Tag: Biden administration

Senate confirms Vivek H. Murthy as surgeon general

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Biden adviser returns to role he held during the Obama administration

The Senate on Tuesday voted 57 to 43 to confirm Vivek H. Murthy as United States surgeon general, ensuring that a top ally of President Biden will play a visible role in responding to the coronavirus pandemic.

All 50 Senate Democrats and Independents voted to support Murthy, joined by seven Republicans.

“Glad he was confirmed today — and I’m looking forward to working with him to address this pandemic and the underlying health inequities it has made way worse,” tweeted Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), who chairs the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, calling Murthy a “highly experienced, crisis-tested leader.” Continue reading.

Biden hampered by lack of confirmations

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President Biden is facing a convergence of challenges without a full complement of agency leaders who would typically oversee efforts on the ground to address them.

The administration is searching for solutions to the growing border crisis, but the president has yet to nominate officials to lead Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) or U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) — three key components of the immigration system.

Biden’s trip to Georgia on Friday after a gunman killed eight people, most of whom were Asian, came amid the absence of a nominee to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF), which typically assists with investigating such incidents. Continue reading.

4 steps to reaching Biden’s goal of a July 4th with much greater freedom from COVID-19

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President Joe Biden set a goal for the U.S. to have COVID-19 under enough control by summer that Americans can celebrate July 4th with family and friends, at least in small gatherings. Important in achieving this goal is another presidential request: that all U.S. adults be made eligible for COVID-19 vaccinationsby May 1.

We are public health deans who lead a variety of COVID-19 response efforts and are involved in public policy discussions. At a time when the nation is weary of hearing “no, you can’t,” we believe that thinking in terms of harm reduction – offering safer but not necessarily risk-free alternatives – is crucial. 

Harm reduction strategies are in use all around you. Seat belts and air bags are perhaps the most widespread harm reduction strategy for a leading cause of death in the U.S. Designated driver programs represent a harm reduction technique to reduce alcohol-related traffic fatalities. Another well-known example is the use of sterile syringe exchange services to help prevent HIV infection among people who inject drugs while also creating an important pathway for them to access client-centered medical and social services. Continue reading.

Senate confirms Marty Walsh as Biden’s Labor secretary

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The Senate on Monday confirmed Boston Mayor Marty Walsh to lead President Biden’s Labor Department — the final Cabinet official who can be confirmed, for now.

Senators voted 68-29 on Walsh’s nomination, after he easily cleared a procedural hurdle late last week. 

Walsh is likely the final Cabinet pick Biden will get confirmed before the Senate takes a two-week break. Continue reading.

U.S. to send AstraZeneca vaccine to Canada and Mexico

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The U.S. will send around 1.5 million doses of the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine to Canada, and 2.5 million to Mexico, Reuters reports.

Why it matters: This is the first time President Biden has agreed to share doses purchased by the U.S. with other countries.

  • The U.S. has come under increasing pressure for refusing to export doses, including the AstraZeneca vaccine, which has not yet been approved in the U.S. and is not expected to play a major role in the U.S. vaccine rollout.

Details: The deal comes in the form of a loan, with the U.S. sending doses to Canada and Mexico now with the expectation that they will return doses to the U.S. later this year. Continue reading.

Tai confirmed as top U.S. trade negotiator

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Hill veteran will be first woman of color to hold the Cabinet-level post

Katherine Tai, a longtime congressional staff lawyer, won Senate confirmation on Wednesday as the first woman of color to serve as the top U.S. trade negotiator.

The Senate approved her nomination 98-0, marking a rare bipartisan agreement in a deeply-divided Washington.

Among her first tasks will be advising the president on what to do about existing tariffs on most imported Chinese products, presiding over enforcement of a new trade deal with Mexico and Canada, and seeking a negotiated end to a long-running commercial dispute with the European Union. Continue reading.

Biden administration wants the financial sector to face up to climate risk

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Commodity Futures Trading Commission to create a new ‘climate risk unit,’ joining initiatives at Treasury, Securities and Exchange Commission, Federal Reserve 

A growing number of federal regulators are pushing corporate America to reckon with the cost of climate change, arguing that global warming poses significant peril not only to the environment but to the U.S. economy. 

On Wednesday, Rostin Behnam, the acting chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, will announce that he is establishing a Climate Risk Unit to focus on the role of complex financial derivatives in understanding and pricing climate-related hazards. That follows a request on Monday by the Securities and Exchange Commission for public input on how to require companies to disclose “consistent, comparable, and reliable information on climate change” risks to investors.

The moves come as President Biden’s administration is pledging to slash greenhouse gas emissions and after 2020 set a U.S. record for billion-dollar weather and climate disasters. There were 22 extreme weather events last year, ranging from tropical cyclones to drought, that cost taxpayers, businesses, investors and homeowners a combined $95 billion, according to the federal government. Continue reading.

The IRS has sent out 90 million stimulus payments. Here’s how to check when yours will arrive.

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Got a prepaid debit card with your stimulus payment? You can avoid fees when you access the money.

The Internal Revenue Service told financial institutions to expect roughly 90 million direct deposits amounting to $242.2 billion on March 17 in the initial distribution of the American Rescue Plan stimulus payments, according to a banking industry group.

Following the deposits, the IRS mailed an additional 150,000 checks amounting to $442 million, with a pay date of March 19, according to the Independent Community Bankers of America, based on a briefing from the IRS.

“Additional batches of payments will be sent in the coming weeks with the vast majority sent by direct deposit,” the group said in an online update to banking members. “Payments will also be sent through the mail as a check or debit card.” Continue reading.

Migrants are not overrunning U.S. border towns, despite the political rhetoric

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SAN ANTONIO — The way many Republicans describe it, President Biden has thrown open the border between Mexico and the United States so that anyone who wants to come into the country can do so, illegally or legally.

Former president Donald Trump accused Biden of “recklessly eliminating our border, security measures, controls, all of the things.” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) says Biden has rushed to implement “open border policies.” Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) says the new president “sent a message around South and Central America that our border is open.”

But many of those who live along the border in Texas say that while there has been a dramatic increase in the number of migrants caught crossing illegally, the border itself has been heavily restricted for nearly a year because of the coronavirus pandemic. Continue reading.

Senate confirms William Burns to be next CIA director after Cruz lifts hold

The Senate on Thursday confirmed William Burns to be President Joe Biden’s CIA director, approving his nomination with no objections after Texas GOP Sen. Ted Cruz lifted his hold.

The Senate cleared Burns’ nomination by voice vote on the floor Thursday.

Biden tapped Burns as CIA director in January, turning to a longtime diplomat who was deputy secretary of state in the Obama administration and held foreign service posts for more than three decades. He will become the first leader in the CIA’s history whose lifelong experience comes from the State Department. Continue reading.