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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Vivian Ho

Democrats prepare for showdown over key spending and climate bill – as it happened

Joe Biden Joe Manchin Inflation Kyrsten Sinema Joint Committee on Taxation
Joe Manchin speaks to reporters on Monday about the agreement he reached with Chuck Schumer.
Joe Manchin speaks to reporters on Monday about the agreement he reached with Chuck Schumer. Photograph: J Scott Applewhite/AP

Summary

  • Senate Democrats are working to face off on the reconciliation bill - officially known as the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. Moderate Democratic senator Joe Manchin made the rounds on all the talk shows touting the $740bn legislative package that the senate parliamentarian will go over later this week.
  • Meanwhile, John Cornyn, the Republican senator from Texas, tested positive for Covid-19. He vowed to continue fighting the reconciliation bill while in quarantine.
  • Joe Biden also remains in quarantine after testing positive again for Covid-19. Though his physician reports that he has minimal symptoms, he still continues to test positive, as expected.
  • House speaker Nancy Pelosi is in Asia and multiple news outlets are reporting that she will be including Taiwan in her itinerary. It would mark the first visit to Taiwan by a house speaker in a quarter of a century, but the White House spent the press briefing talking it down as not a big deal. “The speaker has the right to visit Taiwan, and the speaker of the House as visited Taiwan before, without any incident, as have many members of Congress, including this year,” said White House national security spokesman John Kirby. Kirby said if Pelosi does choose to visit Taiwan, her decision would have no standing on the US stance on the One China Policy that does not support Taiwan’s independence.
  • Kirby had strong words for China’s threats that its military would “not sit idly by” if the visit happened. “There is no reason for Beijing to turn a potential visit consistent with long-standing US policy into some kind of crisis or conflict or use it as a pretext to increase aggressive military activity in or around the Taiwan strait,” he said.
  • The Biden administration will authorize today a $550m security assistance package for Ukraine, bringing the total aid to $8bn.

Guy Reffitt, the first of the horde of Donald Trump supporters who stormed the US Capitol on 6 January 2021 to be convicted, has been sentenced to more than seven years in prison.

While it is the harshest sentence for any of the individuals involved in the attack on the US Capitol, it is considerably less than the 15 years the justice department had sought with the terrorism enhancement.

Senators Tim Kaine and Kyrsten Sinema - Democrats - joined with Republicans Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski to introduce the Reproductive Freedom for All Act today, legislation to codify Roe v Wade, which was recently overturned by the supreme court.

All close contacts Joe Biden had when he tested positive for Covid-19 have tested negative, said White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.

He is not experiencing any reoccurring symptoms. “He’s feeling fine,” Jean-Pierre said.

Updated

“There’s no reason for this to escalate,” White House national security spokesman John Kirby said of House speaker Nancy Pelosi and her purported Taiwan trip.

White House: Pelosi 'has not confirmed any travel plans' regarding Taiwan

While House speaker Nancy Pelosi “has not confirmed any travel plans” regarding a decision to visit Taiwan on her trip to Asia, “we have been clear from the very beginning that she will make her own decisions and that Congress is an independent branch of government,” said White House national security spokesman John Kirby

“Our Constitution embeds a separation of powers,” Kirby said. “This is well known to the (People’s Republic of China), given our more than four decades of diplomatic relations. The speaker has the right to visit Taiwan, and the speaker of the House as visited Taiwan before, without any incident, as have many members of Congress, including this year.”

Pelosi visiting Taiwan on this trip won’t change anything, Kirby said.

“Nothing has changed about our One China Policy,” Kirby said. “We have repeatedly said that we oppose any unilateral changes to the status quo from either side. We do not support Taiwan independence and that we expect cross-strait differences to be resolved by peaceful means.”

Kirby had strong words for China’s threats that its military would “not sit idly by” if the visit happened. Even before Pelosi arrived in the region, China conducted a live-fire exercise, and Kirby said that China appears to be positioning itself to potentiallhy take further steps in the coming days, be they military provocations, air or naval activities or military exercises.

