Summary
- House minority leader Kevin McCarthy pulled all his Republican appointees from the House select committee investigating the 6 January attack on the US Capitol after House speaker Nancy Pelosi rejected two of his choices, Jim Jordan and Jim Banks. Congresswoman Liz Cheney, who was appointed to the committee by Pelosi, had strong words for McCarthy and said she supported Pelosi’s decision as one of the two that Pelosi rejected “may well be a material witness to events that led to” the attack.
- The procedural cloture vote that would have moved debate on the bipartisan infrastructure deal to the floor did not pass in the Senate, as expected. Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer voted no as well, allowing himself to bring up another vote in the future.
- Coronavirus cases have cases nearly tripled in the US over the past two weeks, according too from Johns Hopkins University.The average for daily new cases rose from 13,700 on 6 July to more than 37,000 on Tuesday.
- Four companies – AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health, McKesson and Johnson & Johnson – have agreed to pay a total of $26bn to settle a lawsuit brought by state attorney generals, releasing themselves from legal liability in the opioid epidemic. The settlement amounts to about to 4% of the companies’ annual revenue. The companies have admitted to no wrongdoing for the opioid crisis that has killed more than half a million Americans since 1999.
– Maanvi Singh and Vivian Ho
Updated
Companies reach $26b opioid settlement
Four companies – AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health, McKesson and Johnson & Johnson – have agreed to pay a total of $26b to settle a lawsuit brought by state attorney generals, releasing themselves from legal liability in the opioid epidemic.
The settlement amounts to about to 4% of the companies’ annual revenue. The companies have admitted to no wrongdoing for the opioid crisis that has killed more than half a million Americans since 1999.
“The urgency of the problem continues,” said Tennessee attorney general Herbert H Slatery III. “It’s just relentless.”
New Orleans has issued an advisory “strongly recommending” indoor masking, as coronavirus cases in the state and across the country tick up. The number of new cases reported in Louisiana today was the third-highest figure the state had seen since the beginning of the pandemic, health officials said.
“The alarming transmission data we’ve seen in the last two weeks, coupled with an inadequate vaccination rate, leaves us no choice,” said Jennifer Avegno, the director of the New Orleans Health Department. “People who continue to refuse to take the lifesaving Covid vaccine are now also putting the entire community in jeopardy. We must take action now to slow the rapid spread of the Delta variant.”
The majority of new Covid-19 cases – and 97% of hospitalizations – are among unvaccinated people, the health department said. “I’m asking every single vaccinated New Orleanian to tell their story to a family member, neighbor, or colleague: that vaccines are safe, effective, and lifesaving,” Avegno said in a statement.
Updated
Coronavirus cases have cases nearly tripled in the US over the past two weeks, the AP reports, based on data from Johns Hopkins University.
The average for daily new cases rose from 13,700 on 6 July to more than 37,000 on Tuesday.
In Louisiana, health officials reported 5,388 new COVID-19 cases Wednesday — the third-highest daily count since the beginning of the pandemic in early 2020. Hospitalizations for the disease rose to 844 statewide, up more than 600 since mid-June.
Utah reported having 295 people hospitalized due to the virus, the highest number since February. The state has averaged about 622 confirmed cases per day over the last week, about triple the infection rate at its lowest point in early June. Health data shows the surge is almost entirely connected to unvaccinated people.
“It is like seeing the car wreck before it happens,” said Dr. James Williams, a clinical associate professor of emergency medicine at Texas Tech, who has recently started treating more COVID-19 patients. “None of us want to go through this again.”
He said the patients are younger — many in their 20s, 30s and 40s — and overwhelmingly unvaccinated.
As lead pastor of one of Missouri’s largest churches, Jeremy Johnson has heard the reasons congregants don’t want the COVID-19 vaccine. He wants them to know it’s not only OK to get vaccinated, it’s what the Bible urges.
Read more:
Updated
California couple whose gender-reveal party sparked a wildfire charged with 30 crimes
A California couple has been criminally charged for their role in igniting last year’s destructive El Dorado wildfire after they used a pyrotechnic device during a gender-reveal party.
