More than 150 of the largest New York chief executives urged Congress to pass President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID stimulus package in a letter Wednesday morning. The letter comes as the Democratic controlled House is set to vote on the bill later this week, where it is widely expected to pass and advance to the Senate.
As the Senate waits for the House to complete its work on the COVID bill, it will continue processing Biden Administration nominations. Yesterday, Linda Thomas-Greenfield was confirmed as U.S. ambassador to the U.N. and Tom Vilsack was confirmed again as Agriculture secretary, and both will be sworn in today. The Senate convenes at noon and at 4 PM will begin consideration of the nomination of Jennifer Granholm to be Secretary of Energy. The Senate Energy Committee previously voted 13-4 to approve the nomination of the former Michigan governor. A vote for Secretary of Education nominee Miguel Cardona, Connecticut’s commissioner of education, will also be teed up this week.
The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee held California Attorney General Xavier Becerra’s confirmation hearing as President Biden’s Health and Human Services Secretary nominee yesterday, and today, the former member of Congress is scheduled to appear before the Senate Finance Committee, which also has jurisdiction over HHS.
The House returns at noon for legislative business with votes beginning at 1:15 p.m. At 10 am, the House Financial Services Committee began a hearing on the state of the economy, featuring Federal Reserve Board Chairman Jerome Powell. Powell told lawmakers that the economic rebound from the pandemic recession had further to go and reiterated that the central bank planned to keep up its growth-stoking policies, which include rock-bottom interest rates and large-scale bond buying. The Fed slashed interest rates to near-zero last March and is buying about $120 billion in government-backed bonds each month, policies aimed at fueling lending and spending.
For today, the House will consider two postponed suspension votes as well as the Rule for H.R. 5 – Equality Act and H.R. 803 – Protecting America’s Wilderness and Public Lands Act.
At 2 p.m., President Biden and Vice President Harris will meet with members of the House and Senate from both parties to discuss supply chains in the Oval Office and will sign an executive order. The executive order would strengthen supply chains for critical goods primarily in mainly four areas: pharmaceuticals, rare earth minerals, semiconductor chips and large-capacity batteries. The order was prompted, in part, by the widespread shortage of personal protective equipment and supply chain issues at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic during the Trump administration. The order is designed to supplement Biden’s earlier executive order to promote products made in America to bolster American supply chains and make sure that critical materials are made in the U.S. Each of the four sectors identified by the order will undergo a 100-day review to assess vulnerabilities and areas for improvement. Other sectors identified by the administration, such as biological preparedness, food production and transportation, will undergo one-year reviews to help the government foresee and correct mistakes.
