As Western wildfires rage, region to remain ‘tragically dry’ for at least a week. In Oregon, a blaze may burn until fall. – USA TODAY
As Western wildfires rage, region to remain ‘tragically dry’ for at least a week. In Oregon, a blaze may burn until fall. – USA TODAY

Source Article from https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2021/07/14/wildfires-western-us-burn-drought-conditions-persist/7962130002/

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Death toll in Surfside condo collapse rises to 96, one more victim identified – WPLG Local 10
Death toll in Surfside condo collapse rises to 96, one more victim identified – WPLG Local 10

SURFSIDE, Fla. – Crews have recovered the body of one more person in Surfside, bringing the death toll from the Champlain Towers South collapse to 96.

The latest victim to be identified Wednesday is Luis F. Barth Tobar, 51. His body was recovered on Saturday.

Crews are still searching for multiple victims who have yet to be found after the June 24 collapse and officials say they are still looking into reports for three or four others, which may have been duplicate reports or erroneous reports.

On Tuesday, Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said identifying victims has become increasingly challenging in recent days.

“At this step in the recovery process, we’re relying heavily on the work of the medical examiner’s office,” she said. “It’s a scientific, methodical process to identify human remains. This work is becoming more difficult with the passage of time. Although our teams are working as hard as they can, it takes time.”

Source Article from https://www.local10.com/news/local/2021/07/14/death-toll-in-surfside-condo-collapse-rises-to-96-one-more-victim-identified/

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Texas Senate passes GOP elections bill after Democrats left the state to protest – CNBC
Texas Senate passes GOP elections bill after Democrats left the state to protest – CNBC

The Texas Senate passed a Republican-led elections bill Tuesday evening after dozens of House Democrats fled the state to avoid voting on the measure. 

In a party-line vote of 18-4, Senate Republicans passed the controversial bill that Democrats and voters-rights advocates say will suppress the votes of people of color and those with disabilities. 

“This bill was just the last and latest of Trump Republicans attacks on democracy across Texas and our nation,” said Rep. Ron Reynolds, one of the Democrats who fled, at a press conference Wednesday.

As many as 58 Texas Democrats decamped to Washington, D.C., on Monday and Tuesday, in a bid to deny Republicans the quorum required to conduct business in the chamber. However, the Senate on Tuesday still maintained a quorum with 22 of its 31 members present, allowing that chamber to vote and pass Senate Bill 1. 

The legislation will languish unless the Texas Democrats return to the state before the 30-day special session called by GOP Gov. Greg Abbott ends. Abbott has threatened to arrest the state lawmakers once they return, according to the Associated Press. 

Texas is among several states seeking to pass laws restricting voter access, which comes in the wake of former President Donald Trump’s repeated false claims that the 2020 election was stolen through widespread voter fraud. 

Among the proposals included in the bill passed Tuesday are a ban on drive-through voting, limits on 24-hour voting options and new identification requirements for absentee voters. The bill would also prohibit local officials from sending out absentee voting applications to voters not eligible to vote by mail. 

Democrats argued that the bill proposed by GOP senators was an attack on voting rights meant to suppress voter turnout. 

“Republicans have broken their promise to our seniors and the disabled by making it harder to vote, and also making it harder for Latino and African Americans,” said Sen. Carol Alvarado, one of the Democrats who fled, at a press conference Wednesday.

However, Republicans maintain the law would secure the elections process, dubbing it as the “Texas election integrity bill.”

“This bill is about making it both easy to vote and harder to cheat,” said Sen. Bryan Hughes, the author of the bill, the Texas Tribune reported Tuesday. 

Hughes blamed the backlash about his bill on a “horrible, misleading, false national debate coming out of Washington,” according to the Tribune. 

Source Article from https://www.cnbc.com/2021/07/14/texas-senate-passes-gop-voting-bill-after-house-democrats-departure-.html

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Biden to rally Senate Democrats on spending goals after they reach $3.5 trillion budget deal – CNBC
Biden to rally Senate Democrats on spending goals after they reach $3.5 trillion budget deal – CNBC

White House press secretary Jen Psaki tweeted Wednesday morning that the president will “continue making the case for the duel track approach to build the economy back better by investing in infrastructure, protecting our climate, and supporting the next generation of workers and families.”

She noted in a follow-up that she misspelled the word “dual.”

Democratic leaders hope to push versions of the resolution through the House and Senate before lawmakers leave Washington for the Aug

ust recess. But they acknowledged Tuesday night that their work is cut out for them because the budget plan offers only a broad outline on spending that would have to be fleshed out in subsequent legislation.

“We know we have a long road to go,” Schumer said.

“I make no illusions how challenging this is going to be,” said Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., vice chair of the caucus.

The resolution, if approved, would pave the way for Democrats to pass a later spending bill in the Senate through the so-called budget reconciliation process. That means Democrats would need only a simple majority in Senate — which is evenly divided 50-50 with Republicans — rather than the 60 votes that the GOP could demand through the filibuster rules.

If all 50 Senate Democrats back such a bill, they could pass it even with no Republican support, as Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris could cast the tie-breaking vote.

Senate Democratic leaders are working to satisfy both the moderates in the caucus, who have expressed unease about funding the mammoth spending plans, and the progressives who have called for much more money to be spent.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, whom Schumer credited with leading the charge to include expanded Medicare coverage in the budget resolution, and other progressives had initially pushed for a $6 trillion price limit for a budget. Biden had proposed less than $5 trillion.

Moderate Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.V., expressed a starkly different sentiment Tuesday, telling reporters, “I think everything should be paid for. We’ve put enough free money out.”

In a statement Wednesday morning, Manchin said he looks forward to reviewing the agreement crafted by the Senate Budget Committee.

“I’m also very interested in how this proposal is paid for and how it enables us to remain globally competitive,” he said. “I will reserve any final judgment until I’ve had the opportunity to thoroughly evaluate the proposal.”

The budget will reportedly align with Biden’s promise not to raise taxes on people making less than $400,000 annually.

Sanders said Tuesday night the legislation demonstrates that “the wealthy and large corporations are going to start paying their fair share of taxes, so that we can protect the working families in this country.”

Source Article from https://www.cnbc.com/2021/07/14/biden-to-rally-senate-democrats-on-spending-goals-after-they-reach-3point5-trillion-budget-deal.html

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EU unveils ambitious climate package as it cools on fossil fuels – CNN
EU unveils ambitious climate package as it cools on fossil fuels – CNN

  • A carbon tax for selected imports that are emissions heavy
  • An end to combustible engine cars by 2035
  • Target to produce 40% of energy from renewable sources by 2030
  • A phase-out of free emission allowances for aviation
  • Lowering the cap of the Emissions Trading System (ETS)
  • An inclusion of shipping emissions in the ETS
  • Target to plant 3 billion trees by 2030, part of an effort to remove 310 million tons of carbon from the atmosphere
  • Target for land use to be carbon neutral buy 2035

Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/14/europe/eu-climate-change-policies-fit-for-55-intl/index.html

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Schumer Will Propose Federal Decriminalization of Marijuana – The New York Times
Schumer Will Propose Federal Decriminalization of Marijuana – The New York Times

The senators were expected to detail their plans later Wednesday morning at a news conference at the Capitol.

