National COVID-19 Preparedness Plan

Table Of Content

• Continue to Lead the Effort to Vaccinate the World and Save Lives
• MORE NEWS
• ‘When our allies are stronger, we are stronger,’ president says
• WATCH: White House holds briefing as Biden promises action after 3 U.S. troops killed in Jordan
• David Pecker testimony at Trump trial reveals the seedy underbelly of his tabloid journalism

The current public health emergency is in place through April, while the national emergency is in place until March. The Biden administration will end both the COVID-19 national emergency and public health emergency on May 11, the White House informed Congress on Monday night. A separate rule will reduce toxic wastewater pollution by 660 million pounds annually, according to federal officials. It’s a reversal of the Republican Trump administration’s push to loosen coal plant wastewater standards.

Continue to Lead the Effort to Vaccinate the World and Save Lives

The disaster relief fund of the Federal Emergency Management Agency could be depleted, hurting the victims of wildfires, hurricanes, tornadoes and flooding. The last and longest shutdown on record was for 35 days during Trump’s administration, between 2018 and 2019, as he insisted on funding to build a wall along the U.S. southern border that Democrats and some Republicans refused. “I have a lot of confidence, a great deal of confidence, in the ability of the Secret Service and the other assets supporting them to make this inauguration a safe one,” incoming White House chief of staff Ron Klain said during an interview with the Washington Post. Biden has said that his goal is for 100 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines to be administered within the first 100 days of his presidency, which would be the end of April. President-elect Joe Biden on Friday said he would deploy the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the National Guard to help set up vaccine clinics across the U.S. as part of an ambitious plan to get shots to millions of Americans.

MORE NEWS

The start of this process suggests that federal employees could be informed next week if they’re to be furloughed. A federal shutdown after Sept. 30 seems all but certain unless Speaker Kevin McCarthy can persuade his rebellious hard-right flank of Republicans to allow Congress to approve a temporary funding measure to prevent closures as talks continue. Instead, he’s launched a much more ambitious plan to try to start passing multiple funding bills once the House returns Tuesday, with just five days to resolve the standoff.

‘When our allies are stronger, we are stronger,’ president says

Together, the climate law and the suite of EPA rules “are the biggest reductions in carbon pollution we’ve ever made and will put the country on the pathway to zero out carbon emissions,’' Doniger said. EPA Administrator Michael Regan said the rules will reduce pollution and improve public health while supporting the reliable, long-term supply of electricity that America needs. Early care and education providers, including child care centers, family child care providers, pre-K and more, have been essential in our fight against COVID-19. The Administration invested $40 billion in American Rescue Plan funds to states, territories, and Tribes to help child care providers and Head Start grantees keep their doors open and provide safe care that is crucial for parents getting back to work. Building on this funding, the Administration will continue to engage the community of early care and education providers to ensure they have tools and support to stay safely open and to continue supporting our families. Before January 2021, the federal government had insufficient data and sequencing capabilities and was ill-equipped to respond to new variants.

Later in his speech, Biden blasted House Republicans for failing to wear a mask during the Capitol insurrection, resulting in four Democrats testing positive. "I am convinced we can get it done. And this is the time to set big goals and to pursue them with courage and conviction because the health of the nation is at stake," he added. “We didn’t get into all of this overnight, we won't get out of it overnight either,” Biden said while unveiling the plan.

And when new variants are identified, the federal government has a network of researchers – federal, academic, and commercial – who are able to study the sequence and assess mutations rapidly, allowing the government to respond quickly to concerning variants. Moving forward, the Administration will maintain our proven data, sequencing, variant response, and surge response capabilities. The CDC will continue to improve COVID-19 data collection, reporting, and analysis so America is better informed and ready to respond to new variants.

David Pecker testimony at Trump trial reveals the seedy underbelly of his tabloid journalism

White House makes emergency weapons sale to Israel, bypassing Congress again - The Christian Science Monitor

White House makes emergency weapons sale to Israel, bypassing Congress again.

Posted: Fri, 29 Dec 2023 08:00:00 GMT [source]

According to NBC News' Covid-19 data tracker, over 390,000 people have died from the disease and there have been more than 23 million cases. "As we build them, we will make sure it’s done equitably. We’ll make sure there are vaccination centers in communities hit hardest by the pandemic, in Black and Latino communities, and rural communities as well," he said Friday. Reminding the public that help is soon on the way in a speech from Wilmington, Delaware, Biden outlined a five-part plan to turn “frustration to motivation” that will get the U.S. out of the pandemic.

White House asks Congress for $106 billion in security supplemental - Roll Call

White House asks Congress for $106 billion in security supplemental.

