We have another Infrastructure Week on the schedule and if you had "the filibuster isn't racist" on your 2021 BINGO card, you win a prize. Here's more about what is and isn't expected in the Washington Week Ahead.
(ANOTHER) INFRASTRUCTURE WEEK: The proverbial joke in Washington is actually, really happening in Pittsburgh on Wednesday when President Joe Biden takes to the stage to pitch his infrastructure plan. The White House has downplayed leaks so far, but we can expect that he'll try to sell the American people on $3-4 trillion in federal spending on "hard infrastructure" like planes, trains, and automobiles and "soft infrastructure" like free community college and universal Pre-K. The bill will not garner much Republican support and Democrats are planning to move forward with another budget reconciliation proposal.
CRICKETS ON CAPITOL HILL: The week of Spring Recess and all through the House, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse. The Senate gaveled out of its chamber with care in hopes that legislative business would all disappear.
Yes, I did write a poem about next week in Washington. But it pretty much sums up where things are: Congress is in recess for two weeks and that means exactly nothing will be happening on the legislative front. Don't expect much from the president either. He's clearly in no rush to do anything on gun control or immigration, saying "timing is everything." In other words, not now.
BESSEMER UNION BATTLE: The vote on whether to unionize the Amazon warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama wraps up on Monday, just days before Biden heads north to the union town of Pittsburgh to pitch the country on tons of good, union jobs as part of his infrastructure plan. But the union fight is already here and it's happening in a state that is historically anti-union. Whether or not Amazon's warehouse does unionize or not, the conversation about union jobs and unions, in general, is going to be an ongoing one, especially as the Democratic Senate will likely force a vote on the pro-union PRO Act despite having no Republican support — if they can get the votes in their own party.
The Trump administration has asked an appeals court to remove Lisa Cook from the Federal Reserve’s board of governors by Monday, before the central bank’s next vote on interest rates. Trump sought to fire Cook Aug. 25, but a federal judge ruled late Tuesday that the removal was illegal and reinstated her to the Fed’s board.
President Donald Trump's administration is appealing a ruling blocking him from immediately firing Federal Reserve Gov. Lisa Cook as he seeks more control over the traditionally independent board. The notice of appeal was filed Wednesday, hours after U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb handed down the ruling. The White House insists the Republican president had the right to fire Cook over mortgage fraud allegations involving properties in Michigan and Georgia from before she joined the Fed. Cook's lawsuit denies the allegations and says the firing was unlawful. The case could soon reach the Supreme Court, which has allowed Trump to fire members of other independent agencies but suggested that power has limitations at the Fed.
Chief Justice John Roberts has let President Donald Trump remove a member of the Federal Trade Commission, the latest in a string of high-profile firings allowed for now by the Supreme Court.
President Donald Trump has fired one of two Democratic members of the U.S. Surface Transportation Board to break a 2-2 tie ahead of the board considering the largest railroad merger ever proposed.
The Rev. Al Sharpton is set to lead a protest march on Wall Street to urge corporate America to resist the Trump administration’s campaign to roll back diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. The New York civil rights leader will join clergy, labor and community leaders Thursday in a demonstration through Manhattan’s Financial District that’s timed with the anniversary of the Civil Rights-era March on Washington in 1963. Sharpton called DEI the “civil rights fight of our generation." He and other Black leaders have called for boycotting American retailers that scaled backed policies and programs aimed at bolstering diversity and reducing discrimination in their ranks.
President Donald Trump's administration last month awarded a $1.2 billion contract to build and operate what's expected to become the nation’s largest immigration detention complex to a tiny Virginia firm with no experience running correction facilities.
Cracker Barrel said late Tuesday it’s returning to its old logo after critics — including President Donald Trump — protested the company’s plan to modernize.
Donald Trump has a message for critics who think turning the U.S. government into a major stockholder of Intel is a “socialist” move: More is coming.
Federal Reserve Gov. Lisa Cook's lawyer says she'll sue President Donald Trump's administration to try to prevent him from firing her. Longtime Washington attorney Abbe Lowell said Tuesday that Trump “has no authority to remove” Cook. If Trump succeeds in removing Cook from the Fed's board of governors, it could erode the Fed’s political independence, which is considered critical to its ability to fight inflation because it enables the Fed to take unpopular steps like raising interest rates. The Republican president said Monday he was removing Cook because of allegations she committed mortgage fraud. Cook was appointed by Democratic President Joe Biden in 2022 and says she won't step down.
Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook late Wednesday said she wouldn’t leave her post after Trump on social media called on her to resign over an accusation from one his officials that she committed mortgage fraud.
