Biden-Harris Administration
Voting Rights
President Joe Biden started the week out with an impassioned speech on the “sacred, constitutional right to vote.” Declaring that “The Big Lie is just that: a big lie,” Biden stated that the 2020 election was the most examined in the nation’s history. He did not hold back in his remarks and said that when you lose in America you accept the results and follow the Constitution. Saying that the denial of “free and fair elections is the most un-American thing” imaginable, Biden called on Congress to pass voting rights legislation: the For the People Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. He called the current assault on voting rights in state legislatures “unprecedented” and said that in 2022 there would be a new wave of voter suppression, making the need to act now that much more important. As impassioned as the president is about passing voting rights legislation, the reality is that the votes simply do not exist in the Senate to pass the bills in their current form.
COVID-19
U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy issued an advisory on Thursday on the dangers of health misinformation, specifically in regard to COVID-19. These advisories are for “urgent public health threats.” At a White House press briefing this week, Murthy called misinformation an “imminent and insidious threat to our nation’s health” and one of the greatest obstacles to ending the pandemic. Misinformation about COVID-19 has resulted in people refusing to get vaccinated, turning down treatment, and refusing to wear masks, according to Murthy. The advisory has recommendations for families, communities, educators, and others to help stop the spread of misinformation. Misinformation about the COVID-19 vaccines include the idea that the vaccines make women infertile. The White House has been talking with social media companies, pressing them to combat the vaccine misinformation. When asked about the misinformation being spread on social media yesterday, President Biden said, “They’re killing people.” The Center for Countering Digital Hate released a report on what it calls the “Disinformation Dozen,” people the organization says are playing a key role in spreading misinformation about the COVID-19 vaccines on line. According to the report, 65% of the vaccine misinformation spread between February 1 and March 16, 2021, was attributable to 12 people. If you want to know who they are, click here.
At yesterday’s White House COVID-19 Response Team briefing Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), reported that the 7-day average of new daily COVID-19 cases is up nearly 70%, hospitalizations are up 36%, and deaths are up 26% after declining for weeks. Walensky stated that “This is becoming a pandemic of the unvaccinated,” and she once again urged everyone to get vaccinated in order to avoid preventable cases, hospitalizations, and deaths.
POTUS Meetings with Foreign Leaders
President Biden met with German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the White House. The leaders discussed several issues, including the pandemic, climate change, and cyberattacks. Biden and Merkel released the Washington Declaration committing the United States and Germany to “close bilateral cooperation in promoting peace, security, and prosperity around the world.” Also announced was the launch of a U.S.-Germany Climate and Energy Partnership to deepen collaboration to achieve a “global net-zero future.”
Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi of Iraq will meet with President Biden at the White House on July 26.
Executive Actions
President Biden sent several nominations to the Senate this week, including former Arizona Republican Senator Jeff Flake to be the ambassador to Turkey. The nominations of Claire Cronin to be the ambassador to Ireland and Amy Gutmann to be the ambassador to the Federal Republic of Germany were also sent to the Senate. The president announced his intent to nominate former New Mexico Democratic Senator Tom Udall to be the ambassador to New Zealand and to the Independent State of Samoa.
POTUS Week Ahead
Monday: Hosting His Majesty King Abdullah II of Jordan, Her Majesty Queen Rania, and His Royal Highness Crown Prince Hussein at the White House. The president will also make remarks on the U.S. economic recovery. Tuesday: Leading a Cabinet meeting. Wednesday: Participating in a CNN town hall in Cincinnati, Ohio. Rest of the week: TBD.
U.S. Congress
Senate
Infrastructure & Reconciliation
Big news this week on infrastructure and reconciliation. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., announced that there would be a procedural vote on Wednesday on the motion to invoke cloture and proceed to consideration of the bipartisan infrastructure framework that was negotiated by a group of 20 (G20) Senators and agreed to by the White House. The problem is the final bill language has not been drafted yet and negotiations on its details and how to pay for it are still being discussed. With the congressional August recess just a few weeks away, Schumer is feeling the pressure to get things moving. Schumer is also pursuing a second track to get many of President Biden’s so called “human” infrastructure priorities passed through the budget reconciliation process. The Democratic Senate Budget Committee members agreed on a $3.5 trillion budget resolution, which committee Chairman Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., called “transformative.” Under the reconciliation process, a bill does not need 60 votes to overcome a filibuster. Instead, the bill can pass if all the Senate Democrats, plus the two Independents that caucus with the Democrats, vote for the reconciliation bill along with Vice President Kamala Harris, who is president of the Senate.
Majority Leader Schumer is doing a delicate dance in the Senate to keep the pressure on the G20 to finalize the legislative language on the bipartisan infrastructure framework without pushing too hard and running the risk of losing some of the G20 Republicans. On reconciliation, Schumer has to balance the left and moderate wings of the Democratic caucus, including making sure that Senators like Joe Manchin (W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (Ariz.) can live with the $3.5 trillion price tag as well as certain provisions that might be in the final bill, including those on climate change.
Confirmations: Highlights
The Senate confirmed several of President Biden’s nominees this week, including Donald Remy to be the deputy secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs, J. Nellie Liang to be an under secretary at the Department of the Treasury, and Julie Su to be the deputy secretary of the Department of Labor.
House of Representatives
January 6 Select Committee
The House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol will hold its first hearing on Tuesday, July 27. The witnesses will be members of the U.S. Capitol police and the Metropolitan Police Department so that the select committee members may hear a first-hand account of the events of January 6. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has appointed eight members to the select committee, including one Republican, Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming. So far, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., has not appointed members to the remaining five slots.
Quick Facts
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy met with former President Donald Trump at his golf resort in New Jersey on Thursday. This meeting comes at a time when McCarthy is deciding who (and if) he will appoint to the select committee that will investigate the events surrounding the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. I wonder what they talked about…maybe golf.
The Departments of State, Treasury, Commerce, and Homeland Security issued a business advisory to “caution U.S. businesses about emerging risks to their operations and activities in Hong Kong.” The advisory was issued in light of the People’s Republic of China’s policies that are undermining the legal and regulatory environment that is crucial for businesses to “operate freely” in Hong Kong.
On July 15, qualified American families began receiving a monthly child tax credit, which will continue through the rest of the year with the remaining payments coming in 2022. The tax credit was included in the COVID-19 relief package, the American Rescue Plan, which was enacted in March. The payments are up to $300 per month for each child under age 6 and up to $250 per month for children ages 6-17.
President Biden released a statement supporting the Cuban people and their “call for freedom” and relief from the pandemic. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy announced that he is creating a Leader’s Advisory Team on Cuba to advise House Republicans on the ongoing protests in Cuba and to show support for the Cuban people.
The U.S. government sent a delegation to Haiti earlier this week to provide security and investigative assistance at the request of the Haitian government after its president, Jovenel Moïse, was assassinated on July 7. As part of the assistance, the U.S. has delivered 500,000 Moderna COVID-19 vaccines to Haiti.
Effective today at 11:59 p.m., Los Angeles County will require people to wear masks inside public venues whether they are vaccinated or not. The reinstatement of the mask requirement is due to the increase in new daily cases of COVID-19 in the county as well as the presence of the more easily transmissible Delta variant.
Global cases: 189,482,312
Global deaths: 4,074,688
U.S. cases: 34,053,080
U.S. deaths: 608,815