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(ATLANTA) — For the first time in 20 years, the Senate Rules Committee held a field hearing on Monday, this time in Atlanta to discuss voting rights as Democrats push for federal reform in the wake of sweeping legislation in Georgia — and in GOP-led legislatures across the country — which Democrats argue will make it harder for voters to cast their ballots.

“It is no coincidence that this assault on the freedom to vote is happening just after the 2020 election, when nearly 160 million Americans cast a ballot — more than ever before — in the middle of a pandemic, in an election that the Trump Department of Homeland Security Declared the most secure in history,” Committee Chair Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., said as she opened the hearing.

Witnesses included Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., and state lawmakers and voters who would be affected by the law — which, in part, adds a voter ID requirement and results in fewer drop boxes available in the Atlanta-area.

Those testifying focused their ire on Senate Bill 202 (SB 202), a Georgia state bill passed in March that shortens the periods between elections and runoffs, bans early voting on holidays, and makes it a crime for someone who is not an election worker to give food or drinks to anyone waiting in line.

Republican Senate Minority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., criticized the hearing in a statement as it kicked off Monday, deeming it all “phony hysteria.”

“This silly stunt is based on the same lie as all the Democrats’ phony hysteria from Georgia to Texas to Washington D.C. and beyond — their efforts to pretend that moderate, mainstream state voting laws with more generous early voting provisions than blue states like New York are some kind of evil assault on our democracy,” the GOP leader said.

But Warnock testified Georgia was “ground zero” for GOP efforts to suppress the vote.

“What we did in Georgia this last election, in terms of turnout, should have been celebrated, by everyone, regardless of political party. But instead it was attacked by craven politicians, who are more committed to the maintenance of their own power than they are to the strengthening and maintaining of our democracy,” Warnock said.

Citing restrictions in Georgia’s new law, particularly how it would prohibit non-poll workers from handing out water and would let people challenge others’ votes, Warnock called for federal voting right protections and emphasized the urgency of those efforts: “We Americans live in a great house that democracy built. Right now, that house is on fire.”

Georgia State Rep. Billy Mitchell also argued SB 202 was moved overly quickly through the Georgia legislature to the governor’s desk.

No Republicans were present at the hearing, but Republicans from Georgia — including Gov. Brian Kemp — criticized the event in a call with reporters later on Monday morning.

“Today’s hearing is just the latest attempt by the Democrats to ignore the catastrophe up in Washington, DC and also to really change the narrative that couldn’t get the federal takeover of elections in S1 [the For the People Act voting rights bill] passed through the Senate or the Congress,” Kemp said.

Klobuchar said that Republicans were invited to join; Kemp said that he was in a hearing about crime during the voting hearing, and that he does not believe Klobuchar’s hearing was fair.

The hearing comes as Senate Democrats put pressure on their colleagues across the aisle to move forward in unison on the stalled For the People Act, an expansive package that would transform federal elections, voting and congressional redistricting, which passed the House in March.

A more measured proposal with some Republican support named for the late Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., which would restore pieces of the Voting Rights Act struck down by the Supreme Court in 2013, has also failed to advance through Congress.

Democrats argue lawmakers must act with more urgency on voting legislation also in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court deciding last month to uphold voting restrictions in Arizona that Democrats and voting advocates have called discriminatory on the basis of race.

Monday’s hearing also comes at a busy time in Washington.

Both chambers of Congress were back in session Monday as Democrats in the Texas State Legislature took harbor in the capital for a second week in order to prevent Republicans in Austin from taking up the proposals in a special legislative session. While they had planned to push voting rights legislation on the hill, five members have tested positive for COVID-19.

And just days after Congressional Black Caucus Chair Rep. Joyce Beatty was arrested along with other activists in a display of civil disobedience on Capitol Hill, the “Women’s Moral Monday March on Washington” rally, organized by the Women’s March and Poor People Campaign, added their voices with a demonstration in front of the Supreme Court Monday.

The group demanded that Congress take action on issues such as ending the filibuster and expanding voting rights.

Sixteen states have enacted 28 laws that would restrict voting access, out of hundreds that have been introduced throughout the country, according to the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law.

ABC News’ Libby Cathey and Trish Turner contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — The House will vote on Thursday to expand and expedite the special visa program for Afghan workers who aided the U.S. military campaign and are trying to leave the country, adding more openings to the program just weeks before the first evacuation flights are scheduled to begin.

The bipartisan Allies Act, introduced by Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo., would raise the cap on the Special Immigrant Visa program by 8,000, while also removing requirements the authors said could lengthen the application process by several months.

Specifically, it would create a presumption that applicants face threats to their lives in sensitive roles as interpreters, translators or security contractors for the U.S. military, waiving the requirements that they obtain and submit sworn and certified statements.

The House will advance the bill this week as the Pentagon has notified lawmakers that it could temporarily house Afghan visa applicants at Fort Lee, an Army installation in central Virginia, while they complete the application process, aides briefed on the potential plans told ABC News.

