(WASHINGTON) — The Census Bureau on Thursday released the first district-level 2020 census results, setting off redistricting battles that could help determine whether Republicans or Democrats win control of the House of Representatives in the 2022 midterm elections.
The data will not only trigger a rush to redraw congressional and state legislative districts across the country, amid voting rights fights, but also are expected to show how the United States has grown more diverse.
Populations of people of color have grown, while the white population of the United States has shrunk, according to the Washington Post’s preview of the data. Six states and the District of Columbia may now have majority-minority populations.
“Republicans enter this redistricting cycle with the power to redraw 187 congressional districts to Democrats’ 75, which means redistricting could hand control of the House of Representatives back to Republicans in 2022 all by itself,” FiveThirtyEight’s Nathaniel Rakich writes.
Many state legislatures and commissions have already begun to discuss the maps of new congressional and legislative districts, but were waiting for the census data — delayed by the pandemic — before drawing maps.
According to FiveThirtyEight’s redistricting tracker, developed in conjunction with ABC News, at least nine states have upcoming preliminary or final deadlines in fall 2021 for either drafts of or final congressional district maps.
Six states are set to add congressional seats, seven states will each lose one seat and the remaining 37 states will keep the same number of congressional districts, the Census Bureau’s acting director announced in April.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
ABC News’ Quinn Scanlan and Rick Klein to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — As the delta variant spreads nationwide, the Department of Health and Human Services will require vaccination from more than 25,000 of its employees that directly work with patients, HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra announced Thursday.
Going a step beyond the general guidelines for the federal workforce — which is to get vaccinated or be required to wear a mask and do frequent testing — the Department of Health and Human Services is mandating the vaccine for its employees who deal directly with patients. The Department of Veterans Affairs has called for the same policy for its 115,000 health care workers.
Both agencies employ doctors or nurses that could be directly exposed to the virus at work, or directly expose vulnerable patients to it.
The roughly 25,000 HHS employees will have until the end of September to be vaccinated, an HHS official said.
“To increase vaccination coverage and protect more people from COVID-19, including the more transmissible Delta variant, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will require more than 25,000 members of its health care workforce to be vaccinated against COVID-19,” the department said in a statement.
The 25,000 HHS employees who will be required to get vaccinated are concentrated within the Indian Health Service and National Institute of Health, as well as the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps.
“Staff at the Indian Health Service (IHS) and National Institutes of Health (NIH) who serve in federally-operated health care and clinical research facilities and interact with, or have the potential to come into contact with, patients will be required to receive the COVID-19 vaccine,” HHS said in a statement.
The department will allow exemptions for religious or medical reasons.
(WASHINGTON) — Among the dozens of election reform laws changing rules regarding how voters cast ballots, several have also diminished secretaries of states’ authority over elections or shifted aspects of election administration to highly partisan bodies, such as state legislators themselves or unevenly bipartisan election boards.
“Inserting partisan actors into election administration … is really a worrying trend when you understand it in the context of what happened in 2020,” said Jessica Marsden, counsel for Protect Democracy, a nonprofit founded by former executive branch officials in the White House Counsel’s Office and Department of Justice.
Partnering with States United Democracy Center and Law Forward, Protect Democracy distributed a memo raising the alarm over the “particularly dangerous trend” of state legislatures attempting to “politicize, criminalize, and interfere in election administration.”
Analyzing the Voting Rights Lab’s state-level bill tracker and bill descriptions, ABC News identified at least nine states, including battlegrounds Arizona and Georgia, that have enacted 11 laws so far this year that change election laws by bolstering partisan entities’ power over the process or shifting election-related responsibilities from secretaries of state.
Each law was enacted by a Republican governor or by Republican-controlled legislatures voting to override Democratic governors’ vetoes.
These new laws include one that requires local election boards in Arkansas to refer election law violation complaints to the State Board of Election Commissioners — made up of five Republicans and just one Democrat — instead of their respective county clerks and local prosecutors; another that generally bars the executive and judicial branches in Kansas from modifying election law; and one giving Ohio state legislative leaders the power to intervene in cases challenging state statutes and cases challenging redistricting maps.
‘Backlash’ to officials’ 2020 actions
Some of these changes appear to be in direct retaliation to actions officials took last year around the election.
Arizona Democratic secretary of state, Katie Hobbs, can no longer represent the state in lawsuits defending its election code. That power now lies exclusively with the Republican attorney general — but only through Jan. 2, 2023, when Hobbs’ term ends.
In Kentucky, where the Republican secretary of state and Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear were heralded for their bipartisan collaboration to give electors absentee and early voting options they’d never had before, state law now explicitly opposes such coordination during a state of emergency. Beshear vetoed this bill, which curtails his office’s emergency powers, but the Republican-majority legislature voted to override him.
