US Politics

It was a major plank of the Democratic plan to “build back better” – raising the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $15 an hour as a way of boosting the economy during the pandemic and tackling poverty and income inequality. But on Thursday the much-vaunted plan hit a roadblock in the US Senate, which has knocked the proposal sideways.So what happened, and is this game over for the $15 minimum wage?What happened?The idea of pushing up the minimum wage in stages to $15 in 2025 was included in Joe Biden’s $1.9tn stimulus package that seeks to support vaccine distribution and an extension of unemployment benefit among other pandemic provisions.The minimum wage element of the bill was a very big deal. It would increase the incomes of 27 million Americans, with almost 1 million people lifted out of poverty, according to the Congressional Budget Office.The Democrats have decided to fast-track the bill as a way of avoiding Republican opposition through a channel known as “budget resolution”. That would provide for a simple majority vote in the Senate, avoiding the dreaded filibuster where 60 votes have to be attained – an impossible task given Republican intransigence within the new evenly split 50-50 Senate.The snag is that budget resolution is subject to strict limits on how it is applied, designed to prevent political leaders packing the bill with all sorts of goodies entirely unrelated to federal revenue or spending. The unelected keeper of those restrictions is Elizabeth MacDonough, the grandly titled Senate parliamentarian, who announced on Thursday that in her reading of the rules the $15 minimum wage was extraneous to budget legislation and thus had to be removed.How did that go down?Advocates of raising the minimum wage were incensed. Bernie Sanders, a longtime champion, said he strongly disagreed with the decision, which he blamed on “archaic and undemocratic rules”. Elizabeth Warren and many others said it was time to end the filibuster so that the provision could pass the Senate regardless, while the idea of firing MacDonough was also floated.By contrast, the top Republican on the Senate budget committee, Lindsey Graham, said he was “very pleased” by MacDonough’s intervention.Would it have passed in any case?There were some doubts that the stimulus bill would have passed with the minimum wage increase contained in it. Two Democratic senators on the right of the party, Joe Manchin from West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema from Arizona, had both put up resistance, and even Biden himself openly expressed skepticism that the provision would “survive”.The irony is that a $15 minimum wage is hugely popular among Americans of all political persuasions, with two-thirds supporting it, according to a 2019 poll by the Pew Research Center. Take Florida – the state voted for Trump in November, but it also backed by 60% a ballot initiative raising the minimum wage to $15 over the next five years.So what’s next?There are several directions in which the tussle could now go. Kamala Harris, as president of the Senate and the final arbiter on the chamber’s rules, has the authority to overrule the parliamentarian. But such a power has not been wielded since Nelson Rockefeller in 1975, and, besides, the White House has indicated that the vice-president will not take that route.An alternative “plan B” is emerging whereby the Democrats would replace the minimum wage provision in the stimulus bill with a tax penalty on large corporations paying workers less than $15 an hour. Democratic leaders think that such a tax mechanism might be more resilient in meeting the requirements of budget resolution.Working against that will be the desire of the White House to pass the stimulus bill quickly and not experience any further delays. A crunch deadline is fast approaching – on 14 March the existing jobless benefits start to expire and the Biden administration is keen to prevent unemployed workers falling into even greater hardship.Amid the plethora of possible next steps, one thing is certain: the fight for $15 is not over. In the past eight years the push for a decent minimum wage has snowballed across the US and around the world into a formidable movement, and no number of objections from unelected rules-keepers will hold it back for long. More

The battle against Covid-19 took a major step forward on Friday as the US moved closer to distributing its first one-shot Covid-19 vaccine, after an independent expert advisory panel recommended drug regulators authorize the Johnson & Johnson vaccine for emergency use.The authorization would be a significant boost to the Biden administration’s vaccination plans, making Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine the third available to the public. Janssen, Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine subsidiary, told a congressional hearing this week that it expects to deliver 20m doses by March and a total of 100m doses before the end of June.The Johnson & Johnson vaccine, along with those from Pfizer and Moderna, should provide the US with more than enough supply to vaccinate every vaccine-eligible person.