Summary
- Hundreds of thousands of people in Texas remain without power after a winter storm caused widespread outages in the state. The White House said Fema has already sent 60 generators and 225,000 meals to Texas.
- Senator Ted Cruz confirmed that he traveled to Cancún as his constituents struggled to get their lights back on. The Texas senator is now flying back to Houston, a day after traveling to Cancún, and he claimed he only went to Mexico to drop off his daughters. According to NBC News, Cruz booked a return flight to Houston early this morning amid widespread outrage about the trip.
- The Biden administration approved an emergency declaration in Louisiana. Like Texas, Louisiana has seen freezing temperatures, power outages and water disruptions. Some of the impacted families were still recovering from the hurricanes last year.
- Congressional Democrats introduced their sweeping immigration bill, based on the framework laid out by Joe Biden when he took office last month. The bill faces massive hurdles in the evenly divided Senate, but if passed, the legislation would provide a pathway to citizenship for millions of undocumented immigrants.
- The administration said it will provide $4bn in contributions to Covax, a global initiative to ensure equitable access to Covid-19 vaccines. The Trump administration spurned Covax, due to the former president’s disdain for the World Health Organization – which is helping lead the effort along with the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (Gavi), the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, and other groups.
- The House held its hearing about the GameStop stock trading controversy. Executives from Reddit, the trading app Robinhood and investments firms involved in the stock trades are testifying before the House financial services committee.
- Nasa’s science rover Perseverance has safely landed on Mars, kicking off a mission to find traces of ancient microbial life on the planet. Scientists at Nasa’s jet propulsion laboratory near Pasadena, California, celebrated after seeing Perseverance make a safe landing.
– Joan E Greve and Maanvi Singh
Updated
Texas senator Ted Cruz said that in flying to Cancún while millions of his constituents endured a devastating winter storm without electricity, he was simply being a “good dad”, dropping his daughters and their friends off at the Mexican resort destination after schools were closed due to the storm.
But the New York Times found that group texts between Cruz’s wife Heidi and their neighbors suggest otherwise:
Text messages sent from Ms. Cruz to friends and Houston neighbors on Wednesday revealed a hastily planned trip. Their house was “FREEZING,” as Ms. Cruz put it — and she proposed a getaway until Sunday. Ms. Cruz invited others to join them at the Ritz-Carlton in Cancún, where they had stayed “many times,” noting the room price this week ($309 per night) and its good security. The text messages were provided to The New York Times and confirmed by a second person on the thread, who declined to be identified because of the private nature of the texts.
If Mr. Cruz intended to leave the impression that he meant to stay for only a day, his large suitcase and the group text messages Ms. Cruz had sent planning a longer itinerary suggested he had cut his trip short. NBC reported separately that Mr. Cruz had rebooked his return ticket on Thursday morning.
Here’s more background on the scandal:
Updated
US vaccine distribution: track your state's progress
Vaccination against Covid-19 has been under way in the US since mid-December, with healthcare workers and long-term care facility residents receiving the first doses.
Millions of doses have been administered, but many Americans have had difficulty accessing the vaccines in a timely manner. Among the Biden administration’s top priorities has been developing a federal vaccine distribution plan, but states may still lack a steady supply of doses and the personnel necessary to administer what they receive.
Some states have begun to expand eligibility to essential workers, people with health conditions, and others.
The Guardian has visualized the proportion of vaccinated population in each state from data provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The represented proportions reflect the overall state population. Children are not eligible to be vaccinated, though scientists believe they can spread Covid-19.
Details of state-by-state breakdown of vaccination rates:
Read more:
Biden administration has pledged $4bn to fund the global vaccine effort
The administration said it will provide an initial $2bn contribution for Covax, a global initiative to ensure equitable access to Covid-19 vaccines.
It will release another $2bn through 2021 and 2022, the administration said in a statement.
The Trump administration spurned Covax, due to the former president’s disdain for the World Health Organization – which is helping lead the effort along with the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (Gavi), the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, and other groups.
The US will be providing the funds to Gavi, which will use the money for the Covax initiative. Joe Biden will announce the funding plan tomorrow at the Group of Seven meeting.
Updated
Protesters outside the home of Texas senator Ted Cruz are calling on him to resign.
Julian Gill of the Houston Chronicle reports:
Here’s the scene outside the home of Ted Cruz. Right now looks like as many police as protestors. @HoustonChron pic.twitter.com/6ZLOz9LaRD
— Julian Gill (@JulianGillMusic) February 18, 2021
The Republican senator has faced backlash after flying with his family to Cancun, as millions of his constituents were left without power during the deadly winter storm that has devastated Texas.
Here’s more background:
Updated
Power restored to 2m homes in Texas
Power has been restored to nearly 2m homes in the state, the Texas governor, Greg Abbott, announced.
