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WASHINGTON (AP) President-elect Joe Biden is adjusting the scope of his agenda to meet the challenges of governing with a narrowly divided Congress and the complications of legislating during a raging pandemic.

Rather than immediately pursue ambitious legislation to combat climate change, the incoming administration may try to wrap provisions into a coronavirus aid bill. Bidens team is also considering smaller-scale changes to the Affordable Care Act while tabling the more contentious fight over creating a public option to compete with private insurers.

Biden is already working on an array of executive actions to achieve some of his bolder priorities on climate change and immigration without having to navigate congressional gridlock.

The maneuvering reflects a disappointing political reality for Biden, who campaigned on a pledge to address the nations problems with measures that would rival the scope of Franklin Delano Roosevelts New Deal legislation. But Democrats acknowledge that big legislative accomplishments are unlikely, even in the best-case scenario in which the party gains a slim majority in the Senate.

Lets assume my dream comes true, Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin said, referring to a tight majority for his party. I think we have to carefully construct any change in the Affordable Care Act, or any other issue, like climate change, based on the reality of the 50-50 Senate.

Theres so many areas, which we value so much that Republicans do not, that it will be tough to guide through the Senate under the circumstances, the Illinois Democrat added.

Bidens agenda hinges on the fate of two Senate runoff races in Georgia, which will be decided on Jan. 5. If Democrats win both seats, the chamber will be evenly divided, with Vice President-elect Kamala Harris casting the tie-breaking vote.

In that event, Bidens agenda items stand a better chance of at least getting a vote. If Republicans maintain control, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell might not bring the new presidents priorities to the floor.

Bidens initial focus on Capitol Hill will be a multibillion-dollar coronavirus aid bill, which is certain to require significant political capital after lawmakers have been deadlocked over negotiations on Capitol Hill for months.

The president-elect said Thursday on CNN that while he supports a $900 billion compromise bill introduced this week by a bipartisan group of negotiators, the bill is a good start but its not enough and he plans to ask for more when hes in office. His team is already working on his own coronavirus relief package.

People close to Bidens transition team say theyre looking at that stimulus as a potential avenue for enacting some climate reforms like aid for green jobs or moving the nation toward a carbon-free energy system that might be tougher to get on their own.

Durbin mentioned President Barack Obamas first term as a precedent for what Biden will encounter when he takes office.

Then, Obama was forced to focus much of his early energy on a stimulus package to deal with the financial crisis, and he spent months wrangling with his own party on his health care overhaul. Obama also enacted financial regulatory reform, but other progressive priorities, like cap and trade legislation and immigration reform, ultimately lost steam.

And he had a significant House and Senate majority at the time.

Still, some Republicans argue that if Biden approaches negotiations in good faith, there are some common areas of agreement. Rohit Kumar, the co-leader of PwCs Washington National Tax Services and a former top aide to McConnell, said its possible to find a compromise on some smaller-scale priorities, like an infrastructure bill, addressing the opioid crisis and even a police reform bill.

There is stuff in the middle, if Biden is willing to do deals in the middle and that means being willing to strike agreements that progressive members dont love, and maybe have them vote no, and be at peace with that, he said.

Indeed, speaking on CNN Thursday, Biden expressed optimism about cutting deals with Republicans. He said when it comes to national security and the economic necessity of keeping people employed and reinvigorating the economy, theres plenty of room we can work.

Still, he acknowledged, Im not suggesting its going to be easy. Its going to be hard.

But here, progressives, not Republicans, could be the roadblock. Waleed Shahid, spokesperson for the liberal Justice Democrats, said progressives are worried and anxious about Bidens history of making what he called toxic compromises with McConnell.

I think progressives will probably play a key role in trying to push Democrats to have a spine in any negotiations with Mitch McConnell, he said. People will hold him accountable for what he ran on.

Shaheed said he believes progressives could play a role in pushing the Biden administration to embrace a more aggressive approach and pursue executive actions to address some Democratic priorities.

And indeed, Bidens transition team has already been at work crafting a list of potential unilateral moves he could take early on.

He plans to reverse Trumps rollback of a number of public health and environmental protections the Obama administration put in place. Hell rejoin the World Health Organization and the Paris climate accord and rescind the ban on travel from some Muslim-majority countries. He could also unilaterally reestablish protections for Dreamers who were brought illegally to the U.S. as children.

But some of his biggest campaign pledges require congressional action and are certain to face GOP opposition.

