Democrats rush to reach deal on social spending plan before Biden trip to Europe
CBSN
Washington — With President Biden set to leave Washington for a trip to Europe later this week, Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill are racing to broker an agreement on his multi-trillion-dollar social spending package and settle splits among their conference over paid leave, an expansion of Medicare benefits and the means of paying for the legislation.
House Democrats met behind closed doors Tuesday amid the ongoing negotiations over a framework for Mr. Biden's proposal to expand a slew of social programs, and the president is poised to huddle with lawmakers at the White House to discuss moving his domestic policy agenda forward, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said.
But divisions remain among Democrats over key aspects of the legislation, complicating Democratic leaders' goals of reaching a deal on the details of the package before Mr. Biden leaves the country to attend a Group of 20 conference in Rome and a United Nations climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland, known as COP26.
An Arizona grand jury indicted 18 people Wednesday in the ongoing investigation into an alleged attempt to use alternate electors after the 2020 presidential election as part of a wider alleged conspiracy to falsely declare then-President Donald Trump the winner, the state's attorney general announced.
Almost four out of every 10 people in the United States live in a place where air pollution is considered bad enough to put their health at risk, the American Lung Association warned in its latest "State of the Air" report released on Wednesday. That proportion of people — about 39% of the population — had risen sharply since earlier rounds of pollutant data were analyzed for the annual report last year, and the trends were especially pronounced in certain parts of the country.