Some 325,000 still remain without electricity – due to downed power lines or the need to reconnect to the electrical grid. The ongoing outages are no longer due to a lack of power supply, Abbott said.
As of this afternoon there are no residential power outages due to lack of power generation.
— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) February 18, 2021
If any residence doesn’t have power it is due to downed power lines or the need for the power company to manually reconnect.
If you don’t have power contact your local power provider.
Updated
The Biden administration approved an emergency declaration in Louisiana, authorizing Fema to coordinate disaster relief in the state amid record low temperatures and icy conditions.
The state’s governor, John Bel Edwards, said “extreme winter weather, including record low temperatures, snow, sleet, and freezing rain, has been destructive for many areas of Louisiana, most notably through continued power and water outages across the state.”
Some of the communities facing power outages are still recovering from the hurricanes last year. A million boil their water, and nearly half a million are without water.
The Guardian’s Erum Salam and Alexandra Villarreal are report from Texas:
Millions of Texans are facing water shortages after the deadly winter storm ravaging the state caused pipes to burst and treatment plants to back up, disrupting services and contaminating supplies.
Texas officials ordered seven million people – a quarter of the population of the nation’s second-largest state – to boil tap water before drinking it following days of record low temperatures that damaged infrastructure and froze pipes.
Almost 600 public water systems in more than 140 counties reported disruptions in service, affecting nearly 12 million people on Wednesday night, a Texas Commission on Environmental Quality spokesperson told the Texas Tribune.
As of right now, some Texans are going on their fourth consecutive day without power. Grocery stores are overwhelmed and clean, drinkable water is now scarce.
— Erum Salam (@salamdogmillion) February 18, 2021
This isn't over yet. It's bad here. https://t.co/NuOXEjHsKM
Hospitals in Austin and Houston have been among those struggling with disruption to water supplies.
“We are working with our supply chain to provide water for our patients, staff and hospital operations. We began supplementing our onsite water inventory last week, and supplies are continuing to arrive,” said David Huffstutler, CEO of St David’s HealthCare in Austin, in a statement.
“We continue to work with the City of Austin in an effort to resolve the water outage, but they have been unsuccessful in resolving the water system issue affecting service and water pressure to our hospital.”
Read more:
Rick Perry, the former Texas governor who became Donald Trump’s energy secretary, has said that Texans would willingly endure longer periods of sub-freezing temperatures if it stymied Democrats’ energy policy and efforts to combat climate change.
“Texans would be without electricity for longer than three days to keep the federal government out of their business,” Perry was quoted saying in blog post published Wednesday on the website of Republican congressman Kevin McCarthy.
The blog post had asserted that those “watching on the left may see the situation in Texas as an opportunity to expand their top-down, radical proposals. Two phrases come to mind: don’t mess with Texas, and don’t let a crisis go to waste”.
Perry’s comments come as millions of Texas are struggling with a brutal winter storm, which created a surge in demand for electricity to warm up homes unaccustomed to such extreme lows, buckling the state’s power grid and causing widespread blackouts. Frigid temperatures and snow have covered most of the central US this week, resulting in at least two dozen deaths, but Texas in particular has reeled because most of its power is on a state-run grid that has repeatedly been described as mismanaged.
Residents of the Lone Star state are lining up for grocery stores that are running out of food. Pipes have burst because of the cold, leaving residents without water to drink or prepare food. Many are scrambling to find shelter in buildings with electricity. Multiple municipalities have instituted “boil water” orders, as power outages have impacted water treatment facilities.
Meanwhile, many Texans slammed authorities for their handling of the crisis. The severe winter storm has, among some Republicans, been used to open up a new culture war around the expansion of renewable energy, which is a stated priority of the Biden administration in order to address the climate crisis.
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:
- Hundreds of thousands of people in Texas remain without power, after a winter storm caused widespread outages in the state. The White House said Fema has already sent 60 generators and 225,000 meals to Texas.
- Senator Ted Cruz confirmed that he traveled to Cancun as his constituents struggled to get their lights back on. The Texas senator is now flying back to Houston, a day after traveling to Cancun, and he claimed he only went to Mexico to drop off his daughters. According to NBC News, Cruz booked a return flight to Houston early this morning amid widespread outrage about the trip.
- Congressional Democrats introduced their sweeping immigration bill, based on the framework laid out by Joe Biden when he took office last month. The bill faces massive hurdles in the evenly divided Senate, but if passed, the legislation would provide a pathway to citizenship for millions of undocumented immigrants.
- The House is holding its hearing about the GameStop stock trading controversy. Executives from Reddit, the trading app Robinhood and investments firms involved in the stock trades are testifying before the House financial services committee.
