NEWS WRAP

Tragedy hits Kentucky

• Tornado death toll still climbing | At least 88 people died and the death toll continues to rise in the aftermath of one of the deadliest tornado outbreaks in US history. Tornadoes crossed six states, with significant damage concentrated in western Kentucky where clean up and rescue efforts continue. Many are calling into question the efficacy of advanced warning systems and whether December tornadoes like this are ‘the new normal’. READ MORE HERE
   
• Raising the debt ceiling | On Tuesday night, the Senate voted (50-49) to increase the debt limit by US$2.5 trillion, the largest increase in recent history. The US national debt exceeds its gross domestic product for the year prompting sharp criticism among some Republican senators. The vote is a victory for Democrats, however, with legislation expected to pass through the House and prevent a catastrophic debt default just one day before the deadline. READ MORE HERE
   
• Roe v. Wade unravelling | In a controversial decision on Friday, the US Supreme Court ruled that while the Texas abortion ban will remain in place, the state's abortion providers can sue in some circumstances. The law, known as SB 8, bans abortions after six weeks and empowers ordinary citizens to enforce the law, rather than states. The decision comes amid oral arguments for another major challenge to Roe v. Wade: Dobbs v. Jackson's [Whole] Women's Health Organization. READ MORE HERE
   
• Chief-of-staff in contempt | Former Trump chief-of-staff, Mark Meadows, was held in criminal contempt after refusing to cooperate with Congressional investigations into the January 6 insurrection. Meadows is the second former Trump staffer charged with contempt, joining Steve Bannon in citing executive privilege to protect their communications with former President Trump. Subpoenaed documents already provided by Meadows reveal he wrote an email saying the National Guard would “protect pro-Trump people” on the day of the rally. READ MORE HERE
   
• Vaccine mandates trump religious exemption | The US Supreme Court announced it would not block a coronavirus vaccine requirement for New York health care workers on the grounds of religious exemption. The ruling comes as lower courts hear legal challenges to Biden’s vaccine-or-test mandate for federal workers, and after the Senate voted to overturn the mandate, with two Democratic senators siding with Republicans. READ MORE HERE

ANALYSIS

Washington's Christmas crush and the grinches who want to steal it

Bruce Wolpe
Non-Resident Senior Fellow, United States Studies Centre

Members of Congress want to get home for Christmas, but it’s going to be a long sleigh ride.

While they shocked themselves and many critics by approving two essential measures – keeping the US government funded and raising the US debt limit– there is still a huge December agenda that may yet find America’s lawmakers in session and voting on Christmas Eve – and beyond.

This is what has to get done 

• Passage of President Biden’s US$2 trillion mega legislative program – known as Build Back Better – that would provide support to families across the county for children, pre-k programs, lower prescription drug costs, more access to less expensive health insurance, senior housing subsidies, financial aid for college – and the largest funding program to accelerate the move to renewable energy.

To pass this bill, the culmination Biden’s first-year agenda, all 50 Democrats in the Senate must vote for it.

You have heard the name “Joe Manchin” ad nauseam in accounts of where the Senator will land and either make or break the legislation – and you will hear much more from Manchin and Biden before December is done.

What is crucial is this: if this bill dies, if the Democrats do not unite and pass it, the president’s legislative program is effectively over in this Congress, and the tectonic plates will be aligning for Republican sweep of the House and Senate next November.

So it is all on the line for President Biden, what he wants to achieve, and what his legacy will be.

Biden will insist that Congress stay in session, no matter if it is Christmas or New Year’s, to get this bill passed.

This is an excerpt of an article published in Ticker News.

BY THE NUMBERS

Ambassadorial nominations vs confirmations in first year

While President Biden's pick for Ambassador to Australia is widely rumoured to be Caroline Kennedy, she has not yet been officially nominated. Of the 80 ambassadors nominated by Biden in his first year, only 16 per cent have been confirmed. This is the inverse of President Trump who had 77 per cent of the ambassadors he nominated in his first year confirmed by the Senate.

Ambassadorial nominees require unanimous support of the Senate, which is not usually an issue. However, Senator Ted Cruz has used this lever to force action against the Russian pipeline through Ukraine. This stalemate led Secretary of State Antony Blinken to make an unprecedented appeal to the Senate to move forward and clear the backlog. At this stage, it is unlikely Australia will have a new US ambassador appointed any time soon.

Read more By the numbers analysis here

THE ALLIANCE AT 70 | THE EVOLUTION OF THE ALLIANCE

The following is an excerpt from the new release The Alliance at 70 from The Honourable Brendan Nelson AO, Director of the Australian War Memorial (2012-19), Australian Ambassador to Belgium, Luxembourg, the European Union and NATO (2009-12), Minister for Defence (2006-07)

Reflections from the Hon Brendan Nelson AO

The US customs officer at Fort Worth looked at me, back to my official passport and back at me. His thick Texan accent assumed a deferential tone: ‘The Australian War Memorial. We need one of them here. My marine son came back from Afghanistan last year talkin’ about the magic Aussies. I told him that whenever we pick a fight, the Australians are the first ones in with us, and the last ones out.’

And so it has been since 1918.

The past is vital to our understanding of the future and to guiding us as humankind passes from one age to the next.

Born of the strategic defeat of Japan by the US and Royal Australian Navies in the battle of the Coral Sea in May 1942, the ANZUS Alliance was formalised in 1951 as Russia acquired nuclear weapons and a war raged on the Korean peninsula.

I have seen through its political, economic, diplomatic and defence pillars, the bedrock for not only our security in every sense of the word, but for belief in ourselves and confidence in the future. The essential character of our two nations is informed by common worthwhile, intrinsic virtues – values. These truths by which we live are enshrined in Thomas Jefferson’s promissory constitutional note to not only Americans, but free people in open democracies: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.’

Not a day should go by in Australia without us giving thanks for American sacrifice in the Pacific in the Second World War – 300,000 casualties, 103,000 dead, half those bodies never found.

Of this, I said to US Senator John McCain at the Australian War Memorial in May 2017, ‘What is most important for us as Australians, is to be clear about who we are and in what we believe. This place reminds us that our interests are our values.’ He replied, ‘And our values are our interests.’

Whether it be Australian David Kilcullen sitting alongside General David Petraeus as his senior advisor in Baghdad, Australian officers on the command team for General John Allen in Kabul or an Australian commanding all Special Forces across Afghanistan, Australia is a deeply trusted ally of the United States. A small group of NATO nations led by the United States met late one Friday night at NATO in March 2011. Desperate to avoid a humanitarian disaster from Gaddafi’s tanks headed to Benghazi, one other country was invited – Australia.

Oval Office, West Wing, Capitol Hill, Pentagon, State Department or key agencies, its occupants and office bearers have always been accessible, open and willing to help.

VIDEO

NATO Expert Talk Series: Emerging and disruptive technologies: Progress and challenges

Did you miss last week's webinar? As part of the jointly presented USSC and NATO expert talks series, NATO's Assistant Secretary General for Emerging Security Challenges Mr David van Weel spoke with the United States Studies Centre's Senior Lecturer in US Politics and Foreign Policy Dr Gorana Grgic about NATO's approach to emerging and disruptive technologies and both the risks and opportunities they present for NATO and its partners.

Catch more analysis on the United States on the USSC YouTube channel.

THE WEEK IN TWEETS

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