“There is no reason for Beijing to turn a potential visit consistent with long-standing US policy into some kind of crisis or conflict or use it as a pretext to increase aggressive military activity in or around the Taiwan strait,” he said.

“We will not take the bait or engage in sabre rattling. At the same time, we will not be intimidated. We will keep operating in the seas and the skies in the western Pacific, as we have for decades. We will continue to support cross-strait peace, stability, support Taiwan, defend a free and open Indo-Pacific, and we’re still going to seek to maintain lines of communication with Beijing. All of that is important and all of that is preserving the status quo.”

Biden to authorize $550m security assistance package to Ukraine

White House national security spokesman John Kirby kicked off today’s press briefing by celebrating the first ship to successfully leave the port of Odessa in Ukraine carrying agricultural exports and announcing a $550m security assistance package for Ukraine.

The ship was allowed out under a recent deal brokered between the United Nations, Turkey, Ukraine and Russia to allow for Ukraine, Europe’s breadbasket, to export some of its agricultural products as a way to ease the world’s food insecurity crisis. Previously, Russia had a blockade on Ukraine’s ports since the start of its invasion. .

“We urge Russia to meet its commitments under this new arrangement, including by facilitating unimpeded exports of agriculture products from Black Sea ports in order to ease the food insecurity around the world,” Kirby said. “We will be watching that closely.”

The $550m security assistance package stems from the president’s drawdown authority, bringing the total to $8bn that Joe Biden has drawn down for Ukraine since the Russia invasion began, Kirby said.

Karine Jean-Pierre and John Kirby at the briefing.
Karine Jean-Pierre and John Kirby at the briefing. Photograph: Win McNamee/Getty Images

Updated

The Associated Press is reporting that the North Carolina state board of elections voted unanimously today to recognize the Green Party as a new political party, reversing a previous decision to reject the party’s petition while the board investigated the signature sheets for fraud.

The North Carolina Green Party has submitted more than enough signatures validated by both the state and county elections boards to earn immediate recognition, Katelyn Love, the board’s legal counsel, said. But Green Party candidates still face an ongoing legal battle to appear on the November ballot after the state board’s initial rejection of the petition led the party to miss the 1 July deadline.

The elections board’s Democratic majority previously rejected the Green Party petition in a 3-2 vote on 30 June, citing petition sheets with nearly identical handwriting as well as incomplete personal information, duplicate names and deceased signatories.

The Green Party sued the board on 14 July, alleging Democratic interference in the petitioning process and asking the court to reverse the board’s decision.

The board filed a response to the lawsuit on Friday, opposing the Green Party’s demand that a judge order the board to include its candidates on the ballot. The board agreed the court should extend the candidate filing deadline should the party earn official recognition at Monday’s board meeting, the brief states.

Democrats have warned that Green Party certification could divide progressive voters and clear a path for Republican victories in key races — particularly the tight US senate race between Democrat Cheri Beasley and Trump-endorsed Republican congressman Ted Budd. Prior to the board’s initial vote, the Democratic senatorial campaign committee acknowledged contacting signers of the Green Party’s petition to request they remove their names.

K Ryan Parker, a plaintiff in the Green Party lawsuit, called the board’s decision “a welcome surprise and a huge win for democracy,” which he believes was prompted by the recent onslaught of media attention and a desire to settle the matter outside federal court.

“It doesn’t change the fact that the Democratic party attempted to disenfranchise North Carolina voters like me by hiring operatives to call, text and visit voters in their home, attempting to compel them to remove their signatures from the petition,” Parker said in an interview Monday. “And it doesn’t change the fact that this two-party system, this duopoly, has failed us at every turn and continues to force voters into a dilemma every four years of voting for a lesser evil.”

Updated

Tomorrow’s a big primary day in a lot of states, and one big race to watch is the Missouri senate Republican primary.

With Republican senator Roy Blunt retiring, basically everybody and their neighbor has come out to vie for his seat. Eric Greitens, the former governor of Missouri, initially held the lead, but he has been dogged by scandal after scandal, with his ex-wife alleging that he abused her and their child and a woman accusing him of sexually and physically abusing her and then threatening to release nude photos of her if she told anyone.