- Nasa’s science rover Perseverance has safely landed on Mars, kicking off a mission to find traces of ancient microbial life on the planet. Scientists at Nasa’s jet propulsion laboratory near Pasadena, California, celebrated after seeing Perseverance make a safe landing.
Maanvi will have more coming up, so stay tuned.
Updated
Nasa's Perseverance rover safely lands on Mars
Nasa’s science rover Perseverance has safely landed on Mars, kicking off a mission to find traces of ancient microbial life on the planet.
Scientists at Nasa’s jet propulsion laboratory near Pasadena, California, celebrated after seeing Perseverance make a safe landing.
Touchdown confirmed. The #CountdownToMars is complete, but the mission is just beginning. pic.twitter.com/UvOyXQhhN9
— NASA (@NASA) February 18, 2021
The rover has already started sending images back from Mars’ surface, and Perseverance is also expected to collect samples of ancient sediment from Martian rock for later analysis back on Earth.
Reuters has more details on the mission:
The robotic vehicle sailed through space for nearly seven months, covering 293m miles (472m km) before piercing the Martian atmosphere at 12,000mph (19,000km/h) to begin its approach to touchdown on the planet’s surface.
The spacecraft’s self-guided descent and landing during a complex series of maneuvers that Nasa dubbed ‘the seven minutes of terror’ stands as the most elaborate and challenging feat in the annals of robotic spaceflight. ...
The landing represented the riskiest part of two-year, $2.7bn endeavor whose primary aim is to search for possible fossilized signs of microbes that may have flourished on Mars about 3bn years ago, when the fourth planet from the sun was warmer, wetter and potentially hospitable to life.
The Guardian’s Sam Levine reports:
Georgia Republicans unveiled new legislation on Thursday that would make it dramatically harder to vote in the state following an election with record turnout and surging participation among Black voters.
The sweeping measure would block officials from offering early voting on Sundays, a day traditionally used by Black churches to mobilize voters. It would place new limits on the use of mail-in ballot drop boxes, restrict who can handle an absentee ballot, and require voters to provide their driver’s license number or a copy of photo identification with their application for a mail-in ballot. It would also require voters to provide the same driver’s license information on the mail-in ballot itself or the last four digits of their Social Security Number if they do not have acceptable ID.
The bill also gives voters less time to request and return mail-in ballots and bans organizers from offering food or water to voters standing in line to cast a ballot.
Republicans pledged the changes after Joe Biden narrowly carried the state in November and Jon Ossoff and Reverend Raphael Warnock, both Democrats, won stunning upsets over Republican incumbents in November. State officials, including Republicans, have said repeatedly there was no evidence of fraud in the elections, but Republicans have vowed to impose new restrictions anyway.
Updated
According to NBC News, Ted Cruz initially planned to return from Cancun on Saturday but booked a trip back to Houston this morning, amid public outrage over the Republican senator’s trip.
NEW: Ted Cruz booked his return ticket from Cancun to Texas at 6 a.m. today, according to a source with knowledge of the situation. Cruz was initially booked to return on Saturday.
— Peter Alexander (@PeterAlexander) February 18, 2021
Cruz has said that he flew to Cancun simply to drop off his daughters, but this timeline suggests that the senator was planning on a longer vacation before news of the trip became public.
Senator Ted Cruz said he flew to Cancun to drop off his wife and daughters before flying back to Texas, where a winter storm is causing widespread power outages.
Sen. Ted Cruz at the Cancún airport:
— The Recount (@therecount) February 18, 2021
"Yesterday my daughters asked if they could take a trip with some friends, and Heidi and I agreed, so I flew down with them last night, dropped them off here and now I'm headed back to Texas."pic.twitter.com/5d8UwlmZWv
Arriving at the Cancun airport for his trip back to Houston, Cruz said that his home had been affected by the blackouts, so his family no longer had heat or power.
“Yesterday my daughters asked if they could take a trip with some friends, and Heidi and I agreed, so I flew down with them last night, dropped them off here and now I’m headed back to Texas,” Cruz told a news crew at the airport.
Some reporters noted that Cruz appeared to have a fair amount of luggage for just dropping his family off in Mexico and flying home a day later.
Big suitcase for just dropping off his girls 🤔 https://t.co/KvVgvMEms3
— Seung Min Kim (@seungminkim) February 18, 2021
Donald Trump reportedly snubbed Nikki Haley, when the former UN ambassador requested a meeting with the former president at Mar-a-Lago yesterday.
Politico’s Playbook reports:
Nikki Haley reached out to former President Donald Trump on Wednesday to request a sit-down at Mar-a-Lago, but a source familiar tells Playbook that he turned her down. The two haven’t spoken since the insurrection on Jan. 6, when Haley blasted Trump for inciting his supporters to storm the Capitol.
