Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) tested positive for COVID-19, his office announced on Wednesday.
“After experiencing mild symptoms, @SenatorMenendez tested positive for #COVID19,” Menendez’s communications director, Francisco Pelayo, tweeted. “He’s following @CDCgov guidelines while working remotely for the people of NJ. The senator is in good spirits and incredibly thankful to have been fully vaccinated and boosted.”
Menendez is the third Democratic senator to test positive for the virus this week.
Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) announced he tested positive earlier on Wednesday while in India for a planned eight-day trip as part of an economic delegation. His office said Ossoff would isolate in the country and expects to return to the United States next week.
Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) will also miss votes this week, his office said. Burr is recovering from hip replacement surgery, but the North Carolina Republican said he similarly expects to return to Washington next week.
The three lawmakers’ diagnoses and Burr’s absence comes as the Senate returns to the Capitol this week after a multi-week recess.
With the Senate’s 50-50 makeup, any absence can swing the odds of a piece of legislation’s success if lawmakers vote strictly along party lines.
Democrats are also looking to pass a bill that would protect marriage equality on the federal level by requiring that states recognize marriages performed legally in other states. However, infected lawmakers’ offices indicated they plan to return next week, likely before a vote.
Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said on Wednesday he will bring a vote to the floor “in the coming weeks” as Democrats look to garner Republican support since the bill would require at least 10 Republican votes if all Democrats vote in favor.
The Senate also has to pass government funding and reauthorize Food and Drug Administration user fees before Sept. 30.
The Federal Reserve’s top regulatory watchdog said Wednesday the bank will test out ways next year meant to help financial firms figure out the risks they face from climate change and climate-related events.
Fed Vice Chair of Supervision Michael Barr said in a Wednesday speech the bank will launch a pilot exercise next year for the major banks it supervises to help get a better sense of the risks climate change poses to the financial system. The exercise would likely require firms to explain how several different climate-related financial shocks would affect their books and ability to serve customers.
“The Federal Reserve is working to understand how climate change may pose risks to individual banks and to the financial system,” Barr said in a Wednesday speech at the Brookings Institution, a non-partisan think tank.
Barr’s remarks were his first since being confirmed to the Fed in July as the bank’s top regulatory official. As vice chair of supervision, Barr spearheads the Fed’s oversight of major financial firms, including the Fed’s annual stress testing of the largest U.S. banks.
“The Federal Reserve’s mandate in this area is important, but narrow, focused on our supervisory responsibilities and our role in promoting a safe and stable financial system,” Barr said.
Since President Biden’s election in 2020, the Fed has moved toward studying the various ways climate change and a global shift away from fossil fuel energy could affect the financial system.
Financial experts say banks and financial firms could face steep losses as the pace and intensity of natural disasters increase, causing massive insurance payouts and reducing the value of properties in areas prone to extreme weather. A steep, steady reduction in fossil fuel usage and uptake of renewable energy sources could also trigger shockwaves through the financial system.
While central banks and financial watchdogs around the world have largely agreed on the need to assess climate-related financial risks, the issue is politically divisive in the U.S.
Democrats have long pushed the Fed and other financial regulators to pay closer attention to the ways climate change could rattle the financial system. Some progressive lawmakers and activists have also called on the federal government to steer financing away from fossil fuel-related projects and toward initiatives meant to fight climate change.
Fed officials from both parties have said the bank should and will study the ways climate change could pose risks to the banks it regulates, but have refused to use its regulatory power in pursuit of climate-related goals.
Those assurances have done little to convince Republican lawmakers, who have blasted the Fed for even considering climate-related financial risks and accused the bank of plotting against politically disfavored industries.
A South Carolina judge this week ruled that authorizing the execution of inmates by firing squad or the electric chair is unconstitutional.
In a 39-page opinion issued Tuesday, 5th Judicial Circuit Court Judge Jocelyn Newman said South Carolina “turned back the clock and became the only state in the country in which a person may be forced into the electric chair if he refuses to elect how he will die.”
