| | | | | |  | | By Rebecca Rainey | Editor's Note: Weekly Shift is a weekly version of POLITICO Pro's daily Employment & Immigration policy newsletter, Morning Shift. POLITICO Pro is a policy intelligence platform that combines the news you need with tools you can use to take action on the day's biggest stories. Act on the news with POLITICO Pro. | | | Democrats are now prepared to pass more coronavirus relief without any votes from Republicans, adopting a final budget measure Friday that unlocked the filibuster-proof reconciliation process. But the clock is ticking. Democrats must pass a bill before March 14 to prevent some jobless benefits from expiring, as our Congress team reports. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said lawmakers would be working on the "specifics" of the bill today and that her caucus plans to send the full bill to the Senate within two weeks. | 
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi meets with reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Feb. 4, 2021. | AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite | And now Democratic chairs face the task of putting together a broad economic rescue package that need to win the support of every Democratic senator and nearly every Democratic House member. "Further complicating matters, the Democratic bill will need to obey fickle Senate budget rules, which could force Biden and the party to downsize their ambitions," our team writes. WHAT LIKELY WON'T BE IN THE BILL: A major piece of the package sought by organized labor — a $15 federal minimum wage by 2025 — may not make it into the legislation, President Joe Biden said in an CBS clip aired Friday. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has argued that a higher minimum wage would reduce the amount of federal assistance low-income individuals receive and increase their taxable income, our Marianne LeVine explains. That would conform to Senate rules requiring that any reconciliation measure have an effect on the federal budget. Now that the reconciliation process has begun, we should soon find out whether a standalone $15 minimum wage bill would qualify under those same rules. But even a party-line vote may not be enough to secure its passage; not every Democratic senator is on board with raising the federal minimum. (More on that from your host.) GOOD MORNING. It's Monday, Feb. 8, and this is Morning Shift, your tipsheet on employment and immigration news. Send tips, exclusives and suggestions to emueller@politico.com and rrainey@politico.com. Follow us on Twitter at @Eleanor_Mueller and @RebeccaARainey. | | | STIMULUS PACKAGE COULD INCLUDE CHILD BENEFIT: Democrats want to give parents as much as a $3,600 allowance per child in the next coronavirus package, our Sam Stein reports. While the details of the proposal are still being finalized, it would "provide families a $3,600-per-child allowance for children under the age of 6 over the course of three years and $3,000 per child for those between the ages of 6 and 17." The benefit would be paid out monthly and would decrease for people above certain annual income levels. THE IMPACT: It's an attempt by Democrats to reduce childhood poverty rates, which have worsened during the Covid pandemic. BIPARTISAN RUMBLINGS? Last week, Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) also introduced a plan to provide families with a monthly cash benefit of as much $350 for each child. Romney's Family Security Act would replace the Child Tax Credit with a $3,000 yearly benefit per child — $4,200 for kids under the age of 5 — spread out in monthly +installments that begin four months before a child's due date, your host reports. BUT: Romney's plan would cover the cost of the new benefit by eliminating other tax benefits and a grant program for needy families. Biden has also called for increasing the credit to $3,000 per child and $3,600 for a child under age 6, as part of his own coronavirus relief plan. ANOTHER CTC PROPOSAL: At 11 a.m., Democratic Reps. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, Suzan DelBene of Washington and Ritchie Torres of New York will reintroduce a bill that would provide a monthly cash benefit to families of up to $300 per child. | | | | LISTEN TO POLITICO'S ENERGY PODCAST, SPONSORED BY CHEVRON: Check out our daily five-minute brief for the latest energy and environmental politics and policy news. For must-know stories and candid insights to analysis from POLITICO's 10-person energy team, don't miss out. Subscribe for free and start listening today. | | | | | | | | BUTTIGIEG DODGES ON AIRLINE AID: "Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said Sunday that more federal aid is needed to help airlines avoid massive furloughs as the industry continues to reel from the pandemic, but wouldn't say whether the Biden administration had committed to negotiating for its inclusion in a $1.9 trillion Covid relief plan," our Stephanie Beasley reports. WHAT'S ON THE LINE? "Federal payroll support for airlines is set to expire at the end of next month," Stephanie writes. "Airlines such as American and United already have warned that they will have to furlough tens of thousands of employees without further federal assistance." Unions representing aviation workers are seeking another $15 billion from Congress to extend payroll support through the end of September. | | | AMAZON UNION ELECTION BEGINS: Some 6,000 workers at an Amazon warehouse in Alabama will start voting today on whether to join the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, marking the first unionization attempt at the e-commerce giant in nearly a decade. The election will continue as planned after the the National Labor