The snub comes less than a week after Politico published an interview with Haley, in which she said Trump had “let us down” by spreading lies about the presidential election.
“We need to acknowledge he let us down,” she said. “He went down a path he shouldn’t have, and we shouldn’t have followed him, and we shouldn’t have listened to him. And we can’t let that ever happen again.”
Trump has been lashing out against Republicans who blame him for the Capitol insurrection. After the Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell, said Trump was “practically and morally responsible” for the riot, the former president released a statement calling McConnell “a dour, sullen, and unsmiling political hack”.
Updated
Congressional Democrats introduce sweeping immigration bill
Congressional Democrats introduced sweeping legislation to overhaul the US immigration system on Thursday, saying it was time to move beyond the “hateful horror show” of the last four years.
During a press conference, Democrats, led by the chief sponsors of the bill, Congresswoman Linda Sanchez and Senator Bob Menendez, argued that after decades of failure, now was the time to pass immigration reform.
The bill, based on a framework outlined by president Joe Biden on his first day in office, offers an eight-year pathway to citizenship for many of the nation’s 11 million undocumented immigrants. It would also allow farmworkers, those with temporary protected status and Dreamers to apply immediately for citizenship.
All petitioners would have to pass background and security checks as well as pay their taxes and application fees. To avoid a surge at the border, only immigrants in the US by 1 January 2021 are eligible.
The bill faces an uphill battle in Congress, where Democrats maintain narrow majorities and Republicans have moved further right on the issue under Donald Trump. But Democrats argued on Thursday that Trump’s defeat offered a window of opportunity to move forward with a new approach after decades of failure.
“The reason we have not gotten immigration reform over the finish line is not because of a lack of will,” Menendez told reporters on Thursday. “It is because time and time again we have compromised too much and capitulated too quickly to fringe voices who have refused to accept the humanity and contributions of immigrants to our country and dismiss everything … as amnesty.”
The House budget committee has announced it will hold a markup hearing for Joe Biden’s coronavirus relief bill on Monday.
The budget panel will bind the provisions together from nine other markup hearings to create a single reconciliation bill that the full House will vote on.
Markup News: Monday, Feb. 22, @HouseBudgetDems will mark up the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. ⤵️ https://t.co/RPnO3wW9YU
— House Budget Committee (@HouseBudgetDems) February 18, 2021
The House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, said earlier today that she hoped the chamber would be able to pass the relief bill by the end of next week.
Biden is looking to sign the bill before 14 March, when expanded unemployment benefits are currently set to expire.
Updated
House holds hearing on GameStop trading controversy
The House financial services committee is currently holding a hearing about the GameStop trading controversy, which caused upheaval in US stock markets earlier this month.
Executives from Reddit, the trading app Robinhood and investment firms involved in the GameStop trades are testifying before members of Congress.
The Guardian’s Kari Paul is providing live updates and analysis of the hearing. Follow her live blog here:
South Carolina passes law banning almost all abortion
The governor of South Carolina has signed a law today that was passed in the state legislature earlier this week that outlaws almost all abortion services there. However a legal challenge followed promptly that will stop the conservative policy from taking effect.
The Associated Press reports:
The law was one of the governor, Henry McMaster’s top priorities since he took office more than four years ago. Planned Parenthood immediately sued, effectively preventing the measure from taking effect.
The “South Carolina Fetal Heartbeat and Protection from Abortion Act” is similar to abortion restriction laws that a dozen states have previously passed.
All are tied up in court. Federal law, which takes precedence over state law, allows abortion.
“There’s a lot of happy hearts beating across South Carolina right now,” McMaster said during a signing ceremony at the statehouse attended by lawmakers who made the bill a reality.
The House passed its bill by a 79-35 vote Wednesday after hours of emotional testimony from both supporters and opponents, and gave the measure final approval on Thursday.
Moments after the second vote Thursday, Planned Parenthood announced that it was filing a lawsuit, saying the law was invalid.
Like other similar laws currently being challenged, it is “blatantly unconstitutional,” said Jenny Black, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood South Atlantic.
Supporters of restrictive abortion laws are trying to get the issue before the US Supreme Court in the hopes that with three justices appointed by Republican former president Donald Trump to the court could overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision supporting abortion rights.
The Supreme Court has previously ruled that abortion is legal until a fetus is viable outside the womb months after a heartbeat can be detected, Black noted.
State bills to restrict or ban abortion “are plainly absurd,” Black said. “There is no other way around it.”
South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson issued a statement Thursday saying that his office “will vigorously defend this law in court because there is nothing more important than protecting life.”
The law would not punish a pregnant woman for getting an illegal abortion, but the person who performed the abortion could be charged with a felony, sentenced up to two years and fined $10,000 if found guilty.
