ВИБОРЧА ГАЗЕТА

Biden to Nominate Former Sen. Nelson as NASA Chief

U.S. President Joe Biden announced Friday he plans to nominate former U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson to lead the U.S. space agency, NASA.In a statement, the White House says as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives and a three-term senator from Florida, Nelson, a Democrat, chaired committees on space, science and transportation. They also note he co-authored the landmark 2010 NASA bill which set the current path of private-sector partnership. In the statement, the White House notes Nelson, as a congressman in 1986, even flew on a six-day space shuttle mission. He currently serves on the NASA advisory council.Nelson, if approved by the Senate, would take over the agency as commercial space projects are already shuttling supplies and astronauts to the International Space Station.NASA is also preparing to return astronauts to the moon in the next four years.Nelson’s nomination has already received the endorsement of Sen. Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican.“I cannot think of anyone better to lead NASA than Bill Nelson,” Rubio tweeted on Thursday.
If approved, Nelson would be NASA’s 14th administrator, and would take over from the Trump administration’s appointee, former Oklahoma congressman Jim Bridenstine.
…

US Envoy Contrasts Biden’s Criticism of Iran’s Poor Human Rights Record with Trump Approach

The Biden administration is contrasting its criticisms of Iran’s poor human rights record from those made by former President Donald Trump, with a senior official saying the U.S. is trying to make its Iran critiques more credible by stressing a need to also solve rights problems at home.“President Joe Biden has made clear … that human rights are going to be a priority in Iran and in the region as a whole,” said U.S. Special Envoy for Iran Robert Malley in a Wednesday interview with VOA Persian at the State Department. “And I think we have restored a more principled approach in which we push for the respect of human rights throughout the world, including, by the way, in the United States.”Prior to Malley’s interview, the Biden administration had issued eight public statements about Iran’s human rights record since taking office on Jan. 20, with the toughest being a March 9 announcement of sanctions against two interrogators of Iran’s paramilitary Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps for allegedly violating the rights of anti-government protesters in 2019 and 2020.The Trump administration had frequently been vocal about Iran’s poor rights record during its four-year term and sanctioned multiple Iranian government-linked individuals and entities for alleged human rights abuses.In an echo of Trump’s approach, Malley told VOA the Biden administration has tried to “shine a spotlight on Iran [and] the struggle of courageous activists” such as jailed Iranian human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh. A U.S. official in Geneva had mentioned Sotoudeh in a March 9 statement to the U.N. Human Rights Council urging Iran to end its “systematic use of an arbitrary and unfair justice system to detain and impose sentences against human rights defenders.”In another message similar to that of the Trump administration, Malley said U.S. officials were putting a “huge emphasis” on trying to bring home Iranian American dual citizens seen as unjustly detained in or prevented from leaving Iran. He named businessman Siamak Namazi, who was arrested in October 2015; Siamak’s father and former U.N. official Baquer Namazi, who was detained in February 2016 and has been on a medical furlough from prison since 2018; and environmentalist Morad Tahbaz, who was arrested in January 2018.Malley said the U.S. also will continue to seek the return of the remains of retired FBI agent Robert “Bob” Levinson, who disappeared in Iran after being abducted in 2007 and later died in captivity according to U.S. intelligence assessments.“It is unconscionable that … the Iranian government would use the lives of individuals as pawns in a political game to try to extract benefit,” Malley said. “This is not something [where] you sign an agreement and that’s enough. What you need to do is push and make sure that there’s pressure, and make sure that the Iranian people themselves know that the United States is standing with them in that fight.”Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 3 MB480p | 4 MB540p | 4 MB1080p | 17 MBOriginal | 34 MB Embed” />Copy Download AudioUS Envoy Talks Human RightsIn an effort to contrast his message from that of the previous administration, Malley said the U.S. views the human rights fight as one involving not just Iran but other countries.“And it’s [involving] the U.S. trying to restore its own faith with its commitments back at home, commitments on democracy, on the respect of human rights,” he said. “One of the first decisions President Biden made was to lift the travel ban on Muslims and Africans to try to restore the U.S. to a stronger position in terms of being able to argue for universal human rights everywhere.”Biden repealed the Trump travel ban on Iran and 12 other nations within hours of being sworn in. He said the visa restrictions on citizens of those nations, seven of them predominantly Muslim states in the Middle East and Africa, were inconsistent with a U.S. tradition of welcoming people of all faiths and undermined national security.Trump had said the bans were justified by concerns about foreign terrorist entry to the United States and about the ability of U.S. authorities to screen visa applicants from nations afflicted by terrorism.Malley’s human rights comments drew mixed reactions from U.S. analysts and policy advocates contacted by VOA Persian.Barbara Slavin of the Atlantic Council welcomed the U.S. envoy’s position. “The Trump administration approach was riddled with double standards, condemning Iran vociferously while ignoring or soft-peddling egregious abuses by countries ‘friendlier’ to the United States such as Saudi Arabia. I thought it was important that he admitted that the U.S. record is hardly perfect in this regard,” she said.National Iranian American Council policy director Ryan Costello said the Biden administration should not only speak out “more evenly” on human rights abuses in the Middle East and the world but also ease Trump-imposed Iran sanctions that he said, “have hurt ordinary Iranians and contributed to the securitized political environment in Iran.” Biden has offered to ease those sanctions if Iran first resumes compliance with a 2015 deal in which it promised world powers to curb nuclear activities that could be weaponized, in return for sanctions relief.Alireza Nader of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies said he does not believe Biden will achieve any human rights improvements in Iran without maintaining the Trump-era sanctions that were part of the former president’s “maximum pressure” campaign against the Islamist-ruled nation. “The Iranian people want the Islamic Republic gone and an easing of pressure only helps the regime,” he said.Iran International senior analyst Jason Brodsky said the newly defined U.S. human rights approach to Iran is unlikely to influence an Iranian supreme leader who has gone to great lengths to ensure the survival of Iran’s ruling system. “A U.S. universal and self-critical policy by itself won’t change that calculus, and the international community needs to understand that dynamic,” Brodsky said.This article originated in VOA’s Persian Service.  
…

Lawmakers Confirm Former Ambassador as US Spy Chief

Another key piece of U.S. President Joe Biden’s team moved into place Thursday, with lawmakers in the Senate confirming former Ambassador William Burns to lead the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).Senators skipped a roll-call vote and approved Burns by unanimous consent, just hours after a hold on the nomination had been lifted.Burns earned praise from both Democrats and Republicans following his testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee, with committee chairman Senator Mark Warner calling the bipartisan support a “testament to the nominee’s unquestioned qualifications.”JUST IN: Praise & congratulations for newly confirmed @CIA Director William Burns from @ODNIgov Director Avril HainesThe Senate confirmed the 64yo former ambassador by unanimous consent earlier after a weeks-long hold on his nomination was lifted pic.twitter.com/Tj8fUngFvY— Jeff Seldin (@jseldin) March 18, 2021But Burns hit a roadblock earlier this month when Senator Ted Cruz put a hold on the nomination, citing objections to the Biden administration’s handling of Russia’s Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline.Cruz lifted the hold Thursday after Secretary of State Antony Blinken issued a statement warning countries participating in the Russian project risked U.S. sanctions.In light of the Secretary’s strong declaration, I’m following through on my commitment to lift the NS2-related holds I have placed on William Burns & Brian McKeon, the President’s nominees for director of the CIA & Deputy Secretary of State for Management & Resources.— Senator Ted Cruz (@SenTedCruz) March 18, 2021With Thursday’s Senate confirmation, the 64-year-old Burns becomes the first career diplomat to lead to the U.S. spy agency.Former intelligence officials have said he will have to quickly take on several challenges, including concerns about morale within the agency stemming from complaints that intelligence products were politicized under former President Donald Trump.”Politics must stop where intelligence work begins,” Burns told lawmakers during his confirmation hearing last month, promising a return to the credo of “speaking truth to power.”Biden “said he wants the agency to give it to him straight, and I pledged to do just that, and to defend those who do the same,” Burns added.As for external challenges, former officials and lawmakers have said Burns’ decades of experience as a diplomat, including stints in Russia and the Middle East, should serve him well.Burns, though, told lawmakers his top priority will be countering China, telling lawmakers that Beijing’s “aggressive, undisguised ambition and assertiveness” is a “very sharp wake-up call.”Burns has also warned the spy agency must be wary of underestimating Russia, Iran, and a host of other adversaries.Former intelligence officials say the list is long.“CIA cannot take its eye off the ball on terrorism, or the serious challenges presented by Russia and Iran,” Larry Pfeiffer, a former CIA chief of staff, told VOA. “It also needs to work with the broader IC [intelligence community] and its customers to determine the appropriate level of CIA support to the increasingly important challenges of global health, climate change, and cyber.”“And, of course, this will have to take place in a period of, at best, zero growth in budget,” he added.
…

