The latest on the Biden presidency

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer are taking the first step toward reconciliation to push through Covid-19 relief funding.  

What this means: This is the first step in a legislative process that will give the party the chance to circumvent Republicans and pass Biden’s Covid relief bill with just Democratic votes.

The reconciliation process was set up as part of the 1974 Congressional Budget Act to make it faster and easier to pass legislation related to spending, taxes, and debt, because debate on the bills is limited to 20 hours and can be passed on a majority vote. 

Legislation that does not fall under reconciliation is routinely blocked by the minority party through the filibuster, which requires 60 votes to overcome. 

The Biden administration is having an internal debate over whether or not to call the military takeover in Myanmar a coup, according to a State Department official and an administration official.

Officially declaring it a coup, which the administration has not yet done in any of their statements on the matter, would legally bind the US to cut off foreign assistance to the country. The State Department legal office is studying this determination and is likely to take the lead on this matter, the officials said. 

There is no legal requirement for the US to formally declare a military takeover to be a coup or not, but the administration will make that determination if they see it in the US national security interest to do so. 

President Biden said in a statement on Monday that the military seizing power and detaining Aung San Suu Kyi over the weekend was a “direct assault on the country’s transition to democracy and rule of law” and that it will “necessitate an immediate review of our sanction laws and authorities, followed by appropriate action.”

An interagency National Security Council deputy committee meeting will convene on Myanmar this afternoon and officials are expected to discuss sanctions they could use to respond to the military takeover, two State Department officials said.

The Biden administration could roll out sanctions as soon as this week, but their decision to pull the trigger will likely be impacted by a thirst to move alongside allies. They are working to get a sense of how quickly other countries want to move alongside them, the officials said. 

The State Department did not immediately respond to CNN’s request for comment.

House impeachment managers are preparing a case for next week’s Senate impeachment trial to detail how former President Trump acted intentionally in a months-long effort to subvert the will of the voters that incited the Jan. 6 US Capitol riots, as well as the constitutionality for convicting Trump after he’s left office, sources familiar with the matter tell CNN.

The House’s pre-trial impeachment brief on Tuesday will lay the legal groundwork for a case in which the managers plan to illustrate the horrors of the January 6 attack on the Capitol in visceral detail and tie the carnage back to Trump’s words and actions, sources say. 

The House impeachment team plans to show how Trump’s incitement of the rioters on Jan. 6 was an intentional effort months in the making. They intend to show how Trump repeatedly claimed that the election would be stolen from him before Nov. 3, then unleashed a flurry of disinformation as part of his “stop the steal” campaign to try to overturn the will election result and question the validity of President Biden’s win, which culminated in Trump’s actions on January 6 inciting the rioters that attacked the Capitol.

The House managers are expected provide a detailed legal analysis in their pre-trial legal brief, due at 10 a.m. ET Tuesday, about the constitutionality of charging Trump with incitement of insurrection, why he should be disqualified for holding future office and why it’s constitutional to convict Trump as a former President, in an effort to rebut what’s emerged as the primary reason Senate Republicans have cited to acquit Trump.

Trump’s legal team is also scheduled to file its response to the impeachment trial summons on Tuesday at 12 p.m. ET after five of Trump’s lawyers left his team on Saturday amid a dispute about legal strategy and whether to argue baseless claims of widespread election fraud. Trump hired two new lawyers, David Schoen and Bruce Castor, on Sunday, and his team is expected to argue that trying a former president is unconstitutional. 

More details on the trial: The House impeachment team is still considering whether to call witnesses as part of their case, one of the key looming questions that will dictate how long the trial will last. That effort is bumping up against a desire from both Democratic and Republican senators to quickly conclude the trial within a matter of days so the Senate can keep the Senate’s focus on taking up Covid relief legislation and confirming Biden’s nominees. 

The question of witnesses could ultimately be determined by whether there are any willing to step forward voluntarily – avoiding any delays over executive privilege – who can speak to Trump’s mindset in the hours leading up to the riots and as they were unfolding, when there were urgent requests coming from Capitol Hill to call in the National Guard to the Capitol.

