Manchin and Sinema continue to stand in way of Build Back Better and voting rights – live | US news

The principal deputy White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, is now holding the daily briefing with reporters, and she is joined by deputy national climate advisor Ali Zaidi.

Zaidi outlined the Biden administration’s plans to replace lead pipes across the US, which he described as a “centerpiece of the bipartisan infrastructure law”.

The climate adviser noted that Kamala Harris met with child health advocates and labor leaders today to share the White House’s pledge to eliminate lead pipe and lead paint threats.

Joe Biden will attend South Carolina State University’s commencement ceremony tomorrow, the White House has just announced.

In its advisory, the White House said the president will travel to Orangeburg, South Carolina, to celebrate the graduates of the historically Black university.

Of course, South Carolina holds special significance for Biden, whose struggling presidential campaign was able to launch a successful comeback last year after his victory in the state’s primary.

Joe Biden posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor to Army Sergeant First Class Alwyn Cashe, and the medal was received by Cashe’s widow, Tamara Cashe.

The medal was also posthumously awarded to Army Sergeant First Class Christopher Celiz, whose wife Katherine and daughter Shannon accepted the award on his behalf.

Army Master Sergeant Earl Plumlee received the award for “acts of gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty on August 28th, 2013,” when he was serving in Afghanistan.

The Medal of Honor was also awarded to Sergeant First Class Christopher A. Celiz of the US Army and Master Sergeant Earl D. Plumlee of the US Army, both of whom served in Afghanistan.

According to a White House statement, Celiz participated in a July 2018 mission during which he “voluntarily exposed himself to intense enemy machine gun and small arms fire to retrieve and employ a heavy weapon system, thereby allowing U.S. and partnered forces to regain the initiative, maneuver to a secure location and begin treatment of a critically wounded partnered force member”. He later died of injuries sustained during the mission.

Plumlee was recognized for his actions in Afghanistan in August 2013, when he “instantly responded to a complex enemy attack that began with a massive explosion that tore a sixty-foot breach in the base’s perimeter wall,” according to the White House.

Joe Biden is now awarding the Medal of Honor, America’s highest military award to valor, to three troops who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The three troops receiving the award are:

• Sergeant First Class Alwyn C. Cashe, United States Army
• Sergeant First Class Christopher A. Celiz, United States Army
• Master Sergeant Earl D. Plumlee, United States Army

Biden noted that Cashe, who was killed in Iraq in 2005, is the first African American to receive the Medal of Honor since the Vietnam War.

According to a statement from the White House, Cashe’s squadron was attacked on October 17, 2005, during a nighttime patrol in Iraq.

Cashe sustained second- and third-degree burns trying to help his teammates reach safety, and he selflessly insisted that other injured troops be evacuated before he was. His actions saved several lives and cost him his own.

The supreme court has returned the case involving Texas’ six-week abortion ban to a federal appeals court, but much to the disappointment of abortion rights advocates, the case was sent to a court that has twice upheld the controversial law.

The AP reports:

Justice Neil Gorsuch on Thursday signed the court’s order that granted the request of abortion clinics for the court to act speedily. But the clinics wanted the case sent directly to U.S. Judge Robert Pitman, who had previously though briefly blocked enforcement of the Texas abortion ban known as S.B. 8.

When Pitman ordered the law blocked in early October, the appeals court countermanded his order two days later.

Texas has said it will seek to keep the case bottled up at the appeals court for the foreseeable future.

The supreme court ruled last week that abortion providers can move forward with their lawsuit over the ban, but the court, which skews six to three in favor of conservatives, allowed the law to remain in effect for now.

Joe Biden has officially signed the bill raising the debt ceiling by $2.5tn, averting a default that would have had disastrous effects on the domestic and global economy.

In a statement, the White House noted that Biden also signed a bill awarding the Congressional Gold Medal to the US troops who were killed during the Kabul evacuation mission earlier this year.

The House approved the debt ceiling bill yesterday in a vote of 221 to 209, sending the legislation to the president’s desk.

The House vote came after Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer and minority leader Mitch McConnell reached an agreement to approve a temporary rule change allowing Democrats to end a Republican filibuster of the bill with just 51 votes. The debt ceiling bill ultimately passed the Senate in a vote of 50 to 49.

The one-time change to the filibuster has led to suggestions from some Senate Democrats that the chamber should be able to make similar adjustments to approve a voting rights bill.

“We think it’s so important that we change the rule in order to save the economy,” Senator Raphael Warnock told NBC News this week.

“Well, the warning lights on our democracy are blinking right now, and we seem unwilling to respond with the same urgency to protect the democracy that we have to protect the economy.”

Tommy Vietor, who previously served as National Security Council spokesperson under Barack Obama, criticized Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer for his new deadline to pass a voting rights bill before the 2022 elections.

“I don’t understand making pronouncements like this without any discernible path to success,” Vietor said on Twitter. “I would love for the Senate to focus on and pass voting rights legislation, but this just feels like lurching from one rhetorical cul de sac to another.”

As of now, Schumer does not have the votes to pass a voting rights bill because centrist Senator Kyrsten Sinema remains opposed to altering the filibuster, which would be necessary to approve such a bill.

Here’s where the day stands so far:

• Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer said he wants to pass a voting rights bill “in time for the 2022 elections,” per CNN. As of now, the Democratic leader does not have the votes to pass voting rights legislation because centrist Senator Kyrsten Sinema remains opposed to altering the filibuster to clear the way for such a bill.
• Centrist Senator Joe Manchin’s concerns about the Build Back Better Act have stalled negotiations, essentially eliminating the possibility of Democrats passing the bill before the end of the year. Manchin has reportedly expressed concern about the cost of the bill’s provision to continue the expanded child tax credit program.
• US hospitals are bracing for another potential surge in coronavirus cases as the Omicron variant spreads across the country. Omicron now accounts for nearly 3% of all Covid cases in the US as of Saturday – up from only 0.4% the week before, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The blog will have more coming up, so stay tuned.