US House Approves Immigration Bills for Dreamers, Farm Workers

The House voted Thursday to open a gateway to citizenship for young Dreamers, migrant farm workers and immigrants who’ve fled war or natural disasters, giving Democrats wins in the year’s first votes on an issue that once again faces an uphill climb to make progress in the Senate.On a near party-line 228-197 vote, lawmakers approved one bill offering legal status to around 2 million Dreamers, brought to the U.S. illegally as children, and hundreds of thousands of migrants admitted for humanitarian reasons from a dozen troubled countries.They then voted 247-174 for a second measure creating similar protections for 1 million farm workers who have worked in the U.S. illegally; the government estimates they comprise half the nation’s agricultural laborers.Both bills hit a wall of opposition from Republicans insistent that any immigration legislation bolster security at the Mexican border, which waves of migrants have tried to breach in recent weeks. The party has accused congressional Democrats of ignoring that problem and President Joe Biden of fueling it by erasing former President Donald Trump’s restrictive policies, even though that surge began while Trump was still in office.While Dreamers win wide public support and migrant farm workers are a backbone of the agriculture industry, both House bills face gloomy prospects in the evenly split Senate. That chamber’s 50 Democrats will need at least 10 Republican supporters to break Republican filibusters.The outlook was even grimmer for Biden’s more ambitious goal of legislation making citizenship possible for all 11 million immigrants in the U.S. illegally, easing visa restrictions, improving border security technology and spending billions in Central America to ease problems that prompt people to leave.’They’re so much of our country’Congress has deadlocked over immigration for years, and the issue once again seemed headed toward becoming political ammunition. Republicans could use it to rally conservative voters in upcoming elections, while Democrats could add it to a stack of House-passed measures languishing in the Senate to build support for abolishing that chamber’s bill-killing filibusters.Democrats said their measures were aimed not at border security but at addressing groups of immigrants who deserve to be helped.”They’re so much of our country,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said of Dreamers, who like many immigrants have held frontline jobs during the pandemic. “These immigrant communities strengthen, enrich and ennoble our nation, and they must be allowed to stay.”Neither House measure would directly affect those trying to cross the boundary from Mexico. But Republicans criticized them for lacking border security provisions and turned the debate into an opportunity to lambast Biden, who has ridden a wave of popularity since taking office and won passage of a massive COVID-19 relief package.”It is a Biden border crisis, and it is spinning out of control,” said House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy.While the number of migrants caught trying to cross the border from Mexico has been rising since April, the 100,441 people encountered last month was the highest figure since March 2019. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has said the number is tracking toward a 20-year high.Democrats were making that problem worse, Republicans said, with bills they said entice smugglers to sneak more immigrants into the U.S. and provide amnesty to immigrants who break laws to enter and live in the country.”We don’t know who these people are, we don’t know what their intentions are,” Rep. Jody Hice, Republican of Georgia, said of immigrant farm workers who might seek legal status. He added, “It’s frightening, it’s irresponsible, it’s endangering American lives.”Getting green cardsDuring earlier debate on the Dreamers’ bill, Democrats said Republicans were going too far.”Sometimes I stand in this chamber and I feel like I’m in the Twilight Zone, listening to a number of my Republican colleagues espouse white supremacist ideology to denigrate our Dreamers,” said Rep. Mondaire Jones, a Democrat from New York.Nine largely moderate Republicans joined all Democrats in backing the Dreamers bill.White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters that Biden supports both bills as “critical milestones toward much needed relief for the millions of individuals who call the United States home.”The Dreamer bill would grant conditional legal status for 10 years to many immigrants up to age 18 who were brought into the U.S. illegally before this year. They’d have to graduate from high school or have equivalent educational credentials, not have serious criminal records and meet other conditions.To attain legal permanent residence, often called a green card, they’d have to obtain a higher education degree, serve in the military or be employed for at least three years. Like all others with green cards, they could then apply for citizenship after five years.The measure would also grant green cards to an estimated 400,000 immigrants with temporary protected status, which allows temporary residence to people who have fled violence or natural disasters in a dozen countries.The other bill would let immigrant farm workers who’ve worked in the country illegally over the past two years — along their spouses and children — get certified agriculture worker status. That would let them remain in the U.S. for renewable 5½-year periods.To earn green cards, they would have to pay a $1,000 fine and work for up to an additional eight years, depending on how long they’ve already held farm jobs.The legislation would also cap wage increases, streamline the process for employers to get H-2A visas that let immigrants work legally on farm jobs and phase in a mandatory system for electronically verifying that agriculture workers are in the U.S. legally.
…

US, China Diplomats Meeting in Alaska

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi are meeting Thursday in Anchorage, Alaska, in what will be the first bilateral meeting between Chinese and American officials since June.Ahead of the meeting, Blinken was in South Korea, where he said China has a shared interest in seeing North Korea end its nuclear weapons program.“China has a critical role to play in working to convince North Korea to pursue denuclearization,” Blinken said. “Virtually all of North Korea’s economic relationships, its trade, are with or goes through China, so it has tremendous influence.”U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration is expected to soon unveil its official policy toward North Korea, which Blinken said would include input from both South Korea and Japan.Focus on North KoreaBlinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin met jointly with South Korean Foreign Affairs Minister Chung Eui-yong and National Defense Minister Suh Wook on Thursday, as the two sides concluded talks in Seoul largely focused on security threats posed by North Korea.“We are committed to the denuclearization of North Korea, reducing the threat that DPRK poses to the United States and our allies, and improving the lives of all Koreans, including the people of North Korea, who continue to suffer widespread and systematic abuses there,” Blinken said during a press event, using the abbreviation for the North’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.South Korean President Moon Jae-in poses for a photo with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin during their meeting at the presidential Blue House in Seoul, South Korea, March 18, 2021.South Korea hosts roughly 28,000 American soldiers, and during a ceremony this week, the two countries signed an agreement on the cost of stationing these forces, which had been a source of friction between Seoul and Washington during the final years of the Trump administration.Austin, a retired U.S. Army general, said the alliance remained “ironclad.”“The United States remains fully committed to the defense of the Republic of Korea, using the full range of U.S. capabilities, including our extended deterrent,” Austin said, using the formal name for South Korea.The American officials are representing the Biden administration during its first Cabinet-level overseas trip, which included meetings in Tokyo earlier this week. However, the stop in South Korea came after four years of often frayed relations between Washington and Seoul that the new U.S. president appears eager to repair, analysts said.Hee-jin Koo, a research fellow with the Korean Peninsula Future Forum in Seoul, said the trip to the region by Blinken and Austin was a “turning point” for the United States and its allies.’A reconnection’The secretaries’ visits could improve ties between Seoul and Tokyo, but also mend fences between the White House and South Korea’s president, Moon Jae-in, who Koo said was sometimes “left out” of the Trump administration’s North Korean engagement.”So, it is a reconnection between the U.S. administration and the Moon administration,” Koo told VOA News.But even under new U.S. leadership, there are still differing views on how best to re-engage Pyongyang that the allies will need to resolve, Koo added.“South Korea is rather torn currently. It is trying to do a balancing act between trying to restore frayed inter-Korean relations, as well as enhancing its U.S.-South Korea alliance,” she said.Washington says it has tried to open a dialogue with North Korea, reaching out to its U.N. mission in New York as well as through other channels, and has received no response.FILE – North Korean First Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui attends the welcome ceremony of North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un (not pictured) at the Presidential Palace in Hanoi, March 1, 2019.However, in a statement carried by Pyongyang’s official Korea Central News Agency on Thursday, First Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui said that despite those attempts, her government intended to “disregard” Washington’s overtures.“No DPRK-U.S. contact and dialogue of any kind can be possible unless the U.S. rolls back its hostile policy towards the DPRK,” Choe wrote.”In order for a dialogue to be made, an atmosphere for both parties to exchange words on an equal basis must be created,” Choe said.Military exercisesChoe also criticized U.S.-South Korean military exercises that began this month, as well as remarks that Blinken made while in Tokyo, where he said Washington was considering new “pressure measures” against Pyongyang.Koo, the analyst, said Pyongyang might be signaling that it wants higher-level contact, just as it received during the Trump administration.“What it wants is to have a status quo, also an easing of the current sanctions, which has actually pinched North Korea’s economy, especially amid the pandemic,” she said. 
…

US, South Korea Talks Focus on North Korea Security Threats

Top U.S. and South Korean foreign policy and defense officials have concluded talks in Seoul largely focused on security threats posed by North Korea.U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin met jointly with South Korean Foreign Affairs Minister Chung Eui-yong  and Minister of National Defense Suh Wook on Thursday.“We are committed to the denuclearization of North Korea, reducing the threat that DPRK poses to the United States and our allies, and improving the lives of all Koreans, including the people of North Korea, who continue to suffer, widespread and systematic abuses there,” Blinken said during a press event, using the abbreviation for the North’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.South Korea hosts roughly 28,000 American soldiers, and during a ceremony this week, the two countries signed an agreement over the cost of stationing these forces, which had been a source of friction between Seoul and Washington during the final years of the Trump administration.Secretary Austin, a retired U.S. Army general, said the alliance remains “ironclad.”“The United States remains fully committed to the defense of the Republic of (South) Korea, using the full range of U.S. capabilities including our extended deterrent,” Austin said.The American officials are representing the Biden administration during its first Cabinet-level overseas trip, which included meetings in Tokyo earlier this week. But the stop in South Korea comes after four years of an often-frayed relations between Washington and Seoul that the new U.S. president appears eager to repair, analysts say.Hee-jin Koo, a research fellow with the Korean Peninsula Future Forum in Seoul, said the trip to the region by Blinken and Austin is a “turning point” for the United States and its allies.The secretaries’ visits could improve ties between Seoul and Tokyo but also mend fences between the White House and South Korea’s president, Moon Jae – which Koo says was sometimes “left out” of the Trump administration’s North Korean engagement.“So it is a reconnection between the U.S. administration and the Moon administration,” Koo told VOA.But even under new U.S. leadership, there are still differing views on how best to re-engage Pyongyang that the allies will need to resolve, Koo added.“South Korea is rather torn currently, it is trying to do a balancing act between trying to restore frayed inter-Korean relations as well as enhancing its U.S.-South Korea alliance,” she said.Washington says it has tried to open-up dialogue with North Korea, reaching out to its Mission to the United Nations in New York as well as through other back channels and has received no response.But, in a statement carried by Pyongyang’s official Korea Central News Agency on Thursday, First Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui said that despite those attempts, her government intends to “disregard” Washington’s overtures.“No DPRK-U.S. contact and dialogue of any kind can be possible unless the U.S. rolls back its hostile policy towards the DPRK,” Choe wrote. “In order for a dialogue to be made, an atmosphere for both parties to exchange words on an equal basis must be created.”Choe also criticized joint U.S. and South Korean military exercises that began earlier this month as well as remarks that Secretary Blinken made while in Tokyo, where he said that Washington is considering new “pressure measures” against Pyongyang.Koo, the analyst, said Pyongyang might be signaling that it wants higher-level contact, like it received during the Trump administration.“What it wants is to have a status quo, also an easing of the current sanctions. Which has actually pinched North Korea’s economy especially amid the pandemic,” she said.The Biden administration is expected to soon unveil its official policy toward North Korea.Blinken said the strategy will include input from both South Korea and Japan. But he said China also has a shared interest in seeing North Korea end its nuclear weapons program.“China has a critical role to play in working to convince North Korea to pursue denuclearization,” Blinken said. “Virtually all of North Korea’s economic relationships, it’s trade, are with or goes through China, so it has tremendous influence.”From Seoul, the secretary of state will travel to Anchorage, Alaska, where later Thursday he will meet with China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi. It will be the first bilateral meeting between Chinese and American officials since June.
…

