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Biden signs $1.9tn Covid relief ahead of first primetime address as president
Joe Biden signed the historic $1.9tn Covid-19 relief package into law on Thursday, hours before he will deliver his first primetime TV address as US president to mark one year since the virus triggered widespread shutdowns across the country.“This historic legislation is about rebuilding the backbone of this country,” Biden said in brief remarks before signing the landmark legislation.Biden is expected to use his televised speech to hail the stimulus bill known as the American Rescue Plan, which the White House has touted as the biggest progressive spending package in generations that is critical for steering the US towards the end of the pandemic.But Biden is also expected to acknowledge the ongoing pain caused by the pandemic, which has claimed the lives of nearly 530,000 Americans and brought unemployment, hunger and dislocation to tens of millions more. And he is also expected to offer hope, asking for optimism as beleaguered Americans face what comes next.Previewing the speech, Biden said he will outline what his administration plans to do to help guide the US through a huge vaccination program and rebuild shattered lives and businesses in the months ahead. “I’m going to launch the next phase of the Covid response,” the Democrat said on Wednesday.“There is light at the end of this dark tunnel of the past year. But we cannot let our guard down now or assume the victory is inevitable. Together, we’re going to get through this pandemic and usher in a healthier and more hopeful future.”A White House official said the speech will last less than 20 minutes and will note how controlling the pandemic and administering vaccines has been the “greatest operational challenge the country has faced”. So far, more than 62 million people across the US have been vaccinated. Biden said this week that the US “hit a record of 2.9m vaccinations in one day in America” on Saturday.The speech is resonant in its timing, coming a year to the day since the World Health Organization declared the spread of the coronavirus a pandemic. It’s also a year to the night since Donald Trump, the former president, delivered a similar televised address on the pandemic that came after he repeatedly claimed the virus would somehow disappear on its own.One year ago the pandemic became tangible for most Americans, with many companies telling staff to work from home, if they were able to, sporting bodies such as the NBA canceling games and Broadway shows shuttering in New York City.The period since has seen waves of the virus surge across the country, with the deficient response of several states and the Trump administration seeing healthcare systems pushed close to collapse and millions of frontline workers, particularly people of color, suffer the brunt of the pandemic. At the height of the pandemic, more than 14% of working Americans were out of a job.Biden has sought to instill optimism over the course of the pandemic since becoming president, with the rate of new infections and hospitalizations now starting to fall. His administration has set a goal of 100m vaccine shots in the first 100 days, something the president was upbeat over in a visit to a Washington DC hospital this week.“We’re really warping the speed now,” Biden said. “We’re doing pretty good across the country. We’re going to hit 100m soon.”Life remains upended for millions of Americans, however. The stimulus package is the first major legislative victory of Biden’s presidency and promises to raise millions of Americans out of poverty. It includes $1,400 payments for eligible individuals along with hundreds of billions of dollars more to bolster vaccine distribution, extended unemployment assistance and child tax credits. No Republicans in Congress voted for the bill, claiming it was bloated and unnecessary, but Biden, a Democrat, appears to have strong public support for the measures. Polling has shown a clear majority of American voters support the Covid aid package and approve generally of the way the president has handled the coronavirus crisis since taking office.Challenges still remain in delivering vaccines, however, as well as the actions of several states, such as Texas, that have started to ease restrictions such as mask mandates. More than 18m doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccine will be shipped to states, tribes and territories this week, the White House said, with another 100m additional doses of the single-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine set to be delivered later this year.Biden has previously said there will be enough vaccine for all American adults by the end of May. There is still no plan for the vaccination of children, although the president is also hoping to push forward the reopening of schools.The Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC) has new guidelines that allow the gathering of fully vaccinated people with vaccinated grandparents or friends without masks or socially distancing, but there is still no indication when it will be safe for people to travel again or for life more broadly to return to normality.“There are a lot of folks who are older, people with chronic diseases,” Ashish Jha, dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, told ABC. “Let them get vaccinated and I think it will happen in the next month or so then we can begin to relax these restrictions and get our lives back.” More
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Fight to vote: why a new bill in Georgia will harm Black voters
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Happy Thursday,
There’s been a whirlwind of voting rights stories over the last week. Republicans continue to advance a wave of restrictions in statehouses across the country while there is mounting pressure in Washington for Democrats to do away with the filibuster to pass significant federal voting rights legislation.
This is an indication of how voting rights has only emerged as an escalating issue after the 2020 election.