Today so far
The White House press briefing concluded a short time ago with Jen Psaki pointing out that weather-affected solar and wind energy were “the least significant factors” in the power failures in Texas this week.
There will be lots more US news in the coming hours, so stay tuned. Here are some of the main events so far today:
- Texas Senator Ted Cruz confirmed that he flew to Cancun, Mexico, in the middle of the Texas deep freeze disaster, and is currently, hastily, on his way back.
- The deadly Arctic temperatures resulting from an extraordinary storm system descending on the southern plains and clobbering Texas show “that climate change is real”, the White House said at the press briefing today.
- Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) officials are speeding supplies to and around Texas, including generators and meals.
- Jobless claims rose another 13,000 last week, to 861,000, as the economy continues to struggle and Democrats advance legislation to provide relief.
- The House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, said she hoped the chamber will be voting on Joe Biden’s $1.9tn coronavirus relief package at the end of next week.
Updated
Ted Cruz confirms Mexico trip
Texas senator Ted Cruz has finally confirmed that he did fly to sunny Cancun yesterday – while Texans are dying, freezing, hungry, thirsty, huddling together at risk of coronavirus and otherwise stricken by the aftermath of climate-crisis driven Arctic temperatures as part of a huge storm system.
But his statement was likely to stir more, not less, controversy. He contradicted multiple reports that he was going there for a multi-day trip by saying he was just being “a good dad” and accompanying his daughters on a trip there, and getting ready to fly back today.
And despite dozens of deaths and the storm emergency leaving hospitals under strain and residents needing rides to warming shelters and sources of food, amid outrage at state Republican leadership and the fossil-fuel power industry, Cruz called the disaster “an infuriating week for Texans”.
New Statement from @tedcruz: pic.twitter.com/0WMni5O9R1
— Vaughn Hillyard (@VaughnHillyard) February 18, 2021
Updated
The White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, was asked about whether Joe Biden would consider trying to pass his immigration bill using reconciliation.
“We’re happy to have that conversation in the weeks ahead,” Psaki said.
During her weekly press conference today, the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, acknowledged that immigration activists would prefer for the bill to pass using reconciliation, so Democrats in the Senate can advance it without Republican support.
However, Pelosi said she did not know whether immigration bills would meet the budgetary requirements to use reconciliation.
Updated
The White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, was asked about Senator Ted Cruz’s trip to Cancun as his state grapples with a winter storm causing widespread power outages.
Psaki said she did not have any information on the whereabouts of the Republican senator.
“Our focus is on working directly with leadership in Texas and the surrounding states on addressing the winter storm,” Psaki said.
She added: “We expect that would be the focus of anyone in the state or surrounding states who was elected to represent them.”
Updated
The White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, was asked about Joe Biden’s immigration bill being introduced today.
A White House reporter noted that it is possible the package will be split into several different bills rather than being passed as one piece of legislation.
Psaki appeared open to the possibility of multiple immigration bills, saying Biden “looks forward” to working with lawmakers to advance immigration reform.
Updated
The White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, noted that Joe Biden will be joining the virtual G7 summit tomorrow, marking his first summit since becoming president.
During the summit, world leaders will discuss the coronavirus pandemic, climate change and the challenges posed by China.
Updated
The White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, has now taken over the briefing, and she was asked about Joe Biden’s infrastructure package, which he is expected to introduce after signing a coronavirus relief bill.
Psaki deflected the question, saying the president’s “sole priority” right now is to get his relief package passed.
Updated
Homeland security adviser Liz Sherwood-Randall was asked whether it was possible to connect the Texas power grid to the rest of the country.
Sherwood-Randall replied that such a plan was not “physically feasible at this time”.
The winter storm impacting the central US has caused widespread power outages across Texas, sparking criticism of the state’s independent energy grid.
Updated
Texas Arctic temperatures and severe storm show 'climate change is real' – White House
Homeland security adviser Liz Sherwood-Randall said the dire situation in Texas “demonstrate to us that climate change is real and it’s happening now and we’re not adequately prepared for it”.
Sherwood-Randall noted that Fema has already provided Texas with 60 generators, as well as 729,000 liters of water, 225,000 meals and tens of thousands of blankets.
Updated
Fema to provide 'immediate assistance' in Texas, White House says
Joe Biden’s press secretary, Jen Psaki, is now holding her daily press briefing at the White House, which is virtual because of the snow in Washington.
Psaki was joined by homeland security adviser Liz Sherwood-Randall, who addressed the winter storm that has caused widespread power outages in Texas.
Sherwood-Randall said the White House has authorized Fema to provide “immediate assistance” in Texas. The situation in Texas is improving, but Sherwood-Randall said rolling blackouts were likely to continue.
Updated
More details on Cancun-gate: Ted Cruz’s office reportedly contacted the Houston police department (HPD) to request security assistance at the airport yesterday.