US, South Korea Reaffirm Stance on Noth Korea

Top U.S. and South Korean foreign policy and defense officials have concluded talks in Seoul largely focused on security threats posed by North Korea.U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin met jointly with South Korean Foreign Affairs Minister Chung Eui-yong  and Minister of National Defense Suh Wook on Thursday.“We are committed to the denuclearization of North Korea, reducing the threat that DPRK poses to the United States and our allies, and improving the lives of all Koreans, including the people of North Korea, who continue to suffer, widespread and systematic abuses there,” Blinken said during a press event, using the abbreviation for the North’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.South Korea hosts roughly 28,000 American soldiers, and during a ceremony this week, the two countries signed an agreement over the cost of stationing these forces, which had been a source of friction between Seoul and Washington during the final years of the Trump administration.Secretary Austin, a retired U.S. Army general, said the alliance remains “ironclad.”“The United States remains fully committed to the defense of the Republic of (South) Korea, using the full range of U.S. capabilities including our extended deterrent,” Austin said.The American officials are representing the Biden administration during its first Cabinet-level overseas trip, which included meetings in Tokyo earlier this week. But the stop in South Korea comes after four years of an often-frayed relations between Washington and Seoul that the new U.S. president appears eager to repair, analysts say.Hee-jin Koo, a research fellow with the Korean Peninsula Future Forum in Seoul, said the trip to the region by Blinken and Austin is a “turning point” for the United States and its allies.The secretaries’ visits could improve ties between Seoul and Tokyo but also mend fences between the White House and South Korea’s president, Moon Jae – which Koo says was sometimes “left out” of the Trump administration’s North Korean engagement.“So it is a reconnection between the U.S. administration and the Moon administration,” Koo told VOA.But even under new U.S. leadership, there are still differing views on how best to re-engage Pyongyang that the allies will need to resolve, Koo added.“South Korea is rather torn currently, it is trying to do a balancing act between trying to restore frayed inter-Korean relations as well as enhancing its U.S.-South Korea alliance,” she said.Washington says it has tried to open-up dialogue with North Korea, reaching out to its Mission to the United Nations in New York as well as through other back channels and has received no response.But, in a statement carried by Pyongyang’s official Korea Central News Agency on Thursday, First Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui said that despite those attempts, her government intends to “disregard” Washington’s overtures.“No DPRK-U.S. contact and dialogue of any kind can be possible unless the U.S. rolls back its hostile policy towards the DPRK,” Choe wrote. “In order for a dialogue to be made, an atmosphere for both parties to exchange words on an equal basis must be created.”Choe also criticized joint U.S. and South Korean military exercises that began earlier this month as well as remarks that Secretary Blinken made while in Tokyo, where he said that Washington is considering new “pressure measures” against Pyongyang.Koo, the analyst, said Pyongyang might be signaling that it wants higher-level contact, like it received during the Trump administration.“What it wants is to have a status quo, also an easing of the current sanctions. Which has actually pinched North Korea’s economy especially amid the pandemic,” she said.The Biden administration is expected to soon unveil its official policy toward North Korea.Blinken said the strategy will include input from both South Korea and Japan. But he said China also has a shared interest in seeing North Korea end its nuclear weapons program.“China has a critical role to play in working to convince North Korea to pursue denuclearization,” Blinken said. “Virtually all of North Korea’s economic relationships, it’s trade, are with or goes through China, so it has tremendous influence.”From Seoul, the secretary of state will travel to Anchorage, Alaska, where later Thursday he will meet with China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi. It will be the first bilateral meeting between Chinese and American officials since June.
…

Iranian Proxy Attacks on Americans ‘Not Helping Climate in US’ for Reviving Iran Talks, US Envoy Says

U.S. Special Envoy for Iran Robert Malley has indicated that recent attacks by Iranian proxies on U.S. forces in Iraq are making it tougher for the Biden administration to build domestic support for its new diplomatic initiative to resolve U.S.-Iran tensions.U.S. troops and bases in Iraq have come under rocket attack several times since last month, causing multiple casualties, including the death of an American civilian contractor and wounding of a U.S. military service member.U.S. forces responded to the first of the attacks, on an airbase housing U.S. troops in the city of Irbil on Feb. 16, by striking Iran-backed militants in eastern Syria nine days later. U.S. news site Politico cited unnamed U.S. defense officials as saying they suspected an Iranian proxy militia also was responsible for a March 3 rocket attack on western Iraq’s Al-Asad airbase that also houses American forces.In a Wednesday interview with VOA Persian at the State Department, his first with VOA since taking office in January, Malley was asked whether he thought the attacks were part of an Iranian campaign to pressure President Joe Biden into easing sanctions imposed on Tehran by the previous administration of Donald Trump.“It’s not really helping the climate in the U.S. to have Iranian allies take shots at Americans in Iraq or elsewhere, and the U.S. will respond as it has responded and it will continue to respond,” Malley said.Biden campaigned on a pledge to revive diplomacy with Iran and ease Trump’s sanctions if it resumes full compliance with a 2015 deal known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. Under the deal, Tehran promised world powers to curb its nuclear activities that could be weaponized in return for relief from international sanctions.Trump withdrew from the JCPOA in 2018, saying it did not do enough to stop objectionable Iranian behavior, and unilaterally tightened U.S. sanctions aimed at achieving that goal. Iran retaliated a year later by starting to violate the deal’s nuclear curbs, reducing the amount of time it would need to develop nuclear weapons to what U.S. officials have said is several months. Tehran has long denied seeking to weaponize what it calls a civilian nuclear program.Biden, who was inaugurated in January, faced calls last week from both opposition Republicans and his fellow Democrats in the U.S. Congress to take a tougher approach toward Iran. Referring to what they said were “escalating attacks on U.S. and coalition personnel in Iraq” and Iran’s recent JCPOA violations, the 12 Democrat and 12 Republican members of the House of Representatives wrote to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, saying the Biden administration “should make use of existing leverage to sharpen the choices available to Tehran.”Speaking to VOA, Malley reiterated the administration’s desire for talks with Iran about returning the U.S. to compliance with the JCPOA if Iran does the same and expressed hope that would happen soon. He suggested recent actions by Iran and its proxies are not helping the U.S. diplomatic initiative to move faster.“If … these are [Iranian] tactics aimed at speeding things up, it’s hard to see how that is going to work,” Malley said.In a separate interview with BBC Persian on Wednesday, Malley said that if Iran does not want to enter into direct talks with the U.S., the two sides could negotiate through a third party.Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, in an interview with Politico published Wednesday, reiterated Tehran’s promise to resume compliance with the JCPOA “immediately” only if the U.S. first takes steps to ease the sanctions. He also warned that if Washington continues to demand that Tehran make the first move, Iran will take unspecified “new steps” away from the nuclear deal.The Biden administration has said any U.S. return to the JCPOA would be followed by negotiations aimed at strengthening the nuclear deal to resolve U.S. concerns about Iran’s other activities, including its missile program and support for Islamist militants engaged in long-running conflicts with the U.S. and its regional allies. U.S. officials have not specified how they would persuade Iran to enter such negotiations and what kind of new deal would be produced.“The JCPOA has shown that it is fragile, and we believe it can be strengthened with a follow-on deal. And we will press Iran and try to convince Iran that it’s in their interest as well to get a follow-on deal,” Malley said. “Of course, Iran will have issues that it will want to bring to the table,” he acknowledged.Zarif, speaking to Politico, said Iran will consider discussing nonnuclear issues if the U.S. “passes the test” of JCPOA compliance.“But the United States miserably failed, not only during the Trump administration but even during the past two months of the Biden administration,” he said.The top Iranian diplomat also expressed doubt that the U.S. would be prepared to discuss issues such as U.S. arms sales to Iran’s regional rivals.“Are the U.S. and its Western allies prepared to stop that? That’s a very lucrative market and I don’t think President Biden wants to do that,” Zarif said.In January, the Biden administration announced a freeze on Trump-approved U.S. arms sales to Saudi Arabia and a review of those the former president approved for the United Arab Emirates.U.S. officials told national media that the arms sales reviews were not unusual for a new administration and said many of the transactions are likely to go forward eventually.This article originated in VOA’s Persian Service. Click here for the original Persian version of the story. 
…

