US Politics

Biden administrationBiden targets big tech in executive order aimed at anti-competitive practices‘Capitalism without competition is exploitation’, president said while denouncing era of business monopolies Kari PaulFri 9 Jul 2021 17.07 EDTLast modified on Fri 9 Jul 2021 17.51 EDTJoe Biden has signed an executive order targeting anti-competitive practices across the economy that could have major ramifications for America’s largest tech companies. Friday’s order is the latest of Biden’s actions on anti-trust issues, which have pleased progressives pushing for more action on corporate power – particularly among big tech companies – for years.‘Capitalism without competition is exploitation,’ says Biden as he signs order – liveRead moreMore than a dozen federal agencies will be affected by the order, which includes 72 actions and suggestions meant to “promptly tackle some of the most pressing competition problems across our economy”, the White House said.At a White House signing ceremony, Biden denounced the current era of business monopolies. “Rather than competing for consumers they are consuming their competitors; rather than competing for workers they are finding ways to gain the upper hand on labor,” he said.“Let me be clear: capitalism without competition isn’t capitalism. It’s exploitation.” The latest actions aimed at big techThe tech measures suggested in the order include restoring net neutrality, re-examining problematic mergers, pushing for rules against excessive corporate surveillance, prevention of unfair termination fees from internet service providers like Verizon and AT&T, and “right to repair” laws.Biden has called for increased scrutiny of mergers by the leading tech companies, “with particular attention to the “acquisition of nascent competitors, serial mergers, the accumulation of data, competition by ‘free’ products, and the effect on user privacy”.This could affect prior mergers that were initially approved but have recently come under renewed scrutiny from the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC), including the acquisition of Instagram by Facebook in 2012.The measures targeting big tech acquisitions come weeks after Biden nominated the anti-trust scholar Lina Khan to the FTC, signaling a renewed effort to target big tech firms.It also encourages the FTC to limit farm equipment manufacturers’ ability to restrict the use of independent repair shops or do-it-yourself repairs – such as when tractor companies block farmers from repairing their own tractors.In the order, Biden also encourages the Federal Communications Commission to restore net neutrality, measures that are intended to prevent internet service providers from preferring some content and websites over others, which were rolled back in 2017 under the Trump administration.However, internet freedom advocates say many of the measures that Biden has encouraged the FCC to take cannot move forward until the administration nominates a fifth commissioner, as the four-person board has been deadlocked in recent years.Evan Greer, the director of the digital rights organization Fight for the Future, said the administration needs to quickly nominate a commissioner who “doesn’t have ties to the telecom industry and will stand up to the internet service providers, who supports reinstating net neutrality, and who will expand broadband access for everyone”.“The executive order has a lot of great words, but we need to see some action for those words to mean anything,” she said.Other industries affectedThe order does not only take aim at the tech space – Biden’s efforts to rein in corporate power also extend to his infrastructure plans, as he has called on major companies to pay their “fair share” in taxes to help fund his proposals.Discussing the need to raise taxes on corporations and the wealthiest Americans, Biden said on Wednesday: “I’m not trying to gouge anybody, but, I mean, just get in the game.”The order will ban or limit non-compete agreements to make it easier to change jobs and raise wages in certain industries, allow rule changes that would pave the way for hearing aids to be sold over the counter at drugstores, and ban excessive early termination fees by internet companies.In the airline industry, the administration is requiring companies to provide clear, upfront disclosures about add-on fees and making it easier for customers to get refunds.The order urges easing the process of switching banks by requiring banks to allow customers to take their financial data with them to another company.It includes several provisions that could affect the agricultural industry. It calls on the US Department of Agriculture to consider issuing new rules defining when meat can use “Product of USA” labels. Democratic lawmakers and union leaders cheered the order.Senator Amy Klobuchar, a Minnesota Democrat who chairs the Senate judiciary subcommittee on competition policy, said that Biden’s executive order needed to be buttressed by congressional action.“Competition policy needs new energy and approaches so that we can address America’s monopoly problem,” Klobuchar said. “That means legislation to update our antitrust laws, but it also means reimagining what the federal government can do to promote competition under our current laws.”The Associated Press contributed to this reportTopicsBiden administrationUS domestic policyJoe BidenUS politicsnewsReuse this content More