Here’s a look at some of the key developments:
Georgia
The Georgia senate passed a bill on Tuesday that would make it significantly harder to vote by mail in the state after record turnout in 2020. The measure would do away with the no-excuse system Republicans implemented in the state and only allow people to cast a mail-in vote if they are aged 65 or older. The bill now heads over to the Georgia house of representatives, which last week passed its own sweeping restrictions to voting.
New data shows how these policies would disproportionately harm Black voters.
While the share of white voters who cast a mail-in ballot fell from 2016 to 2020, the share of Black voters increased from 23% to 31%, according to an analysis by the Brennan Center for Justice. Despite those changes, white voters still made up a larger portion of the voters aged 65+ who voted by mail in 2020. A different new study also shows that Black voters in Georgia are more likely than white voters to cast their ballot on the weekend days that could be cut.
It’s still unclear whether lawmakers will ultimately choose to get rid of no-excuse absentee voting in the final version of whatever bill they pass. Top Republicans in the state oppose requiring voters to give an excuse and several Republicans, including the lieutenant governor, Geoff Duncan, refused to participate in the senate vote.
The filibuster
Last week, my colleague Daniel Strauss and I spoke with Jim Clyburn, one of the most powerful Democrats in the US House of Representatives, about how Democrats should approach the filibuster.
The procedure stands in the way of blocking HR1, a bill passed by the House last week, that would require states to offer early voting as well as same-day and automatic registration, among other significant measures. It also stands in the way of blocking a new version of the Voting Rights Act that would require states with a history of voting discrimination to get changes pre-cleared by the federal government.
Clyburn stopped short of saying the filibuster should be eliminated entirely, but said Democrats needed to find a workaround for voting and other civil rights legislation. He also offered a warning for two moderate Democratic senators, Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, some of the staunchest advocates of keeping the filibuster in place.
“There’s no way under the sun that in 2021 that we are going to allow the filibuster to be used to deny voting rights. That just ain’t gonna happen. That would be catastrophic,” he said. “If Manchin and Sinema enjoy being in the majority, they had better figure out a way to get around the filibuster when it comes to voting and civil rights.”
Biden’s executive order
Joe Biden issued an executive order on Sunday that makes some modest, but potentially consequential, expansions around voting rights.
Two provisions in the executive order stood out to me. The first requires federal agencies to offer voter registration if a state requests that it do so. This measure – long pushed by civil rights groups – could make it significantly easier for vulnerable populations to register to vote. Requiring the federal Indian Health Service to offer voter registration, for example, could affect up to 1.9 million Native Americans and Alaska Natives.
The second significant piece involves directing the attorney general to provide voter registration information to eligible people with felony convictions in federal custody. That’s significant because people with felony convictions, and the officials who supervise them, often face a confusing maze of rules to figure out if they can vote again. In 2018, Crystal Mason, a Texas woman, was sentenced to five years in prison for voting while she was on supervised release (similar to probation) for a felony offense. The federal officials supervising Mason testified in court that they never told her she was ineligible to vote. The guidance required under Biden’s order could help prevent that kind of confusion.
Also worth watching …
Iowa’s governor signed a new law that cuts early voting, requires the polls to close an hour earlier, limits who can collect an absentee ballot and imposes criminal penalties for local election officials who don’t follow state guidance.
Florida lawmakers advanced a bill that would prohibit local officials from setting up drop boxes for mail-in ballots, something that was widely popular in 2020. “I’m at a loss for words,” one Republican local election official told Politico.
A new study found that mail-in voting neither boosted turnout nor benefited Democrats.
Republicans in Arizona continue to aggressively advance restrictions on mail-in voting. One measure that caught my eye yesterday was a bill that would require officials to reject a ballot that arrived by the close of the polls on election day if it was not also postmarked by the Thursday before the election. More The Western Sahara Conflict and Great Power Competition
On December 10, 2020, then-US President Donald Trump recognized Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara, circumventing a decades-long UN-sponsored peace process for the territory. In return, Morocco agreed to normalize relations with Israel.
The US-brokered agreement goes beyond a simple quid pro quo for Trump’s Arab peace deals. It represents a US investment in a North African security partner that is key to Washington’s conception of great power competition. Trump’s decision pulls Morocco closer to the US and the European Union. It also brings Rabat closer to the United Arab Emirates’ spheres of geopolitical influence in Africa and the wider Arab world. At the same time, the decision gives the EU cover to further align with Morocco.
Yet Trump’s gift to Morocco could have unintended consequences. Algeria might deepen its relationship with Russia and China, increasing their presence in the Maghreb region. The Biden administration is scrutinizing past deals signed by the previous president, and the decision pertaining to Morocco might come up for reconsideration.
