Morning Wire XX
[0] President Biden's agenda was on the line in the House on Thursday.
[1] While Congress did pass a temporary funding bill to avoid a government shutdown, the Nancy Pelosi -led House was deeply divided over the president's sweeping $3 .5 trillion spending bill and a bipartisan infrastructure bill.
[2] We'll discuss the results of the votes and what it all means for the president's agenda.
[3] I'm John Bickley with Georgia Howell.
[4] It's Friday, October 1st, and this is Morning Wire.
[5] The Biden administration has proposed a new version of President Obama's controversial DACA order that exempted some non -citizens from deportation.
[6] We'll look at why a federal judge struck down the original order and what President Biden's new version includes.
[7] And in a Daily Wire exclusive, new documents show that a law firm employing a Virginia gubernatorial candidate is trying to silence parents who say public school staff abused their special needs children.
[8] What are parents claiming and how is it?
[9] the law firm responding?
[10] Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire.
[11] Stay tuned.
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[18] This week, President Biden's agenda has faced a crucial test in Congress, with Democrats attempting to pass two massive spending bills worth trillions of dollars.
[19] Here with details on the legislative battle in D .C. and what's slowing the process down is Daily Wire Managing Editor Cabot Phillips.
[20] So, Cabot, set the stage here for us a little bit.
[21] What exactly are they debating?
[22] So there are two main bills being discussed.
[23] First is the so -called bipartisan infrastructure bill.
[24] That's a trillion -dollar measure that we have.
[25] would cover things traditionally associated with infrastructure, like roads, bridges, airports, you get the picture.
[26] The second piece of legislation being debated right now is a social spending bill worth $3 .5 trillion at the moment.
[27] This would include many of President Biden's campaign promises, including massive increases in entitlement spending, climate change measures, free child care and expanded paid family leave, among many, many other things.
[28] It's much more of a progressive far -left bill.
[29] Right.
[30] Right, so most of his big picture agenda items.
[31] Exactly.
[32] What's behind the controversy now?
[33] So earlier in the summer, that trillion -dollar infrastructure measure passed the Senate, actually with bipartisan support.
[34] Right.
[35] But now it's being held up by Democrats in the House who say they won't support it unless they get certain assurances regarding that separate $3 .5 trillion dollar social spending measure.
[36] They're worried that if they vote yes on this trillion -dollar infrastructure bill, they'll lose leverage on the social spending bill.
[37] and won't get everything on their wish list.
[38] Got it.
[39] So they're kind of holding the infrastructure bill hostage for the larger social spending bill.
[40] Yeah, that's not a bad metaphor.
[41] And it's got House Republicans really upset.
[42] Even though a lot of them were initially open to supporting that first infrastructure bill, pretty much everyone in the party now opposes it because it is tied to the larger social spending bill.
[43] That bill includes massive tax hikes and a reversal of numerous Trump -era tax cuts.
[44] So not exactly.
[45] popular stuff amongst Republicans.
[46] Right.
[47] But the social spending measure can still pass thanks to an elaborate process in the House called budget reconciliation.
[48] That process allows Democrats to bypass a Republican filibuster, which they would do, as long as they can come to an agreement amongst themselves on what's in the bill.
[49] And that's where the hold -up is now.
[50] They cannot seem to agree on what to put in that reconciliation.
[51] All right, so we unpack that for us a little bit more.
[52] What are the disagreements among Democrats?
[53] The main snag right now is the cost.
[54] Basically, moderate Democrats say it's too high.
[55] Progressives say, if anything, it's not enough.
[56] In August, a group of a dozen moderates in the party said they refused to vote on the package until they had assurances that there would be a vote on the infrastructure package as well.
[57] Remember, Democrats only have a single -digit advantage in the House, so those 12 votes are crucial to them.
[58] So Speaker Pelosi initially promised them that they'd get their infrastructure vote, but then moderate Democrats in the Senate became the holdup.
[59] Okay.
[60] Democrat Joe Manchin from West Virginia is among the only swing votes in the Senate, and his support is crucial to the bill passing.
[61] He said the $3 .5 trillion price tag was, quote, fiscal insanity and that he refused to support anything higher than $1 .5 trillion.