Biden Wants to Restore Senate’s Talking Filibuster

President Joe Biden says he wants the U.S. Senate, where he served for 36 years, to make it harder but not impossible to block legislation through a tactic unique to the chamber known as the filibuster.A week ago, Biden won the first major legislative victory of his presidency, passage of a $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief deal, under legislative rules that allowed that particular bill to be approved on a simple majority vote — solely with the votes of Biden’s Democratic colleagues over uniform Republican opposition.While a simple majority always suffices in the House of Representatives, most bills can pass the 100-member Senate only with a 60-vote supermajority. The Senate’s current political split of 50 Republicans and 50 Democrats requires Biden to win support from 10 Republicans to pass major legislation going forward.With the filibuster in place allowing Republicans to block Senate votes, Biden would have difficulty passing much of his agenda, such as national standards for voting rights, a $15-an-hour national minimum wage and tougher anti-pollution rules.Both sides have used tacticAs a result, many Senate Democrats are calling for elimination of the filibuster, the legislative tactic that lawmakers of both parties have used when in the minority to prevent the chamber from proceeding to a final vote on legislative proposals.Biden has long said he is opposed to getting rid of the filibuster, a distinctive difference between the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives.But on Tuesday, Biden said in an interview with ABC News’ George Stephanopolous that he realizes he faces a quandary in preserving the use of the filibuster in the Senate or advancing his legislative agenda.President Joe Biden sits next to a bowl of shamrocks as he has a virtual meeting with Ireland’s Prime Minister Micheal Martin on St. Patrick’s Day, in the Oval Office of the White House, March 17, 2021, in Washington.The solution, according to Biden, is to force opponents of a bill to speak for hours or even days on the Senate floor. Currently, a senator need only object to proceeding to a vote to trigger the 60-vote threshold, a tactic that was once rare but has become the norm in recent years.“Here’s the choice,” Biden said. “I don’t think you have to eliminate the filibuster. You have to do what it used to be when I first got to the Senate back in the old days when … you had to stand up and command the floor, and you had to keep talking along. You couldn’t call for, you know — no one could say, you know, ‘Quorum call.’ Once you stopped talking, you lost that and someone could move in and say, ‘I move the question of … .’ So, you’ve got to work for the filibuster.”Stephanopoulos asked, “So you’re for that reform? You’re for bringing back the talking filibuster?”“I am,” Biden replied.Not working wellThe president said that as it stands now, “democracy’s having a hard time functioning” with the frequent declarations of a filibuster, minus the talkathons of yesteryear.Whether the Senate adopts any reforms is an open question. At least two of the 50 Democratic senators — Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona — say they are opposed to abandoning the filibuster, although Manchin says he is open to reforms that would make it more difficult to employ the tactic to block legislation.FILE – In this image from video, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky speaks on the Senate floor, at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Feb. 13, 2021.Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell warned Democrats in an opinion article in The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday against elimination of the filibuster to approve a liberal agenda of laws and promised that if they did, Republicans would retaliate with passage of their favored measures when they again are in control.As it stands now, Democrats, voting as a unified bloc along with the tie-breaking vote of Vice President Kamala Harris, can pass some measures on a 51-50 vote. Doing away with the filibuster — and the 60-vote supermajority required on many measures — would clear the path for Democrats to take total control of legislation they uniformly favor.McConnell said Democrats should think twice before proceeding on that path.’Scorched-earth Senate’“Nobody serving in this chamber can even begin to imagine what a completely scorched-earth Senate would look like” without the filibuster, McConnell said. “None of us have served one minute in the Senate that was completely drained of comity and consent.”McConnell quoted “one of my colleagues” from a 2017 speech as saying, “The legislative filibuster is the most important distinction between the Senate and the House. Without the 60-vote threshold for legislation, the Senate becomes a majoritarian institution, just like the House, much more subject to the winds of short-term electoral change. No senator would like to see that happen.”He identified the speaker as Senator Chuck Schumer, now the Democratic majority leader, who is under pressure from some of his colleagues for filibuster reform to advance Biden’s agenda. 
…

North Korea Says US Attempt to Initiate Contact is ‘Cheap Trick’

A top North Korean diplomat acknowledged Thursday that the United States had recently tried to initiate contact but blasted the attempts as a “cheap trick” that would never be answered until Washington dropped hostile policies.The statement by Choe Son Hui, first vice minister of foreign affairs for North Korea, is the first formal rejection of tentative approaches by the new U.S. administration under President Joe Biden, who took office in January.It came as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was visiting South Korea alongside Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, in a first overseas trip by top-level members of Biden’s administration.The attempts at contact were made by sending e-mails and telephone messages via various routes, including by a third country, Choe said in a statement carried by state news agency KCNA.She called the attempts at contact a “cheap trick” for gaining time and building up public opinion.”What has been heard from the U.S. since the emergence of the new regime is only lunatic theory of ‘threat from North Korea’ and groundless rhetoric about ‘complete denuclearization,’ Choe said.The White House said earlier this month it had reached out to North Korea, but received no response, and did not elaborate.Speaking in Seoul on Wednesday, Blinken accused North Korea of committing “systemic and widespread abuses” against its own people and said the United States and its allies were committed to the denuclearization of North Korea.Blinken and Austin are due to continue meetings with South Korean leaders on Thursday, before flying to Alaska for the administration’s first talks with Chinese officials, where the North Korea standoff is expected to be discussed.Talks aimed at reducing tensions with North Korea and persuading it to give up its arsenal of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles have been stalled since 2019, after a series of historic summits between then-U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.Choe criticized the United States for continuing military drills, and for maintaining sanctions aimed at pressuring Pyongyang.No dialogue would be possible until the United States rolled back its hostile policy toward North Korea and both parties were able to exchange words on an equal basis, she said.
…

A 51st US State? Advocates See Possibility for Washington DC  

Though Washington is the seat of U.S. political power, its residents have no voting rights in Congress nor rights of full home rule because of its unique status as the federal capital.  But advocates for making Washington, D.C. a state say they see more potential than ever, as VOA’s Carol Guensburg reports. Camera: Betty Ayoub     
…

Biden Seeks Return to Normal, Both in Life and Presidency

U.S. President Joe Biden is touring the country to pitch his $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package as he seeks to help Americans return to normalcy, both in life and in how they view the presidency. White House correspondent Patsy Widakuswara looks at how Biden’s crisis communication style compares to his predecessor’s.
…

US: Russia, Iran Meddled in November’s Election; China Held Back

A just-released assessment by U.S. intelligence officials finds Russia and Iran, joined by a handful of other countries and groups, did seek to influence the outcome of the November 2020 presidential election. But the assessment also concludes that, despite repeated warnings by a number of top officials, China ultimately decided to sit it out. The declassified report, issued Tuesday by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, is the U.S. intelligence community’s final take on foreign meddling in the hotly contested race, in which then-presidential candidate Joe Biden defeated former President Donald Trump. FILE – A newspaper with a front picture of U.S. President-elect Joe Biden is seen at a newsstand in Tehran, Iran, Nov. 8, 2020.Initially completed and shared with the Trump administration in a classified form in January, the unclassified version, required by law, seeks to give U.S. voters an overview of the threats and of their impact on American democracy.  While the assessment concludes no adversary managed to infiltrate critical systems or change how votes were cast, the conclusions on China could lead to new questions about how the intelligence was initially presented to the public. “We assess that China did not deploy interference efforts and considered but did not deploy influence efforts intended to change the outcome of the US Presidential election,” the newly released ODNI report said, adding it had “high confidence” in its finding. “China sought stability in its relationship with the United States, did not view either election outcome as being advantageous enough for China to risk getting caught meddling, and assessed its traditional influence tools — primarily targeted economic measures and lobbying — would be sufficient to meet its goal of shaping U.S. China policy regardless of the winner,” the report stated. Earlier warnings Those findings contrast with earlier warnings from intelligence officials who spent months warning voters of the potential threats, specifically calling out efforts by China along with Russia and Iran. “China is expanding its influence efforts to shape the policy environment in the United States, pressure political figures it views as opposed to China’s interests, and counter criticism of China,” then National Counterintelligence and Security Center Director FILE – Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe waits on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Dec. 12, 2020.In August, then-Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe grouped China with Russia and Iran in an interview with Fox Business News. “I don’t want to say this is only about China,” Ratcliffe said at the time. “China, Russia, Iran, other actors, are all trying to interfere or influence our elections for their own gain.” He added, however, that Beijing’s efforts stood apart. “China’s using a massive and sophisticated influence campaign that dwarfs anything that any other country is doing,” Ratcliffe said.  Another top Trump official, National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien, echoed those thoughts less than a month later. “The intelligence community has made very clear, first you have China, which has the most massive program to influence the United States politically,” O’Brien told reporters at the time. White House Defends Trump’s Concerns About Mail-In Voting National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien defended the president’s warning of fraud while dismissing an intel bulletin that suggested Russia is using mail-in voting to sow confusion ahead of the November electionTrump, himself, also played up the notion China was seeking his defeat. “China would love us to have an election where Donald Trump lost to sleepy Joe Biden,” Trump said during a news conference last August. “They would own our country.” Declassified report In the newly declassified report, however, U.S. intelligence officials concluded Beijing did not use its well-developed influence machine to alter the results. “We did not identify China attempting to interfere with election infrastructure or provide funding to any candidates or parties,” the report said. It said Beijing had previously sought to influence U.S. politics, including in the 2018 U.S. elections. “We did not, however, see these capabilities deployed for the purpose of shaping the electoral outcome,” the report said. Report Puts Russia, China and Iran in Line for Sanctions for Election Meddling

        Voters who went to the polls last month in the United States' midterm elections can rest assured that their votes were registered and counted properly.However, a new report by the U.S. 