Cornyn tests positive for Covid-19

John Cornyn, the Republican senator from Texas, has tested positive for Covid-19.

Cornyn will be quarantining during a very crucial week for Senate Democrats. They want to pass the reconciliation bill - officially known as the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 - and once it gets past the senate parliamentarian, they need just a narrow majority to do so.

Blinken urges return to 2015 nuclear deal

Antony Blinken, secretary of state, said at global nonproliferation discussions at the United Nations today that a return to the 2015 nuclear deal remains the best outcome for the United States, Iran and the world.

Reuters is reporting that Blinken made a point to repeat a warning from the US that North Korea is preparing to conduct its seventh nuclear test.

Blinken’s statements came after Joe Biden said that the US was ready to outline a new nuclear arms deal with Russia and called on Moscow to demonstrate its ability to negotiate in good faith at the talks that began on Monday.

Tony Blinken at the UN on Monday.
Tony Blinken at the UN on Monday. Photograph: David Dee Delgado/Reuters

Updated

Senator Lindsey Graham is challenging a subpoena to testify before the grand jury investigating whether Donald Trump and his cohorts broke any laws when they tried to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in Georgia that gave Joe Biden the clear victory.

The Associated Press is reporting that Graham, the Republican senator from South Carolina, received a subpoena on 26 July ordering him to appear before the special grand jury to testify on 23 August.

Graham has repeatedly said that he would fight the subpoena, and has denied meddling in Georgia’s election. But Fani Willis, the district attorney for Georgia’s Fulton county, wrote in a court filing earlier this month that wrote that Graham made at least two telephone calls to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and members of his staff in the weeks after Trump’s loss to Biden, asking about reexamining certain absentee ballots “to explore the possibility of a more favorable outcome for former president Donald Trump.”

Willis has called her investigation just one part in “a multi-state, coordinated plan by the Trump campaign to influence the results of the November 2020 election in Georgia and elsewhere.”

When he made those calls to Raffensperger, Graham “was engaged in quintessentially legislative fact-finding — both to help him form election-related legislation, including in his role as then-chair of the judiciary committee, and to help inform his vote to certify the election,” his lawyers wrote in a court filing on Friday.

Graham’s lawyers cite a provision of the Constitution that they say “provides absolute protection against inquiry into senator Graham’s legislative acts.” They also argue “sovereign immunity” prevents a local prosecutor from summoning a senator “to face a state ad hoc investigatory body.” And they claim that Willis has failed to demonstrate “the extraordinary circumstances’ necessary to order a high-ranking federal official to testify.”

Lindsey Graham at the America First Agenda summit Washington last week.
Lindsey Graham at the America First Agenda summit Washington last week. Photograph: Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Updated

Eric Adams, mayor of New York, has just declared a local state of emergency due to monkeypox.

The city now has more than 1,200 reported cases. The declaration of a state of emergency will allow the mayor to “suspend local laws, and enact rules, as necessary, to protect the well-being and health of all New Yorkers”, his office said.

New York now joins San Francisco, whose mayor, London Breed, declared a state of emergency over monkeypox last week. According to the Centers for Disease Contol, there are 5,189 reported cases so far in the US.

Dr Kevin O’Connor, the physician to the president, has provided another update on Joe Biden as he continues to recover from Covid-19:

“The president continues to feel well as he starts his week,” O’Connor’s update begins. “Given his rebound positivity which we reported Saturday, we continued daily monitoring.”

As anticipated, O’Connor said, Biden’s antigen testing this morning remained positive, prompting him to continue practicting his strict isolation measures.

Joe Biden is returning to isolation in the White House.
Joe Biden is returning to isolation in the White House. Photograph: Samuel Corum/AFP/Getty Images

“He will continue to conduct the business of the American people from the executive residence,” O’Connor wrote. “As I have stated previously, the president continues to be specifically conscientious to protect any of the executive residence, White House, Secret Service and other staff whose duties require any (albeit socially distanced) proximity to him.”

Updated

The sentencing is underway for Guy Reffitt, the first of the horde of Donald Trump supporters who stormed the US Capitol on 6 January 2021 to be convicted.

