President Biden News: Live Updates on Stimulus and Covid-19

Senator Joe Manchin III, the West Virginia Democrat who heads the Senate Energy Committee, announced Wednesday that he will vote to confirm Representative Deb Haaland of New Mexico to head the Interior Department.

Mr. Manchin’s vote could be crucial to Ms. Haaland’s confirmation, as Republicans this week escalated attacks on the former environmental activist, signaling that the vote to confirm her could come down to party lines.

If confirmed, Ms. Haaland would make history as the first Native American to head a cabinet agency. She would also play a central role in advancing President Biden’s climate change agenda, as the head of an agency that oversees over 500 million acres of public lands, including national parks, oil and gas drilling sites, and endangered species habitat. And she would be charged with enacting one of Mr. Biden’s most contentious proposals: the banning of future leases to conduct hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, for oil and gas on public lands.

But her nomination has come under fire as Republicans have expressed concerns about her history of pushing to shut down fossil fuel drilling and pipelines — positions which go further than those of Mr. Biden.

The Republican National Committee on Tuesday sent out an email urging senators to vote against Ms. Haaland, writing, “By nominating Haaland, Biden is embracing far-left special interest groups who do not care what jobs they destroy, do not know the true impacts of their policies, and have no answers on when they can get Americans back to work.”

Should Republicans unite against Ms. Haaland, she will need the support of every Democrat in the equally divided Senate, which would allow Vice President Kamala Harris to cast the deciding vote in a party-line divide. Until now, the vote of Mr. Manchin, who heads the Senate energy panel but has often voted with Republicans on energy policy issues, remained uncertain. Mr. Manchin, whose home state of West Virginia is heavily reliant on coal mining, has expressed concern about Mr. Biden’s plans to curb fossil fuel exploration.

Mr. Manchin’s announcement that he plans to vote for Ms. Haaland also underscores the crucial role he will play in the success or failure of the president’s legislative agenda. (He already said he would vote against another of Mr. Biden’s nominees, Neera Tanden, who was nominated to the head the Office of Management and Budget, casting doubt on her prospects for confirmation.)

In a statement, Mr. Manchin said: “Given the political divisions currently facing our country, I believe that every presidential nominee and every member of Congress must be committed to a new era of bipartisanship. That is the standard the overwhelming majority of Americans expect and deserve.”

Regarding Ms. Haaland, he added, “while we do not agree on every issue, she reaffirmed her strong commitment to bipartisanship, addressing the diverse needs of our country and maintaining our nation’s energy independence.”

Appearing before the Senate Energy Committee on Wednesday for her second day of confirmation hearings, Ms. Haaland faced sharp criticism from oil-state Republicans, who made clear that they will not support her.

Senator John Barrasso of Wyoming, the ranking Republican on the energy panel, singled out remarks made by Ms. Haaland in 2018 as she campaigned to eliminate oil and gas production in New Mexico, and proposed legalizing and taxing cannabis as a way to make up for the lost state revenue.

“Is selling marijuana among what the Biden administration calls the ‘better choices’ that the Biden administration has promised to give displaced oil and gas workers?” Mr. Barrasso asked. He added, “Your preference is to turn to drugs — is what you’ve recommended to the voters — at a time when we know there is high unemployment, and energy workers lose their jobs.”

Ms. Haaland responded that the proposal was intended to signal that she wants to “diversify sources of revenue for education,” and she added, “I don’t know what President Biden’s stance is on marijuana.”

Ms. Haaland told senators repeatedly that in her role as the head of a federal agency, she would carry out the agenda of the president, rather than push per personal views.

“If I’m confirmed as secretary, that is a far different role than a congresswoman representing one small district in my state,” she said. “So I understand that role: It’s to serve all Americans, not just my one district in New Mexico.

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China Poses ‘Biggest Geopolitical Test’ to U.S., C.I.A. Nominee Says

William J. Burns, President Biden’s nominee for C.I.A. director, pledged to increase surveillance of China with an emphasis on technology, and to investigate mysterious attacks that sickened C.I.A. officers overseas.

