Washington has been completely focused on stimulus negotiations but with the bill signed and sealed, will it be delivered to the American people? Plus, what is up next for the Biden administration now that it has clocked its first major legislative win? This is your Washington Week Ahead.
ROAD TRIP: President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris are hitting the road for a victory lap around the country, touting the major wins in the American Rescue Plan. They will travel separately and then join up to promote all the benefits that Americans will receive directly, including $1,400 stimulus payments for many families and individuals and an expanded child tax credit that should pay out monthly.
INFRASTRUCTURE WEEK: There's a bit of a joke in Washington anytime there is an "infrastructure week": a policy-focused period to discuss the incredibly vague idea of infrastructure. Everyone will laugh and brush it off — we've all been here before and nothing has changed. But the Biden team wants to change that trend by selling Congress on its Build Back Better plan, including $1+ trillion in spending on roads, bridges, green technology, and rural broadband expansion. But a reluctant Republican Party isn't likely to get on board, which may mean we'll see another infrastructure week that builds exactly nothing.
BORDER CRISIS?: If Republicans had their way, the only topic in Washington right now would be a crisis at the border. Whether there even is a crisis is pretty subjective at this point — the Biden White House refutes the characterization while Republican leadership cannot repeat it enough. But one thing is certain: this administration wants to do a big immigration deal with a Congress that has no interest in bipartisan deals, especially on controversial issues like immigration. Biden and congressional allies aren't giving up that easily though. They've released the U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021 as their starting point for negotiation.
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris announced Thursday that the U.S. is investing more than $100 million in the Caribbean region to crack down on weapons trafficking, help alleviate Haiti’s humanitarian crisis and support climate change initiatives.
At Cleveland's Urban Kutz Barbershop, customers can flip through magazines as they wait, or help themselves to drug screening tests left out in a box on a table with a somber message: “Your drugs could contain fentanyl. Please take free test strips.”
President Joe Biden on Thursday condemned a wave of “cruel” and “callous” state legislation curbing the rights, visibility and health care access of LGBTQ+ people, while causing the community to feel under attack for being who they are.
Pat Robertson, a religious broadcaster who turned a tiny Virginia station into the global Christian Broadcasting Network, tried a run for president and helped make religion central to Republican Party politics in America through his Christian Coalition, has died. He was 93.
The Supreme Court on Thursday issued a surprising 5-4 ruling in favor of Black voters in a congressional redistricting case, ordering the creation of a second district with a large Black population.
Mike Pence opened his presidential bid with an unusually forceful critique of former President Donald Trump over Jan. 6, his temperament and abortion on Wednesday as he became the first vice president in modern history to challenge his former running mate.
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie wasted no time going after Donald Trump while launching his presidential campaign on Tuesday, calling the former president and current Republican primary front-runner a “lonely, self-consumed, self-serving mirror hog" and arguing that he's the only one who can stop him.
Saying gender identity is real, a federal judge temporarily blocked portions of a new Florida law that bans transgender minors from receiving puberty blockers, ruling Tuesday that the state has no rational basis for denying patients treatment.
With concerns about misinformation spreading online, European Union officials want to more closely regulate artificial intelligence, and they're asking the world's biggest tech companies for help.
Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Ron Wyden, Ed Markey, and Mazie Hirono sent a letter to top officials at Twitter expressing their concerns over the platform's privacy policy.