And in Montana, then-Gov. Steve Bullock, a Democrat, used his emergency powers to authorize counties to conduct all-mail elections for the June primary and November election. Every county opted to do this in June, and about 80% of the state’s counties, including the eight most populous, did in November. But in April, Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte signed into law a bill barring the governor from changing election procedures unless the legislature signs off on it.
“This is unprecedented in ways that I couldn’t have even dreamed up myself,” Audrey Kline, the national policy director for the National Vote At Home Institute, told ABC News. “It does feel like there’s a backlash, and there’s really a misunderstanding about how elections really work.”
Concern over so-called ‘takeover’ provision of Georgia election bill
Georgia’s sweeping election law rewrite, enacted at the end of March, spurred protests, boycott calls and corporate outrage over changes to the voting process.
Gov. Brian Kemp and other Republicans have defended the law as “making it easy to vote and hard to cheat,” but Democrats, including Kemp’s 2018 opponent, Stacey Abrams, described it as “Jim Crow 2.0.”
Both Marsden and Kline pointed to its provisions shifting control over elections as among the most concerning enacted so far.
The law removed Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who withstood direct pressure from then-President Donald Trump to “find” enough votes to overturn the election, as chairman and a voting member of the State Election Board, which investigates potential fraud and irregularities.
But the provision the two experts highlighted is one allowing state legislators to request a “performance review” of local election boards. If the State Election Board, which currently has three Republicans and one Democrat, determines a review yields enough evidence of wrongdoing or negligence under the law, the state will appoint a superintendent who takes on the local, multi-person board’s responsibilities, including hiring and firing power, and certifying elections.
Enough Republican lawmakers have already called for a performance review in Democratic-leaning Fulton County, the most populous in Georgia and the target of several 2020 election conspiracies. It’s a long way from any potential “takeover,” which is how Democrats describe the process, but up to four counties could have a superintendent at once.
How a “takeover” could impact a future election’s outcome is unclear, but the concept itself injects “confusion and uncertainty” into the election process, Marsden argued.
Extreme bills die, but unease for future elections doesn’t
Some of the most extreme pieces of legislation introduced never passed, Marsden noted. In Arizona, a bill that would have given the state legislature power to undo the certification of presidential electors by a simple majority vote up until the inauguration died in committee.
The bill failing isn’t a “safeguard,” she warned, because this is exactly what some Republicans wanted to happen last year to appoint electors supporting Trump in key battleground states he lost, but baselessly claimed he would’ve won if not for nonexistent mass voter fraud.
Trump, who may seek a comeback in 2024, still says it should have happened. He again attacked Kemp in a statement Wednesday for not calling one to appoint new electors, which Kemp said at the time would have been illegal.
But the former president’s vendetta against officials who did not bend to his demands around the election is not as damaging to the election process as the widespread lack of trust Republicans now have in U.S. elections.
Achieving full nonpartisan elections, conceded Kline, is not really possible. But what must exist are “bipartisan counterbalances” — like having a Republican-Democratic duo determine voter intent together when a ballot marking is unclear — and operating under the same set of basic facts.
A checkmark, for example, clearly indicates a voter’s intent, she said, even though voters are supposed to fill in the entire oval on a ballot.
What happens when Americans no longer believe in the same set of facts around elections?
“I think we’re all wrestling with these questions,” Kline said. “Leaving it up to a bipartisan team is probably as close as we can get to a perfect sort of check-and-balance system. But when we can’t agree on basic facts, it becomes more difficult.”
Paul Hennessy/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — As the federal investigation into Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz continues into the summer, sources tell ABC News that Gaetz’s one-time wingman has been steadily providing information and handing over potential evidence that could implicate the Florida congressman and others in the sprawling probe.
Former Seminole County tax collector Joel Greenberg, as part of his ongoing cooperation with prosecutors, has provided investigators with years of Venmo and Cash App transactions and thousands of photos and videos, as well as access to personal social media accounts, sources said.
Private messages exclusively reviewed by ABC News potentially shed new light on the process by which Greenberg allegedly met women online who were paid for sex, and introduced them to the Florida congressman and other associates.
Greenberg pleaded guilty in May to multiple federal crimes, including sex trafficking of a minor and introducing her to other “adult men” who also had sex with her when she was underage. Greenberg agreed to provide “substantial assistance” to prosecutors as part of their ongoing investigation.
Gaetz, who currently sits at the center of the ongoing federal sex trafficking investigation into allegations that he had sex with a minor who he also met through Greenberg, has vehemently denied any wrongdoing and has not been charged with any crime.