While stating it had high confidence in its findings regarding China, the ODNI report admitted there was some disagreement. “The National Intelligence Officer [NIO] for Cyber assesses that China took at least some steps to undermine former President Trump’s reelection chances, primarily through social media and official public statements and media,” it said, explaining the NIO gave more weight to indications that Beijing preferred Biden, seeing him as more predictable than Trump. The NIO also argued, with moderate confidence, that evidence suggested China increased its influence operations from June to August 2020, while calibrating its effort so as to “avoid blowback.” Still, several former intelligence officials who spoke to VOA about the ODNI report said its prevailing view in regard to China was not surprising. “[Former Director of National Intelligence] John Ratcliffe had the political mission of downplaying the whole Russian influence issue, with one way of doing that being to play up the idea that Chinese influence was at least as likely and significant as anything the Russians did,” said Paul Pillar, a former senior CIA officer who has been critical of Trump. Pillar, now with Georgetown University, said, in his view, the more notable conclusion from the ODNI report was how Russia sought to push Trump’s candidacy. FILE – Then-nominee for national intelligence director Avril Haines speaks during a confirmation hearing in Washington, Jan. 19, 2021. (Joe Raedle/Pool via AP)”Foreign malign influence is an enduring challenge facing our country,” Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines said in a statement Tuesday.   “Addressing this ongoing challenge requires a whole-of-government approach grounded in an accurate understanding of the problem, which the Intelligence Community, through assessments such as this one, endeavors to provide,” she added. A separate report Tuesday, from the departments of Justice and Homeland Security, reaffirmed earlier findings that foreign adversaries failed to impact the tallying of ballots. “We … have no evidence that any foreign government-affiliated actor prevented voting, changed votes, or disrupted the ability to tally votes or to transmit election results in a timely manner; altered any technical aspect of the voting process; or otherwise compromised the integrity of voter registration information of any ballots cast during 2020 federal elections,” the report said. The second report also rejected claims made after the November 2020 U.S. election that foreign governments, including Venezuela, Cuba and China, were in any way in control of critical election infrastructure to manipulate the election’s outcome. Such claims “are not credible,” the Justice Department and DHS concluded. Some key lawmakers, though, reacted to the reports by warning it is more critical than ever for the U.S. to maintain its guard. “The problem of foreign actors trying to influence the American electorate is not going away,” Democratic Senator John Warner, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said in a statement. “Given the current partisan divides in this country, [it] may find fertile ground in which to grow.” 
 
…

Biden to Hold First News Conference on March 25  

U.S. President Joe Biden will hold his first formal news conference on March 25, after drawing some criticism for not putting himself before reporters sooner for an extended question-and-answer session. White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki announced the date in Darby, Pennsylvania, as Biden promoted his $1.9 trillion pandemic stimulus plan in the suburbs of Philadelphia. Biden has had a number of brief encounters with reporters since taking office on January 20, but usually only takes one or two questions before walking away. The White House has cited Biden’s preoccupation with tackling the coronavirus pandemic as the main reason why he has held back from a formal news conference. Republicans and some media critics have called on Biden to appear at an actual news conference as part of the president’s traditional role of being held accountable to the public. They have pointed out that the nearly two-month span since January 20 is the longest period a recent new president has gone without holding a formal news conference. Biden, with a job approval rating in the 50s, has had little incentive to appear at length before reporters. His predecessor, Donald Trump, held many more encounters with reporters than Biden but they often did him more harm than good politically. 
…

Washington Post Corrects Misquote About Trump’s December Call with Georgia Election Official

The Washington Post has corrected a major story it published in January about the presidential election in the state of Georgia, saying it had “misquoted” then President Donald Trump in a phone call with a state election official. In the December call, Trump was voicing his concerns about alleged fraud.The original story, which was based on an anonymous source, said that in the call, Trump had told Georgia’s top election official to “find the fraud” and that they’d be a “national hero” if they did.On March 11, the Wall Street Journal revealed audio of the conversation, which showed Trump did not say those things.“Two months after publication of this story, the Georgia secretary of state released an audio recording of President Donald Trump’s December phone call with the state’s top elections investigator,” the Post wrote in its correction.The recording revealed that the Post misquoted Trump’s comments on the call, based on information provided by a source. Trump did not tell the investigator to “find the fraud” or say she would be “a national hero” if she did so. Instead, Trump urged the investigator to scrutinize ballots in Fulton County, Georgia, asserting she would find “dishonesty” there. He also told her that she had “the most important job in the country right now.”Numerous national media outlets repeated the erroneous quotes, citing The Washington Post.During the call, the former president did claim he had won Georgia and that “something bad” had happened with the election in the state.“I can assure you that our team and the (Georgia Bureau of Investigation), that we are only interested in the truth and finding the information that is based on the facts,” the election official replied, according to the audio released by the Wall Street Journal.Trump responded to the correction by calling the Post’s original reporting a “media travesty” but thanked the paper for correcting it.President Joe Biden won Georgia by about 12,000 votes. 
…

US Report Says Russia, Not China, Tried to Influence 2020 Election

Russia’s government tried to seed the 2020 U.S. presidential campaign with “misleading or unsubstantiated allegations” against then-candidate Joe Biden through allies of former President Trump and his administration, U.S. intelligence officials said Tuesday.The assessment was made in a 15-page report into election interference published by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. It underscores allegations that Trump’s allies were playing into Moscow’s hands by amplifying claims made against Biden by Russian-linked Ukrainian figures in the run up to the November 3 election. Biden defeated Trump and took office on January 20.U.S. intelligence agencies found other attempts to sway voters, including a “multi-pronged covert influence campaign” by Iran intended to undercut Trump’s support. The report also punctures a counter-narrative pushed by Trump’s allies that China was interfering on Biden’s behalf, concluding that Beijing “did not deploy interference efforts.””China sought stability in its relationship with the United States and did not view either election outcome as being advantageous enough for China to risk blowback if caught,” the report said.U.S. officials said they also saw efforts by Cuba, Venezuela and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah to influence the election, although “in general, we assess that they were smaller in scale than those conducted by Russia and Iran.”U.S. intelligence agencies and former Special Counsel Robert Mueller previously concluded that Russia also interfered in the 2016 U.S. election to boost Trump’s candidacy with a campaign of propaganda aimed at harming his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton. 
 
…

Haaland Confirmed as Interior Secretary, 1st Native American Cabinet Head

The Senate on Monday confirmed New Mexico Congresswoman Deb Haaland as interior secretary, making her the first Native American to lead a Cabinet department and the first to lead the federal agency that has wielded influence over the nation’s tribes for nearly two centuries.Haaland was confirmed by a 51-40 vote.Democrats and tribal groups hailed Haaland’s confirmation as historic, saying her selection means that Indigenous people — who lived in North America before the United States was created — will for the first time see a Native American lead the powerful department where decisions on relations with the nearly 600 federally recognized tribes are made. Interior also oversees a host of other issues, including energy development on public lands and waters, national parks and endangered species.”Representative Haaland’s confirmation represents a gigantic step forward in creating a government that represents the full richness and diversity of this country,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. “Native Americans for far too long have been neglected at the Cabinet level and in so many other places.”Haaland’s nomination has been closely watched by tribal communities across the country, with some virtual parties drawing hundreds of people to watch her two-day confirmation hearing last month.Supporters projected a photo of Haaland, a two-term congresswoman who represents greater Albuquerque, on the side of the Interior building in downtown Washington with text that read “Our Ancestors’ Dreams Come True.”Many Native Americans see Haaland, 60, as someone who will elevate their voices and protect the environment and tribes’ rights. Her selection breaks a two-century pattern of non-Native officials, mostly male, serving as the top federal official over American Indian affairs. The federal government often worked to dispossess tribes of their land and, until recently, to assimilate them into white culture.”It is long past time that an American Indian serve as the secretary of the Interior,” said Fawn Sharp, president of the National Congress of American Indians, the nation’s oldest and largest tribal organization.”The nation needs her leadership and vision to help lead our response to climate change, to steward our lands and cultural resources and to ensure that across the federal government, the United States lives up to its trust and treaty obligations to tribal nations and our citizens,” Sharp said.Jonathan Nez, president of the Navajo Nation in Arizona, New Mexico and Utah, called Haaland’s confirmation “an unprecedented and monumental day for all first people of this country. Words cannot express how overjoyed and proud we are to see one of our own confirmed to serve in this high-level position.”Haaland’s confirmation “sets us on a better path to righting the wrongs of the past with the federal government and inspires hope in our people, especially our young people,” Nez added.Not everyone was celebrating. Some Republican senators have criticized Haaland’s views on oil drilling and other energy development as radical and extreme, citing her opposition to the Keystone XL oil pipeline and her support for the Green New Deal, a sweeping, if mostly aspirational, policy to address climate change and income inequality.Wyoming Senator John Barrasso, the top Republican on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said Haaland’s “extreme views” and support of “catastrophic legislation” such as the Green New Deal would make her confirmation as interior secretary disastrous, harming America’s energy supply and economy.”American jobs are being sacrificed in the name of the Biden agenda, and Representative Haaland couldn’t defend it,” Barrasso said, referring to decisions by President Joe Biden to reject the Keystone XL pipeline and impose a moratorium on new oil and gas leases on federal lands.Barrasso also faulted Haaland’s support for continued protection for grizzly bears in the Yellowstone region of the Rocky Mountains, despite a recommendation by the Fish and Wildlife Service that about 700 bears in parts of Montana, Wyoming and Idaho no longer need protections.”Representative Haaland has chosen to ignore the science and the scientists of the very department that she is now nominated to lead,” Barrasso said, calling on Interior to remove protections for the grizzly under the Endangered Species Act.Democratic Senator Maria Cantwell said she appreciates Haaland’s leadership in the House on a range of issues, adding that Haaland’s status as a Native American “will give us an extra advantage on (tribal) issues that are so important to Indian Country overall.”Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska said she had “some real misgivings” about Haaland because of her views on oil drilling and other energy issues, but said Native Alaskans, an important constituency in her rural state, had urged her to back Haaland.”Quite honestly, we need (Haaland) to be a success,” Murkowski said.Senator Martin Heinrich, a Democrat from New Mexico said he was disappointed at the rhetoric used by Barrasso and other Republicans. Heinrich, who lives in Haaland’s district, said she “always has an open door and an open mind” to a range of views.
…

