President Joe Biden had a busy week. Announcements range from additional involvement in Ukraine to the launch of both the new Office of Gun Violence Prevention and the American Climate Corps, here’s what you should be paying attention to:
Gun violence
On Friday, Biden announced the launch of the Office of Gun Violence Prevention. This office will be overseen by Vice President Kamala Harris and looks to implement executive orders and other presidential actions regarding gun violence prevention.
Throughout his time in office, Biden has made efforts to contain the epidemic of gun violence, including the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act that he signed into law in June 2022. This act administered new gun violence prevention policies and took action in improving the quality of mental health in schools to promote community safety.
Recent Republican control of the House of Representatives has made federal action on gun violence prevention gun control more difficult, but in his announcement Biden renewed his promise to make progress.
“While we push for Congress to do more, we’re going to centralize, accelerate and intensify our work to save more lives more quickly,” said Biden. “Let me be very clear. If members of Congress refuse to act, then we’ll need to elect new members of Congress that will act, Democrat or Republican.”
Action for climate change
On Wednesday, the White House announced the formation of the American Climate Corps, a climate job training program made to encourage climate activists and bring about positive change. The program is modeled after the New Deal-era Civilian Conservation Corps.
The purpose of the American Climate Corps is to “train young people in clean energy, conservation and climate resilience related skills,” according to the White House fact sheet on the matter. Biden hopes to provide up to 20,000 people with jobs in the movement’s first year of projects.
The newly announced American Climate Corps is the result of much pressure from climate activism groups such as the Sunrise Movement, a youth-led coalition who previously pitched the idea to the administration.
The United Nations and Ukraine
At a UN General Assembly meeting hosted Tuesday in New York, President Biden made a statement regarding the importance of continuous, widespread support to Ukraine during the ongoing war.
“The United States, together with our allies and partners around the world, will continue to stand with the brave people of Ukraine as they defend their sovereignty and territorial integrity and their freedom,” Biden said.
On Thursday, Biden met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House. During the meeting Biden announced that an additional $325 million will be allocated to Ukrainian military aid. Biden is looking to congress to allocate an additional $24 billion to Ukrainian aid, according to NBC.
Biden received high praise from Zelenksyy during their meeting, in which the Ukrainian president thanked him for his continued support. Afterwards, the presidents joined a larger meeting of top White House officials as well as the two first ladies.
A looming shutdown
If congress does not pass 12 appropriations bills by the end of the fiscal year on September 30, the government will be forced to shut down.
These bills are supposed to allocate funds to the necessary government agencies and keep the government running. If the government shuts down, all non-essential functions of the government will stop, affecting the payment of government employees and potentially costing the economy billions of dollars. As of now, none of the 12 bills have even passed the U.S. House of Representatives, making a shutdown likely if they are not resolved in the next eight days.
During the last government shutdown, which occurred from December 2018 to January 2019, the U.S. economy lost approximately $3 billion, according to CBS. In addition, immigration court hearings were canceled and government contractors and businesses suffered financial losses. This 34 day shutdown was the longest in U.S. history.
Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), the speaker of the House, has disagreed with many Republican House members in regards to the defense funding bill, which is causing negotiations and bill drafting to stall. In the meantime, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has told reporters that the senate may need to pass emergency legislation through his chamber first and send it to the house, instead of the other way around.
“I’m not a fan of government shutdowns,” McConnell told CBS news. “I’ve seen a few of them over the years. They never have produced a policy change and they’ve always been a loser for Republicans politically.”
While Biden’s achievements this week have been met with praise, they may not lead to immediate action if congress cannot avoid a shutdown.