Author: PolitCens

Republicans in the U.S. Senate are expected to block legislation calling for the creation of a panel to investigate the deadly Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol aimed at preventing the certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s presidential victory over Donald Trump.A vote on the measure had been expected Thursday but was delayed by lengthy consideration of another bill.Trump implored thousands of supporters who had come to Washington for a protest rally “to “fight like hell” to overturn his defeat shortly before the riot that left five people dead, including a federal police officer.Republicans are expected to use a procedural tactic known as a filibuster to block the bill, which would launch a bipartisan investigation into the insurrection. If Republicans get their way, it would be the first successful use of a filibuster in the Biden presidency to stop Senate legislative action.The filibuster requires a super majority of senators, meaning 60 of the upper chamber’s 100 members must support a measure for it to pass.Because the 100-member Senate is equally divided, Democrats would need 10 Republicans to vote in favor of the bill.That is unlikely because many Republican senators remain loyal to Trump and are expected to follow Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell.McConnell, who once said Trump was responsible for “provoking” the riot, has more recently dismissed the legislation as nothing more than a “political exercise” since Senate committees are already investigating security shortcomings.The Democratic-controlled House of Representatives, which has 435 voting members, previously passed the legislation with some Republican support.
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President Joe Biden on Thursday warned naysayers in Congress not to “get in the way” of his big infrastructure plans as the White House panned a counteroffer from Republican senators to tap unused COVID-19 relief for a more modest investment in roads, highways and other traditional public works projects.After touring a manufacturing technology center at a community college in Cleveland, Biden held up a card with the names of Republican lawmakers who had rejected his coronavirus aid bill in Washington but later promoted its assistance when they were back home in front of voters. He warned them not to play similar games as he pushes this next legislative priority in Congress.”I’m not going to embarrass anyone, but I have here a list,” he said. “If you’re going to take credit for what we’ve done,” he continued, “don’t get in the way of what we need to do.”The political arguments over Biden’s ambitious proposals are quickly distilling into a debate over the size and scope of what all sides agree are sorely needed upgrades to the nation’s aging and outmoded infrastructure.Republican counterofferAs the president reaches for a soaring legislative achievement with his $1.7 trillion American Jobs Plan and a separate $1.8 trillion American Families Plan, he is assessing whether he can cut a bipartisan deal with Republicans or will have to push through his proposals with only Democratic votes.Republican senators outlined a $928 billion infrastructure proposal Thursday as a counteroffer to Biden, drawing a fresh red line against his plans raise the corporate tax, from 21% to 28%, to pay for new spending. Instead, the Republicans want to shift unspent COVID-19 relief dollars to help cover the costs, a nonstarter for many Democrats.The Republican senators said their offer, raised from an initial $568 billion, delivers on “core infrastructure investments” that Biden has focused on as areas of potential agreement. With about $250 billion in new spending, the GOP plan remains far from the president’s approach. Biden reduced his $2.3 trillion opening bid to $1.7 trillion in earlier negotiations.”It’s a serious effort to try to reach a bipartisan agreement,” said Sen. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, the lead Republican negotiator.As Biden left for Ohio, he said he called Capito to thank her for the proposal, but told her, “We have to finish this really soon.”‘Not looking to punish anyone’Biden toured Cuyahoga Community College, the same school where he was to hold a campaign rally in March 2020 only to have it be the first one canceled due to the pandemic. He cast his return as a symbol of how far the nation has come back, and he tried to make the case that passing his jobs and families plans would further the economy’s recovery and prepare it for the decades ahead.The president said he was “not looking to punish anyone” with his tax plans. But said it was time for America’s wealthy and corporations to help invest in the nation’s future.”Do you want to give the wealthiest people in America another tax cut? I don’t begrudge them the money they make. Just start paying your fair share just a little bit,” Biden said.Talks are at a crossroads before a Memorial Day deadline to make progress toward a bipartisan deal. With slim majorities in the House and Senate, the Democratic president faces other hurdles if he decides to abandon talks with Republicans and tries to unite fractious Democrats.The Republican offer would increase spending by $91 billion on roads and bridges, $48 billion on water resources and $25 billion on airports, according to a one-page summary released by the GOP negotiators. It would provide for one-time increases in broadband investments, at $65 billion, and $22 billion on rail.Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said on CNBC that it was time for the administration to “sober up and realize they don’t have a massive mandate in Congress to do all of the things they’re trying to do.”White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Biden and Capito are expected to meet next week, while Congress is on a break.The White House is also “continuing to explore other proposals that we hope will emerge” she said. A bipartisan group of lawmakers that includes Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, is also preparing an alternative plan.Psaki made clear the administration’s concern over tapping pandemic funds. “We are worried that major cuts in COVID relief funds could imperil pending aid to small businesses, restaurants and rural hospitals using this money to get back on their feet after the crush of the pandemic,” Psaki said in a statement.Defining infrastructureCore differences remain between the White House and GOP negotiators over the definition of infrastructure: Republicans stick to traditional investments in roads, bridges, ports and water drinking systems, while Biden takes a more expansive view.Under Biden’s initial proposal, there is more than $300 billion for substantial upgrades to public schools, Veterans Administration hospitals and affordable housing, along with $25 billion for new and renovated child care centers.Biden’s proposal would spend heavily on efforts to confront climate change, with $174 billion to spur the electric vehicle market, in part by developing charging stations, and $50 billion so communities can better deal with floods, hurricanes, wildfires and other natural disasters.One area of agreement is on boosting broadband, but the sides are apart on details. Republicans raised their initial offer to $65 billion in an earlier exchange; Biden is seeking $100 billion.