Biden has promised to take major legislative action on immigration reform and gun control, but prior legislative efforts on both of those issues with bipartisan support have failed multiple times.

Hes also pledged to roll back the Trump tax cuts for the wealthy, forgive some student loan debt and make some public college free all heavy lifts in a closely divided or Republican-controlled Senate.

Its easy to be skeptical and pessimistic in this Senate, Durbin said. I hope that they give us a chance to break through and be constructive and put an end to some of the obstruction.

Read more here:
Biden adjusting agenda to reflect narrow divide in Congress - The Associated Press

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Census Bureau experts discovered serious flaws within a section of the 2020 Census, which could delay and complicate the enumeration process. The White House demanded the state-by-state totals be finished before Trump leaves office on Jan. 20. Census experts informed the Trump administration last month that the data-processing delays would make it challenging to meet the schedule, but the agencys political appointees continued to look for shortcuts anyway. The Trump administration needs the state-by-state population totals before President-elect Joe Biden takes office in order to accomplish Trumps plan of removing undocumented immigrants from the count. The New York Times

In other federal immigration news

Biden is tailoring his agenda to work with a sharply divided Congress and handle the difficulties of making laws during the pandemic. Hes so far focusing on establishing a variety of executive orders to help his priorities on climate change and immigration without dealing with a congressional gridlock. The plan reflects a disappointing political reality for Biden. He promised to take huge legislative action on immigration reform and gun control, but Democrats know that will be improbable if they dont win the Senate. Associated Press

Congress will approve a defense policy bill that will block unidentified federal law enforcement officers from policing protests. Back in June, Mother Jones reported that federal law enforcement officers with no identification joined the Trump administrations restraint on protests in several cities. The 4,500-page annual defense policy bill that came from a House/Senate policy committee on Thursday requires any armed forces personnel, National Guard members and federal law enforcement agents who respond to a civil disturbance show either their name or another form of individual identifier. Mother Jones

Link:
Census Delay Will Affect Trump's Plan to Omit Undocumented Immigrants - Documented NY

In the days before the next Congress convenes on Jan. 3 and the inauguration of the new president, 17 days later, the House and Senate have their work cut out for them. Not only must they pass a continuing resolution on the budget to keep the government open, but also a defense spending bill. And of course, during the ongoing health and economic crisis, it would help millions of Americans to pass another stimulus bill, even if it is well below the House-passed $3.4 trillion measure last May that the Senate has declined to consider.

Despite the runoff Georgia Senate election on Jan. 5, let us presume for a moment that we will have a divided government in January: a Democrat in the White House and a Republican-controlled Senate, with Democrats holding the House. Is it possible, despite years and years of partisan rancor and attacks, that our elected representatives will come together? President-elect Joe Biden claims he can do so. But will Congress be able to pass anything to help the American people?

While it may be an act of self-absorbed naivete, I would argue yes, they can.

The most encouraging development in the past decade is the recent bipartisan attempt in the Senate to draft a package that will benefit everyone. It provides funding for state and local governments and small businesses, unemployment benefits that last until the end of March, new monies for vaccines and healthcare, and a shield for businesses, protecting them from liability suits as a result of COVID-19. Fellow Republicans of Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) can persuade him to come along.

Why? Simply because a few years back, before McConnell seemed only to care about maintaining a Senate Republican majority, he was a moderate legislator working with Democrats to get things done. In his biography, The Cynic: The Political Education of Mitch McConnell, Alec McGillis notes that McConnell once supported abortion rights and public employee unions. McConnell gradually slipped into his heralded obstructionist role, beginning under President Obama. He then, somewhat startlingly, doggedly became the lapdog of President Trump, pushing through his judicial nominations with little due diligence. Without Obama and Trump, perhaps he will again work with the Democrats.

One reason may be Joe Biden, a longtime former McConnell colleague in the Senate. But another reason could be the Republicans who joined the recent bipartisan coalition that promoted a new COVID stimulus package: Mitt Romney (Utah), Susan Collins (Maine), Bill Cassidy (Louisiana), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska). McConnell and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California) appear to be on board, and the president said he will sign it.

If 60 senators in the new Congress can overcome the filibuster and work with the next president, they may achieve a great deal on problems they want to resolve. The top of the list is obvious: winning the battle over the pandemic, with sufficient funding and scientific and medical expertise to ensure most Americans are vaccinated by June.

While continued long-term deficit spending, in my judgment, undermines the stability of the economy, an exception is always possible during a crisis. Congress and the president can devise, if needed, another stimulus package in early 2021 to help Americans in terms of unemployment, small businesses, and state and local governments.