The blaze torched close to 23,000 acres (9,300 hectares), destroyed five homes and 15 other buildings, and claimed the life of a firefighter, Charlie Morton.
Refugio Manuel Jimenez Jr and Angela Renee Jimenez were indicted for 30 crimes including involuntary manslaughter, said Jason Anderson, the San Bernardino county district attorney, during a press conference. The couple pleaded not guilty and were released to await their court date.
“You’re obviously dealing with lost lives, you’re dealing with injured lives, and you’re dealing with people’s residences that were burned and their land that was burned,” Anderson said. “That encompasses a lot of, not only emotion, but damage, both financially and psychologically.”
The charges, which were based on 34 witness testimonies given to a grand jury, along with 434 exhibits presented, include one felony count of involuntary manslaughter, three felony counts of recklessly causing a fire with great bodily injury, four felony counts of recklessly causing a fire to inhabited structures and 22 misdemeanor counts of recklessly causing fire to property of another.
Along with the destroyed homes and structures, four additional residences were damaged and there were 13 injuries. Morton, who was 39 years old when he was killed, was a 14-year veteran firefighter with the San Bernardino national forest service, and served as part of an elite team that deploys across the US to fight wildland fires.
“He’s fighting a fire that was started because of a smoke bomb,” Anderson said of Morton’s death. “That’s the only reason he’s there.”
Read more:
Biden is nominating Victoria Reggie Kennedy, the widow of senator Edward Kennedy, as ambassador to Austria.
David Cohen, a former lobbyist for Comcast, is nominated as the ambassador to Canada.
Kennedy, a gun control advocate, is the president of the board and co-founder of the Edward M Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate, a non-partisan nonprofit. The president, who has seen ambassadorships as a way to reward loyalists, is also weighing nominating Caroline Kennedy, daughter of John F Kennedy, for an ambassadorship.
The White House also said Biden is nominating Jamie Harpootlian, a South Carolina attorney and spouse of a powerful South Carolina Democratic ally, state senator Dick Harpootlian, for ambassador to Slovenia.
Updated
Bernie Sanders: 'We must fight' for budget proposal
In an op-ed for the Guardian, Bernie Sanders said that while the Democrats’ budget proposal is smaller than the one he’d originally sought, it “will be the most consequential piece of legislation for working people, the elderly, the children, the sick and the poor since FDR and the New Deal of the 1930s”.
He writes:
Now is the time.
At a time when the gap between the very rich and everyone else is growing wider, when two people now own more wealth than the bottom 40% and when some of the wealthiest people and biggest businesses in the world pay nothing in federal income taxes, the billionaire class and large profitable corporations must finally start paying their fair share of taxes
Now is the time.
At a time when real wages for workers have not gone up in almost 50 years, when over half our people live paycheck to paycheck, when over 90 million Americans are uninsured or underinsured, when working families cannot afford childcare or higher education for their kids, when many Americans no longer believe their government represents their interests, the US Congress must finally have the courage to represent the needs of working families and not just the 1% and their lobbyists.
Now is the time.
At a time of unprecedented heatwaves, drought, flooding, extreme weather disturbances and the acidification of the oceans, now is the time for the US government to make certain that the planet we leave our children and future generations is healthy and habitable. We must stand up to the greed of the fossil fuel industry, transform our energy system and lead the world in combating climate change.
As chairman of the US Senate budget committee I fought hard for a $6tn budget which would address these and other long-neglected needs. Not everyone in the Democratic caucus agreed with me and, after a lot of discussion and compromise within the budget committee, an agreement was reached on a smaller number. (Needless to say, no Republicans will support legislation which taxes the rich and protects working families.)
While this budget is less than I had wanted, let us be clear. This proposal, if passed, will be the most consequential piece of legislation for working people, the elderly, the children, the sick and the poor since FDR and the New Deal of the 1930s. It will also put the US in a global leadership position as we combat climate change. Further, and importantly, this legislation will create millions of good-paying jobs as we address the long-neglected needs of working families and the planet.
Read more:
Updated
Today so far
- House minority leader Kevin McCarthy pulled all his Republican appointees from the House select committee investigating the 6 January attack on the US Capitol after House speaker Nancy Pelosi rejected two of his choices, Jim Jordan and Jim Banks.