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The Biden administration informed Russia on Thursday that it will not rejoin a key arms control pact, even as the two sides prepare for a summit next month between their leaders, the State Department said.U.S. officials said Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman told the Russians that the administration had decided not to reenter the Open Skies Treaty, which had allowed surveillance flights over military facilities in both countries before President Donald Trump withdrew from the pact. As a presidential candidate, Biden had criticized Trump’s withdrawal as “short-sighted.”Thursday’s decision means only one major arms control treaty between the nuclear powers — the New START treaty — will remain in place. Trump had done nothing to extend New START, which would have expired earlier this year, but after taking office, the Biden administration moved quickly to extend it for five years and opened a review into Trump’s Open Skies Treaty withdrawal.The officials said that the review had been completed and that Sherman had informed Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov of the U.S. decision not to return to the 1992 Open Skies Treaty. The officials were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. The State Department later announced the move.“The United States regrets that the Treaty on Open Skies has been undermined by Russia’s violations,” the department said. “In concluding its review of the treaty, the United States therefore does not intend to seek to rejoin it, given Russia’s failure to take any actions to return to compliance. Further, Russia’s behavior, including its recent actions with respect to Ukraine, is not that of a partner committed to confidence-building.”June meeting in GenevaThe announcement comes ahead of a meeting between President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin on June 16 in Geneva, Switzerland. They will try to find common ground amid a sharp deterioration in ties that have sunk relations to their lowest point in decades. Yet, Biden, who had supported the treaty as a senator, had been highly critical of Trump’s pullout.“In announcing the intent to withdraw from the Open Skies Treaty, President Trump has doubled down on his short-sighted policy of going it alone and abandoning American leadership,” then-candidate Biden said in May 2020.The Open Skies Treaty was intended to build trust between Russia and the West by allowing the accord’s more than three dozen signatories to conduct reconnaissance flights over each other’s territories to collect information about military forces and activities. More than 1,500 flights have been conducted under the treaty since it took effect in 2002, aimed at fostering transparency and allowing for the monitoring of arms control and other agreements.The Trump administration announced the U.S. withdrawal from the treaty last year, and the lower house of Russia’s parliament voted last week to follow suit. But until Thursday, the two sides had said the treaty could still be salvaged. Russian officials said they were willing to reconsider their withdrawal if the U.S. did the same.The upper house of Russia’s parliament, the Federation Council, was expected to approve the withdrawal bill on June 2, and once Putin signed the measure, it would take six months for the Russian exit to take effect.A trust-building measureThursday’s notification, however, appears to mark the end of the treaty, which was broadly supported by U.S. allies in Europe and Democrats in Congress as a trust-building measure between the former Cold War adversaries.In pulling out of the pact, Trump argued that Russian violations made it untenable for Washington to remain a party to the agreement. Washington completed its withdrawal from the treaty in November, but the Biden administration had said it was not opposed to rejoining it.The officials stressed the Biden administration’s willingness to cooperate with Russia on issues of mutual concern and noted the extension of New START, which was initially signed in 2010 by President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. The pact limits each country to no more than 1,550 deployed nuclear warheads and 700 deployed missiles and bombers, and envisages sweeping on-site inspections to verify compliance.However, the officials said that despite appeals for Russia to abide by the Open Skies Treaty, there was no practical way for the U.S. to reverse the Trump administration’s decision to withdraw. One official said that since Biden had taken office, Russia had demonstrated a “complete absence of progress” in taking steps to return to compliance.The officials said Secretary of State Antony Blinken, national security adviser Jake Sullivan and other senior American officials had warned their Russian counterparts in the past week that a decision on Open Skies was imminent. Blinken met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Iceland last week, and Sullivan spoke with Putin’s national security adviser, Nikolay Patrushev, on Monday.Moscow had deplored the U.S. pullout, warning that it would erode global security by making it more difficult for governments to interpret the intentions of other nations, particularly amid heightened Russia-West tensions over myriad issues, including Ukraine, cyber malfeasance and the treatment of Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny and his supporters.Leading congressional Democrats and members of the European Union had urged the U.S. to reconsider its exit and called on Russia to stay in the pact and lift flight restrictions, notably over its westernmost Kaliningrad region, which lies between NATO allies Lithuania and Poland.Russia had insisted the restrictions on observation flights it imposed in the past were permissible under the treaty and noted that the U.S. imposed more sweeping restrictions on observation flights over Alaska.As a condition for staying in the pact after the U.S. pullout, Moscow had unsuccessfully pushed for guarantees from NATO allies that they wouldn’t hand over the data collected during their observation flights over Russia to the U.S.
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Senate Republicans are ready to deploy the filibuster to block a commission on the Jan. 6 insurrection, shattering hopes for a bipartisan probe of the deadly assault on the U.S. Capitol and reviving pressure on Democrats to do away with the procedural tactic that critics say has lost its purpose.The vote Thursday would be the first successful use of a filibuster this year to halt Senate legislative action. Most Republicans oppose the bill, which would establish a commission to investigate the attack by Donald Trump supporters over the election.  “We have a mob overtake the Capitol, and we can’t get the Republicans to join us in making historic record of that event? That is sad,” said Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 Senate Democrat. “That tells you what’s wrong with the Senate and what’s wrong with the filibuster.”  The filibuster is a time-honored Senate tradition that requires a vote by 60 of the 100 senators before a bill can go forward. With the Senate evenly split 50-50, Democrats would need support of 10 Republicans to move to the commission bill.The House already approved the measure with some Republican support, but the Senate filibuster is sparking fresh debate over whether the time has come for Democrats to change the rules and lower the threshold to 51 votes to take up legislation.Trump has made it clear he opposes the formation of any panel to investigate the Jan. 6 mob siege, when his supporters mounted an assault in a failed effort to overturn Joe Biden’s election.Democrats are warning that if Republicans are willing to use the filibuster to stop an arguably popular measure, it shows the limits of trying to broker compromises, particularly on bills related to election reforms or other aspects of the Democrats’ agenda.  