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Progressives are increasing pressure on President BidenJoe BidenSupreme Court will hear Boston bomber's death case if the Biden administration lets it The Hill's Morning Report - Biden tasks Harris on border; news conference today Democrats face questions over agenda MORE to support a waiver for COVID-19 vaccine patent protections at the World Trade Organization (WTO), arguing the move is crucial for helping lower-income countries fight the coronavirus.

The push features leading Democratic lawmakers and advocacy groups calling on Biden to take action, but the White House has not made clear its position.

The Biden administration has an obligation to reverse the damage done by the Trump administration and reestablish our nations global reputation as a public health leader, said Rep. Rosa DeLauroRosa DeLauroOvernight Health Care: Senate confirms Levine for HHS, first openly transgender official | Progressives up pressure on Biden to back COVID vaccine patent waiver | Former Operation Warp Speed chief fired over sexual harassment allegations Conservative group escalates earmarks war by infiltrating trainings Progressives up pressure on Biden to back COVID vaccine patent waiver MORE (D-Conn.), head of the powerful House Appropriations Committee.

Sen. Bernie SandersBernie SandersOvernight Health Care: Senate confirms Levine for HHS, first openly transgender official | Progressives up pressure on Biden to back COVID vaccine patent waiver | Former Operation Warp Speed chief fired over sexual harassment allegations Briahna Joy Gray: Progressives 'covering for the failures of the Biden administration' on minimum wage The Hill's Morning Report - Biden leans heavily into gun control MORE (I-Vt.), who chairs the Senate Budget Committee, released a video calling on Biden to support the proposal.

We need a peoples vaccine, not a profit vaccine, Sanders says in the video.

The effort is fiercely opposed by the pharmaceutical industry, including key vaccine makers like Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca.

At issue is a proposal before the WTO, led by India and South Africa and backed by more than 50 other countries, to waive intellectual property protections for COVID-19 vaccines. Proponents argue it would enable lower-income countries to ramp up their own manufacturing and help address severe shortages outside of the richest countries and benefit every country by cutting down on the ability of new variants to develop as the virus spreads.

Opponents argue patent protections are needed to incentivize innovations, like the record turnaround time in developing COVID-19 vaccines. More broadly, they say the waiver wouldnt solve existing problems given that vaccines are complex to make and there are already voluntary efforts to take advantage of manufacturing capacity in other countries, without resorting to stripping patents.

A spokesman for the U.S. trade representative said the administration is exploring every avenue to coordinate with our global partners and are evaluating the efficacy of this specific proposal by its true potential to save lives.

But the Biden administration is facing pressure from some of its major allies, making the push hard to ignore.

In the House, DeLauro is leading the effort along with Democratic Reps. Jan SchakowskyJanice (Jan) Danoff SchakowskyHillicon Valley: House lawmakers fired up for hearing with tech CEOs | Zuckerberg proposes conditional Section 230 reforms | Lawmakers reintroduce bill to secure internet-connected devices Progressives up pressure on Biden to back COVID vaccine patent waiver House lawmakers fired up for hearing with tech CEOs MORE (Ill.), Earl BlumenauerEarl BlumenauerProgressives up pressure on Biden to back COVID vaccine patent waiver Bottom line White House defends marijuana policy after report of staffers targeted for past use MORE (Ore.) and Lloyd DoggettLloyd Alton DoggettProgressives up pressure on Biden to back COVID vaccine patent waiver House passes bills providing citizenship path for Dreamers, farmworkers House Republican takes part in hearing while driving car MORE (Texas).

They are working on a letter to the administration in support of the waiver, with more than 60 lawmakers signing on so far.

Speaker Nancy PelosiNancy PelosiThe Hill's Morning Report - Biden tasks Harris on border; news conference today Senators to unveil bill banning permanent Capitol fence GOP lawmakers blast 'morally reprehensible' Democratic probe of House race MORE (D-Calif.) has also privately expressed support for the waiver, Schakowsky said.

I dont usually speak for the Speaker, thats for sure, but she has said so many times now that she has talked to the administration and she is fully in support of this waiver, Schakowsky said during a press conference at the end of February. There are so many voices now getting to the president that I still feel optimistic that the right thing can be done by the United States.

Pelosis office declined to comment.

The effort is also backed by a wide array of outside groups, including Oxfam, Doctors Without Borders and Partners in Health.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the World Health Organization, also backed the idea in a Guardian op-ed this month.