“We’re still in the midst of this deadly pandemic,” said Dr Archana Chatterjee, a voting member of the panel and an infectious disease pediatrician at Chicago Medical School, as she explained her vote in favor of recommending the vaccine. “There is a shortage of vaccines that are currently authorized, and I think authorization of this vaccine will help meet the needs at the moment.”While regulators at the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) do not always take the advice of their advisory panels, the agency is expected to authorize the vaccine for emergency use.“We urgently need more vaccines [authorized] to protect the millions of Americans who remain at risk” of Covid-19 infection, said Dr Greg Poland, the editor-in-chief of the medical journal Vaccine and leader of the Vaccine Research Group at the Mayo Clinic.“Today, we have seen clear and compelling evidence that the Janssen vaccine candidate is well tolerated, has an acceptable safety profile and most importantly is highly efficacious against Covid-19,” he said. “To me, it is clear that the known benefits vastly outweigh the known risks.”The recommendation comes soon after the US marks 500,000 deaths from Covid-19, a toll that comes as cases decline in the US and across many countries worldwide. More than 28 million Americans have been infected by Covid-19.“We are seeing positive trends in terms of declining cases,” said Dr Adam MacNeil, a member of the Covid-19 epidemiology taskforce with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He later added: “We are certainly not out of the woods yet.”Importantly, Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine would also be the easiest to distribute. Unlike vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna, which require sub-zero storage, Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine can be stored at common refrigerator temperatures for up to three months. When frozen it has a shelf life of three years.The convenience of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine comes with caveats. The company’s clinical trials were the first to show the potential impacts of Covid-19 variants, or evolutionary changes in the virus.The vaccine was found to 85% effective at preventing severe disease and to provide complete protection against Covid-19-related hospitalization and death after 28 days. Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine was found to be 72% effective in clinical trials in the US, but only 57% effective in South Africa, where a variant called B1351 originated.However, vaccination remains a powerful weapon, even with threats posed by variants. “Even with decreased effectiveness, vaccination may still provide partial protection against variants,” said MacNeil. Like the Moderna vaccine, Johnson & Johnson’s product will only be available to people 18 and older. Pfizer’s vaccine is available to teenagers older than 16. Also, as with other vaccines, researchers are uncertain how long the vaccine protects against Covid-19, and whether it reduces asymptomatic transmission of the virus, although studies are promising.Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine uses different technology from the two vaccines currently available in the US. The new vaccine uses “viral vector” technology, which introduces the body to the genetic code for the spike protein covering the outside of the coronavirus. This code is transmitted by a second, weakened virus called an adenovirus.Immunity is provoked when the body’s immune system then recognizes the coronavirus by this key structure. Vaccines developed by Pfizer and Moderna also prompt the body to recognize spike proteins on the outside of the coronavirus, but deliver the genetic code through lipid nanoparticles, or tiny molecules of fatty acids.Because scientists are still researching the degree to which any of the authorized vaccines prevent people from spreading Covid-19 to other people, public health authorities recommend people continue to social distance and wear masks after being vaccinated. In theory, a vaccinated person could still spread the SARS-CoV-2 virus, even if they do not experience any symptoms of the disease Covid-19.Johnson & Johnson’s vaccines and the doses already scheduled to be delivered by Moderna and Pfizer, the makers of the two vaccines currently authorized in the US, mean there could be enough supply to vaccinate 400 million people by July. Roughly 267 million people in the US are eligible for a vaccine.This ease of storage and one-dose regime is likely to increase pressure on the US government to pledge doses to low- and middle-income countries, which often lack the cold chain infrastructure needed to distribute the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines. Currently, dozens of low- and middle-income countries do not expect to begin broadly distributing vaccine doses until 2022.Activists, many of whom also worked to expand access to Aids medications, have described this as “vaccine apartheid”, and a threat to the “project of global population immunity”. More

The US House of Representatives has passed a historic public lands preservation bill that pledges to protect nearly 3m acres of federal lands in Colorado, California, Washington and Arizona.