- Congresswoman Liz Cheney, who was appointed to the committee by Pelosi, had strong words for McCarthy and said she supported Pelosi’s decision as one of the two that Pelosi rejected “may well be a material witness to events that led to” the attack.
- The procedural cloture vote that would have moved debate on the bipartisan infrastructure deal to the floor did not pass in the Senate, as expected.
Updated
Procedural vote on infrastructure bill fails in Senate
As expected, the cloture vote to move along the bipartisan infrastructure deal does not pass in the Senate.
49-51: Senate along party lines blocked Schumer's efforts to move forward with debate on the bipartisan infrastructure bill, which has yet-to-be finalized. 60 votes were needed. Majority Leader changed his vote to No to allow for another vote "at a future time." pic.twitter.com/zE95KTFKO6
— Craig Caplan (@CraigCaplan) July 21, 2021
Does this mean the end to the framework that a bipartisan group has been negotiating for months now on improving the country’s roads, bridges, public transit and broadband? No.
It’s not a great look for the Democrats, who wanted to move the bipartisan infrastructure deal along so they could turn their attention toward the reconciliation bill that focuses on the “human infrastructure” of social services and environmental measures – a bill that Republicans dislike so much because of its size that minority leader Mitch McConnell is suggesting attaching the debt ceiling to it.
It was the first test of the infrastructure deal, and it did not pass – Republicans were clear from the start that they did not want to move on a procedural vote when there wasn’t any text to the bill (there is precedent for this).
Collins says 11 Republican senators are sending Schumer a letter that they’ll be prepared to vote to start debate on infrastructure on Monday
— Igor Bobic (@igorbobic) July 21, 2021
By changing his vote tonight, however, Schumer has allowed for another vote in the future.
Infrastructure vote has failed.
— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) July 21, 2021
Schumer has voted no so he can bring it back up
Updated
Republican congresswoman Liz Cheney did not hold back on her colleagues today, as she blasted House minority leader Kevin McCarthy and his decision to remove all the Republicans that he appointed to the House select committee tasked with investigating the 6 January attack on the US Capitol.
She pointed out that one of the two Republican appointees that House speaker Nancy Pelosi rejected – Jim Banks and Jim Jordan – “may well be a material witness to events that led to” the attack.
Rep. Liz Cheney says one of the two lawmakers Speaker Pelosi rejected "may well be a material witness to events that led to" the Jan. 6 attack. https://t.co/hPo777vDoI
— Evan McMurry (@evanmcmurry) July 21, 2021
"I agree with what the Speaker has done," @Liz_Cheney tells @mkraju about the 1/6 committee, after @SpeakerPelosi blocked two GOP members who denied insurrection from serving on commission. She calls McCarthy's rhetoric: "disgraceful."
— Jeff Zeleny (@jeffzeleny) July 21, 2021
Cheney also took a moment to question McCarthy’s ability to lead the House.
NEW: Cheney says McCarthy should NOT be speaker.
— Andrew Solender (@AndrewSolender) July 21, 2021
“Any person who would be 3rd in line to the presidency must demonstrate a commitment to the Constitution and a commitment to the rule of law, and Minority Leader McCarthy has not done that.” pic.twitter.com/fpQEd1kCab
Updated
Cheney blasts GOP House minority leader over Jan 6 actions
Republican congresswoman Liz Cheney just appeared on the steps of the US Capitol to blast fellow GOPer Kevin McCarthy over his actions to remove all five of the Republicans that he’d appointed to the committee created to investigate the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol by extremist supporters of Donald Trump.
Cheney, who was ousted from her leadership post as the No. 3 Republican in the House in May over criticism of Trump’s claims that he won the 2020 election, accused McCarthy of trying to “prevent” Americans from knowing the truth of how the Capitol attack occurred.
“The American people deserve to know what happened. The people who did this must be held accountable, it must be an investigation that is sober and gets to the facts,” she said, adding that, however “at every turn the minority leader has tried to get the people not to know what happened.”
House Speaker and California Democrat Nancy Pelosi had already appointed Cheney to the committee alongside seven Democrats.
