Ballotpedia's Daily Transition Tracker - April 2, 2021
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  Welcome to Ballotpedia's Transition TrackerApril 2, 2021
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- There are no committee hearings scheduled Friday. The Senate stands adjourned until April 12 for a full session.
News
- During Biden’s first Cabinet meeting on Thursday, he assigned five members—Pete Buttigieg (Transportation), Jennifer Granholm (Energy), Marcia Fudge (Housing and Urban Development), Marty Walsh (Labor), and Gina Raimondo (Commerce)—to help represent him in public and congressional relations on the American Jobs Plan.
- Biden requested that Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona prepare a memo on presidential legal authority to cancel student debt. The Department of Justice will also be involved in its preparation.
- Rep. Richard Neal (D-Mass.), chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, said the American Jobs Plan should have other funding options, such as bonds or expanded tax credits.
- Citing the Civil Rights Act, the Department of Transportation paused the expansion of the I-45 highway near Houston following concern it would displace a majority Black and Hispanic community.
Transition in Context: In Their Words...
Here’s what Democratic and Republican leaders have said about the American Jobs Plan, Biden’s $2.2 trillion infrastructure proposal.
- “Addressing infrastructure, climate and environmental justice together, and creating millions of good paying jobs, is just the right combination to meet head on the challenges that America now faces. Every community, large and small, rural, suburban and urban will benefit from this robust American Jobs Plan. This will not only make clean energy and clean transportation affordable, it will create millions of new jobs with good wages, which always occurs when we invest in infrastructure and manufacturing as we will be doing here.” – Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.)
- “This proposal appears to use ‘infrastructure’ as a Trojan horse for the largest set of tax hikes in a generation. These sweeping tax hikes would kill jobs and hold down wages at the worst possible time, as Americans try to dig out from the pandemic. But don’t worry, coastal elites — House Democrats are demanding a special SALT carve-out that would cut taxes for wealthy people in blue states.” – Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.)
- “[I]f we’re looking at ideals and what we think is the actual investment that can create tens of millions of good union jobs in this country, that can shore up our health care, our infrastructure, our housing, and doing it in a way that draws down our carbon emissions to help us get in line with IPCC standards, we’re talking about realistically $10 trillion over ten years. And I know that may be an eye-popping figure for some people, but we need to understand that we are in a devastating economic moment.” – Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.)
- “President Biden proposes steep new taxes on businesses which will hurt working families and last more than a decade. This is the wrong approach, and will only undermine our economy at a time when we are beginning to recover.” – Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio)
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