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White House pushes for health-only budget package post-Manchin

The White House on Monday called for senators to move forward with a slimmed-down, health care-only reconciliation package before their August recess, saying that Democrats are “on the cusp” of beating the pharmaceutical industry. 

“The president’s going to continue to work with Congress to make sure that we’re lowering costs for the American families like prescription drugs, for example. And if we are able to do that, we are on the cusp…to making a really winning against one of the wealthiest, special interest groups, which is Big Pharma,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said. 

“All of these things are important to note and again, we’re just going to continue doing the work,” she added. 

Biden on Friday told senators to move forward with a health care-only budget reconciliation package after Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) struck a blow to his agenda over its tax and climate provisions, which Biden said he will address through executive action. 

Manchin had said that if Democrats move the budget reconciliation bill in August, he will only support a provision to lower prescription drug prices and a two-year extension of expiring health insurance subsidies under the Affordable Care Act.  

“You saw the President’s statement just recently, if the Senate doesn’t act on that, and doesn’t take action on climate, he has a contingency plan which is using his executive authority to make sure that we take on climate, climate change in a way that’s going to be effective,” Jean-Pierre said on Monday. 

Jared Bernstein, a member of the Council of Economic Advisers, said earlier in the briefing that Biden has made it a goal of tackling the high cost of prescription drugs when he was vice president. 

“That just resonated with him, I think probably ever since he’s been aware of the issue, and achieving that would be an absolutely landmark goal,” Bernstein said. 

Schumer is pushing to move the reconciliation package to the floor before September, to align with when states plan to announce premium increases under the Affordable Care Act next month.   

Bernstein also touted Biden’s legislative experience, saying he would work to get the best deal possible and would seek a new path if one is cut off.

“Joe Biden is someone who’s been pulling legislative rabbits out of hats for 30 for three or four decades now. And he’s going to continue to do so,” he added. 

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House Democrats tout bill to add four seats to Supreme Court

A group of House Democrats called for legislation on Monday that would add four seats to the Supreme Court, lamenting a “ultra right-wing” branch that just overturned the Roe v. Wade decision on abortion rights. 

The eight lawmakers cited recent SCOTUS decisions that rolled back Miranda rights, threw out a New York gun control law and allowed religion to surface in schools — as well as the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health decision that overturned the right to abortion in Roe — in saying there was a need to add new justices to the court.

Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.), the lead sponsor of the 2021 Judiciary Act, called the current makeup “a Supreme Court at crisis with itself and with our democracy,” where “basic freedoms are under assault” from the 6-3 conservative supermajority on the bench.

SCOTUS isn’t susceptible to the popular vote the way Congress is, Johnson said, and it’s used that to amass power. “It’s making decisions that usurp the power of the legislative and executive branches,” he said.

Facing Republican opposition and some Democratic skepticism, the bill has little chance of becoming law, but it illustrates the deep anger among progressive Democrats about the court’s direction under three conservative justices nominated by former President Trump: Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett.

Those three justices have radically altered the direction of the court, which now has twice as many conservative justices as liberal ones. Kavanaugh replaced Justice Anthony Kennedy, a previous swing vote who had been nominated to the court by a Republican, while Coney Barrett replaced liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Adding to Democratic anger, a GOP Senate blocked former President Obama’s last nominee to the court, Merrick Garland, who is now the attorney general. Gorsuch ended up being nominated to the court in place of Garland.

Introduced last year, the Judiciary Act has not progressed in Congress.

Some Democrats wary of the proposal are concerned that expansion would open the court up for Republicans to push more of their nominees into the openings. 

“The nightmare scenario of GOP court-packing is already upon us,” said Rep. Mondaire Jones (D-NY). “That’s how they got this far-right 6-3 majority in the first place.” 

Lawmakers at Monday’s press conference, hosted by the Take Back the Court Action Fund, blamed Trump and the conservative legal movement for enabling a partisan court.

Republican politicians made controlling the judicial branch part of their platform, said Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif.), adding that the court has “gone rogue” and “become a radical institution.” 

The lawmakers also emphasized that the longevity of the life-long terms the sitting justices are now serving makes action to expand the court more urgent. 