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US newsIn a pandemic, US workers without paid medical leave can’t afford a sick dayCoronavirus focuses new attention on need for laws requiring paid time off Michael SainatoFri 9 Jul 2021 05.00 EDTLast modified on Fri 9 Jul 2021 05.01 EDTThe coronavirus pandemic has fueled the demand for American workers to be provided with paid sick leave at their jobs, as essential workers risked not only contracting coronavirus but also losing two weeks of income if they tested positive for the virus.US workers receive far fewer days off than workers in other major industrialized nations, and work an average of four to eight more hours a week than the average worker in Europe. More than 32 million workers in the US had no paid sick days off before the pandemic, and low-wage workers are less likely to have paid sick leave and other benefits such as health insurance.Esperanza Jimenez, a janitor in the Miami area for an office cleaning contractor, lives with her son and his three daughters, and relies on her income to send money to her 90-year-old mother in Nicaragua.While working as an essential worker during the pandemic, Jimenez contracted Covid-19 in late December 2020 and spent several days in the hospital. While out sick from work, she didn’t receive any sick leave compensation from her employer because it was exempt from the federal paid leave requirement.“I was worried about my bills, because it doesn’t matter if you’re sick or not, you still have to pay the bills,” said Jimenez. “When I left the hospital I still was getting these horrible muscular pains all over my body, these terrible headaches and a hoarseness in my throat, but I can’t miss any work because they’re not going to pay me for my days off.”Though government action like the Cares Act and American Rescue Plan Act expanded paid sick leave to millions of workers in the US, paid leave advocates and workers are now pushing for a permanent solution, as the US is the only major nation in the world without a federal paid leave policy.“It’s something we should have had in place years ago,” said Dawn Huckelbridge, director of Paid Leave for All, a campaign of several organizations advocating for a federal paid leave policy for medical and family issues.“The pandemic put into focus what a crisis this has been in the making. When the global pandemic hit, we weren’t prepared and one of the first things Congress did was put into place a temporary paid leave law, knowing it would save lives and jobs.”Veronica Gonzales works two jobs, one at Taco Bell and the other at the fast-food chain Jack in the Box, in Alameda, California. Through the pandemic, she’s had to fight to receive paid time off for quarantining while her son was hospitalized from Covid-19, and even went into work recently while sick.“Working during the pandemic has been extremely stressful for us,” said Gonzales. “We have to work. We have to be paid and we can’t afford not to be paid.”A campaign of workers, small and large business owners and activists has been pushing Congress to pass a federal paid leave policy and also fighting to enact paid leave at the local level.Nija Phelps of Milford, Connecticut, a Paid Leave for All advocate, became involved in the campaign after she and her husband had to quit their jobs and move to Michigan in 2013 to care for her mother-in-law, who was recovering from heart surgery. Neither of them had any paid leave to keep their jobs and income.“Life was very much just up in the air. We didn’t really know what was going to happen. As she got stronger, we felt better about it, but there were struggles for all of us,” said Phelps. “To not have an employer or government helping with that, it’s frightening, it’s cruel and it’s really unnecessary because we know we can make it work not just because other countries have been doing it for decades, but there are workable plans and so many other states are adopting it.”Paid leave policies have passed in California, New York, Washington, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Colorado, Oregon and the District of Columbia, and local ordinances have passed in cities and counties around the US.Angel Maldonado, a public transit security officer, is pushing for paid sick leave to be provided to contracted county employees in Miami-Dade county, Florida.In 2018, he had to return to work soon after surgery for prostate cancer. He wore a catheter on the job for two months, which often leaked. Now he is scheduled to have back surgery and is worried he will have to return to work while he’s still recovering because he can’t afford to live without the income.“The situation was very difficult. I’m the only one who works in the house and my wife, who is retired and on disability, depends on me,” said Maldonado. “It’s not fair. We’re human beings and we have biological needs just like anyone else.”TopicsUS newsUS politicsCoronavirusfeaturesReuse this content More

After a rocky few weeks for Kamala Harris, Joan E Greve speaks to Lawrence Haas, former communications director for Al Gore, about the ins and outs of being a successful second in command to the president

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Since taking the oath of office in January, Kamala Harris has rarely been in the spotlight, save for drawing the ire of some Democrats and all Republicans, who are not particularly happy with her response to two of the issues she has been tasked with dealing with: voting rights and the migrant crisis on the southern border. So what exactly is the role of the vice-president of the United States? In this week’s episode, Lawrence Haas, who worked with Al Gore when he was vice-president to Bill Clinton, shares his insight. Send us your questions and feedback to [email protected] Help support the Guardian by going to gu.com/supportpodcasts Archive: C-Span, CTV News, USA Today More