The act combines various bills that languished without Senate approval during the Trump administration. Key provisions include permanently banning new uranium mining on land surrounding the Grand Canyon, giving wilderness designation to 1.5m acres of federal land, and preserving 1,000 river miles by adding them to the Wild and Scenic Rivers System.
“This is one of the largest public lands protection bills to ever go before Congress,” said Kristen Brengel, senior vice-president of government affairs for the National Parks Conservation Association. “Wilderness designation is the strongest protection there is to ensure the lands will never be developed. And it can’t be undone with the stroke of pen.”
The bill, called the Protecting America’s Wilderness and Public Lands Act, has strong support from the Biden administration, in part because it will help the president achieve his goal of protecting at least 30% of US land from development by 2030 in order to combat climate change.
Still, the bill must first pass a divided Senate. Given partisan opposition to the measure from some Republican senators, approval could come down to Vice-President Kamala Harris casting a tie-breaking vote.
Sponsored by the Colorado representative Diana DeGette, the bill passed the House in a 227 to 200 vote, generally along party lines. During debate on Thursday, Republican congressional representatives opposing the act argued that it would, among other things, inhibit firefighting abilities in areas close to or surrounded by wilderness in California and Colorado, and create additional burdens for land managers.
“This bill won’t help the environment but will instead kill jobs and imperil our national security and American energy dependence,” said the Arkansas congressman Bruce Westerman, the highest-ranking Republican member on the House natural resources committee.
The package of eight individually sponsored bills incorporated into the Act include:
Arizona
The Grand Canyon Protection Act would provide a victory in the decades-long battle fought by the Havasupai tribe, who live at the bottom of the Grand Canyon, to protect their drinking water from uranium mining contamination. The bill permanently withdraws more than 1m federally owned acres north and south of Grand Canyon from eligibility for new mining claims.
“Grand Canyon is the homeland of indigenous peoples, a primary driver of Arizona’s outdoor recreation and tourism-fueled economy, and a worldwide wonder,” said Amber Reimondo, energy director for the Grand Canyon Trust. “The risks of uranium extraction are not worth it now and never will be. We look forward to the Grand Canyon Protection Act becoming law.”
California
Four different bills significantly enhance public lands recreation opportunities in the Golden state. A new 400-mile trail along the central coast would connect northern and southern wilderness areas in the Los Padres national Forest. In north-west California, a total of 306,500 acres would be protected through wilderness designation. In southern California, popular recreation areas in the Santa Monica mountains and San Gabriel mountains would be significantly expanded and protected from development.
Colorado
Initially introduced by DeGette more than a decade ago, a Colorado measure will add 660,000 acres of public land to the National Wilderness Preservation System. While many of Colorado’s towering mountain peaks are already designated wilderness, the new bill specifically protects lower-elevation areas that are popular for recreation and critical wildlife habitat. Like all lands in the wilderness system, the areas will be off limits to motorized vehicles and resource extraction. An additional measure provides protection to 400,000 acres of federal land through wilderness designation and limiting oil and gas development.
