Friday morning news - May 28, 2021

For WORLD Radio, I'm Kent Covington.

Republicans unveil infrastructure counter-offer » Republican senators unveiled an infrastructure proposal Thursday, just north of $900 billion countering the president’s plan, which would spend nearly twice as much.

The GOP plan would also tap unused coronavirus aid cash to pay for the spending—instead the tax hikes called for in the White House plan.

West Virginia Sen. Shelly Moore Capito announced the counter-proposal at a news conference.

CAPITO: We’re hoping that this moved the ball forward. We believe that the alternative, which is a partisan reconciliation process, would be destructive to our future bipartisan attempts.

Reconciliation is a mechanism that Democrats could use to pass an infrastructure bill without any Republican votes.

President Biden said he hasn’t had a chance yet to dig into the details of the Republican proposal. But he added that he did have a brief but good conversation with Sen. Capito about the plan.

BIDEN: And I told her we have to finish this very soon.

The proposal received a cool response from other Democrats.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters…

PSAKI: This is an ongoing negotiation. We’ll continue to have discussions about how to move it forward. There are a range of mechanisms to move ideas forward in Congress and we’re open to that as well.

The GOP offer is $928 billion in total. It would increase spending by $91 billion on roads and bridges, $48 billion on water resources and $25 billion on airports.

It also would provide for one-time increases in broadband investments, at $65 billion.

President Biden’s latest proposal carries a price tag of $1.7 trillion.

Jobless claims fall again to new pandemic low » The number of Americans seeking jobless benefits dropped last week to another pandemic low. But businesses are still having a tough time finding enough workers. WORLD’s Kristen Flavin has more.

KRISTEN FLAVIN, REPORTER: The Labor Department reports that new claims fell to 406,000 last week. That was a drop of nearly 9 percent from the week before.

The unemployment rate, now 6.1 percent, is still almost twice what it was before the pandemic, when the rate was just 3.5 percent. Yet many businesses can’t find enough applicants for all the open jobs.

Almost 16 million people received unemployment aid during the week of May 8th. That’s the latest period for which data is available. That’s nearly eight times as many people as received jobless payments in August 2014, when the unemployment rate was where it is now—6.1 percent—and roughly the same proportion of adults had jobs.

That’s largely because federal programs during the pandemic made far more people eligible for unemployment than in the past. And many businesses say so-called enhanced jobless benefits are paying people as much to stay home as they would make at work.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Kristen Flavin.

Senate Republicans filibuster Jan. 6 commission » Senate

Lawmakers in the Senate debated into the early morning hours today … with Republicans set to filibuster a measure that would create an independent commission on the Capitol riot.

It would be the first successful use of a filibuster in the Biden presidency to halt legislative action.

Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Thursday the commission is necessary to fully investigate the incident.

But Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said multiple Senate committees are already conducting inquiries. And he noted that former President Trump’s role in the incident was already litigated in an impeachment trial.

MCCONNELL: I do not believe the additional extraneous commission that Democratic leaders want would uncover crucial new facts or promote healing.

Most Republicans opposed forming a commission, though the House measure passed with 35 Republican votes.

Death toll at 10 in Calif. rail yard shooting » Officials in California have raised the death toll from a rail yard shooting to 10, including the shooter, who took his own life.

The suspect, 57-year-old Samuel Cassidy, was an employee at the public transportation facility where he opened fire on Wednesday.

Evelynn Tran is Acting General Manager of the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority. She told reporters that some officials like her receive training on how to handle an active shooter situation, but not the aftermath.

TRAN: And yesterday, I was at the Family Assistance Center, and I saw the immense pain in the faces of the families, and I heard their cries when they got the news.

Cassidy’s ex-wife has now told police that the shooter talked about killing people at work more than a decade ago. But she said she ever believed him until now.

And authorities say a locker at the rail yard believed to be the gunman’s contained “materials for bombs, detonator cords, the precursors to an explosive.”

Facebook won’t remove posts claiming COVID-19 is human-made » With new questions swirling about the origin of COVID-19, Facebook says it will no longer remove claims that the illness is human-made or manufactured. WORLD’s Anna Johansen Brown has that story.

ANNA JOHANSEN BROWN, REPORTER: Facebook said it made the move—quote—“in light of ongoing investigations into the origin of COVID-19 and in consultation with public health experts.”

President Biden this week directed intelligence agencies to intensify their investigations into the origin of the virus and report their findings within 90 days.

That followed reports of U.S. intelligence findings that workers at a laboratory in Wuhan, China may have sought hospital treatment for COVID-19 symptoms in Nov. of 2019.

That has renewed questions about the possibility that the virus may have escaped from the Chinese lab.

U.S. intel agencies do not believe, however, that the virus was man-made.

Still, with so many unanswered questions, Facebook said it was appropriate to stop removing posts that suggest the virus could have been manufactured.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Anna Johansen Brown.

I’m Kent Covington, and for more news, features, and analysis, visit us at wng.org.

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