“Today’s landscape is increasingly complicated and competitive. It’s a world where familiar threats persist from terrorism and nuclear proliferation to an aggressive Russia, a provocative North Korea and a hostile Iran. But it’s also a world of new challenges, in which climate change and global health insecurity are taking a heavy toll on the American people, in which cyberthreats pose an ever greater risk to our society, and in which an adversarial, predatory Chinese leadership poses our biggest geopolitical test. If confirmed, four crucial and interrelated priorities will shape my approach to leading C.I.A. — China, technology, people and partnerships. As President Biden has underscored, outcompeting China will be key to our national security in the decades ahead. That will require a long-term, clear-eyed bipartisan strategy underpinned by domestic renewal and solid intelligence.” “We’ve seen evidence now not just of agency personnel, but State Department personnel and others become victims of mysterious attacks. It was for a while called the Havana Syndrome, and a number of us have been quite concerned that we still don’t know the source of those attacks. We still don’t potentially have a full medical diagnosis, and even though we have put in into law in the last three intel authorization bills, the ability for the C.I.A. director to provide enhanced benefits to those individuals, you know, the kind of first-rate quality health care and compensation they need and deserve, we’re not sure that’s really taken place.” “I will have no higher priority than taking care of people, of colleagues and their families. And I do commit to you that if I’m confirmed, I will make it an extraordinarily high priority to get to the bottom of who’s responsible for the attacks that you just described. And to ensure that colleagues and their families get the care that they deserve.”

William J. Burns, President Biden’s nominee to lead the C.I.A., pledged to senators during his confirmation hearing on Wednesday to improve intelligence collection on China, an adversarial power he said represented the agency’s biggest geopolitical challenge.

He also warned that even as a declining power Russia has shown it can be disruptive, and pledged to examine evidence about a series of mysterious attacks that have left a number of C.I.A. officers with lingering ailments.

Mr. Burns’s confirmation as C.I.A. director seems all but ensured, with a large bipartisan majority of senators supporting him. The hearing was far more of a coronation than a confrontational question and answer session. Senators of both parties expressed respect for Mr. Burns’s long diplomatic career.

Much of the discussion focused more on foreign policy than intelligence matters, perhaps unsurprising given Mr. Burns’s experience as ambassador to Jordan and Russia, as well has the senior State Department positions he has held.

Mr. Burns’s opening statement seemed crafted to appeal to Republicans on the Senate Intelligence Committee, as he singled out the threat from China. It appears to have worked: Senator Ben Sasse, Republican of Nebraska, praised Mr. Burns’s comments.

Some of the only tough questioning of Mr. Burns concerned his leadership of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, the top Republican on the committee, asked about the think tank’s partnership with a Chinese foundation. Mr. Burns responded that partnership had begun before he arrived and he had ended it.

In answers to written questions, Mr. Burns disclosed gifts he had received while at Carnegie. Most were bottles of wine from allied ambassadors. But he also disclosed he participated in a group trip to the Super Bowl, paid for by the Saudi ambassador, raising questions about the propriety of accepting such a lavish gift from a country with a troubled human rights record.

While the timing of the gift was not disclosed on the Senate document, a person familiar with the trip said it occurred in February 2018, eight months before the killing of the Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi sowed deep doubts about the Saudi government.

The intelligence community is expected to release as early as Thursday a declassified report about Mr. Khashoggi’s death and the culpability of Saudi Crown Prince Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The C.I.A. concluded in 2018 that Prince Mohammed ordered Mr. Khashoggi’s killing.

China was an early focus of questions from lawmakers. Mr. Burns said in his opening statement that an “adversarial, predatory Chinese leadership poses our biggest geopolitical test.”

Mr. Burns also said that the C.I.A. should direct more funding and resources to spying on China, adding more Chinese specialists and ensuring its employees have strong Mandarin language skills.

He linked the threat of China to the need to invest in new technology to help improve intelligence collection and analysis.

Lawmakers also raised questions about ailments suffered by current and former agency officers as part of a series of mysterious episodes that have befallen agency officers overseas. While some current and former agency officials have said Russia is the most likely perpetrator of those attacks, the C.I.A. leadership during the Trump administration described the evidence as not conclusive.

But Mr. Burns pledged to examine the evidence and said he would “make it an extraordinarily high priority to get to the bottom of who’s responsible” for the attacks.

Lawmakers have questioned whether all C.I.A. officers affected by the mysterious episodes have gotten proper treatment for traumatic brain injury. Mr. Burns said he would ensure that officers are treated at the National Institutes of Health and the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.

An experienced diplomat, Mr. Burns was tapped in large measure because of his close relationship with Mr. Biden and his ability to clearly explain complex foreign policy problems.

The first time that Jake Sullivan, now the national security adviser, met Mr. Burns in December 2008, the veteran ambassador pulled out a small notecard and gave a round-the-world briefing on every major issue to then-incoming Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. “It was one of the single most impressive displays of breadth and depth on substance that I have ever witnessed,” Mr. Sullivan said.

But the Biden administration has also set up a strong national intelligence office and given it a string of high-profile tasks. Some former officials believe some tension could develop between Mr. Burns and Avril Haines, the director of national intelligence, if they compete for the ear of the president.

Mr. Sullivan brushed away the possibility of tension, saying Mr. Burns and Ms. Haines have a trusting relationship. Others said their personalities — far less sharp-elbowed than recent intelligence chiefs — lend themselves to collaboration rather than confrontation.