Washington
This bill seeks to expand designated wilderness on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula and adds 460 river miles to the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System. More

“This war has to end.” These words by President Joe Biden about the terrible conflict in Yemen are welcome. But they are easier to say than to make happen. Since 2015, fighting in Yemen has left a quarter of a million people dead and 3 million displaced. War crimes were committed on all sides, while the world looked on as a humanitarian disaster unfolded. The country is currently a battleground between regional actors and their proxies that vie for supremacy among the sandy ruins of some of the oldest civilisations on Earth.Mr Biden has promised to end arms sales and US participation in the Saudi/United Arab Emirates-led war in Yemen. This is to be welcomed. It is also what Democrats in Congress have voted for. The US president should ensure that any embargo cannot be circumvented. Britain, shamefully, has yet to follow suit with a ban. Mr Biden has also lifted the terrorist designation of the Houthis, the Iranian-backed group whose advance was the reason Riyadh and Abu Dhabi invaded. This too is good news. One can only make peace with one’s enemies. If diplomacy is back, as the US president claims, then diplomats need to be able to talk to foes as well as friends.Probably out of the loop for some time will be Mohammed bin Salman, the Saudi crown prince, whom US intelligence holds complicit in the gruesome murder of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi. He, along with the UAE’s Mohammed bin Zayed, conceived the war, played the west off against Moscow to secure UN cover for the carnage and then occupied strategically important pieces of Yemeni real estate. Boris Johnson, who courted the Saudi royal during the Trump years, will need to move quickly if Britain, without strategic allies in Europe after Brexit, is to play a constructive role in its former colony. This cannot be lightly dismissed as a pang of regret: Mr Johnson’s diplomats at the UN are “pen holders” in the security council, in charge of drafting resolutions on Yemen.The Houthis’ new offensive in Marib and their drone attacks into Saudi Arabia underline just how badly Riyadh and Abu Dhabi underestimated the group’s strength. Mr Biden’s team should put things right because, whether they like it or not, as part of the Obama administration they provided military, logistical and diplomatic cover for the Saudi/UAE-led campaign. It has been alleged that US mercenaries were hired by the UAE in 2015 to assassinate political rivals. In dealing with Yemen, US diplomats will face a familiar problem: how to placate Gulf allies peeved by Washington’s attempts to secure Iranian cooperation over its nuclear programme.The west’s interest must be now to stabilise Yemen and put in place a durable political process. The UN says Yemen faces the worst famine the world has seen for decades unless donors can find $3.85bn (£2.8bn) next week. Rich nations need to step up: Oxfam says current pledges fall short of the country’s growing need. Left unattended, the fires will burn in Yemen, scattering refugees and spreading chaos. Mr Biden should promote a new security council resolution to replace the current one that unrealistically envisages the Houthis surrendering to a transitional government that operates out of a Saudi hotel. Foreign forces ought to leave. What is required is a negotiated process that includes homegrown voices from every side of the conflict – including Houthis, southern separatists and the Muslim Brotherhood. Yemen’s diverse communities have traditionally been able to compromise. Mr Biden cannot solve Yemen’s problems. But he can, and he should, bring together Yemenis to do so. More

Bill Thompson, 50, has worked in food service in Independence, Missouri, for over 30 years. He currently works at Burger King, making $10.30 an hour. With his current wages, he avoids seeking medical care because of the costs, and explained his family has struggled to afford basic necessities.He’s one of many low-wage workers around the US who have been organizing and fighting for a $15 minimum wage at the federal level and at local and state levels since the Fight for $15 and a Union movement began in 2012.In a setback for the movement, on 25 February the Senate parliamentarian ruled the minimum wage increase as written currently cannot remain in the coronavirus relief bill under Senate rules, and the White House noted Kamala Harris, in her role presiding over the Senate, will not attempt to overrule the parliamentarian.For Thompson – and millions of American workers like him – the news is a personal blow.“If we made $15 an hour, that would be a night and day difference. It doesn’t mean I’m going to have savings, it just means I’m going to have more financial resources to afford to have food on the table and my drug prescriptions,” said Thompson. “I have to choose between going to the doctor and buying medicine or putting food on my table, or buying a new pair of shoes.”Democrats have pushed to include a $15-an-hour federal minimum wage by 2025 in the coronavirus relief bill, though Joe Biden expressed skepticism the $15 minimum wage will make it into the final coronavirus relief bill and noted he is open to delaying the phased increase.Workers have criticized the ruling and are pushing elected officials to figure out a way to still pass a $15 federal minimum wage.