Apparently, small ball is just as prevalent in Washington D.C. as it is in baseball.
While the big headline bills of Build Back Better, increased voting rights, immigration reform, and justice reform languish (for now,) other less “controversial” (to Republicans) and vitally important bills are garnering widespread support.
According to reporting by NBC News, Congress and the Biden/Harris Administration appear to be ready to either consider, conclude, approve and sign off on legislation to:
- Renew the Violence Against Women Act.
- End the practice of making sexual assault and harassment victims go through arbitration.
- Do away with the United States Postal Service requirement to pay benefits a decade in advance.
- Forbid insider trading among members of Congress.
- Make the country more competitive with China (this may serve as an additional job creating supplement to the bipartisan infrastructure bill passed last year.)
- Ensure that no one launches steal the election efforts following Presidential Elections by reforming the Electoral Count Act.
Are all these bills perfect?
No.
For example, the Violence Against Women Act renewal left out the provision of forbidding abusers from having access to firearms.
The bill is still significant and important to victims for the other provisions that remained.
The other legislative measures are also vitally important and will help move the country forward and improve people’s lives.
That is not to say the Democrats should not continue to fight for a version of Build Back Better, Voting Rights, Immigration Reform, and Justice Reform.
It is astounding that many Republicans would be against measures that would:
- Extend the child tax credit.
- Provide for Universal Pre K.
- Provide cleaner forms of energy and sustainability options.
- Expand access to affordable health care.
- Expand voting access.
- Provide DACA recipients a pathway to citizenship.
- Create a data base for bad cops.
Hopefully, some version of these larger pieces of legislation will find its way to President Biden’s desk before the elections in November.
They would be good of the country and the people.
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“That is not to say the Democrats should not continue to fight for a version of Build Back Better, Voting Rights, Immigration Reform, and Justice Reform.”
The moment will soon be lost. Perhaps there never was a moment because of the two traitors in the Senate, Joe and Kyrsten, who never had any intention of supporting anything on the Biden Agenda except the Infrastructure bill that they “negotiated.”
I still remember how confident Biden was that he could get BBB passed in the Senate having deluded himself into thinking he was dealing with people of good faith.
I guess by now he knows he’s got traitors, thoroughly corrupted, and willing to take down his presidency and hand over the Senate and the House to the GOP.
I strongly suspect 2022 will look like a wasted year for the Democrats unless the voters can get excited about insider trading and USPS employee benefits and stuff like that. Speaking for myself, I’m not impressed when legislators do the bare minimum.
“Bipartisan” in these times is nothing but a sick, stupid, offensive joke. If we have to wait for Democrats and Republicans to work together to pass long overdue and slightly progressive legislation then it’s just never going to happen. Never.