They are expected to propose empowering the Food and Drug Administration and the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau at the Treasury Department to begin regulating the production, distribution and sale of marijuana, removing the Drug Enforcement Administration from its current oversight role. Among other implications, the changes would allow marijuana companies already operating in states where it is legal to gain full access to the United States banking system.

The legislation would gradually institute a federal excise tax like the one on alcohol and tobacco sales, eventually as high as 25 percent for big businesses, allowing the federal government to benefit from sales that came close to $20 billion in 2020. The revenue would then be funneled back to communities most affected by federal drug policy and to fund expanded medical research into cannabis that is currently limited by its status as a controlled substance.

One provision, for instance, would establish a cannabis justice office at the Justice Department to help fund job training, legal aid and help with re-entry after incarceration. Another program would promote loans to small cannabis businesses owned by members of racially or economically marginalized groups to try to ensure that communities that suffered disproportionately under the war on drugs are not left out of the gold rush that has accompanied legalization.

But the bill would aim to make other, more direct attempts to compensate for the impacts of years of aggressive policing. In addition to expunging past arrests and convictions, it would entitle those who are currently serving sentences for nonviolent federal drug crime to a court hearing to reconsider their sentences. And if enacted, the federal government would no longer be able to discriminate against marijuana users seeking federal housing, food or health benefits.

The Democratic-led House passed similar legislation in December, with a handful of Republicans joining to vote in favor. The vote was the first and only time either chamber had endorsed the legalization of cannabis, but the bill died at the end of the last Congress. House leaders plan to pass an updated version in the coming months.

Passage through the Senate is likely to be more tricky. Mr. Schumer would need to assemble 60 votes, meaning he would need the support of at least 10 Republicans. Though libertarian-leaning Republicans have generally supported ending the prohibition of marijuana, party leaders are likely to oppose the Democrats’ plan, particularly with its emphasis on restorative justice and government intervention in the cannabis industry.

Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/14/us/politics/marijuana-legalization-schumer.html

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Mother arrested on murder charges after 2 daughters found dead in Lauderhill canal – WPLG Local 10
Mother arrested on murder charges after 2 daughters found dead in Lauderhill canal – WPLG Local 10

LAUDERHILL, Fla. – A 36-year-old woman was arrested Tuesday night in connection with the deaths of her two young daughters, authorities confirmed.

The bodies of Destiny Hogan, 9, and Daysha Hogan, 7, were found on June 22 floating in a canal in Lauderhill.

Their mother, Tinessa Hogan, was arrested around 9:30 p.m. Tuesday on two counts of first-degree murder. She refused to appear in court Wednesday morning, but the judge proceeded without her and ordered that she be held without bond.

Lauderhill police did not immediately say what evidence they gathered that the mother was involved in the girls’ deaths.

Lt. Mike Bigwood identified the two girls who were found dead in a Lauderhill canal as sisters 9-year-old Destiny and 7-year-old Daysha. (Copyright 2020 by WPLG Local10.com – All rights reserved.)

According to authorities, Destiny’s body was discovered first on the afternoon of June 22 near the intersection of Northwest 21st Street and 56th Avenue.

Daysha’s body was recovered from the same canal later that evening about a half-mile away.

A woman who lives nearby told Local 10 News that Destiny had marks on her body.

“The way how the little girl looked yesterday with all the scratches on her and … her fists bawled up,” Shakima Birch said. “It just made me cry and I’m like, ‘Was she trying to grab onto something?’ or ‘Was she fighting for her life?’”

Despite the arrest, police say the investigation remains active and they are asking that anyone with information about Tinessa Hogan or her daughters to call the Lauderhill Police Department at 954-497-4700 or Broward Crime Stoppers at 954-493-8477.

Source Article from https://www.local10.com/news/local/2021/07/14/mother-arrested-on-murder-charges-after-2-daughters-found-dead-in-lauderhill-canal/

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These cities have the worst urban heat, where temperatures can spike 15-20 degrees in a matter of blocks – CNN
These cities have the worst urban heat, where temperatures can spike 15-20 degrees in a matter of blocks – CNN

By Angela Fritz, CNN

Updated 10:00 AM ET, Wed July 14, 2021

Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/14/weather/worst-urban-heat-island-cities/index.html

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Canada’s Taking It Slow On Reopening Its Border To Travelers From The U.S. Here’s Why – NPR
Canada’s Taking It Slow On Reopening Its Border To Travelers From The U.S. Here’s Why – NPR

Canadian and American flags fly near the Ambassador Bridge connecting Canada to the U.S. in Windsor, Ontario, in May. Half of respondents in a poll of Canadians this month by Nanos Research said restrictions on travel across the U.S.-Canada border should not be eliminated until this fall or next year.

Cole Burston/Bloomberg via Getty Images


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Cole Burston/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Canadian and American flags fly near the Ambassador Bridge connecting Canada to the U.S. in Windsor, Ontario, in May. Half of respondents in a poll of Canadians this month by Nanos Research said restrictions on travel across the U.S.-Canada border should not be eliminated until this fall or next year.

Cole Burston/Bloomberg via Getty Images

MONTREAL — For the past 30 years, Carol Anniuk has provided accommodation and guides for recreational fishing trips in northwestern Ontario. In normal times, 99% of her clients are American. But more than 15 months after Canada’s restrictions on nonessential travel went into effect to slow the spread of COVID-19, Anniuk, the owner of Young’s Wilderness Camp, doesn’t know when her U.S. clients will be able to cross the border.

“I’m just frustrated,” she sighs. Anniuk has taken on a lot of debt since the coronavirus pandemic began in her tourism-dependent area, a six-hour drive from Minneapolis. She bemoans “the lack of communication and the lack of a plan” from the Canadian government on when to begin admitting most visitors from the United States.

Canadians can fly to the U.S. but can’t cross by land, and most non-Canadians cannot enter Canada either by land or by air. The two countries continue to extend their travel measures — which are not the same in both directions — month by month.

In the latest step, which began July 5, the Canadian government lifted a mandatory 14-day quarantine for fully vaccinated Canadians and permanent residents returning to Canada. However, federal ministers have resisted providing a timeline or clear benchmarks for next steps in admitting more visitors.

Canadian Minister of Health Patty Hajdu warned in late June that with the delta variant “posing some significant challenges” in countries such as the U.K., “we need to be very cautious.” The delta variant already makes up more than 70% of new cases in the province of Ontario, which includes Toronto, Canada’s largest city.

“We need to reduce infections because we don’t know what long COVID does,” says Kelley Lee of Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, British Columbia, who leads a pandemics and borders research group. That group is advocating for tougher quarantine rules in Canada, raising the specter of new shutdowns. But other experts suggest that such severe moves are unlikely.

Essential cross-border travel continues

Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens, in southern Ontario, says Canada should quickly ease restrictions for fully vaccinated travelers. Dilkens can see the Detroit skyline, a mile and a half away, from his window in City Hall. His brother lives in Michigan, but he says they haven’t seen each other in a long time.

