ATLANTA (AP) President-elect Joe Biden told Georgia voters on Tuesday that they must deliver two Democratic Senate runoffs victories in January so his administration can forcefully confront the coronavirus pandemic and other national challenges.
Fresh off the Electoral College affirming his victory, Biden campaigned alongside Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock as they try to unseat Republican Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler in Jan. 5 runoff elections that will determine which party controls the Senate. The president-elect warned that Republican victories would leave him to face the kind of GOP obstruction that hampered former President Barack Obama for most of his two terms.
Jewish groups in Australia have strongly condemned an antisemitic assault on a lone Jewish woman as she walked to her.
“We need to pass these measures with a big, bipartisan vote and get them signed into law without further delay,” he said.
As talks continued, no vote on the package was expected before Sunday afternoon.
Both Republicans and Democrats say they are close to a deal, but talks ran into a new stumbling block late this week when some Republicans, led by Senator Pat Toomey, began a push to rein in Federal Reserve lending programs for midsize businesses and municipal bond issuers intended to ease the pandemic’s sting.
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. congressional leaders reached agreement on Sunday on a $900 billion package to provide the first new aid in months to an economy and individuals battered by the surging coronavirus pandemic, with votes likely on Monday.
The package would be the second-largest economic stimulus in U.S. history, following a $2.3 trillion aid bill passed in March. It comes as the pandemic accelerates, infecting more than 214,000 people in the country each day. More than 317,000 Americans have already died.
“At long last, we have the bipartisan breakthrough the country has needed,” Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on the Senate floor, following months of contentious debate.
McConnell said the Senate would remain in session through the weekend if necessary to reach a deal.
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Patricia Zengerle and Richard Cowan / Reuters | 2:36 pm, Dec. 18, 2020 ×
The U.S. Capitol dome is seen at night in Washington on Dec. 17. REUTERS/Erin Scott
WASHINGTON, Dec 18 (Reuters) - Backed into a corner, the U.S. Congress on Friday risked blowing through a midnight deadline to keep the government open and address the coronavirus crisis, as a partisan fight over federal lending rules caused a fresh delay on a $900 billion COVID-19 relief bill.
After months of partisan finger-pointing and inaction, Republicans and Democrats have been negotiating intensely on what is expected to be the biggest package since spring to provide relief to a country struggling with a pandemic killing over 3,000 people a day.
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US Political Leaders Including Vice President Pence Line up for Early Covid-19 Vaccines
A woman holds a small bottle labeled with a Vaccine COVID-19 sticker and a medical syringe. (REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/File Photo)
President-elect Joe Biden, who will take office on January 20, announced he would take the vaccine, also in public, on Monday.
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Several senior US officials including Vice President Mike Pence got early Covid-19 vaccinations Friday, contrasting with Europe, where two leaders were quarantining after testing positive and EU regulators have yet to approve a vaccine.
Pence s public inoculation against the coronavirus was the most high-profile attempt yet at persuading vaccine-skeptic Americans to join a massive national effort to halt a pandemic that has killed at least 1.66 million people and infected more than 74 million worldwide.