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Joe Biden’s office chooses and other functions in his administration
The president says he wants a government as diverse as that of the United States when he enters the White House. Here are some of the choices of your Executive Branch.
USA TODAY
Sanders says Democrats will approve aid package through reconciliation
Senator Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Said Democrats would approve an aid package “as soon as possible” through budgetary reconciliation, rather than complete legislation.
Budgetary reconciliation is a form of legislation that specifically governs changes in government spending and revenue and the federal debt limit. Although it is limited in the scope of policies it can include, reconciliation projects are immune to obstruction of 60 votes in the Senate, meaning that only 51 Democrats would have to sign to pass the legislation.
“I don’t know what the word compromise means,” said Sanders of the Republicans’ calls to work together on a bipartisan package in the upper house. “I know that there are more working families today living in economic desperation than at any time since the Great Depression.”
“What we can’t do is wait weeks and weeks and months and months to move forward,” said Sanders of the need for immediate relief from the coronavirus.
As incoming chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, Sanders will have a critical role in determining federal spending allocations and priorities at the next Congress. A coronavirus stimulus package proposed through budget reconciliation would give the first signs of how Sanders will use the new function.
President Joe Biden proposed a $ 1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package that would provide greater stimulation to state and local governments, small businesses and help build a more robust vaccine deployment infrastructure, among other big-list items.
The proposal was criticized by many Republicans and some Democrats for being too big and not sufficiently targeted.
“Lets do this. But we will do this to protect ordinary people, not just the rich and powerful, ”said Sanders.
– Matthew Brown
Rubio and Romney take contrasting positions ahead of Trump’s second impeachment trial
Republican senators publicly differed in their assessment of former President Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial. The Senate trial comes after the House of Representatives voted to impeach Trump on charges of inciting a crowd of his supporters who invaded and looted the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to overturn the results of the November presidential election.
Senator Mitt Romney, R-Utah, was receptive to the president’s impeachment.
Romney, the only Republican senator who voted to condemn Trump in his first Senate impeachment trial, indicated that he was open to voting to condemn Trump again, given the seriousness of the charge against the former president.
“There is no doubt that the impeachment article sent by the House suggests objectionable conduct, but we have not yet heard of either the prosecution or the defense,” Romney said on Fox News Sunday.
“I believe that what is being claimed and what we have seen, which is inciting insurrection, is an offense liable to impeachment,” Romney told CNN. “If not? What is it?” he asked.
Other Republican Party senators have a more skeptical view of the trial.
“Well, first of all, I think the trial is stupid,” said Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., On “Fox News Sunday”. Rubio argued that it would be “arrogant” for the Senate to condemn Trump after he stepped down, and that although the former president “has responsibility” for the Capitol insurrection, it is wrong to “stir up” the controversy again.
“All I’m arguing is that we have some really important things to work on,” said Rubio, saying the impeachment was an impediment to unity. “It will be bad for the country, it really will be,” said Rubio.
Romney expressed a different view on Fox News, arguing that “if we are going to have unity”, there must be “responsibility” for transgressions by all actors, including Trump.
In recent days, other senators like Senator Rand Paul, R-Ky., Have claimed that Trump’s impeachment would “destroy” the Republican Party. Senator John Cornyn, R-Texas, threatened that a post-presidential impeachment of Trump would eventually result in the impeachment of Democratic presidents like Barack Obama.
On the other hand, Senators Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and Ben Sasse, R-Neb., Also expressed openness for Trump’s impeachment.
– Matthew Brown
Poll: Americans positive about Biden COVID-19 response, ability to unite the country
Americans widely support President Joe Biden’s response to the coronavirus and his prospects for uniting the nation, according to a recent survey by ABC News.
Sixty-nine percent of Americans approve of Biden’s plans to tackle the coronavirus pandemic, while 57% believe that Biden can deliver on his promise to unite a divided America.
Notably, 40% of Republicans also approve of the early response to Biden’s coronavirus, signaling a bipartisan honeymoon that can help the president implement his most ambitious plans to fight the virus. Ninety-seven percent of Democrats and 70% of independents support Biden’s first steps to contain the pandemic.
After taking office on Wednesday, Biden imposed a mask mandate on federal properties, issued orders to increase the distribution of vaccines and personal protective equipment, and issued an order requiring international travelers to test COVID-19 negative before to enter the USA
On Sunday, Biden signed executive orders that simplified the delivery of stimulus checks and expanded federal food aid programs.
Eighty-one percent of Americans support the executive order that requires masks on federal properties. Fifty-five percent of Americans also supported Biden’s reversal of Trump’s ban on travel from several Muslim-majority countries, as well as the suspension of building a wall on the southern border with Mexico. Sixty-five percent of Americans support Biden’s decision to reinstate the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, for undocumented youth.
Republicans are overwhelmingly opposed to the end of each of these measures by Biden, indicating that the president’s bipartisan honeymoon over the response to the coronavirus may have its limits in a hyper-polarized nation.
Unity was the central theme of Biden’s tenure. “We stopped screaming and lowered the temperature. Without unity there is no peace, only bitterness and fury,” warned Biden during his speech. “Unity is the only way forward.”
Seventy-one percent of respondents who heard Biden’s speech found him convincing, according to the ABC News survey. But almost a quarter (24%) said they were deeply skeptical about their ability to reduce the nation’s divisions.
– Matthew Brown
Arizona GOP censors Cindy McCain, Jeff Flake, Doug Ducey
The Arizona Republican Party passed three resolutions on Saturday censoring high-profile Republicans: Governor Doug Ducey, former Senator Jeff Flake and Cindy McCain.
It was another sign of the party’s shift to the right.
The party rebuked Ducey for his decision to impose emergency rules during the pandemic that the Republican Party said “restricted personal liberties and enforced unconstitutional edicts”.
He said McCain, who endorsed President Joe Biden, “supported globalist policies and candidates” and “condemned President Trump for his criticisms of her husband and attributed behavior erroneously to the actual presidential results”.
And he declared that Flake “condemned the Republican Party, rejected populism and rejected the interests of the American people over globalist interests”. The party suggested that Flake join the Democrats.
Sara Mueller, Ducey’s political director, accepted the censure calmly.
“These resolutions have no consequence, and the people behind them have lost any small moral authority they may have had,” she said.
– Ronald J. Hansen, Yvonne Wingett Sanchez, Arizona Republic
Trump considered dismissing incumbent AG to pursue unfounded claims of electoral fraud
In his final weeks in office, then President Donald Trump weighed a plan to expel incumbent attorney general Jeffrey Rosen and replace him with a loyal member within the Justice Department when Rosen refused to proceed with unfounded allegations of electoral fraud. Trump, a person familiar with the matter told USA TODAY.
The source who is not authorized to comment publicly said that the plan, which Trump eventually abandoned, caused the remaining bailiffs to threaten mass resignation.
“Until the end, the pressure never stopped; the pressure was real,” said the source, describing Trump’s efforts to coerce federal prosecutors into waging a campaign aimed at overthrowing President Joe Biden’s election.
The plan, first reported by The New York Times, involved replacing Rosen with Jeffrey Clark, whom Trump had appointed to lead Justice’s Environment and Natural Resources Division and who later served as acting chief of the Civil Division.
If the effort had continued, Clark, who had previously raised concerns about electoral fraud within the department, would have been in a position to act on Trump’s behalf to challenge election results in Georgia, where the president had previously lobbied state officials.
– Kevin Johnson and Sarah Elbeshbishi