News Roundup: Surgeon General Defends Biden’s Private Sector Vaccine Mandate: ‘Appropriate’ and ‘Legal’
BY JACK CROWE September 13, 2021
Good morning and welcome to the News Editor's Roundup, a weekly newsletter that will ensure you're up to date on the developments in politics, business, and culture that will shape the week's news cycle — as well as those that might escape mainstream attention. Surgeon General Defends Biden's Private Sector Vaccine Mandate: 'Appropriate' and 'Legal' Since President Biden unilaterally declared a vaccine mandate for private businesses with 100 or more employees, many legal scholars have challenged the constitutionality and practicality of the order, claiming it both exceeds his executive authority and is strategically ill-advised.
On the other hand, top officials in the Biden administration believe it is a necessary mechanism to combat COVID as the Delta variant rages on. During an appearance on ABC Monday, Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy said that the vaccine mandate is both "appropriate" and "legal."
Murthy said the president's vaccine mandate is part of an "ambitious" and "thoughtful" plan, which is "intended to help us get through this next phase of the delta variant."
"Because we have 200 million people with at least one shot of the vaccine, we are in a much better place than we otherwise would have been. With that said, delta is a tough foe. It's thrown curveballs at us. We have to be prepared to respond," he said. Department of Education Launches Investigation into Florida Mask-Mandate Ban Following the cues of President Joe Biden, the civil-rights arm of the Department of Education has launched a probe into Florida's mask-mandate ban, which went back into temporary effect Friday after the First District Court of Appeals in Florida ended a pause on the measure.
The investigation will determine whether the Florida Department of Education may be denying the rights of students with disabilities by prohibiting school districts from requiring that masks be worn on their campus premises, the Miami Herald reported. A chain of legal battles was first triggered after Republican governor Ron DeSantis signed an executive order leaving the choice to send children to school with masks to parents, rather than local school boards. New York Marks 20 Years Since Attack on World Trade Center New York marked 20 years since the attack on the World Trade Center on Saturday, with a ceremony at Ground Zero.
Church bells and sirens sounded across the city at 8:46 a.m. and 9:03 a.m., the exact moments when planes crashed into the Twin Towers. At Ground Zero as well, a bell was chimed to mark the crashes while attendees held moments of silence. Following the bell marking the second crash, Bruce Springsteen performed his song "I'll See You in My Dreams."
A third moment of silence was held at 9:37 a.m., to mark the moment when American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon. The bell was chimed again at 10:03 a.m., the moment when United Flight 93 crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pa., following a struggle between passengers and hijackers. Bush, Harris Laud Passengers of Flight 93 at Memorial Ceremony Vice President Kamala Harris and former president George W. Bush praised the "courage" of passengers on United Flight 93, who attempted to wrest control of the plane from hijackers before crashing outside Shanksville, Pa.
"What happened on Flight 93 told us then and still tells us so much about the courage of those on board, who gave everything they possibly could," Harris said at a ceremony in Shanksville. "It is my hope and prayer that we continue to honor their courage, their conviction, with our own. That we honor their unity by strengthening our common bonds."
"The passengers and crew of Flight 93 could have been any group of citizens selected by fate. In a sense, they stood in for us all. The terrorists soon discovered that a random group of Americans is an exceptional group of people," Bush said in a speech at the ceremony. New York Hospital to Suspend Baby Deliveries after Staffers Resign over Vaccine Mandate A hospital in upstate New York will temporarily suspend baby deliveries after a group of staffers, several of whom are based in the maternity ward, resigned over the state's vaccine mandate for health-care workers.
During a press briefing Friday, Lewis County Health System CEO Gerald Cayer said 30 hospital workers quit, including seven from the maternity unit, WWNY reported. Following their decision to leave, the ward will lack sufficient staffing to conduct operations and will therefore temporarily pause delivering babies after September 24, Cayer added.
He said he would consult the New York Department of Health to prevent the ward from permanently shutting its doors and would aim to replace the absent staff with vaccinated workers who meet the requirement.
Sanders Rebukes Manchin's Downsized Ceiling for Reconciliation Bill After passing with bipartisan support in the Senate, the Biden-backed $1 trillion infrastructure bill is in limbo, as Democrats in the House of Representatives have vowed not to advance it unless the Senate passes an accompanying $3.5 trillion social program through reconciliation.
During an appearance on CNN Sunday, Sanders rebuked Senator Joe Manchin (D., W.Va.), who announced earlier in the day that he would be amenable to a reconciliation budget with a lower ceiling within the range of $1 trillion to $1.5 trillion, rather than $3.5 trillion as the progressives desire.
Referencing Manchin's downsized proposal, Sanders said, "It is absolutely not acceptable to me. I don't think it's acceptable to the president, for the American people, or the overwhelming majority of the people in the Democratic caucus." Justice Breyer Brushes Off Retirement Demands, But Says He Doesn't 'Intend to Die on the Court' Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer brushed off progressives' demands that he retire to make room for a new nominee while the Democratic Party still holds power in the White House and Senate.
During an appearance on Fox News Sunday, the 83-year-old justice said, "I didn't retire because I had decided on balance I wouldn't retire," although he did not specify what he would do in the future.
Breyer, who is liberal, sympathized with the argument that sitting justices would not want to see replacements of opposing judicial philosophy later reverse or erode their rulings, referring to the late Justice Antonin Scalia's statement that he doesn't want a successor who undoes "everything I've tried to do."
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