Cheney, this afternoon, then said: “This investigation must go forward. The idea that anybody would be playing politics with an attack on the United States Capitol is despicable and disgraceful.”
Liz Cheney on the Jan. 6 select committee: "This investigation must go forward. The idea that anybody would be playing politics with an attack on the United States Capitol is despicable and disgraceful."
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) July 21, 2021
Cheney, Wyoming’s GOP rep in the House and daughter of former US vice president Dick Cheney, was one of the few Republicans to vote to impeach Donald Trump for inciting the insurrection.
Updated
Representatives Jim Banks and Jim Jordan both addressed the press at the same press conference where House minority leader Kevin McCarthy discussed his decision to pull all Republicans from the House select committee investigating the 6 January attack of the US Capitol after House speaker Nancy Pelosi rejected his appointment of representatives Banks and Jim Jordan.
“This just goes to show how partisan of an exercise we said this was all along,” Banks said. “That Nancy Pelosi would take me and Jim Jordan first off of this committee and then the rest of us as well by rejecting the first two of us, she knows that we were prepared to fight to get to the truth, to find the facts about what happened on that day to make sure that January 6 would never happen again.”
The question that all of us should be asking: what is @SpeakerPelosi afraid of? pic.twitter.com/qRTnPPa0aE
— Jim Banks (@RepJimBanks) July 21, 2021
Banks claimed that Pelosi knew they were already asking “questions that Democrats have never asked about why the Capitol was vulnerable that day”.
Jim Jordan used his time at the press conference to talk about crime, border crossings and inflation before circling back and saying that the committee isn’t going to address the question of why there wasn’t a proper security presence at the Capitol that day because Democrats “normalized anarchy” all last year and talked about defunding police.
Representative Troy Nehls also spoke, saying he was ready to take his 30 years of law enforcement experience onto the committee. “I was certainly prepared to help this committee get to the truth. I wanted to get to the truth. But unfortunately Speaker Pelosi has shown that she’s more interested in playing politics,” he said.
Again: Pelosi rejected ONLY the appointments of Banks and Jordan. She was fine with Nehls, Rodney Davis and Kelly Armstrong.
House minority leader Kevin McCarthy held a press conference in which he griped about how the House select committee would no longer be able to tap into the law enforcement expertise of Republican Texas representative Troy Nehls now that House speaker Nancy Pelosi is “playing politics”.
Again: Pelosi rejected McCarthy’s appointment of representatives Jim Jordan and Jim Banks. Not Nehls - even though all three voted against the certification of the 2020 presidential election on 6 January.
“I think this is clear to the American public: this is a sham, but we are going to make sure we get to the real answers,” McCarthy said.
Jordan, who was a particularly fervent advocate of the anti-democratic propaganda campaign to undermine faith in the election results, tweeted: “Speaker Pelosi just admitted the obvious, that the January 6th Select Committee is nothing more than a partisan political charade.”
McCarthy pulls all Republicans from 6 January committee
House speaker Nancy Pelosi rejected earlier today two Republican representatives that House minority leader Kevin McCarthy appointed to the House select committee tasked with investigating the 6 January attack on the US Capitol.
Representatives Jim Jordan and Jim Banks had voted on 6 January in support of the baseless objections to the certification of the presidential election, raising questions of a conflict of interest - many who stormed the Capitol that day said they did so because they falsely believed the election was stolen.
McCarthy has just put a statement saying Pelosi’s denial of his picks represent “an egregious abuse of power and will irreparably damage this institution”.
“Unless Speaker Pelosi reverses course and seats all five Republican nominees, Republicans will not be party to their sham process and will instead pursue our own investigation of the facts.”
Unless Speaker Pelosi reverses course and seats all five Republican nominees, Republicans will not be party to their sham process and will instead pursue our own investigation of the facts.
— Kevin McCarthy (@GOPLeader) July 21, 2021
My full statement: https://t.co/RmgeBFo41j
Pelosi, for her part, did not comment on why she did not object to the third representative that McCarthy appointed who also objected to the presidential certification on 6 January - Troy Nehls.
“We have a bipartisan quorum,” she said, when asked if she was concerned about House Republicans pulling out of the committee. “We can proceed.”
