Tag Archives: Biden Administration

Law & Crime reports: The U.S. Department of Justice on Thursday filed court documents to support two separate lawsuits filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) which argue that recently passed anti-transgender laws in West Virginia and Arkansas violate the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution. The filing aligned with a memo put out by the DOJ’s Division …

Axios reports: The Biden administration on Tuesday released the first-ever “National Strategy for Countering Domestic Terrorism,” following a 100-day comprehensive review ordered by President Biden on his first day in office. Why it matters: It’s the first national plan for countering what the White House is calling “the most urgent terrorism threat the United States faces today,” echoing previous assessments …

The Washington Post reports: Attorney General Merrick Garland said Monday that the Justice Department would beef up its policies for obtaining lawmakers’ records and vowed “strict accountability” for officials who let politics affect their work, issuing a lengthy statement amid a metastasizing controversy over department efforts during the Trump administration to obtain the data of congressmen, journalists and even the …

NBC News reports: Attorney General Merrick Garland announced Friday that he plans to double the number of staff within the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division dedicated to protecting voting rights. “There are plenty of things up for debate in America, but the right of all eligible Americans to vote is not one of them,” Garland said. The staffing surge would …

CNN Business reports: The developer of the Keystone XL pipeline announced Wednesday it is pulling the plug on the controversial project after the Biden administration revoked its permit in January. TC Energy, the Canadian company behind the project, said it decided to terminate the project after a comprehensive review of its options and consulting with the government of Alberta, Canada. …

The Wall Street Journal reports: President Biden’s administration plans to donate 500 million coronavirus vaccine doses produced by Pfizer Inc. to the rest of the world, according to people familiar with the plans. The administration expects 200 million of the Pfizer doses will go to other countries this year and 300 million across the first half of next year, one …

The Washington Post reports: The Justice Department in a court filing Tuesday said it can “vigorously” defend a religious exemption from federal civil rights law that allows federally funded religious schools to discriminate against LGBTQ students, a move that surprised some LGBTQ advocates who said the wording went further than just an obligation to defend an existing law. In the …

The Washington Post reports: The Justice Department’s Civil Division under President Biden is continuing the Trump-era push to represent the former president in a defamation lawsuit brought by author E. Jean Carroll, according to a Monday night appellate court filing. The lawsuit brought by Carroll — who accused Donald Trump two years ago of sexually assaulting her in the 1990s …

Politico reports: The White House’s James S. Brady Press Briefing Room is slated to return to full seating capacity this week, the White House Correspondents’ Association announced on Sunday. The WHCA will also reintroduce its pre-pandemic seating chart for the briefing room, featuring a front row of reporters from outlets including NBC, Fox News, CBS News, the Associated Press, ABC …

Reuters reports: The U.S. Department of Justice is elevating investigations of ransomware attacks to a similar priority as terrorism in the wake of the Colonial Pipeline hack and mounting damage caused by cyber criminals, a senior department official told Reuters. Internal guidance sent on Thursday to U.S. attorney’s offices across the country said information about ransomware investigations in the field …

Politico reports: The Biden administration is moving to suspend all oil and gas leases in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge pending a deeper look at the environmental impacts of drilling in the sensitive region, according to a person with direct knowledge of the decision. The suspension of the leases follows Biden’s January 20 executive order that identified “alleged legal deficiencies” …

The Associated Press reports: President Joe Biden on Wednesday asked U.S. intelligence officials to “redouble” their efforts to investigate the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic, including the unlikely possibility that the origins of the virus trace to Chinese lab. After months of minimizing the possibility as a fringe theory, the Biden administration is responding both to domestic and geopolitical concerns …

NPR reports: The U.S. COVID-19 vaccination program has gone from zero to 50% in less than six months. As of Tuesday afternoon, the Biden administration said, half of the country’s adults are now fully vaccinated against the coronavirus. “This is a major milestone in our country’s vaccination efforts,” Andy Slavitt, a White House senior adviser on the COVID-19 response, said …

Politico reports: Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Sunday affirmed President Joe Biden’s commitment to a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine, arguing that without solutions that afforded Palestinians more dignity, the cycle of violence was likely to continue. “Ultimately, it is the only way to ensure Israel’s future as a Jewish and democratic state, and of course the only …

CNN reports: As US officials push for more vaccinations amid slowing demand across the country, another state has now crossed an important milestone. Rhode Island is now the eighth state to have administered at least one Covid-19 shot to 70% of its adult population, according to data from the CDC. The state joins Connecticut, Hawaii, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New …

Axios reports: The State Department will now grant U.S. citizenship to children born abroad through in vitro fertilization, surrogacy and other assisted reproductive technologies, the agency said Tuesday. The Trump administration had denied citizenship to children born abroad to same-sex parents in several cases. The State Department under Trump defended a long-standing policy that categorized children born abroad via surrogate …

CBS News reports: Colonial Pipeline announced Wednesday that it has begun restarting pipeline operations after a cyberattack forced the company to take some of its systems offline last Friday. News of the attack sparked panic in some regions of the country, with residents lining up at the pump over fears of a gas shortage. The company said it initiated the …

The Wall Street Journal reports: The White House will announce a new partnership with ride-sharing companies Uber Technologies Inc. and Lyft Inc. to make all rides to and from vaccination sites free until July 4, according to administration officials. White House Covid-19 coordinator Jeff Zients will detail the new steps in a Tuesday call with governors as part of the …

NBC News reports: The Department of Homeland Security has begun implementing a strategy to gather and analyze intelligence about security threats from public social media posts, DHS officials said. The goal is to build a warning system to detect the sort of posts that appeared to predict an attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 but were missed or …

The New York Times reports: The order, drafts of which have been circulating to government officials and corporate executives for weeks and summaries of which were obtained by The New York Times, is a new road map for the nation’s cyberdefense. It would create a series of digital safety standards for federal agencies and contractors that develop software for the …