ABC News has reviewed Google Voice text messages from September 2018 that appear to show Greenberg texting with a woman he met online. In the texts, Greenberg appears to discuss payment options and asks the woman, who was of legal age, if she would take drugs; he then sets up a get-together with himself, Gaetz, the woman, and one of her friends.
“I have a friend flying in and we are trying to make plans for tonight. What are your plans for later,” Greenberg wrote to the woman, whose identity ABC News is withholding for privacy purposes. “And how much of an allowance will you be requiring :)” Greenberg added.
The woman responded by telling Greenberg she has “a friend who introduced me to the website that I could bring” and said she “usually” requires “$400 per meet.”
Greenberg then sent the woman a photo of Gaetz taking a selfie with students at Pea Ridge Elementary from a 2017 visit, and wrote, “My friend,” indicating that Gaetz would be the friend joining him.
“Oooh my friend thinks he’s really cute!” the woman responded.
Greenberg then replied that Gaetz was “down here only for the day,” adding “we work hard and play hard,” before asking, “Have you ever tried molly,” referring to the drug MDMA, or Ecstasy.
As Greenberg was discussing payment for the get-together, the woman asked if Gaetz used the same website Greenberg had used to meet her. Greenberg replied, in part, “He knows the deal :),” referring to the Florida congressman. The former tax collector then said he would book a “suite Downtown” for the gathering.
Asked about the allegations reported in this article, Harlan Hill, a spokesperson for Gaetz, told ABC News, “After months of media coverage, not one woman has come forward to accuse Rep. Gaetz of wrongdoing. Not even President Biden can say that. That others might invite people unbeknownst to a U.S. Congressman to functions he may or may not attend is the everyday life of a political figure. Your story references people the congressman doesn’t know, things he hasn’t done and messages he neither sent nor received.”
“Rep. Gaetz addressed the debunked allegations against him — and their origin in an extortion plot — during his Firebrand podcast episode last week,” Hill added. “People should download and watch.”
Gaetz himself has also forcefully pushed back against reports of the investigation. After the self-described “sugar daddy” website Seeking.com released a statement claiming to have “no knowledge of Mr. Gaetz ever having an account on the website,” Gaetz said on Twitter that “we are seeing the collapse of the Fake News media’s lies.”
However, The New York Times reported in April that investigators believe it was Greenberg who initially met women through online sugar daddy websites — which connect people who go on dates in exchange for gifts and allowances — and then “introduced the women to Mr. Gaetz, who also had sex with them.”
Additional Facebook messages reviewed by ABC News paint a similar picture, showing Greenberg appearing to organize a gathering in July 2018 that included Gaetz and women the former tax collector had allegedly been paying for sex, at the home of Jason Pirozzolo, a Florida hand doctor who founded a medical marijuana advocacy group and, according to reports, allegedly accompanied Gaetz on a 2018 trip to the Bahamas that investigators are scrutinizing.
The Facebook messages also appear to show Greenberg offering to introduce a Florida media entrepreneur at the meet-up at Pirozzolo’s home, which Greenberg described as “our safe place.”
“You should come meet the group,” Greenberg wrote to the entrepreneur, according to the messages. He then mentioned the names of two girls repeatedly featured on the former tax collector’s Venmo transactions, which ABC News has reviewed.
“I think it would be a wise investment of time. You might already know Jason Pirrazolo … but I’d like for you to meet Congressman Matt Gaetz,” Greenberg wrote. “Gaetz is a wild man, but great dude.”
Greenberg said in the message that the party would have “6-7 chicks” and “just 3-4 guys.” He then provided directions to Pirrazolo’s house, adding, “It’s our safe place, all things considered.”
A few days after the date of the July gathering, the entrepreneur posted a photo on Instagram that appeared to come from a separate get-together and includes the two young women Greenberg had mentioned in his private messages. ABC News is withholding the names of the two women for privacy purposes.
It’s not immediately certain if the gatherings Greenberg was working to arrange in July and September of 2018, over the private messages reviewed by ABC News, ultimately took place around those specific dates. Greenberg had arranged similar gatherings at hotels in the Central Florida area and at friends’ houses, including Pirozzolo’s, with the congressman in attendance, multiple sources who attended the gatherings in the past told ABC News.
Contacted by ABC News, Greenberg’s attorney, Fritz Scheller, said, “The only comment I can make is Joel Greenberg has executed a plea agreement with the government and will continue to honor his obligations pursuant to that agreement.”
Pirozzolo’s attorney, David Haas, declined to comment when reached by ABC News, citing the ongoing investigation.
Last month, a judge granted a request by Greenberg to delay his sentencing for three months, citing the breadth of his continued cooperation with federal prosecutors.