Crow, a former Army Ranger who served in Afghanistan, said he owed his life in part to the Afghans who worked alongside U.S. troops as interpreters. His district director in Colorado, Maytham Alshadood, is a successfully resettled Iraqi who worked as an interpreter and translator with the U.S. military before immigrating.

“He’s a perfect success story to the contributions these folks can make, and they’ve already proven themselves to be patriotic Americans and people that have served the country,” he told ABC News. “We owe them a great debt.”

The bill would also expand eligibility for the program to roughly 1,000 Afghans working with nonmilitary organizations that have partnered with the United States, such as the National Democratic Institute and the U.S. Institute for Peace.

“The Taliban is not going to make a distinction between someone who was working for USAID, or a grantee of the U.S. government promoting independent journalism or women’s rights and someone who was a driver or translator,” Rep. Tom Malinowski, D-N.J., another cosponsor of the legislation, told ABC News. “So we shouldn’t make those distinctions, either.”

Earlier this summer, the House passed a similar measure that waived the requirement for applicants to receive a medical examination on the front end of the process, and would allow them to receive an exam as soon as possible once resettled in the United States.

In the Senate, both measures have the support of Republicans and Democrats, who are weighing whether to add the provisions to an emergency spending package funding the Capitol Police, which could clear the chamber before the August recess.

“There are a lot of people in Afghanistan that have been loyal to us,” Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., the ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Committee negotiating with Democrats over the package, said last week. “We cannot leave them behind.”

The White House announced Operation Allies Refuge last week, and said the first flights to evacuate visa applicants would begin in the last week of July.

There are now 20,000 applicants for the program, with roughly 10,000 still required to finish various stages of their applications, according to the State Department.

Approximately 2,500 applicants have been approved through the security vetting process and segments of that group could be transported to military bases in the U.S., under humanitarian parole, to finish their applications, the State Department spokesman said.

Afghans who have not yet completed their applications could be sent to third-party countries around Afghanistan or to U.S. military facilities in the Middle East, Crow said.

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(WASHINGTON) — The Pentagon will temporarily house Afghan workers who aided the U.S. military campaign and are trying to leave the country at Fort Lee, an Army installation in central Virginia, while they complete the application process for a special visa, according to the State Department.

Spokesperson Ned Price said Monday that the State Department requested that the Defense Department house 2,500 Afghans who are the furthest along in the vetting process for the special visa program, have passed “thorough” security vetting and whose work for the U.S. has been certified by the embassy in Kabul.

They’ll be provided services, such as housing, at Fort Lee as their visa applications are processed, according to Price, but he didn’t specify when the applicants and their family members may arrive beyond before the end of July.

John Kirby, Defense Department press secretary, said Monday afternoon that there are still other domestic and overseas locations also being considered.

Separately, the House will vote on Thursday to expand and expedite the special visa program for these Afghans, adding more openings to the program just weeks before the first evacuation flights are scheduled to begin.

The bipartisan Allies Act, introduced by Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo., would raise the cap on the Special Immigrant Visa program by 8,000, while also removing requirements the authors said could lengthen the application process by several months.

Specifically, it would create a presumption that applicants face threats to their lives in sensitive roles as interpreters, translators or security contractors for the U.S. military, waiving the requirements that they obtain and submit sworn and certified statements.

Crow, a former Army Ranger who served in Afghanistan, said he owed his life in part to the Afghans who worked alongside U.S. troops as interpreters. His district director in Colorado, Maytham Alshadood, is a successfully resettled Iraqi who worked as an interpreter and translator with the U.S. military before immigrating.

“He’s a perfect success story to the contributions these folks can make, and they’ve already proven themselves to be patriotic Americans and people that have served the country,” he told ABC News. “We owe them a great debt.”

The bill would also expand eligibility for the program to roughly 1,000 Afghans working with nonmilitary organizations that have partnered with the United States, such as the National Democratic Institute and the U.S. Institute for Peace.

“The Taliban is not going to make a distinction between someone who was working for USAID, or a grantee of the U.S. government promoting independent journalism or women’s rights and someone who was a driver or translator,” Rep. Tom Malinowski, D-N.J., another cosponsor of the legislation, told ABC News. “So we shouldn’t make those distinctions, either.”

Earlier this summer, the House passed a similar measure that waived the requirement for applicants to receive a medical examination on the front end of the process, and would allow them to receive an exam as soon as possible once resettled in the United States.

In the Senate, both measures have the support of Republicans and Democrats, who are weighing whether to add the provisions to an emergency spending package funding the Capitol Police, which could clear the chamber before the August recess.

“There are a lot of people in Afghanistan that have been loyal to us,” Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., the ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Committee negotiating with Democrats over the package, said last week. “We cannot leave them behind.”

The White House announced Operation Allies Refuge last week, and said the first flights to evacuate visa applicants would begin in the last week of July.

There are now 20,000 applicants for the program, with roughly 10,000 still required to finish various stages of their applications, according to the State Department.

