As a path on additional COVID funding remains unclear, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California) on Thursday said she’s advised the Biden administration to seek tens of billions of dollars more in emergency COVID-19 relief, suggesting it will take more than $40 billion to meet the testing, vaccine and therapeutic needs of the U.S. and the larger global community. President Biden had initially asked Congress for $22.5 billion in new funding to fight the ongoing pandemic — a figure that was whittled down to $15.6 billion in the face of Republican opposition on Capitol Hill before eventually being removed completely from the omnibus spending package. Speaker Pelosi said on Monday she hoped to vote this week on more funding, but the current state of negotiations won’t meet that timeline, as the House is still working to reach agreement with the Senate on acceptable offsets.
The Senate reconvened at 10:00 A.M. and proceeded to resume consideration of the nomination of Alison J. Nathan to be United States Circuit Judge for the Second Circuit. The Senate will then vote on final confirmation of the nomination of Jacqueline Scott Corley to be United States District Judge for the Northern District of California and the nomination of Fred W. Slaughter to be United States District Judge for the Central District of California.
The House is completing work on H.R. 963 – FAIR Act of 2022 and will also consider two bills under suspension of the Rules including a bill suspending Normal Trade Relations with Russia and Belarus. The legislation would remove Russia’s “most-favored-nation” trade status and would enable the U.S. to impose higher tariffs on Russian goods, and take other actions. The bill will also include an expansion of the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act, which would allow the Biden administration to impose further sanctions on Russian officials for human rights violations. Only two countries, Cuba and North Korea, do not have NTR status with the United States.