Not All Quiet on the Western Sahara Front
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The Moroccan kingdom conceives of its neighborhood’s stability in terms of a strong grip on Western Sahara, the continued development of the southern territory’s resources, and limited terrorist threats in and around its porous Saharan borders. In late November 2020, the US committed to investing $3 billion in Morocco — through the Development Finance Corporation — and designated the country as a regional hub for its Prosper Africa trade and investment program. A month later, the US committed to selling four sky guardian drones to Morocco, which expands its intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) capacity. By acknowledging Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara, allotting Morocco more development funding and providing increased ISR, the US bolsters neighborhood stability as seen by King Mohammed VI.
In turn, increased stability for Morocco may reverberate across its littoral Sahara — a vacuum for terrorists and a potential target of Russian intrigue. New US development initiatives could amplify previous Moroccan actions in the region, such as the delivery of COVID-19 aid packages to Mauritania and Burkina Faso in June 2020. New ISR capacity will also see the increased interdiction of traffickers and terrorists, whose roles progressively overlap. These actions will not decisively change the nature of conflict plaguing the Sahel region, located just south of the Sahara Desert. But even marginal gains for Moroccan stability would decrease power vacuums for Russia to exploit with the Wagner Group, a private military company Moscow uses to surreptitiously advance its foreign policy.
Europe and the Gulf
Trump’s decision also provides political cover for the EU to overcome obstacles in its relationship with Morocco, which retains advanced status under the union’s European Neighborhood Policy. The Brussels-Rabat relationship is fraught with disputes over whether goods from Western Sahara should come under the jurisdiction of the EU-Morocco free trade agreement. Rulings in 2016 and 2018 by the European Court of Justice decreed that EU-Morocco trade and fishing agreements would only remain valid if they excluded goods originating from Western Sahara, contradicting the Moroccan autonomy plan for the territory.
Washington’s recognition of Moroccan sovereignty gives political cover to European states, including France, that lean toward the autonomy plan. European judicial decisions do not derive from US decrees, but if key EU member states were to change their stance on Western Sahara, the legal basis of the earlier court rulings could also differ. If so, like the US, the European Union would find itself pulled closer to Morocco, portending new initiatives that align with the European interest of Morocco as a stability exporter.
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In the Gulf, Washington’s recognition of Moroccan sovereignty pushes Rabat and Abu Dhabi closer into alignment. This would continue their rapprochement after previous tensions, which stemmed from Morocco’s refusal to back the Saudi-Emirati-led blockade of Qatar between 2017 and 2021. To punish Morocco for its neutrality, in 2018, the UAE and Saudi Arabia voted against Morocco’s bid to host the 2026 FIFA World Cup. The states also recalled each other’s ambassadors.
In October 2020, however, the UAE opened a consulate in Western Sahara’s Laayoune, which at that time was not recognized as Moroccan territory by the US. This was an important symbolic gesture, given that the UAE was the first Arab state to do so. UAE actions that favor Morocco come amidst deteriorating Emirati-Algerian relations, as Abu Dhabi is unhappy with Algeria’s alleged support of Turkey or, according to the UAE, “anti-Emirati lobbies in the region.” That the UAE is strengthening ties with Morocco while Saudi Arabia makes no such overtures could foreshadow Emirati attempts at constructing a new, intra-Sunni coalition.
Russia and China
US rivals have adopted less amenable stances. Russia has already condemned Washington’s recognition of Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara. The US decision, consequently, gives Russia and China an excuse to increase security and economic cooperation with the Algerians. As the most strident supporter of the Polisario Front — an armed group demanding independence for Western Sahara — Algeria is upset about the diplomatic win Morocco secured in the US recognition of Moroccan sovereignty.
To balance Rabat’s victory, Algiers could invite in Russian troops under the guise of counterterrorism operations to the Sahel. Algeria is one of Russia’s largest arms clients and China has already committed billions to phosphates in the east of the country. In light of the US move, both of these relationships could further develop.
Increased Russian and Chinese activity in Algeria would also diminish advances made in terms of Moroccan stability in the Sahel. Russia expanding its North African power projection and China increasing its investments in natural resources would balance Moroccan actions that close power vacuums to the Wagner Group. Unforeseen by Trump, Russia can also cite the US recognition of Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara as justification for its annexation in 2014 of Crimea, which is officially part of Ukraine. The US may have improved ties with Morocco but, in doing so, pushed Algeria, another North African behemoth, firmly into a sphere of Russian and Chinese influence and provided Russia justification for its illegal invasions.
