Kamala Harris broke a Senate tie to begin debate on the coronavirus relief package. After the Senate deadlocked on whether to take up the package, the vice-president was forced to cast a tie-breaking 51st vote to approve the motion to proceed. Senate clerks are now reading the full text of the 628-page bill.
Senator Ron Johnson, a Republican of Wisconsin, objected to waiving the reading of the 628-page bill in its entirety – in an attempt to delay the process. So, Senate clerks began reading the bill aloud. This will likely take at least a dozen or more hours in total before senators can move to 20 hours of debate on the bill’s content.
The Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, said the chamber would stay in session to pass the relief bill, “no matter how long it takes”. The Democratic leader’s comments come as Republicans have planned a series of maneuvers to delay the final vote on the bill, which may not happen until sometime this weekend.
The US Capitol police has requested a two-month extension to the national guard’s mission at the Capitol, according to a Democratic lawmaker. The guard’s mission, which was launched in response to the 6 January insurrection at the Capitol, had been scheduled to end on March 12.
The House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, downplayed the security threats at the Capitol. House leaders altered the voting schedule for the week after the US Capitol police warned of a militia’s potential plot to storm the Capitol today, but Pelosi said the schedule was changed mostly to accommodate Republicans, who were attending their issues conference today.
The White House defended Joe Biden accusing Republican governors of “Neanderthal thinking” after they rescinded mask mandates. The White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, said the president’s comments were “a reflection of his frustration and exasperation” about the governors ignoring public health guidance on limiting the spread of coronavirus.
Turkish court refuses to admit US Khashoggi report as trial evidence
Bethan McKernan
A Turkish court trying 26 Saudi nationals in absentia for the murder of Jamal Khashoggi has refused to admit as evidence a recent US intelligence report implicating the kingdom’s crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, despite a petition from the journalist’s fiancee, Hatice Cengiz.
The declassified US report released last Friday said Washington believed that Prince Mohammed approved the operation to “capture or kill” Khashoggi.
In the third session of the Istanbul trial on Thursday, Cengiz’s petition to add the report to the evidence case file was rejected on the grounds that it would “bring nothing” to the trial. The judge allowed her to file a new request with prosecutors leading the Turkish government’s case instead.
Khashoggi went into self-imposed exile in 2017, moving to the US and becoming a columnist for the Washington Post. While visiting the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October 2018 to pick up paperwork for his marriage to Cengiz, a Turkish national, he was sedated, killed and dismembered by a 15-strong team of Saudi agents. His remains have never been found.
After a series of shifting explanations, Riyadh eventually admitted the 59-year-old had been killed in a “rogue operation”, but it has strenuously denied that the heir to the throne was involved.
Turkish prosecutors claim the Saudi deputy intelligence chief Ahmed al-Assiri and the royal court’s media chief Saud al-Qahtani masterminded the mission.
Biden has also promised to administer 100 million vaccines by his 100th day in office, which is April 30. As of Thursday, 54 million people have received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine. Johnson & Johnson’s one-shot vaccine was authorized for emergency use on Saturday, but those doses do not appear yet in the C.D.C. data.
The milestone was yet another sign of momentum in the nation’s effort to vaccinate every willing adult, even as state and city governments face several challenges, from current supply to logistics to hesitancy, of getting all of those doses into people’s arms.
On Wednesday night, the House of Representatives voted to pass the George Floyd Act, named after the Black man killed by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin last summer. Among many reforms, the act seeks to ban racial profiling, overhaul qualified immunity for police, and ban the use of chokeholds. While these seem like good measures, they are woefully insufficient to stop police violence. These reforms could not have even saved George Floyd’s life.
To be clear, Floyd did not die from a chokehold. A police officer put his knee to Floyd’s neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds. A medical examiner’s autopsy reported “cardiopulmonary arrest complicating law enforcement subdual, restraint and neck compression”. Floyd also had blunt force trauma to his head, face and shoulders. Banning chokeholds is important, as we should reduce the number of tactics that the police can employ to be dangerous. However, the problem with policing is precisely that – they can kill people using a diverse number of tactics. Shooting, kneeling, punching, suffocating, Tasing. Congress banned one practice, and not even the one responsible for the homicide.
