Analysis | Democrats push Biden administration to come up with plan to counter Roe demise

Democrats push Biden administration to come up with plan to counter Roe demise

Faced with reality they don’t have the votes to encode Roe vs. WadeCongressional Democrats are pursuing another strategy in the wake of Monday’s revelation that the Supreme Court is poised to overturn landmark 1973 ruling: Press President Biden take executive action to protect access to abortion.

“We are looking at all avenues, including congressional action, including administrative action,” Senator Ben Cardin (M-Md.) told The Early.

Senator Patty Murray (D-Wash.) lobbied the Secretary of Health and Human Services Javier Becerra at a hearing Wednesday on “the administration’s plan for a whole-of-government response to uphold abortion rights.”

Becerra had no answer. She touted an interagency task force the administration established in January to mark Roe‘s, but promised to “work with all of our partners across the federal government to make sure that every woman has the legal right to access the care to which she is entitled.”

Murray demands more details.

• “Americans need to see the Biden administration’s leadership on this, too,” he told The Early in a statement. “I want to know, as soon as possible, how the federal government prepares to respond if the Supreme Court strikes down Roe to protect women’s health, because make no mistake: women’s lives are at stake.”

But there isn’t much the administration can do to counter the broad ramifications of the Supreme Court bringing down Roe, our colleagues Yasmeen Abutaleb Y Tyler Pager report, and officials are instead exploring what can be done along the margins.

In “marathon meetings and phone calls between White House officials, government lawyers, outside advisers, and federal agency officials, a sobering reality set in: There is little the White House can do that will fundamentally alter a mail-Roe landscape”, Yasmeen and Tyler write.

There are some options available: “Officials are discussing whether Medicaid funds could be made available for women to travel to other states for abortions, according to outside advisers who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe the internal discussions, but many question whether that is So. feasible.”

“A lot of what the Biden administration could do would be window dressing, in the sense that ultimately we will have a system of conflicting access to reproductive health and rights depending on which state you live in.” Lorenzo Gostinthe director of the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law in georgetown universityThe law school at , which has been advising the White House on its options, told Yasmeen and Tyler. “And there is very little that Biden can do about it.”

Senate Democrats plan to adopt legislation next week that would codify Roe – an effort that is almost certain to fail. An earlier version of the same bill failed to win even 50 votes in February to open debate on the measure, much less the 60 needed to overcome a Republican filibuster.

With that outcome in mind, Senate Democrats discussed what possible administrative actions could be taken over a small lunch Wednesday. Congressional staffers are also meeting with each other and with administration officials, trying to come up with some sort of plan before the Supreme Court decision is released, still expected to be in June or July.

• “One of the real game changers has been the availability of the medical abortion pill, mifepristone,” Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.), co-chair of the House Pro-Choice Caucus, told The Early. “Working with the administration to make them available to everyone, that would really help, although it won’t completely solve the situation.”

The administration, she added, could take steps to ensure that women can receive such pills through the mail.

Outside reproductive rights advocates have also contacted the White House. And Senate Democrats have been “brainstorming” what else the administration could do, Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) told The Early.

“People would like to do something,” Stabenow said, adding that the bigger question is “Than Can be done?”

Stabenow mused that there may be opportunities at HHS or in federally run health clinics. He also said they have to determine which possible actions are under state law and which are under federal authority. The details may depend on how the court’s final decision is worded.

“One option under discussion is whether the administration could provide funds through Medicaid or another mechanism that would make money available for women to travel to other states for abortions,” outside advisers to the administration told Yasmeen and Tyler. “Some Republican-led states have said they will make it illegal for women to travel elsewhere for abortions, but it is unclear whether the courts will uphold such a policy.”

Republican legal challenges

One challenge for the White House: Republican attorneys general are likely to question the legality of almost anything they do.

But DeGette said she wasn’t too worried about legal challenges at the moment.

“We’re in an emergency situation here for women’s health,” DeGette said. “I think the Biden administration will take a very close look at what her legal capabilities are and then have to take whatever action she can within those capabilities. If he is later challenged in court, then we will have to cross that bridge when we get there.”

