Biden team pounds Congress to sell $2 trillion infrastructure bill
13 April 2021
Top Biden officials have meetings planned with more than a dozen congressional committees this week as they try to pass a multi-trillion-dollar infrastructure package on an accelerated timeline, senior White House sources tell Axios.
Why it matters: Democrats are anxious to pass their massive tax-and-spend package before the August recess. If negotiations stretch beyond the summer break, the chances increase they drag into 2022, and it's hard to get members to take tough votes during election years.
The details: White House legislative affairs director Louisa Terrell and National Economic Council director Brian Deese have set up multiple meetings each day.
- The sessions involve members of Congress and National Economic Council staff and a group of Cabinet secretaries the White House has tapped to sell infrastructure.
- The infrastructure proposal touches on issues ranging from broadband internet to housing to climate. Cabinet leaders plan to meet with members of committees that intersect with their areas of expertise.
- Housing and Development Secretary Marcia Fudge is spending time discussing housing, for example, while Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo is working on the specifics of international competitiveness.
Between the lines: Officials from both parties are deeply skeptical any deal can be hatched that would win the support of the 10 Republicans needed to pass major legislation.
- Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) had not yet left today's infrastructure outreach meeting with President Biden before his staff began tweeting in opposition to the proposal, Axios' Kadia Goba noted.
Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times
Section2Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.
Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.
The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.
- The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.
What the transcripts say:
- Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
- The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
- Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."
Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.