The HPD told ABC News that its officers “monitored his movements through the terminal”. Cruz then boarded a flight to Cancun, as his state deals with a winter storm and widespread blackouts.
JUST IN from @houstonpolice, via @emcabcnewsprod:
— Ben Siegel (@bensiegel) February 18, 2021
"Cruz’s staff contacted HPD personnel at IAH on Wednesday ... and requested assistance upon the Senator’s arrival at the airport."
"HPD officers monitored his movements through the terminal."
Updated
Weekly jobless claims rises to 861,000 as US economy struggles
In case you missed it this morning: the number of initial weekly jobless claims in the US rose to 861,000 last week, the labor department announced.
The number represents an increase of 13,000 from the previous week, the latest sign that the US economy continues to suffer as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
Though the US unemployment rate slightly fell to 6.3% last month, nearly 10m jobs lost since the beginning of the pandemic have not yet returned.
The latest report from the labor department also shows that 18.3 million Americans are receiving unemployment benefits as of January 30.
Three-quarters of those recipients are receiving federal aid that is meant to help Americans who have hit the six-month limit on most states’ unemployment benefits programs, underscoring the grim job market many workers are facing.
That federal aid is currently expected to expire on March 14, which is why Joe Biden is pushing to get his $1.9tn relief package through Congress before then.
Updated
The Guardian’s Daniel Strauss reports:
Joe Biden and his team have promised to extend the bipartisan olive branch like no previous administration in a move that on the surface appears to match the new president’s long political history of seeking support from Republicans.
Since taking office, the Biden administration has stressed a willingness to work with Republicans on its major initiatives like a Covid relief bill. Behind the scenes, it has initiated a broad push to reach out to as many congressional offices as possible, getting in contact with both former and current Republican lawmakers and their staffs, and hosting a high-visibility meeting between almost a dozen Republican senators and Biden himself.
But, it seems that the president’s outreach – perhaps to the relief of the party’s left and observers long used to cynical Republican obstructionism – has its limits when it comes to actual decision-making.
Republicans are warning that Biden and his team may not be following up on their promises. They grumble most interactions have been at the staff level. These Republicans say that Biden’s initial flurry of executive orders issued in the earliest days of the president’s new administration suggest an underlying go-it-alone approach.
“Biden talked about unity. He had that meeting with the 10 but he is being pushed aggressively by his so-called progressives,” the former Mississippi senator Trent Lott, a Republican, said.
“His first real test will be what they wind up doing on the Covid package if they don’t agree to come down off the $1.9tn, if they don’t agree to not include things like the $15 minimum wage then it’s not going to be very bipartisan. In fact, it could fail.”
The House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, closed her weekly press conference by urging reporters to be careful as they returned home tonight because a winter storm warning has been issued in Washington.
The Democratic speaker jokingly asked reporters if they wanted any other “grandmotherly advice” before she departed.
As she wrapped up, Pelosi also commended the House impeachment managers for presenting such a strong case for convicting Donald Trump, even though the Senate ultimately acquitted the former president of incitement of insurrection.
At one point earlier in the press conference, Pelosi mentioned Trump’s name and then seemed a bit appalled that she had uttered it. “Did I say his name?” Pelosi joked.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi mentions Trump's name, then catches herself and says, “Did I say his name?” pic.twitter.com/PVMQWkrkpl
— The Recount (@therecount) February 18, 2021
Updated
The House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, was asked whether Democrats would consider passing immigration reform using reconciliation, which would mean they could pass it through the Senate without Republican support.
“Not necessarily,” she replied.
Pelosi acknowledged that many immigration activists would prefer Democrats use reconciliation for the bill, but it’s unclear whether reform proposals would meet the requirements to use the budgetary mechanism.
Joe Biden plans to formally introduce his immigration bill, which would provide a pathway to citizenship for millions of undocumented immigrants, later today.
Updated
The House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, was asked about whether she believed all teachers needed to be vaccinated before their schools can reopen.
“I want everyone to be vaccinated, and I certainly want teachers to be,” the she said. “Depending on what the situation is in their area, it may or may not be necessary.”
Joe Biden has said he wants teachers to be prioritized in vaccine distribution, but the White House has said the president agrees with the guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on safely reopening schools, which does not require all teachers to be vaccinated before in-person instruction resumes.
Updated
The House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, said Democrats have now sent their proposal to form a 9/11 commission-style panel to investigate the 6 January insurrection to Republicans for review.
“For this to work, it really has to be strongly bipartisan,” Pelosi said at her weekly press conference.
Pelosi confirmed that she consulted with the former members of the 9/11 commission to determine how the review should be conducted.
The speaker added that the commission must have subpoena power to uncover details about how the Capitol insurrection occurred.
