Tag: President Biden

Plans for free pre-K and community college could provide a ‘ladder into the middle class.’

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WASHINGTON — What was once considered a progressive dream for the nation’s education system could be headed toward reality as Democrats push forward to broker a deal on a new spending plan containing President Biden’s most ambitious domestic policy goals.

Included in the list of programs Democrats agreed this week to include in their $3.5 trillion budget blueprint are Mr. Biden’s campaign proposals to offer prekindergarten enrollment for every 3- and 4-year-old in the country, and tuition-free community college to every young adult. So far, both proposals are drawing widespread support from the Democratic coalition and are expected to remain priorities as the party’s top leaders seek to deliver on bedrocks of Mr. Biden’s $4 trillion economic plan.

“Infrastructure’s about roads and bridges, but it’s about the other things we need to have a fully engaged and active work force,” said Senator Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusets. “That means child care for parents. It means early childhood education, giving our kids the right start. And that means post-high school education or training. That’s what it’s going to take in the 21st century.” Continue reading.

Crime victims bill logjam ends; may go to Biden’s desk next week

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Bill to boost cash for victims’ services is set to move forward

A Justice Department program that uses fines and penalties from criminal settlements to fund services for crime victims is on the verge of getting a long-sought cash infusion.

On the same day groups like the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence urged members to light up senators’ phone lines, email addresses and Twitter feeds with calls for action, Democratic and Republican leaders in that chamber reached agreement late Wednesday to take up House-passed legislation to give the Crime Victims Fund a financial boost. Sources familiar with the matter expect that vote to occur next week.

The measure would direct revenue from out-of-court settlements like deferred prosecution agreements, which have become increasingly prevalent in recent years, into the fund so it no longer has to rely solely on criminal cases. Continue reading.

Russia’s most aggressive ransomware group disappeared. It’s unclear who made that happen.

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Just days after President Biden demanded that President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia shut down ransomware groups attacking American targets, the most aggressive of the groups suddenly went off-line early Tuesday.

The mystery is who made it happen.

The group, called REvil, short for “Ransomware evil,” has been identified by U.S. intelligence agencies as responsible for the attack on one of America’s largest beef producers, JBS. Two weeks after Mr. Biden and Mr. Putin met in Geneva last month, REvil took credit for a hack that affected thousands of businesses around the world over the July 4 holiday. Continue reading.

Biden calls passing voting legislation ‘a national imperative’ and castigates voting restrictions based on ‘a big lie’

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PHILADELPHIA — President Biden on Tuesday delivered his most forceful condemnation yet of the wave of voting restrictions proposed in Republican-led states nationwide — efforts the president argued are the biggest threat to American democracy since the Civil War.

Biden’s speech was an attempt to inject new life into flagging efforts to pass federal legislation addressing the issue. But while he intensified his explanation of the stakes, his speech did not include a call for the Senate to change the filibuster, which is seen by advocates as the best, and perhaps only, way to usher in the kinds of changes Biden is seeking.

At the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, in a room filled with images of Benjamin Franklin and quotes from Daniel Webster and Theodore Roosevelt, Biden compared the new laws to voter suppression by the Ku Klux Klan and to the Jim Crow-era laws that disenfranchised nearly all voters who were not White and male. He railed against laws that restrict access — calling them “raw and sustained election subversion” — and said that the 2022 midterm elections could highlight the damaging effects of the new laws. Continue reading.

White House says Biden warned Putin on ransomware attacks

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President Joe Biden warned Russian President Vladimir Putin that the U.S. would take action to “defend its people” against ransomware attacks, per a White House readout of the call on Friday. 

The big picture: The call comes after a Russia-linked group is believed to be behind an attack on software provider Kaseya, the latest in a mass of ransomware attacks impacting U.S. companies. 

What they’re saying: “I made it very clear to him that the United States expects when a ransomware operation coming from his soil — even though it’s not sponsored by the state — we expect him to act. And we’ve given him enough information to act on who that is,” Biden said on Friday afternoon. Continue reading.

Trump seethed at ‘ultimate betrayal’ after Netanyahu congratulated Biden on 2020 win: report

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Former President Donald Trump was reportedly enraged last year when then-Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tweeted out congratulations to President Joe Biden on his victory in the 2020 election.

Forward reports that journalist Michael Wolff’s new book, titled “Landslide: The Final Days of the Trump Presidency,” claims that Trump felt personally betrayed by Netanyahu’s call, even though it is custom for American allies to congratulate incoming presidents on their victories.

“It was startling to aides, however much they were anticipating an eruption, that Trump’s wrath fell on Bibi Netanyahu,” Wolff writes, according to Forward. “There was his belief that he had singularly done more for Israel than any American president — and that therefore he was owed. And now sold out.” Continue reading.

Biden fires head of Social Security Administration

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President Biden on Friday fired Social Security Commissioner Andrew Saul, a holdover from the Trump administration, after Saul refused a request to resign from his position.

A White House official confirmed that Saul’s employment was terminated. The move was first reported by The Washington Post.

David Black, Saul’s deputy who was also appointed to the position by former President Trump, resigned at Biden’s request, the official said. Continue reading.

Biden orders agencies to look at hospital consolidation, costs of drugs and hearing aids

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Order supports Trump mandate on price transparency

The wide-ranging executive order President Joe Biden signed Friday includes plans to boost market competition in health care and other industries.

The order, which White House officials have promoted throughout the week, touches on issues ranging from prescription drug prices to hospital and insurance consolidation, in a combination of policy directives that also incorporates priorities shared with the Trump administration.

“What we’ve seen over the past few decades is less competition and more concentration that holds our economy back. We see it in big agriculture and big tech and big pharma and the list goes on,” Biden said before signing the executive order at the White House Friday. Continue reading.

Civil rights leaders find meeting with WH ‘encouraging’ amidst voting rights battle

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President Biden met with civil rights leaders for almost two hours on Thursday as part of a broader effort by his administration to focus on voting rights, a key part of his agenda that has struggled to overcome the roadblock that is the evenly split Senate. 

The civil rights leaders emerged from the meeting, which included discussions on voting rights legislation and police reform, describing the U.S. as in a state of emergency. 

They cited restrictive voting laws imposed this year in states such as Georgia and Florida, and a recent Supreme Court ruling that upheld Arizona’s voting restrictions. Continue reading.

Biden says U.S. has accomplished its primary objectives in Afghanistan as he defends troop withdrawal amid Taliban gains

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President Biden said Thursday that the country had accomplished its objectives in Afghanistan of killing Osama bin Laden and undercutting al-Qaeda’s ability to launch more attacks on the United States as he defended his decision to bring a 20-year war to an end.

Biden, during a White House speech, was defiant in the face of gains by the Taliban since he announced a planned U.S. troop withdrawal in April and said the Afghan people needed to dictate their own future.

“We did not go to Afghanistan to nation-build,” Biden said. Continue reading.