Good morning! Welcome back to 10 Things in Politics, your weekday look at the biggest stories in DC and beyond. Sign up here to receive this newsletter.
Send tips to [email protected] or tweet me at @BrentGriffiths.
Here's what we're talking about:
- Biden moved to cut down on unemployment benefits
- The most powerful Republican woman in the Senate says Liz Cheney is being canceled
- You know Champ and Major. These are the Biden administration's other paw-licy advisors.
One thing to look out for today: Dr. Anthony Fauci and other top federal health officials are set to testify before the Senate at 10 a.m. ET. (Yes, this almost guarantees another round of Republican Sen. Rand Paul teeing off on Fauci.)
Evan Vucci/AP
1. MORE JOBS-REPORT FALLOUT: President Joe Biden said Americans receiving unemployment benefits must either take a job that is "suitable" or lose the support. He largely rejected Republicans' and business groups' arguments that too generous benefits had hurt job growth, but the move signals he is listening to GOP criticism on the issue. April's disappointing jobs report has only added more pressure.
- What it means: Experts say Biden is trying to return to the job-seeking guidelines that were in place before the pandemic. Thirty-nine states have already started, or are planning to, reimpose them.
Republican governors are going even further: Several states are moving to cut expanded unemployment insurance entirely. South Carolina, Montana, and Arkansas are ending their participation in federal assistance programs for the unemployed in late June. At least 276,000 workers could be affected.
Nick Oxford/Reuters
There are some broader shifts at play too: Democratic economists have argued that companies should pay workers more if they want people to return more quickly. Some employers are doing just that, including Costco and Chipotle. Chipotle said on Monday that its pay increase would result in an average of $15 for new hourly workers.
- Others say worker shortages will hurt consumers too: "A Big Mac will get more expensive," a group of independent McDonald's franchisees warned. They said increased spending on salary and benefits to try to entice workers would only lead to higher menu prices.
The pandemic brought about larger trends as well: Some workers want to switch jobs or careers after having to deal with pandemic conditions for the past year, The Washington Post reports. Others are waiting to return until they are fully vaccinated or their child's school fully reopens.
- Key stat: The childcare struggle is best magnified by women who have exited the workforce at a far higher rate than men during the pandemic. All of April's job gains went to men, per The Post.
2. Israeli-Palestinian clashes at their worst in years: Israeli airstrikes killed nine children and 11 others in Gaza on Monday, Palestinian officials said. The airstrikes came after Hamas fired seven rockets at Jerusalem - the first time the city had been targeted since 2014 - and more rockets at southern Israel, per The Washington Post.
- The White House is under increasing pressure to do more: "Even if you ignore this issue, it will not ignore you," Ghaith Al-Omari, a former Palestinian negotiator, told Politico. Foreign-policy watchers say the Biden administration's efforts to focus elsewhere in the world are becoming unsustainable as violence spreads.
3. Feds OK vaccine for teens: The Food and Drug Administration expanded the authorization for Pfizer-BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine, making it the first shot OK'd by the US for 12- to 15-year-olds. Canada is the only other country to have authorized a COVID-19 vaccine for younger teenagers. The US has seen the daily rate of people getting their first dose plummet since early April. Expanding eligibility to include the younger age group could give the immunization campaign a boost.
4. Former Carlyle Group CEO Glenn Youngkin won Virginia's GOP gubernatorial nomination: Youngkin, a political newcomer, defeated his fellow businessman Pete Snyder in the sixth and final round of a ranked-choice tabulation that took most of the day, Politico reports. Youngkin loaned himself $5.5 million through the end of March. Democrats will pick their nominee in a primary next month. Former Gov. Terry McAuliffe has the inside track. More on what will be one of the most closely watched elections this year.
5. The most powerful Republican woman in the Senate says Liz Cheney is being canceled: "Cancel culture is cancel culture, no matter how you look at it," Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa, the only woman in the Senate GOP leadership, told reporters of Cheney's impending ouster. Ernst said she supported former President Donald Trump but added that "there are those that are trying to silence others in the party."
- Cheney is almost certain to lose her post Wednesday: House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy told House Republicans to expect a vote removing Cheney from her role as the party's No. 3 later this week. McCarthy suggested Cheney had distracted the party by "relitigating the past." Despite those plans, McCarthy said Republicans "embrace free thought and debate."
6. Biden is spending a huge amount of time at church so far: The nation's second Catholic president has been in a pew at least 15 times since his January 20 inauguration. But the church is a source of both comfort and controversy for Biden, whose long-standing support for abortion rights is renewing criticism about whether he should be allowed to receive communion. The US Conference of Catholic Bishops is expected to debate the issue at its meeting next month.
Gina Raimondo; Official White House Photo by Adam Schultz; Jennifer Granholm; Deb Haaland.
7. You know their hoomans. Meet the other Team Biden pooches: Champ and Major aren't the only good boys in Washington. Insider contacted all 23 members of Biden's Cabinet to find out more about their furry (or feathered, or scaled) friends. Biden's Cabinet members are the proud owners of at least 10 dogs, Insider found. No one fessed up to being a cat owner.
8. Global COVID-19 cases are falling, but inequality is apparent: Wealthier nations with access to ample vaccines are beginning to flip the script on the coronavirus pandemic, but India and some Southeast Asian countries without sufficient supplies are struggling with massive spikes, The New York Times reports. The World Health Organization's chief, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesu, says the world is in danger as long as cases remain at "an unacceptably high plateau."
9. Protests and calls to postpone or cancel the Olympics intensify: A recent poll found 70% of people in Japan thought the 2020 Summer Olympics, which were originally scheduled for last year, should be either postponed yet again because of the pandemic or canceled entirely. The country continues to see spikes in new cases and less than 1% of its population has been vaccinated. Tokyo remains under a state of emergency.
10. J. Lo and Ben Affleck were spotted together in Montana, which is set to gain a new House seat: Just like Affleck's and Lopez's reported romance, the Big Sky state will also be the subject of close scrutiny by the media in the coming months. Montana is one of seven states that will gain one or more US House seats as a result of the 2020 census. Just as all politics are local, all celebrity reunions can be connected in some way to politics.
Today's trivia question: Dogs have had their days at the White House. But this president relied on the Secret Service to get his cat back after it went missing during a snowstorm. Who was it? Email your guess and a suggested question to me at [email protected].
- Yesterday's answer: A Western Union telegraph sent the simple message of "D-O-N-E" at 12:47 p.m. on May 10, 1869, from Promontory Summit, Utah, to mark the completion of the transcontinental railroad.