Of 72-year-old conservative Justice Samuel Alito, Johnson said: “You can see the gleam in his eye as he thinks about what he wants to do to decimate the rights of people and put us back in the Dark Ages.”

Trump-nominated Gorsuch, Coney-Barrett and Kavanaugh, in their 50s, are “gonna be there for a while,” Johnson said. 

Congress has changed the number of seats on the nation’s highest court seven times in the nation’s history. The new proposal would bring the total seat count to thirteen, meaning a decision from the court would need a 7-6 majority, rather than the present 5-4.

Reps. Andy Levin (D-Mich.), Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-NJ), Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) and Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) were also at the conference, along with Sen. Ed Markey (D), who sponsored the bill in the Senate, and a handful of progressive activists. 

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Penguin Random House erects billboards displaying work from LGBTQ writers in response to recent book bans

Publishing giant Penguin Random House posted billboards in half a dozen cities featuring quotes from books written by LGBTQ authors.  

The billboards, illustrated by lettering artist Kyle Letendre, were launched during Pride month and were on display in New York City, Chicago, Dallas, Orlando, Miami and Austin.  

The publishing goliath chose to erect the billboards in the Texas and Florida cities in response to a slew of anti-LGBTQ legislation introduced or passed in both state legislatures this year.  

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Most of the bills are impacting education, like Florida’s Parental Rights in Education law, otherwise known as the “Don’t Say Gay” law, or health like the number of bills targeting gender-affriming treatment for trans youth in Texas.  

“We wanted people in these places to have the chance to see — and truly understand— the power in these words to inspire conversation and move us toward a better future,” a Penguin Random House spokesperson said.  

Meanwhile, billboards were posted in New York and Chicago since both cities have a means of giving the campaign a broader reach, the spokesperson added.  

The billboards were up for most of June and taken down early this month but could possibly come back in the future.  

“PRH is currently in the process of working with its LGBTQ+ Network on creating a roadmap for the remainder of 2022 and into 2023, so it’s likely they’ll be activating in these places again, we just don’t know exactly how yet,” the spokesperson said in an email to Changing America.  

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The Fed can fight inflation and unemployment — Here’s how

By now, anyone who has been following the financial news understands that the Federal Reserve faces a steep challenge: to achieve a “soft landing” that reduces inflation without spiking unemployment and causing a recession. Engineering this landing has historically proven difficult, especially in cases like today’s where inflation and nominal GDP (NGDP, or total spending in the economy) growth are both very high. International shocks like the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war have also contributed to rising prices, making it difficult to distinguish the causes of inflation.

Although it’s unclear if the Fed can actually pull off a soft landing, it can take a big step toward avoiding — or at least mitigating — a recession by promising to bring one specific measure — NGDP growth — back to its pre-pandemic trend.

As you may remember from economics class, NGDP growth is the sum of economic growth (in terms of real GDP) plus inflation. In 2021, real GDP growth was 5.7 percent and inflation was 6.1 percent, making NGDP growth 11.8 percent. This was much higher than the pre-pandemic trend of roughly 4 percent growth. While higher real GDP growth suggests higher living standards, excessively high NGDP growth is a recipe for persistent inflation.

NGDP targeting has at least two big advantages over the Fed’s current approach which are particularly well-suited for today’s situation:

First, under an NGDP target, the Fed would not have to worry about inflation from supply shocks, which increase or decrease the supply of goods and cause prices to change. If a central bank misreads a supply shock for a more serious inflation problem and then tightens monetary policy to slow the economy, it can end up exacerbating economic pain.

This is exactly what the Fed did in 2008 when high oil and commodity prices caused it to worry about inflation when the real problem was a slowing economy. First, the Fed signaled plans to raise its benchmark interest rate, the federal funds rate, and then it failed to sufficiently cut the rate even as a financial crisis intensified.

By contrast, a nominal GDP-targeting central bank only tightens policy if NGDP grows above trend. Thus, it can more easily discern between inflation it should respond to and price shocks it should ignore.

Second, NGDP targeting allows the Fed to simplify its goals. The Fed has a congressional mandate to produce price stability (low inflation) and maximum employment. By simply targeting NGDP instead, the Fed could indirectly stabilize both variables. It hits two birds with one stone.

