Senate Democrats aim to reveal which Republicans oppose abortion ahead of midterms – live
Schumer seeks to capitalize on voters’ fury over abortion rights
The US Senate will today channel a week of anger, acrimony and fractious debate over abortion rights into the formal step of setting up a vote to enshrine a woman’s right to the procedure into law.
By passing cloture (the official term for cutting off debate), senators will move towards a floor vote Wednesday on legislation proposed by the Connecticut Democrat Richard Blumenthal. Abortion rights defenders have been demanding action ever since the supreme court’s draft ruling overturning the 1973 Roe v Wade opinion was leaked last week.
Democrats know the legislation is doomed to fall, because it won’t reach the 60 votes it needs in the bitterly divided chamber.
But Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer will not consider it an outright failure. He’s playing a longer game, in which he sees Republicans’ refusal to support abortion rights working in Democrats’ favor in November’s midterms. After all, polls show overwhelming support nationally among voters for abortion rights.
“Every American will see how every senator stands,” Schumer said at a press conference Sunday in which he called the supreme court’s draft ruling “an abomination”.
With Democrats predicted to lose control of one or both chambers of Congress in November, some see the abortion debate coming at a fortuitous time. Comments by Mitch McConnell, the Republican senate minority leader, as reported by The Hill, that a national abortion ban “is possible”, will only serve to strengthen pro-choice activists’ outrage.
This Bloomberg article examines how the Democratic party is tapping into voters’ fury over abortion to avoid a midterms blowout.
We’ll keep you abreast of today’s developments as they happen.
While we wait, here’s a look at how Republicans in numerous states are moving in the opposite direction, and towards even more restrictive abortion legislation.
Biden to lift Ukraine steel tariffs: report
The Biden administration is reversing Trump-era tariffs on Ukrainian steel for an initial period of one year, the New York Times is reporting, citing a document it says is a copy of an announcement coming from the White House later in the day.
Trump imposed a 25% tariff on foreign steel in 2018, the former president claiming at the time that cheap overseas metal was harming the US steel industry and posing a threat to national security.
The newspaper says that although Ukraine is only a minor provider, its 218,000 metric tons of steel to the US in 2019 ranking it 12th in overseas suppliers, the administration sees it as an important additional way to assist the country as it fights the Russian invasion.
The Ukraine prime minister Denys Shmyhal, in a visit to Washington DC last month, told administration officials that some Ukrainian steel mills were starting to produce again after initially shutting down because of the invasion.
The Times said Shmyhal asked the Biden administration to suspend the tariffs, citing a senior commerce department official, who was not authorized to speak publicly before the official announcement.
New York expands abortion access, including for non-residents
New York’s attorney general Letitia James has just given a press briefing at which she announced a program to expand abortion access to residents, and those from states where the procedure will become illegal if Roe v Wade is overturned:
We know what happens when women are unable to control their own bodies and make their own choices and we will not go back to those dark times.
New York must lead the fight to keep abortion safe and accessible for all who seek it.
According to an accompanying statement released by James’s office, clinics in New York already perform at least 7,000 abortions a year for women from out of state, 9% of its annual total.
New York must lead the fight to protect the fundamental right to choose.
Today, @SenatorCCleare, @votejgr, and I are announcing legislation to create a new program that will expand abortion access for New Yorkers and people living in other states that ban abortion. pic.twitter.com/0jAmr8iS1p
— NY AG James (@NewYorkStateAG) May 9, 2022
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New York must lead the fight to protect the fundamental right to choose.
Today, @SenatorCCleare, @votejgr, and I are announcing legislation to create a new program that will expand abortion access for New Yorkers and people living in other states that ban abortion. pic.twitter.com/0jAmr8iS1p
— NY AG James (@NewYorkStateAG) May 9, 2022
If the supreme court ends almost half a century of abortion protections, as last week’s leaking of its draft ruling suggested it was about to do, New York expects a massive surge from states with “trigger laws” that would immediately make the procedure illegal.
From Ohio and Pennsylvania alone, the statement predicts, an additional 32,000 women will come to New York each year seeking an abortion.
The measure announced by James includes a reproductive freedom and equity program within the New York state department of health “that would provide funding to abortion providers and non-profit organizations to grow the capacity of providers and meet present and future care needs”.
The White House is previewing Joe Biden’s lunchtime appearance in the Rose Garden, at which he will announce that 20 internet companies have agreed to provide discounted service to people with low incomes.
More than $14bn from the $1tn bipartisan infrastructure package passed last year went towards $30 a month subsidies for lower income families to pay for internet service.
The internet providers have agreed to drop their prices to match the subsidy, Biden will announce today, the Associated Press reports, making about 48m households will be eligible for fully paid for $30 monthly plans for 100 megabits per second, or higher speed.
According to a White House fact sheet posted Monday, Biden will say:
High-speed internet service is no longer a luxury – it’s a necessity. But too many families go without high-speed internet because of the cost or have to cut back on other essentials to make their monthly internet service payments.
The 20 companies that have agreed to lower rates provide service in areas where 80% of the US population, including 50% of the rural population, live, according to the White House.
Participating companies that offer service on tribal lands are providing $75 rates in those areas, the equivalent of the federal government subsidy in those areas.
Biden and vice-president Kamala Harris will meet telecoms executives and members of Congress before the Rose Garden announcement, according to the AP.
Starting today, the cost of internet is fully covered for millions of eligible American families under a new Biden-Harris Administration initiative. Learn if you are eligible and how you can apply at https://t.co/rYeK5u6Ho7.
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) May 9, 2022
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Starting today, the cost of internet is fully covered for millions of eligible American families under a new Biden-Harris Administration initiative. Learn if you are eligible and how you can apply at https://t.co/rYeK5u6Ho7.
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) May 9, 2022
Hugo Lowell
Members on the House select committee investigating the Capitol attack on 6 January are moving closer to issuing subpoenas to Republican members of Congress to compel their cooperation in the inquiry – though it has started to dawn on them that they may be out of time.
The panel is expected to make a final decision on the subpoena question over the next couple of weeks, according to sources directly familiar with internal deliberations, with House investigators needing to start wrapping up their work ahead of public hearings in June.
While the members on the select committee remain undecided about whether to subpoena Republican members of Congress, their refusal to assist the investigation in any form has caused the sentiment to turn towards taking that near-unprecedented action, the sources said.
The shifting view has come as a result of the dismay among the members in January, when House minority leader Kevin McCarthy and others turned down requests for voluntary cooperation, turning to anger after three more of Donald Trump’s allies last week refused to cooperate.
What has changed in recent weeks in the select committee’s assessment is that they cannot ignore the deep involvement between some…
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