Democrats’ proposal to establish a national paid family and medical leave program has likely been cut from the reconciliation package, according to multiple reports. If the proposal is eliminated, it will almost certainly outrage advocates who have noted that the US woefully trails its peer nations when it comes to providing paid leave to its citizens.
Centrist Senator Joe Manchin voiced criticism of Democrats’ proposed tax on billionaires to help pay for the reconciliation package. “I don’t like it. I don’t like the connotation that we’re targeting different people,” Manchin said of the proposal, which would impact only 700 US taxpayers.
Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer said Democrats are “within arm’s length” of a deal on the reconciliation package. “We are hopeful that we can come to a framework agreement by the end of today,” the Democratic leader said this morning. But as Manchin’s comments demonstrate, there are several important outstanding issues about what to include in the bill and how to pay for it.
House speaker Nancy Pelosi has scheduled a rules committee hearing tomorrow to discuss the Build Back Better agenda. The hearing seems to be Pelosi’s attempt to advance the negotiations, as Democrats look to finalize the deal before Joe Biden leaves for Europe tomorrow.
The standoff over whether to include the paid leave provision in the Democrats’ reconciliation bill continues...
Alex Bolton of the Hill reports that Patty Murray, a Democratic senator of Washington, has convinced West Virginia’s Joe Manchin to reconsider his hard stance against including the paid family and medical leave.
Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) says paid family is NOT out of the package. She just had a convo with Manchin on it and he said he’d keep an open mind.
Iran says it will resume nuclear negotiations by end of November
Patrick Wintour
Iran has said it will return to talks with world powers aimed at reviving a 2015 nuclear deal by the end of November, the first time it has set a date for the resumption of the long delayed talks.
Iran’s new nuclear negotiator Ali Bagheri Kani broke the news on Twitter on Wednesday after holding talks with his EU counterparts in Brussels.
“Had a very serious & constructive dialogue with @enriquemora_ on the essential elements for successful negotiations. We agree to start negotiations before the end of November,” he wrote after meeting EU officials in Brussels.
He added: “Exact date would be announced in the course of the next week.”
The Vienna talks broke off in June at the time of the Iranian presidential elections.
Progressive representative Pramila Jayapal said there are more than 40 Congressional Progressive Caucus members who will only approve the bipartisan infrastructure bill in tandem with the social infrastructure reconciliation package.
With negotiations ongoing, and time crunched, she said members are likely to accept a House vote on the bill before the Senate voting on it first, my colleague Lauren Gambino reports fromo DC:
Jayapal says there are 40+ CPC members who will only vote for both bills together. But she believes members will accept a House vote without a Senate vote first. "We will take the president's word...that the Senate will pass the same bill without any changes." https://t.co/xhR0espMnt
“After talking to the president, I believe that if all the senators are agreeing to not change the bill from what we pass in the House, that we should take the president’s word that he’s got that commitment, and so we’re willing to do that,” Jayapal, the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, told reporters.
These Trump fans were at the Capitol on 6 January. Now they’re running for office
Adam Gabbatt
One of the candidates filmed himself on the Capitol steps. Another clambered over scaffolding and waved others forward towards the building. Still more were outside, milling around and protesting against the lawful election of Joe Biden.
Of the thousands of diehard Trump supporters who gathered in Washington on 6 January, some are now beginning to emerge as Republican candidates for national and local office.
The electoral chances of each person vary, but they add to the extremist political landscape, ahead of midterm elections in 2022 that could potentially see Democrats lose the House of Representatives.
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:
Democrats’ proposal to establish a national paid family and medical leave program has been cut from the reconciliation package, according to multiple reports. If the proposal is eliminated, it will almost certainly outrage advocates who have noted that the US woefully trails its peer nations when it comes to providing paid leave to its citizens.
Centrist Senator Joe Manchin voiced criticism of Democrats’ proposed tax on billionaires to help pay for the reconciliation package. “I don’t like it. I don’t like the connotation that we’re targeting different people,” Manchin said of the proposal, which would impact only 700 US taxpayers.
Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer said Democrats are “within arm’s length” of a deal on the reconciliation package. “We are hopeful that we can come to a framework agreement by the end of today,” the Democratic leader said this morning. But as Manchin’s comments demonstrate, there are several important outstanding issues about what to include in the bill and how to pay for it.
House speaker Nancy Pelosi has scheduled a rules committee hearing tomorrow to discuss the Build Back Better agenda. The hearing seems to be Pelosi’s attempt to advance the negotiations, as Democrats look to finalize the deal before Joe Biden leaves for Europe tomorrow.
Democrats appeared on the verge of clinching more than $500 billion in new money to combat climate change, even as they continued to hammer out some of the specifics. Some felt they were also close to a temporary program to expand Medicaid coverage for low-income Americans. Even before Wednesday, the party had neared consensus over a slew of other programs to aid families, including expanded tax credits for parents and new, free and universal prekindergarten for their children.
