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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Vivian Ho now and Joanna Walters earlier

House passes Biden’s $1.75tn Build Back Better plan after months of negotiations – as it happened

Nancy Pelosi presides over the vote for the Build Back Better Act at the US Capitol on Friday in Washington DC.
Nancy Pelosi presides over the vote for the Build Back Better Act at the US Capitol on Friday in Washington DC. Photograph: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

Summary

We are closing this blog and heading over to the Kyle Rittenhouse blog for live reactions and updates on the verdict out of Kenosha, Wisconsin. Please follow along here:

  • Joe Biden issued a full statement on the Rittenhouse case as other Democrats condemned the not guilty verdict.
  • Republicans celebrated the verdict, with one congressman offering Rittenhouse an internship and telling his followers to “be armed, be dangerous and be moral”.
  • Biden pardoned turkeys Peanut Butter and Jelly in the annual Thanksgiving turkey pardoning ceremony.
  • The Build Back Better Act heads to the Senate after passing in the House of Representatives today. Read more about it here.

Updated

Joe Biden has released a longer statement on the Kyle Rittenhouse verdict:

“While the verdict in Kenosha will leave many Americans feeling angry and concerned, myself included, we must acknowledge that the jury has spoken. I ran on a promise to bring Americans together, because I believe that what unites us is far greater than what divides us. I know that we’re not going to heal our country’s wounds overnight, but I remain steadfast in my commitment to do everything in my power to ensure that every American is treated equally, with fairness and dignity, under the law.

I urge everyone to express their views peacefully, consistent with the rule of law. Violence and destruction of property have no place in our democracy. The White House and Federal authorities have been in contact with Governor Evers’s office to prepare for any outcome in this case, and I have spoken with the Governor this afternoon and offered support and any assistance needed to ensure public safety.”

After Joe Biden pardoned Peanut Butter the turkey in the annual Thanksgiving turkey pardoning ceremony, Peanut Butter let out a hearty gobble. Peanut Butter’s partner, Jelly, was less willing to be touched, even by the president, but still received a pardon.

“Every American wants the same thing. They want to look their turkey in the eye and tell them it’s going to be OK. Folks, it’s going to be OK,” Biden chuckled.

“In all seriousness, it’s important to continue traditions like this - to remind us how from darkness, there’s hope and light and progress. That’s what this year’s Thanksgiving, in my view, represents. So many of us will be gathering with our loved ones for the first time in a long time.”

Updated

Meanwhile, Joe Biden is preparing to pardon two turkeys, Peanut Butter and Jelly, in the annual Thanksgiving turkey pardoning ceremony.

Updated

Joe Biden had little to say about the Kyle Rittenhouse verdict, saying only that “I stand by what the jury has to say. The jury system works”.

When he was running for office in September 2020, he included a photo of Rittenhouse carrying his AR-15 in a video about white supremacists. He declined to comment on that to reporters earlier today.

Other Democrats were more vocal in condemning the not guilty verdict.

Republican congressman Madison Cawthorn, spotted last night putting in a dip of chewing tobacco and spitting into a coffee cup during House minority leader Kevin McCarthy’s 8.5 hour-long speech, went on Instagram to celebrate the Kyle Rittenhouse verdict and offer Rittenhouse an internship.

“Kyle Rittenhouse is not guilty, my friends,” he said in the video clip. “You have a right to defend yourselves: Be armed, be dangerous and be moral.”

Cawthorn wasn’t the only Republican to celebrate the not guilty verdict.

Updated

For more information and reaction on the Kyle Rittenhouse verdict, follow our liveblog here:

Joe Biden spoke to reporters about the Kyle Rittenhouse verdict:

Updated

Interim summary

It’s been a landmark morning for US politics news. Here’s where things stand.

  • In a trial with many socio-political repercussions, Kyle Rittenhouse was acquitted on all charges in Kenosha, Wisconsin, after he shot dead two people and wounded another during protests in the city after a white police officer shot a local Black man, Jacob Blake, in the back in August, 2020. Our coverage here, also a live blog following reactions to the verdict.
  • After months of partisan sniping and negotiations, the House of Representatives passed the Build Back Better Act, an ambitious piece of Joe Biden’s domestic agenda, which the US president called a “giant step”.
  • Kamala Harris became the acting President of the United States for a little over an hour today, the first time a woman has held presidential power in US history, as she was authorized to assume the role while Joe Biden had anaesthetic briefly during a routine medical check and colonoscopy.
  • The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced it was authorizing booster doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine for all US adults. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention still has to approve the move.
  • The House gathered from 8am ET to pass the Build Back Better act after a record speech by Republican House minority leader Kevin McCarthy overnight delayed the expected vote on Thursday.