Mr. Burns has experience as a consumer — not a creator — of intelligence. But in Jordan and Russia, he led two embassies where C.I.A. stations had a critical role. And he has close relationships with numerous C.I.A. officers, including some killed in the line of duty.

“Our chiefs thought he was a terrific person to work for; he understood our role,” said George Tenet, the former C.I.A. director, who worked with Mr. Burns. “He understands the business of intelligence and what it can do.”

Top Capitol officials on Wednesday gave the first extensive look at the damage inflicted on the House fine art collection and the strain on congressional employees from the Jan. 6 attack as lawmakers begin to put together money to address the emergency costs and change the opaque management of the complex.

With $30 million already transferred to the Architect of the Capitol to maintain the temporary fencing around the Capitol complex and support National Guard troops stationed in the building, additional funds will most likely be needed for the intensified security measures and to support its inhabitants.

In testimony before lawmakers on the House Appropriations Committee, J. Brett Blanton, the Architect of the Capitol; Catherine Szpindor, the chief administration officer; and Farar Elliott, the House curator, outlined the increased strain on the Capitol’s resources caused by the siege. Their accounts underscore the challenge of ensuring the preservation of the historic elements of the Capitol and supporting the hundreds of employees traumatized by the invasion of their workplace.

“The events of Jan. 6 were difficult for the American people, and extremely hard for all of us on campus to witness,” Mr. Blanton told lawmakers, describing how his staff had sheltered congressional aides as “the crowd began crashing through windows and prying open doors.”

But lawmakers also pressed Mr. Blanton, who sits on the Capitol Police Board in his role as Architect of the Capitol, about his involvement on the obscure panel, as one of three voting members, and his knowledge of the discussions among the complex’s law enforcement leadership ahead of the attack.

“As I have shared previously, then-chief Sund did not reach out to the Architect of the Capitol with a request for an emergency declaration or interest seeking National Guard support in advance of the breach,” Mr. Blanton said.

As lawmakers evaluated both the management of the complex and the expenses incurred as a result of the attack, the Capitol officials outlined the needs of both the building’s historic art collection and its current employees.

While some of the prized pieces in the House collection were saved by curatorial workers — including the House’s 1819 silver inkstand, the oldest object in the chamber — statues, busts and paintings were damaged during the siege. Most of the items are in hallways near the House chamber, and were largely damaged by chemical sprays used during the attack. The cost to conserve and repair the items will be about $25,000, Ms. Elliott said.

Far more difficult to ascertain is the burden on the hundreds of Capitol Hill staff, many of whom sheltered in place on the Capitol grounds as the mob ransacked the building and broke through doors and windows.

The Office of Employee Assistance typically handles about 3,000 individual interactions with employees and managers a year. But in the six weeks since Jan. 6, the office has experienced a “surge” in counseling needs, with more than 1,150 interactions with employees, managers and members of Congress, Ms. Szpindor said.

Two Senate committees abruptly postponed votes they had planned on Wednesday to advance the nomination of Neera Tanden, President Biden’s pick to lead the Office of Management and Budget, signaling pessimism that she could secure enough support to be confirmed by an evenly divided Senate.

The Budget Committee and the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee both postponed the planned votes, according to three people familiar with the situation who insisted on anonymity to discuss the decisions.

Senator Gary Peters of Michigan, the chairman of the homeland security committee, told reporters on Wednesday that “people needed a little bit more time to assess it.”

He declined to give specifics, adding “we’re still having discussions with folks.”

Ms. Tanden’s nomination has been in jeopardy since Friday, when Senator Joe Manchin III, Democrat of West Virginia, announced he would not support her, citing concerns about public criticisms she made of lawmakers in both parties in Twitter posts before her selection.

White House officials have remained adamant that Mr. Biden plans to stand behind Ms. Tanden, even as moderate Republican senators who Democrats had hoped would provide the necessary votes to confirm her have announced plans to oppose her. With Manchin in the “no” column, at least one Republican would be needed to join all Democrats in support.

The vote delays came as a surprise on Wednesday morning, after Senator Bernie Sanders, the Vermont independent who leads the budget panel, had told reporters on Tuesday that his committee would move forward.

Bipartisan support is building for Shalanda Young, currently Mr. Biden’s pick for deputy director of the agency, to take Ms. Tanden’s place as the nominee to head the agency. She served as staff director for House Democrats on the Appropriations Committee, the first Black woman to serve in the role.

Ms. Young, who has strong backing from House Democrats, helped wrangle the compromise that ended the nation’s longest government shutdown in 2019. She was also a lead staff negotiator on the coronavirus relief packages Congress approved in 2020, a job that earned her bipartisan respect — and a pre-emptive endorsement from Senator Richard C. Shelby of Alabama on Wednesday.

