The House remains in a committee work week and will meet at 6 p.m. in a pro forma session. The House will reconvene on Tuesday, May 11th for votes.
The Senate met at 10 a.m. and will begin considering S.J.Res.14, which would effectively reinstate an Obama-era regulation that sought to clamp down on the release of methane, a powerful climate-warming pollutant that will have to be controlled to meet President Biden’s ambitious climate change agenda. At 12:30 p.m. the Senate will vote on a motion to invoke cloture on the nomination of Samantha Power to be President Biden’s USAID administrator.
During Tuesday’s session, the Senate agreed to the motion to proceed to, S.914, Drinking Water and Wastewater Infrastructure Act of 2021, and the substitute amendment #1460 was made pending. Discussions continue on a path forward in relation to the bill with the hope work can be completed on it this week.
At 10 a.m. the Senate Judiciary Committee began a hearing on Ketanji Brown Jackson for the D.C. Circuit and other judicial nominations as lawmakers begin reviewing the president’s first batch of judicial nominees, including two Black women for appeals court openings in Washington and Chicago. The Senate Commerce Committee will also vote on Bill Nelson’s nomination to be NASA administrator as well as mark up 16 other bills.
Finally, U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai will testify before a Senate Appropriations subcommittee at 9:30 a.m. and Labor Secretary Marty Walsh will appear before a House Appropriations subcommittee at 10 a.m. to discuss funding priorities.
At 9 pm, President Biden delivers his first joint address to Congress on the eve of his 100th day in office with only 200 members of Congress watching the speech from inside the House gallery due to COVID distancing guidelines. He is expected to pitch a pair of ambitious spending and tax packages in the prime-time speech and call for lawmakers to pass his immigration plan and is expected to also focus on racial justice and police reform. He will call for vastly greater spending to rebuild the nation’s infrastructure by imposing new taxes on businesses and corporations. And he will urge lawmakers from both parties to embrace a sweeping new vision for public benefits, financed by higher taxes on the wealthiest Americans. Biden will propose a number of tax increases on the rich to pay for the plan, including raising the top tax rate on the wealthiest Americans to 39.6 percent, raising taxes on capital gains to 39.6 percent for households making more than $1 million and ending the estate tax loophole for gains in excess of $1 million.
Some of the key components of the American Families Plan include:
$400 billion to extend the child tax credit
$225 billion to subsidize and improve childcare and increase pay for childcare workers
$225 billion for a national paid family and medical leave program
$200 billion for free universal preschool
$200 billion to reduce Obamacare premiums
$109 billion for free community college
$85 billion to boost Pell Grants
$45 billion for childhood and school nutrition programs
Free Community College
White House Fact Sheet: The American Families Plan
Background Press Call by Senior Administration Officials on the American Families Plan
Adam S. Olsen, Washington, D.C.