“The impact of the border closure really is amplified in border cities,” he says.

As vaccination rates tick up, travel restrictions that made sense earlier in the pandemic have begun to grate on his constituents. Three-quarters of eligible Canadians have now received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, a higher percentage than in the U.S., and more than 40% are fully vaccinated.

“Those who are separated … need to reunite for funerals, for births of the first grandchild, for all sorts of life events that happen,” Dilkens says. “If you’re fully vaccinated now, it’s becoming less acceptable to have the border closed for fully vaccinated people.”

Since the start of the pandemic, the U.S. and Canada have allowed essential travel — including medical personnel and trucking — to continue, notes University of Toronto economist Ambarish Chandra.

“There’s something like 15,000 trucks that enter Canada every day from the United States. These trucks carry everything we need: our food and medical supplies, our raw materials,” Chandra says.

Throughout the pandemic, Dilkens says, 1,200 Canadian health care workers have continued to commute regularly from Windsor to jobs in Detroit.

The border closure remains popular among Canadians

Chandra and others argue that this travel makes it virtually impossible for Canada to exclude variants once they reach the United States. While the overall U.S. coronavirus infection rate was much higher than Canada’s earlier in the pandemic, Chandra points out that the rates have looked more similar since the spring, particularly in border states that normally send the greatest number of travelers to Canada.

“It’s easy for governments to fall back on saying, ‘All right, let’s hunker down, let’s close down the borders,’ ” Chandra says, “and sort of suggest that’s contributed to keeping us safer. … To a large extent, it’s not any longer.”

For now, restrictions on cross-border travel remain popular with many Canadians. Half of respondents in a Nanos Research poll this month favored keeping border travel restrictions in place until this fall or even next year.

“I understand why people feel that way,” says Sumon Chakrabarti, a physician in Ontario. “You don’t want to just open up the floodgates.”

But, he says, Canada has reached a phase in the pandemic that allows for serious consideration of the trade-offs of border policies. “Because so much of the population is protected,” Chakrabarti says, “we can now manage this at a medical level, rather than having to do this at a border level.”

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau indicated last week that vaccinated travelers will be admitted before those who are not vaccinated, but the government has said a full reopening could require 75% of Canadians — or more than 85% of the eligible population — to be fully vaccinated.

“The goal that has been set is extremely high,” says Nathan Stall, a geriatrician at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto. “We hope we get there, but we may never actually get there.”

“We’re all in this together”

Meanwhile, some Canadians have been making their own decisions about acceptable risk.

When Mayor Dilkens’ niece recently married in Michigan, his own mother was unwilling to miss the ceremony. She flew from Windsor to Toronto and then to Detroit — an eight-hour journey that ended less than an hour’s drive from where she’d started.

Decisions like that do not surprise Stall, though the policies that drive them merit reexamination, he believes.

In Canada, there’s a sense that “we’re all in this together,” he says. “I think there’s a huge hesitation to move ahead and allow certain members of society to move ahead and [be] able to have social privileges and freedoms that others don’t yet have.”

However, many Canadians who have been vaccinated the longest are older adults like his own patients. And, he warns, “We may be depriving them of limited remaining life moments, to have them wait for everyone else to have the opportunity to be vaccinated before we reopen settings to them based on vaccination status.”

Source Article from https://www.npr.org/2021/07/14/1015224534/canadas-taking-it-slow-on-reopening-its-border-to-travelers-from-the-u-s-heres-w

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St. Paul police release video of Rep. John Thompson’s traffic stop – KSTP
St. Paul police release video of Rep. John Thompson’s traffic stop – KSTP

Since the traffic stop, which police say was because Thompson did not have a front license plate, the DFL lawmaker has since faced questions over his residency and has been asked to apologize for his accusations of racial profiling by the officer who pulled him over.


In the body cam video, the St. Paul Police sergeant expresses surprise after Thompson identifies himself as a Minnesota state legislator.


“I’m actually a current state representative in this district right here, man, if that makes any difference,” Thomspon said.


“And you’ve got a Wisconsin license?” the sergeant replied.


“Yeah, a Wisconsin license. I’m state Rep. John Thompson.”


After the officer goes back to his squad car he checks Thompson’s driving record and issues a ticket for driving despite suspended Minnesota driving privileges due to child support issues.


“Here’s your license and my card,” the sergeant says. “You’re suspended in Minnesota.”


“No,” Thompson responds.


“That’s what the computer says. If it’s wrong you’ll have to deal with the DVS.”


Thompson then asks for another explanation of why he was pulled over.


“Why’d you pull me over again, man?” Thompson asks.


“No front plate and then the way you took off from the light back there,” the sergeant explains. 


“I’m too old to run from the police, man,” Thompson says. “You profiled me because you looked me right dead in the face and you gave me a ticket for driving while Black. You pulled me over because you saw a Black face in this car, brother.”



St. Paul police release video of Rep. John Thompson’s traffic stop |



The St. Paul Police sergeant denies racial profiling.


“What I’m saying is what you’re doing is wrong to Black men, and you need to stop that,” Thompson continues. “Thank you so much, but this ticket means nothing to me. No, no, no I’m going to always have a great day. What I’m saying to you is stop racially profiling Black men in their cars, sir. Stop doing that.”


“There was no racial profiling,” the sergeant replies. 


“Yes you were! Yes you were! Yes you were! You saw a Black man driving this car. … It don’t make no difference. … You pulled me over because you’re profiling me. Thank you so much,” Thompson says as the sergeant walks back toward his squad car.


Thompson consented to the release of that video in a statement released Monday night. In that statement, he also said he’s had his Minnesota driving privileges restored after clearing up a child support issue. Those records are sealed in Minnesota and Thompson declines to answer questions about it. Thompson also says he now plans to get a Minnesota driver’s license after living in the state for 18 years.


However, questions about his residency remain. State Sen. Mary Kiffmeyer, R-Big Lake, a former Minnesota secretary of state, sent a letter to current DFL Secretary of State Steve Simon asking how he plans to verify Thompson’s residency.


“As it is your office’s responsibility to implement the election laws passed by the legislature and to provide trust, clarity, and security in the process, answering these questions in a timely manner will help us all better understand the process that goes into residency verification,” she wrote.


The Minnesota Police and Peace Officer’s Association sent a letter to the Wisconsin attorney general asking him to investigate how Thompson obtained a Wisconsin driver’s license.


“Minnesota State Representative John Thompson deceived our citizens, his constituents, your citizens, and your state,” the letter reads, in part. “In 2000, 2012, and in November of 2020, he applied for and received a Wisconsin driver’s license. He defrauded Wisconsin, claiming to be a resident in order to obtain a fraudulent driver’s license. In doing so, he affirmed — under penalty of perjury — that he is a Wisconsin resident.”


Also, Minnesota DFL House Speaker Melissa Hortman issued her first statement about the controversy, saying, “The Minnesota House of Representatives takes allegations of member misconduct seriously…” But adds that so far “no House members have filed an ethics complaint regarding the allegations made against Representative Thompson.”


Click the video player below to see the full video released by police.