Biden, Democrats to Promote Coronavirus Relief Benefits

U.S. President Joe Biden and other Democrats are embarking this week on visits to numerous states to promote the benefits of the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package Biden signed into law last week, hoping to make sure voters know how the aid could help them and that it was approved over uniform Republican opposition.  Biden is scheduled to discuss the plan in remarks at the White House on Monday, while his wife, Jill, goes to the state of New Jersey to join Governor Phil Murphy at an elementary school where she is expected to talk about steps the school took to reopen and how the relief package can help families. Biden Signs Coronavirus Relief Package$1.9 trillion measure cleared Congress over uniform Republican opposition  Vice President Kamala Harris travels Monday to Las Vegas where she will visit a COVID-19 vaccination site. Biden makes his first trip promoting the relief plan Tuesday when he goes to Delaware County, a key suburban Philadelphia jurisdiction in the eastern state of Pennsylvania that he carried over former President Donald Trump in the November election.  The relief package is one of the largest economic assistance packages in U.S. history and the first major legislative victory for Biden. It was approved solely with the votes of Democrats. Republican lawmakers objected to the size of the deal and to the fact that some of the funding is not tied directly to trying to end the pandemic in the United States, where more than 534,000 Americans have died.Senate Passes $1.9 Trillion COVID-19 Relief Bill50-49 vote falls along party lines in 100-member chamber Biden said in a speech Thursday night that members of his administration will spread out across the country to “speak directly” to Americans about the plan.  Biden and the other Democrats plan to highlight that millions of adult Americans, all but those in the upper-income brackets, will receive $1,400 stimulus checks, with tax credits for children. Billions of dollars are being sent to state and local governments and businesses that have been hit hard by the yearlong pandemic in the United States. Additional aid is being spent to boost vaccinations of millions of Americans.  Key Facts About the $1.9T COVID Bill Legislation still needs final passage in House, president’s signature The president and his aides hope to highlight how much assistance is being spent in individual states. National polls have shown that the relief package has wide support, even among Republicans, but Biden is not taking its popularity for granted.Democrats are mindful that in 2009, the last Democratic president, Barack Obama, under whom Biden served as vice president, spent little time promoting the $800 billion economic stimulus package he and fellow Democrats helped push through Congress to help rescue the U.S. economy from the steep recession they inherited from Republican President George W. Bush.Republicans, who mostly opposed the stimulus, went on to capture the House of Representatives in the 2010 elections.Biden press secretary Jen Psaki, a veteran of the Obama administration, told reporters last week: “We didn’t do enough to explain to the American people what the benefits were” in 2009.The White House is planning to make surrogates and senior administration officials available for local television interviews in cities across the country and get more than 400 mayors and governors to talk about what the relief package means for them and their communities.Congresswoman Liz Cheney, the House’s No. 3 Republican, said in a statement that only a small fraction of the $1.9 trillion deal was aimed at the virus and warned that it might eventually lead to tax increases to help pay for it.
…

Biden, Democrats to Tout Coronavirus Relief Benefits

U.S. President Joe Biden and other Democrats are embarking this week on visits to numerous states to promote the benefits of the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package Biden signed into law last week, hoping to make sure voters know how the aid could help them and that it was approved over uniform Republican opposition.On Tuesday Biden is to visit Delaware County, a key suburban Philadelphia jurisdiction in the eastern state of Pennsylvania that he carried over former President Donald Trump in the November election.Biden Signs Coronavirus Relief Package$1.9 trillion measure cleared Congress over uniform Republican opposition  Meantime, first lady Jill Biden is headed to the northeastern state of New Jersey on Monday and to New Hampshire on Wednesday. Vice President Kamala Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff, are visiting Colorado and New Mexico in the western United States in the coming days, as well as New Jersey, Georgia and Pennsylvania on the East Coast.The relief package is one of the largest economic assistance packages in U.S. history and the first major legislative victory for Biden. It was approved solely with the votes of Democrats. Republican lawmakers objected to the size of the deal and to the fact that some of the funding is not tied directly to trying to end the pandemic in the U.S., where more than 534,000 Americans have died.  Biden said in a speech Thursday night that the first and second couples and members of his Cabinet will spread out across the country to “speak directly to you” about the plan.Biden and the other Democrats plan to highlight that millions of adult Americans, all but those in the upper-income brackets, will receive $1,400 stimulus checks, with tax credits for children. Billions of dollars are being sent to state and local governments and businesses that have been hit hard by the yearlong pandemic in the U.S. Additional aid is being spent to boost vaccinations of millions of Americans.Key Facts About the $1.9T COVID Bill Legislation still needs final passage in House, president’s signature The president and his aides hope to highlight how much assistance is being spent in individual states. National polls have shown that the relief package has wide support, even among Republicans, but Biden is not taking its popularity for granted.Democrats are mindful that in 2009, the last Democratic president, Barack Obama, under whom Biden served as vice president, spent little time promoting the $800 billion economic stimulus package he and fellow Democrats helped push through Congress to help rescue the U.S. economy from the steep recession they inherited from Republican President George W. Bush.Republicans, who mostly opposed the stimulus, went on to capture the House of Representatives in the 2010 elections.Biden press secretary Jen Psaki, a veteran of the Obama administration, told reporters last week: “We didn’t do enough to explain to the American people what the benefits were” in 2009.The White House is planning to make surrogates and senior administration officials available for local television interviews in cities across the country and get more than 400 mayors and governors to talk about what the relief package means for them and their communities.Congresswoman Liz Cheney, the House’s No. 3 Republican, said in a statement that only a small fraction of the $1.9 trillion deal was aimed at the virus and warned that it might eventually lead to tax increases to help pay for it.
…

Pentagon Chief sees Asia Ties as Deterrent Against China

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said on Saturday he was traveling to Asia to boost military cooperation with American allies and foster “credible deterrence” against China.Austin kicked off via Hawaii, seat of the American military command for the Indo-Pacific region, his first foreign visits as Pentagon chief.”This is all about alliances and partnerships,” he told reporters on the trip that is to include meetings with key allies in Tokyo, New Delhi and Seoul.”It’s also about enhancing capabilities,” he added, recalling that while the United States was focused on the anti-jihadist struggle in the Middle East, China was modernizing its army at high speed.”That competitive edge that we’ve had has eroded,” he said. “We still maintain that edge. We are going to increase that edge going forward.””Our goal is to make sure that we have the capabilities and the operational plans… to be able to offer a credible deterrence to China or anybody else who would want to take on the US,” he added.Lloyd will be joined in Tokyo and Seoul by Secretary of State Antony Blinken.”One of the things that the secretary of state and I want to do is begin to strengthen those alliances,” he said. “This will be more about listening and learning, getting their point of view.”This tour in Asia of the heads of diplomacy and defense of the United States follows an unprecedented summit of the “Quad,” an informal alliance born in the 2000s to counterbalance a rising China.Blinken will join President Joe Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, in Anchorage on March 18 with their Chinese counterparts Wang Yi and Yang Jiechi.The Alaska talks will be the first between the powers since Yang met Blinken’s hawkish predecessor Mike Pompeo in June in Hawaii — a setting similarly far from the high-stakes glare of national capitals.The Biden administration has generally backed the tougher approach to China initiated by former President Donald Trump but has also insisted that it can be more effective by shoring up alliances and seeking narrow ways to cooperate on priorities such as climate change. 
…

