Today’s edition of quick hits:
* Time is running out: “A series of last-minute snags between Senate Democrats and Republicans threatens to delay a vote to fund the government into Thursday, as lawmakers come down to the wire in preventing a shutdown that is set to occur at the end of the week.”
* I’d love to be a fly on the wall for this one: “House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) are meeting with President Biden at the White House shortly, according to Politico and Punchbowl News.”
* CDC issues alert: “The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Wednesday issued its strongest guidance to date urging pregnant women to be vaccinated against Covid-19. The guidance comes as more than a quarter million cases of Covid in pregnant women have been reported, 22,000 of whom were hospitalized, according to the CDC.”
* Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley: “President Biden’s top military adviser told lawmakers Wednesday that the Afghanistan war was lost through a series of pivotal decisions spanning the last four presidential administrations, offering his latest defense of the commander in chief whose order to end the 20-year campaign and the treacherous evacuation that followed have come under withering scrutiny on Capitol Hill.”
* The Counsel for Children Initiative: “The Biden administration will provide government-funded legal representation to certain unaccompanied immigrant children in deportation proceedings in eight US cities as part of an effort to boost legal access in the immigration court system, according to agency officials.”
* Speaking of immigration: “President Biden’s immigration agenda suffered a fresh setback Wednesday when the arbiter of Senate rules said that Democrats’ alternative plan for providing a path to citizenship for millions of immigrants in the country illegally couldn’t be included in a $3.5 trillion budget plan moving through Congress.”
* Covid-relief funds: “Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey (R) is hitting back after criticism over plans to use coronavirus pandemic relief funds provided by the federal government to finance the construction of new prisons in the Southern state.”
* Chicago: “More than four years after leaving office, Barack Obama broke ground on Tuesday on his presidential center on the South Side of Chicago, a legacy project that has been bogged down by a lengthy discord over its use of a public park and its potential impact on a historically neglected part of the city.”
* Catholics hoping to claim a religious exemption to vaccination requirements may need a back-up plan: “The Vatican City State said Tuesday that it would soon begin requiring all employees — including the highest members of the Catholic Church — to show proof of vaccination or of a recent negative coronavirus test. Those without the proper certificates, the Vatican said, will be considered ‘unjustly absent’ — and will be paid no salary.”
See you tomorrow.