Updated
House will vote on coronavirus relief package by end of next week, Pelosi says
The House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, said she hoped the chamber will be voting on Joe Biden’s $1.9tn coronavirus relief package at the end of next week.
“At the same time, there is communication with the Senate as to what the Byrd Rule allows,” the Democratic speaker said.
The Byrd Rule outlines what kind of proposals can be allowed in legislation being passed using reconciliation, which congressional Democrats are using to advance the relief package.
Biden has said he hopes to sign the relief package by 14 March, when expanded unemployment benefits are currently set to expire.
Updated
The House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, is now holding her weekly press conference, and she opened her comments by offering her prayers for those in Texas.
The Democratic speaker noted that her daughter is currently living in Houston and has been suffering the effects of the winter storm and the resulting blackouts in the state.
Pelosi noted that Joe Biden’s coronavirus relief package would allocate $50 billion to Fema for the agency’s disaster relief fund.
The speaker added that the House energy and commerce committee will be reviewing how the situation in Texas became so dire.
“This was in many ways, predictable,” Pelosi said.
Updated
Bob Dole announces he has stage four lung cancer
Former Senate majority leader and Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole announced that he has been diagnosed with stage four lung cancer.
“My first treatment will begin on Monday,” Dole, 97, said in a statement. “While I certainly have some hurdles ahead, I also know that I join millions of Americans who face significant health challenges of their own.”
STATEMENT BY SENATOR BOB DOLE ON HEALTH CHALLENGES pic.twitter.com/ndRxqNWb30
— Senator Bob Dole (@SenatorDole) February 18, 2021
The former Kansas senator was the Republican presidential nominee in 1996 but lost that race to Bill Clinton, who was running for his second term.
Dole has received both the Presidential Medal of freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal, the nation’s highest civilian honors.
Updated
Senator Ted Cruz will face some very angry constituents when he returns to Houston from his vacation in Cancun amid widespread blackouts in his state.
Consider this opening paragraph from a Dallas Morning News story about his trip:
As 3 million Texans shivered in the dark, Sen. Ted Cruz jetted off to Cancun with his family, outed instantly by fellow vacationers and berated by critics for abandoning constituents during an epic statewide power crisis.
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Conservative commentator Erick Erickson defended Ted Cruz’s trip to Cancun as his state faced a massive crisis and widespread blackouts by noting that the Republican senator does not oversee Texas’ power grid:
The fact that people think Ted Cruz, a United States Senator, can do anything about a state power grid, even his own, is rather demonstrative of the ignorance of so many people who cover politics. They’d rather performative drama than substance.
— Erick Erickson (@EWErickson) February 18, 2021
But as New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie responded, Cruz’s many contacts in the state could help the millions of Texans who do not have power or access to clean water right now:
through his office and campaign, ted cruz has thousands of contacts across the state and direct access to the kinds of people who can help organize and deliver relief. for someone who isn’t in the texas government itself, he is uniquely positioned to help. https://t.co/djnndcI0MS
— b-boy bouiebaisse (@jbouie) February 18, 2021
Case in point: former Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke, who ran against Cruz in 2018, organized a group of volunteers to check in on senior citizens in Texas last night. They reached more than 150,000 people and helped one man who had not eaten in two days get to a warming center.
We made over 151,000 calls to senior citizens in Texas tonight. One of our vols talked to a man stranded at home w/out power in Killeen, hadn’t eaten in 2 days, got him a ride to a warming center and a hot meal. Help us reach more people, join us tomorrow: https://t.co/WOLn2HCrm1
— Beto O'Rourke (@BetoORourke) February 18, 2021
It appears that Senator Ted Cruz may already be on his way back from Cancun today, if this airline upgrade list shared by Punchbowl News is any indication.
Here’s the upgrade list for this afternoon’s flight from Cancun to Houston.
— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) February 18, 2021
Looks like @tedcruz is on his way back, @danpfeiffer. He’s just narrowly missing the upgrade list
That’s assuming that “cru, r” is him. And I do. pic.twitter.com/CqfKa5rJfG
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Ted Cruz traveled to Cancun amid Texas storms, Fox News confirms
Fox News has confirmed that Senator Ted Cruz, a Republican of Texas, traveled to Cancun as a winter storms continues to wreak havoc in his state.
Colleague Paul Steinhauser confirms GOP TX Sen Ted Cruz traveled to Cancun amid the TX storm/power outages. GOP Source: “the photos speak for themselves”
— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) February 18, 2021
Cruz’s office has still not released an official response to the reports. Meanwhile, millions of Texans do not have power or access to clean water because of the winter storm and the resulting blackouts.
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Biden to formally unveil immigration legislation today
The Biden administration and congressional Democrats will formally unveil legislation on Thursday that would dramatically reshape the nation’s immigration laws and create a pathway to citizenship for the millions of undocumented immigrants in the United States.