“In doing so, the General Assembly ignored advances in scientific research and evolving standards of humanity and decency,” Newman wrote, arguing that executing death row inmates by firing squad or electric chair violates the state’s constitution protecting against cruel, corporal and unusual punishments.
The ruling means the state is barred from executing inmates by those methods, but Gov. Henry McMaster (R) said he plans to appeal the case to a higher court, according to The State.
South Carolina has not carried out an execution since 2011 because the state cannot procure the chemicals needed to execute inmates through lethal injection.
Pharmaceutical companies have shied away from providing the necessary materials for lethal injection amid pressure to not support executions. In South Carolina, laws to help procure the drugs have failed to pass in the state legislature.
Lawmakers passed legislation last year that codified death by firing squad into law, giving death row inmates the option to choose between lethal injection, firing squad or the electric chair.
With the state unable to procure the materials for lethal injection, that gives inmates two options, with the electric chair the default.
In March, South Carolina’s Department of Corrections said they were ready to carry out executions by firing squad after spending $53,000 renovating the death chamber of Capital Punishment Facility at Broad River Correctional Institution in Columbia.
Several civil rights organizations spoke out against the planned executions, including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of South Carolina and South Carolinians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty.
Hillary Taylor, interim director for the anti-death penalty group, said in May that “we do not believe that death has a place – that execution has a place – in our criminal justice system.”
“One in nine sentences has to be overturned,” Taylor said in a statement. “If we had airplanes where one in nine planes crashed, there would be a problem, and we would stop that. Within the executions we have done, there have been at least six cases of botched executions with the electric chair.”
The state is looking to execute several death row inmates, including Richard Moore, who was convicted in 2001 for the murder of a convenience store clerk.
Moore and three other inmates filed a case in May 2021 to contest the execution methods by firing squad and electric chair.
The South Carolina Supreme Court granted a temporary stay in May of this year after the inmates filed amended complaints ahead of their execution dates in the spring.
The 5th Circuit Court heard arguments in August, with experts testifying that firing squads and the electric chair are not perfect methods and can result in excruciating pain for inmates when botched. Other experts called by the state testified that inmates would lose consciousness relatively quickly and thus avoid suffering.
Judge Newman agreed with the plaintiffs in her ruling this week, writing that in an execution by electric chair — a method only available in seven other states — inmates “continue to move, breathe, and even scream after the shock is administered,” while using a firing squad “constitutes torture” if fired ammunition does not fully incapacitate the heart.
“Because both methods are unconstitutional, the statute’s creation of an inmate’s right ‘to elect the manner of their execution’ is violated by the fact that an inmate does not have a choice between two constitutional methods of execution,” the judge wrote.
“But we know that when white folks take up space and say the right thing in rooms of other white people, that is the most shifting activity that can happen, more sometimes than any protest or any person writing a letter to the editor or anything like that. And we need men to be speaking up in that way as well,” Ocasio-Cortez said.
“But I think men, sometimes they think, I’m not a woman. This doesn’t affect me the most.”
Her comments were part of a sweeping feature in GQ, highlighting her ascension as a leading progressive on Congress, her struggles with both parties and the recent overturning of Roe.
Ocasio-Cortez said that men are also adversely impacted by the patriarchy, adding that they, too, benefit from the advancement of women’s rights, like the right to abortion.
“For almost every woman that has gotten an abortion, there’s a man who has either been affected or liberated by that abortion too,” Ocasio-Cortez said.
She also cited higher completed suicide rates and lower counts of doctor visits among men, underscoring a societal “stigma around men being vulnerable” that she asserted holds both men and women back.
“In this moment it’s really only going to be the vulnerability of men, and men talking to other men, that gives us the greatest hope of shifting things the fastest, soonest,” Ocasio-Cortez said.
The second-term congresswoman, who rocketed to political stardom when she ousted incumbent Rep. Joe Crowley in the state’s 2018 Democratic primary, also responded to a question about running for president.
Her experience as a congresswoman, she told GQ, showed her “how deeply and unconsciously, as well as consciously, so many people in this country hate women” and women of color in particular.