“She’s smart, she knows the process inside-out, and she’s an honest broker who has demonstrated the ability to work with both sides and get things done,” Mr. Shelby, the top Republican on the Senate Appropriations Committee, said in a statement. “She would have my support.”

Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, reiterated on Wednesday Mr. Biden’s support for Ms. Tanden, dismissing any discussion of an alternative nominee.

“It’s a numbers game,” Ms. Psaki said during a briefing at the White House. “It’s a matter of getting one Republican to support her nomination.”

Asked if Ms. Tanden had offered to withdraw from consideration, Ms. Psaki replied, “That’s not the stage we’re in.”

Most administrations start with a burst of activity, but the frenetic action on Capitol Hill this week represents something different — a preview of what to expect over the next two years from a grind-it-out presidency laboring to rack up wins before the 2022 midterm elections.

“The bottom line,” wrote Biden adviser Mike Donilon in a memo leaked to reporters last week, is “the country is looking for action.”

On Tuesday, the White House plunged neck-deep in a trio of testy confirmation fights, faced down an increasingly united Republican front against President Biden’s $1.9 trillion pandemic relief bill, and fielded darts from critics, left and right, on the minimum wage and student debt — all the while grappling with centrists from both parties who control the balance of power in the Senate.

His predecessor’s impeachment trial and the fallout from the Jan. 6 riot have put Mr. Biden behind schedule, which is giving some allies the jitters.

But the animating spirit behind the administration’s approach is impatience — born of the pandemic, the looming midterms and Mr. Biden’s own bitter experiences with Republicans during President Barack Obama’s administration.

“He knows he is not going to be judged by the margins he gets in the Senate — the biggest danger is a failure to deliver what he promised,” said Ben LaBolt, a longtime Obama aide who worked in the White House, often around the former vice president. “His approach reflects the sober realities we encountered back in 2009, when the Republicans claimed they were holding out for a deal, but never did one.”

As a consequence, Mr. Biden has not shied away from conflict while projecting an air of conciliation. A lot of it has to do with his most powerful aide, Ron Klain — who served with him in the vice president’s office and is now the hard-driving White House chief of staff.

Mr. Biden’s nomination of Neera Tanden, an outspoken longtime Hillary Clinton adviser close to Mr. Klain, to serve as budget director is a case in point: Her nomination is teetering and may yet fall, but on Tuesday the president said he still planned to “push” for her.

Two of Mr. Biden’s other cabinet selections — Representative Deb Haaland of New Mexico, the nominee to lead the Interior Department, and Xavier Becerra, the nominee to lead the Department of Health and Human Services — have drawn fire from the right but appear on a steadier course to confirmation.

Both had confirmation hearings on Tuesday and will face questions from senators again on Wednesday — and senators, already griping about the compressed schedule, will also take up the nomination of Jennifer Granholm, Mr. Biden’s pick for energy secretary, on Wednesday.

But the biggest priority for Mr. Biden by far — and the one he has shown the least inclination to compromise on — remains his $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill, and he is not waiting to see if Republican support materializes. On Tuesday, Senator Susan Collins of Maine, a moderate Republican open to a much smaller deal, suggested Mr. Biden’s package would not receive any votes from her party.

That does not bother Mr. Donilon, one of the president’s closest friends, who wrote “this is not a moment in the country when obstructionism is rewarded” in his memo.

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The widening intraparty divide over former President Donald J. Trump was vividly illustrated on Wednesday in a roughly 30-second exchange during a news conference organized by House Republicans to emphasize their unity.

The weekly event, held at the Capitol, featured an opening statement by Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, the pro-Trump minority leader, reiterating his opposition to President Biden’s pandemic relief bill.

Representative Liz Cheney, the anti-Trump No. 3 House Republican, stood a few feet behind him.

When the questioning began, a reporter asked Mr. McCarthy if Mr. Trump should be allowed to go ahead with a planned appearance at the conservative conference known as CPAC in Florida this weekend. It would be Mr. Trump’s first public speech since leaving office.

“Yes, he should,” Mr. McCarthy replied.

“Congresswoman Cheney?” a journalist asked, redirecting the question.

Ms. Cheney took one step forward and said, “I’ve been clear about my views on Mr. Trump and the extent to which, following the events of Jan. 6, I don’t believe he should be playing a role in the future of the party.”

Mr. McCarthy stood in the foreground, digging his thumbs into papers he was holding as she answered.

There was a pause of a few seconds.

“On that high note, thank you all very much,” Mr. McCarthy said, walking away with a sheepish smile.

Offstage, the two leaders are on relatively good terms, according to Republican aides.