Of the 225m vaccine doses that have been administered so far, the vast majority have been in a handful of rich and vaccine-producing countries, while most low- and middle-income countries watch and wait, he wrote.

Experts say Americans are at danger, too, if the virus continues to spread in other parts of the world, given that new, dangerous variants can develop.

Mindful of COVID variants from Brazil and South Africa, to stop this deadly virus, we need widespread immunization everywhere around the globe, not just in the wealthiest countries, Doggett said.

Others, however, argue that while the waiver effort may be well-intentioned, it would not be effective.

Because of the technical complexity of manufacturing coronavirus vaccines, waiving intellectual-property rights, by itself, would have little effect, Rachel Silverman, a policy fellow at the Center for Global Development, wrote in a Washington Post op-ed last week. It could even backfire, with companies using the move as an excuse to disengage from global access efforts.

The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America wrote a letter to Biden this month opposing the waiver, arguing it would not speed up production of vaccines.

Intellectual property is the foundation for both the development and sharing of new technologies, the group wrote. Perhaps more than any other time in history, society is seeing and benefiting from the innovation supported by intellectual property.

Instead, the industry points to voluntary licensing agreements that companies have entered into to share vaccines, such as AstraZeneca partnering with the Serum Institute of India to produce 1 billion vaccine doses for low- and middle-income countries.

The Biden administration has highlighted steps already taken by the U.S. to increase global vaccine access, like funding for Covax, the World Health Organizations vaccine initiative, and an agreement announced with Quad countries the U.S., Australia, Japan and India to provide funding to help produce 1 billion vaccine doses.

While emphasizing those efforts, Adam Hodge, a U.S trade representative spokesman, also left the door open to supporting the waiver.

The top priority of the United States is saving lives and ending the pandemic in the United States and around the world, he said. This includes investing in COVAX and working with partners, as we announced with the Quad, to surge vaccine production and delivery. As part of rebuilding our alliances, we are exploring every avenue to coordinate with our global partners and are evaluating the efficacy of this specific proposal by its true potential to save lives.

The administration is engaged in detailed technical discussions about the merits of the proposal with both developed and developing countries, an administration official said.

The members of Congress pushing for the waiver say they have not received a clear response from the White House. Part of the issue is that U.S. Trade Representative Katherine TaiKatherine TaiWhite House defends Asian American representation Progressives up pressure on Biden to back COVID vaccine patent waiver Duckworth, Hirono vow to oppose Biden picks over diversity concerns MORE was only confirmed last week.

We have not gotten like a flat no, Schakowsky said in an interview. But, she added, we have not seen any movement.

Blumenauer said he plans to speak with Tai about the issue.

I think theyre being cautious, he said. There are lots of moving pieces and they need cooperation with the industry, with the various companies.

But backers say theyre not giving up.

Were going to keep at it and keep at it and keep at it, DeLauro said.

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Progressives up pressure on Biden to back COVID vaccine patent waiver | TheHill - The Hill

Briahna Joy Gray, the former press secretary for Sen. Bernie SandersBernie SandersOvernight Health Care: Senate confirms Levine for HHS, first openly transgender official | Progressives up pressure on Biden to back COVID vaccine patent waiver | Former Operation Warp Speed chief fired over sexual harassment allegations Briahna Joy Gray: Progressives 'covering for the failures of the Biden administration' on minimum wage The Hill's Morning Report - Biden leans heavily into gun control MOREs (I-Vt.) 2020 presidential campaign, called out progressive lawmakers on Wednesday saying they have essentially been covering for the failures of President BidenJoe BidenSupreme Court will hear Boston bomber's death case if the Biden administration lets it The Hill's Morning Report - Biden tasks Harris on border; news conference today Democrats face questions over agenda MOREs administration on the $15 minimum wage effort.

Gray told Hill.TVs Rising that she wants more transparency from progressive lawmakers about why the $15 minimum wage did not make it in the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill, saying Democrats treated the Senate parliamentarian ruling as an insurmountable obstacle.

If I had my druthers, I would like the progressives in Congress to be a lot more clear and honest about whats going on there,Gray said. Because as it is, they are effectively, whether or not they are intending to, covering for the failures of the Biden administration and maintaining the fiction of Oh, we can try again down the line.

Without getting rid of the filibuster, theres really nothing thats going to change, she added. And this was really the best shot at getting a much-needed, sorely, sorely needed policy that really could have helped the long-term standing of the Democratic Party and made the prospect of the upcoming midterms a lot less dire.

