Build Back Better
Biden meets with county leaders in D.C., promotes Build Back Better plan
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden during a Tuesday meeting with county leaders called on Congress to pass his stalled social spending package as a way to fight inflation, saying it would help with expenses families face. “Families are getting clobbered by the cost of everyday things,” Biden told members of the National Association of Counties […]
Electricity CEOs tout Biden clean energy tax credits, despite stalled plan
Clean energy tax credits President Joe Biden proposed in his massive domestic spending and climate measure last year would help electric utilities build resilience and transmission lines, utility CEOs told Biden at a White House event Wednesday. But the $1.9 trillion budget measure, which Biden and allies call Build Back Better, is in limbo because […]
Governors attempt to bridge deep political divides in big D.C. meeting
WASHINGTON — Governors of both parties from throughout the United States met here over the weekend to try to speak on a unified front about what their states need from the federal government. But the waters were muddied by governors’ clearly divided political views about two major issues of the moment — voting laws and […]
What’s at stake for families as the monthly child tax credit payment ends?
As we start the new year, parents are planning for the future and working hard to provide their kids a great quality of life. They’re facing challenges head on, including a surging pandemic, school closures and at-home schooling, and fewer affordable child care options. No child should go to bed hungry, and no parent should […]
Biden says ‘big chunks’ of his spending bill could still succeed, including climate plan
President Joe Biden said Wednesday the climate and child care provisions in his domestic spending agenda could still become law this year, even as the larger plan has stalled in the Senate over other items that Biden conceded may not pass — such as an expanded child tax credit. In a nearly two-hour news conference, […]
Some Democrats push to rescue climate plan in Biden spending package
A group of congressional Democrats on Tuesday called for preserving the climate portions of President Joe Biden’s stalled domestic spending bill as Democrats in the U.S. Senate rewrite the measure. U.S. Sens. Brian Schatz of Hawaii, Martin Heinrich of New Mexico, Tina Smith of Minnesota and John Hickenlooper of Colorado, along with Reps. Kathy Castor […]
Schumer vows U.S. Senate action on voting rights and social policy, as Manchin rift deepens
U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Monday he plans to force votes on voting rights, a sweeping social policy bill and a change to Senate rules early next year — even as members of his caucus have made clear in recent days Democrats lack the support to pass those proposals. In a letter to […]
Biden’s big social spending bill caught in snags in the Senate
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden’s giant social and climate spending bill last week appeared stalled in the U.S. Senate for some time to come, a deep frustration for congressional Democrats who aimed to pass the ambitious package by the Christmas recess. Adding to this, West Virginia Democratic U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin Sunday said he was […]
Spending $2 trillion on child care, health care and climate change won’t make inflation any worse
By Michael Klein, Tufts University One of the main concerns raised by critics of President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better plan is that it will drive up inflation, which is already running at the fastest pace in four decades. The Senate is currently considering a roughly US$2 trillion bill passed by the House that would […]
Immigration protections in Biden’s social policy bill face a new test in the Senate
WASHINGTON — Nearly 100 House Democrats are pushing the Senate to expand immigration protections in President Joe Biden’s massive social spending and climate bill, and advocates say that it may be a last opportunity for years to advance any reform. The letter to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York and the chairman of the […]
How paid leave, a tax cut for the rich and more could get axed from Biden’s social policy bill
WASHINGTON — Congressional Democrats cheered on the floor of the U.S. House after approving President Joe Biden’s massive social spending and climate bill. But a major struggle lies ahead in the coming month in the U.S. Senate, where Democrats cannot lose any votes within their party if they are to send the so-called Build Back Better measure […]
Paid leave advocates still hopeful of federal spending bill, state-level support
Paid leave has been on the minds of advocates in Ohio for many years, and they’re seeing the possibility for better leave options as federal legislation heads from the U.S. House to the Senate. At a meeting of the Ohio Children’s Legislative Caucus, members of the General Assembly heard from those who want to see […]