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Democrats began pushing on Wednesday for the most substantial expansion of voting rights in a half-century, laying the groundwork in the Senate for what would be a fundamental change to the ways voters get to the polls and elections are run.

At a contentious hearing on Capitol Hill, Democratic leaders made a passionate case for a bill that would mandate automatic voter registration nationwide, expand early and mail-in voting, end gerrymandering that skews congressional districts for maximum partisan advantage and curb the influence of money in politics.

The effort is taking shape as Republicans have introduced more than 250 bills to restrict voting in 43 states and have continued to spread false accusations of fraud and impropriety in the 2020 election. It comes just months after those claims, spread by President Donald J. Trump as he sought to cling to power, fueled a deadly riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6 that showed how deeply his party had come to believe in the myth of a stolen election.

Republicans were unapologetic in their opposition to the measure, with some openly arguing that if Democrats succeeded in making it easier for Americans to vote and in enacting the other changes in the bill, it would most likely place their party permanently in the minority.

Any American who thinks that the fight for a full and fair democracy is over is sadly and sorely mistaken, said Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the majority leader. Today, in the 21st century, there is a concerted, nationwide effort to limit the rights of citizens to vote and to truly have a voice in their own government.

Mr. Schumers rare appearance at a committee meeting underscored the stakes, not just for the election process but for his partys own political future. He called the proposed voting rollbacks in dozens of states including Georgia, Iowa and Arizona an existential threat to our democracy reminiscent of the Jim Crow segregationist laws of the past.

He chanted Shame! Shame! Shame! at Republicans who were promoting them.

It was the start of an uphill battle by Senate Democrats, who have characterized what they call the For the People Act as the civil rights imperative of modern times, to overcome divisions in their own ranks and steer around Republican opposition to shepherd it into law. Doing so may require them to change Senate rules to eliminate the filibuster, once used by segregationists to block civil rights measures in the 1960s.

Republicans signaled they were ready to fight. Conceding that allowing more people to vote would probably hurt their candidates, they denounced the legislation, passed by the House this month, as a power grab by Democrats intent on federalizing elections to give themselves a permanent political advantage. They insisted that it was the right of states to set their own election laws, including those that make it harder to vote, and warned that Democrats proposal could lead to rampant fraud, which experts say has never been found to be widespread.

This is an attempt by one party to write the rules of our political system, said Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, who has spent much of his career opposing such changes.

Talk about shame, he added later.

Some Republicans resorted to lies or distortions to condemn the measure, falsely claiming that Democrats were seeking to cheat by enfranchising undocumented immigrants or encouraging illegal voting. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas said the bill aimed to register millions of unauthorized immigrants, though that would remain unlawful under the measure.

The clash laid bare just how sharply the two parties have diverged on the issue of voting rights, which attracted bipartisan support for years after the civil rights movement but more recently has become a bitter partisan battleground. At times, Republicans and Democrats appeared to be wrestling with irreconcilably different views of the problems plaguing the election system.

Senator Roy Blunt of Missouri, the top Republican on the Senate Rules Committee, which convened the hearing, said states were taking appropriate steps to restore public confidence after 2020 by imposing laws that require voters to show identification before voting and limiting so-called ballot harvesting, where others collect voters completed absentee ballots and submit them to election officials. He said that if Democrats were allowed to rush through changes on the national level, chaos will reign in the next election and voters will have less confidence than they currently do.

The suggestion piqued Senator Amy Klobuchar, Democrat of Minnesota and the committee chairwoman, who shot back that it was the current elections system an uneven patchwork of state laws and evolving voting rules that had caused chaos at polling places.

Chaos is what weve seen in the last years five-hour or six-hour lines in states like Arizona to vote. Chaos is purging names of longtime voters from a voter list so they cant go vote in states like Georgia, she said. What this bill tries to do is to simply make it easier for people to vote and take the best practices that what weve seen across the country, and put it into law as we are allowed to do under the Constitution.

With Republicans unified against them, Democrats best hope for enacting the legislation increasingly appears to be to try to leverage its voting protections to justify triggering the Senates so-called nuclear option: the elimination of the filibuster rule requiring 60 votes, rather than a simple majority, to advance most bills.