The minimum wage provision was ultimately not included in the American Rescue Plan after the Senate parliamentarian ruled thatthat such a move would not work under special budget rules to prevent a filibuster.

After the ruling, the White House said Biden was disappointed but vowed to respect the ruling, despite progressive calls for the administration to overrule it.

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Briahna Joy Gray: Progressives 'covering for the failures of the Biden administration' on minimum wage | TheHill - The Hill

House Armed Services Committee member Ro Khanna argues the current minimum wage of $7.25 is not something Americans can survive on and a hike would improve productivity in the workforce.

Progressives Friday pushed for a $15 minimum wage, saying Democrats owe theirconstituentsa living wage this year, and if they don't deliver, it could cost them at the ballot box in 2022.

"We need to pass a $15 minimum wageby the end of the year, [and] it has to be part of must-pass legislation," said Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif.

Khanna organized a press call Friday with many progressiveDemocratic lawmakers, union leaders and activists who demandedthe $15 minimum wage despite setbacks earlier this year.

The wage increase passed the House in February as part of the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package, but the minimum wage provision was stripped out in the Senate due to parliamentary rules and lack of support from moderate Democrats.

PELOSI SAYS DEMS 'WILL PERSIST' ON $15 MINIMUM WAGE, DESPITE FAILURE TO GET IN COVID BILL

"The time is now," said Rep. Rashida Tlaib,D-Mich. "We have control of the House, the Senate [and] the presidency. My residents are tired of waiting. They cannot wait any longer for livable wages."

Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., questions CDC Principal Deputy Secretary Dr. Anne Schuchat as she speaks before a House Oversight subcommittee hearing on lung disease and e-cigarettes on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2019. (AP Photo/And

Raising the minimum wage to $15 would impact nearly 32 million workers, according to an analysis by the Economic Policy Institute. The majority -- or 59% -- of those who would benefit are women. The impact would be felt especially on women of color, who disproportionately work in low-wage jobs.

Activists saywomen, especially women of color, delivered the White House to President Biden and turned Georgia blue to give Democrats control of the Senate. Now they are counting on the wage increase for a lifeline, the Democrats say, after they've already been hard-hit by the coronavirus pandemic.

It's really important for us to recognize what the expectations of working people, particularly women and women of color are, and it's important for us to make sure that we're getting everything that we were promised,"saidRachel Carmona, executive director of the Women's March. "Because if we cant deliver a $15 minimum wage for women, then I'm not sure that women are going to deliver votes in 2022.

President Biden backs the $15 wage, but the challenge will be inthe Senate that is evenly split with 50 Democrats and 50 Republicans.

The progressives were preaching a whatever-it-takes approach to get the wage hike through, from overruling the Senate parliamentarian in the future or getting rid of the filibuster to require just a simple majority to advance legislation in the Senate.

BERNIE SANDERS AMENDMENT FOR $15 MINIMUM WAGE FAILS IN SENATE IN LONGEST VOTE IN HISTORY

Earlier in March, when Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., forced a vote on whether towaive budget rules to insert the $15 minimum wage back into the coronavirus bill, he lost support from his own party.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, D-Vt., questions former Gov. Jennifer Granholm, D-Mich., as she testifies before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee during a hearing to examine her nomination to be Secretary of Energy, Wednesday, Jan. 27, 2021 on

The federal minimum wage has not increased in more than a decade, although a growing number of states have voted to adopt their own wage increases.

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Raising the minimum wagefrom $7.25 to$15 an hour by 2025 would cost the economy about 1.4 million jobs and would lift 900,000 Americans out of poverty, according to arecent analysisby the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

FOXBusiness'Megan Henney contributed to this report.

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Progressives aren't giving up fight for $15 minimum wage, say legislation must be passed this year - Fox Business

Stuart Applebaum, president of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU), on Thursday said that Amazons claims that it is a progressive workplace are outrageous and tone deaf.

Hill.TVs Rising host Saagar Enjeti asked Applebaum what he made of a recent public spat between Rep. Mark PocanMark William PocanBattle heats up over Pentagon spending plans Overnight Defense: 50 House Democrats urge Biden to 'significantly' slash defense budget | Blinken, Austin put China on warning | Pentagon could extend Guard mission at border 50 House Democrats urge Biden to 'significantly' slash defense budget MORE (D-Ill.) and the Amazon News Twitter account.

