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Collectively, the moves are designed to signal that Biden intends to make curbing climate change a priority, even if Congress doesn’t. With a one-vote majority of Democrats controlling the Senate, the administration’s hopes of passing major climate legislation rest with a few moderates friendly to oil, gas and coal companies.
But the Interior Department has considerable authority over federal lands, which the administration can use to pressure fossil fuel companies and their investors, and encourage the development of renewable energy. Biden’s order on leasing will direct the department to create a plan to double energy production from offshore wind by 2030.
Forty-five Republicans agreed. Just five GOP members sided with the chamber’s 50 Democrats to move forward with the trial, signaling that there likely isn’t close to the 67 votes needed to convict Mr. Trump.
Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska, and Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania were the five GOP senators joining Democrats in the effort.
“For 45 Republican senators to vote for a spurious constitutional objection to the coming impeachment trial was deeply, deeply irresponsible,” the New York Democrat added. “Only five Republican senators were willing to take a principled stand against this reckless and ill-advised effort.”
“I would simply say to all of my colleagues make no mistake, there will be a trial, and the evidence against the former president will be presented in living color for the nation and every one of us to see once again,” Schumer said from the Senate floor.
“No one will be able to avert their gaze from what Mr. Trump said and did and the consequences of his actions. . We will all watch what happened. We will listen to what happened and then we will vote,” he said.
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Schumer’s comments come after 45 Republicans backed an effort to deem Trump’s trial unconstitutional because he’s already left office.
The New Jersey House members said in their letter that government employment has declined since the pandemic began and that the job losses are concentrated in areas such as education. They also said that many of the states that have been hit hardest by the pandemic are those that send more money to the federal government than they receive. Removing the SALT cap would be a textbook method to provide relief to communities ravaged by the pandemic, the lawmakers wrote.
House Democrats last year passed two coronavirus relief bills that included the temporary repeal of the SALT deduction cap, but those bills were not taken up by the Senate. Repeal of the deduction cap was not included in the $1.9 trillion relief package that Biden proposed earlier this month.