Just asked Nancy Pelosi if she has any concerns that House Rs may pull out of Jan. 6 probe after she rejected Banks and Jordan. “We have a bipartisan quorum we can proceed” pic.twitter.com/Yn26wqzJTs
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) July 21, 2021
Updated
With infection rates of the highly transmissible Delta variant of the coronavirus highest where vaccination rates are the lowest, Republicans are now pushing to get the message out to their constituents that vaccines are safe and could save their lives and they should get vaccinated as soon as possible.
A Washington Post-ABC News poll found last month that while 86% of Democrats surveyed have received at least one shot of a vaccine, only 45% of Republicans have. Of those surveyed, 47% of Republicans said they weren’t likely to get vaccinated, compared to 6% of Democrats.
“It’s really not a partisan issue,” Republican Florida senator Marco Rubio said on CBS This Morning.
WATCH: Senator @MarcoRubio discusses the recent rise in COVID cases in Florida, the push to vaccinate more Americans, how he believes the U.S. should respond to unrest in Cuba and his thoughts on today's infrastructure vote. pic.twitter.com/JOc1my8CK4
— CBS This Morning (@CBSThisMorning) July 21, 2021
After delaying for months, Republican House minority whip Steve Scalise received his first jab on Sunday, telling nola.com that the vaccine was “safe and effective.” “Especially with the Delta variant becoming a lot more aggressive and seeing another spike, it was a good time to do it,” he said. “When you talk to people who run hospitals, in New Orleans or other states, 90% of people in hospital with Delta variant have not been vaccinated. That’s another signal the vaccine works.”
He then went on to say he has yet to hear Vice President Kamala Harris or Joe Biden apologize for criticizing the vaccine when Donald Trump was president (which neither of them did, exactly - they both said something along the lines of they will take the vaccine when public health professionals advise them to, but not when Trump says so. They have both since been vaccinated).
House minority leader Kevin McCarthy sparked some tempers when he appointed three Republican representatives who voted to overturn the 2020 presidential election to the House select committee investigating the 6 January attack on the US Capitol.
Many questioned if this was a conflict of interest, given that many who stormed the Capitol that day had cited this baseless objection to the certification of the presidential election as their reason for doing so.
House speaker Nancy Pelosi demurred yesterday, saying how people voted on 6 January was “not a criterion for service.” Today, however, it appears she has rejected two of McCarthy’s appointees: Jim Jordan and Jim Banks.
NEW: Speaker Pelosi (D-CA) rejects 2 of Minority Leader McCarthy (R-CA)'s picks for the Select Committee investigating January 6:
— Nathaniel Reed (@ReedReports) July 21, 2021
Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN, was selected for Ranking Member)
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) https://t.co/nfVOKHglVl
Axios is reporting that the Biden administration will not reopen the US consulate in Jerusalem until the after Israel’s new government passes a budget - likely in early November.
The House select committee is set to have its first hearing looking into the 6 January attack on the US Capitol next week, and chairman Bennie Thompson told the Guardian that “nothing is off limits”.
Thompson indicated that Donald Trump and House minority leader Kevin McCarthy are among his top witnesses.
Hugo Lowell has more here:
Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell is on the floor, throwing barbs at majority leader Chuck Schumer and the cloture vote on the bipartisan infrastructure bill.
McConnell from Senate floor on today's infrastructure bill procedural vote: "Today, the Democratic Leader appears to be intent on calling a vote he knows will fail." pic.twitter.com/ACkEKscvuX
— Craig Caplan (@CraigCaplan) July 21, 2021
McConnell: "There's no bipartisan agreement. No text...If the Democratic Leader tries to force a cloture on a bill that does not exist, it will fail. Around here, we typically write the bills before we vote on them. That's the custom."
— Craig Caplan (@CraigCaplan) July 21, 2021
McConnell: "Here in the Senate a failed cloture vote does not mean No forever...This stunt is set to fail. The Democratic Leader will be free to change his vote and move to reconsider whenever a bipartisan product actually exists."
— Craig Caplan (@CraigCaplan) July 21, 2021
We have another infrastructure update, with Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer saying the bipartisan group is “close to finishing their product”. Cloture vote at 2.30pm local time.