Mr. McCarthy, who remains in close contact with Mr. Trump, defended Ms. Cheney earlier this month when conservatives attempted to remove her from her post as chairwoman of the House Republican Conference, after she voted to impeach Mr. Trump and said during an interview “the former president does not have a role as a leader of our party going forward.”

This, predictably, infuriated Mr. Trump and his family, but the effort to oust Ms. Cheney fell short.

“People can have differences of opinion,” Mr. McCarthy told reporters at the time. “Liz has a right to vote her conscience and at the end of the day, we get united.”

Mr. McCarthy has taken it upon himself to bridge the warring factions within his party — unlike his counterpart in the upper chamber, Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the minority leader, who has criticized Mr. Trump in withering terms, prompting a cascade of insults from the former president.

In the aftermath of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, a shaken Mr. McCarthy said that Mr. Trump “bears responsibility” for inciting a mob that stormed both legislative chambers — but he softened that tone after meeting with Mr. Trump in late January at Mar-a-Lago, where he enlisted the former president’s help in the 2022 midterm elections.

The House Oversight Committee is holding a hearing on United States Postal Service reforms, marking the first time the embattled postmaster general, Louis DeJoy, testified before lawmakers since the election.

The Postal Service catapulted to the national spotlight last summer amid nationwide slowdowns that coincided with operational changes instituted by Mr. DeJoy, raising fears about delays for vote-by-mail ahead of the election. Democrats accused the postmaster general, a Trump megadonor who joined U.S.P.S. last June, of attempting to sabotage the election.

Lawmakers are debating a bill that would repeal a financially burdensome requirement that the Postal Service pre-fund its retiree health care, among other provisions. Both Republican and Democratic lawmakers have expressed some support for reform. But during the hearing, Republicans reminded the committee of the political sparring that occurred last summer amid the delays in mail delivery, calling out Democrats for what they saw as unfair accusations levied against Mr. DeJoy.

“Why should we believe that the rabid resistance is not going to continue,” said Representative Jody Hice, Republican of Georgia. “If moving blue boxes and mail sorters and trying to bring sanity to overtime usage is somehow viewed as criminal activity by the postmaster, then what in the world is going to happen to the business plan that he comes up with.”

In addition to Mr. DeJoy, other witnesses include the new chairman of the board of governors, Ron Bloom, and the Postal Service inspector general, Tammy Whitcomb.

The delays prompted a slew of lawsuits that forced the Postal Service to temporarily pause operational changes. But since the election, service issues have continued to plague the agency. Some Democrats have called for President Biden to remove every governor on the Postal Service’s board, each of whom was appointed by former President Donald J. Trump, and who have the authority to terminate the postmaster general.

On Tuesday, the Postal Service chose Oshkosh Defense, a manufacturer of military vehicles, for a $482 million deal to provide the next generation of postal delivery trucks, over an all-electric vehicle maker.

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‘Limit Lasting Damage,’ Powell Says in Economic Recovery Testimony

On Wednesday, Jerome H. Powell testified for a second day to congress about the Federal Reserve’s role in limiting inflation and stabilizing the economy.

At the Federal Reserve, we are strongly committed to achieving the monetary policy goals that Congress has given us: maximum employment and price stability. Since the beginning of the pandemic, we’ve taken forceful actions to provide support and stability, to ensure that the recovery will be as strong as possible, and to limit lasting damage to households, businesses and communities. Regarding our employment goal, we emphasize that maximum employment is a broad and inclusive goal. This change reflects our appreciation for the benefits of a strong labor market, particularly for low- and moderate-income communities. The economy is a long way from our employment and inflation goals, and it’s likely to take some time for substantial further progress to be achieved. We will continue to clearly communicate our assessment of progress toward our goals well in advance of any change in the pace of purchases. Since the onset of the pandemic, the Federal Reserve has been taking actions to support more directly the flow of credit in the economy, deploying our emergency lending powers to an unprecedented extent, enabled in large part by financial backing and support from Congress and the Treasury. Although the CARES Act facilities are no longer open to new activity, our other facilities remain in place. Finally, we understand that our actions affect households, businesses, and communities across the country — everything we do is in service to our public mission. We’re committed to using our full range of tools to support the economy and to help ensure that the recovery from this difficult period will be as robust as possible.

Jerome H. Powell, the Federal Reserve chair, said on Wednesday that it could take years for the central bank to coax weak inflation sustainably higher and reiterated that the labor market would take time to fully heal from the pandemic downturn.

Mr. Powell’s comments, delivered during testimony before the House Financial Services Committee, reinforced that the central bank would be extremely patient in slowing down its policy support as it tried to help to fuel a complete recovery. The Fed chief had soothed the stock market on Tuesday by delivering a similar message during testimony before Senate lawmakers.