To understand why, we need to recognize that while monetary policy determines “nominal” variables like inflation and NGDP, it only temporarily affects employment. Employment is ultimately a “real” variable determined by non-monetary factors like workers’ education and skills.

In the 1970s, the Fed pursued a policy to achieve low unemployment until it determined inflation had become too high. But because monetary policy cannot affect long-run employment, this policy only led to high inflation.

Today, the Fed is in a similar bind, though not as acute. If it sees unemployment rising, it may be tempted to stop tightening policy even if inflation is still well above trend. NGDP targeting offers a way out.

If unemployment rises and NGDP growth falls below target, the Fed would know it’s time to ease monetary policy and let the economy catch up. By contrast, if unemployment edges up but NGDP growth is still above target, the central bank should continue to tighten policy. Although NGDP targeting allows inflation to fluctuate modestly in response to business cycle conditions, the public can be confident about the average inflation rate over the long run. That also means the Fed can embrace NGDP targeting while remaining committed to its goal of 2 percent inflation over time.

Critics of NGDP targeting note that this data only comes out quarterly, while inflation data comes out monthly. To overcome this challenge, the Mercatus Center at George Mason University has a new monthly forecast of the “NGDP Gap” — the percentage difference between a “neutral” level of NGDP that is neither inflationary nor deflationary and actual NGDP.

Currently, the gap is expected to grow for the next two quarters before gradually falling, suggesting that monetary policy is still not tight enough. As my colleague, David Beckworth, and I show in a recent study, this measure would have forecasted both a slowing economy in 2008 and the 2021-22 inflation surge.

High inflation today is the result of the Fed’s past mistakes as well as factors beyond its control. Regardless of whether the United States avoids a recession, NGDP targeting offers a practical way to minimize the pain from both inflation and unemployment.

Patrick Horan is a research fellow with the Mercatus Center at George Mason University.

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White House calls Uvalde shooting report 'devastating'

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Monday called a new report detailing the inaction of officers during the Uvalde, Texas, school shooting “devastating” and “unacceptable.”

President Biden was aware of the report, which was released Sunday, Jean-Pierre told reporters at a briefing.

“I will say this: It is devastating… and frankly unacceptable, the report that came out just yesterday. It adds on more questions to how law enforcement reacted,” she said.

Jean-Pierre noted the Department of Justice is doing an independent review of actions by law enforcement in response to the shooting.

A Texas House investigative committee on Sunday released a scathing 77-page report detailing law enforcement failures in the response to the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in May that killed 19 children and two teachers.

In total, 376 law enforcement officers responded to the scene, but the classroom where the shooter was located was not breached for more than an hour, according to the document.

The report determined that despite the massive response, no individual or department appeared to take a leadership role to coordinate and direct a quick response to the incident.

Much of the criticism in the wake of the shooting centered around Pete Arredondo, the then-chief of the Uvalde school district police. The report identifies Arredondo as the natural person to take the role based on the agency’s training and policies.

“The void of leadership could have contributed to the loss of life as injured victims waited over an hour for help, and the attacker continued to sporadically fire his weapon,” the report stated.

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Netflix braces for critical earnings call after challenging year

Netflix will share its earnings information and outlook going forward on Tuesday after a rocky year in which it faced falling subscription rates and increasing competition.

Tuesday’s call will be the streaming service giant’s first briefing on its quarterly earnings since sharing in April that the company lost 200,000 subscribers — its first subscriber loss in more than 10 years.

Netflix is now looking to incorporate advertising models into the platform after years of holding off on the ad-based plans offered by competitors. But the company is balancing a delicate scale by offering the model that may appease investors while trying not to disturb consumers accustomed to the ad-free streaming. 

Analysts will be watching closely to see if Netflix can carry out the trapeze act — of if it will fall.

“If Netflix can thread the needle of adding revenue via an ad-supported tier without cannibalizing its high value subscribers in Western markets, it could be positive for the market value,” said Neil Macker, senior equity analyst at Morningstar. 

Netflix last week partnered with Microsoft for advertising and technology as it moves forward with offering lower-priced, ad-supported subscription plans. The company told employees in a note the ads may come by the end of the year, The New York Times reported in May.