Source Article from https://kstp.com/news/st-paul-police-release-video-of-rep-john-thompsons-traffic-stop/6170109/

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Ingraham slams Biden’s Philadelphia voter rights speech: ‘As usual, liberals are at war with the facts’ – Fox News
Ingraham slams Biden’s Philadelphia voter rights speech: ‘As usual, liberals are at war with the facts’ – Fox News
Video

Ingraham: Democrats ‘Jim Crow 2.0’ claims wearing thin

‘The Ingraham Angle’ host slams Biden’s pernicious election reform lies during Tuesday Philadelphia remarks on voter protection

In response to President Joe Biden’s Tuesday speech on voting rights protection in Philadelphia, Fox News host Laura Ingraham ripped the president on “The Ingraham Angle,” claiming that “as usual, liberals are at war with the facts” and that Biden was “just reading whatever script his writers handed to him.”

During his speech, Biden called “the assault on free and fair election” a “threat” and claimed Americans are facing the “most significant test of democracy since the Civil War.” Biden went on to specifically call out the Texas state legislature for their push for new voter reform.

“In Texas, for example, Republican-led state legislature wants to allow partisan poll watchers to intimidate voters and imperil impartial poll workers,” he said. They want to make it so hard and convenient that they hope people don’t vote at all.”

Ingraham countered Biden’s statements by posing the question of whether or not allowing “an extra hour of required early voting in Texas” is an assault on democracy. She also noted that the increase would put Texas’ voting window “two to three hours longer than Joe’s home state of Delaware.”

Ingraham went on to point out the hypocrisy in the president’s statements on “partisan poll watchers,” arguing that some of his claims about the Texas legislation are “lies.”

Video

“I believe I counted four, maybe five lies there. But for the record, the Texas legislation gives poll watchers free movement, except, of course, contrary to what Biden alleged, not when voters are filling out ballots,” Ingraham exclaimed. “And forcing poll watchers to stand at such a distance that they couldn’t reasonably observe the process would be a criminal offense. You got to have eyes on potential cheating.”

Ingraham also torched Biden’s claims that the Texas bill aims “to make it harder” for Americans to vote, “and if you vote, they want to be able to tell you your vote doesn’t count for any reason.”

“So dramatic, also totally false,” she said. “As we pointed out last week, the Texas bill to expand voting hours for all registered voters. And the bill is even lower the population threshold needed for counties to provide additional early voting hours.”

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

“Democrats want to rig every election going forward to make it nearly impossible for a conservative to win again,” Ingraham opined. “They’re now effectively arguing that the very voting rules that delivered two two-term victories for Bill Clinton and Barack Obama are essentially just like Jim Crow 2.0.”

“So this leaves them really with only one option in their mind, which is to promote racial fear-mongering in pretty much everything around them. We already know what they’re doing in our schools, to our workplaces, the military, even to now our system of voting.”

Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/media/ingraham-biden-philadelphia-voter-rights

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Senate Democrats reach deal on $3.5 trillion reconciliation package – Business Insider
Senate Democrats reach deal on $3.5 trillion reconciliation package – Business Insider

Senate Democrats on Tuesday announced they struck a deal on a $3.5 trillion price tag for a Democrat-only infrastructure package that will expand Medicare and strengthen social safety net programs — and skirt Republicans staunchly opposed to more federal spending.

Combined with a $579 billion bipartisan infrastructure deal, the party-line agreement would amount to $4.1 trillion in fresh spending. It’s among the largest spending bills ever taken up by Congress as Democrats aim to wield their slim majorities and level the playing field within the economy.

 

“This is the most significant piece of legislation passed since the Great Depression, and I’m delighted to be part of having helped to put it together,” Sen. Bernie Sanders, chair of the Senate Budget Committee, told reporters on Tuesday evening. He’s pushed for a party-line package larger than $3 trillion in recent days.

The plan is poised to undergo the arduous reconciliation process, a legislative tactic that only requires bills to get a simple majority. In a 50-50 Senate, that means every Democratic senator must stick together for the plan to succeed over united Republican opposition.

The agreement didn’t include many specifics on which policies will ultimately be included. But Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said it would expand Medicare to cover vision, dental, and hearing services. The Congressional Budget Office projected in 2019 it would cost $358 billion over ten years.

Democrats leaving the negotiations were confident about the topline agreement, and they said they would turn the agreement into a legislative bill in the coming weeks.  “We are very proud of this plan. We know we have a long road to go,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer told reporters. 

A Senate Democratic aide granted anonymity to speak candidly said Democrats still recognize they face an arduous process ahead. “We don’t know what’s happening what’s happening with bipartisan deal,” the aide said. “This is the first baby step.”

Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia said that the spending would be “fully paid for” with tax increases. Democrats have labored to avoid tax hikes on households earning under $400,000 in keeping with President Joe Biden’s campaign pledge.

Democrats now face a complex balancing act. The bipartisan infrastructure bill focused on roads and bridges could face greater Republican opposition, given its passage could pave the way for a Democrat-only spending bill topping $3.5 trillion. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has been firm in her insistence that a bipartisan bill wouldn’t get a vote until the Senate clears the reconciliation package.

‘Schumer and Pelosi are still talking linkage and I think that’s problematic for a lot of our members,” said Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, the top GOP vote-counter.

Source Article from https://www.businessinsider.com/senate-democrats-reach-deal-reconciliation-package-2021-7

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Texas Senate passes voting bill despite Democrats fleeing the state – New York Post
Texas Senate passes voting bill despite Democrats fleeing the state – New York Post

The Texas state Senate approved a sweeping election reform bill Tuesday night, one day after dozens of House Democrats fled the state to prevent the chamber from taking up the legislation.

The state Senate approved the bill on an 18-4 party-line vote. Nine Senate Democrats had joined 51 of their House colleagues in hightailing it to Washington, DC, though this was not enough to deny the upper chamber a quorum.

However, the legislation is now stalled due to the absence of a quorum in the House.

Republicans say the measures in the bill — which include ending drive-thru and 24-hour polling places, banning ballot drop boxes, and empowering partisan poll watchers — are designed to ensure the integrity of the vote by preventing voter fraud. Democrats say they make it harder for poor people and minorities to cast ballots.

The Texas state Senate approved a sweeping election reform bill Tuesday night.Shutterstock

Most of the Democratic legislators flew to Washington on two chartered planes Monday, defying threats by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott to have them arrested and forced into the legislative chamber for this month’s special session. Abbott has vowed to continue to call special sessions until next year’s elections, if necessary, until the election reform bill is passed.

Earlier Tuesday, the Texas House voted 76-4 to direct its Sergeant-at-Arms to send for all absentee members by “warrant of arrest if necessary.” After the vote, the chamber doors were locked. Four House Democrats who did not go to Washington were among the lawmakers still inside, while the voting mechanisms on the desks of those absent were locked.

State Rep. Eddie Morales, one of the four Democrats who remained, told reporters it was unlikely authorities dispatched to track down any absent lawmakers would travel outside the state to do so.

“I was told they will go to your home back in your district, they will go to your place of work, they will go to your apartment in Austin or wherever you live close by when you’re in session,” he said. “And also family and friends that they may know of.”

