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Congress scrambles to avert shutdown as deadline looms
Congress is once again running up on yet another critical government funding deadline, as lawmakers scramble to avert a shutdown by midnight on Friday, when funding runs out for six big annual spending bills that cover some 70% of all federal discretionary spending. As recently as Friday, negotiators were nearing an agreement to complete a spending bill but disagreements over funding for the department of homeland security have since derailed the talks.
Meanwhile, the US supreme court is expected to hear oral arguments over whether the White House violated free speech protections during the Covid-19 pandemic, when government officials requested that Twitter, Facebook and other social networks remove misinformation about the coronavirus. The case of Murthy v Missouri – the culmination of years of a Republican-backed legal campaign – has the potential to radically redefine how the US government interacts with social media companies.
Here’s what else we’re watching:
11.30am. Joe Biden, first lady Jill Biden and Kamala Harris will speak at a Women’s History Month reception.
1.30pm. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and national security adviser Jake Sullivan will brief.
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Nick Robins-Early
The supreme court will hear oral arguments on Monday in Murthy v Missouri, a case with the potential to radically redefine how the US government interacts with social media companies.
Central to the case is whether the White House violated free speech protections during the Covid-19 pandemic, when government officials requested that Twitter, Facebook and other social networks remove misinformation about the coronavirus.
The lawsuit accuses the government of “coercing” tech platforms to change their policies, block content and suspend users. The complaint was filed by attorneys general in Louisiana and Missouri as well as rightwing individuals such as the conspiracy theory site founder Jim Hoft. If the courts decide in their favor, the White House would be blocked from contacting social media companies, as happened when a lower court sided with the plaintiffs.
The Biden administration has argued that officials did not coerce or threaten social media platforms. It also argues that federal agencies have routinely communicated with social media platforms about terrorist group organizing or foreign influence campaigns, which has prompted tech companies to voluntarily enforce their own policies that ban such content.
The suit is the culmination of years of a Republican-backed legal campaign arguing that efforts by federal agencies and Joe Biden’s White House to reduce misinformation online constitute censorship.
Here’s what you need to know about the case.
Congress scrambles to avert shutdown as deadline looms
Congress is once again running up on yet another critical government funding deadline, as lawmakers scramble to avert a shutdown by midnight on Friday, when funding runs out for six big annual spending bills that cover some 70% of all federal discretionary spending. As recently as Friday, negotiators were nearing an agreement to complete a spending bill but disagreements over funding for the department of homeland security have since derailed the talks.
Meanwhile, the US supreme court is expected to hear oral arguments over whether the White House violated free speech protections during the Covid-19 pandemic, when government officials requested that Twitter, Facebook and other social networks remove misinformation about the coronavirus. The case of Murthy v Missouri – the culmination of years of a Republican-backed legal campaign – has the potential to radically redefine how the US government interacts with social media companies.
Here’s what else we’re watching:
11.30am. Joe Biden, first lady Jill Biden and Kamala Harris will speak at a Women’s History Month reception.
1.30pm. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and national security adviser Jake Sullivan will brief.