“Mr. Greenberg has been cooperating with the Government and has participated in a series of proffers,” Scheller wrote in a filing requesting the delay. “Said cooperation, which could impact his ultimate sentence, cannot be completed prior to the time of his sentencing.”
Prosecutors did not oppose the delay and a judge approved it a day later.
While Gaetz has appeared to distance himself from Greenberg since news broke regarding the investigation, he previously described Greenberg to acquaintances as his “wingman” and also publicly floated the former tax collector as a potential congressional candidate.
“Joel Greenberg has gone into the Seminole County Tax Collector’s Office, he’s taken it by storm,” Gaetz said in a radio interview on WFLA in June 2017, in which he pushed Greenberg to run for Florida’s 7th congressional district.
“He’s been a disrupter,” Gaetz said of Greenberg. “And if you look at what people want in the country right now, they want that disrupter. And they want someone who is not going to adhere to the dogma that has strangled progress in Washington, D.C., for a generation.”
(NEW YORK) — Gov. Andrew Cuomo sent shockwaves across New York when he resigned on Tuesday.
But the 63-year-old Democratic stalwart still faces potential legal challenges, investigations and a potential impeachment as he scrambles to formulate a path forward.
Does Cuomo still have a chance to run for a fourth term as governor and save his reputation? His murky future may get a bit clearer over the next few weeks.
He conceded to a landslide of calls for him to resign from state politicians and President Joe Biden in wake of the State Attorney General Letitia James’ office’s withering report that substantiated the claims of 11 women against him and found he created a work environment “rife with fear and intimidation.”
He issued an apology to his accusers, but he also denied all allegations of sexual harassment, concluding on Tuesday: “I think, given the circumstances, the best way I can help now is if I step aside.”
Basil Smikle, a political strategist and lecturer at Columbia’s School of International Public Affairs, told ABC News that Cuomo “wanted to go out on his own terms” after he “nearly ran out of friends and allies inside and outside government and after it seemed clear if he didn’t resign he’d be pushed out via impeachment.”
Impeachment: Justice or vengeance?
His resignation takes effect on Aug. 24 and Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul will take over, becoming the first female governor of New York.
Now the New York Assembly’s Judiciary Committee has to decide whether to move forward with an impeachment investigation.
“While we have the legal ability to still continue, what we have to analyze is what is best for the people of New York,” Assemblywoman and Judiciary Committee Democrat Catalina Cruz told ABC New York station WABC. “Do we want to take the extra step? Is it going to feel like wasted energy and more of a political revenge? Or is it going to really feel like justice? That’s a determination we’ll make on the committee together.”
Cruz said she’s concerned about focusing on local issues — vaccines and food pantries among them — but at the same time, “I also recognize as a survivor, that we got to give people justice. So, in full honestly, I’m a little torn.”
The Assembly’s Judiciary Committee is slated to meet Monday to discuss evidence gathered by the outside law firm that handled the probe.
An impeachment trial could result in the Assembly handing down a sentence that will bar him from holding state office again, but he still could run for federal office.
The office for Assemblyman Charles Lavine, the judiciary committee chairman, said on Monday that if the governor did resign, the Assembly would still consider moving forward simply to bar Cuomo from holding state office again, Spectrum Local News reported.
ABC News Legal Analyst Dan Abrams said on Good Morning America Wednesday it’s unlikely the Assembly would want to pursue an impeachment.
“The purpose of it would be to prevent him from holding public office again. They could go through the public impeachment process, have the trial, in an effort to make sure he can’t run for office again,” Abrams said. “I can’t imagine they’re going to have the political will to move forward with that entire process even though the governor has already resigned.”
Some Assembly members like Mary Beth Walsh and Yuh-Line Niou have voiced support for proceeding with it.
“Impeachment means Governor Cuomo will not be able to run for office again by claiming to be the victim and gaslighting the true victims. Impeachment means securing justice for all those who came forward and all those who have yet to come forward,” Niou said in a statement.
Smikle, the political strategist, said he believes Cuomo will be impeached.
“I think the Assembly and the Senate are very focused on accountability,” he added. “In the in many ways, I think the governor wants to be able to resign and have all of these other investigations stopped.”
What charges could Cuomo face?
Cuomo is under investigation by the Albany County sheriff’s department, which is probing the allegations of accuser Brittany Commisso, 32, who filed a complaint against him there last week.
She was identified as “Executive Assistant #1” in the attorney general’s report. She alleged the governor groped her backside on New Year’s Eve in 2019 and reached under her blouse and groped her breast at the Executive Mansion in November 2020. He and attorney Rita Glavin have vehemently denied those claims.
