7 Things: Biden agenda on the ropes, prison-building agenda advances, Alabama to push forward with using COVID-19 relief funds for prisons and more …

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September 30, 2021

7. The Mu variant is gone from the United States

As the coronavirus pandemic continues, there has been concern about how other virus variants could impact people after the United States dealt with waves of the Delta variant. One variant that raised alarm was the Mu variant.
However, it seems that the Mu variant has been eradicated in the United States, as there have not been any new cases of the variant recently. The variant had shown the potential to be vaccine-resistant.

6. Tuberville wants to reverse the monoclonal antibody treatment restrictions

U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) has introduced legislation that would prevent Health and Human Services from limiting the monoclonal antibody treatments. Recently, the treatments were limited to states like Alabama, Florida and Tennessee.
Tuberville joined U.S. Senators Marco Rubio (R-FL), Rick Scott (R-FL), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Roger Marshall (R-KS), Kevin Cramer (R-ND) and Mike Braun (R-IN) in introducing the “Treatment Restoration for Emergency Antibody Therapeutics (TREAT) Act.” Tuberville stated, “I have yet to receive any answers to my questions for HHS about the reasoning behind these new restrictions, which is cause for concern, especially considering predominantly Republican states are being impacted.”

5. Afghanistan was a failure, Taliban still a threat

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley has testified before the House Armed Services Committee and said that not only was the war in Afghanistan a “strategic failure,” but advised there should still be concern over the Taliban control.
Milley emphasized that the group “was and is a terrorist organization and they still have not yet broken ties with al Qaeda.” This comes after Milley and other officials testified that they recommended President Joe Biden leave some troops in Afghanistan.

4. ALFA endorses Britt

The Alabama Farmers Federation (ALFA) has announced that they’re endorsing U.S. Senate candidate Katie Britt in the U.S. Senate race. The ALFA endorsement has been viewed as highly influential in the past.
Britt pledged that if she’s elected, she “will fight most effectively to defend our Christian conservative values in Washington.” She added, “I will also work to grow opportunity and jobs in every local community in Alabama.”

3. Alabama is pushing ahead in plan to use federal money to pay for prisons

The Alabama House of Representatives moved prison reform forward by voting on legislation in the special session. The decision to use coronavirus relief funds that total $400 million to help pay for the new prisons has advanced to the Senate.
The 75-25 vote was nearly along party lines, but the vote from the Senate could come by Friday. The total plan would cost about $1.3 billion, so there would also be a $785 million bond issue in addition to the federal funding.

2. 2 prison building bills pass, 1 sentencing reform bill passes

The legislation that would allow some sentencing reform has passed the Alabama House of Representatives in the special session. There was a legislative package passed and sent to the Senate that would build two new prisons of 4,000 beds each.
The one sentencing reform bill that was passed deals only with inmates convicted after 2015 and allows supervised release through the Board of Pardons and Paroles. Supervised release durations would depend on the original sentence, ranging from three months to 12 months. Opposition to sentencing reform remains, but the bills could still pass.

1. Democrats are trying to find a path to spending trillions

With U.S. Joe Manchin (D-WV) continuing to balk at the idea of “spending trillions more” on a Democrat wish list of social programs, President Joe Biden, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) are scrambling to get some part of their ambitious spending agenda through.
Progressive members of Congress and their media are on the attack against the one remaining piece of that agenda that is still possible — the $1.2 trillion infrastructure spending bill. It appears The Squad and others want to kill that while some Republicans are on board. Representative Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) says the left-wing is defiant in their adherence to their agenda. She stated, “Progressives won’t back down on delivering paid leave, education, health care, child care, and climate action because of an arbitrary deadline.”