Biden to lay out first piece of sweeping infrastructure and jobs package Wednesday
By Phil Mattingly President Joe Biden will lay out the first of a sweeping two-pronged infrastructure and jobs proposal Wednesday, with the administration launching its expected months-long effort to pass proposals that will total between $3 trillion and $4 trillion, according to senior administration officials. Biden, who will detail the infrastructure and climate piece of the proposal in Pittsburgh, is set to focus on repairing the physical infrastructure of the country while pushing for significant investments in climate infrastructure and research and development. “The President has a plan to fix our infrastructure and a plan to pay for it,” White
For Black Georgians, voting restrictions are more of the same. These slave narratives prove it
By Eva Rothenberg Georgia’s controversial sweeping elections bill has been signed into law. And historians and critics are likening the measures to the start of a new Jim Crow era, saying it’s a direct attack on the right to vote for Black Georgians in future elections. According to Adrienne Jones, a political science professor at Morehouse College in Atlanta, firsthand accounts of slavery and Jim Crow America are a reflection of where our democracy could be headed if voting restriction laws keep being passed in state legislatures around the country. “Reading slave narratives, you’re experiencing the lives of people who
After two months in office, Kamala Harris is still living out of suitcases — and she’s getting frustrated with it
By Kate Bennett It has been more than two months since Kamala Harris was sworn in as vice president of the United States, a historic moment for the country, as Harris is the first woman and the first woman of color to hold the second highest office in the land. Yet, Harris — along with her husband, Georgetown Law professor Douglas Emhoff — is still, ostensibly, living out of suitcases, unable to move into the private residence reserved for the vice president because it’s still undergoing renovations. It’s unclear why the renovations are taking so long, said one administration official,
Warnock invokes Biblical story to describe GOP efforts to roll back voting rights in Georgia
By Devan Cole President Joe Biden and other Democrats could tackle both voting rights and infrastructure legislation at the same time, Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock insisted Sunday, while White House shifts its focus to the country’s infrastructure as his home state of Georgia has enacted a strict new voting law. “We can walk and chew gum at the same time. We’ve got to work on the infrastructure of our country — our roads and our bridges — and we’ve got to work on the infrastructure of our democracy,” the Georgia senator told CNN’s Dana Bash on “State of the Union”
Biden’s infrastructure plan is about to put his bipartisan appeal to the test
Analysis by Paul LeBlanc With some wind in his sails from the massively popular Covid relief package, President Joe Biden’s next big legislative push — a sweeping infrastructure plan — is set to bring a far more challenging bipartisan test in the coming weeks. The “Build Back Better” infrastructure proposal that White House aides are putting together would be segmented into two separate parts — one focused on infrastructure and clean energy, and a second focused on what’s being termed the “care economy” with a focus zeroed in on key domestic economic issues. In full, it would mark a sweeping
Biden says US faces battle to ‘prove democracy works’
By Nicole Gaouette President Joe Biden cast challenges to the US from China, Russia and global shifts in stark terms Thursday, describing “a battle between the utility of democracies in the 21st century and autocracies.” The President underscored that the United States faces an unprecedented array of tests, with Beijing posing what might be the trickiest strategic challenge of all. As global freedoms ebb, groundbreaking technological shifts are disrupting economies and climate change is posing an existential threat, all while Moscow continues challenging the West and an increasingly aggressive Beijing seeks to become — in Biden’s words Thursday — “the
Biden assigning Harris to lead diplomatic efforts in Central America to address immigration
By Kevin Liptak and Jasmine Wright President Joe Biden is tasking Vice President Kamala Harris with overseeing efforts with Central American countries to stem the flow of migrants to the US southern border, the first major issue Biden has assigned directly to his No. 2. “I asked her, the VP, today, because she’s the most qualified person to do it, to lead our efforts with Mexico and the Northern Triangle, and the countries that can help, need help in stemming the movement of so many folks, stemming the migration to our southern border,” Biden told reporters ahead of an immigration
Ford Credit and Ford Motor Company take on Congressional HBCU Partnership Challenge
Ford Motor Company and Ford Motor Credit Company are taking part in the Congressional HBCU Partnership Challenge, which is designed to promote corporate engagement and support for HBCUs. The main goal of the initiative is to help students develop new career opportunities and to improve diversity and inclusion across all industries. Emphasis will also be placed on building stronger relationships with HBCUs and expanding current ones. “We are thrilled to join the HBCU Partnership Challenge,” Ford Credit CEO Marion Harris said. “As part of our commitment to treating customers like family, our company makeup needs to look more like the
One of the largest civil rights cases in history is settled by Maryland Governor Larry Hogan
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan has settled a 15-year-old federal discrimination lawsuit. The bill will give $577 million over the next ten years to the state’s four HBCUs — Bowie State University, Coppin State University, the University of Maryland Eastern Shore and Morgan State University. Hogan had previously vetoed a similar bill, attributing his decision to the economic issues caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. He will sign the bill Wednesday afternoon, alongside lawmakers, at Bowie State University. Payments in regard to this settlement, however, will not begin until 2023. The lawsuit was originally filed in 2006 by the NAACP. HBCUs claimed
Biden announces $81 billion for schools as part of Covid-19 relief law
By Betsy Klein President Joe Biden announced the release of $81 billion in funding from the Covid-19 relief law for school reopening Wednesday, part of the administration’s efforts toward getting the majority of schools opened in his first 100 days in office and addressing inequity caused by the pandemic. “I’m really proud to announce that starting today, states will begin receiving nearly $130 billion in school funding that we included in the American Rescue Plan. In fact, $81 billion of those dollars will be arriving today to those schools,” Biden said during a virtual summit on school reopening hosted by