“He is 63 years old. He has spent 40 years in public life, and for him to all of a sudden be accused of a sexual assault of an executive assistant that he really doesn’t know, doesn’t pass muster,” Glavin said in a press conference Friday. On Tuesday, she claimed James’ report failed to corroborate all of Commisso’s claims.
Experts have said Cuomo could face a misdemeanor criminal charge in that case.
An attorney for Lindsey Boylan, Cuomo’s former aide who was the first to publicly accuse him, said she’d file a lawsuit for alleged retaliatory actions by Cuomo’s office after she came forward, which were outlined in the report. Cuomo and his attorneys also have denied these allegations.
At a press conference Tuesday, Glavin denied the sexual harassment and retaliation claims and alleged Boylan had a personal vendetta against Cuomo. She said the attorney general’s report “got key facts wrong” and failed to include a witnesses whose testimony “did not support the narrative.”
At least five district attorneys — Manhattan, Albany, Nassau, Westchester and Oswego counties — also are investigating allegations of sexual harassment mentioned in the report.
Additionally, Cuomo remains under investigation regarding whether he misused government resources by having staffers help produce his memoir, and the Brooklyn U.S. Attorney’s Office and the FBI are looking into his handling of data linked to nursing home deaths during the pandemic.
His future
As for Cuomo’s political future, it may be too soon to tell.
Karen Agnifilo, a former prosecutor with the Manhattan district attorney’s office who worked under Cy Vance, told ABC News, “Like all people, he’s not all good or all bad.”
“There are a lot of things that he has done that deserve to be a part of his legacy. Marriage equality, I would say, is one of the most momentous things that he was able to accomplish,” she said. “I think for him to have a political future he’s going to have to admit what he did. He’s still denying it.”
Smikle said Cuomo’s political prospects are dim.
“Politically, I don’t think he has a future by the voters of the state. Certainly, the political leadership of the state that refused to stand with him in these final days want to be able to turn the page on his chapter as governor,” he said. Cuomo could pursue an alternate career as a lawyer, but “if there are criminal charges pending, there’s a potential for him to lose his law license.”
Cuomo’s also seemingly lost support from many in his inner circle.
His top aide, Melissa DeRosa, announced her resignation Sunday. She was also accused in the report of allegedly participating in retaliatory actions against Boylan.
Sean Hacker, an attorney for DeRosa, said in a statement to ABC News: “With respect to legal questions relating to how a complaint should be handled, or whether personnel records could be provided to the public, Ms. DeRosa consulted with and relied upon advice of experienced counsel.”
Jay Jacobs, the head of New York’s Democratic Party and formerly a close Cuomo ally, said last week: “I agree with the attorney general. I believe the women. I believe the allegations. I cannot speak to the governor’s motivations. What I can say is that the governor has lost his ability to govern, both practically and morally.”
Cuomo, who is single and divorced, also will have to find a new home. He previously lived with ex-girlfriend Sandra Lee, a TV Chef, in Mount Kisco, New York, but she sold the home in 2020 following their 2019 split.
ABC News’ Aaron Katersky contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — YouTube has suspended Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky from uploading content for one week after he posted a video claiming most masks are ineffective in combating COVID-19, making him the second GOP lawmaker this week to be disciplined by a social media platform for misinformation.
Public health experts have said masks, even cloth masks, which Paul took particular issue with, offer protection against COVID-19 transmission, which in turn prevents infection. But Paul claimed in the video, “cloth masks don’t work,” and that most over-the-counter masks “don’t prevent infection,” according to YouTube, which it said violated its policies against spreading COVID-19 medical misinformation.
“This resulted in a first strike on the channel, which means it can’t upload content for a week, per our longstanding three strikes policy,” a YouTube spokesperson said in a statement. “We apply our policies consistently across the platform, regardless of speaker or political views, and we make exceptions for videos that have additional context such as countervailing views from local health authorities.”
According to YouTube, it will remove content that includes claims that masks don’t work to prevent contracting or spreading COVID-19 in order to protect users from content that poses real-world harm.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s latest masking recommendation is that everyone in areas with substantial or high levels of transmission — vaccinated or not — wear a mask in public, indoor settings.
After the media giant sanctioned Paul on Monday, the Kentucky senator fired back against the decision in a tweet on Tuesday, calling the suspension a “badge of honor.”
He also blasted the ban in a press release, but conceded he believes that private companies should have “the right to ban me if they want to.”
“I think this kind of censorship is very dangerous, incredibly anti-free speech, and truly anti-progress of science, which involves skepticism and argumentation to arrive at the truth,” the release began.