Even that may be a prohibitively heavy lift, though, at least in the bills current form. Liberal activists who are spending tens of millions of dollars promoting it insist that the package must move as one bill. But Senator Joe Manchin III, a centrist West Virginia Democrat whose support they would need both to change the filibuster rules and to push through the elections bill, said on Wednesday that he would not support it in its current form.

Speaking to reporters in the Capitol, Mr. Manchin said he feared that pushing through partisan changes would create more division that the country could not afford after the Jan. 6 attack, and instead suggested narrowing the bill.

Theres so much good in there, and so many things I think all of us should be able to be united around voting rights, but it should be limited to the voting rights, he said. Were going to have a piece of legislation that might divide us even further on a partisan basis. That shouldnt happen.

But it is unclear whether even major changes could win Republican support in the Senate. As written, the more than 800-page bill, which passed the House 220 to 210 mostly along party lines, is the most ambitious elections overhaul in generations, chock-full of provisions that experts say would drive up turnout, particularly among minorities who tend to vote Democratic. Many of them are anathema to Republicans.

Its voting provisions alone would create minimum standards for states, neutering voter ID laws, restoring voting rights to former felons, and putting in place requirements like automatic voter registration and no-excuse mail-in balloting. Many of the restrictive laws proposed by Republicans in the states would move in the opposite direction.

The bill would also require states to use independent commissions to draw nonpartisan congressional districts, a change that would weaken the advantages of Republicans who control the majority of state legislatures currently in charge of drawing those maps. It would force super PACs to disclose their big donors and create a new public campaign financing system for congressional candidates.

Democrats also said they still planned to advance a separate bill restoring a key enforcement provision in the Voting Rights Act of 1965, after a 2013 Supreme Court ruling gutted it. The ruling paved the way for many of the restrictive state laws Democrats are now fighting.

In the hearing room on Wednesday, Republicans ticked through a long list of provisions they did not like, including a restructuring of the Federal Election Commission to make it more partisan and punitive, a host of election administration changes they predicted would cause mass chaos if carried out and the public campaign financing system.

This bill is the single most dangerous bill this committee has ever considered, Mr. Cruz said. This bill is designed to corrupt the election process permanently, and it is a brazen and shameless power grab by Democrats.

Mr. Cruz falsely claimed that the bill would register undocumented immigrants to vote and accused Democrats of wanting the most violent criminals to cast ballots, too.

In fact, it is illegal for noncitizens to vote, and the bill would do nothing to change that or a requirement that people registering to vote swear they are citizens. It would extend the franchise to millions of former felons, as some states already do, but only after they have served their sentences.

Though few senators mentioned him by name, Mr. Trump and his false claims of election fraud hung heavily over the debate.

To make their case, Republicans turned to two officials who backed an effort to overturn then-President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.s election victory. Mac Warner, the secretary of state of West Virginia, and Todd Rokita, the attorney general of Indiana, both supported a Texas lawsuit late last year asking the Supreme Court to invalidate the election results in key battleground states Mr. Biden won, citing groundless accusations of voting improprieties being spread by Mr. Trump.

On Wednesday, Democrats balked when Mr. Rokita, a former Republican congressman, asserted that their proposed changes would open our elections up to increased voter fraud and irregularities like the ones that he said had caused widespread voter mistrust in the 2020 outcome.

Senator Jon Ossoff, a freshman Democrat from Georgia, chastised the attorney general, saying he was spreading misinformation and conspiracies.

I take exception to the comments that you just made, Mr. Rokita, that public concern regarding the integrity of the recent election is born of anything but a deliberate and sustained misinformation campaign led by a vain former president unwilling to accept his own defeat, Mr. Ossoff said.

Mr. Rokita merely scoffed and repeated an earlier threat to sue to block the legislation from being carried out should it ever become law, a remedy that many Republican-led states would most likely pursue if Democrats were able to win its enactment.

You are entitled to your opinion, as misinformed as it may be, but I share the opinion of Americans, Mr. Rokita said.

Sixty-five percent of voters believe the election was free and fair, according to a Morning Consult poll conducted in late January, but only 32 percent of Republicans believe that.

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Democrats Begin Push for Biggest Expansion of Voting Since 1960s - The New York Times

Republican Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks took office in January after the Iowa State Board of Canvassers certified her victory over Democratic candidate Rita Hart. She won by six votes after a full recount. Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call via Getty Images hide caption

Republican Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks took office in January after the Iowa State Board of Canvassers certified her victory over Democratic candidate Rita Hart. She won by six votes after a full recount.