Joined by fellow Texas state House Democrats, Rep. Chris Turner (TX-101) speaks during a news conference on voting rights outside the U.S. Capitol on July 13, 2021 in Washington, DC.
Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

While in Washington, the Texas Democrats have pushed for Congress to pass two pieces of federal election reform legislation: the For The People Act, and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act. They met Tuesday with Vice President Kamala Harris and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY).

Demonstrators are gathered outside of the Texas State Capitol during a voting rights rally on the first day of the 87th Legislature’s special session on July 8, 2021 in Austin, Texas.
Tamir Kalifa/Getty Images

“These folks are going to be remembered on the right side of history,” Schumer told reporters. “The governor and the Republican legislators will be remembered on the dark and wrong side of history.”

With Post Wires

Source Article from https://nypost.com/2021/07/13/texas-senate-passes-voting-bill-that-led-dems-to-flee-state/

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Iranian intelligence agents plotted brazen abduction of Brooklyn dissident journalist, U.S. prosecutors say – The Washington Post
Iranian intelligence agents plotted brazen abduction of Brooklyn dissident journalist, U.S. prosecutors say – The Washington Post

The four defendants all live in Iran, prosecutors said, identifying one of them, Alireza Shavaroghi Farahani, as an Iranian intelligence official and the three others as “Iranian intelligence assets.” A fifth defendant, Niloufar Bahadorifar, accused of supporting the alleged plot but not participating in the kidnapping conspiracy, was arrested in California.

Source Article from https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/07/14/iran-journalist-kidnapping-alinejad/

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Democrats unveil $3.5T go-it-alone plan to fulfill Biden’s agenda – POLITICO
Democrats unveil $3.5T go-it-alone plan to fulfill Biden’s agenda – POLITICO

“We are very proud of this plan,” Schumer said. “We know we have a long road to go … If we pass this, this is the most profound change to help American families in generations.”

Democrats on the Senate Budget Committee reached agreement on the overall total for their party-lines spending plan during their second meeting this week with Schumer and White House officials in the Capitol. Their next step is ensuring all 50 Democratic caucus members can support the $3.5 trillion figure, said Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), a member of the budget panel.

“The goal is for the Budget Committee to all be on the same page and then sell it to the caucus,” he said. “Once the Budget Committee is on the same page, numbers will start to come out. But we still have a little ways to go to get there.”

The budget resolution will require backing from every Democrat to make it through the upper chamber and officially kick off reconciliation, which will formally instruct various committees to turn the president’s priorities into legislative text. Progressives like Budget Chair Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) had pushed for a top line as high as $6 trillion, while centrists have endorsed a smaller figure that doesn’t rely on deficit financing.

Despite getting trillions less than his original ask, Sanders said the agreement on $3.5 trillion is a “big deal” when it comes to “transforming our infrastructure.” The budget plan is set to expand Medicare to cover vision, dental and hearing for seniors — a major priority for Sanders.

Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Jon Tester (D-Mont.), both moderates, said earlier Tuesday that they’ll need time to sort through the plan compiled by the Budget Committee.

“We need to pay for it,” Manchin said. “I’d like to pay for all of it. I don’t think we need more debt.”

Before an agreement was reached, Kaine and fellow Budget panel member Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) didn’t dismiss Manchin’s financing demand outright.

“There are many ways to get there,” Van Hollen said. “Certainly, it’s important that everyone who says it needs to be paid for also identifies ways to pay for what needs to be done.”

Democrats’ massive party-line package is expected to include policies like Biden’s proposal for two years of free community college, paid leave, health care subsidies, extending the boosted child tax credit and helping families cover child care costs.

Schumer has said he hopes to adopt the budget resolution on the floor in the next few weeks. That vote will be “the first step” toward passing the “remaining elements” of Biden’s social and economic plans without Republican support, the leader told Democratic senators in a letter this month, warning of “the possibility of working long nights, weekends, and remaining in Washington into the previously-scheduled August state work period.”

Meanwhile, negotiations on a bipartisan infrastructure bill, which would require support from at least 10 Senate Republicans, are starting to get shaky amid GOP concerns over spending and ways to finance the legislation.

Embarking again on a reconciliation bill will be arduous and painful for Democratic lawmakers. The process involves enduring two more vote-a-rama sessions in the Senate, each of which will allow Republicans to fire off a barrage of politically tricky amendments.

The Senate parliamentarian, who serves as the chamber’s nonpartisan procedural enforcer, is also expected to shoot down parts of the proposal that are found to be out of bounds under the special budget process.

Source Article from https://www.politico.com/news/2021/07/13/democrats-spending-plan-biden-agenda-499593

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Late-Night Hosts Rib Rudy Giuliani Over New Election Night Reports – The New York Times
Late-Night Hosts Rib Rudy Giuliani Over New Election Night Reports – The New York Times

“That’s right, Rudy was in rough shape on election night. He was slurring, sweating, confused — then he started drinking.” — JIMMY FALLON

“Reportedly, drunk Rudy asked, ‘What’s happening in Michigan?’ and they said it was too early to tell. ‘Just say we won,’ Giuliani told them, saying the same thing in Pennsylvania: ‘Just say we won Pennsylvania!’ God, Rudy must have been an annoying kid. You’re playing tag, you get him on the shoulder, but instead of just admitting it, he says ‘Nuh uh!’ at a press conference next to a dildo store.” — STEPHEN COLBERT

“Yeah, and if that didn’t work, Rudy’s other plan was for Trump to legally change his name to Joe Biden.” — JIMMY FALLON

Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/14/arts/television/stephen-colbert-rudy-giuliani.html

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Here’s a map showing where low vaccination rates meet high case counts as U.S. Covid infections surge – CNBC
Here’s a map showing where low vaccination rates meet high case counts as U.S. Covid infections surge – CNBC

“If you think about what it means to have a virus takeover that rapidly, it means that it is the most fit virus that it is spreading more efficiently, that it is spreading in pockets that are unvaccinated and it’s causing a lot of disease, and a lot of stress in it,” he added.

Mississippi has administered at least one shot to just 37% of its population, ranking last in the country. Officials there asked people over 65 and immunocompromised residents to avoid any indoor mass gatherings for the next two weeks amid “significant transmission” of the delta variant over the coming weeks.

“We don’t want anybody to die needlessly,” Mississippi State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs said during a news briefing Friday.

The Covid vaccines currently being used are proving to be successful in preventing severe disease, hospitalization and death from the delta variant, according to Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Breakthrough infections are rare, and about 75% of the people who die or are hospitalized with Covid after vaccination are over the age of 65, according to the CDC.

“Preliminary data over the last six months suggest 99.5% of deaths from Covid-19 in the states have occurred in unvaccinated people … the suffering and loss we are now seeing is nearly entirely avoidable,” Walensky said earlier this month.

In addition to the risk of illness for Americans who have yet to get a shot, having unvaccinated pockets of the population could threaten the country’s ability to control the pandemic. Continued transmission of the virus means additional opportunities for new variants to emerge, with the possibility that one will be able to evade the protection offered by vaccines.

