OnPolitics: Are infrastructure talks dead? Maybe not.
Earlier this week, President Joe Biden cut off negotiations for a bipartisan deal on infrastructure with a group of six Senate Republicans. Does that mean the deal is dead? Not necessarily.
Plus:
- House Democrats are once again taking aim at Rep. Ilhan Omar’s comments on Israel.
- And in news environmentalists will love, the Keystone XL crude oil pipeline is canceled.
It’s Mabinty, with the news of the day.
Infrastructure: ‘Multiple paths forward’
Biden’s administration isn’t giving up on a bipartisan infrastructure deal after talks with Republican senators collapsed. Today, they expressed openness to a strategy from Senate Democrats to pass certain components of the measure without GOP support.
The White House claimed it still has “multiple paths forward” for getting an infrastructure bill passed, including:
- Using a special legislative maneuver that doesn’t require Republican backing
- Building on a separate House Democratic proposal
- Negotiating with a bipartisan group of senators who have been meeting for weeks on a compromise
Biden opened talks with the group of around 20 senators, include Sens. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, Rob Portman, R-Ohio, Bill Cassidy, R-La., Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz.
If Biden doesn’t reach an agreement, Democrats could choose to push through an infrastructure package using budget reconciliation, a legislative maneuver subject to certain rules that would allow the bill to pass with only a simple majority in the evenly divided Senate.
In essence, it would allow Democrats, who control the chamber by virtue of Vice President Kamala Harris’ ability to break ties, to pass a proposal without any Republican support.
News you should be reading:
- Trump State Department appointee Federico Kleinoffered plea deal in Capitol riot case
- Biden, Boris Johnson talk COVID-19 travel rules, Atlantic Charter modeled on Churchill-FDR
- Netanyahu is revered among American evangelicals. One pastor says his ouster will rupture the relationship
- Biden’s pick for appeals court, Ketanji Brown Jackson, clears Senate hurdle despite GOP opposition
- Lack of party support and money, plus racism and sexism, mean Black women often lose statewide elections
- State bar investigating Texas Attorney General Ken Paxtonover Trump election lawsuit
Rep. Ilhan Omar v. fellow House Democrats
A group of House lawmakers is criticizing Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., for comparing the human rights records of the United States and Israel with Hamas and the Taliban — a rare public rebuke against a fellow Democrat.
“Equating the United States and Israel to Hamas and the Taliban is as offensive as it is misguided,” Illinois Rep. Brad Schneider and 11 other Democrats wrote in a joint statement issued late Wednesday.
The group was reacting to a tweet Omar posted Monday. “We must have the same level of accountability and justice for all victims of crimes against humanity,” she tweeted. “We have seen unthinkable atrocities committed by the U.S., Hamas, Israel, Afghanistan, and the Taliban.”
How’s Omar responding? In an early Thursday tweet responding to her colleagues, Omar called it “shameful for colleagues who call me when they need my support to now put out a statement asking for ‘clarification’ and not just call.”
Hope you have a restful weekend. —Mabinty
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