Ahead of Thursday’s vote, the mother of the late Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick said Wednesday she would meet with lawmakers to try to persuade them to act. Sicknick was among many officers protecting the building, some seen in videos in hand-to-hand combat with mob. He collapsed immediately after engaging with the rioters and died the next day.  “I suggest that all Congressmen and Senators who are against this bill visit my son’s grave in Arlington National Cemetery and, while there, think about what their hurtful decisions will do to those officers who will be there for them going forward,” Gladys Sicknick said in a statement.  “Putting politics aside, wouldn’t they want to know the truth of what happened on January 6?” she said.A small number of Republicans, including Utah Sen. Mitt Romney and Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, have said they expect to back the House-passed bill. Others, including Maine Sen. Susan Collins, have proposed tweaks to the legislation to try to attract more votes. But the effort had so far failed to yield additional support.”What we want is closure,” Murkowski said Wednesday.Mostly, the GOP senators will follow Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, who has declared the bill a “purely political exercise,” since Senate committees are already looking into security shortfalls.McConnell, who once said Trump was responsible for “provoking” the mob attack on the Capitol, now says of Democrats: “They’d like to continue to litigate the former president, into the future.”  The talks over potential changes to the legislation come as Republicans have struggled over how to respond to the insurrection as many in their party have remained loyal to Trump. The former president told his supporters the morning of Jan. 6 to “fight like hell” to overturn his defeat. He has repeatedly said the election was stolen, even though his claims have been refuted by courts and election officials across the country.  The 1/6 commission vote will become “exhibit A” on why the filibuster needs to be changed, said Grant Tudor, a policy advocate at the organization Protect Democracy.  “They are shining a spotlight: There is no bill that stands up to Trump and the ‘Big Lie’ that can get 10 Republicans,” said Eli Zupnick of Fix Our Senate, which advocates for filibuster changes.Collins has said she is working with other senators to try to find a compromise.”I want to see a commission,” Collins said Wednesday. “I am working very hard to secure Republican votes.”  West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin, in a statement with Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, implored colleagues to act, calling the attack “horrific” and bipartisan commission a “critical step.”The two centrist Democrats have been prominent holdouts against changing the Senate filibuster rules to allow 51 votes for passage of legislation.  Collins’ amendment seeks to remedy some of the chief Republican complaints about the proposed commission. It would require the Democratic-appointed chair and the Republican vice chair of the panel to “jointly appoint” staff, changing House language that only required the chair to consult with the vice chair. It would also terminate the commission 30 days after a final report is issued, instead of 60 days, an effort to avoid their work spilling into the election year.  Both the House version and Collins’ amendment would require the final report to be issued by Dec. 31, 2021.Still, most Republicans have held fast to their opposition. North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis said he was still “unlikely” to support the bill. He said he believes the year-end deadline is unrealistic.Republicans also have pointed to a bipartisan Senate report that is expected to be released next month, saying it will be sufficient to fix security problems in the Capitol.  Four of the rioters died during the insurrection, including a woman who was shot and killed by police as she tried to break into the House chamber with lawmakers still inside. Dozens of the officers defending the Capitol were brutally beaten by the rioters. Hundreds of people have been arrested. 
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Antony Blinken has wrapped up his first visit as U.S. secretary of state to the Middle East, where he aimed to shore up the Gaza cease-fire. He also sought to cement relationships and ensure the delivery of aid after a violent flare-up between Israel and Hamas that killed more than 250 people, most of them Palestinians. For VOA, Irris Makler reports from Jerusalem.
Camera: Ricki Rosen
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Principal Deputy Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre briefed reporters at the White House Wednesday, only the second Black woman to do so and the first openly gay one.   “It’s a real honor to be standing here today,” said Jean-Pierre from the White House podium, adding that she appreciates “the historic nature” of the occasion. “Being behind this podium, being in this room, being in this building, is not about one person, it’s about what we do on behalf of the American people,” she added. Jean-Pierre has briefed reporters in press gaggles aboard Air Force One when accompanying President Joe Biden on his travels, but this is the first time she took the podium at the James F. Brady briefing room.   The first African American woman to do so was Judy Smith, deputy press secretary under then-President George H.W. Bush in 1991. Smith was the inspiration for Olivia Pope, a character on the popular television political drama series Scandal, played by actress Kerry Washington.  Karine Jean-Pierre A young Karine Jean-Pierre celebrates with her parents in this undated photo from Facebook.Jean-Pierre, 43, has been principal deputy press secretary since January 2021 and is the first LGBTQ Black woman to hold a White House press briefing. Her partner is American television journalist Suzanne Malveaux. The couple has a young daughter. Prior to working in Democratic administrations, Jean-Pierre was a national spokesperson for the liberal group MoveOn.org. She was regional political director for the White House Office of Political Affairs under former President Barack Obama. She served in the Biden presidential campaign as senior adviser and as chief of staff to Kamala Harris after she was tapped to be Biden’s running mate.  She is one of several women of color holding senior positions in the all-female White House communications team, including Symone Sanders and Pili Tobar. Tobar is a Latina lesbian.  President Joe Biden has pledged to staff his White House and administration with people that reflect the United States’ diversity. “I promise you, you’ll see the most diverse Cabinet representative of all folks, Asian Americans, African Americans, Latinos, LGBTQ, across the board,” Biden said in December 2020 during the transition.  While Biden has been criticized for not appointing enough Latinos and Asian Americans in high-level positions, his cabinet is more gender balanced and racially diverse than his predecessors. Almost half are women, and half identify as Black, Latino, Asian American, Native American, or multiracial.   “Clearly, the president believes in representation matters,” Jean-Pierre said to reporters Wednesday. “And I appreciate him giving me this opportunity.”  