After two decades of failing to advance meaningful immigration reform, Joe Biden and his allies on Capitol Hill are reviving the effort, which the new president has signaled will be a top domestic priority.
The proposal, based on the principles Biden outlined on his first day in office, will be introduced in the House by California congresswoman Linda Sánchez and in the Senate by New Jersey senator Bob Menendez, both Democrats with experience negotiating immigration legislation in Congress.
According to administration officials, eligible undocumented immigrants could apply for temporary legal status, which confers work permits and deportation relief. After five years, they could apply for a green card as part of an eight-year path to citizenship.
Some immigrants, including farmworkers, those with Temporary Protected Status and undocumented immigrants brought to the US as children, would be eligible to apply for green cards immediately, the officials said on a call with reporters on Wednesday night. After three years, they could apply to become US citizens
Meanwhile, Senator Ted Cruz, a Republican of Texas, is facing questions about his whereabouts as millions of his constituents suffer without power and without access to clean water because of the winter storm.
Photos circulated on social media yesterday that appeared to show Cruz taking a flight from Houston to Cancún amid the widespread power outages in his state.
The senator has not confirmed whether he is still in Houston, but the Texas Democratic party jumped on the potential controversy, calling on Cruz to sign:
Texans are dying and you’re on a flight to Cancun. #TedCruzRESIGN https://t.co/Is0TMQHJHP
— Texas Democrats (@texasdemocrats) February 18, 2021
Cruz’s office is not addressing questions about whether the senator is on vacation with his family, as the winter storm wreaks havoc in his state. (Public health officials have also discouraged Americans from traveling because of the coronavirus pandemic.)
According to CNN, Cruz’s office has not confirmed or denied the reports and has not responded since last night.
Cruz’s office has not responded to photos on social media showing him traveling to Cancun. They haven’t confirmed or denied anything yet, not responding since last night. Comes as residents in Texas are left without running water or power amid the winter storm.
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) February 18, 2021
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The Guardian’s Alexandra Villarreal and Erum Salam report:
Krystal Foreman’s ceiling started to crack and sag on Tuesday while inches of water, presumably from a burst pipe, cascaded down her walls and covered her floor. As Foreman’s home flooded, her heating broke, causing the indoor temperature to drop to match the frigid conditions outside.
Foreman called her complex’s emergency maintenance line five, six, maybe seven times, but no one answered. So she and her one-year-old son waited for four hours and she weighed the risks of icy roads, a deadly virus and her ravaged home. “Do I want to risk exposing us to Covid, or do I want to just wait for the ceiling to cave in?” she said.
Foreman is one of millions of Texans grappling with a blackout amid a harsh winter storm. Cold temperatures and snow have blanketed most of the central part of the country this week, claiming almost two dozen lives, but Texas has suffered some of the worst lapses in electrical power because of its mismanaged state-run grid.
Families in cities such as Austin and Houston have been enduring rolling blackouts and chaotic conditions. Lines are wrapped around grocery stores that are quickly running out of food. Water pipes are bursting in the cold, leaving people without water to drink or cook. Some are sleeping in their cars, or, like Foreman, trying to find temporary homes with electricity.
Foreman said she had tried to call and search online for hotels across Arlington or the surrounding areas, but they were all booked. She finally found an empty apartment with power where her family could stay, thanks to help from a Twitter user. “I didn’t know what else to do,” she said.
Political tensions boil over as millions remain without power in Texas
Greetings from Washington, live blog readers.
Millions of Texas residents remain without power, after an usual winter storm brought subfreezing temperatures to the region, causing widespread outages.
The suffering in the state has set off a round of finger-pointing among Texas leaders, who are eager to blame their political opponents for the prolonged blackouts.
Texas Gov. Abbott blames solar and wind for the blackouts in his state and says "this shows how the Green New Deal would be a deadly deal for the United States of America" pic.twitter.com/YfVwa3YRZQ
— Andrew Lawrence (@ndrew_lawrence) February 17, 2021
The Republican governor of the state, Greg Abbott, attempted to blame the outages on renewable energy, but Democrats, including former presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke, were eager to point out that most of the blackouts have actually been caused by failures at natural gas and coal-powered plants.
Republican Rick Perry, the former Texas governor and energy secretary under Donald Trump, also said, “Texans would be without electricity for longer than three days to keep the federal government out of their business.”
That claim struck many as tone-death, given that the winter storm has already claimed at least 20 American lives.
The political sparring comes as Texas’ status as a conservative stronghold has come into question. Trump won Texas by 6 points in November, while Mitt Romney easily carried the state by 16 points in 2012. This crisis may lead to some Texans reconsidering who should lead their state.
The blog will have more coming up, so stay tuned.
