Tag Archives: Biden Administration

The Guardian reports: The Biden administration has invoked emergency powers as part of an “all-hands-on-deck” effort to avoid fuel shortages after the worst-ever cyber-attack on US infrastructure shut down a crucial pipeline supplying the east coast. The federal transport department issued an emergency declaration on Sunday to relax regulations for drivers carrying gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and other refined petroleum …

Bloomberg News reports: President Joe Biden’s White House released its first set of records detailing visits by official guests, returning to a practice set by the Obama administration and dismissed by the Trump team, disclosing 400 visits during his first 12 days in office. While hundreds of visitors might have visited the White House complex on an ordinary pre-pandemic day, …

Reuters reports: The United States has fully vaccinated 110,874,920 people for COVID-19 as of Friday morning, accounting for 33.4% of the population, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Friday. The country has administered 254,779,333 doses of COVID-19 vaccines in the country and distributed 327,124,625 doses. The agency said 150,416,559 people had received at least one dose …

The New York Times reports: Nearly one million Americans have signed up for Affordable Care Act coverage during the first 10 weeks of a special open enrollment period the Biden administration began in February. A total of 940,000 people enrolled in Obamacare coverage between Feb. 15 and April 30, new data released Thursday by Health and Human Services shows. Of …

Axios reports: The White House has launched a new website, AI.gov, to make artificial intelligence research more accessible across the nation, Axios has learned. Why it matters: The U.S. once led significantly in the global artificial intelligence race, but now risks being overtaken by China. This is one step the White House is taking to drum up excitement for AI …

The Washington Post reports: President Joe Biden is setting a new vaccination goal to deliver at least one dose to 70% of adult Americans by July 4, the White House said Tuesday, as the administration pushes to make it easier for people to get shots and to bring the country closer to normalcy. The new goal, which also includes fully …

CNN reports: The Biden administration is set to raise the refugee ceiling to 62,500 this fiscal year, according to a source familiar with the discussions, after receiving swift criticism last month when President Joe Biden kept the lower Trump-era cap in place. The administration announced last month that Biden would sign an emergency determination that keeps this year’s refugee cap …

ABC News reports: President Joe Biden completes his first hundred days in office with a country that is more optimistic about the coming year, according to a new ABC News/Ipsos poll. Nearly two-thirds of Americans (64%) are optimistic about the direction of the country in the poll, which was conducted by Ipsos in partnership with ABC News using Ipsos’ KnowledgePanel. …

USA Today reports: President Joe Biden’s administration plans to restrict travel from India to the US beginning Tuesday due to a surge in COVID cases. The move follows a recommendation from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said. “The policy will be implemented in light of extraordinarily high COVID-19 caseloads and multiple variants …

CNN reports: One hundred million adults in the United States are now fully vaccinated, White House coronavirus response director Jeff Zients announced Friday. “That’s a hundred million Americans with a sense of relief and peace of mind, knowing that after a long and hard year, they’re protected from the virus,” Zients told reporters at a White House Covid-19 briefing. He …

The Wall Street Journal reports: Household income rose at a record pace of 21.1% in March as federal-stimulus checks helped fuel an economic revival that is poised to endure with an easing pandemic. The surge in income last month was the largest monthly increase for government records tracing back to 1959, reflecting $1,400 stimulus checks and other government aid included …

The Wall Street Journal reports: The U.S. economy expanded rapidly in the first quarter, growing at a 6.4% annual rate and extending what economists project will be a robust, consumer-led recovery from the pandemic this year. The jump in U.S. gross domestic product in the first three months of the year, reported by the Commerce Department on Thursday, put the …

Politico reports: President Joe Biden’s address to a joint session Congress was the most ambitious ideological statement made by any Democratic president in decades—couched in language that made it sound as if he wasn’t making an ideological argument at all. Make no mistake that he was. He called for trillions in new spending in a robust expansion of government’s role …

NBC News reports: The Biden administration is expected to announce this week that it will propose a ban on menthol cigarettes, an action urgently sought by tobacco opponents and civil rights groups that say African Americans have been disproportionately hurt by the industry’s aggressive targeting of Black communities. The administration also is poised to say it will seek to ban …

CNN reports: The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) again delayed the deadline for enforcement of REAL ID requirements, the latest pandemic-related extension for the program aimed at establishing a consistent security standard for issuing driver’s licenses and other identification. DHS announced Tuesday it is extending the REAL ID full enforcement date by 19 months, from October 1, 2021, to …

CBS News reports: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is expected to announce updated guidelines for fully vaccinated Americans as early as Tuesday, according to several administration officials. A federal official tells CBS News that the Biden administration will release new “interim public health recommendations” that will provide guidelines for activities that vaccinated people may resume, including recommendations …

The Washington Post reports: The Department of Homeland Security will carry out a “comprehensive review” of its agencies to root out violent extremists within its ranks who may harbor racial or ethnic hatreds, Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced in a statement Monday. The Biden administration has directed DHS to increase its efforts to counter violent extremism and white-supremacist violence, which the …

The Associated Press reports: The Justice Department is opening a sweeping probe into policing in Louisville, Kentucky over the March 2020 death of Breonna Taylor, who was shot to death by police during a raid at her home, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced Monday. It’s the second such sweeping probe into a law enforcement agency by the Biden administration in …

The New York Times reports: The Biden administration, under intense pressure to address the devastating coronavirus crisis in India, intends to share up to 60 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine with other nations, so long as the doses clear a safety review conducted by the Food and Drug Administration, officials said Monday. The announcement came after President Biden spoke …

Roll Call reports: The Housing and Urban Development Department recommitted to Obama-era protections that ensure transgender people experiencing homelessness can stay in shelters that correspond with their gender identities. The department on Thursday withdrew a proposal put forward under President Donald Trump last year that would have rolled back the protections in HUD’s 2012 Equal Access rule for transgender and …