Mr. Powell has been pledging for the past 11 months that the Fed would do whatever it could to get the economy through the pandemic, but his comments have become noteworthy at a time when some lawmakers — in particular Republicans — have become worried that big government spending could fuel economic overheating that leads to rapid inflation.

Fed officials have been clear that weak price gains, not out-of-control ones, are the problem of the modern era. Mr. Powell doubled down on that message Wednesday. Central bankers try to keep price gains from slipping ever lower, because disinflation can be economically damaging. The Fed targets low, but stable, increases, shooting for 2 percent annual gains on average over time.

“We live in a time when there are significant disinflationary pressures around the world,” Mr. Powell said on Wednesday, and so officials are trying to bolster prices. “We believe we can do it, we believe we will do it. It may take more than three years.”

That’s consistent with the Fed’s published economic expectations, but it reinforces how patient the central bank is likely to be in the years ahead. Economists broadly expect a temporary pop in prices this year, but Mr. Powell has been clear that a short-term jump is different from sustained higher inflation.

“We know that inflation dynamics evolve over time, but they don’t tend to change overnight,” he said. “What I see is an economy where there is still a great deal of slack.”

The Fed is using its policies to try to guide the economy back to health. Besides buying huge quantities of bonds, the Fed has also held interest rates near-zero since last March. The central bank has said it wants to see specific progress toward its two goals — maximum employment and stable prices — before removing that support.

“We’ve been very specific with liftoff,” Mr. Powell said. “We’d need to see labor market conditions that are consistent with maximum employment, inflation at 2 percent, and inflation expected to move moderately above 2 percent for some time.”

He acknowledged that the criteria for slowing bond purchases was more subjective and based on whether the Fed saw “substantial” further progress.

More than 150 corporate executives in New York — including a steadfast Trump supporter, Stephen A. Schwarzman of the Blackstone Group — have signed a letter urging Congress to pass President Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus bill over Republican objections.

The letter, released on Wednesday, calls on congressional leaders from both parties to “act swiftly and on a bipartisan basis” to enact the sweeping package, which Mr. Biden is pushing through Congress using a procedural loophole called reconciliation to bypass a possible Republican filibuster.

“Previous federal relief measures have been essential, but more must be done,” the executives wrote, bolstering the White House message that passing the measure quickly was justified by the magnitude of the crisis.

The business leaders represent a cross-section of prominent chief executives, including Sundar Pichai of Google, David M. Solomon of Goldman Sachs, Laurence D. Fink of BlackRock and Pat Gelsinger of Intel, as well as Mr. Schwarzman and another longtime friend of former President Donald J. Trump, the New York developer Richard S. LeFrak.

“More than 10 million fewer Americans are working today than when the pandemic began, small businesses across the country are facing bankruptcy, and schools are struggling to reopen,” the executives wrote in the letter, an effort organized by the Partnership for New York City, a business advocacy group.

“The target audience is Republicans,” said the partnership’s president, Kathryn S. Wylde, who said the loss of 500,000 jobs in the New York area during the pandemic spurred her to act. “This should be a bipartisan effort.”

The letter comes as opposition to the Biden package among Republicans in the Senate stiffened after the White House politely but emphatically rejected efforts, led by Senator Susan Collins of Maine, to negotiate a much smaller compromise.

“We have indicated a willingness to come up from our $618 billion, but unfortunately the White House seems wedded to a figure that really can’t be justified,” Ms. Collins told reporters at the Capitol on Tuesday. “I would be surprised if there was support in the Republican caucus if the bill comes out at $1.9 trillion even if we’re able to make some beneficial changes.”

Mr. Biden’s proposal includes $1,400 stimulus checks for taxpayers making less than $75,000 a year, $400 billion for coronavirus vaccinations, an increase in unemployment benefits and hundreds of billions more in relief for local governments.

The House is expected to vote on the measure, which is expected to pass on a mostly party-line basis, on Friday or over the weekend, according to Democratic aides.

From there, it will head to the Senate, where Republicans will have an opportunity to add amendments. Democrats, who control an upper chamber deadlocked at 50-50 with the tiebreaking vote of Vice President Harris, cannot afford a single defection.

In the days after the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, Elizabeth MacDonough donned a hazmat suit and returned to her ransacked office on the building’s first floor, grabbing what materials she would need to continue working with her staff elsewhere.

Soon after, Ms. MacDonough, the Senate’s procedural referee and rules enforcer, was back in the Capitol, pulling an all-nighter as senators ground through a 15-hour voting session to consider the blueprint for President Biden’s $1.9 trillion stimulus plan. Instead of leaving once the measure passed before dawn, Ms. MacDonough and her staff aides stayed up to work, moving back into her office and making the final preparations for the second impeachment trial of former President Donald J. Trump.

