Reuters US Domestic News Summary

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices voted 13 to 1 to recommend 30 million frontline essential workers, which include first responders, teachers, food and agriculture, manufacturing, U.S. Postal Service, public transit, and grocery store workers, have the next priority for the vaccines.

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs. U.S. lawmakers to back $1.9 billion to replace telecom equipment from China's Huawei, ZTE - source

U.S. lawmakers are expected to endorse $1.9 billion to fund a program to remove telecom network equipment that the U.S. government says poses national security risks as part of a year-end spending bill and COVID-19 bill, a source briefed on the matter said on Sunday. Lawmakers are also expected to back $3.2 billion for an emergency broadband benefit for low-income Americans. Trump campaign will again ask U.S. high court to upend election results

President Donald Trump's campaign said on Sunday it would again ask the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn results from the Nov. 3 election, its latest long-shot effort to subvert the electoral process and sow doubt over the legitimacy of President-elect Joe Biden's victory. In a statement issued by the campaign, Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani said the campaign had filed a petition asking the high court to reverse three rulings by a Pennsylvania state court interpreting the state's rules for mail-in ballots. Biden chief of staff says hack response will go beyond 'just sanctions'

The incoming White House chief of staff said on Sunday that President-elect Joe Biden's response to the massive hacking campaign uncovered last week would go beyond sanctions. Ron Klain said Biden was mapping out ways to push back against the suspected Russian hackers who have penetrated half a dozen U.S. government agencies and left thousands of American companies exposed. U.S. Congress agrees to expand payroll assistance to local news outlets

Congressional leaders said on Sunday that lawmakers agreed to expand payroll assistance to additional struggling local news outlets as part of a $900 billion COVID-19 relief bill. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said the measure would expand eligibility "for nonprofits and local newspapers, TV and radio broadcasters." U.S. CDC reports 315,260 deaths from coronavirus

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Sunday reported 17,592,760 cases of the new coronavirus, an increase of 201,490 from its previous count, and said that the number of deaths had risen by 2,624 to 315,260. The CDC reported its tally of cases of the respiratory illness known as COVID-19, caused by a new coronavirus, as of 4 pm ET on Dec. 19 versus its previous report a day earlier.(https://bit.ly/3m662x4) U.S. frontline essential workers, 75-and-over should be next for COVID vaccines - CDC panel

A U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advisory panel on Sunday recommended that frontline essential workers and persons 75 years and older should be next in line to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) voted 13 to 1 to recommend 30 million frontline essential workers, which include first responders, teachers, food and agriculture, manufacturing, U.S. Postal Service, public transit, and grocery store workers, be the next priority for the vaccines. U.S. lawmakers set to back $15 billion in airline payroll assistance

The bipartisan legislative deal expected to be unveiled by U.S. lawmakers on Sunday will grant U.S. airlines $15 billion in new payroll assistance that will allow them to return more than 32,000 furloughed workers to their payrolls through March 31, sources briefed on the matter told Reuters. The legislative plan to provide about $900 billion in COVID-19 relief and fund the government is also expected to include $1 billion to passenger railroad Amtrak, $14 billion for public transit systems and $10 billion for state highways, the sources said. U.S. Congress reaches deal on COVID-19 aid package, top Senate Republican and Democrat say

U.S. congressional leaders have reached agreement on a $900 billion package to provide the first new aid in months to an economy hammered by the coronavirus pandemic, the Senate's top Republican and Democrat said on Sunday, but it remained unclear when Congress would vote to seal the deal. "At long last, we have the bipartisan breakthrough the country has needed," Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on the Senate floor. U.S. officials eye new COVID-19 strain in UK, urge vigilance

The United States is monitoring the new strain of COVID-19 emerging in the United Kingdom, multiple U.S. officials said on Sunday, adding that it was unclear whether the mutated variant had made its way to America. "We don't know yet. We are, of course... looking very carefully into this," U.S. COVID-19 vaccine program head Dr. Moncef Slaoui told CNN's "State of the Union" program. U.S. asked to prioritize frontline essential workers as distribution of Moderna shots begins

An advisory panel on Sunday recommended U.S. frontline essential workers and people 75 and older should be next in line to get inoculated as the distribution of Moderna Inc's vaccine, the second approved coronavirus vaccine, began across the country. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices voted 13 to 1 to recommend 30 million frontline essential workers, which include first responders, teachers, food and agriculture, manufacturing, U.S. Postal Service, public transit, and grocery store workers, have the next priority for the vaccines.