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► Americans who have direct deposit set up through the Internal Revenue Service could be receiving their stimulus payment as early as Tuesday night, according to Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin. Paper checks will begin to be mailed Wednesday, according to a press release from the Treasury Department. The new round of stimulus includes $600 direct payment to qualifying individual Americans, or $1,200 for couples.
► California extended its regional stay-at-home order for Southern California and the San Joaquin Valley, where there is 0% ICU capacity. Dr. Mark Ghaly, the state s health and human services secretary, said the order is in effect for the time being with no set expiration date for the restrictions, the Los Angeles Times reported. Ghaly said ICU projections will determine when the orders will be lifted.
3:50 p.m. ET, December 28, 2020
Biden says rebuilding foreign policy and national security will be a key challenge of his presidency
From CNN s Kate Sullivan and MJ Lee Mark Makela/Getty Images
President-elect Joe Biden delivered remarks today from Wilmington, Delaware, after receiving a briefing from members of his national security and foreign policy agency review teams.
According to transition officials, the briefing focused in large part on the findings of the review teams since the delayed beginning of the formal transition process. Rebuilding the full set of our instruments of foreign policy and national security is a key challenge that the Vice President-elect Harris and I will face upon taking office, starting with our diplomacy, Biden said. Today we heard from the leaders of the state and USAID agency review teams about the critical early investment we ll need to make in our diplomacy, in our development efforts and in rebuilding our alliances, to
Biden: Transition team has encountered obstruction from Pentagon
Photo: Sarah Silbiger for The Washington Post via Getty
President-elect Joe Biden said Monday that his team has encountered obstruction and roadblocks from political leadership at the Defense Department and Office of Management and Budget that could undermine national security during the transition.
Why it matters: Biden warned that foreign adversaries could gain advantage if his team is cut out of vital information sharing with the outgoing Trump administration. Before Christmas, the Pentagon abruptly halted meetings with transition officials.
Acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller said in response: Our DoD political and career officials have been working with the utmost professionalism to support transition activities in a compressed time schedule and they will continue to do so.
Reginald Stuart | 12/24/2020, 6 p.m.
Backed by repeated state and U.S. Supreme Court affirmations that a majority of voters in America legally elected Democrat Joe Biden to be the next president of the United States, President-elect Biden and his teammate, Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, have been steadily building a unique White House leadership team that dramatically reflects the nationâs diversity.
With hundreds of appointments to go in the coming weeks, 12 of 42 Bidenâs leadership designees are African-American, including retired Army Gen. Lloyd J. Austin III as secretary of defense and U.S. Rep. Marcia L. Fudge of Ohio as secretary of housing and urban development.