Vox Sentences - Build Back Better ... later

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Senate Democrats appear to have put off the $1.75 trillion social spending bill for now; Britain's central bank announces an interest rate hike to deal with inflation.

Tonight's Sentences was written by Ellen Ioanes.

Senate Democrats delay Build Back Better again

Kent Nishimura / LA Times via Getty Images

• The Build Back Better Act, President Joe Biden’s key social and climate change spending bill, has stalled in the Senate after passing the House last month. Continuing tensions between Biden and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) over the price tag and policies of the bill likely mean its chance of passing the upper chamber this year are over. [CNN / Clare Foran, Manu Raju, and Phil Mattingly]
• Manchin is particularly concerned about a plan to expand the child tax credit into 2022, which he says would increase the bottom line of the bill — if it’s extended for the next decade, which it is not in the current bill. If an extension is not passed, future child tax credit payments will be on hold. [Guardian / Joan E. Greve]
• However, that’s all behind closed doors; publicly, Manchin has not quite said that he opposes the child tax credit measure. Manchin’s vote is crucial given the fact that the Senate is split evenly between Republican and Democratic votes, and no GOP senators will vote for the bill. [Politico / Burgess Everett, Alex Thompson, and Jonathan Lemire]
• The Senate parliamentarian is continuing to comb through the bill to ensure it passes muster for the reconciliation process, and Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) expressed optimism that the bill would pass eventually, saying that despite the delay, “it’s going to all happen.” [Bloomberg / Laura Litvan and Eric Wasson]
• Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is reportedly coming close to a deal with Senate Republicans to allow for the chamber to confirm some of Biden’s nominees for federal office, shifting other confirmations and Build Back Better to next year’s agenda. Congress will then go on holiday recess. [The Hill / Alexander Bolton]
• Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell expressed his pleasure at the bill’s failure to meet Democrats’ pre-Christmas deadline. “The best Christmas gift Washington could give working families would be putting this bad bill on ice,” McConnell said Thursday. [CQ Roll Call / Suzanne Monyak, Jennifer Shutt, and Lindsey McPherson]

Bank of England raises interest rates to control inflation

• The Bank of England, the country’s central bank, has raised interest rates from .1 percent to .25 percent to combat inflation. It’s the first time in more than three years that the bank has issued a rate hike. [BBC]
• The institution is the first major central bank to introduce rate hikes during the pandemic. The bank’s board voted 8 to 1 for the rate hike, citing concerns that inflation would hit 6 percent in April. [Reuters / David Milliken and Andy Bruce, William Schomberg]
• The bank was expected to wait till next year to announce rate increases, but its Monetary Policy Committee pointed to desirable job growth as an indicator that borrowing costs must rise in order to ease inflation. However, the committee did acknowledge that the omicron variant clouds the financial outlook somewhat. [WSJ / Jason Douglas]
• This move sets the stage for additional, “modest” increases next year, according to the committee, which will help lower inflation closer to 2 percent, the bank’s target rate. The current rate increases mean that borrowers on certain mortgage tracks in the UK can expect an increase between 9.50 and 10 pounds on monthly payments. [FT / Chris Giles and James Pickford]

 We write for the people

The FDA has ended restrictions on the abortion pill, RU-486, in light of Supreme Court challenges to Roe v. Wade, allowing the drug to be prescribed via telehealth appointments and mailed to patients. [Washington Post / Laurie McGinley and Katie Shepherd]

• The 12 remaining US and Canadian missionaries kidnapped in Haiti have been released. [NYT / Harold Isaac, Anatoly Kurmanaev, and Ruth Graham]
• German police thwarted an alleged anti-vax murder plot against a Saxony politician. [Reuters / Riham Alkousaa]
• Closing arguments in the fraud trial of ex-Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes began Thursday; she faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted. [ABC / Miles Cohen]

“Jim Jordan is a traitor. He’s a traitor to the Constitution of the United States, he has been a traitor to the Constitution of the United States for quite a while. And now we have it in text.”

[Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), criticizing a text Jordan forwarded to Mark Meadows on January 6, suggesting that former Vice President Mike Pence could overturn the 2020 election.]

In the second episode of our series America’s Public Health Experiment, Weeds co-host Dara Lind looks at two government agencies that became all-too-visibly broken during the Covid-19 pandemic. [Spotify]

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