 
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U.S. House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy denounced fellow Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene on Tuesday for likening COVID-19 masks to the badges the Nazis forced Jews to wear in the Holocaust, but did not suggest any disciplinary action against the firebrand ally to former President Donald Trump.”Marjorie is wrong, and her intentional decision to compare the horrors of the Holocaust with wearing masks is appalling. The Holocaust is the greatest atrocity committed in history. The fact that this needs to be stated today is deeply troubling,” House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy said in a statement.”Let me be clear: the House Republican Conference condemns this language,” McCarthy said.His statement followed a Tuesday morning rant on Twitter by Taylor Greene, of Georgia, who had already drawn a backlash from Jewish groups for comparing the Democratic-controlled chamber’s mandate that members wear a mask on the House floor to slow the spread of COVID-19 to the yellow badges that Nazi Germany required Jews to wear.The United States has been experiencing a spate of physical or verbal attacks against Jews in New York, Los Angeles and South Florida, amid an escalation earlier this month of the conflict between Israel and Gaza’s Hamas rulers.It is the latest eruption between Republicans in the House, where McCarthy and other party leaders have sought to forge unity after ousting fellow Representative Liz Cheney from her No. 3 leadership role for denouncing Trump’s false claim that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him.Lauren Fine, a spokeswoman for No. 2 House Republican Steve Scalise, said in a statement that the congressman “does not agree with these comments and condemns these comparisons to the Holocaust.”The top Senate Democrat, Chuck Schumer, also blasted Taylor Greene’s words, saying “these are sickening, reprehensible comments, and she should stop this vile language immediately.”Earlier this year McCarthy and the House Republican caucus refused to take action against Taylor Greene for her prior incendiary remarks. When the party declined to act, the House did, with just 11 Republicans joining Democrats in the February vote stripping her of her committee assignments. 
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Gordon Sondland, the Trump administration’s ambassador to the European Union and a pivotal witness in 2019 impeachment proceedings, sued former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday in an effort to recoup $1.8 million he racked up in legal expenses.
Sondland alleges in the lawsuit, filed in federal court in Washington, that Pompeo had committed to reimburse his legal expenses after he was subpoenaed by House Democrats to testify in an impeachment case that accused then-President Donald Trump of withholding military aid from Ukraine while demanding an investigation into political rival Joe Biden and his son Hunter.
Instead, Sondland says, Pompeo “reneged on his promise” after learning the details of Sondland’s testimony.  
“With the contractual commitment of Pompeo having been abandoned apparently for political convenience, Ambassador Sondland turns to this Court to reimburse his attorneys’ fees and costs and make him whole,” Sondland’s lawyer, Mark Barondess, wrote in his lawsuit.
A spokesperson for Pompeo called the lawsuit “ludicrous” and said Pompeo was “confident the court will see it the same way.”
In testimony that Sondland’s lawsuit describes as “highly fraught, highly charged and highly risky with tremendous consequences,” he described for investigators how Trump and his lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, explicitly sought a “quid pro quo” with Ukraine, leveraging an Oval Office visit for political investigations of Democrats.
Trump was impeached by the House but acquitted in February 2020 by the Senate.
Sondland was fired days after Trump’s acquittal “simply for telling the truth,” according to the lawsuit. He says the unwillingness to cover his legal fees not only represented a breach of commitment and “normal convention” but was also “especially problematic in this instance because the amount of preparation needed to comply with the subpoenas was staggering.”
“Ambassador Sondland retained a Washington, D.C. law firm well experienced in Congressional investigations that possessed the capacity to assist him, along with his long-time personal counsel, in preparation for his critically important testimony,” the lawsuit states. “Ambassador Sondland continued to rely on Pompeo’s individual promise, on behalf of himself and the Government, in seeking outside counsel and incurred nearly $1.8 million in attorneys’ fees and costs.”  
The lawsuit was first reported by The Washington Post.
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COVID-19, climate change and cooperation in high-tech industries were the focus of a summit between U.S. President Joe Biden and South Korean President Moon Jae-in at the White House Friday. While the leaders also discussed North Korea, prospects for a breakthrough on denuclearization appear dim. White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has this report.
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The White House put forward a $1.7 trillion infrastructure counteroffer Friday to Senate Republicans, dropping from President Joe Biden’s sweeping $2.3 trillion proposal “in the spirit of finding common ground.”White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki disclosed the new offer as talks were still underway between key Cabinet secretaries and GOP senators at a crucial stage toward a deal. Skepticism had been rising on all sides amid complaints about the lack of significant movement off the opening bids. Republicans had offered a $568 billion plan.”This proposal exhibits a willingness to come down in size,” she said at the press briefing.According to a memo obtained by The Associated Press, the administration is cutting more than $550 billion from the president’s initial offer.But the memo makes clear Biden is not interested in the Republicans’ idea of having consumers pay for the new investments through tolls, gas taxes or other fees. Instead, the administration is sticking with his proposal to raise the corporate tax to pay for the new investment, which is a red line for Republicans.”Our approach should ensure that corporations are paying their fair share,” said the memo from the administration’s negotiators to the GOP senators.The White House and Republican senators have been in talks ever since Biden met with a core group of Republican negotiators over the possibility of working together on an infrastructure plan. The White House dispatched the transportation and commerce secretaries and top aides to Capitol Hill to meet with the Republicans earlier this week, and they had a follow up video-call Friday.The more than hour-long meeting was constructive and hopeful, said two administration officials granted anonymity to discuss the private talks.But Republicans dismissed the new White House offer as “disappointing,” according to a GOP aide familiar with the meeting and permitted anonymity to discuss it.The Republicans viewed the changed approach as “very marginal movement” on the topline and without much difference in policy, the aide said.The slog of the negotiations is certain to mean new worries from Democrats that time is slipping to strike a compromise. The president’s team is holding to a soft Memorial Day deadline it had set to determine whether a deal was within reach.Psaki said the new proposal drops the president’s proposed expenditures on broadband as well as roads, bridges and other major investments to meet the Republicans’ lower level. She said the administration’s proposal also involved “shifting investments in research and development, supply chains, manufacturing and small business” out of the infrastructure talks, since they could be considered elsewhere, noting in Endless Frontiers Act, which is a separate bipartisan bill pending in the Senate.But Psaki said the president’s team is still pushing for investments in new veterans hospitals, rail projects and green energy investments to fight climate change that Republicans have excluded from their offers.In all, the White House cut broadband from $100 billion to $65 billion, as Republicans proposed. It also reduced road and bridges spending by $39 billion, from $159 billion to $120 billion, to move closer to the GOP’s proposal of $48 billion in new funds.Removing the research and development funds would cut a whopping $480 billion, the aides said.The White House characterized the GOP’s initial $568 billion “Roadmap” proposal as amounting to an estimated $175 billion to $225 billion in “new investment, above current levels Congress has traditionally funded,” according to the memo.The GOP senators have not publicly disclosed their latest offer.Securing a vast infrastructure plan is Biden’s top priority as he seeks to make good on his campaign pledge to “build back better” in the aftermath of the coronavirus crisis and the economic churn from a shifting economy. With narrow Democratic majorities in the House and Senate, the president is reaching out to Republicans for support on a potentially bipartisan approach rather than relying simply on his own party to muscle the proposal to passage. But Republicans are refusing Biden’s idea of a corporate tax increase to pay for the package.Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said Thursday on Fox News that higher taxes on corporations or the wealthiest Americans are nonstarters. Republicans are unwilling to undo the 2017 tax cuts, the party’s signature domestic accomplishment under President Donald Trump. They reduced the corporate rate from 35% to 21%. Biden proposes lifting the corporate tax to 28%.”If they’re willing to settle on target an infrastructure bill without revisiting the 2017 tax bill we’ll work with them,” McConnell told Fox’s Larry Kudlow, a former Trump adviser. But McConnell, R-Ky., said a package topping $2 trillion or more “is not going to have any Republican support.”The new offer from the White House was intended to make a good faith effort at compromise, and to prod Republicans to put a more substantive counteroffer on the table, the officials said.In earlier talks, latest offer from GOP lawmakers left some dismay in the administration that there wasn’t more movement from their initial $568 billion proposal.The White House’s hopes for a bipartisan deal on infrastructure have cooled but they have not abandoned the effort, one of the officials said.Biden has reveled in the face-to-face negotiations, aides said, and has expressed hope to bring Republicans along. West Wing officials have been heartened by the public comments made by some of the GOP negotiating team, the official said.But outward talks of progress have not translated into the two sides getting much closer to a deal. Beyond the significant gap in the two sides’ visions for the size of the package, there has been little discussion of how to reach an agreement on how to pay for it.One GOP senator in the talks suggested tapping unspent funds from the massive COVID-19 aid package to help pay for the infrastructure investment. Other funds could be tapped from uncollected tax revenues or public-private partnerships.One strategy that had gained momentum would be for Biden to negotiate a more limited, traditional infrastructure bill of roads, highways, bridges and broadband as a bipartisan effort. Then, Democrats could try to muscle through the remainder of Biden’s priorities on climate investments and the so-called human infrastructure of child care, education and hospitals on their own.But, administration aides believe, if such an “infrastructure only” bipartisan deal is far smaller than Biden’s original proposal, the White House risks a rebellion from Democrats who could claim that the president made a bad deal and missed the moment to pass a sweeping, transformational package. 
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A bill that President Joe Biden signed into law Thursday gives local and federal officials new tools and resources to combat hate crimes, while putting the spotlight on a surge in anti-Asian hate during the COVID-19 pandemic. The impetus for the new law, known as the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act, was a dramatic increase in attacks on Asian Americans since the start of the pandemic in Wuhan, China, more than a year ago. Dramatic surge  Anti-Asian hate crimes in major U.S. cities and counties spiked by about 150% last year over the year before and 194% during the first quarter of 2021 compared with the first quarter of 2020, according to the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University-San Bernardino. President Joe Biden hands out a pen after signing the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act, in the East Room of the White House, May 20, 2021.While highlighting the violence against Asian Americans, the law takes a broader aim at all hate crimes by calling for the appointment of a new Justice Department official to speed up a review of hate crime cases and providing resources for local police departments to improve the way they identify and report hate crimes.  Quicker response “This new law will help speed our response to hate crimes and provide resources to law enforcement to improve hate crime reporting,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement. “The law will assist law enforcement in targeting its efforts, which will help to prevent these devastating crimes and to respond efficiently and effectively to crimes, when they occur.” Attorney General Merrick Garland talks with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California before the signing of the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act, in the East Room of the White House, May 20, 2021.Among its key provisions, the bill: — Directs the attorney general to designate a point person to undertake an “expedited review” of hate crimes reported to the Justice Department for possible prosecution.   — Directs the Justice Department to help local and state law enforcement agencies improve their hate crime data collection and reporting. The department is to issue guidance for local and state agencies to provide online reporting in multiple foreign languages.— Establishes grants for states to create hate crime reporting hotlines that would direct callers to law enforcement or local support services.— Allows a judge to require an individual convicted of a hate crime to take “educational classes” as a condition of supervised release. Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 8 MB480p | 11 MB540p | 15 MB720p | 30 MB1080p | 59 MBOriginal | 178 MB Embed” />Copy Download AudioUnder the law, Garland has seven days to task an official with speeding up a review of hate crime cases. A Justice Department spokesman said the attorney general has not yet selected anyone for the position. Just how much of a difference the legislation will make remains to be seen. The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division is responsible for prosecuting federal hate crime cases. Most hate crimes are prosecuted at the state level.  Expedited decision-making The hope is that the appointment will increase the rate at which the Justice Department decides whether to pursue a case, said Steven Gilson, a former hate crimes prosecutor for the department and now an adjunct professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. “The COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act does not actually include data about whether or not there is a particular backlog [of hate crime reports], but to the extent that there is, there’s always a need to continue to review these reports,” Gilson said.  Improving hate crime reporting Arguably more important than the creation of a new position is the law’s focus on improving how hate crimes are reported. Under a 1990 law, the FBI collects hate crime statistics submitted by thousands of law enforcement agencies. But the submission process is voluntary, resulting in a perennial undercount. A key provision of the newly enacted law, known as the Jabara-Heyer NO HATE Act, seeks to tackle this problem. The Jabara-Heyer NO HATE Act is named after Khalid Jabara and Heather Heyer, whose killings in recent years were prosecuted as hate crimes but not reported as such to the FBI. Grant applications Now, local law enforcement agencies can apply for Justice Department grants to conduct training related to identifying and investigating hate crimes and to set up statewide hotlines designed to encourage increased reporting of hate crimes, Gilson noted. Ultimately, though, the impact of the new law will come down to whether local agencies embrace it, according to Gilson. For example, any improvement in hate crime data collection will depend in part on whether local agencies apply for grants. “If these agencies take advantage of these grant opportunities to increase training, to increase awareness, and thus become subject to increased reporting requirements, it could make a substantial difference, because … the federal hate crimes reporting requirements as they stand are inadequate,” Gilson said. 
