Tag: Joe Biden

Dems tighten relief benefits, firm up support for virus bill

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WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden and Democrats agreed to tighten eligibility limits for stimulus checks Wednesday, bowing to party moderates as leaders prepared to move their $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill through the Senate.

At the same time, the White House and top Democrats stood by progressives and agreed that the Senate package would retain the $400 weekly emergency unemployment benefits included in the House-passed pandemic legislation. Moderates have wanted to trim those payments to $300 after Republicans have called the bill so heedlessly generous that it would prompt some people to not return to work.

The deal-making underscored the balancing act Democrats face as they try squeezing the massive relief measure through the evenly divided, 50-50 Senate. The package, Biden’s signature legislative priority, is his attempt to stomp out the year-old pandemic, revive an economy that’s shed 10 million jobs and bring some semblance of normality to countless upended lives. Continue reading.

Biden to sanction Russia over Navalny poisoning, jailing

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The Biden administration on Tuesday announced new sanctions on Russia in response to Moscow’s poisoning and jailing of Alexei Navalny, accusing Russia’s main intelligence agency of attempting to assassinate the opposition leader last year.

The administration is imposing sanctions on seven members of the Russian government and export controls on several business entities involved in biological agent production. The sanctions include Russian officials and a Russian research center that were previously sanctioned by the European Union and United Kingdom in October in connection with Navalny’s poisoning.

The sanctions, which are being coordinated with EU partners, come after an intelligence community assessment concluded with “high confidence” that officers of Russia’s Federal Security Service used the Novichok nerve agent to poison Navalny in August, Biden administration officials said. Continue reading.

Merck to help make Johnson & Johnson vaccine

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President Biden will announce Tuesday that Merck will help make Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine, administration officials said, a partnership between rival companies that could help produce more doses. 

Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine was authorized by the Food and Drug Administration over the weekend, adding a third vaccine to the U.S. arsenal, but supplies will be limited at first. The entire existing supply of 3.9 million doses are going out the this week, with none coming next week, and the company has faced production delays.

The partnership with Merck, a major vaccine manufacturer, could help address the shortages, though it was not immediately clear how many more doses Merck will be able to make or when they will be available.  Continue reading.

Biden: US will have vaccine for all adults by end of May

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President Biden on Tuesday said that the United States will have enough vaccine supply to vaccinate all American adults for the coronavirus by the end of May, crediting a “stepped-up process” under his administration.

Biden made the announcement while outlining a partnership between Merck and Johnson & Johnson to produce the latter’s single-dose coronavirus vaccine.

“We’re now on track to have enough vaccine supply for every adult in America by the end of May,” Biden said in remarks Tuesday afternoon at the White House. “When we came into office, the prior administration had contracted for not nearly enough vaccine to cover adults in America. We rectified that.” Continue reading.

Senate Judiciary sends Garland nomination to the floor

Confirmation vote could come as early as this week

The Senate Judiciary Committee advanced the nomination of Merrick Garland to be attorney general by a bipartisan vote Monday, setting up a potential final floor vote on confirmation as early as this week.

The 15-7 vote was expected, as senators from both parties had indicated they supported Garland leaving his longtime spot on the federal appeals court in Washington to run the Justice Department.

Illinois Democratic Sen. Richard J. Durbin, the committee chair, said there wasn’t much left to say about Garland and called him “a man of extraordinary qualifications.”

Biden’s approval tops 60 percent in new poll

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President Biden is starting his tenure in White House with the approval of 61 percent of voters, according to a new Harvard CAPS-Harris Poll survey released exclusively to The Hill on Monday.

Biden’s initial approval numbers are markedly higher than those of former President Trump when he first took office. The first Harvard CAPS-Harris Poll survey of Trump’s presidency, conducted in February 2017, showed his approval rating at 48 percent.

Only about 39 percent of respondents said they disapprove of the job Biden is doing in the White House, according to the poll.  Continue reading.

Biden brings back bipartisan meetings at the White House

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President Biden has brought back bipartisan meetings at the White House that diminished under his predecessor, trying to find common ground with Republicans even as they remain far apart on issues related to the next round of coronavirus relief. 

Biden’s first meeting with lawmakers in the Oval Office was with Republican senators on the coronavirus proposal and he has since met with bipartisan members of Congress on infrastructure and, later, supply chain issues. Biden’s outreach to Republicans has also extended beyond Capitol Hill to governors and local leaders as his administration grapples with the coronavirus and recent winter storms in southern states.  Continue reading.

Biden’s pick for HHS sued the Trump administration, not a group of nuns

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It does seem like, as attorney general, you spent an inordinate amount of time and effort suing pro-life organizations, like Little Sisters of the Poor, or trying to ease restrictions or expand abortion.”

— Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), in a Senate Finance Committee hearing on Xavier Becerra’s nomination to be secretary of health and human services, Feb. 24, 2021

“By the way, I have never sued the nun — any nuns. I have taken on the federal government, but I’ve never sued any affiliation of nuns. And my actions have always been directed at the federal agencies, because they have been trying to do things that are contrary to the law in California.”

— Becerra, at the confirmation hearing

Becerra was often in court with former president Donald Trump’s administration, filing numerous lawsuits as attorney general of California that won the backing of other Democratic states.

Now he’s up for the top health position in President Biden’s Cabinet, and Republican senators want to know why he supposedly sued a group of nuns back in the day.

In hearings on Becerra’s nomination to be secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, Thune and others brought up a case involving California, contraceptives and a group of Catholic nuns. Continue reading.

U.S. strikes Iran-backed militia facilities in Syria

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The United States on Thursday carried out an airstrike against facilities in Syria linked to an Iran-backed militia group, the Pentagon announced.

The state of play: The strike, approved by President Biden, comes “in response to recent attacks against American and Coalition personnel in Iraq, and to ongoing threats to those personnel,” Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said in a statement.

What they’re saying: “The proportionate military response was conducted together with diplomatic measures, including consultation with Coalition partners,” Kirby said. Continue reading.

Biden speaks with Saudi king ahead of expected release of report on Khashoggi

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President Biden spoke for the first time Thursday with Saudi Arabia’s King Salman, following weeks of speculation that relations were headed for a deep freeze as Biden has criticized Saudi human rights abuses, canceled arms sales to the kingdom and scheduled the imminent release of a U.S. intelligence report implicating Salman’s son, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, in the 2018 murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

A White House statement after the call stepped carefully around the divisive issues, saying the two discussed “renewed diplomatic efforts” to end the war against Houthi rebels in Yemen, where thousands of civilians have died in Saudi air attacks using U.S.-supplied missiles.

Biden “noted positively” the recent release from imprisonment of a handful of political activists and Saudi American citizens, the statement said, “and affirmed the importance the United States places on universal human rights and the rule of law.” Continue reading.