Now, Ms. MacDonough — a figure little known outside the Capitol but crucial to those who work there — has been thrust into the spotlight as a critical player in Democrats’ fight to keep Mr. Biden’s pandemic aid plan on track and intact. As the arbiter of strict Senate rules that limit what can be included in the package, Ms. MacDonough has become the subject of an intensive lobbying campaign by senators in both parties to bless their favored items, or nix those they oppose.

Studies and reports have been obtained, arguments drafted and tea leaves obsessively examined — all in a bid to persuade Ms. MacDonough, who will determine the fate of several key liberal provisions, including a federal minimum wage increase Mr. Biden has championed. The decision on the wage increase could come as early as Wednesday, while the House is set to vote on the plan on Friday.

“She has listened attentively to our position. She’ll listen attentively, I’m sure, to the other side’s point of view,” Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, the chairman of the Budget Committee and a chief advocate for the provision, said on Tuesday. “We believe and hope she will rule in our direction.”

Ms. MacDonough’s outsize influence is a result of the decision by Democrats to use a fast-track budget process known as reconciliation to push through Mr. Biden’s stimulus plan. The tactic protects the package from a filibuster, allowing it to pass with only a simple majority vote, circumventing Republican opposition. But it also comes with stringent rules that require the components to meet certain budgetary standards — and it is up to the parliamentarian to rule on whether they do.

The process is a charged one for Ms. MacDonough, the first woman to hold the post, and her staff of two — also women — all of whom prefer to remain out of the public eye.

“She has integrity, intelligence and strength — and she’s going to need all three for what’s coming up,” said Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine.

The Republican Party of Virginia on Tuesday decided to hold an in-person drive-through convention to choose its nominees for statewide offices later this year, after efforts to organize a party-run primary or satellite convention sites failed.

Party leaders voted to hold their convention May 8 on the campus of Liberty University in Lynchburg, a three-hour drive from the state’s major population centers in the Washington suburbs and Virginia Beach. Officials noted the renewed popularity of drive-in moviegoing during the coronavirus pandemic and predicted Republicans would hear candidates’ speeches on a dedicated FM-radio signal in their vehicles.

“Liberty University has more than 25,000 parking spots that they are willing to let us use for this convention,” said Willie Deutsch, a member of the party’s state central committee.

The meeting lasted nearly four hours, and was the fifth time since December that Virginia Republicans met to sort out how to pick 2021 candidates for governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general. Party leaders rejected holding a primary as part of an effort to stop Amanda Chase, a state senator who calls herself “Trump in heels,” and Glenn Youngkin, a political newcomer and former chief executive who vowed to spend tens of millions of dollars on his campaign, from winning the nomination for governor.

The decision to hold a single convention is damaging to Ms. Chase’s chances of wining the nomination, as she is unlikely to win the 50 percent required to be nominated at a convention. Her odds were better in a primary or canvass, given the crowded field in the governor’s race. But holding the convention in early May would give Ms. Chase about a month to qualify for the general election ballot as an independent candidate, which she has threatened to do.

Party officials are expected to determine the rules for the convention in the coming weeks.

Other candidates in the race include Kirk Cox, a former State House speaker, and Pete Snyder, a technology executive who in 2013 lost a bid to be the Republican nominee for lieutenant governor at a party convention.

The Biden administration’s first days were inevitably dominated by discussion of how his team would tackle the coronavirus pandemic, as the U.S. death toll continued its inexorable climb to a staggering milestone reached on Monday: 500,000 deaths, more than any other country has reported.

Two of the key figures on the president’s Covid-19 response team are appearing on Capitol Hill this week for confirmation hearings.

Xavier Becerra, nominated for secretary of health and human services, is appearing before the Senate Finance Committee for a second day of hearings on Wednesday. He pledged to find “common cause” with his critics in an appearance before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions on Tuesday, as Republicans sought to paint him as an unqualified extremist.

Mr. Becerra was appointed as attorney general of California in 2017, when his predecessor, Kamala Harris, joined the Senate, and he was elected to a full term in 2018. He became known as a lead attacker in the Trump resistance, filing roughly 100 lawsuits against the administration on issues including climate change, gun control and health care. Notably, he led 20 states and the District of Columbia in a campaign to protect the Affordable Care Act. Before serving as attorney general, he spent 24 years in Congress, representing a Los Angeles district.

If confirmed, he would be the first Latino to run the mammoth department, which has a budget of more than $1 trillion.

Dr. Vivek H. Murthy, nominated for surgeon general, is scheduled to begin his confirmation hearing before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions on Thursday.

Dr. Murthy served as surgeon general under President Barack Obama — he was one of the youngest ever — and is Mr. Biden’s nominee for the same position. He is a physician who has taught at Harvard Medical School and served as vice admiral of the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps. Dr. Murthy has been outspoken about linking public health and wellness. His book “Together: The Healing Power of Human Connection in a Sometimes Lonely World” was published last year.