The verdict on the Kyle Rittenhouse case came down during the White House press briefing. White House press secretary Jen Psaki declined to comment until she spoke to the president.

Rittenhouse acquitted on all charges

Kyle Rittenhouse, the 18-year-old who drove to Kenosha, Wisconsin, and roamed the streets armed with an AR-15 military-style assault rifle, then killed two people and injured another during unrest in the city last August, was acquitted on all charges.

Check back here for more details:

Updated

White House press secretary Jen Psaki touched on House minority leader Kevin McCarthy and the 8.5-hour speech he launched on the floor to delay the vote on the Build Back Better Act:

“Kevin McCarthy said a lot of words, a lot of words, I just want to emphasize that over the course of eight and a half hours,” Psaki said. “For those of you who did not watch all of it, he shared his wish that he could have been in Tiananmen Square. He mused about whether or not Abraham Lincoln was actually assassinated. He shared his thought or dream, I’m not sure, about picturing America in swim meet after World War II against every other country.

“But in eight and a half hours, what he did not talk about was cutting the cost of childcare, cutting the cost of elder care, what we were going to do around the country to bring more women into the workforce, to protect the climate for generations to come.

“That, in our view, tells us all you need to know about Kevin McCarthy’s agenda and what he supports.”

White House press secretary Jen Psaki is at the podium for the White House press briefing, and her first question is about the next steps for the Build Back Better Act.

Now that the ambitious legislation has passed the House of Representatives, it goes to the Senate, where Democrats may not have all the party votes they need to get it through - moderate senators Joe Manchin and Krysten Sinema have long stood in the way of this bill. Like their Republican counterparts, the two senators have had concerns over the size of the bill.

“The president is absolutely committed to getting this through the Senate and signing it into law and ensuring these impacts, these cost-cutting measures, are put into law as soon as possible,” Psaki said. “We have remained in touch, even as we have been working to get it through the House, at a high senior staff level with senator Sinema, senator Manchin and other members of the senate as we know that is the next important step here and that will continue.”

Here is the letter Joe Biden sent to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, temporarily transferring power to vice-president Kamala Harris while he underwent a routine colonoscopy under anesthesia.

And here is the second letter in which Biden resumed his powers and his duties:

According to the White House, Biden sent to the first letter at 10:10am local time and the second letter 11:35am local time. Harris was acting president for one hour and 25 minutes.

Updated

Robyn Patterson, the deputy communications director for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, has collected and tweeted out a series of photos of Republicans falling asleep during House minority leader Kevin McCarthy’s 8.5-hour speech on the floor last night:

House minority leader Kevin McCarthy appears to still have more to say, even after his extraordinary 8.5-hour speech last night on the floor to delay the vote for the Build Back Better Act.

He just put out a one-minute video to tell Democrats, “Enough already.”

Senator Bernie Sanders, the progressive stalwart from Vermont who has long argued that the Democrats have made too many concessions on the Build Back Better Act, has released a statement on the House passing the bill:

“I applaud Democrats in the House of Representatives for uniting to pass the Build Back Better Act. Now the legislation comes to the Senate where I hope to see it strengthened in a number of ways,” he said.

The statement continued:

“The American people overwhelmingly demand that we ask the wealthy and large corporations to pay their fair share of taxes. That’s what we must do. The American people overwhelmingly demand that we take on the greed of the pharmaceutical industry and lower the cost of prescription drugs. That’s what we must do. The American people overwhelmingly demand that we expand Medicare to cover dental, eyeglasses and hearing aids. That’s what we must do. The American people understand that we must act now to combat the existential threat of climate change and transform our energy system away from fossil fuels. That’s what we must do.

“The Senate has an opportunity to make this a truly historic piece of legislation. We will listen to the demands of the American people and strengthen the Build Back Better Act.”

After reports came out suggesting vice-president Kamala Harris was being underused, the White House came to her defense. Jonathan Freedland and Lauren Gambino discuss the various rumours shrouding Joe Biden and Harris’ relationship on US Politics Weekly.