Approximately 2,500 applicants have been approved through the security vetting process and segments of that group could be transported to military bases in the U.S., under humanitarian parole, to finish their applications, the State Department spokesman said.

Afghans who have not yet completed their applications could be sent to third-party countries around Afghanistan or to U.S. military facilities in the Middle East, Crow said.

ABC News’ Trish Turner and Matt Seyler contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — With financial markets down sharply Monday over whether the new delta variant would endanger the recovery, President Joe Biden on Monday pushed back on inflation fears also giving investors jitters, insisting that his policies will create a strong economy and that higher prices are only a short-term growing pain.

“There’s nobody suggesting there’s unchecked inflation on the way, no serious economist. That’s totally different — I mean, look, the stock market is higher than it has been in all of history, even when it was down this month. Even down this month,” Biden said in White House remarks touting the recovery six months into office.

Biden also took a moment to hit former President Donald Trump for his focus on the stock market, noting there are other ways to judge economic health.

“Now, I don’t look at a stock market as a means by which to judge the economy like my predecessor did. But he’d be very, he’d be talking to you every day for the last five months about how the stock market is so high. Higher than any time in history. Still higher than any time in history. So, that’s not how I judge whether or not we’re having economic growth,” Biden said.

While pushing his infrastructure policies to lawmakers, he also made the case that inflation is merely temporary, a result of lingering supply chain challenges and an uneven restart after an unprecedented economic upheaval.

“Reality is you can’t flip the global economic light back on and not expect this to happen,” Biden said.

Biden noted that 60% of price increases, according to some economists, are due to global supply chain challenges, such as the shortage of semiconductors that has spurred a spike in car prices, and the increase in lumber prices. Calling price increases temporary, Biden worked to assure Americans he won’t let inflation get out of control.

“I want to be clear. My administration understands if we were to experience unchecked inflation over the long-term, that would pose a real challenge to our economy. So while we’re confident that isn’t what we’re seeing today, we’re going to remain vigilant about any response as needed,” he said.

“Reality is, you can’t flip the global economic light back on and not expect this to happen.”

During remarks about economic recovery, Pres. Biden says increase in prices is expected to be temporary but that his administration will remain “vigilant.” https://t.co/JIlsEYpYvZ pic.twitter.com/kGl3EkF4P4

— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) July 19, 2021

Biden also noted that he has assured Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell that he is committed to the independence of the Fed, and encourages Powell to take whatever steps necessary to keep the economy strong.

Biden then turned to the elephant in the room — the $4 trillion+ in additional government spending he’s pursuing.

“If we increase the availability of quality, affordable child care, elder care, paid leave, more people will enter the workforce. These steps will enhance our productivity, raising wages without raising prices. That won’t increase inflation. That will take the pressure off of inflation,” Biden said, referring to the $3.5 trillion “human infrastructure” plan Democrats on Capitol Hill are seeking to pass without any bipartisan support through special Senate budget rules.

MORE: Biden, bipartisan senators say they have $1.2 trillion framework infrastructure deal
“If your primary concern right now is inflation, you should be even enthusiastic about this plan,” Biden added.

“What we can’t do, is go back to the same old trickle-down theories, that gave us nearly two trillion dollars in deficit finance corporate tax giveaways, that did nothing to make our economy more productive or resilient,” Biden warned. “We can’t go back to the old failed thinking.“

With a key procedural vote this week in the Senate on the bipartisan infrastructure framework, Biden reminded lawmakers they already had a deal.

“Whatever different views some might have on current price increases, we should be united in one thing: Passage of the bipartisan infrastructure framework which we shook hands on. We shook hands on,” Biden said.

Despite attempting to sell his spending packages, Biden did not address the fact that so many questions about the packages remained unanswered ahead of Wednesday deadlines set by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer: a key procedural vote on a bipartisan $1.2 trillion traditional infrastructure spending bill, and a self-imposed deadline for members of his own party to reach agreement on a $3.5 trillion spending package, which covers the majority of Biden’s American Families Plan agenda, including childcare, free community college, and provisions to lower health care costs.

Top Republican negotiator Sen. Rob Portman expressed frustration Sunday with the state of the talks.

“We shouldn’t have an arbitrary deadline of Wednesday. We should bring the legislation forward when it’s ready… it’s got to be done in a thoughtful, bipartisan way. We don’t want to rush this process or make mistakes,” Portman said in an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

One remaining hurdle is how to pay for all the spending, after Democrats agreed to drop IRS tax enforcement provisions that were estimated to net $100 billion over ten years in the face of Republican pushback. President Biden has called for both spending bills to be fully paid for, mostly through tax increases on the wealthy and corporations.

“How do we vote on something which is not yet written as we try and get it right?” Senator Bill Cassidy, R.-La., asked in a “Fox News Sunday” interview. “We can get it done, but if they refused to cooperate on the pay-fors, it’s not going to pass. They know that.”

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