President Biden is expected to sign an executive order on Wednesday that will kick off a review of the supply chains that support several crucial American manufacturing industries, including automobiles, pharmaceuticals and clean energy.

The order will not target imports from any specific country, senior Biden administration officials said Tuesday in a conference call previewing the move, but it is widely seen as the next step in an effort to counter the economic rise of China and to promote factory growth in the United States. The officials cast it as a successor to the “Buy American” order that Mr. Biden signed last month.

The president’s order comes as a global shortage in semiconductors — a key component in cars and electronic devices — has forced several major American auto plants to close or scale back production and sent the administration scrambling to appeal to allies like Taiwan for emergency supplies.

The officials said the order would not offer a quick fix for that shortage. Instead, it would start an effort to insulate the American economy from future shortages of critical imported components.

Mr. Biden plans to order yearlong reviews of six sectors and a 100-day review of four classes of products where American manufacturers rely on imports: computer chips, high-capacity batteries, pharmaceuticals and their active ingredients, and critical minerals and strategic materials, like rare earths.

Subsequent actions to strengthen those supply chains will depend on the vulnerabilities that each review finds, the officials said.

The order is an early salvo in the administration’s economic battle with China. China’s dominance of global supply chains for critical products like medical masks and for raw materials has prompted deep concerns that Beijing’s authoritarian government could cut off the United States at a whim.

China has periodically moved to ban the export of rare earth materials that are crucial for manufacturing electronics, fighter jets and weaponry. Early in the coronavirus pandemic, Beijing halted exports of surgical masks and protective gear as it diverted supplies to its own local governments and hospitals.

Beijing has also sought to expand its foothold in certain emerging technologies by investing heavily in research and subsidizing new factories, raising concerns that China could dominate the supply of electric vehicles, advanced telecommunications gear and semiconductors in the same way it has cornered other global markets.

Even as it seeks to rejoin a global council focused on protecting human rights, the United States must first aggressively address its own abuses — particularly against people of color, women, religious minorities and its L.G.B.T.Q. community, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said on Wednesday.

Mr. Blinken told the United Nations Human Rights Council that the United States would pursue re-election to the panel, for its session that begins next year, after the Trump administration voluntarily withdrew from it in 2018. He commended the council’s role in ensuring accountability for abuses, such as documenting atrocities and supporting transitional justice, as crucial to protecting the rights of people around the world.

Still, he said, “institutions are not perfect.” And he singled out a case in point: the United States.

“I recognize that any pledge to fight for human rights around the world must begin with a pledge to fight for human rights at home,” Mr. Blinken told the council, meeting in Geneva, in a virtual speech from Washington.

He cited the “consequences of systemic racism and economic injustice” in America against people of color, and discrimination and violence against women and girls, religious minorities, and others based on their sexual orientation or disabilities.

His comments echoed a larger Biden administration pledge to promote humility, self-criticism and social justice as a pathway to protecting democracy — both abroad and at home, following a searing year in which police officers killed multiple Black people, security forces aggressively confronted peaceful protesters and a violent mob stormed the Capitol.

“The United States does not claim to be perfect, but we strive every day to improve, to hold ourselves accountable, to become a more perfect union,” Mr. Blinken said. “We confront our own challenges openly, transparently, for the entire world to see. Sometimes it’s painful, sometimes it’s ugly, but we deal with our problems openly and fully.”

But he said there was no moral comparison between American failures and those of foreign authoritarian leaders who go unchecked by democratic systems, calling out abuses in Venezuela, Nicaragua, Cuba and Iran. Mr. Blinken also demanded that Russia, China and Myanmar be held accountable for oppression and atrocities against people living under their rule.

The tone was “spot on,” said Marc Limon, who heads a human rights think tank in Geneva. Instead of jumping back in flexing muscles as the world’s biggest, richest and most powerful democracy, Mr. Blinken “said everything in a way that gave an impression of humility,” Mr. Limon said.

Mr. Blinken also said the United States remained wary of what he described as the council’s “disproportionate focus on Israel” and its treatment of Palestinians — the reason the Trump administration left. “We will focus on ensuring that the council membership reflects high standards for upholding human rights,” he said.

The United States will have to compete with Finland, Italy and Luxembourg — which have already declared their intent to run for three council seats available to Western nations next year — or persuade one of those three to stand aside.

In ordinary times, Mr. Blinken would have hosted a stream of visitors and logged thousands of air miles by now. Instead, because of the pandemic, he has relied on phone calls and video screens. He currently has no travel planned, and a senior administration official said he might not take to the air before April — and even that timeline is uncertain.

That, former government officials and diplomacy experts say, is an undeniable handicap, especially at a moment of such flux in the world.