Stephen Breyer, the most senior of the three liberal justices on the US Supreme Court, announced he will retire. President Biden is expected to move quickly to fill the vacancy given the 50-50 balance of the Senate.
Read more here.
Category: Pure Politics
CR until February 18
The House and Senate have agreed to pass a continuing resolution (CR), which would keep the federal government open and funded, until February 18, 2022. Congress has previously passed a CR that expires at midnight on Friday, December 3, 2021.
The extension gives the House and Senate additional time to finish FY2022 funding and try to pass other legislative priorities, like Build Back Better and raise the debt ceiling, before the end of the calendar year.
While the extension is not happy news, there had been political rumblings of allowing the federal government to shut down for a short time in December for political gains. The CR until February 18, 2022 avoids that situation.
The legislation would be a straight extension of existing funding with the only increase in appropriations for Afghan refugees.
House Passes “Build Back Better” Package
After months of intraparty discord among Democrats, both within the House and between chambers, the House passed early this morning the “Build Back Better” reconciliation package. The House cleared the measure by a vote of 220 – 213, with one Democrat voting against it. The vote was delayed to this morning after Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) spoke for more than eight hours against the package, lasting into the very early hours of this morning.
The package now goes to the Senate, where changes are likely, as at least one Democrat in that chamber has made clear his reservations about several parts of the House bill.
OSTP Listening Sessions on AI and Equity
The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy announced a series of listening sessions between November 18th-29th covering AI, data-driven technologies, and equity. The sessions will focus specifically on Public and Private Sector Uses of AI-Enabled Biometric Technologies.
Details and registration information can be found here.
It’s “Infrastructure Week”– Infrastructure Bill Officially Signed
With more than 800 guests in attendance at the White House, President Biden officially signed into law yesterday the $1.2-trillion infrastructure legislation. The signing ceremony became possible after Democrats were able to come to an agreement on how to proceed on it and the reconciliation package and the House cleared the infrastructure bill before leaving town for Veterans Day last week.