The New US Administration
The Biden administration has already stated its support of the Abraham Accords, a term used for the peace deals Israel signed with the UAE and Bahrain in 2020. In response to a question concerning US recognition of Western Sahara, however, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said, “We’re also trying to make sure that we have a full understanding of any commitments that may have been made in securing those agreements.”
On January 27, 2021, US President Joe Biden froze the Trump-era F-35 sale to the UAE, pending review. Many considered the F-35 sale as a carrot Trump offered to the UAE. The freeze does not necessitate the reversal of the sale, but it indicates Biden’s resolve to scrutinize the quid pro quos that accompany the Abraham Accords. Once the US reaches “a full understanding of any commitments,” it will either continue or withdraw recognition of Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara.
If the Biden administration continues recognition of Western Sahara, Blinken would most likely work through an international framework at the United Nations to achieve increased support for Washington’s unilateral decision, as the US is the only state to recognize full Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara. If EU states lean toward the Moroccan autonomy plan, the Biden administration will find some find needed political cover.
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At the same time, Russia and China would continue their support for Algeria, and Morocco would export its version of stability across North Africa. Rabat would also continue its recognition of Israel. Malignant non-state actors, however, could use the endurance of the US decision to galvanize violent actions from some Polisario fighters, creating another opening for terrorist groups. Maintenance of the decision also comes at the expense of true self-determination for the Saharawi people in Western Sahara.
The US can also withdraw recognition of Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara. This action would see the White House realign with the UN-sponsored peace process and international law. Potentially, a US return to non-recognition would invigorate efforts toward a true autonomy plan. In this case, Morocco would withdraw its recognition of Israel and US relations with Morocco would cool. Although the US and Morocco would remain important partners, the Moroccans would feel betrayed by this decision and potentially align closer with Russia and China to castigate the Americans. The Polisario, moreover, would also find a renewed chance at some form of self-determination.
Regardless of the Biden administration’s actions, Trump blatantly circumvented a UN-sponsored peace process and gave Morocco a carte blanche to implement its autonomy plan. New US-Moroccan collaboration could see Morocco push Sahelian stability that benefits the US position in great power competition by closing power vacuums to Russian interests. Trump’s thirst for diplomatic wins, however, caused his administration to view Western Sahara through a transactional lens, obfuscating a legitimate international solution and potentially inviting new Russian and Chinese activity in North Africa.
*[Fair Observer is a media partner of Gulf State Analytics.]
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Fair Observer’s editorial policy. More
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The Green New Deal's time has come – but where has Labour's radicalism gone? | Adam Tooze
What a difference power makes.The past 18 months saw political defeats for the left on both sides of the Atlantic. Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership of the Labour party came to an end after a resounding Conservative victory. The Bernie Sanders campaign went down at the hands of the Democrat establishment. And yet the bitter irony of 2020 was that just as the political hopes of the left were dashed, the strategic analysis of the Green New Deal – the centrepiece of its policy vision – was spectacularly vindicated.The Green New Deal demanded that social and economic policy should be oriented towards the immediate planetary challenge of the environment. Its proponents, groups such as the Sunrise Movement, put a “just transition” front and centre; this means fairly managing the social harms such as unemployment that would arise from an accelerated shift away from fossil fuels. Then, as if on cue, the coronavirus arrived, and delivered a devastating “inequality shock” forcing even the likes of the Financial Times to talk about a new social contract.The Green New Deal’s politics emerged from a recognition of the fact that there was unfinished business from the financial crisis of 2008; climate activists warned that we were harnessed to a dangerous financial flywheel and demanded that finance be turned in a constructive direction. The thinking was based on the notion that the status quo was the one thing that we could not have: the events of 2020 confirmed precisely how dangerous and precarious our reality is.In the US, this feeling was compounded by Donald Trump’s terrifying antics and the killing of George Floyd. Even Joe Biden, as centrist as it gets, has been moved to speak of four converging crises – Covid-19, the economy, racial justice and the climate. Nor is this merely a rhetorical framing. The Biden administration has assimilated a large part of the Sanders agenda. The double stimulus programmes planned for 2021 are unprecedented. The administration is clearly serious about climate. It is forced, by the balance of power inside the Democratic party, to put race and environmental justice at the heart of its policies.This assimilation of the left programme into the centre is made possible by victory. It is based on a confidence that a broad-church progressive coalition can win a majority in the US. Furthermore, the Republicans have done the Democrats the favour of vacating the middle ground almost entirely.The contrast to the UK is painful. Reeling