The House Administration Committee is reviewing a challenge brought by defeated Iowa Democrat Rita Hart against freshman Republican Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, who won the race by just six votes.

Attorneys for the two candidates submitted initial legal briefs to the panel on Monday. In a terse 23-page brief, Miller-Meeks' counsel broadly denied Hart's claims and said the burden was on Hart to prove that a state-certified election should be overturned.

"We don't have to prove anything at this point, and that's something I think is important to emphasize: The congresswoman has a certificate of election, and that demonstrates that she is the winner of the race under Iowa law," Alan Ostergren, an attorney representing Miller-Meeks in the complaint, told reporters on Monday.

Hart's team alleges that there are 22 ballots that should have been counted in the election and that if they had, she would have won by nine votes. Hart's campaign has cited examples including five absentee ballots cast in her favor that were not counted because they were not properly sealed. However, the race was certified by the Iowa State Board of Canvassers with bipartisan support after a full recount.

Rita Hart filed in late December to challenge the results under the Federal Contested Elections Act. Caroline Brehman/CQ-Roll Call via Getty Images hide caption

In a more detailed 71-page brief, Hart's attorney, Marc Elias, argues that ballots should not have been throw out if the error was the result of election administrators or "circumstances outside the voter's control."

"Contestant Hart initiated this contested election case to vindicate the promise of our democratic system: that the representatives who serve us have been selected by the votes of their constituents, not the errors and caprices of election administrators," the brief states.

"It is the committee's constitutional duty to investigate all of these claims," said Chairwoman Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., at a March 10 committee meeting. "Today none of us can state with confidence who actually won this election." The Constitution gives both the House and Senate authority to decide how to seat its members, and the Federal Contested Elections Act grants the authority to review House elections to the House Administration Committee.

While it is not unusual for defeated candidates in close races to petition the House to review their election, the House has almost never sided in favor of a petitioner. Since 1933, 110 campaigns have requested that the panel review an election, according to a committee aide. In all but three cases, those petitions were rejected, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service. In one case, the House agreed to seat no one and left the seat vacant.

"Our committee should not be moving forward with overturning our colleague's state-certified election. [Miller-Meeks] is a sitting member of Congress with all of the same rights and privileges as each and every one of us," said Rep. Rodney Davis of Illinois, the top Republican on the committee, at the March 10 meeting. Republicans have noted that Hart's campaign opted not to challenge the election results in Iowa court, but rather through a partisan House process with a Democratic advantage.

There are growing political tensions around this particular challenge in the House, where relationships between Democrats and Republicans have deteriorated since the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, the day of the certification of the Electoral College vote results. On that day, 139 House Republicans voted to object to state-certified results in Arizona and Pennsylvania after extremists ransacked the Capitol. Now, Democrats are in control of a process to decide whether to overturn a certified election result.

Democrats maintain that there is nothing unethical about reviewing an election with a historically close margin in an established legal process. "It should not be surprising that any candidate in these circumstances would choose to exercise their rights under the law to contest the results," said Peter Whippy, a Democratic spokesman for the House Administration Committee.

However, with a narrow 219-211 current majority, some Democrats are aware that the review could be cast as a power grab to pad their margin in the House. "Losing a House election by six votes is painful for Democrats. But overturning it in the House would be even more painful for America. Just because a majority can, does not mean a majority should," tweeted Rep. Dean Phillips of Minnesota, a centrist Democrat.

There is no timeline for wrapping up the election review, although Lofgren has said she would like to resolve the matter this spring. The committee could vote to dismiss the case or make a recommendation to overturn the election result, which would require a majority vote of the full House to take effect.

Attorneys for the two sides have until March 29 to submit follow-up briefs.

View post:
Defeated Iowa Democrat Asking House To Overturn Election - NPR

President Joe Biden took a swing at Republicans at his first press conference on Thursday, criticizing their opposition to more federal spending now that a Democrat is sitting in the White House.

"Did you hear them complain when they passed close to a $2 trillion Trump tax cut, 83% going to the top 1%?" he asked, referring to the share of benefits that flowed to the wealthiest Americans under former President Donald Trump's 2017 tax cut (In 2018, the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center projected 20.5% of the benefits would go to the top 1%).