While 48% of all Americans are fully vaccinated, the pace of daily shots has slowed significantly in recent months. About 515,000 vaccinations have been administered each day on average over the past week, CDC data shows, following a steady decline from peak levels of more than 3 million shots per day in April.

Source Article from https://www.cnbc.com/2021/07/13/covid-cases-rise-in-us-counties-with-low-vaccination-rates-as-delta-variant-spreads.html

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Senate Dems settle on $3.5 trillion for major reconciliation bill – New York Post
Senate Dems settle on $3.5 trillion for major reconciliation bill – New York Post

A group of Senate Democrats announced late Tuesday they had reached a tentative agreement on a massive spending plan worth $3.5 trillion over the next decade.

The budget resolution, which Democrats will attempt to ram through the Senate with 51 votes via the parliamentary maneuver of reconciliation, is expected to be paired with a bipartisan infrastructure bill worth $1.2 trillion over eight years.

“The [Senate] Budget Committee has come to an agreement,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) told reporters. “The budget resolution with instructions will be $3.5 trillion. Every major program that President Biden has asked us for is funded in a robust way.”

Schumer announced the agreement following a two-hour evening meeting that capped weeks of bargaining among party leaders, progressives and moderates.

Boston’s Northern Avenue Bridge sits empty and rusting, as it has for nearly five years since being closed for safety reasons.
Lane Turner/The Boston Globe via Getty Images

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has insisted for weeks that she will not bring the bipartisan legislation to the floor for a vote until the Senate passes a larger bill which is expected to include massive spending on social care programs and efforts to counter the effects of climate change. The budget resolution sets only broad spending and revenue parameters, leaving specific decisions about which programs are affected — and by how much — for later.

“We are very proud of this plan,” Schumer told reporters. “We know we have a long road to go. We’re going to get this done for the sake of making average Americans’ lives a whole lot better.”

The majority leader added that Biden himself would lunch with Senate Democrats Wednesday “to lead us on to getting this wonderful plan” enacted and noted that it includes expansion of Medicare to cover dental, vision and hearing services, long a priority of Senate Budget Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi insisted that she will not bring the bipartisan legislation to the floor for a vote until the Senate passes a larger bill.
AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite

Elsewhere in the Senate, members from both parties worked to hammer out final details of the bipartisan bill, which Schumer has said he wants on the floor next week. Nearly two dozen senators involved in the effort met for more than three hours.

Republicans and moderate Democrats like Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia have expressed concern over how the spending in both bills should be paid for, with Manchin telling Politico earlier Tuesday: “I don’t think we need more debt.”

Members of the bipartisan group suggested Tuesday they hadn’t so much resolved the questions over how to pay for the package as moved past them — apparently accepting that some of the proposed revenue streams may not pass muster in formal assessments by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).

Manchin said Tuesday night that he hoped the CBO assessment — or “score” as it’s known — would show that “everything’s paid for. If not, we’ll have to make some adjustments.”

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), a key negotiator in the infrastructure talks, is surrounded by reporters as he walks through the Capitol in Washington on July 13, 2021.
AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite

Sources told The Post that the initial plan is to pay for the larger spending package with increases to the corporate tax rate. That could be an issue for Manchin, who has previously balked at making the rate too high. With the Senate split 50-50, Democrats cannot afford to lose a single member of their caucus.

Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) said the measure would be fully paid for with offsetting revenue but provided no detail.

Sanders called the agreement “a pivotal moment in American history” and vowed that “the wealthy and large corporations are going to start paying their fair share of taxes, so that we can protect the working families of this country.”

With Post wires

Source Article from https://nypost.com/2021/07/13/senate-democrats-settle-on-3-5-trillion-for-reconciliation-bill/

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Senate presses forward passing GOP voting and bail bills, as Texas House in chaos over Democrats’ decampment – The Texas Tribune
Senate presses forward passing GOP voting and bail bills, as Texas House in chaos over Democrats’ decampment – The Texas Tribune

Sign up for The Brief, our daily newsletter that keeps readers up to speed on the most essential Texas news.

As Democrats fled the state to avoid voting on a GOP priority elections bill that would restrict voting rights in the state, the Texas Senate approved the bill Tuesday with a party-line vote of 18-4.

The Senate passed the controversial elections bill — and bail legislation — a day after 51 House Democrats decamped to Washington, D.C., to avoid voting on the elections bill in their chamber. If the Democrats don’t return before the special session ends, the Senate bills will languish.

Eight Senate Democrats announced Tuesday they had also fled to the nation’s capital — a ninth was expected to arrive that evening — on the same day as their chamber was set to vote on the elections bill. But the Senate kept a quorum with 22 of its 31 members present and was able to vote on the bill.

Sen. Bryan Hughes, R-Mineola, the elections bill’s author, pushed back against Democratic criticisms of the bill as a means of voter suppression and said his legislation included “common sense reforms” to ensure the integrity of elections.

“This bill is about making it both easy to vote and harder to cheat,” he said, and blamed criticism of his bill on a “horrible, misleading, false national debate coming out of Washington.”

Senate Democrats said they flew to Washington to put pressure on Congress to pass elections legislation to protect voting rights, which Republican legislatures across the country have targeted after former President Donald Trump baselessly claimed there was voter fraud in last year’s presidential election. Texas Republicans made changing the state’s election laws a priority issue during the regular legislative session earlier this year.

“Rather than continuing to fruitlessly debate Republicans who refuse to legislate in good faith, Texas Senate Democrats decided to take matters into their own hands in order to secure the voting rights of Texans — especially voters of colors, seniors and those with disabilities — and work with our partners at the federal level to pass voting rights legislation that would rein in discriminatory voter suppression laws and unfair redistricting practices,” the nine senators who left Austin said in a joint statement.

Elections legislation

Senate Bill 1 covers many of the same elections provisions that failed to pass in May, when House Democrats broke quorum in the final days of the legislative session to avoid voting on the bill.

The bill includes proposals to ban drive-thru and 24-hour voting options like those employed by Harris County in the last election to drive record-breaking numbers to the polls, and enhances access for partisan poll watchers. The bill also prohibits local election officials from sending out unsolicited applications to request mail-in ballots. It also includes new voter identification requirements for absentee voters.

The Senate prioritized the bill during the specially called session that began last week and pushed it through committee last weekend in a hearing that began Saturday afternoon and ended early Sunday.

But the four Democratic senators who stayed behind took Hughes to task, questioning how they could trust his intentions when he previously defended controversial provisions — including restricting Sunday voting hours, which could have negatively impacted efforts by Black churches to turn out voters in their congregations, and making it easier for judges to overturn elections — that he had now removed from the bill.

Despite their removal, the Democrats said Hughes was putting lipstick on a pig and questioned what other unintended provisions could be included in the latest version of the bill.

“How do we stand here and discuss something you feel so certain about, [you were] just as certain a month ago, and now we’ve got a new bill?” said Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston.

Senate Republicans tried to cast criticisms of the bill as misleading and partisan, and spotlight what they called the legislation’s positive provisions, like an effort to ensure that employers allowed workers time off to cast their ballots during early voting and adding ways for people whose signatures on mail ballots were in question to verify their signatures.

