Sunday, October 31, 2021

Progressives eye Tuesday vote on Biden's bills

Democrats agree on framework but want more for climate in the president's social package.

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"I don't want my kid to get a booger. I don't want my kid to get it bad. And if I have a choice, I'd rather use this super safe vaccine to get them back into school and back to their normal life."

- Dr. Claire Boogaard of Children's National Hospital on COVID vaccines for kids


Welcome to the "Face the Nation" Five at Five newsletter. Scroll down for your five takeaways from today's broadcast of "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" on CBS.

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1. Blinken talks tough on Iran, climate ahead of global summit

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Secretary of State Antony Blinken says "all options are on the table" when it comes to keeping Iran in compliance as the regime is set to return to talks to restart the Iran nuclear deal or JCPOA. In his interview with Margaret Brennan, Blinken also addressed ongoing evacuations from Afghanistan as aid groups implore lawmakers to help at-risk Afghans

What we asked: "A group of about 100 aid groups sent you and the White House a letter asking for more to be done, saying there are tens of thousands of at-risk Afghans who helped the United States when we were engaged there. Why isn't more being done? What can be done?"

What Blinken said: "We're at this 24-7. We have teams of several hundred people at the State Department and also in other parts of our government working on this every single day, starting with any remaining Americans, and, of course, Afghans at risk. And we're continuing to bring people out of Afghanistan. That's happening on an almost- on an almost daily basis. And we will- we will work it until we make good on our- on our commitments. We have a program that, you know, involves those who applied for special immigrant visas. Those are Afghans who worked closely with us, with- with the defense, with the military, with our diplomats, we're working on that. And we will keep working on it as long as we have to. The people in the- in the special immigrant visa program? It's a complicated thing, too complicated probably to go into in the limited time that we have, but we've got about somewhere in the vicinity of seven or eight thousand people who have clearly qualified for the program, and in one way or another, we're working to get credentialed and to bring out, along with their immediate family members."

Why it matters: Blinken's comments come as a letter penned by 100 aid organizations, obtained exclusively by "Face the Nation," urges the Biden administration to act now to evacuate and resettle a broader spectrum of at-risk Afghans, and to reveal its strategy for doing so.

2. Top House Progressive Ro Khanna says "yes" to BBB, BIF bills

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Democratic Congressman Ro Khanna , a leading progressive lawmaker from California, said Sunday he plans to vote in favor of the $1.75 trillion social policy and climate change package unveiled by President Biden last week, as well as a $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill, when the two plans are brought to the House floor.

What we asked: Are you a yes vote on both this and the infrastructure bill?

What Khanna said: "I am. The president has shown patient and extraordinary leadership. It's time for this party to get together and deliver. Let me just say, I mean, politicians throw out historic, transformation- If I could just say two facts of what this will do. Every American kid is going to get to go to preschool. Nobel laureate James Heckman says that is one of the biggest things we can do to create equal opportunity in America. Second, this is the largest investment ever in solar, in wind, in electric vehicles. It's huge on climate."

Why it matters: The California Democrat, a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, specifically touted the climate change provisions in Mr. Biden's framework, as well as provisions that will expand preschool to 3- and 4-year-olds.

3. Commerce Secretary Raimondo says supply chain to "take time" to fix

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Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo predicted Sunday that it could be some time before supply chain bottlenecks are alleviated, even as the Biden administration works to address the backlogs at ports on the West Coast. In an interview with "Face the Nation," Raimondo said the supply-chain issues are temporary, but a "direct result" of the COVID-19 pandemic, as some industries were forced to lay off workers and Americans were told to stay in their homes to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus.

What we asked: Supply chains around the world have been massively disrupted over the past few months. We have all of these bottlenecks. Why haven't the ports? Why haven't the truckers? Why hasn't this become unstuck?

What Raimondo said: "It's a complicated- complicated issue. I mean, last year during COVID, we shut our economy down. You know, I was the governor at the time. We shut down Rhode Island's economy. We have never seen that before. So that meant factories closed. People went home. You can't just turn the economy back on overnight. So, it takes a little bit of time. I will say we are making progress. You know, due to the president's leadership, we now have the ports open 24/7 seven and the two largest and busiest ports."

Why it matters: To help relieve the disruptions, President Biden announced earlier this month that the Port of Los Angeles would be open around-the-clock to relieve the congestion there and at the Port of Long Beach. Together, the two ports account for 40% of all shipping containers entering the U.S.

Raimondo acknowledged that there are "backups" at the Port of Los Angeles despite the 24/7 operation, and warned "this isn't something that can be fixed overnight.".

4. Children's National doctor endorses vax for kids: "It's awesome"

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Dr. Claire Boogaard, a pediatrician who oversees the COVID-19 vaccine program at the Children's National Hospital, says she has no concerns about the use of Pfizer's vaccine in children.

What we asked: Your hospital participated in this trial of the Pfizer vaccine for children? You saw what happened. Did you have any concerns?

What Boogaard said: "I think this is all really good news. What the independent advisory panel and the FDA looked at last week was really good science. They didn't skip any steps in this process. And the best news, both professionally, as someone who wants to take care of my patients, but also as a mom of a 6 year old, is that this is awesome. There are no serious side effects given this lower dose of the vaccine to this lower group of kids, and it still protects kids from getting the infection."

Why it matters: Boogaard's endorsement comes after the FDA authorized a smaller dose of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine for children ages 5 to 11, a critical step for the more than 28 million children that may soon be eligible. The authorized dose is a third of the size of the dose for other age groups, and was found to be nearly 91% effective against symptomatic disease in a clinical trial.

5. Turning Up on a Tuesday: What Virginia and New Jersey's governors' races tells us

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Residents in Virginia and New Jersey are each electing new governors, so what do these elections say about the country's direction and view of social policies?

CBS News senior White House and political correspondent Ed O'Keefe breaks down the latest ahead of Election Day this Tuesday.

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