The online squabble was sparked when Amazon's CEO of Worldwide Consumer Dave Clark tweeted, I often say we are the Bernie SandersBernie SandersOvernight Health Care: Senate confirms Levine for HHS, first openly transgender official | Progressives up pressure on Biden to back COVID vaccine patent waiver | Former Operation Warp Speed chief fired over sexual harassment allegations Briahna Joy Gray: Progressives 'covering for the failures of the Biden administration' on minimum wage The Hill's Morning Report - Biden leans heavily into gun control MORE of employers, but thats not quite right because we actually deliver a progressive workplace."

It's so outrageous, it's nonsense and it demonstrates how tone deaf Amazon is about what their own employees feel and think, Applebaum said. What Amazon is saying is, If we give people a $15 wage that gives us license to treat them any way we want to to disregard their health and safety to dehumanize them.

Applebaum argued that Amazon could not call itself a progressive workplace when taking into account its extraordinarily high turnover rate.

[Workers are] saying we can't take it no matter how much you pay us, he added.And let me also point out about pay ... that what Amazon pays is less than the median wage in Alabama, It's less than what workers get at other warehouses represented by the RWDSU in Alabama."

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Union president: Amazon's 'progressive workplace' claims are 'outrageous' and 'tone deaf' | TheHill - The Hill

"You know, it's like a gut punch to millions of people," Washington Rep. Pramila Jayapal, who chairs the House Progressive Caucus, said about the $15-an-hour minimum wage coming out of President Biden's COVID-19 relief package. But she says her vote will be based on the bill as a whole, even though it doesn't include the wage hike. Patrick Semansky/AP hide caption

"You know, it's like a gut punch to millions of people," Washington Rep. Pramila Jayapal, who chairs the House Progressive Caucus, said about the $15-an-hour minimum wage coming out of President Biden's COVID-19 relief package. But she says her vote will be based on the bill as a whole, even though it doesn't include the wage hike.

Updated at 11:20 a.m. ET

President Biden wasn't many progressives' first, second, third or maybe even 20th choice in the crowded 2020 Democratic presidential primary.

But ever since winning the party's nomination last spring amid the onset of the global pandemic and economic downturn, Biden has vowed to govern as the most progressive president since Franklin Roosevelt. He's even made a large portrait of FDR the centerpiece of his Oval Office to underscore that goal.

Many progressive lawmakers and activists say they're largely pleased with the early weeks of Biden's presidency, and the open doors, phone lines and Zoom sessions they've been met with by the White House.

Progressives are "strong partners in everything we do in this White House," said Emmy Ruiz, Biden's director of political strategy and outreach. "We view them as critical and key partners in the White House. They're an important part of that broad coalition that elected Joe Biden."

"Understanding I'm grading on a curve it's not Bernie Sanders' agenda, and it's not Medicare For All, and it's not going to be a wealth tax. It's not going to be anything like that right now," said Faiz Shakir, an adviser and onetime campaign manager to Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. "But in the areas where we can get the 50 votes in the Senate and a majority in the House and see how progressive we can be with it, well, I think we're getting near-best-possible outcomes."

Shakir played a role in urging Biden to record a video this week encouraging a unionization effort among Amazon warehouse employees in Alabama a step that went far beyond how previous Democratic presidents have engaged in specific labor disputes. It led to big cheers from progressive quarters.

But whether Biden should seek 50 or 60 Senate votes for his priorities is now the source of the most public rift yet between a president who built his reputation on compromise and working with Republicans, and the progressive base he's spent the past year courting and drafting policy with.

Biden made a $15-an-hour minimum wage a long-sought progressive goal a part of his $1.9 trillion economic rescue plan. The House included the increase in the version passed last week with a party-line vote. But the Senate's parliamentarian ruled the proposal doesn't fit within the narrow and complicated rules that govern the chamber's budget measures, which can pass on simple majorities, rather than the 60 votes needed for most other bills to advance.

California Rep. Ro Khanna has led a House Democratic effort to pressure Vice President Harris, who also serves as the president of the Senate, to overturn that ruling. Harris, Biden and Senate Democratic leaders have made it clear that isn't happening. So, as the Senate prepares to vote on the massive spending bill later this week, the measure won't include an agenda item progressives have rallied and organized around for years and that Biden campaigned on implementing.

