November, 03 2021, 05:20pm EDT

People's Action Urges House to Move Swiftly and Pass Biden's Build Back Better Act
People's Action today released the following statement by Campaigns Director Sondra Youdelman after final bill text was released for President Biden's Build Back Better Act:
"The Build Back Better Act is the result of years of organizing across the country by working class people around a bold, progressive vision that puts people before profit.
WASHINGTON
People's Action today released the following statement by Campaigns Director Sondra Youdelman after final bill text was released for President Biden's Build Back Better Act:
"The Build Back Better Act is the result of years of organizing across the country by working class people around a bold, progressive vision that puts people before profit.
"People's Action has fought for months to protect extremely popular provisions from being cut, including public housing investments, Medicare drug price negotiation, expanding Medicare to include hearing coverage, bold climate interventions that also protect workers and prioritize communities hit first and worst by climate change.
"We applaud Senator Sanders for his resolve to fight for what working people need, and for championing popular expansions to Medicare and the ability of the government to negotiate with drug companies for lower drug prices. We also thank progressive people's champions like Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Jayapal and the CPC members who held the line to ensure that we could vote on a robust bill that had our communities at the forefront and included funding for public and affordable housing, the care economy, paid family and medical leave, climate jobs and clean energy, and temporary status for millions of undocumented immigrants.
"We need to be clear about who is responsible for the continued delays and cuts to this bill. A handful of corporate allies in the House and Senators Manchin and Sinema have repeatedly frustrated efforts by the overwhelming majority of Democrats to pass a robust reconciliation bill paired with an infrastructure bill. As a result, many people are left out of this bill. We didn't get dental and vision coverage for seniors, free community college, clean electricity, a billionaire's tax, or a path to citizenship for immigrants, and now these corporate allies are conniving with greedy lobbyists to stall even more.
"Billionaires, pharmaceutical companies, and corporate polluters didn't put Biden in office and secure a Democratic majority in Congress. The multi-racial working class did. But if we want to get out of this corporate squeeze play, we must elect more fighters who will confront wealthy CEOs. This bill will change lives. But with more progressives at the table, it could have transformed them.
"We urge the House to pass the Build Back Better Act by the end of the week, and for the Senate to pass it shortly thereafter. People's Action is committed to getting this bill, as written, onto President Biden's desk and then fighting even harder for the next one."
People's Action builds the power of poor and working people, in rural, suburban, and urban areas to win change through issue campaigns and elections.
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Nov 28, 2023
With his approval ratings in the tank, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has reportedly been lobbying members of his Likud party in a bid to keep their support, claiming he is "the only one who will prevent a Palestinian state" in Gaza and the West Bank.
Netanyahu's remarks, first reported by the Israeli public broadcaster Kan, fly in the face of the Biden administration's continued push for a two-state solution as the "only way to guarantee the long-term security of both the Israeli and the Palestinian people."
"To make sure Israelis and Palestinians alike live in equal measure of freedom and dignity, we will not give up on working towards that goal," U.S. President Joe Biden, who has offered unconditional political and military support to Israel during its latest assault on Gaza, wrote in a social media post late Monday.
Analysts have long argued that one democratic state, not two states, is the only viable alternative to the apartheid status quo, given factors such as ever-expanding Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Throughout his career, Netanyahu has vociferously opposed a peaceful resolution and worked to divide Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank by propping up Hamas.
"Anyone who wants to thwart the establishment of a Palestinian state has to support bolstering Hamas and transferring money to Hamas," Netanyahu told his colleagues in 2019. "This is part of our strategy—to isolate the Palestinians in Gaza from the Palestinians in the West Bank."
In his latest comments to Likud backbenchers, Netanyahu reportedly said he's "the only one who can withstand U.S. pressure" and that he knows "how to manage American public opinion," even as American public support for Israel's assault on Gaza falls.
The Times of Israelreported Monday that Netanyahu "boasted about having gone against" U.S. wishes by launching a ground invasion of Gaza and raiding the Palestinian territory's largest hospital on the pretense that Hamas was hiding a command center on the facility's grounds—a claim that has not been substantiated.
Netanyahu, facing mounting domestic pressure to resign, has also indicated that Israel plans to occupy the Gaza Strip for an "indefinite period" after the current war, defying Biden's warning against a prolonged occupation.
"Look Joe Biden: Netanyahu is spitting in your face," Yonah Lieberman, co-founder of the Jewish-American advocacy group IfNotNow, wrote on social media Monday. "He doesn't take you seriously. Are you going to keep hugging him in public or are you going to finally end the blank check and hold him accountable for his words and actions?"