Schumer, Gillibrand Join Calls for Cuomo to Resign; Governor Remains Defiant

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand called Friday on New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to resign, adding the most powerful Democratic voices yet to calls for the governor to leave office in the wake of allegations of sexual harassment and groping. Both had earlier said an independent investigation into the allegations against Cuomo was essential. FILE – Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.Earlier Friday, Cuomo insisted he would not step down in the wake of sexual harassment allegations and condemned the coalition of Democrats calling for his resignation. “I’m not going to resign,” the third-term Democratic governor said during an afternoon phone call with reporters. “I did not do what has been alleged. Period.” The governor’s comments came on the day his party in New York and beyond turned sharply against him following allegations of harassment as well as sweeping criticism of Cuomo for keeping secret how many nursing home residents died of COVID-19 for months.  Cuomo’s growing list of detractors now covers every region in the state and the political power centers of New York City and Washington. A majority of Democrats in the state legislature and 21 of the state’s 27 U.S. House members have called on him to step down. The escalating political crisis jeopardizes Cuomo’s 2022 reelection in an overwhelmingly Democratic state. Republicans across the country have seized on the scandal to try to distract from President Joe Biden’s success with the pandemic and challenge his party’s well-established advantage with female voters. Number of critics growingHours earlier, White House press secretary Jen Psaki declined to say whether Biden believes Cuomo should resign. She said every woman who has come forth about harassment by the New York governor “deserves to have her voice heard, should be treated with respect and should be able to tell her story.”  FILE – U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.Dozens of Democrats called on Cuomo to resign this week, but the coalition of critics expanded geographically and politically on Friday to include the likes of New York City progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez; the leader of the House Democratic campaign arm, Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney; and a group of Long Island-based state lawmakers who had been loyal Cuomo allies.  “The victims of sexual assault concern me more than politics or other narrow considerations, and I believe Governor Cuomo must step aside,” Maloney said. Ocasio-Cortez said she believes the women who accused Cuomo of wrongdoing. “After two accounts of sexual assault, four accounts of harassment, the Attorney General’s investigation finding the Governor’s admin hid nursing home data from the legislature and public, we agree with the 55+ members of the New York State legislature that the Governor must resign,” she tweeted. FILE – Activists with VOCAL-NY block traffic outside New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office, demanding his resignation, in New York, March 10, 2021.In recent days, Cuomo has been calling lawmakers and supporters asking them to refrain from calling for his resignation and instead support the ongoing investigations. His strategy does not appear to be working. The state Assembly allowed an impeachment investigation into Cuomo on Thursday as lawmakers investigate whether there are grounds for his forcible removal from office. The firestorm around the governor grew after the Times Union of Albany reported Wednesday that an unidentified aide had claimed Cuomo fondled her at his official residence late last year.  The woman hasn’t filed a criminal complaint, but a lawyer for the governor said Thursday that the state reported the allegation to the Albany Police Department after the woman involved declined to do so herself. Additionally, Cuomo is facing multiple allegations of sexually suggestive remarks and behavior toward women, including female aides. One aide said he asked her if she would ever have sex with an older man. And another aide claimed the governor once kissed her without consent and said governor’s aides publicly smeared her after she accused him of sexual harassment. Cuomo stands firmThe governor on Friday vowed that he’ll still be able to govern despite a growing list of New York elected officials who say they’ve lost faith in him.  Cuomo didn’t address the reality of an increasingly untenable position: He’s seeking a fourth term next year, managing the state’s pandemic response and negotiating a state budget with state lawmakers who’ve lost confidence in his leadership.  He again raised questions about the motives of women accusing him of inappropriate behavior. “A lot of people allege a lot of things for a lot of reasons,” he said Friday. “I won’t speculate about people’s possible motives. But I can tell you as a former attorney general who has gone through this situation many times, there are often many motivations for making an allegation. And that is why you need to know the facts before you make a decision.” But dozens of Democrats have already determined the allegations are serious enough to warrant his immediate removal. Democratic Rep. Jerry Nadler, who chairs the powerhouse U.S. House Judiciary Committee, said Cuomo has lost the confidence of New Yorkers. “The repeated accusations against the governor, and the manner in which he has responded to them, have made it impossible for him to continue to govern at this point,” Nadler said. 
 
…

Biden Signs Coronavirus Relief Package

U.S. President Joe Biden signed his $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package into law Thursday, opening the door for the release of federal aid for financially ailing American households and businesses.Biden, a Democrat, signed the package one day after the House of Representatives approved the bill 220-211 without Republican support and one day earlier than the White House initially had planned.“This historic legislation is about building a backbone in this country and giving people in this country, working people, middle-class folks, people who built the country, a fighting chance,” Biden said as he prepared to sign the bill.Republican lawmakers objected to the package, saying it was too large and did not sufficiently target those who were most in need of economic assistance. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy on Tuesday called the bill “costly, corrupt and liberal.”No federal minimum wage hikeThe measure narrowly passed in the Senate on Saturday after the chamber altered some aspects of a bill approved earlier by the House. Among the changes was the removal of an increase in the federal minimum wage.White House press secretary Jen Psaki speaks to reporters at the White House, March 11, 2021, in Washington.White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki praised the legislation at a news conference Monday, saying that while there were some changes on the margins as the Senate acted, it represented the “core” of what Biden proposed.On Tuesday, she said Biden and other senior administration officials planned to continue to tout the benefits of the relief plan after it passed.“We certainly recognize that we can’t just sign a bill,” Psaki told reporters. “We will need to do some work and use our best voices, including the president, the vice president and others, to communicate to the American people the benefits of this package.“So, I think you can certainly expect the president to be doing some travel, and we’ll have more details on that in the coming days,” she said. 
…

To Stem Migration, Biden Proposes Foreign Aid

Facing a surge of migrants flocking to the border, the Biden administration is fine-tuning requirements to its proposed $4 billion aid package to Central American countries to address what it calls the “root cause of migration.”President Joe Biden’s national security adviser and coordinator for the southern border, Roberta Jacobson, said the aid would be subject to strict requirements based on anti-corruption efforts and good governance measures.”I want to emphasize that the funds we’re asking for from Congress don’t go to government leaders,” Jacobson said during a briefing to reporters at the White House on Wednesday. “They go to communities, to training, to climate mitigation, to violence prevention, to anti-gang programs. In other words, they go to the people who otherwise migrate in search of hope.”Responding to VOA’s question, Jacobson would not specify the details of those requirements.“I think that’s something that we would want to discuss with the countries involved before we discuss it publicly,” she said.Push factorsJacobson said some of the money is slated for immediate humanitarian aid, but much of it is designed to mitigate the so-called push factors of migration — conditions that make people leave their home countries for a better life.However, she acknowledged that ultimately, the U.S. may not be able to change conditions on the ground.FILE – A Honduran man seeking asylum in the United States wears a shirt that reads, “Biden please let us in,” as he stands among tents that line an entrance to the border crossing, March 1, 2021, in Tijuana, Mexico.“We can encourage them. We can help support them with resources, technical assistance and funding. But we can’t make those changes,” Jacobson said.The Biden administration has been facing increasing pressure from Republican lawmakers and anti-immigration activists to stem the thousands of migrants rushing to the U.S.-Mexico border to escape violence and poverty.“The Biden administration’s claims on U.S. foreign assistance to Central America are purposefully disingenuous,” said Ana Quintana, the Heritage Foundation’s senior policy analyst on Latin American affairs.Quintana added that as the former chief diplomat to the region, Jacobson is well aware that only a small percentage of funds reaches the governments of those countries in the form of training and equipment.Central American Minors programThe Biden administration is also reinstating an Obama-era program that would allow qualified Central American children to seek asylum in the U.S. from their home countries.Established in 2014, the Central American Minors (CAM) program would allow certain minors from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras to reunite with parents who are already in the U.S. legally.“I want to be clear: Neither this announcement or any of the other measures suggest that anyone, especially children and families with young children, should make the dangerous trip to try and enter the U.S. in an irregular fashion,” Jacobson said. “The border is not open.”FILE – Tents used by migrants seeking asylum in the United States line an entrance to the border crossing, March 1, 2021, in Tijuana, Mexico.The State Department said it would first process applications that were closed in 2017 after the Trump administration terminated the program. The administration will begin accepting new applications once those are processed.Immigration activists welcomed the announcement as a means toward expanding pathways for legal migration in the region.“We hope that it can be the first step in finding ways for children with family in the United States to come here safely, rather than have to make the dangerous journey to the border,” said Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, policy counsel at the American Immigration Council.System floodedUnaccompanied minors and other asylum-seekers from Central America are overwhelming the U.S. immigration system at the border. Multiple media reports show that children are detained in border facilities meant for adults for longer periods than U.S. regulations allow.Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott has accused the Biden administration of downplaying a growing “border crisis.” White House press secretary Jen Psaki and other administration officials have rejected the characterization.Psaki said Biden had been briefed on the situation by officials who visited facilities where minors are held. She said the president discussed ways to speed up getting minors out of U.S. Customs and Border Protection facilities, into shelters with better accommodations and eventually into family homes that have been vetted.She declined to say whether Biden himself would visit the border. 
…