Schumer says the bipartisan group "is close to finishing their product" on infrastructure. Says senators should be "comfortable" moving ahead with the bipartisan bill. Reiterates that the procedural bill will come around 2:30 pm et today
— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) July 21, 2021
Meanwhile, finance committee chair Ron Wyden and senator Elizabeth Warren address the comments that minority leader Mitch McConnell made about the debt ceiling:
Wyden on @LeaderMcConnell debt limit comments in @PunchbowlNews AM: “Mitch McConnell is clearly part of an effort to hold our economy hostage. We aren't going to let anybody do that.”
— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) July 21, 2021
They said they will lift the debt limit soon. It should’ve happened “yesterday,” Wyden said. pic.twitter.com/UAF0VBVEfr
Schumer weighed in as well.
Sen. Chuck Schumer on the debt ceiling: "Leader McConnell should not be playing political games with the full faith and credit of the United States. Americans pay their debts." pic.twitter.com/6FvcQOynGi
— The Hill (@thehill) July 21, 2021
Updated
US looking to impose sanctions on Cuba for protest crackdown
Julie Chung, the acting assistant secretary for the state department’s bureau of western hemisphere affairs, just posted a series of tweets about how the US will handle the situation in Cuba.
After years of simmering tensions, Cubans have taken to the streets in protest over food shortages, high prices and communist rule. At least 140 have been disappeared or detained, and one has been killed in the demonstrations.
“At President Biden’s direction, the United States is actively pursuing measures that will both support the Cuban people and hold the Cuban regime accountable,” Chung tweeted.
Chung echoed much what White House press secretary Jen Psaki said at yesterday’s press briefing, including setting up a remittance working group to ensure that remittances - the practice of Americans transferring money to their Cuban relatives - end up in the hands of the Cuban people and not in the hands of the regime.
But in addition to augmenting staffing at the embassy in Cuba and expediting requests for humanitarian or medical supplies, Chung talked about holding Cuban officials accountable.
“We are going to focus on applying hard-hitting sanctions on regime officials responsible for the brutal crackdown,” Chung tweeted. “Cuban officials responsible for violence, repression, and human rights violations against peaceful protestors in Cuba must be held accountable.”
We are going to focus on applying hard-hitting sanctions on regime officials responsible for the brutal crackdown.
— Julie Chung (@WHAAsstSecty) July 21, 2021
Cuban officials responsible for violence, repression, & human rights violations against peaceful protestors in Cuba must be held accountable.
(6/7)
In more infrastructure news, Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell talked to Punchbowl News about the debt ceiling, which he thinks Democrats should include in the reconciliation package.
NEW: @LeaderMcConnell tells @PunchbowlNews Dems should put debt limit in reconciliation. Says he doesn’t imagine any republicans will vote to boost borrowing limit. pic.twitter.com/MuDc02FG64
— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) July 21, 2021
A two-year suspension of the debt ceiling will expire at the end of July, but McConnell said he “can’t imagine” any Republican voting to raise it in the current “environment” of Capitol Hill.
“I can’t imagine a single Republican in this environment that we’re in now - this free-for-all for taxes and spending - to vote to raise the debt limit,” McConnell told Punchbowl News. “I think the answer is they need to put it in the reconciliation bill.”
Axios is reporting that in an effort to counter Republican attacks, Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer will release a report today by Moody’s chief economist Mark Zandi that argues that the bipartisan infrastructure deal and social-spending package would help the economy.
Some key points from the report, according to Axios:
- Failing to pass the legislation “would certainly diminish the economy’s prospects,” Zandi wrote.
- Inflation concerns are “overdone.”
- “Greater investments in public infrastructure and social programs will lift productivity and labor force growth, and the attention on climate change will help forestall its increasingly corrosive economic effects,” Zandi wrote.
Today’s the day of the cloture vote on the bipartisan infrastructure deal.
Members of the bipartisan group that negotiated the deal - and are still smoothing out the last bits of pay-fors that have Republicans unhappy that they’re being rushed into a procedural vote - seem optimistic that they have the general idea, but not the text.
