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House Democrats to make quixotic push for abortion access
House Democrats will today introduce legislation to restore abortion rights nationwide, but the measure has no chance of passing the chamber as long as Republicans maintain their majority.
House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries, whip Katherine Clark and other members of Democratic leadership will introduce the Women’s Health Protection Act of 2023 in a press conference at 12.45pm ET. The legislation would create a federal right to abortion and protect against restrictions on the procedure – such as those many GOP-led states have enacted since the supreme court overturned Roe v Wade last year.
A version of the bill was earlier this month proposed in the Senate, but the push is largely symbolic. Republicans remain broadly against abortion access, dooming the legislation’s chances both in the House and the Senate, where they can use the filibuster to stop its passage.
Key events
For more on how rightwing figures have used the Nashville school shooting to attack transgender people and other LGBTQ+ groups, here’s the Guardian’s Richard Luscombe:
An already vigorous assault by Republicans on LGBTQ+ rights around the US is certain to gather pace in the wake of the Nashville school shooting, advocacy groups are warning.
Hard-right figures wasted little time in seizing on the reported transgender identity of the Covenant school killer to advance tenets of a “hateful” agenda that has become an obsession of Republican-controlled statehouses from Florida to Tennessee.
In contrast to a muted response to numerous mass shootings in which the majority of the killers were white, male and cisgender, these extremists appear to be manipulating the Nashville shooter’s self-identification to make their case for even more anti-trans legislation, even as they eschew gun control.
They include Donald Trump Jr seeking an end to what he calls “bullshit” gender-affirming care; Marjorie Taylor Greene having her Twitter account temporarily suspended for misrepresenting a planned protest against anti-trans laws; and homophobic and transphobic rants from Fox News hosts Laura Ingraham and Tucker Carlson, the latter blasting the trans movement as “the natural enemy of Christianity”.
Biden decries ‘epidemic of violence’ against transgender Americans
Joe Biden warned of “discriminatory state laws” and an “epidemic of violence” targeting transgender Americans in a proclamation recognizing this year’s Transgender Day of Visibility.
The president’s statement came as GOP-led states nationwide pass laws that ban gender-affirming care for minors or restrict transgender people’s ability to use their preferred pronouns on official documents or the bathrooms of their choice. It also came days after the mass shooting at a Nashville elementary school by a gunman who identified as transgender – which some rightwing figures seized on to further demonize the group.
Here’s more from the White House proclamation:
Transgender Day of Visibility celebrates the joy, strength, and absolute courage of some of the bravest people I know — people who have too often had to put their jobs, relationships, and lives on the line just to be their true selves. Today, we show millions of transgender and nonbinary Americans that we see them, they belong, and they should be treated with dignity and respect. Their courage has given countless others strength, but no one should have to be brave just to be themselves. Every American deserves that freedom.
Transgender Americans shape our Nation’s soul — proudly serving in the military, curing deadly diseases, holding elected office, running thriving businesses, fighting for justice, raising families, and much more. As kids, they deserve what every child deserves: the chance to learn in safe and supportive schools, to develop meaningful friendships, and to live openly and honestly. As adults, they deserve the same rights enjoyed by every American, including equal access to health care, housing, and jobs and the chance to age with grace as senior citizens. But today, too many transgender Americans are still denied those rights and freedoms. A wave of discriminatory State laws is targeting transgender youth, terrifying families and hurting kids who are not hurting anyone. An epidemic of violence against transgender women and girls, in particular women and girls of color, has taken lives far too soon. Last year’s Club Q shooting in Colorado was another painful example of this kind of violence — a stain on the conscience of our Nation.
House Democrats to make quixotic push for abortion access
House Democrats will today introduce legislation to restore abortion rights nationwide, but the measure has no chance of passing the chamber as long as Republicans maintain their majority.
House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries, whip Katherine Clark and other members of Democratic leadership will introduce the Women’s Health Protection Act of 2023 in a press conference at 12.45pm ET. The legislation would create a federal right to abortion and protect against restrictions on the procedure – such as those many GOP-led states have enacted since the supreme court overturned Roe v Wade last year.
A version of the bill was earlier this month proposed in the Senate, but the push is largely symbolic. Republicans remain broadly against abortion access, dooming the legislation’s chances both in the House and the Senate, where they can use the filibuster to stop its passage.
In the wake of the shooting at a Nashville elementary school earlier this week that killed six people, three of them children, Republicans in Congress have made clear that they plan to do nothing in response to gun violence.