The briefs due Tuesday are the first of several pre-trial responses that the House managers and Trump lawyers will file with the Senate ahead of the impeachment trial’s arguments, which are scheduled to begin on Feb. 9.

Democratic Rep. Jackie Speier, who chairs the House Armed Services Military Personnel Subcommittee, called on President Biden to issue an executive order that would direct agencies to screen for violent extremism on social media for all incoming military recruits and those seeking government security clearances, according to a letter obtained by CNN.

The letter, which also requests Biden issue an executive order identifying white supremacy and violent extremism as a critical threat to national security, was sent to the White House, the Pentagon and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence on Friday.

“These platforms were crucial for planning the January 6, 2021, domestic terrorist attack upon the U.S. Capitol and the Congress of the United States. Yet social media is not reviewed during the military’s accessions process or even as part of the background investigation process for security clearances, despite collection and reporting of other intrusive, private data, such as financial and behavioral health information,” she added.

Some background: The letter comes after Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby told reporters last week that Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Mark Milley have already discussed the issue of domestic extremism within the military.

During those conversations, both men “expressed their commitment to trying to get after it, to find the best way forward, to understand the scope of the problem inside the ranks and to better deal with the behavior, the conduct that is driven by extremist beliefs,” Kirby said.

In December, the Pentagon’s Personnel and Readiness Director was ordered to conduct a review of domestic extremism in the military. That ongoing review is due at the end of March that will come up with milestones “to be completed by mid-summer,” Kirby said.  

Security has been heightened and fences erected around the Capitol complex after a mob of Trump supporters broke through security barriers last month and entered the Capitol as Congress met to certify Biden’s win in the 2020 presidential election.

CNN’s Colin McCullough and Alanne Orjoux contributed reporting to this post.

Republican senators meeting with President Biden today will speak to the press afterwards at the White House driveway stakeout, according to Annie Clarke who is Sen. Susan Collins communications director.

They don’t know how long the 5:00 p.m. ET meeting will last but think it will be about an hour.

More on today’s meeting: The chances that Biden’s meeting with the 10 Republican senators changes the final trajectory of Biden’s  $1.9 trillion package are slim.

But the effort underscores the tension Biden is facing between the Washington he once knew as a US senator and the one he is returning to as President. Biden is taking the meeting, and in many ways, there is no other choice for a President who built his campaign on uniting the country and compromise.

Biden’s team — and Biden himself — have made it clear that they can be flexible in some places, but the roughly $600 billion Republican plan is a drop in the bucket compared to where they want to go. 

Congressional Democrats could move as soon as this week to unlock the first step in a legislative process that will give the party the chance to circumvent Republicans and pass President Biden’s Covid relief bill with just Democratic votes.

The bill, which would be the first major piece of legislation of Biden’s presidency, is considered urgent for Democrats as it seeks to tackle the health and economic impact of the pandemic as well as cement long-time policy goals for progressives like raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour. 

Democrats who control the House and Senate by slim majorities are hoping to pass a budget resolution over the next few days, the first in a two-step process that would allow them to begin the work of writing the coronavirus relief bill in committees. The budget vote now would clear the way for Democrats to potentially pass their relief bill by late February or March after the impeachment trial of former President Trump is completed in the Senate.

While a schedule has not been announced yet, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday that the House would pass the budget resolution first and then send its version to the Senate. If the Senate amends it, the House would have to pass it again before the committees could begin work on the reconciliation instructions.

Here are key things to know about the process:

Embedded in the budget resolution will be reconciliation instructions for several committees to write legislation, which in this case would deal with different aspects of Biden’s Covid relief, including funds for vaccines production and distribution, unemployment insurance, stimulus checks and more.

On a separate track, many Democrats, emboldened by control of the White House, House and Senate for the first time in years, are clamoring to scrap the 60 vote threshold for breaking filibusters of legislation, but that is still under discussion.

