Congress passes massive stimulus package as virus rages-politico: Congress approved a $900 billion coronavirus relief package late Monday night after months of inaction and partisan bickering, sending desperately needed aid to Americans reeling from a global pandemic.
This is the last blog post for 2020. Your blogger is taking a much anticipated break. I will be back January 4, 2021!
I hope you have a wonderful holiday and break!
Congress strikes stimulus deal after days of frantic talks-politico: Congressional leaders on Sunday clinched a Covid stimulus deal after days of hard-fought negotiations — but Americans will have to wait at least a little longer to get much needed relief.
Stopgap funding up in the air as coronavirus relief talks drag on-rollcall: Disagreements over a temporary spending bill, including whether one was even needed, threatened a government funding lapse as lawmakers slowly worked their way through COVID-19 aid bill disputes.
Fine print issues snag tentative pact on coronavirus relief bill-rollcall: Congressional leaders started Wednesday hoping to finalize a deal on a $900 billion COVID-19 aid package, but last-minute obstacles and fine-tuning indicated negotiations would bleed into Thursday.
Hill leaders nearing long-sought stimulus deal-politico: Congressional leaders closed in on an agreement to provide a new tranche of coronavirus relief on Tuesday, haggling deep into the night over how to spend hundreds of billions of dollars before adjourning for the year.
Reps. Gil Cisneros and Harley Rouda reflect on what went wrong and what’s next-ocregister: Bad polling. The pandemic. Hyperpartisanship. Enthusiasm from President Donald Trump’s base. These are some of the factors Reps. Gil Cisneros and Harley Rouda are citing as they’ve had time to analyze what went wrong with their reelection campaigns.
'Time for everybody to move on': Senate GOP accepts Biden's win-politico: Senate Republicans are finally starting to recognize Joe Biden as the next president of the United States — even if they waited until the very last minute.
Bipartisan group strikes deal on coronavirus relief package-rollcall: The group of Senate and House lawmakers negotiating a $908 billion COVID-19 relief package has reached agreement on business liability waivers and state and local government aid provisions, but those will be broken into a separate bill, according to a source familiar with the plan.
FDA advisory panel recommends use of Pfizer vaccine-politico: An independent FDA advisory committee on Thursday said that the benefits of Pfizer's coronavirus vaccine outweigh the risks, setting the stage for the agency to authorize emergency use of the shot for people 16 and older.
Biden team making legislative outreach an early priority-rollcall: President-elect Joe Biden and his transition team are making collaboration between the executive branch and Congress a priority, with early and extensive outreach to the legislative branch.
Trump’s health nemesis gets a new starring role: Reversing Trump’s policies-politico: California Attorney General Xavier Becerra was the chief legal nemesis of the Department of Health and Human Services for most of the Trump presidency.
California exits give Newsom rare chance to pick 3 high-profile leaders-politico: California Gov. Gavin Newsom has a perfect storm of political opportunity now that Xavier Becerra's departure gives him the chance to fill a third high-profile statewide office and shape the state's power structure for years.
Biden selects Becerra to lead Health and Human Services-politico: President-elect Joe Biden has selected California Attorney General Xavier Becerra to serve as his secretary of Health and Human Services, choosing an experienced politician to help oversee the government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, according to three people familiar with the decision.
Pelosi eyes combining Covid aid with mammoth spending deal-politico: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Friday she wants to attach a coronavirus relief bill to a $1.4 trillion omnibus spending package that would avert a government shutdown later this month, raising the prospects of long-stalled stimulus relief finally being signed into law.
Emboldened moderates force progress in stalled Covid talks-politico: The Problem Solvers may have actually solved something. For once. Fed up by months of inaction over coronavirus relief, House and Senate centrists are showing newfound force and influence, bucking their leadership this week in the hopes of finally clinching a stimulus deal.
U.N. hosts the world’s weirdest summit on Covid-19-politico: It took the United Nations General Assembly nine months to arrange a special session dedicated to discussing the Covid-19 pandemic. No one, not even the organizers, knew what to expect from the two-day virtual summit that kicked off Thursday.
Feinstein backs Padilla for Harris seat-politico: Sen. Dianne Feinstein publicly threw her
weight behind California Secretary of State Alex Padilla filling Sen. Kamala
Harris' soon-to-be-vacant seat, signaling that Padilla remains a favorite of
the Democratic establishment.
Rosa DeLauro wins panel vote for Appropriations gavel-rollcall: A House Democratic panel in charge of committee selections gave Rosa DeLauro the nod to become the next Appropriations chairwoman after a closed-door vote Tuesday.
Newsom considers new California stay-at-home orders-thehill: Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) said Monday that California is considering new stay-at-home orders to prevent hospital intensive care units from being overwhelmed by Christmas. The governor suggested during a briefing that if hospitalizations and intensive care unit statistics continue to jump, the state is “going to have to take much more dramatic, arguably drastic action.”