Senate close to COVID-19 aid deal; global funds in question
Senators negotiating a COVID-19 supplemental funding package have an “agreement in principle” to provide roughly $10 billion for the Department of Health and Human Services to stock up on waning domestic supplies for combating the virus, according to Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo.
Blunt, the top Republican on the Senate Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Subcommittee, said both parties have tentatively agreed to offsets for the $10 billion that would repurpose unspent funds from prior pandemic relief laws.
The offsets negotiators agreed to include $2.2 billion from unused grant funds for venues like zoos and theaters and $2 billion in untapped assistance to the aviation and manufacturing industry, Blunt said. His comments to reporters came after a Republican Conference lunch in which lead GOP negotiator Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah briefed his colleagues on the agreement in principle.
The agreement, if it holds, would likely leave out $5 billion in foreign assistance from the $15.6 billion total congressional leaders had previously agreed to in negotiations over the fiscal 2022 omnibus funding package. The COVID-19 supplemental was stripped out of the omnibus after some Democrats objected to $7 billion in state aid that was being tapped for one of the offsets, and lawmakers have spent the past few weeks negotiating a new package of offsets.
—CQ-Roll Call
State Department to allow American citizens ‘X’ gender on passports
American citizens who do not fit into traditional male or female gender roles will be permitted to choose a third option on their U.S. passports.
Starting April 11, applicants who consider themselves transgender, non-binary or others who do not conform to traditional gender definitions can select “X” as an option on their passports.
“The Department of State has reached another milestone in our work to better serve all U.S. citizens, regardless of their gender identity,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said.
The official designation on passport forms will read: “Unspecified or another gender identity.”
“This definition is respectful of individuals’ privacy while advancing inclusion,” Blinken said.
Blinken said that the “X” designation will be available on other government documents in 2023.
—New York Daily News
Permit OK'd for Confederate Memorial Day event at Stone Mountain Park
ATLANTA — The Sons of Confederate Veterans plan to return to Stone Mountain Park next month for their (mostly) annual celebration of Confederate Memorial Day.
State officials denied the Confederate group's request to gather for a ceremony last year, citing the possibility of "a clear and present danger to public health or safety" among the reasons.
But records obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution showed this year's permit application — submitted by Richard K. Straut, a SCV representative who's also running for a seat in the Georgia state Senate — was approved earlier this month.
Activists called the Stone Mountain Memorial Association allowing the event a "tone deaf" decision for a state entity that's purportedly taking steps to soften its ties to the Confederacy.
Memorial association CEO Bill Stephens, meanwhile, said the Sons of Confederate Veterans have gathered for years in front of the mountain and its massive carving of Jefferson Davis, Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee. The event is usually "small and respectful" and "pre-event news coverage" and social media have more recently inflamed tensions, he said.
He also reiterated that COVID-19 was a factor in last spring's permit denial.
—The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Macron warns against complacency as support for far-right grows
PARIS — Ten days before the presidential elections get under way in France, French President Emmanuel Macron issued a warning on Thursday about rising support for the country's far-right.
"There is a pair is advancing with radical right-wing ideology," Macron said, in a reference to the far-right candidates Marine Le Pen and Éric Zemmour.
Recent polls suggest that Macron is in line for a second term with predictions he will win 28% to 28.5% of the vote in the first round of voting, ahead of his closest challenger Le Pen, who is predicted to receive 20% to 21% of the vote.
However, Le Pen has been gaining ground in the final weeks of the campaign and is steadily narrowing the gap between her and Macron, who has seen a slight drop-off in support.
Given his current efforts to find a peaceful solution to the war in Ukraine, Macron has not fully devoted his time to the election campaign.
-dpa