“We will not be deterred by an archaic Senate process that throughout history has been used to delay or deny progress for Black and brown communities while allowing multitrillion-dollar tax cuts for corporations,” said Maribel Cornejo, a McDonald’s worker and Fight for $15 and a Union leader in Houston, Texas, in a statement.Cornejo added: “Winning elections means talking to voters about the issues that matter to their lives and then delivering on those promises. Voters don’t want to hear excuses about process, procedures or parliamentarians. We want a job that pays us a living wage. We want dignity at work. We want and we need $15.”Cynthia Murray, a Walmart associate for nearly 20 years and United for Respect leader in Maryland who testified in front of the Senate on 25 February, added: “When are they going to stand up and stand for the workers and change the minimum wage? It’s been 12 years.”The president of SEIU International, the leading organization behind the Fight for $15 movement, Mary Kay Henry, argued the ruling was no excuse to delay increasing the minimum wage.“Essential workers have put their lives on the line throughout the pandemic and now elected leaders must meet their demands to be respected, protected and paid,” Henry said in a statement. “Every single healthcare provider, fast-food worker, janitor, security officer and public servant who have kept our communities afloat for the past year needs real Covid relief that includes $15 – and Congress needs to get it done.”In response to the parliamentarian ruling, the Vermont senator Bernie Sanders announced his intention to include an amendment in the relief bill to take away tax deductions from large, profitable corporations that do not pay a $15 an hour minimum wage.House Democratic leaders have announced the $15 minimum wage bill will remain in the coronavirus relief package that is expected to pass today and be sent to the Senate.Two-thirds of Americans support a $15 minimum wage according to 2019 polls conducted by the Pew Research Center, and more recent surveys have shown seven in 10 Americans support raising the minimum wage.Republicans and business industry groups have argued increases to minimum wage results in job losses and hurts small businesses, but data over 22 previous federal minimum wage increases since 1938 show there is no correlation between minimum wage increases and job losses. Raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2026 would provide a raise to 32 million workers who otherwise struggle to meet basic living expenses. More

The US House of Representatives is aiming to pass Joe Biden’s $1.9tn coronavirus aid bill on Friday in what would be his first big legislative win, although marred by the news that a favored minimum wage hike would have to be tossed out.A spirited and potentially long debate was expected, as most Republicans oppose the cost of the bill that would pay for vaccines and other medical supplies to battle a Covid-19 pandemic that has killed more than 500,000 Americans and thrown millions out of work.The measure would also send a new round of emergency financial aid to households, small businesses and state and local governments.A group of Senate Republicans had offered Biden a slimmed-down alternative, but the White House and some economists insist a big package is needed.Biden has focused his first weeks in office on tackling the greatest public health crisis in a century, which has upended most aspects of American life.Democrats control the House by a 221-211 margin, and Speaker Nancy Pelosi is counting on nearly all of her rank and file to get the bill passed before sending it to a 50-50 Senate, where the Democratic vice-president, Kamala Harris, holds the tie-breaking vote.Embedded in the House bill is a federal minimum wage increase, which would be the first since 2009 and would gradually bump it up to $15 an hour in 2025 from the current $7.25 rate.But the future of the wage hike was dealt a serious blow on Thursday, when the Senate parliamentarian ruled that it could not be allowed in the Senate version of the coronavirus bill under that chamber’s “reconciliation” rules.The special rules allow the legislation to advance in the Senate with a simple majority of the 100 senators, instead of the 60 needed for most legislation.Biden has not given up on raising the minimum wage to $15, a top White House economic adviser said on Friday.A higher wage “is the right thing to do”, White House national economic council director, Brian Deese, said in an interview on MSNBC.