But Democrats, civil rights groups and voting rights advocates have expressed concern that the bill could make it more difficult to vote, particularly for marginalized voters, by creating additional barriers to the ballot and increasing access by poll watchers who could intimidate voters.

“How can we in good conscience approve legislation when persons with disabilities tell us it makes it harder for them to vote?” said Sen. Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo. “How can we in good conscience approve legislation that persons of color tell us makes them feel unwelcome to participate in our democracy?”

Hughes amended the bill to drop requirements for curbside voting that troubled advocates for people with disabilities. The original version of the bill required any person other than the voter using curbside voting to leave the car while the voter was casting their ballot.

Hughes removed that provision to “avoid confusion and not create hardship for anyone with a disability.”

Another amendment by Sen. Angela Paxton, R-McKinney, was intended to bring the bill into compliance with federal laws on voter assistance. It removed provisions from the bill that required people assisting voters to specify under oath how they were providing assistance to a voter and that they were doing so because the voter had a disability.

Sen. Brian Birdwell, R-Granbury, also amended the bill to allow for tents to be used as temporary polling places if a regular polling place sustained physical damage that rendered it unusable. The permission would only grant the temporary permission for one election and would have to be approved by a county commissioners court.

Another amendment by Sen. Paul Bettencourt, R-Houston, required poll watchers to be provided training manuals to educate them about their duties.

The Senate also struck down along party lines amendments by Zaffirini that would have removed the bans on drive-thru and 24-hour voting.

As they voted to push the bill forward, Republicans said they were pushing for election integrity.

“We cannot have voter harvesting, we cannot have fraud in elections and everyone in this state and across the country has to be sure that their vote counts and that their elections are valid,” said Sen. Dawn Buckingham, R-Lakeway.

Senate also OKs bail legislation

After taking up the voting bill, the Senate also passed the GOP priority bail bills Tuesday with virtually no resistance as most Democrats remained absent.

Senate Bill 6, similar to failed legislation from the regular legislative session, would keep more people who have been accused but not convicted of violent or sexual crimes in jail unless they had enough cash. It would also restrict charitable bail groups’ ability to pay to get people out of jail.

In a push to change Texas bail laws, Republicans and crime victims have said the state needs to keep more defendants considered dangerous behind bars before their criminal case is resolved. As reasons for the legislation, they have cited rising crime rates and numerous violent crimes allegedly committed by people who had been released from jail on bond.

“This is bleeding into all our communities,” Sen. Joan Huffman, R-Houston, who authored the bill, said on the Senate floor.

SB 6 would largely prevent defendants deemed dangerous from being released on personal bonds, which don’t require cash up front, but they could still be released on cash bail. Those who could pay a monetary amount set by courts would still be able to walk free. The bill would also stop charitable bail groups, which gained popularity for bailing out protesters arrested after a Minneapolis police officer murdered George Floyd, from posting bail for anyone accused — or ever previously convicted — of a violent or sexual crime.

Many Democrats and civil rights advocates have slammed the bill as relying more heavily on a cash bail system, arguing it would lead to mass detention of poor people, primarily of color.

Most Senate Democrats were in Washington, D.C., with their House colleagues to try to block the passage of the voting bill, and none of those who remained in Austin opposed the Senate bill on the floor Tuesday.

Some Senate Democrats have expressed support for the bill, overall. And some provisions of the bills are widely supported, like one that would provide extra training to court officials who set bail and ensure they have information on defendants’ criminal history.

The bill passed 22-0. The chamber also unanimously passed a related resolution to allow courts to more often deny the release from jail outright for some defendants accused of violent crimes — even on money bail. The resolution would amend the Texas Constitution if it were to make it through the beleaguered House, get signed by Abbott and receive approval from voters in November.

Isabella Zou contributed to this story.

Source Article from https://www.texastribune.org/2021/07/13/voting-bill-texas-senate/

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Democrats unveil $3.5T go-it-alone plan to fulfill Biden’s agenda – POLITICO
Democrats unveil $3.5T go-it-alone plan to fulfill Biden’s agenda – POLITICO

“We are very proud of this plan,” Schumer said. “We know we have a long road to go … If we pass this, this is the most profound change to help American families in generations.”

Democrats on the Senate Budget Committee reached agreement on the overall total for their party-lines spending plan during their second meeting this week with Schumer and White House officials in the Capitol. Their next step is ensuring all 50 Democratic caucus members can support the $3.5 trillion figure, said Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), a member of the budget panel.

“The goal is for the Budget Committee to all be on the same page and then sell it to the caucus,” he said. “Once the Budget Committee is on the same page, numbers will start to come out. But we still have a little ways to go to get there.”

The budget resolution will require backing from every Democrat to make it through the upper chamber and officially kick off reconciliation, which will formally instruct various committees to turn the president’s priorities into legislative text. Progressives like Budget Chair Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) had pushed for a top line as high as $6 trillion, while centrists have endorsed a smaller figure that doesn’t rely on deficit financing.

Despite getting trillions less than his original ask, Sanders said the agreement on $3.5 trillion is a “big deal” when it comes to “transforming our infrastructure.” The budget plan is set to expand Medicare to cover vision, dental and hearing for seniors — a major priority for Sanders.

Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Jon Tester (D-Mont.), both moderates, said earlier Tuesday that they’ll need time to sort through the plan compiled by the Budget Committee.

“We need to pay for it,” Manchin said. “I’d like to pay for all of it. I don’t think we need more debt.”

Before an agreement was reached, Kaine and fellow Budget panel member Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) didn’t dismiss Manchin’s financing demand outright.

“There are many ways to get there,” Van Hollen said. “Certainly, it’s important that everyone who says it needs to be paid for also identifies ways to pay for what needs to be done.”

Democrats’ massive party-line package is expected to include policies like Biden’s proposal for two years of free community college, paid leave, health care subsidies, extending the boosted child tax credit and helping families cover child care costs.

Schumer has said he hopes to adopt the budget resolution on the floor in the next few weeks. That vote will be “the first step” toward passing the “remaining elements” of Biden’s social and economic plans without Republican support, the leader told Democratic senators in a letter this month, warning of “the possibility of working long nights, weekends, and remaining in Washington into the previously-scheduled August state work period.”

Meanwhile, negotiations on a bipartisan infrastructure bill, which would require support from at least 10 Senate Republicans, are starting to get shaky amid GOP concerns over spending and ways to finance the legislation.

Embarking again on a reconciliation bill will be arduous and painful for Democratic lawmakers. The process involves enduring two more vote-a-rama sessions in the Senate, each of which will allow Republicans to fire off a barrage of politically tricky amendments.

The Senate parliamentarian, who serves as the chamber’s nonpartisan procedural enforcer, is also expected to shoot down parts of the proposal that are found to be out of bounds under the special budget process.

Source Article from https://www.politico.com/news/2021/07/13/democrats-spending-plan-biden-agenda-499593

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Senate presses forward passing GOP voting and bail bills, as Texas House in chaos over Democrats’ decampment – The Texas Tribune
Senate presses forward passing GOP voting and bail bills, as Texas House in chaos over Democrats’ decampment – The Texas Tribune

Sign up for The Brief, our daily newsletter that keeps readers up to speed on the most essential Texas news.