Other areas open for Democrats and Republicans to work together are easy to identify. Infrastructure, for example: our roads, our bridges, our water systems, and the like are all profoundly in need of massive retrofitting. Democrats and Republicans can also work together to control the costs of healthcare, especially the drugs that so many Americans need.

Immigration reform may not be out of reach. After all, in 2005, Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Massachusetts) cosponsored a bill with Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona) that would have normalized the lives of nearly 12 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S., created a guest worker program, and strengthened border control. President George W. Bush supported it. It failed to pass.

Healing the toll taken on Americans by climate change may well be an area of cooperation as well. While the Green New Deal promoted by Sen. Ed Markey (D-Massachusetts) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York) is aspirational, smaller steps could attract a bipartisan group of lawmakers to work together in favor of green energy measures. Additional areas may include a middle-class tax cut and an expansion of national service for our nations youth. Legislators could also find ways to combat the increasing competitiveness of China, like ensuring that our supply chains are homegrown.

Finally, Congress must act to help the many Americans without a college education who feel left out. The next Congress and the new president can guarantee ways in which they will enjoy pathways to new careers, perhaps even in the new energy areas. This will undoubtedly require a great deal of training and education.

So, maybe we have entered a new era. At least I hope so, as we look forward to 2021 as a watershed year of cooperation, collegiality, and production in the U.S. government.

Jack Fruchtman, a resident of Aquinnah, taught constitutional law and politics for more than 40 years.

Read more:
The new Congress, the next president - Martha's Vineyard Times

Tuesday, December 8, 2020

The Covid-19 pandemic worsened by the Trump administrations woefully anemic response has taken the lives of more than 300 food and farm workers and sickened tens of thousands more, turning the nations food-processing plants and farms into virus hot spots.

Where Farmworkers Face High Covid-19 Risk

Source: EWG, from USDAs 2017 Census of Agriculture and Johns Hopkins Universitys Coronavirus Resource Center

Working conditions make food and farm workers especially vulnerable to Covid-19. So what should the incoming administration of President-elect Joe Biden do to protect them? Here are six things the new administration must do quickly.

1. Immediately issue emergency protective standards to require food and farm employers to protect their workers from Covid-19.

Trump has refused to protect workers, instead issuing an executive order to protect employers from liability when their negligence endangers their employees. Some states have acted, but most have not. And now, some legislators are proposing to make food and farm employers immune from liability when they fail to protect their workers.

2. Make sure food and farm workers are first in line for vaccines, once they are approved.

As more and more workers become sick during the current Covid-19 surge, food supply chains could quickly unravel, sending food prices spiking and increasing the number of Americans who struggle with hunger. The Biden administration must recognize that food and farm workers are essential workers.

3. Immediately shut down Trumps farmer bailout programs and redirect the funds so that they protect food and farm workers.

The tens of billions of dollars meant to relieve the effects of Trumps trade wars have not only flowed disproportionately to the largest and most successful farms but have also largely bypassed the smaller farms that have struggled to keep their workers safe from Covid-19. Biden should instead use emergency funds to provide food and farm workers with personal protective equipment and safe housing and transportation.

4. Ensure that food and farm workers get compensated for the risks they take to feed us.

Rather than provide food and farm workers hazard pay, the Trump administration has actually sought to cut farmworker wages and to strip away what few protections they do have by changing labor rules. The Biden administration should rescind Trumps proposals to cut farmworker wages and instead ensure that food and farm workers receive sick pay when they get sick from Covid-19. Biden has also pledged to support a $15 minimum wage and measures that will make it easier for workers to organize, including farmworkers.

5. Demand that Congress pass legislation giving undocumented farmworkers and their families the opportunity for permanent resident status and U.S. citizenship.

According to the advocacy group Farmworker Justice, at least half of the nations roughly 2.4 million farmworkers are undocumented immigrants. Meaningful immigration reform must provide them with protection from deportation and a path to full citizenship. The new administration should also press Congress to fix the programs that bring temporary farmworkers to the U.S.

6. Strengthen the Environmental Protection Agencys Agricultural Worker Protection Standard.

The Trump administration continues to weaken environmental health protections for farmworkers. The Biden administration should make it a priority to protect farmworkers from pesticides. It should immediately ban toxic pesticides like chlorpyrifos, which has been linked to brain damage.

