Health News at Your Fingertips

The White House has just released a fact sheet outlining the initiatives Joe Biden will announce in his speech on vaccination efforts this afternoon.

As expected, the Biden administration is requiring all federal employees to “attest to their vaccination status” or comply with restrictions aimed at limiting the spread of coronavirus in government offices.

“Anyone who does not attest to being fully vaccinated will be required to wear a mask on the job no matter their geographic location, physically distance from all other employees and visitors, comply with a weekly or twice weekly screening testing requirement, and be subject to restrictions on official travel,” the fact sheet says.

The rule applies to all federal workers and on-site contractors, which accounts for about 4 million people. The White House is urging all private employers to develop a similar model.

Biden will also call on the Pentagon to “look into how and when they will add COVID-19 vaccination to the list of required vaccinations for members of the military”.

The blog will have more details coming up, so stay tuned.

Ouch, that’s got to hurt: Jill Biden will undergo a procedure at Walter Reed medical center today to remove an object that became lodged in her foot last weekend.

Michael LaRosa, the first lady’s spokesperson, said in a statement provided to the White House press pool: “Last weekend, prior to her two official events in Hawaii, the First Lady stepped on an object on the beach which became lodged in her left foot. She will undergo a procedure today at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center to remove the object. The President will join her.”

The first lady visited Hawaii over the weekend after traveling to Tokyo for the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games.

New York’s mayor, Bill de Blasio, has already followed the treasury department’s advice, announcing yesterday that anyone who goes to a city-run vaccination site for their first dose of the vaccine will receive $100 starting Friday.

On Monday, De Blasio also announced a vaccine mandate for all of New York’s roughly 340,000 city employees. Starting 13 September, all city workers – including public school teachers, police officers and firefighters – will need to show proof of vaccination or receive weekly coronavirus tests.

Joe Biden is expected to soon announce a similar mandate for federal workers when he delivers his speech on the White House’s vaccination campaign.

Joe Biden is set to soon deliver a speech on his administration’s efforts to vaccinate more Americans against coronavirus, and the treasury department is now previewing one of those initiatives.

The department released a statement urging state, local and tribal governments to use funds they received from the American Rescue Plan to offer payments to newly vaccinated residents.

“For these governments and the communities they represent, no task is more urgent than turning the tide on the pandemic, and there is no better tool than vaccination. This is why Treasury is encouraging state, territorial and local governments to use the funds to enhance their vaccination efforts, including by providing individual vaccine incentives,” the statement says.

“Today, the President is calling on state, territorial, and local governments to provide $100 payments for every newly vaccinated American, as an extra incentive to boost vaccination rates, protect communities, and save lives. Treasury stands ready to give technical assistance to state and local governments so that they may use the funds effectively to support increased vaccination in their communities, and Treasury will partner with the Department of Health and Human Services throughout this effort.”

Biden’s speech is scheduled to start in about 20 minutes, so stay tuned.

Well, this is moving quite quickly. The House has already taken up the $2.1bn Capitol security funding bill that passed the Senate this afternoon.

However, Republican congressman Chip Roy has just introduced a motion to adjourn the session, which will slightly delay the final vote on the security bill. Stay tuned.

Meanwhile, over on Capitol Hill, the House will vote today on the $2.1bn Capitol security bill that unanimously passed the Senate this afternoon.

The office of the House majority leader, Steny Hoyer ,has just said the chamber will consider the bill under suspension of the rules, meaning the legislation will need a two-thirds majority to pass.

The White House has already indicated that Joe Biden will sign the bill if it passes the House. Stay tuned.

Karine Jean-Pierre avoided providing specifics on the expected vaccine mandate for federal workers, but she argued the White House has a responsibility to set the best standards for their employees.

As the largest employer in the US, the federal government has “an obligation to be good stewards of the workforce and ensure their health and their safety”, the deputy press secretary said.

“We’re taking action to protect the federal workforce so that they can continue to execute on the hard and important work of government,” Jean-Pierre said.

She also argued that the steps the federal government is taking are not all that dissimilar from action initiated by other workplaces across the country.

White House deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre would not provide any details on Joe Biden’s speech this afternoon about the administration’s vaccination efforts.

Using one of press secretary Jen Psaki’s favorite answers, Jean-Pierre told reporters: “I don’t want to get ahead of the president.”

Biden is scheduled to deliver his speech in about an hour, and the president is expected to announce a coronavirus vaccine mandate for all federal employees.

The deputy White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, is now holding the daily briefing with reporters, and she started her comments by praising the new bipartisan infrastructure deal.

“What was once BIF is now BID, and hopefully we’ll get it to BIB,” Jean-Pierre said.

For those who are fortunate enough to not recognize those acronyms, “BIF” refers to the bipartisan infrastructure framework, which has now become the bipartisan infrastructure deal (“BID”) as lawmakers try to craft the final text of the bipartisan infrastructure bill (“BIB”).

“That was my joke for the day,” Jean-Pierre said amid some chuckles from the White House press corps.

The White House released a statement of administration policy today, confirming that Joe Biden will sign the Capitol security bill if it passes the House.

“The bill provides critical resources to the United States Capitol Police for officer salaries, equipment, training, and mental health counseling. It also funds physical security upgrades to the Capitol Complex, including hardening windows and doors as well as installing new cameras,” the statement says.