Relations Board on Friday rejected an appeal by Amazon last month to block the mail-in vote, CNBC's Annie Palmer reports. "The company had asked the NLRB to review aspects of its earlier decision and pressed for an in-person election, citing flaws in the agency's definition of what constitutes a coronavirus outbreak," Palmer writes. "Ballots must be received by the NLRB's regional office by March 29, and counting will begin the following day." NEW SIT-DOWN WITH TRUMKA: I n an interview with Axios' Jonathan Swan, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said former Democratic presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton "didn't understand the importance of labor and the importance of collective bargaining" and "surrounded themselves with Wall Street people," while Biden "still identifies as a blue-collar guy." As a result, Swan writes, the labor movement "may never enjoy a more favorable climate in Washington than now." | | | HIGH LONG-TERM UNEMPLOYMENT RATE COULD STYMIE RECOVERY: Two in five jobless Americans "are now classified as long-term unemployed, which the Labor Department defines as being out of work for six months or more," our Megan Cassella reports. And that figure is likely an undercount: "Combined with another 4 million who have stopped searching for work entirely, roughly one in 20 people who were working a year ago have now been shut out of the labor market for more than six months or dropped out altogether," Megan writes. EVEN MORE CONCERNING: The number of long-term unemployed people has continued to go up as the overall unemployment rate has dropped. The U.S. economy regained 49,000 jobs in January, the Labor Department reported on Friday, and the jobless rate dropped to 6.3 percent. THE BIG PICTURE: The more time a worker spends out of a job, the longer it takes to return to employment. And the fear among many policymakers is that those who have been out of work for a long time "will have trouble finding jobs even after the vaccine is distributed," Megan writes. And that, in turn, could "jeopardiz[e] Biden's goals of turning the economy around quickly." | | | | THE UNOFFICIAL GUIDE TO OFFICIAL WASHINGTON: February is short month, but there is a lot in store. From the impeachment trial to the Covid relief package to intraparty squabbles, our new Playbook team is on the case. Rachael Bade, Eugene Daniels, Ryan Lizza and Tara Palmeri are canvassing every corner of Washington, bringing you the big stories and scoops you need to know – and the insider nuggets that you want to know – about the new power centers and players. "This town" has changed. And no one covers this town like Playbook. Subscribe to the unofficial guide to official Washington today . | | | | | | | | BIDEN MOVES TO END 'SAFE THIRD COUNTRY' AGREEMENTS: "The Biden administration has begun the process of ending agreements with El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala as part of its effort to undo Trump-era changes to the U.S. asylum system, Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced on Saturday," our Sabrina Rodriguez reports. The agreements had required migrants seeking asylum in the U.S. to first apply for protections in those Central American countries. They "were part of [the Trump] administration's efforts to curb the number of migrants able to seek asylum in the United States," she writes. | | | AUTOMATION ACCELERATED BY PANDEMIC: "The mass disruption of the workplace because of the pandemic is accelerating employers' move toward job-displacing automation," our Eleanor Mueller writes , "refueling a national debate over how to give workers the skills to survive the brutal market and fill the millions of positions that automation will inevitably also create." BIG CHANGES AHEAD: "Forty-three percent of businesses anticipate reducing their workforce because of new technology, according to the World Economic Forum's Future of Jobs survey," she writes. "And research firm Gartner found in February that Covid-19 had caused seven out of 10 boards of directors to accelerate their digital business." Lawmakers, labor unions and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce are all calling for more spending on workforce training. But despite that bipartisan enthusiasm, "it may be a struggle for Biden to convince Republicans to agree to fund a large-scale and expensive overhaul of how the government tackles reskilling workers," Eleanor writes. Not even Biden's proposed $1.9 trillion economic relief package would include new funds specifically for job training. Congress has invested only $345 million in workforce development to address Covid-19, according to the House Education and Labor Committee. MORE FROM ELEANOR: " House passes bill to expand apprenticeships with bipartisan backing" | | | — "Weary postal workers hope Biden will bring new tone, change," from The Associated Press —"Migrant Families Force Biden to Confront New Border Crisis," from The New York Times — " Biden's vaccine ad campaign hits roadblock: Not enough doses," from POLITICO — "Clawbacks Are Hard, So Companies Try Postponing Pay Instead," from The Wall Street Journal — "The Working Woman's Anthem '9 to 5' Needed an Update. But This?" from The New York Times — "Bumble gave women more power in dating. Now the app is giving women power in the boardroom," from The Washington Post — "Pandemic's Toll on Housing: Falling Behind, Doubling Up," from The New York Times — " 'We are always thought about last': A New York neighborhood seeking coronavirus help feels left behind," from The Washington Post THAT'S ALL FOR MORNING SHIFT! | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | | |
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