The White House maintains that Biden is "deeply committed" to raising the minimum wage. "We were disappointed that the parliamentarian ruled against included minimum wage," said Ruiz. "What the president has said, and what we are all incredibly committed to, is finding other avenues and other lanes for accomplishing this goal of reaching an increase in the minimum wage."

But progressives like Khanna worry those other avenues will fall short. "If you're not going to pass this through reconciliation, how are we going to get a significant minimum wage increase?" he asked.

Many progressives were especially frustrated that Biden was already backing off the wage increase a couple of weeks before the parliamentarian ruled. "Well, apparently that's not going to occur because of the rules of the United States Senate," Biden told CBS News last month during a sit-down interview before the Super Bowl. "My guess is it will not be in it."

"You know, it's like a gut punch to millions of people," recalled Washington Rep. Pramila Jayapal, who chairs the House Progressive Caucus. "Because he came out so bold on including $15. And then suddenly to preempt made no sense to us."

Khanna likened Biden's interview to a lawyer confiding to a jury that she or he wasn't fully sold on the merits of the case.

Are progressive frustrations enough to sink the larger relief package, Biden's top legislative priority, without the wage boost? Almost certainly not.

"I would vote for it," Khanna conceded. "Because I don't in good conscience can't deny people unemployment insurance. I can't deny schools the money they need to reopen. I can't deny people checks they need to pay rent or make their daily expenses."

Asked whether she'd make the minimum wage an ultimatum for her final support, Jayapal was careful to say her vote would be based on the bill as whole not just that one aspect. "If this package were to get significantly watered down by Senate Democrats, that would be a problem for progressives in the House."

Like most other progressives, Jayapal is stressing the fact she still sees the Biden White House as a good faith ally, albeit an ally she and other progressives will have many tactical disagreements with. "It's been a very good relationship. That doesn't mean we're not going to tussle and tangle at times."

A portrait of Franklin Roosevelt is a centerpiece in President Biden's Oval Office, signaling his promise of an ambitious presidency in a national crisis. Stefani Reynolds/Getty Images hide caption

A portrait of Franklin Roosevelt is a centerpiece in President Biden's Oval Office, signaling his promise of an ambitious presidency in a national crisis.

That overall feeling frustration, but no clear effort to derail what will be one of the largest spending bills in U.S. history is why the White House is so confident the rescue plan will pass the evenly-divided Senate this week and that House will approve the final amended version, too, sending it to Biden's desk by the end of next week.

But the frustration and worry bubbled up so quickly because many progressives see the minimum wage hike as the first of several Democratic priorities that will almost certainly die in a hyper-partisan Senate that's split 50-50, but still operates under rules requiring 60 votes so, support from at least 10 Republicans to break a possible filibuster and pass legislation. (Filibuster rules for administration and judicial nominations have rapidly disappeared over the past decade.)

"There's going to be a whole lot of things coming down the pike," said Shakir, pointing to voting rights legislation, measures aimed at strengthening organized labor and campaign finance reform, among other Democratic priorities. "And you can imagine that those are areas where Republicans are not going to offer the 10 votes to get you past the 60-vote threshold."

More and more Democrats have called for the elimination of the legislative filibuster in recent years.

Biden has only reluctantly and conditionally backed those calls to end the filibuster, and they may be moot anyway. Moderate Democrats like Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona have said they'd vote against rules changes, making changes all but impossible at a time when Democrats only control the chamber through Harris' tie-breaking vote.

With those existing Senate rules making the type of sweeping changes Biden campaigned on all but impossible in Congress, the tension that bubbled between the White House and progressives this week will almost certainly increase. "We appreciate, we recognize that the Biden administration on many policies has adopted things that Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, progressives have been talking about," said Khanna. "But ultimately the question is, are we going to have a view of structural change that is necessary to make those laws?"

And if progressives aren't quite ready to exert their will on the Biden administration by stalling the president's priorities in Congress, they're making it clear that without big tactical changes like eliminating the legislative filibuster, Biden and the rest of the party might suffer consequences in the midterm elections next year and in 2024.

"Those things are very, very popular across the country in Republican and Democratic districts," said Jayapal, referring to the $15 minimum wage and campaign finance reforms, among other progressive priorities. "And nobody is going to be interested in procedural reasons why we can't deliver."

"If the Senate becomes under Democrats what it was under Mitch McConnell the graveyard where all good things go to die that is going to be a huge problem for us in the midterms," she said. "Both in retaining control of the Senate and retaining control of the House."

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$15 Minimum Wage Fight Tests Biden's Ties To Progressives - NPR