Today's politics recap
- The Manhattan district attorney has reportedly convened a new grand jury in the Trump Organization case to weigh potential charges. According to the Washington Post, the grand jury is expected to hear evidence regarding how Donald Trump’s company valued its assets. A separate grand jury handed down tax evasion charges against the Trump Organization’s longtime chief financial officer.
- House speaker Nancy Pelosi pushed back against Joe Manchin’s criticism of the proposed paid leave program in Democrats’ reconciliation package. Speaking to CNN this morning, Manchin argued the paid family and medical program did not belong in the $1.75tn bill because it should be enacted through regular order. “I disagree,” Pelosi said in response to Manchin’s criticism. “I think this is appropriate for this legislation.”
- The Biden administration filed a federal lawsuit challenging Texas’ new voting law on Thursday, saying some of the state’s new restrictions violate key civil rights laws. The suit takes aim at two specific provisions in the Texas law that deal with providing assistance to voters at the polls and mail-in voting
- Pelosi touted a new report from the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation showing that the reconciliation package will raise $1.5tn in revenue over 10 years. In a letter to her House colleagues, the speaker noted that the analysis does not include two other pay-for proposals, which could bring the total revenue raised to more than $2tn. “It is essential that the legislation is fully paid for and reduces the debt,” Pelosi said.
- Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer said he wants the upper chamber to pass the reconciliation package “before Thanksgiving”. “So as the House prepares to move forward, the Senate continues to achieve progress in our goal of passing Build Back Better before Thanksgiving. That’s our goal,” Schumer said. But it remains unclear whether the House will be able to vote on the reconciliation bill today.
- The Biden administration unveiled two new policies requiring more than 100 million American workers to be fully vaccinated against coronavirus by 4 January. According to one of the rules, those who work for companies with 100 or more employees must be vaccinated by 4 January or receive weekly coronavirus tests. Another rule specifies that workers at healthcare facilities must be vaccinated by 4 January, with no option to test out of the requirement.
Updated
‘A farce of social equity’: California is failing its Black cannabis businesses
Half a million dollars and nearly four years into his Los Angeles-based cannabis venture, Donnie Anderson had no shop, no prospects and a mountain of debt.
With financial help from family and friends, Anderson rented a $6,000-a-month space in January 2018 for his new cannabis retail shop. He kept paying the rent as the city’s permitting process dragged on. He bought cabinets and other equipment as he waited. And waited.
Sick of waiting, he’s selling all that equipment and giving up his lease. Inaction by the city is forcing him to give up his dream, he says.
“It’s killing business owners,” Anderson says. “All the air has been let out of me.”
In November 2016, Californians voted to legalize recreational cannabis. But nearly five years later, the state and many of its cities and counties are still figuring out how exactly to regulate the industry. The challenge has been particularly frustrating for Black entrepreneurs like Anderson, who were promised a leg-up getting started, but have seen little movement in that regard.
Following regulation, several cities and counties in California created social equity programs to help entrepreneurs in communities most harmed by the war on drugs. Black people have borne the brunt of marijuana criminalization in the US over the past 20 years. They’re nearly four times as likely as white people to be arrested for pot violations, according to the American Civil Liberties Union, even though the two groups use marijuana at roughly the same rate.
The equity programs were supposed to help people of color and those formerly incarcerated for cannabis crimes get licensed to run all types of cannabis businesses: cultivation, manufacturing, delivery, retail. The programs created big expectations, but implementation has been much trickier.
“Many people got totally burnt,” said Christine De La Rosa, co-founder and CEO of cannabis company The People’s Ecosystem, who planned to apply for a social equity license in Los Angeles but didn’t win the city’s lottery for a chance. “I can’t think of one [program] that has been good for women or for people of color. It has been a failure.”
Read more:
Republicans continue to stymie Democrats on voting rights. Will anything change?
No, it’s not deja vu: Senate Republicans once again used the filibuster on Wednesday to stymie Democratic efforts to pass a significant voting rights bill. It’s the fourth time it’s happened this year, the most recent coming just two weeks ago.
But Democrats and other voting rights advocates hope that this time is different.
They never really expected 10 Republicans to sign on to the bill and advance it. Instead, they hoped to use the vote as a final chance to show the West Virginia senator Joe Manchin and Arizona senator Kyrsten Sinema, two of the staunchest filibuster defenders, that there is no hope of passing a voting rights bill while the filibuster remains in place.
It’s a development that significantly escalates pressure on Manchin, specifically. The voting rights bill Republicans blocked in late October was one he personally helped write and sought GOP input on. The measure Republicans blocked on Wednesday, which would have restored a critical provision of the Voting Rights Act, is one he supports. Manchin has said that “inaction is not an option” on voting rights. But now Republicans have made it clear that while the filibuster remains in place, inaction is the only option.