“As a libertarian leaning Senator, I think private companies have the right to ban me if they want to, so in this case I’ll just channel that frustration into ensuring the public knows YouTube is acting as an arm of government and censoring their users for contradicting the government,” he continued, without evidence.
Paul, who holds a medical degree, has feuded with public health experts from the start of the pandemic including the nation’s top infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci.
He’s also the second Republican lawmaker this week to get suspended from a major social media platform after spreading COVID-19 misinformation.
Twitter took action against Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s account on Tuesday for COVID-19 misinformation via a one-week suspension, downgrading her account into “read only” mode.
While Greene tweeted on Monday the vaccines were “failing,” data shows that nearly all COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths in recent weeks have been among the unvaccinated, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Public health experts continue to warn that vaccinations are the most effective ways to curb the spread of the coronavirus and the highly contagious delta variant.
(WASHINGTON) — Democrats were quick to celebrate rare back-to-back victories when the Senate approved both a $1.1 trillion infrastructure bill and an additional $3.5 trillion package piled high with progressive priorities just before adjourning for recess on Wednesday – but it’s a rocky road ahead before either bill makes it to the president’s desk to be signed into law. The House is expected to return the week of Aug. 23 to vote on the $3.5 trillion budget resolution that paves the way for Congress to squeak out a behemoth package filled to the brim with social and progressive priorities, including combating climate change, funding universal pre-K, and reforming immigration law – but unlike the bipartisan infrastructure bill, this one with zero Republican support.
Once the resolution is passed, committees in both the House and Senate will begin their work drafting policy and legislation that will eventually become what’s called a “reconciliation” bill that can clear the Senate with just a simple majority.
The House is not expected, though, to vote on the $1.1 trillion infrastructure bill that passed with bipartisan support in the Senate when the chamber returns in late August.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has vowed to hold on to that bill until the lower chamber gets the larger reconciliation bill from the Senate, which could take weeks, if not months, to be finalized.
“I am not freelancing. This is the consensus,” Pelosi told colleagues on a Democratic caucus call Wednesday afternoon, according to sources.
“The president has said he’s all for the bipartisan approach … bravo! That’s progress, but it ain’t the whole vision,” Pelosi said.
“The votes in the House and Senate depend on us having both bills,” she added.
But there are some fractures in the Democratic caucus when it comes to the fate of those bills. Democrats have just a three-seat majority in the House. Any handful of members can be potential roadblocks if they are determined enough to challenge Pelosi and the White House.
Moderate Democrats and Republicans in the House have rallied behind the bipartisan $1.1 trillion infrastructure agreement in the Senate and are among its most vocal supporters in the chamber, but they want Pelosi and Democratic leaders to put the Senate bill on the floor without changes, so it can pass quickly and head to President Biden’s desk.
“This once-in-a-century investment deserves its own consideration, without regard to other legislation,” Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., and other members wrote in a letter to Pelosi.
Progressives, however, have grumbled about the size and scope of the Senate-approved bill. They wanted to “go big” on infrastructure – anywhere from $6 to $10 trillion – and are still privately pushing for changes to the Senate bill or reconciling it with a similar House bill crafted by the chairman of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.
Democrats will also have to contend with members of their own party, namely Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, both of whom have expressed reservations about the price tag of the larger reconciliation bill.
On Wednesday, Manchin released a statement hailing the bipartisan infrastructure agreement in the Senate, but he poured cold water on progressive aspirations for the $3.5 trillion bill.
My statement raising concerns about the consequences of passing a $3.5 trillion budget: pic.twitter.com/gGsEXcVTxd
“Early this morning, I voted ‘YES’ on a procedural vote to move forward on the budget reconciliation process because I believe it is important to discuss the fiscal policy future of this country,” Manchin, D-W.Va., said in a statement. “However, I have serious concerns about the grave consequences facing West Virginians and every American family if Congress decides to spend another $3.5 trillion.”
The White House said Wednesday President Joe Biden was “comfortable” with the $3.5 trillion price tag, but did not rule out negotiating the cost.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer was asked about Manchin’s remarks at a press conference Wednesday, and he expressed optimism that Democrats will stand united and suggested Democrats will not consider lowering the price tag in the end.
“There are some in my caucus who might believe it’s too much there are some in my caucus who might believe it’s too little,” Schumer, D-N.Y., said. “I can tell you this: in reconciliation, one, we are going to all come together to get something done and two, it will have every part of the Biden plan in a big bold robust way.”
Schumer added that it will “absolutely not” “be easy,” but said “every member of our caucus realizes that unity is our strength … we have to come together.”