News of the Israeli prime minister's meetings with Likud lawmakers came as the attack on Gaza is under a tenuous pause to allow for the release of hostages. Netanyahu has opposed a lasting cease-fire and pledged to continue waging war on the strip once the pause is over.
The Financial Timesreported Tuesday that Biden and other top U.S. officials have implored Israel not to trigger mass internal displacement in its planned offensive in southern Gaza, where many people have fled to escape Israeli bombing in the north. Israel's assault has displaced around 70% of Gaza's population so far.
Israeli officials have not provided any public indication that their bombing campaign will be less destructive following the end of the pause.
"The enemy will meet first the bombs of the Air Force, and after that the shells of the tanks and the artillery and the scoops of the D9 [bulldozers], and finally gunfire of the infantry troops," Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Monday. "We will fight in the entire strip."
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A trio of Democratic U.S. senators on Monday wrote to Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chair Rostin Behnam expressing their "serious reservations" with the agency's proposed rule on seeded funds and money market funds, a policy the lawmakers warned would "undermine the goals of Dodd-Frank" by rolling back the already weakened financial oversight law.
Passed in the wake of the 2008 global financial meltdown, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act—which was partially rolled back during the Trump administration—overhauled federal financial regulation. In a letter to Behnam, Sens. John Fetterman (Pa.), Sherrod Brown (Ohio), and Tina Smith (Minn.) assert that the CFTC's proposed rule is a "step in the wrong direction" that would increase market instability by decreasing collateral requirements for certain transactions.
The Global Markets Advisory Committee, largely made up of finance industry insiders, recommended the proposed rule in 2020 during the Trump administration.
As the letter explains:
The proposed rule would reduce or eliminate initial margin requirements for up to three years for a subset of swap market participants. "Initial margin" is the collateral that participants must set aside when entering swap agreements. Initial margin requirements, along with "variation margin" and other capital requirements, protect counterparties to a swap in the event of a default. Dodd-Frank set up comprehensive rules for swap agreements after they significantly contributed to the 2008 financial crisis and the federal government was forced to bail out Wall Street.
"The 2008 financial crisis showed the dangers that swaps can pose to economic stability, and Dodd-Frank directed regulators, including the CFTC, to require initial margin for uncleared swaps specifically to reduce those risks," the senators wrote. "It is vital for the CFTC to continue upholding its Dodd-Frank mandate and to maintain high standards and safeguards for this important market."
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The collapse earlier this year of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank—both of which benefited from regulatory relief thanks to the 2018 rollback—brought renewed scrutiny on Dodd-Frank's Republican-engineered shortcomings. Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), who wrote the 2018 banking deregulation law, insisted in March that "there is no need for regulatory reform" in the wake of the banks' failures.
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Last month, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) also wrote a letter to Behman sharing her concerns about the proposed rule. Noting the policy's 2020 introduction, Warren said in her October 10 letter that "it is unclear why the commission is choosing to propose these rules now, three years later, without conducting its own additional analyses of whether the changes are necessary or will strengthen the stability of the domestic financial system."
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"I have just returned from Antarctica—the sleeping giant. A giant being awoken by climate chaos. Together, Antarctica and Greenland are melting well over three times faster than they were in the early 1990s," he told reporters in New York City.
"It is profoundly shocking to stand on the ice of Antarctica and hear directly from scientists how fast the ice is disappearing," the U.N. leader said of his trip to the continent last week, pointing out that "this year, Antarctic sea ice hit an all-time low."
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Guterres stressed Monday that "what happens in Antarctica doesn't stay in Antarctica. We live in an interconnected world. Melting sea ice means rising seas. And that directly endangers lives and livelihoods in coastal communities across the globe. Floods and saltwater intrusion imperil crops and drinking water—threatening food and water security."
"The movement of waters around Antarctica distributes heat, nutrients, and carbon around the world, helping to regulate our climate and regional weather patterns," he explained. "But that system is slowing as the Southern Ocean grows warmer and less dense. Further slowdown—or entire breakdown—would spell catastrophe."
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That's according to a U.N. analysis of currently implemented policies, released last week ahead of the COP28 summit—which will be hosted in the United Arab Emirates by Abu Dhabi National Oil Company CEO Sultan Al Jaber, who has allegedly used meetings about the upcoming climate talks to push for fossil fuel deals with other governments.
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