That law passed via the reconciliation process, just as Biden's $1.9 trillion stimulus did. The recent pandemic relief measure features expanded aid to parents, $1,400 direct payments to most taxpayers, and enhanced unemployment insurance.

He went on: "I love the fact they found this whole idea of concern about the federal budget. It's kind of amazing. When the federal budget is saving people's lives, they don't think it's such a good idea."

The remarks illustrate some of the challenges that Biden faces as he presses ahead with the rest of his domestic agenda. Fresh off his first major legislative victory with a $1.9 trillion stimulus law, the president is now expected to unveil a $3 trillion infrastructure plan on Wednesday, referringto it as his "next major initiative."

He said at the news conference he aims "to rebuild the infrastructure, both physical and technological infrastructure in this country, so we that can compete and create significant numbers of really good-paying jobs."

It includes an initial bill focused on roads, bridges, and climate-related spending. The other would be geared at human infrastructure, including measures like universal pre-K, free community college, and a renewal of periodic cash payments for parents.

Biden appears to be betting on a groundswell of public support for his next major push in Congress.

"I still think the majority of the American people don't like the fact we are now ranked 85th in the world in infrastructure," he said. "The future rests on whether or not we have the best airports that can accommodate air travel, ports that you can get in and out quickly."

However, Republicans are opposed to the tax hikes on multinational corporations and high-earning Americans that Democrats are seeking to finance it. "I don't think there's going to be any enthusiasm on our side for a tax increase," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said last week at a press conference.

Earlier today, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell told NPR that the central bank is more concerned about ensuring an economic recovery than the national debt. He acknowledged the path of the debt is unsustainable, but its current level isn't cause for major concern at this point.

View post:
Biden blasts Republicans for suddenly caring about the national debt now that a Democrat's in the White House - Business Insider

But Hart is petitioning for the House to overturn the election, and the House Administration Committee is now reviewing the case. POLITICO Playbook reported earlier in the week that the effort to overturn the election has been blessed by the top echelons of House Democratic leadership.

Democrat Rita Hart | Rebecca F. Miller/The Gazette via AP

As far as Speaker Pelosi and Co. are concerned, its honor the results of elections for thee, but not for me.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is paying for top Democratic election lawyer Marc Elias, who fought Donald Trump in election cases before and after Nov. 3, to represent Hart.

A brief for Miller-Meeks persuasively points to precedent for the House refusing to hear cases that the contesting candidate didnt take up in the state courts first.

The Elias brief for Hart offers a tinny excuse for avoiding a contest court in Iowa. It states that Hart did now know about all of the 22 ballots she considers improperly discarded until Dec. 1 and that meant there simply wasnt enough time to go through the court (it would have been made up of the chief justice of the Iowa Supreme Court and four district court judges).

Surely, though, the contest court would have been cognizant of the time constraints and expedited the proceedings, which would have centered around those 22 contested ballots. If the court couldnt have made a determination in a weeks time to meet the Dec. 8 deadline for final determination of a contest, presumably the deadline could have been pushed back. (Hart, who is asking for all sorts of rules around ballots to be ignored, is not in a strong position to be a stickler over deadlines.)

The decision to skip the contest court and go directly to the House of Representatives is transparently an effort to bypass a body that aspires to neutrality in favor of one that does not, and to avoid a decision based on Iowa law to seek one based on the partisan interests of fellow Democrats.

This is how its been interpreted by newspaper editorial boards in Iowa.

Sure enough, Elias has basically put the point in black and white. Quoting from the last case when a Democratic-controlled House overturned an election (in 1985 to award an Indiana seat to a Democrat), his brief says the committee is certainly not bound to follow Iowa law and indeed, there are instances where it is in fact bound by justice and equity to deviate from it.

Hart doesnt allege any fraud or irregularity in the consideration of the ballots she says now should count, or even partisan favoritism. She just found 22 ballots she wants to count that would put her over the top.

Theres a question about the provenance of some of the 22 ballots shes highlighting, and others clearly run afoul of Iowa law. Five involve absentee ballots whose envelopes werent sealed, as required by statute. Another two ballots, which under the law must be returned by Election Day, didnt reach the counties where the voters reside in time.