“The Administration strongly supports the resources included in the bill to enable Federal agencies to begin relocating SIV applicants and their eligible family members,” the statement added, referring to the funding of visas for Afghans who have helped the US military in recent years.

The Senate has just unanimously passed the legislation, and the House is expected to take up the bill before members leave for their recess.

This is Joanie Greve in Washington, taking over the blog again after a great assist from Lauren Aratani.

The Senate has just passed a bill that will provide $2.1bn in federal money to bolster funding for the US Capitol Police, reimburse the National Guard for their Capitol mission and help provide visas to Afghans who have assisted the US military in recent years.

The vote was unanimous, with all 98 senators present supporting the bill. (Two Republican senators, Roger Marshall and Mike Rounds, were absent.)

The bill must still pass the House before Joe Biden can sign the legislation, but the White House has already indicated the president supports the proposal.

The legislation’s Senate passage comes nearly seven months after the January 6 insurrection, which prompted major questions over how best to protect the Capitol and lawmakers.

Washington DC is reinstating its indoor mask mandate starting Saturday, mayor Muriel Bowser announced Thursday afternoon. The mandate will apply to everyone over the age of 2, including those who are vaccinated.

The city dropped most of its mask mandate in June, with exceptions for public transit, schools and government buildings.

With the spread of the more-contagious Delta variant, governors and mayors have urged people to wear masks indoors regardless of vaccination, but most have fallen short of reintroducing mandates. Los Angeles County reinstated its indoor mask mandate in July as the county started to see an increase in cases with the variant.

Here’s a quick summary of what’s happened so far today:

• Joe Biden has called on Congress to extend the eviction moratorium, which is set to expire at the end of July. While federal aid is available to renters who will not be able to make rent, housing advocates have said the aid has been slow, and many Americans are at-risk of eviction.
• A new poll from Monmouth University has Biden’s latest approval rating at 48%, with a disapproval rate of 44%. The rating is a drop compared with the president’s ratings in April, when approval was at 54% and disapproval was at 41%.
• The US economy grew 6.5% in this year’s second quarter. The figure was lower than what analysts had expected, though bottlenecks in the supply chain of certain goods is a likely explanation.
• Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer said that he’s gotten the support from all 50 Democrats in his chamber to move a bill for social programs forward before the Senate goes to a recess in August. The bill’s price tag is currently $3.5tn, though it is likely to drop as negotiations begin.

Stay tuned for more live updates.

Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer said he has the votes of all 50 Senate Democrats to begin the process of approving a $3.5tn bill that will broadly fund social and environmental programs.

Schumer said that Senate Democrats are ready to “move forward on both tracks”, referring to this $3.5tn spending bill and the $1.2tn infrastructure spending bill the Senate passed yesterday. Schumer said that all Senate Democrats pledged to move the spending bill forward.

The bill will not come without bumps though as the party’s moderate Senators have already criticized its high price tag. Schumer has said he plans to have both the infrastructure bill and this social spending bill passed before the Senate breaks for recess in August.

The debate over student debt cancellation is heating up after House speaker Nancy Pelosi made her stance on the matter clear yesterday during a press conference. Pelosi said Joe Biden lacks the executive authority to cancel federal student loans – something progressives have been pushing him to do since he took office.

Pelosi said that the move may be frustrating to families who are not sending children to college. “You’re paying taxes to forgive somebody else’s obligations,” she said. “You may not be happy about that.”

On Tuesday, before Pelosi made those remarks, Senator Elizabeth Warren, who has been a prominent supporter of student debt cancellation, said she is sure the president “has the power to do this with the stroke of a pen”.

On Wednesday, Mondaire Jones, a Democratic representative from New York, reference Pelosi’s remarks on Twitter saying “there’s been a lot of factually inaccurate talk about student debt cancellation today”.

“President Biden has the clear authority to liberate 43 million Americans from the crushing burden of student debt. He needs to use it,” Jones wrote on Twitter.

Biden meanwhile said in the spring that he has instructed the Department of Education to create a memo looking into what executive power he has over federal student loans, though it is unclear when the memo will be released.

New Jersey governor Phil Murphy just signed into law a bill that will offer new parents free at-home nurse visits in the three months after a child is born or adopted. The program is voluntary and is meant to reduce the state’s maternal mortality rate, which is the fourth highest in the country.

New parents can request three nurse wellness checks in the first three months of a baby being born or adopted as soon as two weeks after the child’s birth.

The program will be offered to all new parents in the state, regardless of income level.

“We’ve seen… what it can mean to have a visit to a home during that critical time frame,” state senator Teresa Ruiz, a sponsor of the bill, told the New Jersey Star Ledger earlier this year. “For first time mothers experiencing this, it doesn’t matter what you look like, what language you speak, what faith you adhere to, it is a challenging time.”

A new poll puts Joe Biden’s approval rating at 48%, which is down slightly from earlier this year.

According to the latest survey from Monmouth University, 48% of Americans approve of the president’s job performance so far, while 44% disapprove.

In comparison, Biden’s approval rating in April stood at 54% approve and 41% disapprove, although the president’s June numbers largely mirror the latest survey.

According to the latest numbers, Biden has the approval of 93% of Democrats, 36% of independents and 10% of Republicans.

Biden’s approval rating has been relatively weak compared to other modern presidents during their first months in office, but it has been significantly better than Donald Trump’s initial numbers.