[62] The party's other swing vote, Kristen Sinema of Arizona, had a similar stance, saying $3 .5 trillion was far too higher for her to support.
[63] But we also saw progressives in the Democratic Party pushing back as well.
[64] Yeah, they're in the mix, too, and much more so now.
[65] So they want to see even more spending, actually as high as $6 trillion as opposed to $3 .5.
[66] And they've told Speaker Pelosi that they now have 50 members who've pledged to vote no on the infrastructure bill unless they get their say on that social spending bill.
[67] And how has Pelosi handled this so far?
[68] Well, obviously, she's in a tough spot here.
[69] She has to appease those progressive house members if infrastructure has any hope of passing.
[70] But at the same time, that means keeping the price tag at $3 .5 trillion or higher, which would almost certainly lead to the bill dying in the Senate.
[71] So her mainstance so far has just been optimism, saying she's confident the bill would pass, despite members consistently saying otherwise.
[72] She also defended the price of the social spending bill, saying the cost would actually be zero because of tax increases.
[73] It's not about a dollar amount.
[74] The dollar amount, as the president has said, is zero.
[75] This bill will be paid for.
[76] Zero.
[77] Okay.
[78] So what now?
[79] On Thursday night, Democrat leadership announced that the infrastructure bill, which was supposed to be voted on last night, would actually be delayed.
[80] This was viewed as kind of a blow to President Biden who'd signaled earlier in the month that he was confident it would pass easily.
[81] It's also significant because previously Senator's Mansion and Cinema had indicated that they would totally withdraw support if it was delayed at all.
[82] So now the chances of it passing are even more slim than they were before.
[83] But this battle is not over.
[84] You're going to be hearing a lot more about this in the coming days and probably weeks.
[85] All right, Cabot, thanks for keeping us up to date.
[86] Absolutely.
[87] Daily Wire Managing Editor, Cabot Phillips.
[88] Coming up, the Biden administration proposes a new version of DACA.
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[92] After a federal judge struck down an Obama -era policy that exempted some non -citizens from deportation, the Biden administration has proposed a new version of the program.
[93] Deferred action for childhood arrivals, or DACA, allowed most young people who came to this country as minors to stay in the United States.
[94] But the policy has stood in legal limbo for most of its existence.
[95] Here to help us sort through the convoluted details is Daily Wire Reporter Ben Johnson.
[96] First of all, Ben, what are the exact terms of the new DACA proposal?
[97] Well, the new DACA is basically the same as the old DACA.
[98] The Biden administration essentially took the June 2012 memo from Janet Napolitano that announced the policy and put it in the form of a federal regulation.
[99] According to the rule, which was published on Tuesday, anyone between the age of 15 and 40 can apply for DACA status if they meet six criteria.
[100] The person had to come to the U .S. illegally before the age of 16.
[101] He had to continuously reside in the U .S. since June 15, 2007, and prove he was physically present in the United States on June 15th, 2012.
[102] That's the date the original DACA policy was announced.
[103] The person has to be honorably discharged as a veteran or have completed a high school education or currently be enrolled in some kind of schooling, including vocational education.
[104] And the applicant cannot have been convicted of a felony, a serious misdemeanor, or three or more other separate misdemeanors.
[105] Someone younger than 15 can apply if they're currently in removal proceedings or have a final deportation order.
[106] And how many people would the new DACA order apply to?
[107] More than 800 ,000 25 ,000 people received DACA status between 2012 and this July, but the number eligible is estimated at at least 1 .8 million people.
[108] And why did President Biden choose to go this route through regulation?
[109] Well, he felt he had to.
[110] A federal judge struck down the DACA program on July 16th.
[111] Originally, President Barack Obama hoped Congress would pass the Dream Act, but when it didn't, he crafted DACA to apply to the same people.
[112] Even President Obama seemed to question his own authority to issue this kind of sweeping deportation stay by memo.
[113] Well, immigration is a really contentious issue right now.
[114] What are the arguments for or against this new DACA?
[115] So in a nutshell, supporters say the DACA recipients came to the United States through no fault of their own.
[116] In many cases, this is the only country they've ever known, and they will contribute to the economy.
[117] Now, opponents point out that many DACA recipients came here as unaccompanied minors with the help of human smugglers, and DACA will encourage others to do the same.
