The Topline: Democracy's Daily Digest
Despite the hyperpartisanship in Congress, everyday Americans agree on something—they really like the American Rescue Plan. The legislation, which addresses the COVID-19 pandemic and passed the House today, is supported by a whopping 75% of Americans. Even 59% of Republicans support the bill. These are impressive numbers, indicating a level of unity on a policy response reminiscent of the post-9/11 era. The bill will deliver much-needed economic support a year into the pandemic. It might have the secondary but equally important role of serving as a building block for rebuilding unity in a divided nation. —Mindy Finn
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'Help is here'
The House approved the final version of President Biden's $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill, the American Rescue Plan, by a 220-211 vote today. One Democrat joined all Republicans in voting against the measure. Widely popular among the American people, the legislation could prove to be the defining domestic policy accomplishment of Biden's presidency, injecting hundreds of billions of dollars into the economy and bolstering his administration's efforts to accelerate vaccinations, reopen schools, and get jobless Americans back to work. Biden will sign the bill into law on Friday. —CBS News
— Labor. In other congressional news, the House advanced the Protecting the Right to Organize Act yesterday, the most significant expansion of labor rights since the New Deal. The legislation would neutralize right-to-work laws in 27 states, shield workers seeking to unionize from retribution or firing, and strengthen the government's power to punish employers who violate workers' rights. The bill is expected to "hit a brick wall" in the Senate. —The New York Times
— Policing. Seventy-three House Democrats and one Republican reintroduced a bill yesterday to limit a Pentagon program that sends military-grade equipment to local police departments. The bill mirrors language from the sweeping George Floyd Justice in Policing Act that passed the House last week. That bill, however, faces an uphill battle in the Senate. The standalone bill tackling the Pentagon program has a better chance of being included in the annual defense policy bill. —The Hill
— Suspension bills. House leaders Steny Hoyer and Kevin McCarthy are in talks on how to rein in Republicans attempting to hamstring the House by refusing to allow quick passage of non-controversial suspension bills. Suspension bills are popular measures that can be fast-tracked, but some Republicans are forcing every member to cast their vote on the floor, sometimes adding extra procedural votes. Democrats say it is eroding one of the last vestiges of bipartisanship in the House. —Politico
MORE: Breaking news: Senate confirms Merrick Garland as attorney general —Axios
The foreign policy agenda
Secretary of State Antony Blinken appeared before the House Foreign Affairs Committee today to discuss the Biden Administration's foreign policy priorities. The secretary will face a separate, closed hearing with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee tomorrow. Blinken announced that he will travel with Defense Sec. Lloyd Austin to Asia next week, in the first in-person international travel for top Cabinet officials. The pair will head to Japan, South Korea, and India in an effort to bolster relations with U.S. allies in the Indo-Pacific region "in the face of long-term competition with China." —CNBC
MORE: Blinken offers plan to bolster Afghan peace —NBC News
Bump: How conspiracy theories gain credibility
"The QAnon theory, lacking any real utility, is treated as ridiculous across the political spectrum and is relegated to the domain of Facebook groups and the like. The one about fraud, though, is useful, powering hundreds of proposed bills that will probably make it harder for Democrats to cast votes in future elections. So it is treated as serious—or worthy of serious discussion and elevation—by conservatives and the right-wing media." —Philip Bump in The Washington Post
Philip Bump is a national correspondent for The Washington Post.
MORE: Don Rose: The real reason Republicans keep saying the election was stolen —Chicago Sun-Times
RCV to expand in Utah
Utah's legislature has approved a bill that would allow more cities to try ranked-choice voting in their local elections, beginning this year. With ranked-choice voting, voters rank candidates by preference instead of only picking one candidate for a position. HB75, sponsored by Republican state Rep. Jeff Stenquist, would broaden an existing ranked-choice voting pilot project, passed in 2018, that allows municipalities to try out the alternative election format before adopting it more widely. Bravo, Utah. —The Salt Lake Tribune
MORE: Ranked-choice voting measure stalls in Senate —Albuquerque Journal
Rogin: Where did COVID-19 come from?
"The origin of the pandemic is not just about blame. If the source of the outbreak can't be determined, its true path can't be traced, and crucial scientific information for preventing the next outbreak can't be learned. The Biden Administration is trying to take a neutral stance on the issue, even though the fact-finding process has become entangled in domestic politics, as well as U.S.-China relations." —Josh Rogin in The Washington Post
Josh Rogin is a Washington Post columnist covering foreign policy and national security.
MORE: In 2018, diplomats warned of risky coronavirus experiments in a Wuhan lab. No one listened —Politico
Focus on the border
Early in his administration, President Biden is facing a crisis at the southern border. U.S. authorities have encountered more than 100,000 migrants over the past four weeks there, marking the highest level for the same time frame in five years. The surge comes as the administration seeks to unwind the previous administration's immigration policies—a process that is happening too slowly for some in the Democratic Party's left flank. —CNN
— Covid and children. A public health law enacted last year, which allows Border Patrol to turn away migrants to help control the spread of COVID-19, is still in effect. However, unaccompanied minors, many escaping the pandemic's devastating economic effects, are exempt from the law under the Biden Administration. As of Monday, more than 3,200 migrant children were stuck in Border Patrol facilities, with nearly half held beyond the three-day legal limit. —CBS News
— Texas acts. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, seeking to distract from the ongoing political fallout over the state's deadly power failures last month, accused Biden of "aiding cartels and human smugglers" at a news conference yesterday. On Saturday, he announced a program to deploy more resources from the Texas Department of Public Safety and the Texas National Guard to the border to secure the area. —The Texas Tribune
— A declining trend. A new report from the Center for Migration Studies reveals that the number of unauthorized immigrants living in the U.S. has fallen every year since 2010, marking a 12% decrease. Currently, unauthorized immigrants represent about 3% of the total U.S. population, and the majority have lived in the U.S. for more than a decade. Whether that trend continues remains to be seen. —Forbes
MORE: Florida attorney general files suit challenging Biden's federal immigration changes —Miami Herald
Kendall-Taylor, Frantz & Wright: The peril of personality over policy
"Personalization is a major threat to today's democracies, namely because personalist leaders breed polarization in the societies they govern. That's because in these systems, policy choices more strongly reflect the leader's preferences rather than a bargaining process among multiple actors and institutions. Those groups not aligned with the leader and sidelined in the decision-making process are likely to grow disillusioned, deepening the divide between political camps." —Andrea Kendall-Taylor, Erica Frantz & Joseph Wright in Foreign Policy
Andrea Kendall-Taylor is a senior fellow and the director for the Transatlantic Security Program at the Center for a New American Security. Erica Frantz is an assistant professor in political science at Michigan State University. Joseph Wright is a political scientist at Pennsylvania State University.
MORE: James Robinson: Why Trumpian populism failed...but another could succeed —Project Syndicate
I love getting my TOPLINE, which my daughter forwards to me. As I read the headline yesterday, I couldn't help remembering former President Trump's comment, "If you don't count the ballots, the leadership will not change." Every ballot is important, and every person has a right to vote. We cannot allow any party or person to stop the freedom of voting in the United States. Every ballot needs to be counted, and then the leadership will be the voice of the American people, not one party or one person. —Ronda R., Utah
The views expressed in "What's Your Take?" are submitted by readers and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff or the Stand Up Republic Foundation.
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