Floyd was also probably not racially profiled. He did not have to be if he was breaking the law. Reportedly, Floyd tried to use a counterfeit $20 bill at a corner store. The clerk called the police because using counterfeit money is illegal. The definition of racial profiling is when police uses someone’s race to suspect that they have committed a crime. Here, Floyd’s act may have constituted a crime and the police showed up to fix it. What’s more criminal than counterfeit cash is the society where people live off of these transactions in corner stores in the first place. The police cannot solve this problem. They can show up and attempt to stop the crime, but they can’t stop the underlying conditions that give rise to it: class exploitation and poverty. Floyd appeared to need cash, not the police.
Congress has had several opportunities to give people what they actually need under the pandemic: money. George Floyd had tested positive for Covid-19 in April. By the time of his death, lawmakers had only distributed $1,200 to the public, and not everyone received this stimulus check. I wonder if Floyd would have used a counterfeit $20 if Congress would have issued $2,000 a month to the public as several activists and progressive legislators have been demanding. George Floyd’s blood is on their hands.
But instead, Congress does what it always does when the police kill people: give cops more money.
The Senate is now debating the coronavirus relief package
Senator Ron Johnson, a Republican of Wisconsin, objected to waiving the reading of the 628-page bill in its entirety – in an attempt to delay the process. So, Senate clerks are now reading the bill aloud. This will likely take at least a dozen or more hours in total.
An effort to restrict voting is under way across America, but there are few places where that assault is more clear, and more urgent, than in Georgia. I know we’ve talked about Georgia before, but this week, I want to dig in to exactly what Georgia lawmakers are proposing to make it harder to vote right now and why it matters.
On Monday, the Georgia house of representatives approved a bill, HB531, that would implement sweeping changes to the state’s voting system. Among other measures, the bill would:
Require voters to provide identification information both with their absentee ballot application and the ballot itself.
Limit election officials to offer just two days of early voting on the weekends, one of which is required to be a Saturday.
Restrict early voting from 9am. to 5pm, with an option for election officials to extend hours from 7am to 7pm.
Give voters less time to request an absentee ballot.
Shorten the period for a runoff election from nine weeks to four.
In the state senate, there are also proposals to get rid of the state’s policy of automatically registering voters and to only allow voters to cast a ballot by mail if they are 65 or older or have a valid excuse. That would eliminate the so-called no-excuse absentee voting system Georgia Republicans – yes Georgia Republicans – enacted in 2005.
While proposals in states across the country are deeply alarming, the efforts in Georgia matter significantly for a few reasons:
They come after an election in which there was record turnout in the state, including surges among Black and other minority voters, which helped power Democrats to stunning upsets.
Alabama’s governor Kay Ivey has extended the state’s mask mandate, in a sharp break from fellow Republican governors.
While Texas and Mississippi have lifted mask mandates - going against the advice of the CDC and top health advisors – Ivey has taken a different approach.
Kay Ivey speaks during a press conference in January. Photograph: Kim Chandler/AP
“We need to get past Easter and hopefully allow more Alabamians to get their first shot before we take a step some other states have taken to remove the mask order altogether and lift other restrictions. Folks, we are not there yet, but goodness knows we’re getting closer,” Ivey said.
The mandate is likely to expire for good on 9 April, she said. “Even when we lift the mask order, I will continue to wear my mask while I’m around others and strongly urge my fellow citizens to use common sense and do the same,” Ivey added.
That’s it from me today. My west coast colleague, Maanvi Singh, will take over the blog for the next few hours.
Kamala Harris broke a Senate tie to begin debate on the coronavirus relief package. After the Senate deadlocked on whether to take up the package, the vice-president was forced to cast a tie-breaking 51st vote to approve the motion to proceed. Senate clerks are now reading the full text of the 628-page bill.
Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer said the chamber would stay in session to pass the relief bill, “no matter how long it takes”. The Democratic leader’s comments come as Republicans have planned a series of maneuvers to delay the final vote on the bill, which may not happen until sometime this weekend.
The US Capitol Police has requested a two-month extension to the National Guard’s mission at the Capitol, according to a Democratic lawmaker. The guard’s mission, which was launched in response to the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol, had been scheduled to end on March 12.