The decisions about these ballots were all close calls that election officials have to make, using the law and their best judgment, all the time.

Not coincidentally, by the way, all but four of the 22 ballots are for Hart. One can safely assume that a more systematic canvass of the district would turn up similar determinations that went against Miller-Meeks.

Republican Mariannette Miller-Meeks | Joseph Cress/Iowa City Press-Citizen via AP

But we shouldnt want close elections to be endlessly litigated and re-litigated in drawn-out battles over who can, after the fact and straining against the limits of the law, turn up more voters who claim their ballots were improperly rejected.

Iowa has a robust and clean election system through which the voters of the 2nd District have spoken.

To overturn their verdict based on a selective, self-interested collection of dubious ballots would be a partisan travesty, which is exactly why Rita Hart is asking the partisan Democratic House to do it.

The very casual observer could have been forgiven for thinking that Democrats, given their vehemence and passion around Jan. 6, sincerely believed that its wrong on principle to question the legitimacy of election outcomes signed, sealed and delivered to Congress.

Marc Elias, for one, knew better.

Excerpt from:
Opinion | Why Are Democrats Following Trumps Post-Election Playbook? - POLITICO

Hello and welcome to Thursday.

The daily rundown Between Tuesday and Wednesday, the number of Florida coronavirus cases increased by 5,143 (nearly 0.3 percent), to 2,021,656; active hospitalizations went down by 54 (1.8 percent), to 2,882 deaths of Florida residents rose by 30, to 32,850; 5,205,239 Floridians have received at least one dose of a vaccine.

Whos next? Former state Sen. Frank Artiles was arrested by Miami authorities last week for a scheme involving a hotly-contested state Senate race. Is there a broader federal investigation coming soon? Floridas 11 Democratic members of Congress certainly think one is warranted.

Dear AG Playbook has been told all 11 Democrats have signed a letter that will be sent Thursday morning to Attorney General Merrick Garland that maintains that a much wider probe is needed to look at dark money donors and sham candidates."

Last weeks action State Attorney Kathy Fernandez-Rundle in Miami announced charges against Artiles and Alex Rodriguez, a candidate who ran for a South Florida state senate seat. Artiles is accused of paying Alex Rodriguez to run as a no-party affiliated candidate against then-state Sen. Jose Javier Rodriguez to siphon away votes in the election. Artiles alleged scheme likely helped flip the seat to Republicans.

3 races targeted POLITICO has previously reported that political committees funded by Proclivity, a mystery donor, pumped hundreds of thousands of dollars into mailers to boost the candidacies of no-party affiliated candidates that did not campaign. The three races targeted, two in Miami and one in Seminole County, were the focus of intense campaigns funded by leadership from both parties. In each case, Republicans won and the mail pieces featured messaging generally used to target Democratic voters. Money apparently flowed in from an out-of-state UPS box.

From the letter shared with Playbook Based on the suspicious practices outlined in this letter, including the likelihood of several potential illegal interstate transfers of funds, we strongly believe that much greater scrutiny of this matter at the federal level is warranted. There are important unanswered questions regarding the original source of the money to fund this scheme, and whether the entity that provided the funding was in violation of any federal campaign finance laws or Internal Revenue Service codes. It is also a pressing public concern as to whether any fraud occurred in furtherance of a federal criminal conspiracy designed to influence the outcome of one or more elections.

Real fraud? The letter concludes that unlike the dangerous, baseless claims of voter fraud impacting the 2020 Election, in this case, evidence actually exists that a multi-state fraud conspiracy was committed against Floridas voters.

WHERE'S RON? Nothing official announced for Gov. DeSantis.

Have a tip, story, suggestion, birthday, anniversary, new job, or any other nugget for Playbook? Get in touch: [emailprotected]

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Ocean Conservancy is working with you to protect the ocean from todays greatest global challenges. Were working in the places you care about to address the impacts of these threats from sea level rise, to water quality, and more. Together, we can create solutions for a healthy ocean and the wildlife and communities that depend on it. Learn more.

STARTING LINE Ron DeSantis and Mike Pence lead latest poll for 2024 Republican presidential candidates, by Newsweeks Alia Slisco: Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and former Vice President Mike Pence hold commanding leads over other prominent Republicans in a new poll of potential party nominees for the 2024 presidential election. DeSantis was the top choice, with 17 percent of respondents supporting him, in the poll released Wednesday by GOP polling firm Echelon Insights. Pence was the runner-up with 16 percent support. Former President Donald Trump was not an available choice, with the poll asking which GOP candidate voters would prefer if Trump does not attempt to win a non-consecutive second term.