Joe Biden has issued a statement about the passage of the Build Back Better Act:

“Today, the United States House of Representatives passed the Build Back Better Act to take another giant step forward in carrying out my economic plan to create jobs, reduce costs, make our country more competitive, and give working people and the middle class a fighting chance,” he said. “I thank Speaker Pelosi and the House leadership and every House member who worked so hard and voted to pass this bill.”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told the press that she believes the biggest hurdles for the Build Back Better Act are behind the Democrats. “Whatever comes out of the Senate, we’ll be working with them,” she said.

“This bill is monumental. It’s historic, it’s transformative, it’s bigger than anything we’ve ever done. We have so much agreement within the bill,” Pelosi said. “The biggest hurdle was to get the bill there. The biggest challenge was to meet the vision of President Biden.”

“It’s really a cause for celebration for us now,” she said.

Updated

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is addressing the press now about the passage of the Build Back Better Act: “We’ll be telling our children and our grandchildren that we were here this day,” she said.

With the passage of the Build Back Better Act in the House, now it’s on to the Senate.

Though the Democrats have a plan to bypass the Republicans and their oft-used tactic of the filibuster that requires 60 votes to break, they still need a majority vote - which, technically they have, given Senate’s 50/50 split, and then the deciding vote of vice-president Kamala Harris.

However, moderate senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema have stood in the way of negotiations almost as much as their Republican counterparts. And Manchin still has not indicated how he will vote on this new negotiated package.

House passes the Build Back Better Act

After months of partisan sniping and negotiations, the House of Representatives passed the Build Back Better Act, an ambitious piece of Joe Biden’s domestic agenda.

In a 220 to 213 vote, the House predictably voted mostly along partly lines for the legislation that has often been compared to as the New Deal.

The Build Back Better Act - also known as the reconciliation bill - focuses on “human infrastructure” like social services and programs ranging from education to healthcare to housing to the environment.

Biden signed the second piece of his domestic agenda, a $1.2tn package focused on infrastructure improvements, into law earlier this week.

The Build Back Better Act now goes to the Senate, where Republicans are expected to be unified in opposition. Democrats are planning on using a special budgetary process known as “reconciliation” to avoid the 60-vote filibuster threshold and pass the bill on a party-line vote.

Members of the House broke into applause when the Democrats’ votes were all counted, signalling that the bill had passed, chanting, “Build Back Better! Build Back Better!”

“The Build Back Better Act is passed,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced minutes later, to more cheering and chants of “Nancy! Nancy! Nancy!”

Updated

So far, Democrats only have one opposition vote for the Build Back Better Act - Maine congressman Jared Golden, who told Bangor Daily News that he thought Democrats “could do better”.

Democrats can afford to lose just three votes.

Biden to transfer power briefly to VP Harris to undergo routine colonoscopy

Joe Biden will undergo a routine colonoscopy during his physical today at Walter Reed medical hospital, which will require briefly going under anesthesia. As such, he will be briefly transferring power to vice-president Kamala Harris while he undergoes this procedure.

Biden, who turns 79 tomorrow, is the oldest person to be president.

Updated

To recap: House minority leader Kevin McCarthy stymied Democrats’ plans to pass the Build Back Better Act yesterday with his literally record-breaking speech.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called it a “temper tantrum”.

Now we await the actual vote, Pelosi took the opportunity to get one last jab in at McCarthy.

Updated

Hey all, Vivian Ho taking over the blog now. For all who would like a recap on what exactly the Build Back Better Act entails, take a read here:

Talking turkey here. Joe Biden will enact his first presidential bird pardoning this afternoon.

It’s time for the turkey pardoning, where two giant, feathered and gobbling beasts, this year named Peanut Butter and Jelly, will trot out for the president and he’ll save them from the oven.

This follows a trip to the hospital for a routine medical check.

Vice president Kamala Harris is traveling to Ohio today where she and labor secretary Marty Walsh will promote the benefits of the $1.2tn bipartisan infrastructure bill signed into law by Biden just last Monday.

It’s the prelude to the Build Back Better Act, which is expected to be passed by the House minutes from now, before going back to the Senate to be ravaged by moderate Democrats......

Walsh moments ago told CNN that BBB passing would be a “historic moment in American history.”

US regulators authorize coronavirus booster vaccinations for all US adults

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) moments ago announced it was authorizing booster doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine for all adults.