“People ask me questions about the future. And realistically, I can’t even tell you if I’m going to be alive in September. … And it’s not just the right wing. Misogyny transcends political ideology: left, right, center. This grip of patriarchy affects all of us, not just women; men, as I mentioned before, but also, ideologically, there’s an extraordinary lack of self-awareness in so many places.”
The rule from the state’s Agency for Health Care Administrators (AHCA), which went into effect last month, removed Medicaid coverage for puberty blockers, hormones and gender-affirming surgeries for transgender Floridians.
A release from Lambda Legal, a civil rights organization that focuses on protecting LGBT rights and one of the groups involved in the lawsuit, stated that the AHCA ignored expert testimony and thousands of public comments opposing the rule during the public comment period of the process.
The organizations filed the lawsuit on behalf of four transgender individuals, including August Dekker, a 28-year-old transgender man.
Dekker said in a statement that the rule denies him access to treatment that he is not able to afford otherwise. He said everyone deserves to feel safe in their existence, but the ban will hurt transgender Medicaid beneficiaries’ physical and mental health.
“It’s truly awful and unfair to feel like the state is targeting your existence,” Dekker said.
Omar Gonzalez-Pagan, a counsel and health care strategist for Lambda Legal, said the rule is motivated by politics and bias instead of science. He said it ignores the AHCA’s mission to provide “Better Health Care for All Floridians.”
Katy DeBriere, the legal director at the Florida Health Justice Project, another one of the groups involved in the suit, said the state is targeting low-income transgender individuals with the rule, which would continue health inequities by eliminating safe and reliable health care for some of Florida’s most marginalized residents.
The groups filed the lawsuit against Simone Marstiller, the secretary of the AHCA, in her capacity leading the agency.
The AHCA did not immediately return a request from The Hill for comment.
The plaintiffs argue that the rule violates the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution and the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) protection against sex discrimination.
They also argue it violates the Medicaid Act’s requirement for states to provide services to treat physical and mental health conditions and its requirement that eligible recipients receive the same amount of medical assistance as other recipients.
The Department of Health and Human Services said in a statement on Wednesday that the rule likely violates Section 1557 of the ACA, which prohibits health programs that receive federal funding from discriminating based on sex and other characteristics.
The department added that it plans to work to protect state Medicaid beneficiaries’ access to gender-affirming care.
Former secretary of state and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton said on Wednesday that the current Republican Party displays “too many characteristics” of authoritarianism.
“The problem is, if you go through the hallmarks of authoritarian regimes, you see too many characteristics unfortunately on our Republican side,” Clinton told The View.
“My most fervent hope is that Republicans themselves will begin to reject all of that verbally, vocally, in their voting, and kind of reconstitute the Republican Party to where it used to be and not the party of Trump, which I think is very dangerous to the country,” she added.
Her comments come amid a GOP backlash to President Biden saying last month that the philosophy of the Trump-aligned MAGA wing of the Republican party was “like semi-fascism.”
Clinton also criticized the Republican Party in an interview with CBS News on Tuesday, telling the GOP to “grow a backbone” and “stand up to this guy.”
While Clinton told CBS that she has no plans to ever run for president again, she said she will do everything she can to ensure the next president “respects our democracy and the rule of law and upholds our institutions,” adding that Trump does not fit the description.
Clinton’s name recently returned to public discourse after several Republicans compared the classified documents recovered from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence to Clinton’s use of a private email server as secretary of state. Clinton hit back at the comparisons, noting that she had no classified emails on the server.
Clinton’s comments on the GOP echo the case that Biden has been making ahead of November’s midterm elections, arguing that Trump’s sway over the party poses an existential threat to democracy.
“Not every Republican, not even a majority of Republicans, are MAGA Republicans. Not every Republican embraces their extreme ideology,” the president said last week in Philadelphia.
“But there’s no question that the Republican Party today is dominated, driven and intimidated by Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans. And that is a threat to this country.”
Former first lady Michelle Obama on Wednesday took an apparent dig at former President Trump, highlighting the significance of a peaceful transition of power once a presidency comes to an end.
