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What We’re Reading this Week (February 1st-5th, 2021)

Below is a selection of articles the Federal Relations team read this week.

Senate Under New Leadership: On Wednesday the Senate formally adopted the power-sharing resolution allowing Democrats to take control of Committees. More.

1st Tie Breaking Vote: Vice President Kamala Harris cast her first tie-breaking vote early Friday morning in the divided Senate, allowing a budget resolution with a $1.9 trillion COVID stimulus to proceed. More.

Removed from Committees: Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) was removed from her assignments to the House Education and Labor, and Budget Committees, in a full House vote, as punishment for her use of violent rhetoric and promotion of conspiracy theories. The highly-partisan resolution passed 230-199. Read more.

Liz Cheney: House Republicans voted Wednesday night to keep Congresswoman Liz Cheney (R-WY) in her role as the #3 GOP leader, after she faced criticism from within her caucus for voting to impeach former President Trump following the insurrection at the Capitol. Full story.

More Nominations: The Senate Banking Committee voted to approve Congresswoman Marcia Fudge’s (D-OH) nomination to be Secretary of Housing and Urban Development in the new Administration. Her nomination will now go to the full Senate for confirmation. The committee also voted to approve Cecilia Rouse to be Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers. Read more.

Defense Production Act: The Biden Administration reported that its using the Defense Production Act to produce Pfizer vaccine supplies, at-home testing kits, and PPE for frontline workers. More.

What We’re Reading this Week (January 25th-29th, 2021)

Below is a selection of articles the Federal Relations team read this week.

Raising the minimum wage?: Democrats may attempt to use the annual budget reconciliation to increase the federal minimum wage to $15/hour by 2025. Read here.

Power Sharing Agreement: Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) have reached a power-sharing agreement in the 50-50 split Senate following a feud over ending the filibuster. The filibuster will remain intact. Read more.

Impeachment Trial: Articles of impeachment passed in the House have been transmitted to the Senate. After Republicans tried to halt the trial on constitutionality grounds, the Senate will move ahead following a 55-45 vote. Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) will oversee the trial, rather than SCOTUS Chief Justice Roberts. 60 votes are needed to convict the former President, which seems unlikely to happen. Analysis here.

Judge Strikes Down Deportation Moratorium: U.S. District Judge Drew B. Tipton of the Southern District of Texas struck down President Biden’s 100 day moratorium on deportations, finding that the Administration failed to consider options more narrow in scope and time, and failed to provide concrete justification. The moratorium will be halted for 14 days as the court continues to review the case. Story here.

US and Russia Extend Arms Treaty: Russian parliament voted to extend the New START Treaty for another five years. The treaty does not require Congressional approval in the US, and limits American and Russian nuclear arsenals. Read more.

Conspiracy Theories: The White House declined to comment after freshman Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) was accused of supporting several conspiracy theories and making threats towards Democratic leadership preceding her run for Congress. Read more.

FBI Lawyer Gets Probation: A former attorney for the FBI narrowly avoided jailtime after doctoring an email which was instrumental in the FBI receiving approval to surveil a former Trump campaign aide during the Russia investigation. Full story.

What We’re Reading this Week (January 11th-15th, 2021)

Below is a selection of articles the Federal Relations team read this week.

Impeachment: President Trump became the first president to ever be impeached twice, when we was impeached by the House of Representatives for “incitement of insurrection”. He must now face a trial by the US Senate. Updates and a “whip count” (counting of support/opposition) of Senators is here.

Parler Sues Amazon: Social media site Parler sued Amazon after being removed from most major platforms. In a response, Amazon defended their decision to remove Parler, citing violent content. Read more here.

DC on Lockdown: Large parts of Washington, DC surrounding the Capitol have been closed off and are under strict security and National Guard watch following the violent events of January 6th, and in anticipation of the upcoming inauguration. Among the measures include the National Park Service closing the National Mall by request from the US Secret Service. More.

Arrests Continue: Several people from across the country have been arrested in connection with the violent attack on the Capitol on January 6th. Many were tracked down through social media. Updates here.

Biden Picks Continue: In addition to a slew of scientific appointments, President-elect Biden announced Janet McCabe will serve as Deputy EPA Administrator. McCabe is currently a professor at Indiana University School of Law and led the EPA’s Air Office under President Obama. More.

Census: The US Census Bureau has ceased efforts to compile tallies of undocumented immigrants, in a supposed effort by the White House to exclude them from Congressional apportionment. Historically, apportionment has always been done without regard to citizenship status. The order came from agency leadership in response to a Commerce Department Inspector General whistleblower complaint. Full story.

What We’re Reading this Week (November 30th-December 4th, 2020)

Election Fraud Claims: In a 46 minute-long video filmed at the Diplomatic Reception Room, the President continued to push unsubstantiated claims of a “rigged election”. US Attorney General Bill Barr has confirmed that there is no evidence of widespread election fraud. Read more.

Federal Budget: Certain provisions related to environmental protection, the National Academies, and the US Capitol Police are holding up a potential omnibus spending bill to fund the Federal Government after December 11th. Appropriators have turned to leadership to resolve the differences. More.

Lame Duck Nominee: The Senate confirmed Christopher Waller to the Federal Reserve Board in a 48-47 partisan vote. Sen. Paul (R-KY) was the only Republican to vote against his confirmation. Waller is the first Board nominee to be confirmed during a lame duck session. Read more.

Facebook Lawsuit: The US Department of Justice has sued Facebook, alleging the company hired several thousand foreign workers under the H-1B program, without considering qualified American applicants. Full story.

Marijuana Vote: Today, the House will vote on a bill removing marijuana from a federal list of controlled substances and expunge some marijuana-related convictions. More.

Census Delays: The US Census Bureau has conveyed to Congress that they will need until at least January 23rd to review anomalies and transmit results to the President, potentially thwarting plans to exclude undocumented persons. More.

What We’re Reading this Week (November 16th-20th, 2020)

Below is a selection of articles the Federal Relations team read this week.

More Senators test positive for COVID-19: Senator Rick Scott (R-FL) became the latest Member of Congress to test positive for COVID-19. Full story.

Federal Reserve Nomination Blocked: Judy Shelton’s nomination to the Federal Reserve Board was blocked by a 47-50 procedural vote. Shelton is a controversial pick, and Senators Collins (R-ME) and Romney (R-UT) joined Democrats in voting against her confirmation. Two Republican senators were absent due to COVID-19 exposure. Read more.

Trump Fires DHS Cybersecurity Head: President Trump fired Chris Krebs as Director of the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency after he contradicted several of the President’s claims regarding election fraud. Read the full story.

Wreaths Across America: The Army reversed course and will allow Wreaths Across America, an annual event at Arlington National Cemetery, to proceed despite COVID-19 concerns. More.

House Leadership: House Democrats held leadership elections this week, appointing, notably, Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-CA) to be Vice Chairman of the caucus, making him the highest ranking Latino. Rep. Pelosi (D-CA) will return as Speaker of the House, and Rep. Hoyer (D-MD) will again serve as Majority Leader. Read more.

Return of Earmarks: House Leadership, including potential candidates for Appropriations Chair, are optimistic that earmarks (or “congressionally directed spending”) will return for the 117th Congress. Although Majority Leader Rep. Hoyer (D-MD) said Republicans and Democrats will likely participate, the Senate still has a ban on earmarks. Read more.