But the prospects of a deal also forced Democrats to begin to accept difficult trade-offs, as many initiatives were scaled back or jettisoned as a result of demands from [centrist holdouts Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema].That included a promise to provide paid family and medical leave to millions of Americans, which appeared to fall out of the bill entirely, according to two people familiar with the matter who requested anonymity to describe the talks. They noted negotiations remain ongoing.
As I reported back in May, the US trails its peer nations in providing paid leave to its citizens. The US is the only high-wealth country without guaranteed paid maternity leave, and it is one of just two such nations without a paid sick leave guarantee.
Here is my report from May about paid leave advocates demanding change at the national level:
Senate finance committee chair Ron Wyden insisted the proposed billionaire tax in the reconciliation package is not dead (or not dead yet at least).
There had been suggestions that the proposal had already been eliminated due to criticism from Senator Joe Manchin and concerns from House Democrats about how to craft the proposal at this late stage of negotiations.
But Wyden told reporters that the tax is still a possibility, and there will be a briefing on the proposal tonight for Democratic staffers, per Punchbowl News.
Wyden tells reporters that the billionaire income tax is NOT dead, in his opinion. Says no Dem senator has come to him and said billionaires shouldn’t pay their fair share in taxes.
Adds there’s a briefing on the proposal for staff tonight.
A Wall Street Journal reporter spotted Senate budget committee chairman Bernie Sanders leaving the White House after meeting with Joe Biden to discuss the reconciliation package.
Sanders’ meeting with Biden comes amid discussions about eliminating the proposed tax on billionaires in the bill due to criticism from Senator Joe Manchin.
Asked about the negotiations earlier today, Sanders told NBC News, “Every sensible revenue option seems to be destroyed.”
I asked @SenSanders if there will be an agreement on the reconciliation package today or a vote on BIF this week.
“I don’t think so… Every sensible revenue option seems to be destroyed.” He said every “progressive” option has been “sabotaged.”
The people shot by Kyle Rittenhouse in Kenosha, Wisconsin, last August cannot be referred to as “victims” by prosecutors in court, a judge ruled on Monday.
Defense attorneys may, however, call them “arsonists” or “looters”, the judge said.
“The word ‘victim’ is a loaded, loaded word. And I think ‘alleged victim’ is a cousin to it,” said Judge Bruce Schroeder on Monday.
“Let the evidence show what the evidence shows. And if the evidence shows that any or more than one of these people were engaged in arson, rioting or looting – then I’m not going to tell the defense they can’t call them that,” he added, ahead of what is expected to be a contentious trial starting next week.
In response to Schroeder’s ruling on Monday, assistant district attorney Thomas Binger said that he was creating a “double standard”, saying: “If I were to count the number of times that you’ve admonished me not to call someone a victim during a trial, it would be in the thousands.”
“The terms that I’m identifying here, such as ‘rioters’, ‘looters’, ‘arsonists’, are as loaded, if not more loaded, than the term ‘victim’,” Binger added.
Congressional Progressive Caucus chair Pramila Jayapal told reporters that at least three dozen of her members want to see a vote on the reconciliation package before supporting the infrastructure bill.
“And that number is only increasing,” Jayapal said, per Politico.
Uht oh.
Jayapal to reporters:
"Right now, there are over three dozen members who feel strongly" about getting a vote, not just framework.
Jayapal’s comments will likely disappoint House speaker Nancy Pelosi, who is urging House Democrats to “have trust and confidence in an agreement for the Build Back Better Act” in order to pass the infrastructure bill.
If the House cannot pass the infrastructure bill this week, they will need to approve some kind of short-term spending proposal for highway construction, as those funds are expected to run out at the end of the month.
Pelosi schedules House committee hearing on Build Back Better agenda
House speaker Nancy Pelosi has scheduled a rules committee hearing tomorrow on Joe Biden’s Build Back Better agenda, as Democrats continue their negotiations over the reconciliation package.
The hearing appears to be Pelosi’s attempt to advance the reconciliation bill negotiations, and the speaker said in a “Dear Colleague” letter that Democrats are “close to agreement on the priorities and the topline of the legislation”.
“At the same time, we are facing a crucial deadline for the Bipartisan Infrastructure Framework to pass,” Pelosi said in the letter. “To do so, we must have trust and confidence in an agreement for the Build Back Better Act.”
House progressives had previously indicated they would not support the bipartisan infrastructure bill until the reconciliation package gets a vote as well.
Progressive congresswoman Cori Bush reiterated yesterday that an agreement on the framework of the reconciliation package was insufficient to gain her support on the infrastructure bill.