House speaker Nancy Pelosi downplayed the security threats at the Capitol. House leaders altered the voting schedule for the week after the US Capitol Police warned of a militia’s potential plot to storm the Capitol today, but Pelosi said the schedule was changed mostly to accommodate Republicans, who were attending their issues conference today.
The White House defended Joe Biden accusing Republican governors of “Neanderthal thinking” after they rescinded mask mandates. White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the president’s comments were “a reflection of his frustration and exasperation” about the governors ignoring public health guidance on limiting the spread of coronavirus.
Richard Luscombe reports for the Guardian from Miami:
Florida governor Ron DeSantis, an ally of the former president Donald Trump, has bristled previously when questioned over the allegations of favoritism in the state’s vaccine distribution, and establishing pop-up vaccination sites in wealthy zip codes.
At a press conference last month he threatened to take away vaccines from seniors. “If Manatee County does not like us doing this we are totally fine with putting this in counties that want it,” he said.
“If you want us to send to Sarasota next time, or Charlotte, or Pasco, let us know. We are happy to do it.”
On Thursday, DeSantis denied having anything to do with the decision to direct hundreds of vaccines to Ocean Reef.
A Miami Herald article has accused Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) of vaccine favoritism/cronyism for political donors in a wealthy enclave.
“That was one of the South Florida hospital systems [that] went to this community of seniors. I think they did a good job of doing that. We just weren’t involved with it in any way, shape, or form,” he said at a press briefing in Crystal River.
“I’m not worried about your income bracket, I’m worried about your age bracket.”
DeSantis’s denials, however, have failed to quell growing disquiet in Florida over his actions.
Nikki Fried, the state’s agriculture commissioner and the only Democrat in the governor’s cabinet, on Thursday called for the FBI to investigate.
“I will not stand by and let our vaccines be used as a political game and go to the highest bidders while so many of our Floridians are suffering, like my grandmother, like my mother, like your parents and grandparents,” she told journalists on Thursday morning.
DeSantis could face federal investigation over allegations of favoritism in vaccine distribution
Richard Luscombe reports for the Guardian from Miami:
Florida’s governor Ron DeSantis could face a federal inquiry into whether he diverted Covid-19 vaccines to wealthy supporters in return for campaign donations.
Gary Farmer, the leading Democrat in the Florida senate, wrote on Thursday to the acting US attorney general Monty Wilkinson, asking him to look into the “troubling” reports.
“Over the course of the past few months there have been several well documented reports of exclusive vaccination sites that limited access to paying members of private clubs and residents of affluent gated communities,” Farmer wrote.
“In a number of cases the establishment of these vaccine sites have been preceded with or followed by substantial contributions to a political committee controlled by governor Ron DeSantis.”
The latest claim, Farmer noted, came from a Miami Herald report on Wednesday asserting that more than 1,200 residents, aged 65 or older, of the exclusive Ocean Reef Club, a private gated community on Key Largo, had been vaccinated by mid-January.
At the time, the Herald said, the rest of the state was still struggling to secure an allocation. Only a month before, state records show, 17 Ocean Reef residents donated at least $5,000 to a political action committee supporting DeSantis’s 2022 re-election campaign. And one, the former Illinois governor Bruce Rauner, cut a $250,000 check to DeSantis’s PAC in February after the vaccines were administered.
The newspaper further claimed that DeSantis has been using the state’s vaccine initiative to “steer pop-up vaccination sites to select communities,” often affluent, disproportionately white areas.
“Governor DeSantis’s clear vaccine priority for wealthy individuals appears to be intimately tied to political payments, an extremely troubling ‘pay to play’ scheme if the allegations are borne out,” Farmer wrote.
He asked Wilkinson’s office to “conduct a full and thorough investigation into any potential wrong-doing on the part of Governor DeSantis.”
Congressman Peter DeFazio, the Democratic chairman of the House committee on transportation and infrastructure, said his meeting with Joe Biden “went very well”.
The president and the vice-president, along with transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg, met with a bipartisan group of House members this afternoon to discuss a potential infrastructure package.
“I was encouraged,” DeFazio told reporters after the meeting ended. “He’s very, very set on getting it done and getting it done pretty damn soon.”