from its bitter defeat, languishing in the opinion polls, Keir Starmer’s Labour party diagnoses a polycrisis too, but it consists not of issues of global significance, but of Brexit, the collapse of the “red wall” and the question of Scotland. Questions of identity overshadow everything. Rather than seriously questioning what the nation might be, as the combination of Trump and Black Lives Matter is forcing liberal America to do, Labour appears to be content with trying to reclaim the union flag from the Conservative party.Starmer’s long-awaited “big speech” last month was an exercise in sophomoric national cliche. He managed to be sentimental even in the passages about British business. References to the blitz and 1945 formed the anchor. The climate crisis got a single line, with one other passing reference. The Mais lecture by the shadow chancellor, in January, was weightier. Unlike Starmer, Anneliese Dodds did in fact seriously discuss the climate emergency, but it is no longer the organising framework that it once was, no longer the pacesetter, the imperative to action. The only thing that matters is to convince some key voters that Labour is responsible enough to be trusted as a steward of the economy. Though “acceleration” was one of Dodds’s key terms – a reference to the way the pandemic has amplified pre-existing trends such as flexible working and digitalisation – she managed nevertheless to offer a curiously muted vision of the huge challenges facing the UK and the world economy.No doubt the pollsters have fine-tuned these messages with target segments of the electorate. But if you do not belong to that audience, if you understand your identity to be complex and multiple, if you have ever been on the bitter end of the politics of patriotism, then flag-waving repels. If a little thought about society and politics has taught you to regard “common sense” as the most dangerous of snares, you cannot but worry about a party so desperate to please the Daily Mail.Labour’s retreat from radicalism means that the initiative belongs to the Johnson government. Having done Brexit, it can look to the future. It leads even on climate. After destroying the miners union in the 1980s, the Tories may end up presiding over historic decarbonisation. After vaccines they will claim Britain’s hosting of Cop26 as a victory too. Ahead of the 2024 election, the Tories will no doubt pivot to “fiscal responsibility”, but as the budget makes clear, they are spending as the situation demands. Labour is left to harp on value for money.The independent Bank of England created by Gordon Brown is now merrily buying bonds to finance Rishi Sunak’s spending. Whereas experts aligned with the Labour party were once leading a global conversation about redefining central bank independence in a progressive direction, the shadow chancellor now proposes to treat its independence as inviolable. Not so the Tory chancellor, who has added climate to the bank’s mandate.No doubt the Corbynite left was too in love with its own radicalism. But the Green New Deal was not radicalism for its own sake. It was radical because reality demanded it. Faced with the 2008 global financial crisis and its aftermath, the world historic presence of China, Trump, the escalating climate crisis, and an unprecedented global pandemic, what more is needed to demonstrate this point? A politics that does not want to mobilise around these challenges, which prefers to deal in patriotic pastiche, forfeits any claim to be progressive.The disinhibited politics of the new global right recognises this radical reality, though in the form of fantasy, denial and conspiracy. Global capital is swinging full tilt behind its own version of a Green New Deal. Hundreds of billions is now sloshing into renewable energy. The restructuring and job losses about to happen in the global automotive industry will put every previous reorganisation in the shade.In the age of the great acceleration, Corbyn’s politics at least rose to the challenge of recognising that the future would be different. Labour’s new look – the Little Britain to come – promises a nostalgic road back to the future. It is, in reality, a dangerous dead end. More
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Biden pledges surplus vaccines will be shared with the rest of the world – video
The US president has pledged surplus vaccines will be shared with the rest of the world, after he announced the purchase of an additional 100m Johnson & Johnson doses. ‘If we have a surplus, we’re going to share it with the rest of the world,’ he said. ‘This is not something that can be stopped by a fence no matter how high you build a fence or a wall. So we’re not going to be safe until the world is safe. And so, we’re going to start off making sure Americans are taken care of first, but we’re then going to try and help the rest of the world.’ The president reiterated plans to have all American adults vaccinated by the end of May and revealed the country hit a record of 2.9m vaccinations in one day on Saturday
Coronavirus live news: at least 3,000 nurses have died in year since WHO declared Covid pandemic More - in Elections
'Help is on the way': Democrats cheer as US House passes $1.9tn Covid relief plan – video
The House of Representatives gave final approval on Wednesday to one of the largest economic stimulus measures in US history, a sweeping $1.9tn Covid-19 relief bill that gives Joe Biden his first major victory in office. The measure provides $400bn for $1,400 direct payments to most Americans, $350bn in aid to state and local governments, an expansion of the child tax credit, and increased funding for vaccine distribution. ‘This is the most consequential legislation that many of us will ever be a party to,’ the House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, said at a ceremony to sign the bill before it goes to the White House
US House passes $1.9tn Covid relief plan in major legislative victory for Biden
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