Jill Biden hugs surgeon general Vivek Murthy as they visit with children who just got their Covid-19 vaccination at Childrens Hospital in Washington, on Wednesday. On Friday, booster shots were authorized for US adults.
Jill Biden hugs surgeon general Vivek Murthy as they visit with children who just got their Covid-19 vaccination at Childrens Hospital in Washington, on Wednesday. On Friday, booster shots were authorized for US adults. Photograph: Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images

Moderna, another key US vaccine maker , said the FDA has today extended the emergency use authorization of a booster dose of its Covid-19 vaccine to over-18s, too.

The move by the regulators is aimed at addressing waning protection among fully vaccinated Americans in the face of Delta variant-driven cases of the illness for those who have been immunized, although the vaccine is effective at preventing hospitalization and death.

A US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) advisory panel is expected to meet later in the day to discuss whether to recommend the booster doses for the broader population, Reuters reports.

The Associated Press adds:

At least 10 states already had started offering boosters to all adults. The latest action simplifies what until now has been a confusing list of who’s eligible by allowing anyone 18 or older to choose either company’s booster six months after their last dose regardless of which vaccine they had first.

But there’s one more step: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention must agree to expand Pfizer and Moderna boosters to even healthy young adults. Its scientific advisers were set to debate later Friday.

If the CDC agrees, tens of millions more Americans could have three doses of protection ahead of the new year. Anyone who got the one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine can already get a booster.

All three COVID-19 vaccines used in the U.S. still offer strong protection against severe illness including hospitalization and death, but protection against infection can wane with time.

Previously, the government had cleared boosters of Pfizer and BioNTech’s vaccine, as well as the similar Moderna vaccine, only for vulnerable groups including older Americans and people with chronic health problems.

The move to expand comes as new COVID-19 cases have climbed steadily over the last two weeks, especially in states where colder weather is driving people indoors.

Updated

The House of Representatives is in session and the members are wrapping up debate and some other business before intending to vote on the Build Back Better Act, the flagship piece of legislation of Joe Biden’s presidency so far.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is on her feet now, promising a brief speech, to weary giggles around the chamber.

Congressional Democrats tout ‘Build Back Better Act’ and climate investments during a Capitol Hill news conference in Washington on Wednesday. Nancy Pelosi is speaking.
Congressional Democrats tout ‘Build Back Better Act’ and climate investments during a Capitol Hill news conference in Washington on Wednesday. Nancy Pelosi is speaking. Photograph: Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters

Republican minority leader Kevin McCarthy spoke for a record 8.5 hours overnight. To be exact, Politico reports, he began his speech at 8.38pm on Thursday and didn’t stop until 5.10am this morning, thus missing the historic lunar eclipse.

Pelosi, in a white suit, is now going through some of the benefits of the legislation, promising to create good paying work. “Jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs, a four-letter word,” Pelosi just said, to weak applause. It’s clear lawmakers are exhausted, but there are also whoops and smiles throughout the Democratic side of the aisle.

The bill is designed, per the speaker, to improve social protection programs, with more support for children, free preschool education for children under the age of five and paid family leave, in ground-breaking spending. And programs to mitigate the climate crisis.

But Senate moderate Democrat Joe Manchin is against including paid leave in the legislation and if the House passes this bill shortly it faces a fresh storm when it goes back to the upper chamber. Manchin already forced the removal of the most radical climate change program from the bill.

Senate Republicans are, so far, united against it. And Democrats Manchin of West Virginia and one of Arizona’s Democratic senators, Kyrsten Sinema, are expected to try to reduce its top-line total of almost $2tn.

So it has a way to go. But Democrats in the House are buoyant over a bill that has been months in the making and now appears about to pass.

House to begin voting on Biden's Build Back Better bill

Good morning, US politics live blog readers, the House of Representatives is about to begin session and it’s going to be a big day in Washington, so stay tuned.

Here’s what’s afoot:

  • The House had expected to vote last night on the Build Back Better budget bill but Republican minority leader Kevin McCarthy threw a spanner into the works with an eight-and-a-half-hour overnight speech.
  • House members are gathering now and will begin voting shortly on the bill, which comes in at almost $2tn in spending on social support programs and action to tackle the climate crisis.
  • If the bill passes successfully it will then go back to the Senate, where it faces rigid opposition in its current form from every Republican and two crucial moderate Democrats.
  • Joe Biden is going to the Walter Reed military hospital not far from the White House this morning for what’s being described as a routine medical check-up. He turns 79 tomorrow.
  • This afternoon the US president will pardon two Thanksgiving turkeys and thus spare them from your knife and fork.
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