Reuters US Domestic News Summary

Biden, who made the comment to reporters at the White House, said on Sunday he was uncertain whether a pathway to citizenship for immigrants protected from deportation under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program could be included in the bill, which Democrats plan to pass without Republican support. Factbox-Biden's new COVID push: vaccine rules, testing plans, hard cash President Joe Biden on Thursday announced new measures to stop the spread of COVID-19 and the new Delta variant in the United States that will impact millions of federal workers, contractors and private citizens.

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs.

U.S. attorney general tells Texas to rescind immigrant COVID-19 order

U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland on Thursday warned Texas Governor Greg Abbott to "immediately rescind" a new executive order aimed at curbing the travel into the state of undocumented immigrants who may pose a risk of transmitting COVID-19. "The order violates federal law in numerous respects, and Texas cannot lawfully enforce the executive order against any federal official or private parties working with the United States," Garland told Abbott in a letter.

Biden to call on federal workers to get vaccinated or wear masks -White House

President Joe Biden on Thursday will ask every federal employee and onsite contractor to attest to their COVID-19 vaccination status and wear masks, physically distance and undergo regular testing if they are not vaccinated, the White House said. In addition to the new requirement for federal workers, Biden will direct the Defense Department to consider how and when it will begin requiring servicemembers to get vaccinated as the virulent Delta variant of the coronavirus blazes through parts of the United States and immunizations lag.

As bipartisanship reigns in U.S. Senate, Republicans rage in House

A day after the U.S. Senate passed a major bipartisan milestone on infrastructure, Republicans in the House of Representatives lapsed into bitter partisanship and infighting, attacking both Democrats and Republican opponents of former President Donald Trump. House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy and other Republicans poured scorn on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and blamed President Joe Biden for a host of national ills including inflation, violent crime, illegal border crossings and what he termed politically motivated COVID-19 health guidelines.

Biden wants state, local govts to pay $100 to newly vaccinated Americans -Treasury

President Joe Biden is calling for state, local and U.S. territorial governments to provide $100 payments for every newly vaccinated American to boost COVID-19 inoculation rates, the U.S. Treasury Department said on Thursday. The Treasury said in a statement that such incentives are an allowable use of funds from the $350 billion in aid granted to state, local, territorial and tribal governments under the American Rescue Plan Act. The department added that it would provide technical assistance in using these funds to support increased vaccinations.

Space station mishap prompts NASA to postpone launch of Boeing Starliner

NASA on Thursday postponed a planned launch of a Boeing CST-100 Starliner capsule to the International Space Station after the orbiting outpost was briefly thrown out of control by jet thrusters inadvertently activated on a newly docked Russian module, NASA said. The Starliner launch delay was announced a day before it was due for blastoff from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida atop a Boeing Lockheed Martin Corp Atlas V rocket. NASA said the space agency and Boeing decided to push back the launch date to Aug. 3, with Aug. 4 set as an immediate backup.

Biden calls for big budget bill to include immigration

U.S. President Joe Biden, who has called for providing a pathway to citizenship for so-called Dreamer immigrants, said on Thursday that a big budget bill being written by Democrats in Congress should tackle immigration. Biden, who made the comment to reporters at the White House, said on Sunday he was uncertain whether a pathway to citizenship for immigrants protected from deportation under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program could be included in the bill, which Democrats plan to pass without Republican support.

Factbox-Biden's new COVID push: vaccine rules, testing plans, hard cash

President Joe Biden on Thursday announced new measures to stop the spread of COVID-19 and the new Delta variant in the United States that will impact millions of federal workers, contractors and private citizens. The White House is battling https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-biden-strategy-ana/analysis-bidens-covid-19-strategy-thwarted-by-anti-vaxxers-delta-variant-idUSKBN2EZ17Q a resurgence in COVID-19 cases, and anti-vaccine messages and misinformation that have put the U.S. vaccination rate behind other rich nations, despite a prevalence of plentiful, free, vaccines.

U.S. refusal to defend lawmaker in Capitol riot a signal to Trump -experts

The U.S. Justice Department's refusal to defend a Republican congressman accused in a civil lawsuit of helping to incite the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol could hamper former President Donald Trump's legal defense in the same case, experts said. The department late Tuesday told a federal judge it had declined https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-justice-dept-wont-defend-republican-lawmaker-capitol-riot-lawsuit-2021-07-28 a request by Representative Morris "Mo" Brooks to grant him immunity by covering him under the Westfall Act, which shields federal employees from being sued for their words or actions in the course of their employment.

U.S. senators upbeat on prospects for bipartisan infrastructure bill - for now

The U.S. Senate on Thursday prepared to tackle the details of a $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill backed by President Joe Biden, with the possibility of weekend work looming after lawmakers agreed to advance the measure. Another vote was scheduled for 11:30 a.m. EDT (1530 GMT) on Friday to begin debate on the proposal to rebuild America's roads, ports and bridges, beginning a process that could last for days and could include amendments that change the bill or cloud its chances of passage.

Vaccinated prisoners, unvaccinated guards illustrate Biden's tricky road

A federal prison in Oakdale, Louisiana, grabbed national headlines in March 2020 after a COVID-19 outbreak killed at least eight inmates and sickened more than 100 people. Sixteen months later, about 70% of its inmates have been vaccinated against the coronavirus - a rate more than double the 34% of Bureau of Prisons (BOP) staffers there who have taken the shot, according to Oakdale's union leader Ronald Morris, president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 1007.