“This was one of the most significant legislative days we’ve had in a long time in the U.S. Senate, but we still have a long road to travel. It’s as if we caught a pass, a nice long pass at midfield – but we’ve still got 50 yards to go before we score a touchdown,” Schumer said.
As lawmakers wrestle these two massive bills through Congress when they return from recess, they will also have to pass a bill to fund the government and raise the debt ceiling before the end of September.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Monday urged Congress to raise the national debt limit through bipartisan action.
Schumer on Wednesday said he did not believe Republicans would let the U.S. default on its debt as the government approaches it current borrowing capacity.
“I cannot believe the Republicans will let the country default, and it has always been bipartisan to deal with the debt ceiling,” Schumer told reporters, noting Democrats backed debt limit increases three times under former Republican President Donald Trump.
46 Republican senators signed onto a letter this week affirming that they will not vote to raise the debt ceiling.
“Our friends across the aisle should not expect traditional bipartisan borrowing to finance their nontraditional reckless taxing and spending spree,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said on the Senate floor Monday. “That’s not how this works.”
ABC News’ Trish Turner contributed to this report.
(ALBANY, N.Y.) — Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul, who will make history as New York’s first female governor, laid out her vision for the Empire State in her first address to the public since Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced his resignation.
Hochul told reporters Wednesday she will “fight like hell” for all New Yorkers. She said she has already spoken with state legislative leaders and other community groups as she plans to take office and tackle ongoing issues such as the coronavirus pandemic and economic recovery.
“People will soon learn that my style is to listen first and then take decisive action,” Hochul said.
Hochul, 62, is slated to assume office on Aug. 24, when Cuomo officially steps down. She will serve the remainder of Cuomo’s term, which ends Jan. 1, 2023.
Cuomo announced his resignation a week after a report by the state attorney general’s office found that he sexually harassed 11 staffers.
Hochul, who said she and the governor were not close, made it clear that she would not retain any member of Cuomo’s staff who was accused in the report of unethical behavior.
“No one will ever describe my administration as a toxic work environment,” she said.
Hochul said she will announce her choice for lieutenant governor in the coming weeks and didn’t indicate if she will run for another term.
Getting New York through the pandemic is her top priority and raising the vaccination rates in the communities that are lagging, she said.
“The delta variant is still raging and it’s going to take all of us to defeat it,” she said.
As of Wednesday, 64% of all New York state residents had received one shot, the state’s health department said.
The Buffalo native has served as the state’s lieutenant governor since 2015.
She previously served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives.
(TALLAHASSEE, Fla.) — Florida’s education commissioner told the leaders of three school districts this week that he is investigating them for “non-compliance” after they defied state rules by refusing to let parents opt out of mask requirements for their children.
In letters sent to the leaders of the Alachua, Broward and Leon districts and obtained by ABC News, the commissioner, Richard Corcoran, threatened to withhold money from their salaries and gave them deadlines to respond with a plan “to remedy this glaring non-compliance.”
“There is no room for error or leniency when it comes to ensuring compliance with policies that allow parents and guardians to make health and educational choices for their children,” Corcoran wrote.
Alachua and Broward Counties have shown no indication of budging despite Corcoran’s threat.
Alachua County Public School’s website has not updated its mask policy, even though the district’s deadline to respond to Corcoran was Tuesday at 5 p.m.
Broward County Public Schools has directed its lawyers to challenge the ban on mask mandates, Rosalind Osgood, the chair of the school board, said in a press conference Tuesday.
Osgood spoke to the ABC News podcast “Start Here” and expressed her determination to stand up to the state’s threats.
“I personally can’t be bullied into parochial self-interest to make a decision where I put myself ahead of the lives of other people,” Osgood said in the interview, which aired Wednesday. “There is no monetary value that you can put on somebody’s life.”
Meanwhile, Leon County Schools caved to the state’s pressure, announcing at a board meeting Tuesday that it will now allow parents to opt their children out of wearing masks without giving a reason. The board said the opt out form will go home with students today.
Last Friday, the Florida Department of Health issued an emergency rule that ordered districts requiring masks to let parents opt out without providing a reason.
As punishment, the state “could move to withhold the salary of the district superintendent or school board members,” Governor Ron DeSantis’ press secretary, Christina Pushaw, said Monday.
The mask saga has bled into the start of the school year for some districts in the state. Students in Alachua County returned to classrooms Tuesday, while students in Leon County return Wednesday. The first day of school in Broward County is Aug. 18.
This report was featured in the Wednesday, Aug. 11, 2021, episode of “Start Here,” ABC News’ daily news podcast.
“Start Here” offers a straightforward look at the day’s top stories in 20 minutes. Listen for free every weekday on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, the ABC News app or wherever you get your podcasts.
