Reuters US Domestic News Summary

"Defending the right of the American people to vote is as American as apple pie," she said to more than 50 Democratic lawmakers who left Texas a day earlier to deny the state legislature the quorum required to approve Republican Governor Greg Abbott's special session agenda. Searchers find another Florida condo collapse victim, raising toll to 95 Searchers at a partially collapsed condominium near Miami found another victim, raising the number of confirmed deaths to 95 on Tuesday as heavy rain and the gruesome challenge of identifying human remains slowed the recovery effort, officials said.

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs.

California to compensate people forcibly sterilized under eugenics

California has agreed to pay reparations to those who were forcibly sterilized under old laws aimed at people deemed unfit to have children. The legislation, years in the making, will compensate survivors of state-sponsored sterilization that took place under so-called eugenics laws in effect between 1909 and 1979. The $7.5 million fund will also cover survivors of forced sterilization performed in prisons after 1979.

Biden nominates surgeon, author Atul Gawande to senior job at USAID

U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday nominated writer, surgeon and public health expert Atul Gawande to lead global health development at the U.S. Agency for International Development, including for COVID-19, the White House said. Gawande, author of four New York Times best-selling books and a professor at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, would serve as the assistant administrator of USAID's Bureau for Global Health, if confirmed by the U.S. Senate.

U.S. Senate Democrats rush to outline massive infrastructure bill

White House officials were scheduled to huddle with Democratic senators later on Tuesday to try to set the outlines of a potentially multitrillion-dollar infrastructure investment initiative that could move through the U.S. Congress this fall. "I'm hopeful that we can come up with an agreement," Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said of the closed-door meeting that he and Senate Budget Committee Democrats were set to attend, adding that Democrats were not underestimating the difficulties ahead.

Biden decries 'Big Lie,' but offers no new path on voting rights bill

President Joe Biden, under pressure from U.S. civil rights leaders, on Tuesday called it a "national imperative" to pass sweeping voting rights legislation that has stalled in Congress but did not outline a path to overcome Republican opposition. Numerous Republican-controlled states have passed new voting restrictions this year, a push encouraged by Biden's Republican predecessor Donald Trump.

Harris tells Texas Democrats they are like suffragettes, civil rights leaders

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris met on Tuesday with Democratic Texas lawmakers who left the state and told them their "courageous stand" to derail Republican efforts to enact voting restrictions was like efforts throughout U.S. history of civil rights activists and suffragettes. "Defending the right of the American people to vote is as American as apple pie," she said to more than 50 Democratic lawmakers who left Texas a day earlier to deny the state legislature the quorum required to approve Republican Governor Greg Abbott's special session agenda.

Searchers find another Florida condo collapse victim, raising toll to 95

Searchers at a partially collapsed condominium near Miami found another victim, raising the number of confirmed deaths to 95 on Tuesday as heavy rain and the gruesome challenge of identifying human remains slowed the recovery effort, officials said. With 892 truckloads of concrete and debris totaling 18 million pounds (8.16 million kg) carted from the Surfside, Florida, site in past 20 days, the search focused on 14 people who were still missing, Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said.

Biden to nominate House aide Trumka to serve on consumer safety commission

U.S. President Joe Biden plans to nominate a House aide who has worked extensively on oversight and consumer issues to the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), the White House said on Tuesday. Richard Trumka Jr. is general counsel and staff director of the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Reform's subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy. He was previously an assistant attorney general in the Consumer Protection Division of the Maryland Attorney General's Office.

Texas Democrats defy calls for their arrest in voting restrictions fight

Texas Democratic lawmakers defied calls for their arrest on Tuesday, a day after fleeing their state to thwart efforts to pass voting restrictions, and said they would stay in Washington to push for federal voting reform. Texas Governor Greg Abbott, a Republican, vowed to arrest more than 50 Democratic lawmakers who left the state on Monday, denying the state House of Representatives the quorum required to approve the voting limits and other measures on his special session agenda.

U.S. charges Iranian nationals with plot to kidnap journalist

Four Iranian nationals were charged in an indictment unsealed in federal court in New York on Tuesday with conspiring to kidnap a U.S.-based journalist, the U.S. Justice Department said in a statement. The suspects are Iranian intelligence agents or assets who allegedly conspired to kidnap an unnamed Brooklyn journalist and human rights activist who was a critic of the Iranian government, the statement said.

Biden nominates ex-Senator Flake as ambassador to Turkey

U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday nominated Republican former U.S. Senator Jeff Flake as ambassador to Turkey, tapping a political appointee for a critical post as ties between the two NATO allies remains strained. "Given the strategic importance of the United States’ relationship with our long-time NATO Ally, the Republic of Turkey, I am honored and humbled by the trust President Biden has placed in me with this ambassadorial nomination," Flake said in a statement.