Offering a lower-priced plan that includes advertising may be more critical to limiting a loss of subscribers, rather than attracting new customers, said Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter. 

“I don’t think consumers would embrace ads if it was mandated. So if they just said, ‘Sorry, we’re going to have an hour of ads, period, everyone’s got to suffer through it.’ But if they make it optional, that ‘Hey, you will never see an ad on Netflix if you pay full price, and you have the option of signing up for less than full price and getting ads,’ no one’s going to complain about that. That’s your choice,” Pachter said. 

Analysts are expecting Netflix to report even steeper subscription losses in the three months since the bleak April report.

The company warned shareholders in April that it expects a drop in subscriptions to continue and forecasted a global paid subscriber loss of 2 million for the second quarter. 

“I think what we’re looking for is subscriber growth and explaining to us how they intend to limit churn and why that’s a good thing,” Pachter said. 

In addition to the forthcoming ad-supported model, Netflix is also cracking down on password sharing.

In the April letter to shareholders, the company outlined monetizing account sharing as a primary focus. The company started testing features, first in Latin America, for current members to have the choice to pay for additional households on their plan. 

Traditional media companies diving into streaming more aggressively are a big challenge for Netflix.

Disney+ and HBO Max are closing a subscriber gap with Netflix, although the company remains the market leader, Macker said in a Morningstar report. 

Macker said that traditional media firms have an advantage in that they can leverage existing customer relationships and existing content libraries with franchises to generate new programming. 

Disney+ has a host of exclusive shows tied to the Marvel and Star Wars franchises owned under the Disney umbrella. Disney even pulled in Marvel-tied shows that were released on Netflix before Disney+ launched, such as “Daredevil,” “Jessica Jones” and “Luke Cage.”

Macker predicted the recently closed merger between WarnerMedia, which owns HBO Max, and Discovery will also create a “viable global challenger” not only to Netflix, but also to Disney. 

Pachter said there is room for the competitors within the streaming market, however.

“Is McDonald’s as good as Denny’s or Applebee’s? And the answer is no. Are Denny’s and Applebee’s as good as Ruth’s Chris or Morton’s Steakhouse? And the answer is no. So they’re all in their own niche,” he said. 

“I’ve never heard anybody say, ‘Oh my god a steakhouse just opened on the block, McDonald’s is going out of business.’ Nobody would ever say that. And yet, ‘Oh, HBO is going to streaming. Oh, Netflix is going to zero.’ No, people consume both. They’re just different,” he added. 

In 2011, Pachter said he predicted that if streaming was successful, owners of content would pull shows from Netflix to use for their own services. While that narrative has played out, Pachter said he was wrong on the timing. 

It took longer for traditional companies to set up their own streaming services, giving Netflix time to create its own library with some original content. Netflix has had some programming misses, but it also has the widely popular “Stranger Things” series that released a two-part penultimate season this summer. 

Netflix’s most expensive film yet will be released on the platform Friday, following a limited theatrical release last week. The platform paid $200 million for Anthony and Joe Russo’s “The Gray Man,” The New York Times reported.

The spy film starring Chris Evans and Ran Gosling could lead to a larger franchise of content from the Russos, the brothers behind two of the biggest Marvel films in “Avengers: Infinity War” and “Avengers: Endgame.”

Pachter said Netflix has to adjust its expectations and find its spot in a more crowded environment that also includes Apple TV, Amazon, Peacock and Paramount plus.

“They have to give up on being the hyper growth company that is going to dominate the world and say, ‘Nope, there’s a place for us,’” he said. 

“We think it’s zero sum and it’s not, there’s room for three or four guys. They just have to frame it that way,” he added. 

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Triple-digit heat is killing us and our economy: What to do?

Weather conditions are setting up for a brutal heat wave over the Southern Plains of the U.S., with unusual heat likely bleeding further north, east and west. We’ve seen this before, but it’s getting worse almost every year as part of a regular summer succession of extreme heat waves, heat-supercharged megadrought, flash drought, water crisis and wildfire. Then as the summer wanes, the hurricane season will continue to tap the growing heat of the atmosphere and ocean to push to new heights of death and destruction. We’re causing the planet to rapidly heat up — and the heat is killing us, literally and figuratively.

