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WELL, IT WAS WORTH A SHOT: Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen this morning took the Biden administration’s push to hike taxes on corporations into the lion’s den, so to speak, pitching the idea to attendees of a virtual
Government Executive
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Increased vaccination rates and more people returning to the workplace raise these questions.
As more Americans are getting vaccinated against COVID-19 and start to think about returning to workplaces, there is much debate over how, if at all, employers can or should require inoculations. Federal contractors are among those grappling with such questions.
While the federal government is not requiring vaccines for individuals, it has a history, dating back to the 1960s, of conditioning “contract awards on contractor compliance with emerging social policy mandates,” wrote Brooke Iley, a partner for labor and employment law at the firm Blank Rome LLP, and Albert Krachman, a partner for government contracts at the firm, in a March post. Therefore, “do not be surprised if, before the end of 2021” there is some type of requirement.
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Biden has called for more than $4 trillion in new spending for his infrastructure plan.
Democrats will likely pass a bill under reconciliation if no bipartisan deal is reached.
Trade groups and lawmakers, meanwhile, are tapping experts to decipher the Senate s complex rules.
President Joe Biden has called for more than $4 trillion in spending and increasing taxes on the wealthy and corporations as a way to pay for his ambitious infrastructure plan. He s pushing for bipartisan action, but that could be tricky as lawmakers spar over the cost and some of the details in his proposal.
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With Daniel Lippman
BUSINESS GROUPS CAUGHT FLAT-FOOTED BY CDC MASK GUIDANCE: The Biden administration’s announcement Thursday that fully vaccinated Americans can ditch their masks in most situations is undoubtedly a major milestone in the country’s fight against Covid-19. But trade groups representing the businesses, and a union representing the workers who will now be tasked with enforcing mask-wearing for unvaccinated people, are now scrambling to parse what the guidance means for their members.
Larry Lynch, who as senior vice president of science and industry for the National Restaurant Association handles its Covid operating guidance, said in an interview that the new recommendations may be the industry’s biggest challenge yet. “We don t know how to be the vaccine police,” he said. “CDC didn t do us didn t do the industry, any big favors,” he added, though “it certainly helped consumers.”
Intellectual property protection for software has long been a concern, both for innovators seeking to protect their work as well as innovators seeking to make use of existing works for.