“We’re going to consult with our congressional allies, congressional leaders today to talk about a path forward, about how we can make progress urgently on what is an urgent issue.”Meanwhile, lawmakers must also act on the coronavirus stimulus package, Deese said.The $15 minimum wage figure had already faced opposition in the Senate from most Republicans and at least two Democrats, which would have been enough to sink the plan. An array of senators are talking about a smaller increase, in the range of $10 to $12 an hour.In a statement after the Senate parliamentarian’s ruling, Pelosi said: “House Democrats believe that the minimum wage hike is necessary.”She said it would stay in the House version of the coronavirus bill.In arguing for passage of the relief bill, Pelosi cited opinion polls indicating the support of a significant majority of Americans who have been battered by the yearlong pandemic.“It’s about putting vaccinations in the arm, money in the pocket, children in the schools, workers in their jobs,” Pelosi told reporters on Thursday. “It’s what this country needs.“Among the big-ticket items in the bill are $1,400 direct payments to individuals, a $400-per-week federal unemployment benefit through 29 August and help for those having difficulties paying their rent and home mortgages during the pandemic.An array of business interests also have weighed in behind Biden’s America Rescue Plan Act, as the bill is called.Republicans have criticized the legislation as a “liberal wishlist giveaway” that fails to dedicate enough money to reopening schools that have been partially operating with “virtual” learning during the pandemic.The House minority leader, Kevin McCarthy, complained it was “too costly, too corrupt”. While Republicans for months have blocked a new round of aid to state and local governments, McCarthy said he was open to his home state of California getting some of the bill’s $350bn in funding, despite a one-time $15bn budget surplus.Efforts to craft a bipartisan coronavirus aid bill fizzled early on, shortly after Biden was sworn in as president on 20 January, following a series of bipartisan bills enacted in 2020 that totaled around $4tn. More

The progressive Democrat Ilhan Omar has called for the firing of the government official who effectively blocked the party’s plans to raise the minimum wage.Democratic plans to include a gradual raise to $15 in Joe Biden’s $1.9tn coronavirus stimulus bill were effectively ended on Thursday when the Senate parliamentarian ruled it should not be part of the package.The decision by Elizabeth MacDonough, who has held the non-partisan position since 2012, dashed hopes of including the raise in the bill – the first increase in over a decade.“Abolish the filibuster. Replace the parliamentarian,” Omar said in a tweet. “What’s a Democratic majority if we can’t pass our priority bills? This is unacceptable.”Abolish the filibuster.Replace the parliamentarian.What’s a Democratic majority if we can’t pass our priority bills? This is unacceptable.— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) February 26, 2021
Biden campaigned on a pledge to increase the minimum wage to $15. Low-wage workers and unions have campaigned for a rise since 2012, and its inclusion in the coronavirus stimulus bill had been seen as a major victory.While the proposal faced universal opposition by Republican senators and skepticism from some Democrats, Senator Bernie Sanders and others were confident that it could be pushed through with a simple majority in the Senate, where the Democrats hold a slim majority.In order to achieve this, the proposal would have to be passed by “budget reconciliation” – a mechanism that allows legislation to bypass the 60% vote bills need to get through the Senate.Late on Thursday, MacDonough ruled that the wage increase did not meet the standards for budget reconciliation.The parliamentarian acts as an impartial judge and has only been removed from office once. MacDonough is well respected by many members of both parties, and the Biden administration seems unlikely to push for her removal.Other progressive Democrats have proposed a less drastic solution – overruling her.“The Senate parliamentarian issues an advisory opinion,” congresswoman Pramila Jayapal said in a tweet. “The VP can overrule them – as has been done before. We should do EVERYTHING we can to keep our promise, deliver a $15 minimum wage, and give 27 million workers a raise.”Sanders, one of the most ardent supporters of a minimum-wage increase, has proposed an alternative plan – imposing penalties and incentives to push companies toward higher wages.“I will be working with my colleagues in the Senate to move forward with an amendment to take tax deductions away from large, profitable corporations that don’t pay workers at least $15 an hour, and to provide small businesses with the incentives they need to raise wages,” Sanders said in a statement. “That amendment must be included in this reconciliation bill.”Sanders’ comments come after a Senate hearing on Thursday where he lambasted the low wages paid by McDonald’s, Walmart and others. Sanders pointed to a government report that found nearly half of workers who make less than $15 an hour rely on public assistance programs that cost taxpayers $107bn each year.The American people are “sick and tired” of subsidizing “starvation wages” at these companies, Sanders said. More