The Texas Three Percenter faces up to 15 years in prison for his involvement in the US Capitol attack. Reffitt’s wife, said in a letter submitted to the judge her family “needs Guy home to fully heal”. The justice department is seeking the longest sentence for Reffitt possible, using a terrorism enhancement.

Guy Reffitt, the first of the horde of Donald Trump supporters who stormed the US Capitol on 6 January 2021 to be convicted, is set to be sentenced this morning.

The justice department is seeking for Reffitt to receive 15 years for his involvement in the attack on the Capitol.

Reffitt’s wife arrived in court alongside the mother of Ashlii Babbitt, the Trump supporter fatally shot by a police officer in the Capitol during the attack.

Updated

House speaker Nancy Pelosi is in Singapore today:

Meanwhile, Tingting Liu, a foreign affairs correspondent with the Taiwanese news channel TVBS, reported that sources had told her Pelosi will be arriving in the capital Taipei on Tuesday night. CNN cited a senior Taiwanese government official and US official in reporting that the visit is expected to go ahead.

Read more here:

Also up in the senate this week: a possible vote early this week on the Honoring our Pact Act, bipartisan legislation that would make it easier for veterans to access military care related to exposure to Agent Orange in Vietnam and toxins from burn pits used to get rid of military waste in Iraq and Afghanistan.

If you’ll recall, there was widespread anger last week after Senate Republicans abruptly halted a procedural vote to advance the legislation.

Now it appears that the bill is heading back out again:

Setting the stage for a week full of reconciliation talk, Joe Biden tweets his support for the reconciliation bill - officially known as the Inflation Reduction Act - from quarantine.

Punchbowl News pointed out in this morning’s newsletter that the Joint Committee on Taxation disproved Biden’s promise to never to raise taxes on any Americans making less than $400,000 annually - the Joint Committee on Taxation estimated that the bill has about $16.7bn worth of tax increases for this demographic.

“The mislabeled ‘Inflation Reduction Act’ will do nothing to bring the economy out of stagflation and recession, but it will raise billions of dollars in taxes on Americans making less than $400,000,” said Idaho senator Mike Crapo, the top Republican on the senate finance committee.

Democrats have responded that the JCT analysis failed to factor in several elements of the legislation. “A family making less than $400,000 will not pay one penny in additional taxes under the Inflation Reduction Act,” said Ashley Schapitl, a spokesperson for senate finance committee Democrats. “The analysis Republicans are pointing to is also incomplete. It doesn’t include the benefits to middle-class families of making health insurance premiums and prescription drugs more affordable. The same goes for clean energy incentives for families.”

Democrats prepare for showdown over key spending bill

Greetings, live blog readers. Happy Monday. Let’s see what we have in store today.

We start the week off with Joe Biden in quarantine after testing positive for Covid-19 again and the House in recess – and Senate Democrats moving forward with the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, aka, the reconciliation bill.

This is the $740bn legislative package that Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer and moderate Democratic senator Joe Manchin have agreed upon. The hefty bill seeks to enact deficit reduction to fight inflation, lower energy costs, reduce carbon emissions by roughly 40% by 2030 and allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices, among other things.

The process of reconciliation is essentially a way for Congress to enact legislation on taxes, spending and the debt limit with only a majority in the Senate. It’s a way to avoid the threat of a filibuster, a tactic requiring a 60-vote majority that Senate Republicans in this particular Congress have used time and time again to stymy the Biden legislative agenda.

Reconciliation is not without its own difficulties, however. This week, Senate Democrats must meet with the Senate parliamentarian, who will parse through the text of the bill to make sure it meets all the rules of what’s allowed within the scope of reconciliation.

Politico is also reporting that it’s unclear if the Democrats may even have everyone on board when it comes to a majority vote. Kyrsten Sinema, the other moderate Democratic senator who has been complicating matters for the White House, was purportedly caught unaware by the announcement of the bill.

“Kyrsten Sinema is a friend of mine, and we work very close together. She has a tremendous, tremendous input in this legislation,” Manchin said on Meet The Press.

More to come.

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