Infrastructure latest: A glimmer of hope?
— Christina Wilkie (@christinawilkie) July 21, 2021
“I think it may well be done tomorrow,” Romney said just now, after a mtg w WH team.
“It will be a long, long time before we actually have a full bill of text, but we may have all of the issues resolved by tomorrow,” via @JulieNBCNews
Reminder though that several Republicans balked on going forward with a vote to open debate on the floor on a bill without text, despite having done so before on the endless frontier bill in May and the AAPI hate crime bill earlier this year.
A quick recap because this is wonky and messy: there are two infrastructure bills that Democrats want to pass, the bipartisan infrastructure bill on roads, bridges, public transit and broadband that was negotiated with Republicans and Joe Biden and allegedly settled on last month - and an ambitious $3.5tn reconciliation bill that focuses on “human infrastructure” like social services and environmental measures and has drawn comparisons to the New Deal.
Most Republicans are against the reconciliation bill because of its sheer size and feel like after negotiating so long on the bipartisan framework, the Democrats tacked on the reconciliation bill as a package deal. The push by majority leader Chuck Schumer for a cloture vote today would move things along on the bipartisan bill so Democrats would be able to turn their focus on the reconciliation bill.
the infrastructure bill is both alive and dead at the same time, a feeling a lot of us can relate to
— Igor Bobic (@igorbobic) July 20, 2021
Either way, Republicans are very much against getting rushed by Schumer. Cloture requires 60 votes to pass, and while not getting the votes today doesn’t mean the end to the bipartisan deal as we know it, it would send a significant message pertaining to the Democrats’ ability to get it done.
There's a lot of drama over tomorrow's Senate vote to open debate on infrastructure. Failure doesn't mean the deal is dead—and if it collapses that won't be the reason why. Here, for instance, is the tortured path the CARES Act took to passage, including two failed cloture votes. pic.twitter.com/0DmevUqEeU
— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) July 20, 2021
Bipartisan deals fall through for a lot of reasons in the Senate but the timing of a procedural vote isn't really one of them. Much as former Majority Leader McConnell did with the CARES Act, current Majority Leader Schumer can bring it up again later if it falls short of 60.
— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) July 20, 2021
Unless there's a breakthrough tonight, it doesn't look like the infrastructure deal has the 60 votes to formally begin debate in the Senate tomorrow. Republicans say they want a finalized, agreed-to product (not necessarily completed legislative text) before they support that.
— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) July 20, 2021
Breakthrough Covid infections hit Washington amid reopening woes
What up, liveblog readers. Happy Wednesday. You’re halfway there.
We learned yesterday that a White House official tested positive for Covid-19 after coming in contact with a staffer for House speaker Nancy Pelosi who tested positive after escorting some Texas Democrats who tested positive this weekend.
All parties involved had been vaccinated. These are called breakthrough infections or breakthrough cases: when a person who has completed all recommended doses of a vaccine tests positive.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki later disclosed that there have been other breakthrough cases among White House staff, but did not have the exact number. A memo from the attending physician at the US Capitol also disclosed that “several vaccinated Congressional staff” and “one member of Congress” have tested positive.
FLASH - Several vaccinated Congressional staff (in addition to one vaccinated Member of Congress) have contracted COVID, per new memo from Office of Attending Physician at Capitol
— Scott MacFarlane (@MacFarlaneNews) July 20, 2021
He's being diplomatic, for sure.
— Scott MacFarlane (@MacFarlaneNews) July 20, 2021
But here's the in-house doctor for the US Congress urging - lobbying - deniers to get vaccinated pic.twitter.com/oPlK56CKOs
The news of these breakthrough cases in Washington comes as the highly transmissible Delta variant of the coronavirus tears through the rest of the country. The Delta variant accounts for 83% of all sequenced cases in the US, according to Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention.
Experts and officials are saying these breakthrough cases are underscoring the importance of vaccinations: everyone who has tested positive in Washington are either displaying mild or no symptoms, meaning there will be less of run on hospitals beds and medical services if more people inoculate themselves against the virus.
Infection rates are currently highest where vaccination rates are the lowest. Maya Yang has more on the Delta variant here:
