Vice President Kamala Harris waits for her own portfolio as she settles into new role
By Arlette Saenz and Jasmine Wright, CNN Vice President Kamala Harris was in the middle of an Oval Office meeting last Thursday when, before her turn to speak had come, a staffer delivered a note calling her to Capitol Hill. “She got up and left,” said one person who was in the room for the untimely departure. “She had a job to do up in the Senate.” To be sure, the job was an important one. Harris’s tie-breaking vote paved the way for Senate passage of the new Covid relief deal, an enormous win for the administration. But Harris never
Stimulus checks could come quickly, but the jobless may have a wait for unemployment benefits
By Tami Luhby and Katie Lobosco, CNN The $1.9 trillion Covid relief bill that President Joe Biden championed even before taking office is expected to land on his desk in coming days, but it could take some time for struggling Americans to see all the benefits. While the $1,400 stimulus payments could hit people’s bank accounts within days of Biden signing the bill, the extension of federal unemployment benefits as well as the enhanced child tax credit and more generous Affordable Care Act subsidies may take a few weeks — or even a few months — to arrive. The exact
One year after Ahmaud Arbery was killed, Georgia’s House passes bill to overhaul citizen’s arrest law
By Morgan Rimmer, CNN Georgia’s House of Representatives has unanimously passed a bill that would roll back citizen’s arrest law in the state. Monday’s passage of the bill came just over a year after Ahmaud Arbery was shot and killed in Brunswick, Georgia, while jogging. If HB 479 makes it through the state Senate and is signed by Gov. Brian Kemp, Georgia would be the first state in the nation to overhaul a citizen’s arrest law. Arbery, who was black, was out jogging on February 23, 2020, when Gregory McMichael and his son, who are white, chased him after him,
Biden’s Covid relief bill is huge, ambitious and about to pass
Analysis by Stephen Collinson, CNN President Joe Biden plans to use the $1.9 trillion Covid-19 relief bill expected to pass Congress on Wednesday as a platform for a generational transformation of the economy to benefit the least well-off Americans and alleviate poverty. The passage of a bill of this scale and ambition two months into any new president’s term would represent a power-affirming win. The political payoff for Biden of his first legacy achievement may be even greater. He had to navigate the measure through thin congressional majorities and a Democratic caucus riven by ideological divides — and amid the
Biden nominates two female generals to 4-star commands after promotions delayed under Trump administration
By Jason Hoffman and Barbara Starr, CNN President Joe Biden on Monday announced he has nominated two female generals to positions as 4-star combatant commanders after their promotions had been delayed under the Trump administration. The nominations of Gen. Jacqueline Van Ovost of the Air Force to commander of United States Transportation Command and Lt. Gen. Laura Richardson of the Army to commander of United States Southern Command would make them the second and third woman to lead a Combatant Command if confirmed by the Senate. Biden, during remarks on International Women’s Day at the White House on Monday, called
‘Dripping in the blood of Jim Crow’: Voting rights groups say GOP-backed bills in Georgia target Black voters
By Nicquel Terry Ellis Voting rights groups led bus tours, knocked on 1 million doors and gave out food at community events to achieve an unprecedented Black voter turnout in Georgia. The organizations have been credited with helping Democrats win both the White House and control of the US Senate in the last election cycle. Their efforts, however, could be reversed by Republican-backed bills advancing in the Georgia Legislature that activists say are reminiscent of tactics used to prevent Black people from voting in the South during the Jim Crow era. “We know that their targets are Black voters,” said
Biden eyes big win that will send checks to millions of Americans
Analysis by Stephen Collinson, CNN Joe Biden is on the cusp of a presidency-defining first 100 days victory and tens of millions of Americans could soon get stimulus checks as the $1.9 trillion Covid-19 rescue bill heads back to the House for a final vote. After a weekend of high Washington drama, which saw the President intervene to keep moderate West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin in line with his fellow Democrats and preserve their tiny Senate margin, Biden hopes to sign the massive bill into law this week. That will depend, however, on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi preserving her own
House passes bill named in honor of George Floyd aimed at preventing police misconduct
By Clare Foran, CNN The House of Representatives on Wednesday approved legislation aimed at preventing police misconduct that Democrats named in honor of George Floyd, whose death in police custody sparked nationwide calls to overhaul policing and address racial injustice. House Democrats originally introduced and passed the bill — titled the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act — last year in the wake of Floyd’s death, but it never passed in the Senate, which was under Republican control at the time. Supporters of the bill say it would improve law enforcement accountability and work to root out racial bias in
One year into the pandemic, America is still down nearly 10 million jobs
By Anneken Tappe, CNN Business The American job market is nowhere near fixed. Nearly one year into the pandemic, the nation is still down nearly 10 million jobs. Another 745,000 Americans filed for first-time unemployment benefits on a seasonally adjusted basis last week, the Labor Department reported Thursday. It was a slightly smaller number of claims than economists had expected, but it was up from the prior week. And it’s still more than three times the number of claims in the same week last year. On top of that, 436,696 workers applied for Pandemic Unemployment benefits, which are available to
Senate preparing for series of politically tough votes amid Covid relief push
By Clare Foran and Ted Barrett, CNN The Senate is bracing for a series of politically tough amendment votes Friday that could stretch late into the night and into the early hours of Saturday, the last major hurdle senators face before voting on President Joe Biden’s sweeping pandemic relief bill. The long series of amendment votes, known as a vote-a-rama, is a Senate tradition that the minority party uses to put members of the majority on the record on controversial issues in an effort to make changes to a bill that they oppose. It’ll be a major test of Democratic