So where do things go from here? To start, I think we’ll begin to see a lot more explicit language from Chuck Schumer, the majority leader, about changing the rules of the filibuster. While Schumer has repeatedly said “all options are on the table” when it comes to voting rights, he’s stopped short of outlining specific changes he’d like to see or calling out Manchin and Sinema in particular. Schumer has only recently begun talking about the need “to restore the Senate as the world’s greatest deliberative body”. I expect we’ll also see some increased pressure from the White House.
Schumer continued that rhetoric on Wednesday after the filibuster. He described it as a “low, low point” in the history of the Senate, and questioned whether some of Congress’s greatest legislative accomplishments would have been able to overcome the filibuster if they had been proposed in today’s Senate.
Read more:
Updated
Here’s more background on the Texas voting restrictions, which the Justice Department is challenging in a lawsuit:
A former senior official in the Trump administration’s justice department will testify before members of congress investigating the 6 January insurrection, Reuters reports.
A congressional aide familiar with the probe shared the information with Reuters.
Last week, the House of Representatives Select Committee delayed testimony by Jeffrey Clark because he had retained a new lawyer.
Clark did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The congressional aide spoke on condition of anonymity.
Clark, the former acting head of the Justice Department’s civil division, was a proponent of Trump’s unfounded claims that Democrat Joe Biden’s victory in the November 2020 election was the result of fraud.
On Oct. 13, the committee announced it had issued a subpoena to Clark asking him to produce records and testify at a deposition by Oct. 29.
In announcing it had subpoenaed Clark, the panel said it needed to understand all the details about efforts inside the previous administration to amplify misinformation about election results.
In January, the Justice Department’s inspector general announced his office was launching an investigation into whether Clark plotted to oust then-Acting Attorney General Jeff Rosen so he could take over the department and help pursue Trump’s baseless claims by opening an investigation into voter fraud in Georgia.
A U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee report found Clark also drafted a letter he wanted Rosen to approve which urged Georgia to convene a special legislative session to investigate voter fraud claims.
Clark’s plan ultimately failed after senior department leaders threatened to resign in protest, the Senate investigation found.
Updated
The lawsuit comes as Joe Biden faces mounting pressure to enact federal legislation to protect voting rights. Republicans have successfully used the filibuster four times this year to block voting rights bills in the US senate.
The most recent filibuster came on Wednesday, when Republicans blocked a bill that would have restored a key part of the Voting Rights Act that required states with repeated evidence of voting discrimination, including Texas, to pre-clear voting laws with the federal government before they go into effect.
Nineteen states have passed 33 laws this year restricting voting access, according to the Brennan Center for Justice. This is the second major voting rights suit Biden’s Justice Department has filed this year. It sued Georgia over its sweeping new voting restrictions in June.
“Prohibiting assistors from answering voters’ questions, responding to requests to clarify ballot translations, and confirming that voters with visual impairments have marked a ballot as intended will curtail fundamental voting rights without advancing any legitimate state interest,” DoJ lawyers wrote in their complaint.
“Conditioning the right to cast a mail ballot on a voter’s ability to recall and recite the identification number provided on an application for voter registration months or years before will curtail fundamental voting rights without advancing any legitimate state interest,” the complaint says.
Biden administration files lawsuit challenging Texas voting law
The Biden administration filed a federal lawsuit challenging Texas’ new voting law on Thursday, saying some of the state’s new restrictions violate key civil rights laws.
The suit takes aim at two specific provisions in the Texas law that deal with providing assistance to voters at the polls and mail-in voting, respectively. The first measure restricts the kind of assistance people can provide at the polls to voters, blocking them from explaining how voting works or breaking down complex language on the ballot. That violates a provision of the Voting Rights Act that guarantees that anyone who requires assistance because of “blindness, disability, or inability to read or write” can receive assistance, the justice department said.
The complaint targets a second provision that requires voters to provide identification information on mail-in ballot applications as well as the ballot return envelopes. The new Texas law says that election workers have to reject the ballots if there are discrepancies in the identification provided. The Justice Department said that violates a provision of the 1964 Civil Rights Act that says someone can’t be blocked from voting because of an error on a paper or record that is unrelated to their qualifications under state law to vote.
“Laws that impair eligible citizens’ access to the ballot box have no place in our democracy. Texas Senate Bill 1’s restrictions on voter assistance at the polls and on which absentee ballots cast by eligible voters can be accepted by election officials are unlawful and indefensible,” Kristen Clarke, the head of the Department’s Civil Rights Division, said in a statement announcing the suit.
Updated
Russian source for Steele’s Trump dossier arrested by US authorities
A Russian analyst who was the main source for Christopher Steele’s dossier on Donald Trump and Moscow has been arrested by US authorities, the justice department said on Thursday.
Igor Danchenko now faces charges as part of the investigation by John Durham, the special counsel appointed by the Trump administration to examine the origins of the FBI’s investigation into links between the Trump campaign and Russia.
Danchenko collected much of the intelligence behind Steele’s dossier during three trips to Russia in summer and autumn 2016. He was the chief source behind its most incendiary allegation: that Trump was compromised during a trip to Moscow in November 2013 for the Miss Universe beauty pageant.
Trump has vehemently denied the claim. Last summer, however, a report by the Senate intelligence committee said that the FSB spy agency presided over a network of secret cameras inside the Ritz-Carlton hotel where Trump stayed, including in guest bedrooms. An FSB intelligence officer was permanently on site, it said.
The five-page indictment released on Thursday accuses Danchenko of lying repeatedly to the FBI when interviewed in 2017 – a criminal offense. These include over his dealings with an unnamed US PR executive with close links to the Democrats. The executive’s information found its way into some of the dossier’s memos, a fact Danchenko allegedly concealed.
Read more:
Today so far
That’s it from me today. My west coast colleague, Maanvi Singh, will take over the blog for the next few hours.
Here’s where the day stands so far:
- The Manhattan district attorney has reportedly convened a new grand jury in the Trump Organization case to weigh potential charges. According to the Washington Post, the grand jury is expected to hear evidence regarding how former president Donald Trump’s company valued its assets. A separate grand jury handed down tax evasion charges against the Trump Organization’s longtime chief financial officer.
- House speaker Nancy Pelosi pushed back against Joe Manchin’s criticism of the proposed paid leave program in Democrats’ reconciliation package. Speaking to CNN this morning, Manchin argued the paid family and medical program did not belong in the $1.75tn bill because it should be enacted through regular order. “I disagree,” Pelosi said in response to Manchin’s criticism. “I think this is appropriate for this legislation.”
- Pelosi touted a new report from the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation showing that the reconciliation package will raise $1.5tn in revenue over 10 years. In a letter to her House colleagues, the speaker noted that the analysis does not include two other pay-for proposals, which could bring the total revenue raised to more than $2tn. “It is essential that the legislation is fully paid for and reduces the debt,” Pelosi said.
- Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer said he wants the upper chamber to pass the reconciliation package “before Thanksgiving”. “So as the House prepares to move forward, the Senate continues to achieve progress in our goal of passing Build Back Better before Thanksgiving. That’s our goal,” Schumer said. But it remains unclear whether the House will be able to vote on the reconciliation bill today.
- The Biden administration unveiled two new policies requiring more than 100 million American workers to be fully vaccinated against coronavirus by 4 January. According to one of the rules, those who work for companies with 100 or more employees must be vaccinated by 4 January or receive weekly coronavirus tests. Another rule specifies that workers at healthcare facilities must be vaccinated by 4 January, and they do not have the option to test out of the requirement.
Maanvi will have more coming up, so stay tuned.
According to public polling heading into Tuesday’s election, New Jersey governor Phil Murphy was cruising to re-election over his Republican opponent, Jack Ciattarelli. But in the end, the race wasn’t called until Wednesday, with Murphy narrowly eking out a victory. For this, a prominent New Jersey-based pollster is apologizing.
“I blew it,” Patrick Murray, director of the independent Monmouth University Polling Institute, which is based in New Jersey, writes in a new op-ed, published by NJ.com.
“The final Monmouth University Poll margin did not provide an accurate picture of the state of the governor’s race. So, if you are a Republican who believes the polls cost Ciattarelli an upset victory or a Democrat who feels we lulled your base into complacency, feel free to vent. I hear you.
“I owe an apology to Jack Ciattarelli’s campaign — and to Phil Murphy’s campaign for that matter — because inaccurate public polling can have an impact on fundraising and voter mobilization efforts. But most of all I owe an apology to the voters of New Jersey for information that was at the very least misleading.”
The final Monmouth poll had Murphy with a sizable lead over Ciattarelli. The final spread showed New Jersey voters favoring Murphy by an 11-point margin, 50% to 39%. Ballots are still being tabulated, by the final margin appears to be less than two percentage points.
Since 2016, when polling largely failed to forecast the election of Donald Trump, pollsters and reporters have been grappling with questions about the accuracy of polling and the amount of faith the public, campaigns and the media should place in them. That uncertainty, Murray says, has led some organizations like Pew and Gallup to stop conducting election polling altogether. He wonders the same.
“If we cannot be certain that these polling misses are anomalies then we have a responsibility to consider whether releasing horse race numbers in close proximity to an election is making a positive or negative contribution to the political discourse,” he writes.
“Most public pollsters are committed to making sure our profession counters rather than deepening the pervasive cynicism in our society. We try to hold up a mirror that accurately shows us who we are,” he concludes. “If election polling only serves to feed that cynicism, then it may be time to rethink the value of issuing horse race poll numbers as the electorate prepares to vote.”
Karine Jean-Pierre would not provide any clarity on when the House might vote on the bipartisan infrastructure bill or the reconciliation package, saying that was a decision for Nancy Pelosi.
But the House speaker has not yet given any clear indication as to whether the chamber will vote on one of the bills tonight.
Pelosi told reporters earlier today, “I’ll let you know as soon as I wish to.”
And now some of the centrist members of the House Democratic caucus are suggesting they would not support a vote on the reconciliation package tonight, per CNN:
Henry Cuellar, a Blue Dog, told us there are enough moderates who would tank the procedural vote for the $1.75 trillion bill tonight, saying the rule "is not going to pass" if it comes up.
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) November 4, 2021
"As of right now, there are enough votes in my opinion to vote no on the rule.”
The deputy White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, criticized Republicans for trying to win votes by stirring up fears about Critical Race Theory.
During his campaign, Virginia gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin warned of the dangers of CRT -- a theory that recognizes how racism has shaped American laws and institutions -- even though it was not taught in the state’s schools.
“Republicans are lying. They’re not being honest,” Jean-Pierre said at the daily White House briefing.
“They’re not being truthful about where we stand, and they’re cynically trying to use our kids as a political football. They’re talking about our kids when it’s election season, but they won’t vote for them when it matters.”
“Republicans are lying…They’re not being truthful about where we stand…They’re talking about our kids when it's election season but they won’t vote for them when it matters,” WH Principal Deputy Press Sec. Karine Jean-Pierre says on critical race theory. https://t.co/VSjG0h1qqb pic.twitter.com/wVqgEFWQC3
— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) November 4, 2021
Prosecutors gather new grand jury to weigh criminal charges relating to Trump Organization – report
The Manhattan district attorney has convened a new grand jury in the Trump Organization case, in order to weigh potential charges.
This is the second long-term grand jury in the case, gathered to hear evidence about the financial practices of former president Donald Trump’s business empire, the Trump Organization, and potentially to vote on criminal charges, unnamed sources with knowledge of the matter have told the Washington Post, the paper reported this afternoon.
The Post notes that DA Cyrus Vance declined to comment today and the newly-elected (as of this week) Manhattan DA, fellow Democrat Alvin Bragg, had remained mum on the matter while he was campaigning. Vance is due to depart the office at the end of the year.
The report continues:
An earlier grand jury — convened this spring in Manhattan — previously handed down felony indictments against two Trump companies and Trump’s longtime chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg, charging them with tax evasion. It is unclear if that grand jury is still hearing evidence about the Trump Organization.
The new grand jury was seated last week, and is expected to meet three days a week over six months, people familiar with the matter said. It was expected to hear evidence on Thursday, meeting in Manhattan’s Surrogate’s Court — usually a forum for disputes over the estates of the deceased — because the criminal court buildings are jammed with a rush of post-pandemic trials.
One person familiar with the matter said the second grand jury was expected to examine how former president Donald Trump’s company valued its assets.
That appears to be a separate issue than the one described in indictments from the first grand jury, which has dealt with allegations that Weisselberg and other Trump executives evaded taxes on their pay by systematically hiding some of their compensation from the IRS. Both Weisselberg and the two companies have pleaded not guilty.
The seating of the new grand jury does not signal that any other Trump entities or executives will be charged. The second grand jury could end its term without indicting anyone.
The former president has not been charged with any crime. On Thursday, neither Trump’s company or his post-presidential office responded to requests for comment. Ron Fischetti and Phyllis Malgieri, two of Trump’s personal lawyers, declined comment.
Updated
Joe Biden’s deputy press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, is now holding the daily White House briefing with reporters.
Jean-Pierre said the president has not yet spoken to Glenn Youngkin, the Republican governor-elect of Virginia, but he congratulated him on his victory in the Tuesday race.
A White House official previously said Biden spoke yesterday with Democrat Terry McAuliffe, who lost to Youngkin, and the president “thanked him for a hard-fought campaign, as well as his many years of service to both the Democratic Party and the United States of America”.
Pelosi touts report showing reconciliation package will raise $1.5tn over 10 years
House speaker Nancy Pelosi celebrated a new report from the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation showing that Democrats’ reconciliation package will raise $1.5tn in revenue over 10 years.
“This analysis does not include the legislation’s other pay-fors, including prescription drug pricing savings and IRS enforcement,” Pelosi said in a “Dear colleague” letter to House members.
“Estimates suggest that these two pay-fors together will raise approximately $650 billion, putting the total revenue above $2 trillion. It is essential that the legislation is fully paid for and reduces the debt.”
The centrist members of the Democratic caucus have repeatedly emphasized the importance of fully paying for the $1.75tn reconciliation package, and some of them are demanding a score from the Congressional Budget Office before supporting the bill.
The new JCT report will likely provide some reassurance for those centrist Democrats, but they will also probably want to wait for the CBO score before moving forward.
Pelosi concluded her letter, “We are proceeding with transformative legislation to drive historic progress For The People, For The Children and For The Planet!”
Adam Kinzinger is considering running for president in 2024, after the Republican congressman announced last week that he would not seek another term in the House.
CNN reports:
Acknowledging his potential career options and timeline for the first time since announcing his retirement from the House last week, Kinzinger told CNN he is considering at least a statewide run if not a presidential one, and that he’ll ‘probably’ make his decision on whether to launch a bid for governor or senator by January.
‘The key is, how do we restore the honor of the party in the country?’ Kinzinger told CNN, adding that he ‘definitely’ wouldn’t rule out a White House run in 2024.
But as CNN notes, Kinzinger would face significant challenges in both a Republican presidential primary and a statewide election in the traditionally Democratic state of Illinois.
Republicans overall remain quite loyal to Donald Trump, and Kinzinger has become of the former president’s most vocal critics within the party, making a national campaign difficult.
And Kinzinger would also face many hurdles if he launched a Senate or gubernatorial bid in Illinois. The state voted for Joe Biden by 17 points last year.
US strike that killed Afghan civilians was legal, Pentagon says
A Pentagon investigation that found a drone strike in Kabul that killed 10 Afghan civilians was an “honest mistake” and recommended no legal or disciplinary action has been met with widespread outrage from Congress and human rights groups.
Critics said the report contributed to a culture of impunity and failed to address systemic problems in the US conduct of drone warfare, making future civilian casualties inevitable.
The victims of the 29 August strike included Zemari Ahmadi, who worked for a US-based aid organisation, and nine members of his family, including seven children.
Even though the investigation by the US air force inspector general, Lt Gen Sami Said, found that the drone operators had confused a white Toyota Corolla at the scene with a car linked to a terrorist group and also failed to spot a child visible in surveillance footage two minutes before the strike, it found no evidence of wrongdoing.
“The investigation found no violation of law, including the law of war. Execution errors combined with confirmation bias and communication breakdowns led to regrettable civilian casualties,” the report said.
“It was an honest mistake,” Said told reporters at the Pentagon on Wednesday. “But it’s not criminal conduct, random conduct, negligence.”
Updated
Joe Biden spoke yesterday to New York mayor-elect Eric Adams, New Jersey governor Phil Murphy and Ohio congresswoman-elect Shontel Brown, all of whom won their races on Tuesday night.
“He congratulated them on their victories this week and committed to continue working closely to build back better, grow jobs and the economy, and expand opportunities for working families across the country,” a White House official told the press pool.
“They additionally spoke of the continued need to defeat Covid-19 and get Americans vaccinated.”
Biden also spoke to Terry McAuliffe, the Democratic gubernatorial candidate in Virginia who lost his election to Republican Glenn Youngkin.
The official said Biden “thanked him for a hard-fought campaign, as well as his many years of service to both the Democratic Party and the United States of America”.
Updated
Joe Biden’s $1.75 trillion bill to boost social protections and act on a large scale to deal with the climate crisis needs to figure out what a group of nonpartisan tax experts says is an arithmetic headache, it’s reported this afternoon.
Democrats argue that the bill they now aim to pass by Thanksgiving (November 25) is paid for.
However, the official US joint committee on taxation issued a report scoring the legislation’s revenue provisions at $1.48 trillion over the next decade, some $270 billion short of the top-line spending figure, Reuters reports.
The news agency further reported that:
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Ways and Means committee chairman Richard Neal said the difference would be made up by provisions intended to enhance the Internal Revenue Service’s tax collection and to lower the cost of prescription drugs for the Medicare healthcare program for the elderly.
“It’s an objective view that it is solidly paid for,” Pelosi told reporters after a meeting of House Democrats on the legislation ahead of a potential floor vote that could come Thursday or Friday.
It was unclear whether the Joint Tax Committee analysis would help ease the concerns of some moderate Democrats who have said they cannot support the social policy bill until they have cost estimates. Lawmakers have also been waiting on an estimate from the Congressional Budget Office.
The White House has estimated the legislation could raise up to $400 billion over the next decade by ramping up IRS tax enforcement and save another $145 billion from prescription drugs, according to a framework released last week.
In a meeting with fellow Democrats, Pelosi expressed hope for action on the social policy bill this week as well as on a bipartisan infrastructure bill that the Senate has already passed, a source familiar with her remarks said.
“Hopefully we’ll see if we have votes for (the social policy bill) tonight and [the bipartisan infrastructure bill) tomorrow morning,” Pelosi told Democrats, the source said.If passed by the House, the social policy legislation would move to the Senate, where Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said on Thursday that lawmakers would aim to enact it before the Nov. 25 Thanksgiving holiday.
If enacted, the legislation would raise $640 billion from tax increases on high-income individuals and $814 billion from corporate and international tax reforms from 2022 to 2031, the tax committee said.
The Joint Committee on Taxation is a nonpartisan committee of Congress made up of lawmakers from both parties who are aided by economists, attorneys, and accountants. It evaluates tax provisions in proposed legislation.
Meghan Markle has been picking up the phone calling US senators to lobby for legislation providing paid family leave to American parents, according to numerous media reports.
The Duchess of Sussex, who’s married to Prince Harry, aka the Duke of Sussex and grandchild of Queen Elizabeth II, recently called West Virginia Republican Senator Shelley Moore Capito.
Capito told a Politico reporter, according to the Daily Beast, that Markle introduced herself, although it doesn’t describe the conversation that followed.
There are so many ironies, here. Including that Democrats in the House, led by Speaker Pelosi, want to get a paid family leave provision back into the $1.75tn Build Back Better bill and get that voted on in the House asap, then onto the Senate for the reconciliation process - as a budgetary bill that could be passed with a simple majority.
This bill has no Republican support in the Senate and, moreover, the Democrat currently standing in its way and just today freshly digging in his heels if, of course, West Virginia Democratic Senator Joe Manchin.
In fact, Capito reportedly said, when her phone rang: “I’m in my car. I’m driving. It says caller ID blocked. I thought it was Senator Manchin. His calls come in blocked. And she goes, ‘Sen. Capito?’ I said, ‘Yes.’ She said, ‘This is Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex.”
Markle also called Republican US Senator Susan Collins of Maine, whose slightly indignant response added up to “that’s rich”.
A plotting Kirsten Gillibrand, Democratic Senator of New York, reportedly gave the duchess her colleagues’ numbers and said: “She wants to be part of a working group to work on paid leave long term, and she’s going to be.
“Whether this comes to fruition now or later, she’ll be part of a group of women that hopefully will work on paid leave together.”
Updated
Today so far
Here’s where the day stands so far:
- House speaker Nancy Pelosi pushed back against Joe Manchin’s criticism of the proposed paid leave program in Democrats’ reconciliation package. Speaking to CNN this morning, Manchin argued the paid family and medical program did not belong in the $1.75tn bill because it should be enacted through regular order. “I disagree,” Pelosi said in response to Manchin’s criticism. “I think this is appropriate for this legislation.”
- Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer said he wants the upper chamber to pass the reconciliation package “before Thanksgiving”. “So as the House prepares to move forward, the Senate continues to achieve progress in our goal of passing Build Back Better before Thanksgiving. That’s our goal,” Schumer said. But it remains unclear whether the House will be able to vote on the reconciliation bill today.
- The Biden administration unveiled two new policies requiring more than 100 million American workers to be fully vaccinated against coronavirus by 4 January. According to one of the rules, those who work for companies with 100 or more employees must be vaccinated by 4 January or receive weekly coronavirus tests. Another rule specifies that workers at healthcare facilities must be vaccinated by 4 January, and they do not have the option to test out of the requirement.
The blog will have more coming up, so stay tuned.
House speaker Nancy Pelosi would not provide a definitive timeline of when the chamber might vote on the bipartisan infrastructure bill and the reconciliation package.
But House majority whip Jim Clyburn said he did not expect the chamber to be in session over the weekend to pass the two bills, per Politico.
Whip Clyburn says the whip count for BBB is still being sorted out.
— Nicholas Wu (@nicholaswu12) November 4, 2021
But “it’s not my anticipation” we’ll be here through the weekend.
House speaker Nancy Pelosi acknowledged she was disappointed by the results of Tuesday’s elections, after Democrats suffered a loss in the Virginia gubernatorial race and narrowly held on to the governor’s seat in New Jersey.
A reporter noted that some Virginia Democrats have argued their candidates struggled because of the party’s failure to pass the infrastructure and reconciliation bills before the election.
.@SpeakerPelosi on Election Night: "It was not a good night." pic.twitter.com/yjB3xJ4D5X
— CSPAN (@cspan) November 4, 2021
“Any sign of progress is good for the public,” Pelosi said. “So it would have been better if we had [passed the bills].”
But the speaker argued there were “other issues at work” in the Virginia gubernatorial race, so the failure to pass the two bills was not the sole reason for the loss.
“But it was not a good night,” Pelosi said of the election results.
Pelosi pushes back against Manchin's criticism of paid leave proposal
House speaker Nancy Pelosi was asked about Joe Manchin’s argument that the proposed paid family and medical leave program does not belong in Democrats’ reconciliation package.
While thanking Manchin for supporting key proposals like establishing universal prekindergarten and expanding access to affordable childcare, Pelosi said she disagreed with the senator’s assertions about paid leave.
.@SpeakerPelosi defends inclusion of paid family leave in the social spending proposal despite opposition from @Sen_JoeManchin. pic.twitter.com/AO0fAVzvXO
— CSPAN (@cspan) November 4, 2021
“We can afford it. It’s universal. It’s a compromise,” Pelosi said, noting that the proposed four weeks of paid leave is far short of what many Democrats had hoped for.
“I disagree,” Pelosi said in response to Manchin’s criticism. “I think this is appropriate for this legislation.”
But even if the House can pass a version of the reconciliation package that includes paid leave, it is very likely the provision will be stripped out of the bill during Senate negotiations.
Updated
Pelosi remains vague on timing of House votes on infrastructure and reconciliation bills
House speaker Nancy Pelosi would not provide any additional details about when the chamber might vote on the bipartisan infrastructure bill and the reconciliation package.
“I’ll let you know as soon as I wish to,” the Democratic speaker told reporters at her weekly press conference.
But Pelosi specifically said she would not take up the infrastructure bill without a simultaneous vote on the reconciliation package. House progressives have already made clear they would not support a standalone vote for the infrastructure bill.
The speaker acknowledged she was “very unhappy” that the infrastructure bill did not pass last week, but she said she will not bring the two proposals to the floor until she has the votes to pass them.
Updated
Senate Democrats want to pass reconciliation package 'before Thanksgiving', Schumer says
Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer said he wants the upper chamber to pass the $1.75tn reconciliation package “before Thanksgiving”, which falls on 25 November this year.
“So as the House prepares to move forward, the Senate continues to achieve progress in our goal of passing Build Back Better before Thanksgiving. That’s our goal,” Schumer said on the Senate floor moments ago.
.@SenSchumer: "So as the House prepares to move forward, the Senate continues to achieve progress in our goal of passing Build Back Better before Thanksgiving. That's our goal." pic.twitter.com/n80fDXrtcZ
— CSPAN (@cspan) November 4, 2021
The Democratic leader added, “We are moving forward because the challenges American families and workers are facing are enormous, and President Biden’s agenda has many things that will lower costs to help families pay the bills.”
House speaker Nancy Pelosi is now holding her weekly press conference and may offer an update on the timing of votes in her chamber. Stay tuned.
Updated
Eric Berger reports on the recent surge in coronavirus hospitalizations in Colorado:
A recent surge in Covid-19 cases around Colorado has increased the number of unvaccinated patients needing care and prompted concerns that hospitals may have to ration services for other issues.
“If you have been waiting for an elective procedure for the last 18 months and are finally scheduled – you’re vaccinated, you don’t have Covid – your procedure might still get canceled if a hospital is totally full,” said Dr Anuj Mehta, a pulmonologist with Denver Health who serves on the governor’s expert emergency epidemic response committee.
“While this is a pandemic of the unvaccinated at this point – and the surges in the hospital are entirely being driven by unvaccinated folks – it is having a massive bleed-over effect on to the entire population.”
There are about 1,300 patients hospitalized with Covid-19 in Colorado, according to the New York Times data; that’s the highest number since December 2020, when more than 1,900 patients were hospitalized.
That number has increased by 15% over the last two weeks, the third largest increase in the country, and at a time when the national picture for the US is of a Delta variant surge that is firmly on the way down.
The trend in Colorado can be attributed in part to the almost 40% of the state population that has not been vaccinated and people again gathering indoors without masks. It also shows that, despite the national downward trends of infections, regional spikes can still happen that can cause havoc in state healthcare systems.
Joe Biden has issued a statement praising his administration’s new rules requiring coronavirus vaccinations for more than 100 million American workers.
“For our country, the choice is simple: get more people vaccinated, or prolong this pandemic and its impact on our country,” the president said.
“Vaccination is the single best pathway out of this pandemic. And while I would have much preferred that requirements not become necessary, too many people remain unvaccinated for us to get out of this pandemic for good. So I instituted requirements – and they are working.”
Pointing to polls showing most Americans support vaccine requirements, Biden noted that such mandates have been in effect for other diseases for decades.
“I’m calling on employers to act,” Biden said. “Businesses have more power than ever before to accelerate our path out of this pandemic, save lives, and protect our economic recovery.”
More than 100 million US workers must be vaccinated by 4 January, Biden administration says
More than 100 million American workers must be fully vaccinated against coronavirus by 4 January, according to two new rules issued by the Biden administration.
The first rule, issued by the labor department’s occupational safety and health administration (Osha), applies to those who work for companies with 100 or more employees.
Those employees must be fully vaccinated by 4 January or receive weekly coronavirus tests to mitigate the potential spread of the virus among coworkers.
According to a fact sheet from the White House, that rule will impact roughly 84 million working Americans.
The second policy, issued by the centers for Medicare & Medicaid services (CMS) at the department of health and human services, requires workers at healthcare facilities to be fully vaccinated by 4 January.
But the 17 million Americans impacted by the CMS policy will not have the option to test out of the vaccination requirement.
Joe Biden announced in September that he was taking additional steps to boost vaccination rates in the US, but his administration has only just finalized the details of some of those policies.
Updated
House majority leader Steny Hoyer was asked whether he believes the chamber may hold a vote on the bipartisan infrastructure bill and the reconciliation package today.
“It’s been close for a long time. We’ll see,” Hoyer said, per Politico.
Leader Hoyer is asked entering the Capitol if Dems are close and could hold a vote today - “it’s been close for a long time. We’ll see,” he says.
— Nicholas Wu (@nicholaswu12) November 4, 2021
House Democratic leaders are now holding a meeting, so Hoyer may soon have an update on the timing of the votes.
And House speaker Nancy Pelosi is also scheduled to hold a press conference in about an hour. Stay tuned.
Updated
Joe Manchin also warned Democrats against going “too far left” with their $1.75tn reconciliation package, as progressives call for robust investments in healthcare, childcare and climate initiatives.
“We just have to work together. We can’t go too far left,” Manchin told CNN this morning.
“This is not a center-left or a left country. We are a center, if anything, a center-right country.”
"I believe in President Biden," @Sen_JoeManchin says. "We just have to work together. We can't go too far left. This is not a center-left or a left country. We are a center, if anything, center-right country."
— New Day (@NewDay) November 4, 2021
"I'm fiscally responsible and socially compassionate," he adds. pic.twitter.com/zXVZkqin8k
Manchin described himself as “fiscally responsible and socially compassionate” and he argued most Americans “in the middle” of the political spectrum view themselves the same way.
Speaking to his progressive colleagues, Manchin said, “Realize what can and can’t be done. Don’t force basically something that’s not going to happen to make people believe it will.”
Updated
Senator Joe Manchin is still expressing concerns about the House version of the reconciliation package, specifically the proposal to fund four weeks of paid family and medical leave.
Manchin, one of two Democratic holdouts in the Senate as the party crafts the reconciliation package, previously pushed to eliminate the paid leave proposal because of its cost.
“I don’t think it belongs in the bill,” Manchin told CNN this morning.
“I don't think it belongs in the bill,” @Sen_JoeManchin says after Speaker Pelosi added four weeks of paid family and medical leave back into the social spending bill.
— New Day (@NewDay) November 4, 2021
"Let's get it done in regular order through the process," he adds. https://t.co/ZEeIQeopNX pic.twitter.com/q9PCwhGWYU
The West Virginia senator warned that, if the paid leave program were funded through reconciliation, Republicans would end the policy once they took control of Congress.
“Let’s get it done in regular order through the process,” Manchin said.
Of course, Manchin also opposes altering or eliminating the Senate filibuster, meaning such a bill would likely need 60 votes to pass. And there is currently no path to attract 10 Republican votes on a paid leave bill.
House Democrats look to hold votes after bruising loss in Virginia
Greetings from Washington, live blog readers.
House Democrats are still hoping to approve the bipartisan infrastructure bill and the $1.75tn reconciliation package by the end of the week.
Majority leader Steny Hoyer indicated that the House may vote on the two bills as soon as today, despite ongoing arguments among Democrats over the specifics of the reconciliation package.
The potential votes come two days after Democrats suffered a bruising loss in the gubernatorial race of Virginia, a state that Biden carried by 10 points last year.
Asked about the Virginia defeat yesterday, Joe Biden acknowledged that voters are frustrated with Democrats’ delays in advancing his economic agenda.
“I do know that people want us to get things done. They want us to get things done,” Biden said.
“And that’s why I’m continuing to push very hard for the Democratic party to move along and pass my infrastructure bill and my Build Back Better bill.”
The blog will have more coming up, so stay tuned.
