Today is a very busy day on Capitol Hill !
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Cabinet hearings on C-Span
How to watch the Cabinet hearings :
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(CNN)Five of President-elect Joe Biden's national security Cabinet nominees will face Senate panels on Tuesday in the first step of the confirmation process.
The day before Biden takes office, his nominees for secretary of state, secretary of the treasury, director of national intelligence, defense secretary and secretary of Homeland Security will appear before Senate committees to be considered for their respective roles.
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.Here is the schedule for today.
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Tuesday's schedule:
- 10 a.m. ET: Janet Yellen will appear before the Senate Finance Committee to be considered for treasury secretary.
- 10 a.m. ET: Avril Haines will appear before the Senate Intelligence Committee to be considered for director of national intelligence.
- 10 a.m. ET: Alejandro Mayorkas will appear before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee to be considered for secretary of Homeland Security.
- 2 p.m. ET: Antony Blinken will appear before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to be considered for secretary of state.
- 3 p.m. ET: Retired Gen. Lloyd Austin appear before the Senate Armed Services Committee to be considered for secretary of defense.
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Department of National Intelligence Avril Haines
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Avril Haines
Haines served as assistant to the president and principal deputy national security adviser to President Barack Obama. She chaired the National Security Council's Deputies Committee, which is responsible for formulating the administration's national security and foreign policy. She would become the first woman to be director of national intelligence if confirmed by the Senate
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Secretary of Defense General Lloyd Austin
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Lloyd Austin
Austin, a retired Army general, is a former commander of the US Central Command. He would make history as the first Black person to lead the Pentagon if confirmed by the Senate. Austin would need a congressional waiver to be confirmed for this civilian post because federal law requires seven years of retirement from active duty before taking on the role, and he retired from active-duty service only four years ago. He has worked closely with Biden in the past
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Secretary of State Tony Blinkin
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Antony Blinken
Blinken served in the Obama administration as the deputy secretary of state, assistant to the president and principal deputy national security adviser. He was the national security adviser to then-Vice President Biden
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Department of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas
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.Mayorkas was deputy secretary of Homeland Security during the Obama administration
He would be the first Latino and immigrant to be secretary of Homeland Security if confirmed by the Senate.
While at US Citizenship and Immigration Services, Mayorkas oversaw the implementation of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program
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Secretary of Treasury Janet Yellen in opening statement defended $1.9 Trillion stimulus
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Janet Yellen
Yellen was the first woman to chair the Federal Reserve, serving from 2014 to 2018. She would make history as the first woman to be treasury secretary if confirmed by the Senate.
.President Biden will be undoing a number of anti LGBTQ policies, not just reversing the ban on transgender people serving the country in the military
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President-elect Joe Biden is planning to reverse a number of the Trump administration’s anti-LGBT+ policies when he takes office in January.
Mr Biden, who will be sworn into office on 20 January, is expected to use executive orders to reverse several policies implemented by the Trump administration, according to the Associated Press.
The president-elect is planning on lifting the Trump administration’s ban on transgender people serving in the military and its “freedom to discriminate” rules, which allow healthcare providers to discriminate based on religious beliefs.
Mr Biden will also reinstate guidance from the Obama administration, in which he served as vice president, which will allow transgender students to access facilities in accordance with their gender identity.
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Reverse trans ban in military
.Lifting near-total ban on transgender people from military service among Biden plans to protect LGBTQ rights
.As vice president in 2012, Joe Biden endeared himself to many LGBTQ Americans by endorsing same-sex marriage even before his boss, President Barack Obama.
Now, as president-elect, Biden is making sweeping promises to LGBTQ activists, proposing to carry out virtually every major proposal on their wish lists. Among them: Lifting the Trump administration’s near-total ban on military service for transgender people, barring federal contractors from anti-LGBTQ job discrimination, and creating high-level LGBTQ-rights positions at the State Department, the National Security Council and other federal agencies.
In many cases the measures would reverse executive actions by President Donald Trump, whose administration took numerous steps to weaken protections for transgender people and create more leeway for discrimination against LGBTQ people, ostensibly based on religious grounds.
In a policy document, the Biden campaign said Trump and Vice President Mike Pence “have given hate against LGBTQ+ individuals safe harbor and rolled back critical protections.”
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Here is a link to a site about reverse the transgender ban in the military
Power sharing arrangement between McConnell and Schumer shaping up
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.The negotiations between Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and Republican Leader Mitch McConnell have been built largely around how the Senate operated the last time the body was split 50-50: When George W. Bush initially became president in 2001. Final details are still being sorted out between the two leaders, sources said, and the two are expected to meet on Tuesday to discuss these issues.
Similar to those rules, set in January 2001, Schumer and McConnell aides are discussing allowing bills and nominations to advance to the Senate floor even if they are tied during committee votes, something that could become common given that each party is expected to have the same number of seats on committees.
Democrats will hold the chairmanships of the committees, giving them power to set the agenda, and Schumer will be granted the title of majority leader since Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will cast tiebreaking votes on the floor.
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Democratic Senators being sworn in tomorrow
Jon Ossoff, Reverend Raphael Warnock, and Alex Padilla will be sworn in tomorrow
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Legislation being introduced in the first few days:
$1.9 Trillion coronavirus bill
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(CNN)Bigger stimulus checks. More aid for the unemployed, the hungry and those facing eviction. Additional support for small businesses, states and local governments. Increased funding for vaccinations and testing.
Billed as the American Rescue Plan, the package augments many of the measures in Congress' historic $3 trillion coronavirus relief bill from March and in the
$900 billion legislation from December, which was scaled back to garner support from Senate Republicans.
Now that Democrats control both chambers and the White House, Biden is pushing for the big steps he says are needed to address immediate needs and control the coronavirus pandemic. He also plans to lay out an economic recovery plan in coming weeks that aims to create jobs and combat the climate crisis, among other measures.
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Immigration bill
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.Biden to propose overhaul of immigration laws on first day in office
President-elect Joe Biden will roll out a sweeping overhaul of the nation’s immigration laws the day he is inaugurated, including an eight-year pathway to citizenship for immigrants without legal status and an expansion of refugee admissions, along with an enforcement plan that deploys technology to patrol the border.
Biden’s legislative proposal, which will be sent to Congress on Wednesday, also includes a heavy focus on addressing the root causes of migration from Central America, a key part of Biden’s foreign policy portfolio when he served as vice president.
The centerpiece of the plan from Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala D. Harris is the eight-year pathway, which would put millions of qualifying immigrants in a temporary status for five years and then grant them a green card once they meet certain requirements such as a background check and payment of taxes. They would be able to apply for citizenship three years later.
Beneficiaries of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals — which granted key protections for “dreamers” — and the temporary protected status program for migrants from disaster-ravaged nations could apply for a green card immediately. The president-elect’s plan has been met with praise from pro-immigration advocates
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An overview of some of the executive decisions and legislation which will be brought forward in Biden’s first few days
In his first days in office, Biden also intends to send to Congress several pieces of legislation including a sweeping immigration bill. In remarks last week, he began outlining legislation that he views as most urgent — a $1.9 trillion plan aimed at stabilizing the economy.
Those moves will launch a 10-day governing sprint that will include executive actions to help schools reopen, expand coronavirus testing and establish clearer public health standards
Thank you Senator Mitt Romney —(paraphrased)
when we hear people calling for unity but people are still promoting the big lie, then that is a big problem.