Garland Confirmed as US Attorney General, Faces Major Challenges

Merrick Garland, a federal appeals court judge and former Justice Department official whose 2016 nomination to the Supreme Court was blocked by Republicans, was confirmed Wednesday by the U.S. Senate as the nation’s top law enforcement official. Garland, 68, a seasoned jurist and criminal investigator, was easily confirmed as the next attorney general – one of President Joe Biden’s most important cabinet appointments – on a bipartisan vote of 70 to 30. All the “no” votes were cast by Republican senators, including presidential hopefuls Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley. Garland’s elevation to the top of the Justice Department is expected to lead to significant criminal justice policy changes under the Biden administration, from a potential moratorium on federal executions that resumed under former President Donald Trump, to closer scrutiny of police departments accused of violating civil rights. Garland is inheriting a massive law enforcement agency rife with controversy and morale problems after four tumultuous years under Trump at a time the Justice Department is conducting a wide-ranging investigation into the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters.    FILE – Pro-Trump protesters storm into the U.S. Capitol during a rally to contest the certification of the 2020 U.S. presidential election results by the U.S. Congress, in Washington, January 6, 2021.During his confirmation hearing last month, Garland said the investigation of the bloody insurrection, which has led to charges against more than 300 people, would be his top priority.    The bipartisan support for Garland is in sharp contrast to the strictly partisan votes Trump’s two attorneys general – Jeff Sessions and William Barr – received.      FILE – Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky walks from the Senate floor to his office on Capitol Hill, Jan. 6, 2021.Prominent Republicans praised Garland’s appointment, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who blocked former President Barack Obama’s nomination of Garland to fill a vacancy on the Supreme Court in 2016, arguing that it was too close to the presidential election.   “I’m voting to confirm Judge Garland because of his long reputation as a straight-shooter and legal expert,” McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, said before the vote. “His left-of-center perspective has been within the legal mainstream.”  As attorney general, Garland will lead a department with more than 100,000 employees and a budget of more than $31 billion.  Anti-terrorism experienceWhile Garland has served on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia for nearly a quarter of a century, he comes to the job of attorney general with extensive anti-terrorism experience. That likely will serve him well as he steps into a new role and trains the Justice Department’s focus on fighting domestic terrorism.   In the late 1990s, while serving as a top Justice Department official, Garland, a Harvard-educated lawyer, supervised several high-profile domestic terrorism cases.  From 1995 to 1997, he led the federal investigation of the truck bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma City, which left 168 people dead, including 19 children. It was the worst act of domestic terrorism in U.S. history.   FILE – The Field of Empty Chairs is seen during the 20th Remembrance Ceremony, the anniversary ceremony for victims of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, at the Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, April 19, 2015.Former army soldier and right-wing extremist Timothy McVeigh was later convicted and executed, while an accomplice, Terry Nichols, was sentenced to life in prison.  In 1996, Garland served as the “supervising attorney” for the prosecution of Theodore Kaczynski, the so-called “Unabomber” who killed three people and injured 24 others over the course of nearly two decades. Kaczynski is serving eight life sentences in prison.    Garland’s transition to the judiciary came in 1997 when President Bill Clinton nominated him to the District of Columbia circuit, the second most powerful court in the country and a stepping stone for some Supreme Court justices.  But in 2016, when Obama named Garland to the Supreme Court to replace the late conservative icon Antonin Scalia, Republicans killed the nomination, allowing Trump the following year to put his own nominee on the court.  Independence from White HouseHistorically, many U.S. presidents have chosen close friends and allies to head the Justice Department; President John F. Kennedy picked his brother Bobby Kennedy for the job. Others, however, have turned to outsiders.    In the wake of the Watergate scandal, Republican President Gerald Ford tapped Edward Levi, a renowned president of the University of Chicago, to run the Justice Department. Along the way, Levi won accolades for restoring the department’s independence and integrity.In picking Garland as his attorney general, Biden turned to an outsider in a signal that he wants the Justice Department to retain its traditional independence and distance from the White House after a turbulent period during which Trump was accused of trying to turn the agency into a tool of his political machinery.  FILE – Then-U.S. Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden attend a basketball game in Washington, Jan. 30, 2010.Garland inherits a pair of politically sensitive investigations, which will test his commitment to the Justice Department’s independence: a tax fraud probe of Biden’s son Hunter, and a separate special counsel criminal examination of the origins of the Robert Mueller investigation of Russian intervention in the 2016 presidential election on behalf of Trump. During his confirmation hearing, Garland indicated that he intends to allow both to run their course.   Garland said that while he enjoys being a judge, “this is an important moment for me to step forward because of my deep respect for the Department of Justice and for its critical role of ensuring the rule of law.”  Calling the January 6 siege of the U.S. Capitol the “most heinous” attack on democracy, Garland vowed to pursue investigative leads “wherever they take us.”  “I can assure you this will be my main priority [and the subject of] my first briefing” if confirmed, said Garland. Other nomineesWhile Garland was confirmed with a bipartisan vote, Biden’s two other top Justice Department nominations have faced Republican opposition over their alleged partisanship. Nominee to be Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee during her confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, March 9, 2021.During her confirmation hearing Tuesday, Vanita Gupta, tapped for the No. 3 position at the Justice Department, was grilled over her past partisan comments on social media aimed at Republican politicians and Trump’s judicial nominees.   Gupta, a prominent civil rights lawyer who previously served as an assistant attorney general in the Obama administration, apologized for her “harsh rhetoric.”  “I can pledge to you today that if I am confirmed, you won’t be hearing that kind of rhetoric from me,” Gupta, president and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, told members of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Republicans sought reassurance from Gupta and other Justice Department nominees that the agency would investigate left-wing violence with the same vigor as the ongoing investigation into the right-wing perpetrators of the Capitol attack.  “We were fortunate to have Attorney General Barr, who took seriously the federal government’s role to protect federal property and enforce federal law. Judge Garland must be prepared to do the same,” McConnell said.   
 
…

Historic COVID Relief Bill Projected to Slash US Child Poverty

The $1.9 trillion pandemic relief bill awaiting final passage in the House of Representatives would bring the United States in line with many other advanced democracies around the world by providing regular, unrestricted federal payments to families with children that would cut the rate of child poverty in half.In all, 13.1 million children and adults would be lifted out of poverty, including 5.7 million under the age of 18, according to one analysis. It would be an historic byproduct of President Joe Biden’s massive economic response to the COVID-19 pandemic and Democrats’ pent-up demands for addressing income inequality in the U.S. through direct government action.What remains to be seen is whether the change is temporary or signals a permanent adjustment to U.S. social policy.Almost unprecedented An analysis by the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center found that the bill would increase the after-tax income of the poorest quintile of Americans by 20.1% and the second-lowest quintile by 9.3%. (Those figures include a one-time federal payment of $1,400 for most Americans as well as elements tailored to benefit families and the poor.)FILE – U.S. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris meet with governors and mayors on his COVID-19 relief plan, in the Oval Office of the White House, Feb. 12, 2021.An analysis by the Center on Poverty and Social Policy at Columbia University found that the bill would cut the overall poverty rate in the United States from 12.3% to 8.2%. The impact on children under 18 would be even more dramatic, dropping their poverty rate from 13.5% to 5.7%.Supporters of more generous government benefits for low-income Americans struggled to find a parallel in U.S. history.  “It’s a huge change,” said Sarah Halpern-Meekin, a professor in the LaFollette School of Public Affairs and the Department of Human Development and Family Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. She said the nearest historical comparison in terms of impact on society would be the Social Security Act of 1935, which set up a system of guaranteed income for most retirees in America.Details of legislation In addition to direct stimulus payments and enhanced unemployment benefits, the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 would create a refundable tax credit worth $3,600 per year for children under 6 years of age, and $3,000 for children between 6 and 18.Beginning in July, the funds would be delivered in monthly payments, creating a predictable income stream for families. The bill would also expand existing tax credits to care for children and dependents.FILE – People on low incomes and retirees choose food at the World Harvest Food Bank in Los Angeles, July 24, 2019.A separate element of the bill, expanding federal benefits to low-income working households through a program known as the Earned Income Tax Credit, would further reduce poverty in the U.S.Analysts say financial improvements can trigger other positive outcomes for struggling Americans and their families.”With these kinds of increases in income there are concrete health benefits,” said Halpern-Meekin, who is also affiliated with the Institute for Research on Poverty. “The family being less likely to experience material hardship and run short of what they need has a short-term effect on children’s or infants’ health outcomes, and those spill over into long term effects … on health, school and employment outcomes.”Unintended consequences While progressives celebrate the bill as a major victory, conservatives say they fear that providing regular, no-strings-attached income to parents will have unintended consequences that do more harm than good.Scott Winship, the director of poverty studies at the American Enterprise Institute, released a research paper titled, “The Conservative Case Against Child Allowances” as lawmakers were debating the bill.”Child allowances run a very real risk of encouraging more single parenthood and more no-worker families, both of which could worsen entrenched poverty in the long run — an overreliance on government transfers, poverty over longer stretches of childhood, intergenerational poverty, and geographically concentrated poverty,” he wrote.”And the concern is about not only material poverty but also the social poverty that comes from growing up in non-intact families or communities with limited social capital and a dearth of meaningful roles for members to fill.”FILE – A volunteer moves a pallet of food for low-income families at the Roadrunner Food Bank in Albuquerque, N.M., June 21, 2013.Noting that the United States has already seen a significant decrease in child poverty in recent decades, Winship called on lawmakers to reject the bill and to instead continue with existing policies that, he said, have been proven to work.”Policymakers should reject child allowances in favor of other policies to reduce child poverty that would build on the lessons of welfare reform, run lower risks of unintended consequences, address stubbornly low rates of intergenerational mobility, and attempt to reverse pervasive declines in family and associational life,” he wrote. “They must resist the allure of a family policy that — only apparently — has no downsides.”Permanent or temporary? As currently written, the changes to tax policy in the bill would expire at the end of the year.However, even if law reverts to its current form next year, taxpayers can expect an additional infusion of cash in 2022, when the benefits for the first six months of this year are refunded to them after they file their 2021 taxes.Advocates say that lifting children out of poverty, even temporarily, would have positive long-term effects on their development, but that the ideal outcome is creating a permanent child benefit similar to those offered in many European countries.Those calling for a permanent child benefit, such as Indivar Dutta-Gupta, the co-executive director of the Center on Poverty and Inequality at Georgetown Law School, say they are optimistic that will be the ultimate result.”By passing such a consequential provision for one year, a provision that is of historic magnitude, the president and those who have supported expanding the child tax credit are putting Congress in the position of either allowing that temporary provision to expire at the end of this year — and if they do, child poverty rates will roughly double on their watch because of a decision they’re making — or they can find a way to extend the provision,” he said.Dutta-Gupta pointed out that scholars who study poverty have been advocating for a child benefit for years, not just as a response to the economic distress caused by the pandemic.”This is a provision that will be useful throughout the business cycle,” he said. “And there’s every reason to expect a full-court press to make the provision expanding the child tax credit permanent before the end of this calendar year.” 
 
…

US House Set to Advance $1.9 Trillion COVID Aid for Biden Signature

The U.S. House is set to pass a massive COVID-19 relief bill this week that will reshape the American economy and send billions of dollars in global health funding abroad. VOA’s congressional correspondent Katherine Gypson reports on the U.S. response to the pandemic as vaccinations ramp up around the country.Camera: Adam Greenbaum  
…