Frustration Grows With Biden's Health Secretary

Plus, Dems push for climate-centered Spending bill ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ [The Fisc](   By Yuval Rosenberg and Michael Rainey Good evening and a Happy Lunar New Year’s Eve. Tomorrow we enter the Year of the Tiger. The Year of the Ox pretty much stunk, so we’re embracing anything that represents a fresh start. Biden Rolls Out Road Map for $1 Trillion in Infrastructure Spending President Joe Biden told a meeting of U.S. governors Monday that he wants them to ramp up their building plans for infrastructure — and gave them a 461-page book to help their communities get a share of the roughly $1.2 trillion infrastructure spending package signed into law in November. “You know how to build roads and bridges,” Biden told the winter meeting of the National Governors Association. “Well, we got a hell of a lot to build.” White House adviser Mitch Landrieu, the former mayor of New Orleans who is overseeing infrastructure spending, said the [hefty guidebook]( provides “an absolute road map” for how communities can qualify for funding. “The infrastructure law allocated funding to over 350 distinct programs across more than a dozen federal departments and agencies,” the book says. “This guidebook is another step in our effort to be as transparent as possible, so you know what to apply for, who to contact, and how to get ready to rebuild. After all, most of the building will actually be done by state, Tribal, and local government partners.” A broad focus: The infrastructure package, which passed with bipartisan support and includes about $550 billion for new investments over a five-year period, provides funding for a wider range of projects than is typical. Of the roughly 350 specific program areas included in the bill, 125 are new, and include projects that go well beyond the usual road construction and bridge repair, such as bringing high-speed internet to U.S. households, replacing lead pipes in local water systems throughout the country and upgrading the national power grid. About 60% of the money in the spending package will be made available according to formulas used by various federal agencies, the Associated Press [reports]( while the rest will be rewarded through competitive applications. The White House on Monday unveiled one specific program that is already benefiting from the infrastructure package: The U.S. will spend $1.15 billion to clean up thousands of abandoned gas and oil wells that leak methane gas, which contribute to global warming. The money is the first tranche of $4.7 billion provided by Congress for the cleanup of orphaned wells. Some Dems Push for Slimmed-Down BBB Focused on Climate Change A group of some two dozen House Democrats running for reelection in competitive districts is pushing President Biden to focus efforts to revive the stalled Build Back Better Act on the $555 billion in climate investments that have already passed the House. “We urge you in the strongest possible terms to move swiftly to finalize the most comprehensive legislation that can pass the Senate and get this historic progress to your desk for your signature in the coming weeks,” lawmakers led by Rep. Mike Levin (D-CA) wrote in a letter to Biden Monday. The letter “has been blessed by the League of Conservation Voters,” The Washington Post [reports](. As the House and Senate return from recess this week and some Democrats push for quick action on whatever portions of the Build Back Better package can get the needed 50 votes in the Senate, the Biden domestic spending and climate plan remains clouded in uncertainty. House progressives led by Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) have pressed Democrats to set March 1, the date of Biden’s first State of the Union address, as a deadline for Senate action. But Democrats still don’t know exactly what holdout Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona will support, though both Biden and Manchin have indicated that the climate provisions should be the easiest to pass. “The climate thing is one that we probably could come to an agreement much easier than anything else,” Manchin said this month. Still, the White House and congressional leaders have pushed back on the idea of a March 1 deadline. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Friday declined to set a firm date. “We don’t have a timetable,” she said. “We will pass the bill when we have the votes to pass the bill.” The timing of any bill could be complicated by Justice Stephen Breyer’s decision to retire from the Supreme Court given that Biden and Democrats will want to confirm a replacement as quickly as they can. “At some point, that nomination process is going to consume all of the oxygen on Capitol Hill in the Senate,” Jim Manley, a former aide to the late Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid (NV) told The Hill. “It doesn’t mean Build Back Better is done, but it’s just another problem that has to be dealt with.” Also high on the list of priorities, lawmakers still need to pass another government funding bill by February 18. Asked if she favors setting a new deadline, Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA), one of the signatories on Monday’s letter to Biden, responded with this zinger, Politico [reports]( “I think if Congress had a slogan kind of institutionally, it would be something like: 'Solving yesterday's problems tomorrow, maybe.'” Biden Officials and Outside Experts Frustrated by HHS Secretary’s Handling of Pandemic: Report Frustrations with Health and Human Services chief Xavier Becerra’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic have grown to the point that one outside expert says the secretary must “step up or step aside” — and several Biden administration officials reportedly have made similar comments, albeit off the record. “He hasn’t shown up,” Eric Topol, director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute and a leading Covid analyst, tells the Washington Post in a [lengthy piece]( detailing complaints, both inside and outside the Biden administration, about Becerra’s leadership. “An HHS secretary has so much authority and power to help. And we have no evidence that any of it is