will give Democrats an opportunity to tout the legislation, and will give some more liberal-leaning lawmakers the chance to once again argue that the filibuster should be eliminated.
Gun legislation. It also looks increasingly unlikely that a bipartisan deal will be reached on gun legislation, an issue which received renewed focus in the wake of recent shootings.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has indicated he plans to move a House-passed gun bill to the Senate floor, though he has continued to hold out hope for the possibility of bipartisan action.
Cheney’s impending ouster looms large
The vote on the position could come as early as Wednesday.
“Yes, I do,” McCarthy told Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo when asked if he supports the New York Republican for the No. 3 role in the House Republican conference. Stefanik thanked McCarthy for his support in a tweet later Sunday.
Charting our Covid-19 progress
That’s still well short of the 70-85% range that experts like Dr. Anthony Fauci have estimated the US needs to reach to achieve herd immunity. But the progress is real, and the waning US cases and death numbers reflect that.
- “People were worried about safety, we now have hundreds of millions of doses out there, so we have great data on safety.”
- “People were worried about efficacy,” he said, adding there is now real-world data showing how effective the vaccines are.
- And finally, Swaminathan said, some Americans were concerned that the vaccines didn’t have approval from the Food and Drug Administration and had only received emergency use authorization. But Pfizer/BioNTech announced Friday they have initiated an application to the agency for full FDA approval of their vaccine for people 16 and older.
What else?
GOP ready to kill the $300 pandemic unemployment boost. As the country seeks to emerge from the outbreak that has left millions of Americans out of work, a growing chorus of GOP officials and business owners say that it’s time to end the historic enhancement in order to push more people to rejoin the labor force.
The federal benefits not only include an extra $300 in unemployment payments, but also payments for freelancers, independent contractors, certain people affected by the virus and those who’ve run out of their regular state benefits.
Source: CNN – US News