Summer is the season of worsening extreme heat in the Northern Hemisphere. Last year, North America endured multiple heat waves, but the one in the Pacific Northwest captured the most headlines. Record-breaking heat led to over 1000 deaths in the U.S. and Canada. The same heat sparked wildfires that scoured thousands of square miles and even destroyed an entire town. All told, the heat wave caused almost $10 billion in damages, and research has determined that this disaster would not have happened without climate change.

What will the upcoming 2022 heat wave bring? The U.S. is not alone in facing this challenge. So far this summer, deadly heat waves have swept much of southern Asia and Europe. In March, April and May, a prolonged and deadly heat wave gripped India and Pakistan. May witnessed a record-breaking heat wave across Southern Europe as well. The Middle East also saw unprecedented heat. Unprecedented heat waves have also been roasting China since June, and now Europe is once again entering a wave of extreme heat across the continent and into the United Kingdom. As is often the case, drought and wildfire crises are inevitable companions to record heat.

More than any other climate extreme, the role of global warming in driving hotter and hotter heat waves is crystal clear. Farmers, water managers, public health experts and most citizens can recognize this connection just as easily as climate scientists. Recent research has revealed how climate change made this year’s record-breaking temperatures in India and Pakistan much more likely, and how continued climate change will increase the odds of even more extreme heat waves in the future. Similarly, the number of people exposed to extremely hot weather is rising fast everywhere — including in the U.S.

Increasing heat wave severity will extract a major toll on human lives and livelihoods. The human body can only take so much heat without damage; absent significant precautions, people working, living and recreating outdoors are highly susceptible. If a heat wave coincides with high air pollution, the risk of death jumps by 21 percent. Low-income and marginalized communities are hard hit, especially those who can’t afford the high cost of air conditioning. As more electricity is used for cooling, power outages from an overtaxed electricity grid can increase the human death toll.

I’ve already highlighted that the relentless increase in record heat is leading to more severe droughts, water crises and wildfires. And as every gardener and farmer knows, plants will wilt and die faster if there is too much heat and not enough water. Agricultural impacts of heat and drought will add to the potential of a global food catastrophe brought on by the war in Ukraine. The less affluent and marginalized communities around the globe will suffer the most, as staple foods become unaffordable or unavailable.

Our growing global warming and heat wave problem is scorching our economy in many ways, racking up a trillion-dollar-plus price tag in the U.S. alone. Impacts are often highest locally where extreme heat occurs, but global supply chains are also at increasing risk due to heat-supercharged extremes, including drought, wildfire, flooding and deadly storms. The growing number and severity of heat-driven extreme weather events around the planet are adding to the pressures that choke supply chains and drive inflation.

So, what can we to do about our rapidly growing problem with extreme heat?

First, we can address the cause. We know why extreme heat and heat waves are getting worse. Climate change, caused mainly by the burning of coal, oil and natural gas, is the primary reason we’re getting global warming and the relentless worsening of extreme heat events. A majority of Americans recognize that global warming is happening and that human activities are to blame. Climate scientists are near-unanimous in calling for a transition from fossil fuels to clean renewable energy and most Americans agree. We need Congress to act, now.

Only aggressive climate action can stop the trend to more extreme heat and the supercharged weather disasters that result. And only by acting on climate change will we keep the costs of the worsening heat crisis from getting higher in terms of human lives, suffering and our economy.

And while costs of oil and gas are skyrocketing, renewable energy and other clean energy technologies are only getting cheaper and cheaper. As an added benefit, leaving the fossil fuel era behind will deny Russian President Vladimir Putin and other petro-thugs the ability to fund their dictatorships and wars. Action on climate change has many benefits.

Jonathan Overpeck, Ph.D., is a climate scientist, professor and dean of the School for Environment and Sustainability at the University of Michigan. He has researched drought, climate variability and climate change on five continents. Follow him on Twitter: @GreatLakesPeck

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CNN's Margaret Hoover slams Ted Cruz for 'pandering to the bigots'

CNN political commentator Margaret Hoover accused Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) on Monday of “pandering to the bigots” after the senator said states should decide laws on marriage equality.