As Democrats fled the state to avoid voting on a GOP priority elections bill that would restrict voting rights in the state, the Texas Senate approved the bill Tuesday with a party-line vote of 18-4.

The Senate passed the controversial elections bill — and bail legislation — a day after 51 House Democrats decamped to Washington, D.C., to avoid voting on the elections bill in their chamber. If the Democrats don’t return before the special session ends, the Senate bills will languish.

Eight Senate Democrats announced Tuesday they had also fled to the nation’s capital — a ninth was expected to arrive that evening — on the same day as their chamber was set to vote on the elections bill. But the Senate kept a quorum with 22 of its 31 members present and was able to vote on the bill.

Sen. Bryan Hughes, R-Mineola, the elections bill’s author, pushed back against Democratic criticisms of the bill as a means of voter suppression and said his legislation included “common sense reforms” to ensure the integrity of elections.

“This bill is about making it both easy to vote and harder to cheat,” he said, and blamed criticism of his bill on a “horrible, misleading, false national debate coming out of Washington.”

Senate Democrats said they flew to Washington to put pressure on Congress to pass elections legislation to protect voting rights, which Republican legislatures across the country have targeted after former President Donald Trump baselessly claimed there was voter fraud in last year’s presidential election. Texas Republicans made changing the state’s election laws a priority issue during the regular legislative session earlier this year.

“Rather than continuing to fruitlessly debate Republicans who refuse to legislate in good faith, Texas Senate Democrats decided to take matters into their own hands in order to secure the voting rights of Texans — especially voters of colors, seniors and those with disabilities — and work with our partners at the federal level to pass voting rights legislation that would rein in discriminatory voter suppression laws and unfair redistricting practices,” the nine senators who left Austin said in a joint statement.

Elections legislation

Senate Bill 1 covers many of the same elections provisions that failed to pass in May, when House Democrats broke quorum in the final days of the legislative session to avoid voting on the bill.

The bill includes proposals to ban drive-thru and 24-hour voting options like those employed by Harris County in the last election to drive record-breaking numbers to the polls, and enhances access for partisan poll watchers. The bill also prohibits local election officials from sending out unsolicited applications to request mail-in ballots. It also includes new voter identification requirements for absentee voters.

The Senate prioritized the bill during the specially called session that began last week and pushed it through committee last weekend in a hearing that began Saturday afternoon and ended early Sunday.

But the four Democratic senators who stayed behind took Hughes to task, questioning how they could trust his intentions when he previously defended controversial provisions — including restricting Sunday voting hours, which could have negatively impacted efforts by Black churches to turn out voters in their congregations, and making it easier for judges to overturn elections — that he had now removed from the bill.

Despite their removal, the Democrats said Hughes was putting lipstick on a pig and questioned what other unintended provisions could be included in the latest version of the bill.

“How do we stand here and discuss something you feel so certain about, [you were] just as certain a month ago, and now we’ve got a new bill?” said Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston.

Senate Republicans tried to cast criticisms of the bill as misleading and partisan, and spotlight what they called the legislation’s positive provisions, like an effort to ensure that employers allowed workers time off to cast their ballots during early voting and adding ways for people whose signatures on mail ballots were in question to verify their signatures.

But Democrats, civil rights groups and voting rights advocates have expressed concern that the bill could make it more difficult to vote, particularly for marginalized voters, by creating additional barriers to the ballot and increasing access by poll watchers who could intimidate voters.

“How can we in good conscience approve legislation when persons with disabilities tell us it makes it harder for them to vote?” said Sen. Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo. “How can we in good conscience approve legislation that persons of color tell us makes them feel unwelcome to participate in our democracy?”

Hughes amended the bill to drop requirements for curbside voting that troubled advocates for people with disabilities. The original version of the bill required any person other than the voter using curbside voting to leave the car while the voter was casting their ballot.

Hughes removed that provision to “avoid confusion and not create hardship for anyone with a disability.”

Another amendment by Sen. Angela Paxton, R-McKinney, was intended to bring the bill into compliance with federal laws on voter assistance. It removed provisions from the bill that required people assisting voters to specify under oath how they were providing assistance to a voter and that they were doing so because the voter had a disability.

Sen. Brian Birdwell, R-Granbury, also amended the bill to allow for tents to be used as temporary polling places if a regular polling place sustained physical damage that rendered it unusable. The permission would only grant the temporary permission for one election and would have to be approved by a county commissioners court.

Another amendment by Sen. Paul Bettencourt, R-Houston, required poll watchers to be provided training manuals to educate them about their duties.

The Senate also struck down along party lines amendments by Zaffirini that would have removed the bans on drive-thru and 24-hour voting.

As they voted to push the bill forward, Republicans said they were pushing for election integrity.

“We cannot have voter harvesting, we cannot have fraud in elections and everyone in this state and across the country has to be sure that their vote counts and that their elections are valid,” said Sen. Dawn Buckingham, R-Lakeway.

Senate also OKs bail legislation

After taking up the voting bill, the Senate also passed the GOP priority bail bills Tuesday with virtually no resistance as most Democrats remained absent.

Senate Bill 6, similar to failed legislation from the regular legislative session, would keep more people who have been accused but not convicted of violent or sexual crimes in jail unless they had enough cash. It would also restrict charitable bail groups’ ability to pay to get people out of jail.

In a push to change Texas bail laws, Republicans and crime victims have said the state needs to keep more defendants considered dangerous behind bars before their criminal case is resolved. As reasons for the legislation, they have cited rising crime rates and numerous violent crimes allegedly committed by people who had been released from jail on bond.

“This is bleeding into all our communities,” Sen. Joan Huffman, R-Houston, who authored the bill, said on the Senate floor.

SB 6 would largely prevent defendants deemed dangerous from being released on personal bonds, which don’t require cash up front, but they could still be released on cash bail. Those who could pay a monetary amount set by courts would still be able to walk free. The bill would also stop charitable bail groups, which gained popularity for bailing out protesters arrested after a Minneapolis police officer murdered George Floyd, from posting bail for anyone accused — or ever previously convicted — of a violent or sexual crime.

Many Democrats and civil rights advocates have slammed the bill as relying more heavily on a cash bail system, arguing it would lead to mass detention of poor people, primarily of color.

Most Senate Democrats were in Washington, D.C., with their House colleagues to try to block the passage of the voting bill, and none of those who remained in Austin opposed the Senate bill on the floor Tuesday.

Some Senate Democrats have expressed support for the bill, overall. And some provisions of the bills are widely supported, like one that would provide extra training to court officials who set bail and ensure they have information on defendants’ criminal history.

The bill passed 22-0. The chamber also unanimously passed a related resolution to allow courts to more often deny the release from jail outright for some defendants accused of violent crimes — even on money bail. The resolution would amend the Texas Constitution if it were to make it through the beleaguered House, get signed by Abbott and receive approval from voters in November.

Isabella Zou contributed to this story.

Source Article from https://www.texastribune.org/2021/07/13/voting-bill-texas-senate/

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