West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice

West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice said though he hasn’t been privileged enough to have seen either stimulus package, he says there is “a tremendous difference” between a $1.9 trillion and $600 billion aid package. 

Speaking during a news conference Monday, the Republican governor said,

Justice said frankly he is not in favor of either plan. “I’m surely not in favor of a bailout,” he said. “But I’m sure also not a believer that what we should try to do is just squeeze, squeeze, squeeze, squeeze, and get it down, get it down, get it down and then all of a sudden, realize that we really and truly we didn’t deliver the goods.”  

Justice said the people of his state are hurting because of the pandemic, and they need a lot of help, right now. “With the number of people in this country that were hurting, and are still hurting today, we will not be able – no matter what anybody says or does – we will not be able to fit the shoe perfectly. We won’t be able to do that,” Justice said.  

“And if we put too much in the shoe, to where really and truly, it’s way too big or a little bit too big… Well, we’re still walking, aren’t we?” 

“But if we don’t put enough in the shoe… there’s no way that you can get it on our feet, our toes are really cramped and everything, then people are still really hurting and they’re not able to walk.”

Justice said coronavirus has “been a cannonball to everybody” and the nation needs “a jumpstart.” 

“With the magnitude of the national debt and where it is now, to go a little bit more bold or significantly bold, versus absolutely the trying to fit our foot into a shoe that’s not big enough. I think you go bold,” he continued. 

“We went through months – months – that we didn’t get the stimulus package passed because the Democrats and Republicans were in a food fight in Washington. It was the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever seen in my life,” Justice said. 

“It was just plain awful,” he added. “It’s the very thing that I despise, beyond belief. And you’ll never get me to make a difference in my mind, between Republicans and Independents and Democrats and everything, because the number one responsibility that I have – and will always be this way – is to absolutely be a West Virginian, be an American, first and foremost.”

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said White House staff don’t spend much time thinking about former President Donald Trump. 

Asked whether Trump’s absence from social media has made her job easier or made Covid relief negotiations easier with Republican members of Congress, Psaki said, “This may be hard to believe. We don’t spend a lot of time talking about or thinking about President Trump here – former President Trump, to be very clear.”

Psaki said she thought it would be more appropriate to ask Republican members of Congress whether Trump’s absence from publicly weighing in on what’s going on in Washington “gives them space.” 

“I can’t say we miss him on Twitter,” she added during Monday’s press briefing. 

Psaki wouldn’t say whether Biden supported the continued ban on Trump’s social media accounts. 

“I think that’s a decision made by Twitter. We’ve certainly spoken to, and he’s spoken to the need for social media platforms to continue to take steps to reduce hate speech, but we don’t have more for you on it than that,” Psaki said.

President Biden threatened to review sanctions on Myanmar after the military seized power and detained elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi over the weekend.

He called the situation a “direct assault on the country’s transition to democracy and the rule of law,” and called on the international community to “press the Burmese military to immediately relinquish the power they seized.”

White House press secretary Jen Psaki was pressed on a section of the statement that says, “The United States is taking note of those who stand with the people of Burma in this difficult hour,” and asked whether the suggestion was a warning to China specifically.

Psaki wouldn’t directly address the question, but rather, said it was “a message to all countries in the region and countries who will be asked to respond or to consider what the appropriate response will be in reaction to the events.”

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The White House does not intend to reschedule planned executive actions and remarks on immigration set for tomorrow, despite a delay in confirming Department of Homeland Security Secretary nominee Alejandro Mayorkas.

The Mayorkas confirmation vote was postponed from Monday to Tuesday due to inclement weather. 

Though White House officials discussed having President Biden sign a round of immigration-related executive orders as soon as last Friday, it was pushed to this week, two officials previously told CNN.

President Biden is expected to sign executive orders that would address root causes of migration from Central America and rescind Trump-era policies. Biden is also expected to create a task force reuniting families that were separated at the US-Mexico border.