HOW I SPENT MY SUMMER Gaetz to New Hampshire to help raise money for fellow Republicans, by Fox News Paul Steinhauser: No. Hes not mulling a 2024 presidential run. But. Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida is headed to the first-in-the-nation presidential primary state of New Hampshire this summer, to help raise money for fellow Republicans. Multiple Republican sources in the Granite State told Fox News on Wednesday that the three-term representative and close ally of former President Trump will headline the Nashua Republican City Committees annual Steak Out fundraiser.

LAGGING Democrats outspent the GOP on Spanish-language ads in 2020, but it came late, by NBC News Suzanne Gamboa: When the Democratic political action committee Nuestro PAC sent election mailers in Florida featuring a photo of Kristin Urquiza who blamed President Donald Trump for her father's Covid-19 death 200 were returned with communist or socialist scrawled on them. The response underscores a blaring lesson from the 2020 election: By the time Democrats started paying attention to Latino voters in the state and spending money on them, Republicans had already embedded their message, linking Democrats and Joe Biden to socialism.

Unpersuaded "'This showed the damage had already been done. Latinos in Florida had made up their mind and the long-term organizing and misinformation campaign by Trump and the Republicans worked,' Nuestro PAC said in a report on 2020 Democratic Latino outreach that was made available to NBC News."

UH-OH, SOMEONE DIDNT FOLLOW THE SCRIPT Prison budget cuts lead to Florida Senate drama, by Miami Heralds Ana Ceballos: In a highly unusual mid-session budget fight, two key lawmakers on Wednesday openly feuded with Senate leadership and tried to derail the first draft of the chambers criminal justice budget. The dispute largely centered on $140 million in proposed budget cuts to the Department of Corrections that contemplates the closure of four state-run prisons, a plan that is devoid of specifics and had not been previously discussed by lawmakers. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Jeff Brandes, R-St. Petersburg, was so angered by the proposed reductions that he made a motion to vote down the entire criminal justice budget proposal.

BARGAINING AHEAD Florida House and Senate differ on school choice expansion, by POLITICOs Andrew Atterbury: House education leaders introduced a long-awaited school choice package on Wednesday that breaks in key ways from the Senates massive proposal, setting up what could be the biggest education policy clash of the session. The 61-page bill dropped by the Houses top education committee would merge voucher programs for special needs students with the budding Family Empowerment Scholarship and expand eligibility for the awards, provisions that are similar to those sought in the Senate. But the House bill is notably missing Senate priorities like sweeping changes to how private school scholarships are funded in the state budget and the creation of new education savings accounts.

FOR NEXT TIME Florida bill seeks to better plan for future pandemics, by Associated Press Brendan Farrington: A House committee approved a bill Wednesday to better prepare for public health emergencies, ranging from ensuring the state is well-stocked with personal protective equipment to allowing the governor more flexibility in spending state money to deal with a crisis. The bill approved by the House Pandemics & Public Emergencies Committee on a 14-4 vote also addresses how deaths are reported, would allow the Legislature to override a governors executive orders and seeks to better inform the public on state spending on its response and emergency orders.

TRUMP TOOK ACTION. THE LEGISLATURE WONT Florida bill to cap insulin costs is likely doomed. Heres why, by Tampa Bay Times Kirby Wilson: Rep. Melony Bell, R-Fort Meade, the sponsor of the House version of the insulin bill, said Wednesday she hasnt been able to get the bill moving in her chamber. Bell said shes gotten an idea why based on conversations with House leadership. We dont want to go against the insurance companies because we dont want to go against the free market, Bell said, summing up what she said was the sentiment of House leaders.

Action at federal level The government taking action to lower the cost of prescription drugs is a widely popular, bipartisan idea. Last year, President Donald Trumps administration capped insulin co-pays at $35 per month for some Medicare plans. At least 14 other states have capped insurance co-pays for insulin at $100 or less, the Diabetes Association notes.

