Bipartisan infrastructure deal unlikely as GOP leaders draw ‘red line’ on tax hikes in meet with Biden Chris Sommerfeldt
President Biden’s push for a bipartisan infrastructure plan took a serious hit Wednesday as the two top Republicans in Congress told him they’ll refuse to consider any proposal that reverses the 2017 tax cuts, likely forcing Democrats to go it alone on the massive legislation.
The GOP honchos, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California, drew the self-described “red line” on taxes during an Oval Office meeting with Biden, their first face-to-face with the president since he unveiled his $2.3 trillion infrastructure-focused American Jobs Plan.
May 07, 2021
12:09 PM ET
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President Joe Biden is exempting several top administration officials from ethics rules that would restrict their work with labor unions that previously employed them.
The White House waived ethics rules in an April 29 memo for Celeste Drake, who Biden appointed to lead the new Made in America Office. She previously worked at the AFL-CIO and Directors Guild of America, and ethics rules would have otherwise prohibited her from working or communicating with either of her former employers, Axios reported.
The Office of Personnel Management similarly waived ethics rules in a March 15 memo for Alethea Predeoux, the agency’s director of intergovernmental affairs. She was the top lobbyist for the American Federation of Government Employees, a union that represents hundreds of thousands of federal workers, Axios reported.
Supreme Court skeptical of applying Trump-era criminal justice law retroactively for small drug offenses John Fritze, USA TODAY
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WASHINGTON – A majority of the Supreme Court voiced skepticism Tuesday over allowing certain low-level drug offenders to seek reduced sentences under bipartisan criminal justice legislation signed into law in 2018 by President Donald Trump.
The appeal stirred a debate at the nation s highest court about Congress intent when the First Step Act permitted some offenders to seek shorter sentences but not others. The landmark law was intended to ease tough-on-crime policies that swelled prison populations and had a disproportionate impact on African-American communities.
Biden pushes for labor unions with executive order establishing new White House task force
By Chris Williams
President Joe Biden has established a new task force aimed at promoting labor unions.
WASHINGTON - President Joe Biden signed an executive order Monday establishing a new White House task force aimed at promoting labor unions across the country.
The White House Task Force on Worker Organizing and Empowerment will make recommendations within 180 days to the federal government on how to help workers organize and bargain with their employers. That help could come in the form of new policies, programs and practices, according to a White House fact sheet.