being exerted.” One unnamed senior administration official told the Post that Becerra “is taking too passive a role in what may be the most defining challenge to the administration,” and some administration officials have openly discussed who might do a better job at HHS, the Post’s Dan Diamond, Yasmeen Abutaleb and Tyler Pager report. Becerra’s appointment as HHS secretary drew some initial skepticism because the former congressman and California attorney general had little health-care experience. But Becerra’s defenders say it’s unfair to blame him because the Covid response is being run by the White House and he wasn’t given a clear role. A White House spokesperson dismissed the criticism of Becerra as “anonymous gossip” and told the Post that “HHS is one of the most critical agencies in this fight and we have built a coordinated operation that is working together day and night, every single day of the week.” The bottom line: Despite the frustrations, the Post reports that “informal conversations about replacing Becerra are unlikely to escalate to serious deliberations in the near future.” Chart of the Day: Those Amazing Low Interest Rates The U.S. has spent trillions of dollars in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, running up the largest deficits in history while pushing the national debt to its highest level since World War II relative to the size of the economy. But despite all that debt, and despite inflation running hotter than it has in decades, interest rates for the U.S. Treasury have remained quite low — negative, in fact, once inflation is taken into account. “[D]espite a binge of deficit spending by the U.S. government — which standard theories say should make a nation’s borrowing more expensive — continuing demand for government debt securities has meant that investors are, in inflation-adjusted terms, paying to hold Treasury bonds rather than getting a positive return,” says The New York Times Talmon Joseph Smith, who [takes a look]( at the remarkable appeal of U.S. debt despite everything and considers the arguments about how long this state of affairs can last. Quote of the Day: Watch Those Interest Rate Hikes “We are not behind the curve, we are not behind the curve at all.”  — San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank President Mary Daly, talking to Reuters about the Fed’s plan to raise interest rates this year in its efforts to combat inflation. Responding to hawkish critics who accuse the central bank of losing control of inflation by waiting too long to raise interest rates and reduce its support the economy, Daly urged caution. “When you’re trying to get an economy from extraordinary support to one that’s going to just gradually put it on to a self-sustaining path, you have to be data-dependent,” she said. “But you also have to be gradual and not disruptive.” Number of the Day: 26.4% U.S losses from flooding will rise 26.4% by 2050 as a result of climate change, according to a study published Monday. Writing in the journal [Nature Climate Change]( researchers from Britain and the United States said their modeling shows that the annual cost of flooding will climb from an average of $32.1 billion to nearly $41 billion over the next three decades. While the highest flood risk is currently in “both the most White and the most impoverished communities across the nation,” the researchers said that increased risks will disproportionately affect Black communities and stay concentrated on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts. And, they say, their projections are essentially locked in — meaning that they still hold “even if dramatic decarbonization is undertaken immediately.” The researchers write that their findings indicate that the United States needs to improve its flood risk management, “restricting new developments in the highest-risk areas, coupled with stronger building codes.” On top of that, the country will need to invest in relocation and retrofitting programs in high-risk areas. “The federal government has several programmes that currently fund such efforts,” they write, “although not at levels that will be required to fully adapt to increasing risk.” News - [Some Democrats Hope Climate Consensus Can Save Budget Bill]( – Roll Call - [Biden Economic Agenda on Hold as More Americans Hit Hardships]( – Bloomberg - [Democrats Put Build Back Better in Joe Manchin’s Court]( – Wall Street Journal - [Raimondo: Manchin 'Gettable' on Revised Build Back Better Plan]( – Politico - [House Democrats Pivot to Economy in Search of Next Legislative Win]( – Politico - [A Biden Ally Takes Over One of Build Back Better’s Main Opponents]( – Politico - [Fed Officials Stress Not Jamming Brakes on Economy as Hikes Loom]( – Bloomberg - [One Million Deaths: The Hole the Pandemic Made in U.S. Society]( – Wall Street Journal - [US Gives Full Approval to Moderna’s COVID-19 Vaccine]( – Associated Press - [Joe Rogan Says He’ll Do Better Research on Covid, Give Listeners Opposing Views]( – Washington Post Views and Analysis - [Giving Up on Expanding the Child Tax Credit Would Be a Disaster for Poor People]( – Washington Post Editorial Board - [More Thoughts on the Great Inflation Debate]( – Dean Baker, Center for Economic and Policy Research - [Health Care and Higher Education: Key Drivers of Long-Term Inflation]( – Vivekanand Jayakumar, The Hill - [Congress Must Deliver on Bipartisan Infrastructure Promises to Workers With These Two Steps]( – Karla Walter, The Hill - [How We Broke the Supply Chain]( – David Dayen and Rakeen Mabud, American Prospect - [Mostly Dead or Slightly Alive? Democrats Don’t Yet Know if Build Back Better Can Be Revived.]( – Paul Kane, Washington Post - [Biden Needs to Jettison His Pandemic Team and Start Afresh]( – Hugh Hewitt, Washington Post - [What if We’re in the Middle — Not the End — of the Pandemic?]( – Richard Danzig, Jeremy Farrar and Richard Hatchett, Washington Post Copyright © 2020 The Fiscal Times, All rights reserved. You are receiving this newsletter because you subscribed at our website or through Facebook. The Fiscal Times, 399 Park Avenue, 14th Floor, New York, NY 10022, United States Want to change how you receive these emails? [Update your preferences]( or [unsubscribe](