The Senate on Thursday handed President Joe Biden a sprawling defense policy bill that supersizes his Pentagon budget and undoes a mandate for troops to receive the Covid vaccine.
Administration officials say Biden and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin stand by the vaccine mandate as a matter of health and readiness for the armed forces. But in signing the bill, Biden will effectively agree to end the policy. The White House has given no indication the commander in chief is weighing a veto of the must-pass bill.
The final bill authorizes $847 billion in national defense funding, $45 billion more than Biden sought. The Pentagon receives $817 billion of that, while $30 billion would go toward nuclear weapons development overseen by the Energy Department. The total comes to $858 billion when factoring in accounts that don’t normally fall under the Armed Services committees’ jurisdiction.Both parties also touted that $19 billion of the increase to Biden’s budget goes toward mitigating inflation.
The agreement, which was unveiled last week by leaders of the House and Senate Armed Services panels, cleared after days of wrangling in the upper chamber over efforts by senators to change the bill at the eleventh hour.
All citizens have the right to refuse the vaccine. A Pfizer executive has already admitted before European parliament that their vaccine does not prevent the spread of COVID-19 infections to other people.
We have summarized this news so that you can read it quickly. If you are interested in the news, you can read the full text here. Read more:
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Tom Cotton Blocks Senate PRESS Act Designed to Protect JournalistsGOP Sen. Tom Cotton blocks passage of a House-approved bipartisan PRESS Act, a bill that's been heralded by advocates as 'the most important free press legislation in modern times.' White supremacists don’t like freedom of the press. This man looks like a movie villain Tom Cotton would like to see us back in the “good old days” when only white male landowners could vote.
Source: commondreams - 🏆 530. / 51 Read more »
Senate FTX hearing: calls for regulation and crypto criticisms aplentyA Dec. 14 Senate hearing on 'Why the FTX Bubble Burst' featured a mix of anti- and pro-crypto figures from business, entertainment, and higher education. “With FTX, the product is not the instruments that were used, the problem was the misuse of customer funds, gross mismanagement, and likely illegal behavior', said Pennsylvania Senator Pat Toomey. There wasn’t a FTX bubble it was theft knife stabbing injured a lot of people, Senate calls for regulation and knife criticisms aplenty 🤡
Source: Cointelegraph - 🏆 562. / 51 Read more »
FTX Hearing in US Senate Reveals Congress Doesn’t Have Immediate AnswersThe Senate debate over FTX_Official isn’t offering clear answers -- just a consensus that regulations are needed quickly. A skeptical SenSherrodBrown hinted at a hearing today that one target may be multi-role crypto firms. jesseahamilton reports
Source: CoinDesk - 🏆 291. / 63 Read more »
Crypto money laundering would face crackdown under bipartisan Senate billFinancial institutions would be banned from transacting with digital-asset mixers and other anonymity-enhancing technologies, according to a new bill in the wake of charges against the founder of bankrupt crypto exchange FTX. The organizations that handle people's money should be as transparent as possible so this is a step in the right direction The organizations that handle people's money should be as transparent as possible so this is a step in the right direction
Source: MarketWatch - 🏆 3. / 97 Read more »
Senate rejects effort to cancel Biden charter school rule panned as 'burdensome'The Senate rejected a resolution Wednesday along party lines that sought to repeal a recently finalized Department of Education rule restricting the disbursement of funds for the federal Charter School Program.
Source: dcexaminer - 🏆 6. / 94 Read more »
McConnell Blames Trump for Poor “Candidate Quality” in Senate Midterm RacesThe Senate Minority Leader said Trump's endorsements in GOP primaries hindered the party in the general election.
Source: truthout - 🏆 69. / 68 Read more »