Here is the latest from our colleagues:

Senate passes non-binding motion to block Biden from delisting IRGC as a terrorist group

Iran’s motion passes with Democratic support: A non-binding motion to restrain President BidenChina’s ability to strike a new nuclear deal with Iran passed the Senate on Wednesday night by a vote of 62-33, with 15 Democrats joining Republicans in favor.

The motion, proposed by Senator James Lankford (R-Okla.), prohibits Biden from removing Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps from the federal government’s list of foreign terrorist organizations, among other provisions. As we reported Monday, the possibility that Biden could rescind the IRGC’s designation as a terrorist group has become a flashpoint as the administration seeks a new deal with Iran.

The vote was a rough indicator of how widespread concerns about a new Iran deal are among Democratic senators.

Democrats who voted “yes”: Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (New York) and Sens. Richard Blumenthal (Conn.), Cory Booker (NEW JERSEY), ben cardin (Maryland.), Chris Coons (Of the.), Catalina Cortez-Masto (Nevada.), kirsten gillibrand (NEW YORK), Maggie Hassan (N.H), kelly mark (Arizona), Joe Manchin (W.Virginia), gary peters (Michigan), Jackie Rosen (Nevada.), Kyrsten Synema (Arizona), jon tester (Mont.) and Ron Wyden (Mineral.).

Senator Robert Menendez (DN.J.), who urged Biden not to reject the IRGC’s terrorist designation, did not vote.

The taming game: The Federal Reserve raised interest rates on Wednesday by half a percentage point and cut other economic supports from the pandemic era, strengthening its efforts to combat the highest inflation in 40 years and vowing to keep up the pressure as Americans continue to struggle. , our colleagues. Rachel Siegel Y abha bhattarai report.

• “The rate hike is the strongest since 2000 and the second of seven hikes This Year’s Forecast… In the face of soaring prices and an active job market with a record number of job openings, the Fed is betting that a steady stream of raises will reduce inflation, cool the economy and make the coronavirus recovery be more sustainable.
• But “the increase in the interest rate will make a series of loans more expensive for households and businesses, especially mortgage rates.”
• “The Fed’s rate hike campaign marks a new era for the economy” Victoria Guida from Politico reports. “The central bank’s easy money policies over the years have made many Americans rich… [but] The end of those good times has shaken consumer confidence, putting an uneasy spotlight on the Fed’s unelected lawmakers ahead of congressional midterms as they shift into inflation-fighting mode. Republican critics of the Fed, and some prominent Democrats, have even blamed the central bank itself for letting inflation go unchecked for so long.

US Intelligence Is Helping Attack and Kill Russian Generals, Report Says

👀: “The United States has provided intelligence on Russian units that has allowed the Ukrainians to target and kill many of the Russian generals who have been killed in action in the Ukraine war.” the Julian E. Barnes of the New York Times, Helene Cooper Y Eric Schmitt report. “The targeting aid is part of a classified effort by the Biden administration to provide real-time battlefield intelligence to Ukraine.”

• “The United States has focused on providing the location and other details about the Russian Army’s mobile headquarters, They move frequently. Ukrainian officials have combined that geographic information with their own intelligence, including intercepted communications alerting the Ukrainian military to the presence of senior Russian officers, to carry out artillery and other attacks that have killed Russian officers.”
• The United States also “provided Ukrainian forces with detailed intelligence about exactly when and where Russian missiles and bombs were intended to strike, prompting Ukraine to move air defenses and aircraft out of harm’s way.” Ken Dilanian, Courtney Kube, Carol E. Lee of NBC News Y give light reported last week.

A post-Roe America, envisioned: “If the Supreme Court strikes down the nearly 50-year-old federal legal protection for abortion in Roe vs. Wade, 52 percent of women of childbearing age in the United States would live in states where their right to the procedure is in jeopardy,” our colleagues Harry Stevens, Aaron Steckelberg, Dan Keating Y bonnie berkowitz report.

• “’Trigger’ laws in 13 states would immediately ban abortion in almost all cases; some make no exception for rape or incest. Besides, 14 other states they seem ready to enact bans and more restrictive laws.”

Thank you for reading. You can also follow us on Twitter: @LACaldwellDC Y @theodoricmeyer.