“You see, the people that make their voices heard with their vote. We hold an inauguration to ensure a peaceful transition of power,” she said at the official portrait unveiling ceremony at the White House for her and former President Obama.
“Those of us lucky enough to serve work, as Barack said, as hard as we can for as long as we can, as long as the people choose to keep us here. And, once our time is up, we move on. And all that remains in this hallowed place are our good efforts and these portraits,” the former first lady said.
President Biden hosted the ceremony on Wednesday. Trump had declined to host the Obamas for the unveiling, which is traditionally hosted by first-term presidents for their immediate predecessors. The ceremony, which was then expected last fall, was further pushed back due to COVID-19.
The first lady spoke about her humble background and growing up in Chicago, telling the audience that “a girl like me, she was never supposed to be up there next to Jacqueline Kennedy and Dolly Madison.”
“Even if it’s all still a bit awkward for me, I do recognize why moments like these are important. Why all of this is absolutely necessary. Traditions like this matter. Not just for those of us who hold these positions but for everyone participating in and watching our democracy,” Obama said.
She also said that the portraits symbolize telling a “fuller story” that includes “every single American.”
And, she stressed the significance of democracy amid a time of divisiveness in the U.S.
“As much as some folks might want us to believe that that story has lost some of its shine, that division and discrimination and everything else might have dimmed its light, I still know deep in my heart that what we share, as my husband continues to say, is so much bigger than what we don’t. Our democracy is so much stronger than our differences,” Obama said.
The former first lady’s name is often floated as a popular potential presidential candidate, especially if Biden chose to not run again in 2024 amid speculation due to his age.
Some Democrats, polls have suggested, want to see her run. A poll from November showed she was the second lead for a 2024 Democratic candidate if Biden decided not to run, ranking just 3 points behind Vice President Harris.
Until a few years ago, crypto was mostly unknown among the Washington crowd. Those policymakers and lawmakers who knew about this emerging technology were few, and because of its lack of tangibility, many thought of it as a plaything for nerds or a tool for bad actors. In short, crypto was taken seriously by only a select few in Washington.
Today, crypto has not only shed this misguided perception but has also begun to gain broad acceptance by members of Congress and the general public alike. Crypto is reaching a level of mass adoption among the American people, and there is increased recognition of the benefits that crypto has to offer on both sides of the political aisle.
Additionally, both Democrats and Republicans recognize that regulatory clarity is needed. The past year has seen the introduction of threebipartisanbills seeking to bring clear regulation to the crypto industry. Although these efforts to bring regulatory clarity to the crypto industry are encouraging, Congress is not the only governmental body that has “woken up” to crypto and the need for tailored and appropriate regulation in the space.
Regulatory agencies like the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) have made great efforts to understand the technology and incorporate it into the U.S. regulatory landscape. FinCEN, in guidance published in 2019, established which crypto entities qualify as money services businesses (MSBs) and thus have to comply with the requirements of the Bank Secrecy Act. Similarly, the OCC established prudential regulatory standards for banks doing business with crypto firms through a series of interpretive letters in 2020 and 2021. Interestingly and encouragingly, both the current and previous comptrollers of the currency, one a Republican appointee and the other a Democratic appointee, have worked on and approved of these interpretive letters.
Although crypto is increasingly being brought into the regulatory and legislative fold by bipartisan regulators and members of Congress, there is still lingering suspicion and hesitation, which has led some to push back against all aspects of crypto, including regulatory and legislative efforts like the ones described above. A group of policymakers, for example, recently sent a letter to the OCC requesting that the acting comptroller rescind the aforementioned interpretive letters.
The best way forward for crypto and its millions of U.S. users is to embrace appropriate and tailored regulation and the consumer protection and transparency it brings. Regulatory efforts like the OCC’s interpretive letters have paved the way for increased consumer protection and insulation from further negative events associated with the industry and broader economic downturn. Indeed, Acting Comptroller Michael Hsu recently explained: “a whole bunch of stuff just happened, and the banking system is in pretty good shape, knock on wood. I think part of that is the actions we’ve taken.”