Well, perhaps not nothing. Tim Burchett, a House GOP lawmaker from Tennessee, told Fox News today that he’d keep praying for America’s rampant gun violence to stop:
Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN), when asked why his response to the Nashville school mass shooting made people mad:
“They come back to me and say, ‘Burchett, look what your prayers have done for us.’ The people doing the praying aren’t the ones doing the shooting.” pic.twitter.com/4bgzj9Tnhq
— The Recount (@therecount) March 30, 2023
Meanwhile in Congress, emotions are running high after the shooting at a Nashville elementary school, the Guardian’s Lauren Aratani reports: Amid continuing national grief and anger over the Nashville elementary school shooting, in which three children and three adults were killed, two members of the US House of Representatives got into a shouting match outside the chamber on Wednesday. While speaking to reporters, Jamaal Bowman, a Democrat from New York and a former school principal, called Republicans “gutless” for refusing to support meaningful gun control reforms. Thomas Massie, a far-right Republican from Kentucky, overheard Bowman’s comments. “What are you talking about?” he asked, adding: “There’s never been a school shooting in a school that allows teachers to carry guns.” While Joe Biden may be taking flak from the Democrats’ right flank, the president appears to be in the midst of a pivot to the center that’s frustrated progressives, the Guardian’s Joan E Greve reports: When he was running for president in 2020, Joe Biden promised “no more drilling on federal lands, period”. This month, he approved an $8bn oil project in Alaska, violating that campaign pledge. Biden had said he wholeheartedly supports granting statehood to the District of Columbia. Last week, he signed a Republican bill overturning changes to the DC criminal code, which critics attacked as a violation of home rule. Biden previously accused Donald Trump of waging “an unrelenting assault on our values and our history as a nation of immigrants” because of his handling of the US-Mexican border. This month, reports emerged that the Biden administration has considered reinstating the practice of detaining migrant families who cross the border illegally. Immigrant rights advocates have denounced the idea, as well as another proposal to further restrict who can seek asylum in the US. One thing to keep in mind about Joe Manchin: his days in the Senate may be numbered. He represents West Virginia, which years ago was a Democratic bastion, but is now considered one of the most Republican states in the country. Manchin is among a group of Democratic senators representing red states that are up for re-election next year, giving Republicans a great opportunity to seize control of the Senate. Thus, breaking with the Biden administration may be in Manchin’s interest – though he still hasn’t said whether he’ll stand for re-election to the Senate. Joe Manchin acted as something of a congressional kingmaker for the first two years of Joe Biden’s presidency. With Democrats needing unanimity among the party’s lawmakers to get anything through the Senate without Republican support, Manchin flexed his muscles to, among other things, water down provisions addressing climate change from Biden’s signature legislation, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). Manchin saw his power diluted in last year’s midterm elections, when the Democrats increased their margin in the Senate and lost the House, ending the chances for Biden to get any big legislation through Congress for the next two years. But Manchin is still an influential voices and perhaps the most conservative Democrat in the Senate, and thus his criticism of the Biden administration’s strategy on the debt ceiling, and implementation of the IRA, is worth listening to. Here’s some of what he wrote in the Wall Street Journal: Instead of implementing the law as intended, unelected ideologues, bureaucrats and appointees seem determined to violate and subvert the law to advance a partisan agenda that ignores both energy and fiscal security. Specifically, they are ignoring the law’s intent to support and expand fossil energy and are redefining “domestic energy” to increase clean-energy spending to potentially deficit-breaking levels. The administration is attempting at every turn to implement the bill it wanted, not the bill Congress actually passed. Ignoring the debt and deficit implications of these actions as the time nears to raise the debt ceiling isn’t only wrong, it’s policy and political malpractice. I believe the only person who can rein in this extremism is Mr. Biden. The first step is for the president to sit down with fiscally minded Republicans and Democrats to negotiate common-sense reforms to out-of-control fiscal policy. While we can all acknowledge that raising the debt limit is an absolute necessity and Republicans shouldn’t threaten otherwise, are we seriously to believe there is no room to negotiate? Does the federal government operate so efficiently and effectively that there truly isn’t a dollar of waste, fraud or abuse? Let’s get serious. In short, Manchin has two demands: “The president has the power, today, to direct his administration to follow the law, as well as to sit down with congressional leaders and negotiate meaningful, serious reforms to the federal budget.”Manchin calls for ‘meaningful, serious reforms’ to government spending
Democratic senator Manchin breaks with Biden on debt ceiling strategy
Good morning, US politics blog readers. The Wall Street Journal’s right-leaning editorial pages are rarely comforting reading for Democrats, and on Wednesday, they played host to a column criticizing the Biden administration from perhaps its top frenemy: Joe Manchin. West Virginia’s Democratic senator has acted as the gatekeeper for much legislation over the past two years of Biden’s administration, and in the column, he took issue with Joe Biden’s refusal to negotiate with Republicans over America’s debt limit. Manchin called for the White House to instead sit down with the opposition to find ways to reduce spending, which he argued was on an unsustainable path.
Here’s what else is going on today:
- The Republican-dominated House of Representatives is expected to finish up consideration of a bill meant to lower energy costs via increased oil and gas drilling.
- White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre will brief reporters at 2pm eastern time.
- Biden will not stop a Republican-backed measure to end the national emergency over the Covid pandemic, according to the Associated Press.