Official White House Photo by Lawrence JacksonBy MICHELLE STODDART, ABC News
(WASHINGTON) — Monday is Day 41 of the administration of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.
Here is how the day is unfolding. All time Eastern:
Mar 01, 10:04 am
Progressive Democrats urge Biden and Harris to try to keep $15 minimum wage
Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., and 22 other House progressives have sent a letter to Biden and Harris urging them to overrule the Senate parliamentarian and keep the $15 minimum wage in the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package.
“We must act now to prevent tens of millions of hardworking Americans from being underpaid any longer,” the letter said. “You have the authority to deliver a raise for millions of Americans.”
Biden and his chief of staff Ron Klain have said they don’t want to overrule the top procedural official in the chamber. More important, they don’t have the votes to do so given that Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va. and Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., have said they oppose eliminating the legislative filibuster and Manchin also opposes the $15 minimum wage measure pushed by the House.
Mar 01, 9:21 am
Sanders drops effort to penalize corporations that don’t pay $15 per hour
Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Ron Wyden, D-Ore., are dropping a planned amendment to penalize corporations that don’t pay at least $15 per hour in an effort to raise the minimum wage for as many people as possible after the Senate parliamentarian ruled a straight wage increase out of bounds under reconciliation, two Democratic sources confirmed to ABC News.
One source close to Sanders said that he is determined to pass a wage increase and is “looking at all available strategies” to get it done. One of the sources told ABC that the progressives’ “plan B is on hold.”
“We worked through the weekend, and it became clear that finalizing ‘Plan B’ with the caucus would delay passage and risk going over the jobless benefits cliff,” the source said.
There were many questions about how the Wyden-Sanders amendment would work — some of the questions coming from Democrats. Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., expressed concern Sunday that corporations might move jobs overseas in reaction to the penalty. Some economists questioned how the amendment would work with corporations that have franchises.
The $15 minimum wage increase has been a foundational issue for progressives in the new Congress.
Mar 01, 9:20 am
Biden to discuss immigration crisis with Mexican president
Biden travels from Wilmington, Delaware, where he spent the night, to the White House Monday morning. In the afternoon, the president meets virtually with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
Biden will broach a variety of topics in his discussion with López Obrador including managing increasing migration flows, combating cross-border narcotics trafficking and addressing the ongoing health crisis, according to a senior administration official. This will be a follow up to the conversation between the two leaders on Jan. 22.
Included in the discussion of migration flow will likely be the reluctance in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas to accept families with young children. An administration official confirmed to ABC News that Mexican officials had rejected families with children under the age of 6, and as a result, they were then released into the interior of the U.S. The official described it as “creating a challenge” for the U.S. in managing migration flows.
The senior official underscored that the Trump-era protocols used to expel nearly everyone attempting to cross the border, known as Title 42, are temporary measures employed while immigration authorities work to build capacity for migrant processing in the U.S.
Broadly, the two leaders are expected to discuss avenues for continued cooperation and partnership on security, trade and migration.
The White House COVID-19 response team holds a briefing at 11 a.m. and White House press secretary Jen Psaki holds a briefing at 12 p.m.
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