Page 6 - Florida Sentinel 2-5-21

Political
WASHINGTON — The Biden administration will begin shipping COVID-19 vaccines to U.S. pharmacies next week, ramping up vacci- nations as new and poten- tially more serious virus strains are appearing, the White House said Tuesday.
Coronavirus coordinator Jeff Zients said some 6,500 pharmacies around the coun- try will receive a total of 1 million doses of vaccine. The number of participating pharmacies is expected to grow as drugmakers increase production, allowing more doses to be allocated.
Drug stores have become a mainstay for flu shots and shingles vaccines, and the in- dustry is capable of vaccinat- ing tens of millions of people
monthly.
“This will provide more
sites for people to get vacci- nated in their communities,” said Zients, underscoring that due to supply con- straints the initial availability will be limited. A priority will be to get the vaccine to mi- nority communities that have suffered a disproportionately high toll of disease and deaths from the virus, he said.
The pharmacy program will be administered by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and includes major outlets such as CVS, Walgreens, Walmart, Rite Aid and Costco, as well as su- permarket pharmacies.
The 1 million doses being shipped to pharmacies will be on top of the 10.5 million doses being allocated to states by the week.
Democrats have officially started the process of getting their nearly $2 trillion COVID- 19 relief bill passed ― with or without Republicans’ support.
On Tuesday, Senate De- mocrats voted to advance a res- olution that would allow for $1.9 trillion in new spending through a special process called budget reconciliation. Legislation passed through budget reconciliation only needs a simple majority to pass. Otherwise, Democrats would need to win the support of at least 10 Republicans in order to defeat a filibuster, which requires at least 60 votes to overcome.
With 50 seats in the Senate and Vice President Kamala Harris as the tie-breaking vote, Democrats won’t need Republican support if they choose to push their COVID-19 proposal through reconcilia- tion.
The budget resolution
came with instructions to pass up to $1.9 trillion in additional spending that Democrats say they want to put toward $1,400 checks, extending unemploy- ment insurance programs cur- rently set to expire in March through September, and in- creasing jobless benefits to $400 per week instead of the current $300. They also want to pass $350 billion in funding for states, cities and tribes, as well as funds for vaccines, schools, public transit and more.
“With this budget resolution, the Democratic Congress is paving the way for the land- mark Biden-Harris coron- avirus package that will crush the virus and deliver real relief to families and communities in need,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said in a joint statement.
Democrats And Republicans Introduce Bipartisan Bill To Save USPS
A bipartisan group of law- makers in the House and Sen- ate has come together on a bill that would end the 15- year Republican sabotage of the U. S. Postal Service.
According to a press re- lease from Rep. Pete De- Fazio (D-OR), “Reps. Peter DeFazio (OR-04), Tom Reed (NY-23), Carolyn B. Maloney (NY-12), Brian Fitzpatrick (PA-01), Colin Allred (TX-32) and Sena- tors Steve Daines (R-MT) and Brian Schatz (D-HI)
announced reintroduction of
the USPS Fairness Act, bipar- tisan legislation to provide the United States Postal Serv- ice (USPS) much-needed fi- nancial relief by ending the agency’s burdensome pre- funding mandate on future retiree health benefits.”
Trump Aides Made A Late Request To Team Biden
After four years in the Trump administration, Vanessa Ambrosini was looking forward to three months of parental leave when she and her husband welcomed a baby a week before Christ- mas. The Commerce Depart- ment’s human resources office had given her approval for it. But then she was surprised to find out the benefit was no longer available because of the change in administration.
“I got completely screwed,” she said in an interview. “There were no caveats in that lan- guage saying anything about if the administration turns, you get nothing and of course, that
happened and so I got noth- ing.”
Ambrosini is among a number of ex-Trump political officials who lost their parental leave when Joe Biden was sworn into office. It’s a byprod- uct of the field they’re in: Their boss (the president) may have been the one let go, but his de- parture has meant that they, too, lose their jobs and bene- fits. Still, they argue that the Biden administration should have honored their leave by keeping them on payroll until the end of it — a request that, emails reviewed by POLITICO show, the Biden transition did not grant.
Biden Administration To Start Sending Democrats Take First Step COVID Vaccine To Pharmacies Next Week To Pass COVID-19 Relief With
Or Without Republicans
PAGE 6-A FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY FRIDAY FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2021