[118] It's worth noting the number of unaccompanied miners has skyrocketed from 16 ,000 in 2011, the year before DACA, to more than 130 ,000 this year, and they dispute the economic contribution.
[119] Now, is this the same thing as giving amnesty?
[120] In other words, Will DACA recipients receive citizenship?
[121] DACA only stays deportation.
[122] It does not give its recipients U .S. citizenship.
[123] But President Biden does support legislation to that effect.
[124] The U .S. Citizenship Act of 2021 would grant everyone who's in the country illegally U .S. citizenship within eight years.
[125] Ben, thanks so much for breaking all that down for us.
[126] Thanks for having me. That's Daily Wire reporter Ben Johnson.
[127] In Virginia, with voting underway in a close governor's race, the election could turn on the role of parents in public education.
[128] In a debate Tuesday, this line from Democratic candidate Terry McAuliffe got the most attention.
[129] So I'm not going to let parents come into schools and actually take books out and make their own decision.
[130] You vetoed it.
[131] So, yeah, I've stopped the bill that I don't think parents should be telling schools what they should teach.
[132] The incident that prompted that exchange was a story Americans saw first on the Daily Wire.
[133] Fairfax County Schools had gay pornography, in school libraries.
[134] But just before the debate, investigative reporter Luke Roziak had another scoop that put McCallov's comments into perspective.
[135] Luke joins us now to tell us what he found.
[136] Hey, Luke.
[137] Hey, John.
[138] Tell us about this report.
[139] In 2019, McColliffe took a job with a law firm called Huntin Andrews Kerth.
[140] Let's call it Hunting.
[141] It's one of the largest vendors in the Fairfax County Public Schools.
[142] It's gotten millions of dollars.
[143] And a lot of times it's doing work that consists of essentially fighting parents who have some sort of dispute with the school district.
[144] The most disturbing example is what's actually become a class action lawsuit from quite a number of parents of special needs kids who say that those kids were essentially systematically, physically abused by school staff.
[145] They said teachers would sometimes just leave these kids alone in rooms rather than educate them, and other times they allegedly assaulted them.
[146] And what were some of the allegations in the lawsuit?
[147] Some of there are pretty horrifying.
[148] Putting a non -verbal autistic kid, a 13 -year -old, I believe, in solitary confinement 700 times.
[149] Sheving a bullied 8 -year -old into a cardboard box and telling him it was this, quote, safe space, putting a little kid in a chokehold.
[150] Their parents were trying to advocate for these kids, and the school district uses their tax money to pay $700 an hour to this white shoe law firm, which tried to get their lawsuit dismissed.
[151] that was unsuccessful in that, but it's been fighting them ever since.
[152] So, you know, you have teachers unions who are one of the biggest funders to McCullough's campaign.
[153] They've given them a million bucks.
[154] But then you have parents' interests, and really what we've seen over the coronavirus, especially with those school shutdowns, is the interests of school bureaucracies and school staff are not always the same interests of parents.
[155] And we've seen there's an update to this story.
[156] Can you explain to us what happened there with a mother that is being sued?
[157] Yeah, it's really wild.
[158] I mean, the way that I was able to write that story was the mom of a special ed kid filed a Freedom of Information Act request for the billing records that the school was spending on law firms.
[159] And so she paid $300 to the FOIA office they gave her these records.
[160] She gave it to me. And I used it to write the story.
[161] Well, right after we published this story, which drew a lot of negative attention to McColliffe and to the school system, she was sued.
[162] She was sued for possessing and giving out the records showing what our taxpayer dollars were spent on information that she was given by the school system.
[163] Well, we want these schools to work for the parents and not against them.
[164] Luke, thanks so much for drawing attention to this story.
[165] Thank you.
[166] Daily Wire investigative reporter Luke Roziak.
[167] Another story we're tracking this week.
[168] A North Carolina -based hospital system has fired about 175.
[169] unvaccinated employees for failing to comply with a COVID vaccine mandate.
[170] Novant Health said last week that some 375 unvaccinated workers have been suspended and given five days to comply with the mandate.
[171] United Airlines is also poised to fire hundreds of employees after its vaccination deadline for U .S.-based workers passed this week.
[172] Almost 600 employees face losing their jobs for not complying.
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