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Hailing it as a rare contemporary example of bipartisan cooperation in Washington, President Joe Biden on Thursday signed legislation intended to fight anti-Asian hate crimes, which have escalated in the United States during the coronavirus pandemic.Hate and racism are “the ugly poison that has long haunted and plagued our nation,” the president said before signing the bill in the White House East Room.The law establishes a new Justice Department position to expedite the review of COVID-19-related hate crimes and provide support for local law enforcement agencies to respond to such violence. It also is intended to improve hate crime data collection and establish telephone hotlines and online reporting of such acts.U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland speaks at the Department of Justice in Washington, April 26, 2021.”This new law will help speed our response to hate crimes and provide resources to law enforcement to improve hate crime reporting,” U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement. “The law will assist law enforcement in targeting its efforts, which will help to prevent these devastating crimes and to respond efficiently and effectively to crimes, when they occur.”Before the president spoke, Vice President Kamala Harris, the first Black and Asian American to hold that office, told the audience the law “brings us one step closer to stopping hate not only for Asian Americans but for all Americans.”Only one U.S. senator voted against the bill, which also gained wide support from Democrats and Republicans in the House.”We simply haven’t seen this kind of bipartisanship for much too long in Washington,” Biden said Thursday.Anti-Asian hate crimes surged by 150% in major American cities in 2020, according to police data.The new law is just one step toward greater tolerance, Biden noted in his remarks, saying that during the past year, too many Asian Americans were “genuinely fearing for their safety.”The country, according to the president, still needs to change.President Joe Biden listens as Vice President Kamala Harris speaks before signing the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act, in the East Room of the White House, May 20, 2021, in Washington.”But of all the good that the law can do, we have to change our hearts. We have to change the hearts of American people,” the president said. “Hate can be given no safe harbor in America.”Raising his voice in anger in front of the 68 invited attendees in the East Room, Biden said, “Every time we’re silent, every time we let hate flourish, you make a lie of who we are as a nation.”Biden, shortly after becoming president in January, directed the Justice Department to help combat hate crimes targeting the Asian American community. Following criticism that Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders were under-represented in his administration, Biden also appointed Erika Moritsugu as the White House liaison to those communities.”How we treat hate within our own borders impacts our relationships abroad,” said Alexander Feldman, head of the US-ASEAN Business Council. “As an organization committed to fostering understanding, goodwill and meaningful relations between the United States and Southeast Asia, we applaud President Biden for taking this necessary step to stand up for Asian Americans at home and rebuild trust with our friends and partners across Asia.”
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President Joe Biden’s $2 trillion infrastructure proposal, released last month, includes $12 billion for community colleges to address technological needs, help protect the health and safety of students and faculty, and narrow funding inequities.It also calls for two years of free tuition at community colleges, one of many parts of First lady Jill Biden, third from left, speaks during a visit with Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, left, to Sauk Valley Community College, in Dixon, Ill., April 19, 2021.Brown said the current infrastructure proposal would benefit community colleges that have aging buildings.“Many of them have been built in the ’60s or ’70s, so their physical plants are aging and have a lot of infrastructure challenges,” Brown said. “So we certainly welcome the proposal of $12 billion to address those needs.”However, some four-year universities that have struggled financially during the pandemic object to the plan.While it is a boost for community colleges, Jon Fansmith, director of government relations at the American Council on Education, wrote that he would like to see “a bit more investment in four-year colleges and universities.”“While no one argues about the needs that exist at community colleges in the infrastructure space, there are lots of four-year institutions that similarly were impacted by the pandemic, similarly are under-resourced and could really use the support,” Fansmith said in Inside Higher Ed on April 1.Fewer studentsColleges and universities are worried about enrollment declines as students and families face economic and educational pressures during the COVID-19 pandemic, said Pete Boyle, vice president of public affairs at the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities.“We need to be certain that we are not incentivizing students toward institutions that are not the best fit for them to realize their educational goals,” he said.Biden’s infrastructure proposal includes plans to give $50 billion to the National Science Foundation and $40 billion to the nation’s research facilities. Out of the $40 billion, $20 billion will be given to historically black colleges and universities.Minority-serving institutions would receive an additional $10 billion in research and development, while another $15 billion would be devoted to “centers of excellence” that would function as incubators for startups and training programs for students in science and engineering fields.First lady Jill Biden, who is a professor at Northern Virginia Community College, will help with the plan, the president said.“ ‘Any country that outeducates us is going to outcompete us,’ ” Biden said, quoting the first lady. “She’ll be deeply involved in leading this effort.”Biden’s proposal is being debated in Congress. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has said she would like to see the plan approved by members by July 4, according to The Associated Press.