Posted: Fri, 20 Oct 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]

What you missed on Day 8 of Trump's trial: New witnesses and contact info for Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal

The emergencies have been repeatedly extended by Biden since he took office in January 2021, and he broadened the use of emergency powers after entering the White House. The Biden rule comes nearly a decade after former President Barack Obama first tried to set limits on carbon pollution from U.S. power plants. His 2015 Clean Power Plan was blocked by the Supreme Court and later rolled back by Trump. The EPA also tightened rules aimed at reducing wastewater pollution from coal-fired power plants and preventing harm from toxic pits of coal ash, a waste byproduct of burning coal. Even so, the rules issued Thursday complete “a historic grand slam” of major actions by the Biden administration to reduce carbon pollution, said David Doniger, a climate and clean energy expert at the Natural Resources Defense Council. The first and most important action was passage of the 2022 climate law, officially known as the Inflation Reduction Act, he said, followed by separate EPA rules targeting tailpipe emissions from cars and trucks and methane emissions from oil and gas drilling.

WATCH: White House holds news briefing as government shutdown looms

While the president hasn’t formally declared a climate emergency, he argued in a recent interview that his administration has “in practice.” “We already done that. Late Thursday, the hard-right faction pushed McCarthy to consider their idea to shelve plans for a stopgap funding measure, called a continuing resolution, or CR, and instead start bringing up the 12 individual bills needed to fund the government. "We’ll fix the problem by encouraging states to allow more people to get vaccinated beyond health care workers and move through these groups as quickly as states think they can. That includes anyone 65 and older," Biden said Friday.

The attack Sunday was the first targeting American troops in Jordan during the Israel-Hamas war and the first to result in the loss of American lives. Scores of U.S. personnel have been wounded, including some with traumatic brain injuries, during the attacks. “Jordan will continue to counter terrorism and the smuggling of drugs and weapons across the Syrian border into Jordan, and will confront with firmness and determination anyone who attempts to attack the security of the kingdom,” the statement attributed to Muhannad Mubaidin, a government spokesman, said. In a statement on Jordan’s state-run Petra news agency, the country “condemned the terrorist attack” that targeted the U.S. troops.

The EPA rules would not mandate use of equipment to capture and store carbon emissions — a technology that is expensive and still being developed. Instead, the agency would set caps on carbon dioxide pollution that plant operators would have to meet. Some natural gas plants could start blending gas with other fuel sources that do not emit carbon, although specific actions would be left to the industry. The rules initially included steps to curb emissions from existing natural gas plants, but Regan delayed that aspect of the rules until at least next year after some moderate Democrats and the gas industry warned that the plan could affect grid reliability. Regan also said he wanted to address complaints from environmental justice groups that the earlier plan allowed too much toxic air pollution from gas-fired plants near low-income and minority neighborhoods. They have repeatedly accused the Democratic administration of overreach on environmental regulations and have warned of a looming reliability crisis for the electric grid.

Criticism of the Biden administration’s support for Israel’s military offensive in Gaza has spread through American college campuses, with students pitching encampments and withstanding police sweeps in an effort to force their universities to divest from Israel. People on Medicaid may also face changes in their health care coverage after April 1, when states will once again be able to remove enrollees who no longer qualify for the program. But the Pentagon’s ability to support Ukraine further had been hampered since December by the lack of funds to backfill U.S. military inventories. Though some $4 billion had remained in Presidential Drawdown Authority for Ukraine, officials were reluctant to tap into that authority without additional replenishment funds, or money that’s used to buy back capabilities sent overseas. The capabilities, which will be pulled from existing U.S. stockpiles and sent abroad, represent the first tranche of military support for Kyiv since mid-March, when Defense Department officials cobbled together savings from a number of previous Army contracts to cover a $300 million shipment of equipment.

The Administration will launch a website where Americans can find the level of COVID-19 risk in their community and specific guidance based on that risk. The site will also point people to the tools we now have to fight COVID-19, such as locating a vaccination site in their neighborhood or finding a free high-quality mask at a local grocery store or pharmacy. HHS will continue its work to equip Americans with the tools to identify misinformation and to invest in longer-term efforts to build resilience against health misinformation. Typically, when a major winter storm is looming, states and municipalities can ask the federal government for things like snow plows or heating centers. Officials said the “EMS HeatTracker” will break down patient characteristics by age, race, gender and urbanicity so local officials can better understand which populations are most at-risk for heat-related illness or death. Brian Gardner, chief Washington strategist at the investment bank Stifel, said that air traffic controllers went unpaid during the previous shutdown.

And as of Thursday, the Biden transition team has not yet obtained access to the Defense Department’s vaccination plans for the military, the source said. Health experts and government officials at the state and local levels have said that the Trump administration bungled the distribution of the vaccines — Biden said Friday that "the vaccine rollout in the United States has been a dismal failure so far" — and never had a strategy. As of Thursday, more than 30 million vaccination doses distributed nationwide, but just over 11 million people had received their first doses, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Legislators last year did extend for another two years telehealth flexibilities that were introduced as COVID-19 hit, leading health care systems around the country to regularly deliver care by smartphone or computer. The Administration will work with Congress to reinstate tax credits to help small- and mid-size businesses provide paid sick and family leave to deal with COVID-related absences. Our path forward relies on giving schools and businesses the tools they need to prevent economic and educational shutdowns, so that our students can remain safe in school, our workers can be safe at work, and our economy can continue to grow. The Administration has also expedited the development, manufacturing, and procurement of COVID-19 treatments, building a diverse medicine cabinet filled with more treatments now than at any point in the pandemic.