THE MONEY SHIFT Despite housing shortage, Florida GOP leaders look to take dollars away, by Sarasota Herald-Tribunes John Kennedy: Despite a pandemic-fueled shortage of lower-cost housing in Florida, the Legislatures Republican leaders have agreed to pull most of the dollars out of the states affordable housing fund and steer it to other, favored programs. House Speaker Chris Sprowls, R-Palm Harbor, and Senate President Wilton Simpson, R-Trilby, would take two-thirds of the $423 million now available for housing and divide it between a wastewater grants program and another to help cities deal with sea level rise.

CLEARS FIRST STOP Florida Senate panel advances bill that limits police chokeholds, by POLITICOs Giulia Heyward: In the aftermath of George Floyds killing last summer, Florida lawmakers are moving forward with legislation that aims to limit police officers' use of chokeholds. If enacted, Democratic State Sen. Jason Pizzos SB 1970 would push police departments to provide training that bars officers from using chokeholds except in deadly force situations. It also makes implicit bias training mandatory for all law enforcement agencies, and goes as far as to require a written policy from each agency affirming its officers duty to use these tactics when making arrests.

WHO CARES ABOUT VOTERS Florida port regulation fight narrows, skeptics remain, by POLITICOs Matt Dixon: A contentious fight over regulation of Floridas ports is entering its final stages, with supporters trying so far unsuccessfully to narrow legislation to win support of opponents, which includes the states powerful Florida Ports Council. The bill, FL SB426 (21R), as originally written preempted local governments from regulating sea ports. That prompted a backlash from both the port industry and supporters of a trio of voter-approved Key West ballot measures that limited the size of cruise ships that could dock and the number of daily cruise ship passengers that can visit the city daily.... After a round of amendments, the Senate bill now would no longer allow local governments to pass referenda negatively restricting maritime commerce, and does not permit ports run by cities or special districts from restricting maritime commerce.

Florida Senate resolution condemns white supremacy, by The Associated Press Brendan Farrington

At the bottom: Efforts to help Floridas jobless get boost, by Spectrum News Pete Reinwald

First Amendment advocates decry creep toward denying public information to Floridians, by Florida Phoenixs Michael Moline

A BIT SMOOTHER Even as the age comes down, getting a vaccine isnt such a madhouse anymore, by Sun Sentinels Andrew Boryga, Wells Dusenbury, Austen Erblat and Eric Chokey: As Florida opens up COVID-19 vaccines to younger groups, they are unlikely to encounter the chaos that roiled people 65 and over when the vaccine campaign began. Seniors wrestled with overwhelmed phone lines, crashed websites and hours-long waits in line in January. But fears that the trouble would return as the eligible age was reduced have not materialized.

SECRET ORDERS? Backroom vaccine politics block jail inmates from getting COVID shots, Palm Beach County rep says, by Sun Sentinels Skyler Swisher: "Efforts to provide COVID-19 shots to jail inmates in Palm Beach County have been thwarted by backroom vaccine politics with no timetable being given for when the vulnerable population will be offered protection against the deadly virus, a state representative said Wednesday. State Rep. Omari Hardy said hes been trying for weeks to get county officials to vaccinate inmates at Palm Beach Countys jail who meet the states eligibility guidelines."

WAITING FOR ALL CLEAR Cruise industry begs CDC: Let us sail by July, by Sun Sentinels Ron Hurtibise: Major cruise lines are eager to resume operations from U.S. ports, and theyre calling on the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to make it happen by July. The early-July timeframe is in line with President Bidens forecast for when the United States will be closer to normal, according to the statement released Wednesday by the industrys trade group, the Cruise Lines International Association. The association is asking the CDC to lift an order issued in October called a Framework for Conditional Sailing Order that required the industry to wait for further guidance before resuming cruises.

Workers go door to door in Jacksonville to sign up people for COVID-19 shots, by News4Jaxs Kelly Wiley

A message from Ocean Conservancy:

BALLARD ADDS TOP WALSH AIDE (FROM POLITICO INFLUENCE) Eugene OFlaherty, most recently corporation counsel for the city of Boston and a top aide to now-Labor Secretary Marty Walsh, has joined Ballard Partners as a partner as the firm looks to expand its congressional practice and ties to the new administration, giving the Florida-based firm run by a former fundraiser to President Donald Trump increased clout with the powerful Massachusetts delegation and the Biden administrations newest Cabinet member.