The congressman said he expected a standalone infrastructure bill to be introduced in May, although it’s still unclear whether such a bill could make it through the evenly divided Senate.
DeFazio added that it was “refreshing” to talk to Biden, rather than Donald Trump, about infrastructure proposals.
“The difference between talking to Joe Biden about infrastructure and what goes into it and how we’re going to get it done and Donald Trump is like, it’s just a whole different world,” DeFazio said. “It’s way better.”
A second Senate clerk has now taken over the reading of the coronavirus relief bill, after the first clerk read the first 15 pages of the legislation.
The reading of the full text is expected to take several hours, so multiple clerks will take turns reading the bill aloud.
Earlier today, Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer expressed gratitude for the work of the Senate clerks, while criticizing Republican Ron Johnson for forcing the reading of the full text.
“We all know this will merely delay the inevitable,” Schumer said of the reading of the bill. “It will accomplish little more than a few sore throats for the Senate clerks who work very hard day in day out to help the Senate function.”
The Democratic leader added, “We are delighted that the senator from Wisconsin wants to give the American people another opportunity to hear what’s in the American Rescue Plan. We Democrats want America to hear what’s in the plan.”
After the Senate clerks finish reading the full text of the coronavirus relief bill, the chamber will move on to a “vote-a-rama” for the package.
During the vote-a-rama, senators can introduce amendments to the legislation. Republicans have already said they intend to introduce many amendments, which will delay the final vote on the package.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) on the relief package:
“I will be offering an amendment to raise the federal minimum wage from $7.25 an hour, which I believe is a starvation wage, to $15 an hour over a 5-year period.” pic.twitter.com/S0xE9xcDj8
Earlier today, Senator Bernie Sanders said he would also introduce an amendment to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour.
Speaking on the Senate floor this afternoon, Sanders described the current federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour as a “starvation wage”.
The House’s version of the coronavirus relief bill, which the chamber passed over the weekend, included the $15 minimum wage provision, but the Senate took it out after the parliamentarian ruled the proposal did not meet the requirements for passage via reconciliation.
Senate Democrats have criticized Johnson for forcing the reading of the bill, saying he is simply delaying the inevitable passage of the bill.
Johnson said earlier today that he believed the reading was necessary to ensure Americans understood what was in the $1.9 trillion package.
“I feel bad for the clerks who are going to have to read it, but it’s just important,” Johnson said.
“So often, we rush these massive bills that are hundreds if not thousands of pages long. You don’t have, nobody has time to read them. So, you start considering something you haven’t even read. At a minimum, somebody ought to read it, and this will give everybody time.”
Harris breaks Senate tie to begin debate on coronavirus relief package
The Senate has approved the motion to begin debate on the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package.
Vice-President Kamala Harris was forced to cast the tie-breaking 51st vote on the measure, after the evenly divided Senate deadlocked 50-50 on whether to take up the bill.
Agreed to, 51-50: Motion to proceed to H.R.1319, FY2021 Budget Reconciliation with the @VP voting in the affirmative.
Republican Senator Ron Johnson has signaled he will now ask the Senate clerks to read the full text of the bill, which could take around 10 hours.
After the bill is read, the Senate can begin the “vote-a-rama” on amendments to the package. Republicans are expected to introduce many amendments to delay a final vote on the bill.
Republican Senators Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski have both voted “no” on taking up the coronavirus relief bill.
The two centrist Republicans could theoretically still join Democrats in supporting the final passage of the relief package.
But their early opposition to the bill provides further evidence that the $1.9 trillion package will likely pass in a party-line vote, which would force Vice-President Kamala Harris to cast a tie-breaking vote.
Joe Biden is currently having a meeting with a bipartisan group of House members to discuss a possible infrastructure package.
Vice-President Kamala Harris and transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg are also attending the meeting.
Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg and members of the House of Representatives meet in the Oval Office. Photograph: Andrew Harnik/AP
“What we’re going to do to make sure we once again lead the world across the board on infrastructure,” Biden told reporters as the meeting started.
While reporters were being escorted out of the Oval Office, one of them asked Biden whether he was comfortable with limiting the eligibility for direct payments in the coronavirus relief package.
