In the Know: December 11, 2020


2020 Election 
Explaining the Supreme Court lawsuit from Texas and Trump challenging Biden’s winCNN
‘The moment of truth’: The Electoral College prepares to hand Trump the loss he refuses to acceptUSA Today
Pennsylvania GOP State Legislators Urge SCOTUS to Side Against Their State in Trump Election FightDaily Beast

Attorney General Keith Ellison
Minnesota adds tobacco giant Altria to ongoing suit against Juul Labs, Star Tribune

Congressional News
‘We cannot go home without it’: Negotiators inch toward deal on $1.4 trillion spending measurePolitico

Continue reading “In the Know: December 11, 2020”

A $4.5 billion Trump food program is running out of money early, leaving families hungry and food assistance charities scrambling

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Trump’s Farmers to Families Food Box program was set to end Dec. 31. Vendors in some states are running out of money already.

KISSIMMEE, Fla. — Only weeks before the holidays, a $4.5 billion food program that has kept millions of Americans fed through the pandemic is running out of money.

The Farmers to Families Food Box program, a staple of food lines across America, was launched by the Trump administration in May to support struggling farmers and feed jobless Americans battered by the pandemic. It was supposed to provide food support through the end of the year. But because of soaring demand and a shortage of federal money, it is ending a month early in many regions of the country, leaving tens of thousands of families without a critical supply of food.

Anti-hunger experts warned that several other federal food programs are also set to expire, causing food banks across the country to lose about 50 percent of the food they receive from the Agriculture Department, even as food banks report an average 60 percent increase in need. Continue reading.

DFL Party Statement on Emmer Backing An Attempt to Overturn the 2020 Presidential Election

SAINT PAUL, MINNESOTA – Today, DFL Party Chairman Ken Martin released the following statement on Congressman Tom Emmer’s decision to sign onto an amicus brief supporting the Texas Attorney General’s attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election:

“It is appalling that Congressman Tom Emmer would sign onto a lawsuit whose goal is to invalidate the votes of millions of Americans. By supporting this lawsuit, Emmer is working to override the decision of American voters and return a losing presidential candidate to the White House for an illegitimate second term.

“Tom Emmer and numerous other Republican Congressmen and Attorneys General are attempting the closest thing to a coup that our republic has seen in living memory. I am deeply concerned about the damage being wrought by Emmer’s efforts to persuade the American people that our elections and, by extension, the United States government are illegitimate.

“While President-elect Biden is working hard to bring the American people together, Republican leaders are more determined than ever to tear our nation apart. At a time when our nation needs to turn its attention to the pandemic killing our friends and family, the Republicans want to relitigate one of the most decisive presidential elections in modern history. It is shameful and a painful reminder that the Republicans only care about their own self-preservation and power not doing the work of helping those most in need during our darkest hour.”

Inauguration planning the latest thing to enter the controversy zone

Republicans oppose recognizing Biden will be inaugurated

A meeting of the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies turned sour Tuesday, when Republican leaders on the typically uncontroversial panel rejected a resolution that would assert that Joe Biden is president-elect.

Republicans on Capitol Hill have been slow to acknowledge the election results, in deference to President Donald Trump, who continues to deny his clear defeat despite recounts affirming them, states certifying electors and loss after loss in court cases challenging Biden’s win.

House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer, D-Md., offered a motion recognizing that the group was preparing for the inauguration of Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, a member of the Senate, during a closed-door meeting of the JCCIC in Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer’s office. Continue reading.

Minnesota House Ways and Means Committee Reviews New COVID-19 Assistance Package

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SAINT PAUL, MINNESOTA – Yesterday, the House Ways and Means Committee reviewed a new COVID-19 assistance package designed to help workers, families, and small businesses hardest hit by the pandemic. House DFLers are advocating for direct assistance for workers and families in addition to businesses.

Key pieces in the assistance package include: 

  1. Extend Unemployment Benefits (Mahoney/Noor): Up to 13 additional weeks in unemployment benefits for MN workers who have exhausted all federal and state benefits.
  2. TANF Money for MFIP Families (Noor): One-time grants of $500 for 30,000 MFIP Families, using $15.7 million from the federal TANF Fund.
  3. Business Assistance (Mahoney): Provides $200 million from the General Fund in grants to restaurants, bars, gyms, theaters and many other entities directly affected by the executive orders and the pandemic.
Continue reading “Minnesota House Ways and Means Committee Reviews New COVID-19 Assistance Package”

First signs of Thanksgiving COVID-19 wave emerge

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The first signs of a post-Thanksgiving surge in coronavirus cases are beginning to show up in data released by states across the country in a troubling prelude of what may become the deadliest month of the pandemic so far.

Those hints of an uptick in case counts come as the country faces an already substantial wave of infections that began in the Upper Midwest and spread to every corner of the map as summer turned to fall and the weather cooled.

The United States has averaged nearly 200,000 new confirmed cases a day over the last week, according to The Covid Tracking Project, run by a group of independent researchers. More than 2,200 people a day have died on an average during that period. The number of patients being treated in hospitals has crested 102,000, the highest levels of the pandemic. Continue reading.

FDA panel votes in favor of Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine

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A federal panel of outside experts on Thursday endorsed a coronavirus vaccine from Pfizer and BioNTech, and recommended the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) move forward with emergency authorization.

The panel voted 17-4, with one abstention, that the safety and efficacy of the vaccine outweigh the risks for use in individuals age 16 and older. 

The vote is an important step, as the country is poised to start an unprecedented vaccination campaign to stop the COVID-19 pandemic. Continue reading.

Michael Flynn judge says pardon doesn’t mean ex-national security adviser is innocent

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A federal judge dismissed Michael Flynn’s prosecution Tuesday after President Trump’s pardon, but said the act of clemency does not mean the former national security adviser is innocent of lying to FBI agents about his talks with the Russian government before Trump took office.

In formally ending Flynn’s three-year legal saga, U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan said he probably would have denied the Justice Department’s controversial effort this year to drop the case, which Democrats and many legal experts said appeared to be an attempt by Attorney General William P. Barr to bend the rule of law to help a Trump ally.

Sullivan expressed deep skepticism about the Justice Department’s stated reasons for abandoning the case, criticizing it for applying a different set of rules to Flynn, who twice pleaded guilty to lying about his contacts with Russia’s ambassador during special. Continue reading.

Trump thought courts were key to winning. Judges disagreed.

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump and his allies say their lawsuits aimed at subverting the 2020 election and reversing his loss to Joe Biden would be substantiated, if only judges were allowed to hear the cases.

There is a central flaw in the argument. Judges have heard the cases and have been among the harshest critics of the legal arguments put forth by Trump’s legal team, often dismissing them with scathing language of repudiation.

This has been true whether the judge has been appointed by a Democrat or a Republican, including those named by Trump himself. Continue reading.

Democratic lawmakers have no plans to drop multiple lawsuits filed against Trump once he leaves office: CNN

Any hope that Donald Trump may have had that Democratic lawmakers were willing to move on and ignore the possible illegalities committed during his four years in the White House has been put to rest as a top Democrat stated they have no interest in dropping a multitude of lawsuits that have been filed against the president.

With the president already looking at possible criminal indictments being filed against him and his family by New York Attorney General Letitia James and Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr., his life after leaving the Oval Office promises to be filled with depositions and increasing legal peril.

That includes lawsuits filed by House Democrats that won’t disappear after January 20th. Continue reading.