Increased regulatory clarity also encourages crypto businesses to do business in the United States, bolstering the economy, growing American jobs and increasing the effectiveness of U.S. national security by augmenting the scope of U.S. sanctions and anti-money laundering laws.
As policy and lawmakers continue to grapple with applying U.S. regulatory standards to the crypto ecosystem, efforts should focus not on dismantling current crypto regulations but on filling the regulatory and legal gaps that underscore market turmoil and failures and thus exacerbate consumer losses. Regulatory clarity for the crypto industry is desperately needed. Rather than rescind existing guidance, Washington should issue further regulatory guardrails to allow the crypto industry to do what it does best: innovate.
Lindsey Kelleher is a senior policy manager for Blockchain Association (BA), a Washington, D.C.-based trade association.
Former President Obama quipped that former first lady Michelle Obama’s official portrait captured her looking “fine” during an unveiling at the White House on Wednesday.
“I want to thank [artist] Sharon Sprung for capturing everything I love about Michelle. Her grace, her intelligence, and the fact that she is fine,” Obama said during the unveiling of the portraits in the East Room, prompting loud applause and claps from the audience.
“She is. Her portrait is stunning,” Obama said.
The former first lady thanked Obama for his “spicy remarks” shortly thereafter when she stepped up to the podium to deliver her own comments.
Michelle Obama’s portrait was painted by Sprung and captures her wearing a blue gown while sitting on a sofa.
Former President Obama also joked that his portrait by Robert McCurdy took on a “much more difficult subject.” He complimented McCurdy for his precision and attention to detail and joked that the painter “talked me out of wearing a tan suit.”
Obama’s portrait shows the former president wearing a black suit against a white backdrop.
President Biden and first lady Jill Biden attended the ceremony to unveil the portraits of the Obamas that will hang in the White House. It marked the Obamas first return to the White House together since they left in early 2017.
Former President Obama also visited the White House solo back in April to mark the anniversary of the Affordable Care Act signing.
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President Biden praised Barack Obama as one of “the most consequential presidents in our history” as he unveiled the ex-commander in chief and Michelle Obama’s official portraits in a long-delayed ceremony at the White House.
“There are a few people I’ve ever known with more integrity, decency and moral courage than Barack Obama,” Biden said on Wednesday in the East Room — packed with alumni of the Obama administration — as the former first family looked on.
“These portraits have a special significance because, as Joe mentioned, they will hang in the White House alongside portraits of other presidents and first ladies dating back to George and Martha,” Obama, flanked by his wife, remarked.
Obama’s portrait, by artist Robert McCurdy, shows the former president sporting a black suit and grey tie. The painting was created from photographs taken of Obama by McCurdy, which the White House said the artist preferred over working from sketches based on sittings.
The white backgrounds of McCurdy’s portraits “allow the viewer to establish a relationship with the subject,” the White House said, “the focus shifts from the celebrity-status of the individual to the viewer’s direct response to that individual as a human being.”
Sharon Sprung painted the image of Michelle Obama that will hang in the White House. “By methodically manipulating the layers of paint, she works to mimic the complexity of real life in her portrait compositions,” the White House said in a statement about the portraits.
While typically not an eyebrow-raising custom, the tradition of a first-term president unveiling the official portrait of their immediate predecessor was a precedent-shattering casualty of former President Trump’s time in office. Trump reportedly declined to host Obama — his longtime political nemesis — for such a ceremony during his term. Obama was also opposed to participating in the tradition with Trump, according to news reports.
The first public view of the Obamas’ official portraits also faced further delays due to COVID-19. The pair of paintings was originally expected to be revealed last year, but the ceremony was reportedly postponed because of the pandemic.
The event marked the first trip back to the White House for Michelle Obama since she was first lady. The former president had returned to the White House in April — his first visit since Biden took office — to promote the Affordable Care Act.
The Obamas’ portraits will have a permanent home at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said this week ahead of the ceremony. The artwork, she said, “will hang on the walls of the White House forever as reminders of the power of hope and change.”