(WASHINGTON) — One year after Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo., won her historic primary race, the congresswoman and Black Lives Matter activist won a battle waged on the steps of the U.S. Capitol based on her own life experiences.
Bush, a longtime community organizer in Ferguson, Missouri, galvanized a group of Democratic lawmakers in an overnight protest and camped outside the Capitol for five nights to draw attention to federal eviction moratorium and to compel her peers in Congress to understand an experience that for her, hit home.
“I’ve been evicted three times in my life — once following a violent domestic assault in which a former partner left me for dead. I’ve lived out of my car for months with my two babies. I’ve seen my belongings in trash bags along my backseat,” Bush wrote in a CNN op-ed published Aug. 6. “I know what that notice on the door means. Cold from the elements or wondering where I could find a bathroom, I’ve wondered who was speaking up in DC for people in my situation.”
According to a December 2020 study by Princeton University’s The Eviction Lab, eviction filings and eviction rates were significantly higher for Black renters than for white renters, while women — particularly Black and Latino female renters — and faced higher eviction rates than their male counterparts.
The freshman lawmaker was sworn into the 117th Congress in January, along with a record number of women and women of color. Bush was welcomed into the “the squad” — a group of progressive congresswomen of color that includes Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib and Ayanna Pressley — all of whom rallied with Bush in her eviction fight.
Omar, who is one of the first two Muslim women in Congress, told ABC News Live last week that her experience as a Somali refugee drove her to speak out.
“I spent the first night with Cori and Ayanna … because we, the three of us, know what it means to be unhoused,” the Minnesota Democrat said. “You know, I obviously fled conflict and was forcefully removed from my home and spent years in a refugee camp, but I know how deeply unsettling it is when you don’t have the comfort of your home.”
According to Nadia Brown, a professor of government and African American studies at Georgetown University, the eviction fight shows why “representation matters” because it highlights diverse experiences and stories that are historically rare on Capitol Hill.
“The optimistic part is, yes, that Congress has more people of color, has more queer people, the number of younger Congress people has increased; people that are first-generation has also increased. But it’s still overwhelmingly white, overwhelmingly male and overwhelmingly wealthy … but the reason why we’re paying attention to Ilhan Omar, to Cori Bush, it’s because they’re outliers,” she said.
Brown added that historically the identities of “activist” and “politician” were seen as separate but those identities converge in lawmakers like Bush and Omar who embrace their roots in activism in how they serve their constituents in Congress.
“This is something new,” Brown said. “I had the opportunity to interview Cori Bush back when she was an activist in Ferguson right? And she was very poignant when she shared that she’s filled a vacuum because the current leadership just wasn’t there.”
“People on the street trusted her [to] become this voice for them when elected officials weren’t. So I think it’s not just the tactic, it’s the ethos that’s different,” she added.
Progressive lawmakers like freshmen New York Reps. Mondaire Jones and Jamaal Bowman also participated in the protest on the Hill and as support grew, the group was soon joined by some moderate Democrats.
Ahead of the expiration of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention eviction moratorium, members of Congress traveled back to their districts for August recess, but Bush — the first Black woman to represent Missouri in Congress — stayed in the nation’s capital to resume the fight as millions of evictions loomed.
The Biden administration repeatedly argued that it does not have federal authority to extend the CDC eviction moratorium without Congress but as the protest on the Hill continued, pressure from progressive and some moderate Democrats mounted, culminating in an apparent reversal.
President Joe Biden announced on Aug. 3 that the CDC is extending the federal eviction moratorium for an additional 60 days in areas where there is substantial and high transmission of COVID-19, giving tenants an additional lifeline.
Top Democrats directly credited Bush and the colleagues who joined her on the steps of the Capitol for moving the needle by applying pressure on the federal government.
“You did this,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said as he walked out to the steps of the Capitol and embraced Bush and Ocasio-Cortez amid the news.
“I applaud the CDC for imposing an eviction moratorium … I particularly applaud Rep. Cori Bush who understands what it’s like to be evicted and who took her passion and turned it into amazingly effective action,” Schumer said.
Asked about Bush’s role, Sen. Elizabeth Warren said the Missouri congresswoman has been “absolutely pivotal in getting real change.”
“She’s one woman who stood up and said, ‘I’m not moving.’ She testified from personal experience and said this is what it’s like to lose your home … and that was enough to capture the attention of a lot of people across this nation and a lot of people in this building and at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue,” Warren said.
Bush gave a nod to her roots as an activist during emotional remarks outside the U.S. Capitol celebrating the development.
“Let’s be clear, activists are in Congress. So expect for things to be different,” Bush said, adding that progressives are “already gearing up” for the next fight in the eviction crisis.