Farm and food workers are working long hours, at enormous personal risk, to feed us. The Biden administration must make every effort to protect these essential workers and recognize the critical contributions they make to our nation. Food and farm workers have always taken care of us now we must take care of them.

Read the rest here:
6 Ways the Biden Administration Should Protect Food and Farm Workers From Covid-19 - Environmental Working Group

In 2021, President-elect Joe Biden will have to deal with many restrictive immigration policiesput in place by the Trump administration. Attorneys expect that, at least, a few of these regulations could be overturned. The presidential proclamations that used the pandemic as an excuse toban visa issuance for H-1Bprogram have already been set aside.

This week, the federal judge in San Franciscosaidthe Covid-19 pandemic cannot justify visa restrictions for the H-1B program, which benefits U.S. tech companies. According to judge Jeffrey White, a large number of job vacancies remain in the areas most affected by Rules: computer operations which require high-skilled workers.

Constraints on H-1B visas were introduced in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. Two rules announced in October required companies to pay higher wages to foreign employees and introduced limits on specialty occupations.

Over the last several years, the combined disruption of Trumps executive orders and Covid-19, which shut down U.S. consulates globally, managed to curtail business-related immigration without changing immigration law itself, said Jordana Hart, attorney fromGonzalez & Hart, an immigration law practice in Miami. It will take time to undo so much of the damage, which has also affected the U.S.s reputation for openness and welcome.

According to attorneys, the change of political tone has already made a difference at the local branches of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and in immigration court. I had a USCIS in Utah calling my client to come back for her swear-in a day after the exam took place so the client could become a U.S. citizen immediately, as she needed to leave the country, said Margo Chernysheva ofMC Law Groupin Las Vegas. This would not have happened a year or two ago.

J.J. Despain,managing attorney atWilner & OReilly, said he expects attitudes to change at U.S.consulates and embassies. Every officer screening foreign applicants has his or her own style, and that style can magnify depending on the guidance coming from above, Despain said.

Visa processing times, however, will most likely remain the same: part of the slowdown is due to a lack of funds, since USCIS is fee-driven, said Jordana Hart.By 2021 legal immigration to the U.S.is projected to drop by 49%, which means a corresponding drop in the fees that keep USCIS going. The wounding of U.S. immigration by a thousand cuts under Trump led to the decrease in filings, Hart added.

Options for foreign entrepreneurs and investors would remain limited, especially for those seeking to start a business, believes Joshua Goldstein ofGoldstein Immigration Lawyersin Los Angeles. America needs to modernize its immigration system, Goldstein said. But passing new legislation will seem politically impossible, as the Republicans hold political power and remain adamantly opposed.

Right now, according to Chernysheva, the only visa that is still valid for entrepreneurs is an investor treatment E-2 visa, but it is not available for every country and does not providepermanent residential status. But international business founders come from a variety of backgrounds, and many of them are former international students.

There should be an immigration path open for them, too, Goldstein believes. Look around Menlo Park, Kendall Square, or Silicon Beach in Los Angeles and its obvious that many of these amazing companies came about through the talents of foreign nationals, Goldstein said.

Enacting a program forStartup Visas, similar to the ones in Canada, the UK, Australia, and New Zealand, would allow visas for foreign entrepreneurs who raised capital from qualified U.S. investors.The Startup Visa Actwas introduced in the U.S. Senate in 2013, but was never passed.

I think the new administration recognizes that having a startup visa is critical to revitalizing our economy and will do everything in their power to ensure there are pathways for this talent to come to the U.S., said Jason Finkelman, immigration attorney atFinkelman Law.

The Biden administration plans to expand immigration options for entrepreneurs who can contribute to the U.S. economy, but lawyers dont expect a lot of actual laws to change. These laws and rules come from Congress, so they are much harder to adjust, believes J.J. Despain, of Wilner & OReilly.

Also, for the E-1 and E-2 visas, the countries whose citizens get to apply for them are determined by treaties between those countries and the U.S., Despain said. New countries could be added to the list, but this will depend on American foreign policy.

By the end of 2022, attorneys expect, some type of comprehensive immigration reform will begin to take shape. However, if the U.S. Senate remains under Republican control, the Biden administration will not be able to change regulations, just as prior administrations were stymied by congressional opposition, said Jordana Hart. Changes to the visa programs for investors and entrepreneurs will only come if Biden has the fortitude to make use of his executive order powers, she added.

See the original post:
Business Immigration: What 2021 Will Bring for Foreign Entrepreneurs in the U.S. - Entrepreneur