The Energy 202: Biden creates new climate adviser role at NASA Dino Grandoni
with Alexandra Ellerbeck NASA is elevating one of its top climate scientists to a new role, a move meant to put greater focus at the space agency on studying the causes and consequences of global warming under President Biden. Gavin Schmidt, director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York, will serve in the newly created position of senior climate adviser. He is being brought on in an acting capacity until NASA’s incoming administrator, who has yet to be named, makes a permanent appointment.
Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said the deal “will allow the Senate to be run fairly” given the even party split.
Democrats had held control of the chamber since Inauguration Day, thanks to Vice President Kamala Harris’s tie-breaking vote, but without a new organizing deal Republicans still held the committee chairs as a carryover from the last Congress.
The power deal gives Democrats the reins and sets the size of the panels for the next two years.
Having control of the committees should speed the path of some of President Biden’s Cabinet nominees, particularly Attorney General pick Merrick Garland, currently a federal appeals court judge.
Power Up: Democrats and Trump s lawyers just previewed their impeachment trial strategy. Here s a breakdown. Jacqueline Alemany
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: [T]he Biden administration plans to significantly raise the cap on refugees allowed into the United States every year, according to two people familiar with its plans who spoke on the condition of anonymity to disclose private discussions. The goal, the people said, was to raise the annual cap on refugees to 125,000 per year, per Nick Miroff, Seung Min Kim and Maria Sacchetti. That would be a substantial change from the Trump administration, which slashed refugee levels to 15,000 last year the lowest since the Refugee Act establishing the caps took effect under the Reagan administration.
House moves toward passage of budget bill unlocking partisan path for Biden coronavirus relief bill washingtonpost.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from washingtonpost.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
The poll Quinnipiac’s first since Biden took office on Jan. 20 shows the newly inaugurated president’s approval at 49 percent, while 36 percent said they disapprove of how he has handled his job in the White House so far. Another 16 percent said they either didn’t have an opinion on the matter or declined to answer.
The partisan divide in opinions on Biden’s job performance are striking. Eighty-nine percent of Democrats said they approve of the new president’s work so far, an opinion shared by only 11 percent of Republicans.
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Independents, meanwhile, were more evenly split, with 44 percent approving and 36 percent disapproving, according to the Quinnipiac poll.