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In the wake of George Floyd’s death last May beneath the knee of then-police officer Derek Chauvin, Black Lives Matter protesters demanded that the Justice Department investigate the Minneapolis police department for civil rights violations.   FILE – People hold up signs, including one with an image of George Floyd, outside the courthouse in Minneapolis, Minnesota, April 20, 2021, after former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was found guilty in the death of Floyd.Under the Obama administration, the Justice Department investigated two dozen police agencies for evidence of misconduct and gross violations of Black Americans’ rights, eventually entering into court-approved agreements with 14 of them to try to correct the problems.       But once Republican Donald Trump succeeded Democrat Barack Obama, the Justice Department stopped investigating police, with Trump’s first attorney general, Jeff Sessions, saying such investigations would amount to governmental overreach and demoralize law enforcement.       Now, with Democrat Joe Biden — Obama’s former vice president and a onetime Senate Judiciary Committee chairman — in the White House, the Department of Justice, to the cheers of many in civil rights circles, is reversing course again.      FILE – Attorney General Merrick Garland speaks about a jury’s verdict in the case against former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin in the death of George Floyd, at the Department of Justice, in Washington, April 21, 2021.In a departure from Trump-era policies, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced April 21 that the Justice Department would investigate the Minneapolis police department to determine whether it engages in a “pattern or practice” of unconstitutional and illegal policing.      FILE – Tamika Palmer, mother of Breonna Taylor, and others lead a memorial march for Breonna Taylor near Jefferson Square Park on March 13, 2021 in Louisville, Kentucky.Five days later, Garland ordered a similar investigation of the police department in Louisville, Kentucky, where officers shot and killed African American emergency medic Breonna Taylor during a botched raid on her apartment March 13, 2020, a little more than two months before Floyd’s death.       The back-to-back investigations come after a jury on April 20 convicted Chauvin of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. Chauvin, who still awaits sentencing, is seeking a new trial, although most experts see that as a long shot.      FILE – Combination of photos provided by the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office in Minnesota shows Minneapolis Police Officers Derek Chauvin, from left, J. Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao.Three other former Minneapolis police officers have been charged in connection with the death of Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man who died after Chauvin, who is white, pressed his knee on Floyd’s neck for nearly nine and a half minutes. All four former police officers also face federal charges of violating Floyd’s civil rights.      Typically, a federal investigation of a police force leads to a court-enforced agreement known as a consent decree, with the department pledging to reform its practices and policies — especially in the use of deadly force to make arrests.       The investigations of the Minneapolis and Louisville police forces are likely to lead to such agreements. They come as the Biden administration, spurred by the Black Lives Matter protest movement against systemic racism and police brutality in America, has made civil rights enforcement a top priority for the Justice Department.     A 1994 federal law championed by then-Senator Biden authorizes the attorney general to take legal action against police departments engaged in a pattern or practice of unconstitutional and illegal policing. Since then, the Justice Department has investigated 61 police departments, leading to the signing of consent decrees with 31 agencies.      In a recent memo rescinding the Trump-era policy, Garland wrote that “the department will use all appropriate legal authorities to safeguard civil rights and protect the environment, consistent with long-standing departmental practice and informed by the expertise of the department’s career workforce.”       Garland didn’t say if the department is eyeing other police departments for investigation. But given that the Biden administration’s record is likely to be judged against the large number of police investigations carried out during Obama’s eight years in office, the Justice Department is likely to ramp up its inquiries, according to former DOJ officials involved in investigating police departments.       “I expect to see a lot more,” said Ed Caspar, senior counsel with the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, who worked in the Justice Department’s Special Litigation Section, the unit that investigates police departments.         Supported by civil rights advocates, federal oversight of police departments has prompted pushback by some in law enforcement. For one, critics say the reform agreements can cost cities millions of dollars a year in court-mandated investments in technology and training and in payments to independent monitoring teams.       “They are very, very burdensome to the jurisdiction and very costly,” said Jason Johnson, president of the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund.       Moreover, critics argue that federal intervention makes police officers less aggressive in combating crime, leading to an inadvertent rise in criminal activity and undermining public safety.        FILE – Protesters breach a line of police atop the Crescent City Connection bridge, which spans the Mississippi River in New Orleans, June 3, 2020, during a protest over the death of George Floyd.Take, for example, the New Orleans Police Department, once considered one of the most corrupt and racially biased in the country. In the eight years since entering into a consent decree with the Justice Department, it has transformed itself into what officials tout as a national leader in policing.  The consent decree has led to more than 200 new policies, from revised police use of dogs to how the department investigates officers involved in shootings. A new police unit investigates all officer-involved shootings. Police shootings of individuals dropped from nine in 2013 to zero in 2018, according to a court-appointed monitoring team.  There were no unjustified shootings of individuals in 2017 and 2018.  And while the number rose in 2019, FILE – People confront police officers during a protest over the death of George Floyd in Chicago, May 30, 2020.A 2019-2020 survey found that while Chicagoans rated their police department more positively than negatively, there was “an alarming disparity” between responses to how the police treated the population as a whole and how they treated young Black men. “There was a perceived lack of fairness in how the CPD treats specific populations identified by the consent decree,” the court-appointed monitor wrote in a court filing.  “People reported a large deficit of trust in the CPD in general.” 
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The United States says it is ready to work with Russia to advance areas where the two nations have “intersecting interests,” while continuing to defend U.S. interests and respond if Moscow acts aggressively against Washington and its allies.”There are many areas where our interests intersect and overlap, and we believe that we can work together and indeed build on those interests — whether it is dealing with COVID-19 and the pandemic, climate change, the nuclear programs” in Iran and North Korea, or the peace process in Afghanistan, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday.Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met on the sidelines of the Arctic Council Ministerial session in Reykjavik, Iceland.”Our position is clear: We are prepared to discuss all issues on the table with an understanding that our discussions would be honest, factual and with mutual respect,” Lavrov said, adding he is ready to discuss “the Russian [diplomatic] missions in the U.S. and the U.S. missions in Russia.”It was the first face-to-face meeting for the top U.S. and Russian diplomats and came at a time of heightened tension between their countries. The meeting also set the stage for a planned summit next month between U.S. President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin.The meeting between Blinken and Lavrov lasted about one hour and 45 minutes, said to be longer than expected.“The Secretary made clear that Russia should release American citizens Paul Whelan and Trevor Reed so they can return home to their families,” State Department spokesperson Ned Price said in a statement, adding that Blinken also raised “deep concerns” over Russia’s continued military deployments in and near Ukraine, the health of jailed Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny and the repression of opposition organizations.Role of sanctionsEuropean energy security was at the top of the U.S. agenda as Russia’s controversial Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, which connects Russia and Germany, nears completion.Wednesday, the State Department announced its plan to sanction Russian vessels and entities involved in the building of Nord Stream 2.But the U.S. is waiving sanctions on the company in charge of the project, Nord Stream 2 AG, and CEO Matthias Warnig, a German national, citing U.S. national interest.The move is seen as a bid to improve relations with Germany. The Biden administration has been seeking to strengthen U.S.-German bonds and the transatlantic relationship.”I think our actions today have demonstrated that we continue to oppose the pipeline projects but that we also are cognizant of the president’s commitment to rebuild relations with our European allies and partners,” a senior U.S. official said.German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas praised the decision.”We see this as a constructive step which we are happy to further discuss with our partners in Washington,” he said Wednesday during a press conference.Russia has previously defended the project as economically feasible.The U.S. has been warning about the security risks of Russian energy export pipelines, in particular Nord Stream 2.  U.S. officials said if they were completed, those projects would undermine European security and strengthen Russia’s ability to use its energy resources to coerce the United States’ European partners and allies.Russian officials said Wednesday that the latest U.S. decision to waive sanctions would normalize ties between Moscow and Washington.Donald Jensen, director for Russia and strategic stability at the U.S. Institute of Peace, said he did not believe the State Department’s announcement to waive sanctions on Nord Stream 2 AG and its CEO “was taken primarily with an eye toward improving the atmosphere around the Blinken-Lavrov meeting.”“I expect that the U.S. administration still intends to take a tough line on Russia’s threatening behavior toward Ukraine, interference in our elections and other areas,” Jensen said. “Nevertheless, the favorable reaction in Moscow to the decision suggests the Kremlin sees the pipeline decision as a concession which it will hope to repeat in other areas.”