Adding the Dems Ballard, which became one of the most powerful firms on K Street under Trump, has rapidly staffed up with more Democrats this year. Courtney Whitney, a top Democratic fundraiser who was a consultant for the pro-Biden super PAC Priorities USA, was brought on as a partner, two more Democratic lobbyists moved into its D.C. office, and Rep. Al Lawsons former chief of staff was hired. Former Florida Rep. Robert Wexler, a Democrat, and Jamie Rubin, who worked with President Joe Biden in the Senate, also work at Ballard.

WHATS IN YOUR WALLET? Trumpworlds next target: Building a dark-money machine, by POLITICOs Alex Isenstadt: Major donors are convening at former President Donald Trumps Mar-a-Lago resort next month for a two-day gathering to talk about what went wrong in 2020 and to build a big-dollar network to take back power. The summit is being sponsored by the Conservative Partnership Institute, an organization led by Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and former Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.). Trump is slated to headline the opening-night dinner, and the agenda includes an array of conservative luminaries and former Trump administration officials such as Stephen Miller, Russ Vought and Ric Grenell.

MORE DETAILS New evidence suggests alliance between Oath Keepers, Proud Boys ahead of Jan. 6, by POLITICOs Kyle Cheney: Kelly Meggs, the Florida leader of the Oath Keepers, said in private messages obtained by prosecutors that hed been in touch repeatedly with Proud Boys leadership in particular. He said he had worked out a strategy to confront potential violence from antifa, a loosely organized collection of left-wing extremists. Meggs has been charged along with nine others with conspiring to stop Congress from certifying the 2020 election. This week I organized an alliance between Oath Keepers, Florida 3%ers, and Proud Boys, Meggs wrote in a Dec. 19 message to an associate via Facebook. We have decided to work together and shut this shit down.

Seminole man, described as Proud Boy associate, arrested in Capitol riot, by Tampa Bay Times Dan Sullivan

MASS SHOOTINGS SHOULD NOT BE NORMAL Stoneman Douglas community grieves for Atlanta and Boulder victims, renews push for gun safety, by Sun Sentinels Anthony Man: Survivors of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School massacre, and family members of victims, joined Wednesday with half a dozen members of Congress from South Florida, Georgia and Colorado to mourn the victims of the nations two most recent mass shootings and renew their push for gun safety legislation. With Americans hopeful as the nation emerges from the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. Rep. Ted Deutch said, we were all looking forward to the moment when our lives would return to normalcy. This is not what we meant. Mass shootings should not be normal.

A message from Ocean Conservancy:

Florida has an iconic natural environment. It is surrounded by and dependent on clean water. From the Panhandle to the Treasure Coast to the Florida Keys, youre never more than 60 miles from the ocean. Floridas coasts serve as treasured sanctuaries and economic engines places to enjoy as well as earn a living and build a life. With offices in St. Petersburg and Miami, Ocean Conservancy is actively working in these treasured Floridian places to address the impacts of todays greatest global challenges from sea level rise, to water quality, and more. Together, we can create solutions for a healthy ocean and the wildlife and communities that depend on it. Learn more.

Police: Florida mom shows up to daughters school wearing boxing glove, fights child, gets arrested, by First Coast News: [Edith] Riddle had just exited the school with her own daughter after a meeting with the vice principal on campus, according to the report. Rather than exiting the campus directly, the daughter walked out of her way through the cafeteria to engage the victim in a fight, the report says. Riddle's daughter pushed the victim to the ground and threw some punches before the suspect also joined in punching the victim, who was lying on the ground, according to witnesses. A witness also said Riddle appeared to have a boxing glove attached to her left hand, according to the arrest report.

Pier 1 cougher says hate messages, harassment have destroyed familys life, by Orlando Sentinels Tiffini Theisen: A Florida woman who may get jail time after she was accused of intentionally coughing in a cancer patients face wants a judge to consider the backlash she and her family have endured since last summers incident in a Pier 1. Debra Jo Hunter was shown in a June 25 video at the Jacksonville Town Center walking up to a woman and deliberately coughing in her face after making a lewd gesture toward the camera. Hunter pleaded guilty Monday and could get up to 60 days in jail, according to News4Jax.

BIRTHDAYS: Palm Beach County Commissioner Maria Sachs former State Rep. John Cortes

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