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Top staffers for newly-elected GOP House member leave three weeks after former aide commits suicide: report
March 02, 2021
According to a report from Punchbowl News, top staffers in the office of newly-elected Rep. Beth Van Duyne (R-TX) have either resigned or been fired less than sixty days after she assumed office.
News of the departure comes just three weeks after her former communications director for her campaign committed suicide in front of her home in a gated community without leaving a note.
<p>According to a report from NBC News, <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/man-dies-suicide-outside-u-s-rep-beth-van-duyne-n1257447" target="_blank">Richard Christian Dillard, 55</a>, shot himself in the head on Feb. 11, with the report stating, "Van Duyne was home at the time with some other people but did not witness the incident, [Dallas Police officer Robert] Reeves said. They did hear a gunshot and called 911 when they discovered the man lying on the sidewalk."</p><p>On the heels of that, Van Duyne's congressional office is now undergoing further turmoil with the high-level departures, so soon after she was sworn in for her first term. </p><p>According to Punchbowl, the former mayor of Irving, Texas, now seated in the House representing the Dallas-Fort Worth area, "has lost her chief of staff, communications director and legislative director already. And she's only been in Congress for 57 days."</p><p>The report adds, "Van Duyne fired chief of staff Brendan Belair and legislative director Erica Barker<strong><em>. </em></strong>Van Duyne's spokeswoman Amanda Gonzalez Thompson<strong><em> </em></strong>also quit last week."</p><p>Asked for comment on the exodus of staffers, a spokesperson for the Republican lawmaker said they don't discuss "personnel issues."</p><p>You can <a href="https://punchbowl.news/" target="_blank">read more here</a> (subscription required).</p>
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By Andrew Chung and Lawrence Hurley WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Supreme Court justices on Tuesday will consider whether to uphold two Republican-backed voting restrictions in Arizona in a case that could further weaken the Voting Rights Act, a landmark 1965 federal law that barred racial discrimination in voting. The important voting rights case comes before the justices at a time when Republicans in numerous states are pursuing new restrictions after former President Donald Trump made false claims of widespread fraud in the Nov. 3 election that he lost to Democratic President Joe Biden. The j...
'Bad policy and bad politics': Manchin is now trying to cut unemployment benefits and limit survival checks
March 02, 2021
Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and other conservative members of the Senate Democratic caucus are reportedly pressing for changes to the emerging coronavirus relief legislation that would cut the bill's proposed weekly unemployment supplement and further restrict eligibility for $1,400 direct payments.
The $1.9 trillion relief measure approved by the House of Representatives late last week proposes extending emergency unemployment insurance (UI) programs through the end of August with a weekly federal supplement of $400, up from the current $300-per-week boost that is set to begin expiring on March 14.
<p>
"Further 'targeting' or 'tightening' eligibility means taking survival checks away from millions of families who got them last time. That's bad policy and bad politics too."<br/>
—Rep. Pramila Jayapal
</p><p>
But as <em>Roll Call</em> <a href="https://rollcall.com/2021/03/01/pension-funding-cobra-coverage-survive-aid-bills-byrd-bath/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">reported</a> late Monday after conservative Democrats met virtually with President Joe Biden to discuss the relief package, Manchin "said he'd prefer to see a $300 benefit in response to criticism that some laid-off workers could end up making more money on unemployment than they would on the job"—a right-wing talking point that <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/03/25/gop-senate-trio-threaten-delay-stimulus-bill-because-unemployment-benefits-amid" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Republicans have deployed</a> in their efforts to slash UI benefits.
</p><p>
"We're just looking for a targeted bill," said Manchin, whose support Democrats need to pass the so-called American Rescue Plan (ARP) without any Republican votes.
</p><p>
<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2021/03/01/biden-stimulus-covid-relief-minimum-wage/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">According to</a> the <em>Washington Post</em>, Manchin and other conservative Democrats also pitched "tightening income eligibility for the $1,400 stimulus payments," a demand that House Democrats rejected in their legislation.
</p><p>
The House-passed relief bill calls for sending full $1,400 payments to individuals earning up to $75,000 per year and married couples earning up to $150,000 per year, with the payments gradually phasing out thereafter—an eligibility structure that resembles the one used for the previous two rounds of checks.
</p><p>
Despite <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/02/04/politically-its-suicidal-frustration-grows-biden-entertains-narrower-eligibility" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">warnings</a> that doing so would be politically "suicidal," Biden has previously said he would be open to lowering the income cutoff for the direct payments.
</p><p>
Noting that progressive lawmakers are already furious over Senate Democrats' plans to move forward with a relief bill that excludes a minimum wage increase—pointing to the <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/02/25/im-sorry-says-ro-khanna-unelected-parliamentarian-does-not-get-deprive-32-million" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">parliamentarian's advisory ruling</a> against the provision—economist Arindrajit Dube cautioned that slashing UI benefits or imposing additional restrictions on eligibility for direct relief payments would "cause a full blown revolt from progressives."
</p><p>
House Democrats, who did not have to contend with the Senate's so-called <a href="https://www.cbpp.org/research/federal-budget/introduction-to-budget-reconciliation" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Byrd Rule</a>, <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/02/27/15-wage-included-house-dems-fulfill-election-promise-passage-sweeping-19-trillion" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">included</a> a provision to increase the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2025 in their relief bill.
</p><div class="twitter-tweet twitter-tweet-rendered" style="display: flex; max-width: 550px; width: 100%; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><iframe allowfullscreen="true" allowtransparency="true" class="" data-tweet-id="1366547532743065602" frameborder="0" id="twitter-widget-0" scrolling="no" src="https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?dnt=false&embedId=twitter-widget-0&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1366547532743065602&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.rawstory.com%2Fr%2Fentryeditor%2F2650858082%23&theme=light&widgetsVersion=889aa01%3A1612811843556&width=550px" style="position: static; visibility: visible; width: 551px; height: 451px; display: block; flex-grow: 1;" title="Twitter Tweet"></iframe></div><p>Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, <a href="https://twitter.com/RepJayapal/status/1366587817137037313" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">warned</a> late Monday that "further 'targeting' or 'tightening' eligibility means taking survival checks away from millions of families who got them last time."</p><p>"That's bad policy and bad politics too," Jayapal tweeted.</p> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
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