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As the Israeli-Palestinian conflict showed no sign of abating, Democrats in the U.S. Congress called for a cease-fire while Republican lawmakers condemned the actions of Hamas, saying there was no moral equivalence between the two sides. VOA’s Congressional Correspondent Katherine Gypson has more.Producer: Katherine Gypson.
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On a day many motorists in the southeastern United States could not find gasoline, President Joe Biden promoted the transition to electrical vehicles while warning that China is ahead in the race to build the next-generation automobiles.  “They think they’re going to win, but I got news for them. They will not win this race. We can’t let them. We have to move fast,” said the president during a visit to a Michigan plant where electric pickup trucks are made.  Ford on Wednesday will formally unveil its F-150 Lightning, an all-electric version of its best-selling pickup truck, which the president drove on a test track following his remarks.  Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
President Joe Biden arrives to speak after a tour of the Ford Rouge EV Center, in Dearborn, Mich., May 18, 2021.To achieve that goal, existing nuclear power plants are “going to be absolutely essential,” the White House’s national climate adviser, Gina McCarthy, told a virtual event of the Columbia University Center on Global Energy Policy on Tuesday. Meanwhile, the International Energy Agency, a Paris-based intergovernmental organization that until now has generally supported the fossil fuel industry, surprised experts Tuesday by saying investors should not fund new oil, gas and coal supply projects if the world is to achieve net-zero emissions by mid-century.  FILE – Fatih Birol, executive director of the International Energy Agency, speaks about the state of the oil industry in Houston, Feb. 22, 2016.”The IEA’s pathway to this brighter future brings a historic surge in clean energy investment that creates millions of new jobs and lifts global economic growth. Moving the world onto that pathway requires strong and credible policy actions from governments, underpinned by much greater international cooperation,” said Fatih Birol, the IEA executive director. Daniel Stewart, senior research associate at As You Sow, a nonprofit organization that promotes environmental and social corporate responsibility, noted the agency’s about-face. “Until now, the IEA’s research has been used to play down transition risks faced by the fossil fuel industry and as a support for inadequate energy and climate policy,” he said.  Biden’s visit to the electric truck facility came amid a continuing fuel crunch in more than a dozen U.S. states. Panic buying of gasoline was triggered by the shutdown of a key pipeline targeted by cybercriminals.  The 8,900-kilometer Colonial Pipeline has resumed operations and the gasoline supply chain is gradually recovering, although the company confirmed a new network issue on Tuesday after shippers reported difficulty scheduling fuel deliveries.  “Our internal server that runs our nomination system experienced intermittent disruptions this morning due to some of the hardening efforts that are ongoing and part of our restoration process,” the company told VOA. FILE – A customer helps pump gas at Costco, as others wait in line, in Charlotte, N.C., May 11, 2021.A nomination refers to a type of service request that identifies the amount of gas a shipper expects to transport through the pipeline. “These issues were not related to the ransomware or any type of reinfection,” the company said. “We are working diligently to bring our nomination system back online and will continue to keep our shippers updated. The Colonial Pipeline system continues to deliver refined products as nominated by our shippers.” A prolonged network outage, however, would prevent shippers from scheduling deliveries amid a high demand for fuel following the reopening of the pipeline.  Just kilometers from the White House, the gas crunch remains evident, with 70% of filling stations in Washington still without fuel on Tuesday, although that was down from about 90% from just a few days ago.  Such problems highlight the need for more electric vehicles, according to proponents of the technology. But a quick transition away from internal combustion engines depends on the availability of such affordable vehicles, ample charging stations and improvements in battery technology to improve range. America’s legacy automakers are making the transition, hoping to put their downturn far in the rearview mirror after the economy of Michigan — and especially its largest city, Detroit — went into a decadeslong decline as Japanese auto manufacturing surpassed American production.  FILE – President Joe Biden, accompanied by Vice President Kamala Harris, looks up after signing the American Rescue Plan, a coronavirus relief package, in the Oval Office of the White House, March 11, 2021.The $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, signed into law by Biden in mid-March, aims to pump more than $10 billion into Michigan in fiscal relief at the local and state level, plus create thousands of clean energy jobs, according to the White House.  Republicans in Congress in general have opposed the Democratic president’s spending packages, contending they include much unnecessary and wasteful spending.  “The total amount of funding it would direct to roads, bridges, ports, waterways and airports combined adds up to less than what it would spend just on electric cars,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said last month of Biden’s infrastructure package. “The far left sees a strong family resemblance between these proposals and their socialist ‘Green New Deal.'”  The Green New Deal is a group of goals advanced by some Democrats, especially from the party’s progressive wing, which goes beyond environmental policy and calls for universal health care, affordable housing, good-paying jobs for all and stronger labor rights. Biden has adopted some of these ideas in his ambitious legislative proposals.  
 
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