Hoover pointed out on CNN’s “New Day” that the Texas Republican Party adopted a platform this year that refers to being gay as abnormal and conservative U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas said he wanted to revisit the case of Obergefell V. Hodges, which legalized same-sex marriage in 2015.

“Let’s just be reminded that Ted Cruz is pandering not just to the base of the Republican Party but to the worst kind of bigotry in the Republican Party,” Hoover argued. “All of this is circular inanity and pandering to the bigots.”

Cruz on Saturday compared Obergefell V. Hodges to Roe V. Wade, which the Supreme Court overturned last month along with the 50-year constitutional right to abortion.

“Obergefell, like Roe v. Wade, ignored two centuries of our nation’s history,” the Texas lawmaker said during an episode of his podcast show “Verdict With Ted Cruz.”

He added that marriage laws had always been left to the states and the democratic process, calling the Supreme Court’s ruling in Obergefell “wrong” and “overreaching.”

Cruz also explained there was not a “mass movement” to overturn Obergefell V. Hodges like there was to overturn Roe V. Wade, speculating there was not enough appetite on the court to rescind the case.

In his concurring opinion on overturning Roe V. Wade, Thomas said he wanted to revisit the right to same-sex marriage, as well as the right to contraception and privacy in the bedroom, drawing swift condemnation from human rights activists and a petition to remove him from the court.

Other Supreme Court justice have not joined his calls. Fellow conservative Justice Samuel Alito, who wrote the majority opinion in the case overturning Roe V. Wade, said rescinding Roe had no bearing on other precedents.

On Monday, Hoover said Americans should not be “naive” about the Supreme Court’s conservative majority turning its attention to those cases.

Around 77 percent of Americans support same-sex marriage, including 55 percent of Republicans, Hoover said, but two-thirds of Americans had supported abortion rights before Roe V. Wade was overturned.

“You can’t be naive when they’re threatening fundamental rights anymore if you thought that nothing would have ever happened to Roe,” she said.

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Deshaun Watson, NFLPA planning to sue NFL if he's suspended for a full year: report

Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson, along with NFL players union NFLPA, are reportedly planning to sue the league if he’s suspended for a full season amid allegations of sexual assault.

Charles Robinson of Yahoo! Sports reported on Monday that the NFLPA and Watson’s camp have already decided to sue the league if a full-year suspension is handed down in Watson’s case. 

The league recently recommend a full-year suspension for Watson during a slew of court hearings last month on what type of disciplinary action the star quarterback would face. The hearings came after mounting allegations of sexual misconduct committed by Watson during massage therapy appointments.

The league will go with any decision Judge Sue Robinson makes in disciplinary action. But the league will also appeal if they are unsatisfied with the decision, such as if she rules that Watson shouldn’t be suspended at all, Yahoo! Sports reported. 

An NFL spokesperson declined to comment to The Hill when asked about the possibility of the lawsuit.

Watson and his legal counsel recently reached settlements with 20 of the 24 women who have filed lawsuits against the quarterback, accusing Watson of exposing himself, touching them with his penis or kissing them without their consent during scheduled appointments through the years 2020 and 2021. 

Watson, a three-time Pro Bowl selection at quarterback, sat out for most of the 2021 NFL season due to the ongoing allegations and was then traded to the Cleveland Browns in March for multiple draft picks, also signing a fully guaranteed contract with the team as well. 

A New York Times report last month detailed that the former University of Clemson standout booked more than 60 massage appointments within a 17-month period and obtained nondisclosure agreements (NDAs) from the Texans’ staff as well. 

Two separate grand juries in Texas earlier this year declined to indict Watson on the sexual assault allegations against him, meaning the star quarterback won’t face any criminal charges. 

The Houston Texans announced they have reached confidential settlements with 30 women who have made claims that the organization has enabled Watson’s behavior toward women in massage therapy appointments. 

In a statement, the McNair family, majority owners of the Texans, denied any wrongdoing in the matter, adding that this move is a “clear stand against any form of sexual assault and misconduct.” 

“We hope that today’s resolution will provide some form of closure to the parties involved, our fans and the Houston community at large, the McNair family said. “As an organization, we will now turn our focus to the future and doing what we can to ensure respect for all.”

The Hill has reached out to the Cleveland Browns and NFLPA for comment and more information.

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