Cartas de la fronteraTexasTexas borderlands too often a photo op for politicians pushing stereotypesUbiquitous political border tours fixate on immigration, missing the complex character and needs of the region Carlos SanchezThu 8 Jul 2021 14.54 EDTLast modified on Thu 8 Jul 2021 15.14 EDTEdward Marquez, the father of my classmate when I was growing up, became a border community hero in 1994 when, as a state district judge from El Paso, he initiated a rare legal maneuver that resonated along the Texas-Mexico border. Fed up with a long history of disparate funding and state services to border communities from the state capital in Austin, he convened a court of criminal inquiry – a weapon in the legal arsenal that is available when a judge has evidence that a prosecutor fell short of pursuing a criminal case and justice was not being served.Welcome to the US southern border: same country, different planetRead moreIn this instance, it was evidence of historical neglect for Texas border communities. The unprecedented court of inquiry highlighted funding disparities to border communities such as a $43 per capita allotment to El Paso in state highway funds compared with as much as $220 per capita for other Texas cities. State leaders were subpoenaed to testify about the funding disparities, always with the threat that Judge Marquez had the power to indict them if he found compelling evidence that they had violated the rights of border residents under the state’s equal protection clause.Ultimately, an embarrassed Democratic administration, led by the then governor, Ann Richards, ensured additional funding went to border cities like El Paso and the legacy of Judge Marquez was cemented in history.The political reality that the judge brought to national attention nearly three decades ago, however, continues to plague border communities and has created an uncomfortable political paradox: the communities need the attention of state and national policymakers to highlight massive problems with poverty, health issues and educational attainment. But whenever this region draws international attention, that attention has little to do with these social issues and everything to do with the heated debate over immigration.Unfortunately, this paradox is as old as the border itself and feeds into negative stereotypes about the safety of this region, while acting as an economic drag. In 2016, McAllen, in south Texas, was selected by an amateur sports federation as a two-year venue for a statewide competition that typically attracts thousands of young athletes . Texas cities yearn to host the event because as many as 20,000 or more parents and kids show up to watch and compete – all the while ringing up hefty hotel and food bills that contribute to the local economy.But before the Games of Texas, as it’s called, began that year, south Texas got word that parents in different parts of the state were concerned about border violence. While Mexican drug cartels were often listed as the main source of concern, another immigration surge was well under way. Word got around that some parents were even talking about organizing spinoff games in north Texas to avoid having to expose their families to the treachery of the south Texas borderlands.Community leaders launched a counter-offensive, writing columns for newspapers in other parts of the state and vowing to show off the region’s family spirit. Parents who braved the trip to south Texas left that first year impressed with the local hospitality, and any widespread concern about the dangers of the region seemed to disappear the next year.Virtually every year, the Democratic border congressman Henry Cuellar issues a press statement following the annual release of the FBI Uniform Crime Report to demonstrate the safety of border communities relative to other cities across Texas and the nation.But too often, elected officials seeking a quick photo opportunity politicize the border rather than address the needs of its communities. The local joke is that if you’re a Republican a border tour requires a ride up the Rio Grande on a state-owned, armored plated gunboat (federal vessels are much less ominous looking and rarely make the photo-op cut). But if you’re a Democrat, the border tour entails a must-see-and-be-seen visit to a local facility that provides humanitarian services to migrants.When the then speaker of the House, Paul Ryan, visited the border in 2017, federal authorities approached landowners along the Rio Grande to ask them to keep the media off their property, trying unsuccessfully to make private a huge swath of international boundary.Sometimes it’s best to view these border tours with a sense of levity. One go-to place to visit is the county-owned Anzalduas park, a birdwatching paradise on the banks of the Rio Grande, which provides a magnificent vista overlooking Mexico. When President Trump visited in January 2019, US Customs and Border Protection attended with all its glorious, mechanized immigrant-fighting vehicles on display.But it is the Texas Republican senator John Cornyn (to his credit, a frequent border community visitor) who will live in infamy after he visited the park to decry the dangers of immigration in front of media cameras. His timing was slightly off; as he spoke, journalists witnessed the launching from the Mexican shore of a double-decker party boat touring the beautiful river, accompanied by festive music.Trump’s most recent visit to the border, in June, shows how misleading such tours can be. The newly elected mayor of McAllen was the only local elected official who toured the wall with Trump and the Texas governor, Greg Abbott. Little beyond the wall and the dangers of the migrants were mentioned.For business and political leaders along the border, these visits offer little by way of solution and serve only to further inflame passions about immigration. In a rare moment when a large group of US senators allowed a local elected official to speak about the community, the official urged the members of Congress to overhaul existing immigration laws because the current system is broken.“We can’t do that until we stop these immigrants from crossing,” one senator told the local official. And soon that particular border tour ended – after the senators met with the media and posed for a few photos near the river.Carlos Sanchez is director of public affairs for Hidalgo county, Texas. He was a journalist for 37 years and has worked at the Washington Post and Texas Monthly magazine, as well as eight other newsroomsTopicsTexasCartas de la fronteraUS politicsUS immigrationfeaturesReuse this content More

TexasTexas governor revives Republicans’ thwarted efforts to pass voting lawsGreg Abbott made new election laws one of a nearly dozen items he is instructing lawmakers to revisit over next 30 days A More