Last week, we marked 100 days since Mark was sworn into office. And from day one, he’s been working around the clock to provide relief and improve people’s lives.
On his first day, Mark said it was time to restore science, data, and facts to Congress and be the independent senator Arizona deserves.
And every day since he’s worked hard to live up to that promise. Here’s a snapshot of some of Mark’s accomplishments in his first 100 days:
Introduced 2 bipartisan pieces of legislation
Passed 2 COVID-19 relief packages
And those are just the highlights! Mark has been busy talking to Arizonans across the state — meeting with local leaders in all 15 counties as well as 52 mayors across the state.
Mark has wasted no time getting right to work for the people of Arizona and he’d like to keep going, but we have to make sure he holds this seat in the Senate.
Mark has had a productive first 100 days in office. And we are looking forward to what the next 100 days has in store. We hope you’ll join us and help keep in office where he will continue to put Arizona first.
Thank you for all you’ve done and continue to do to support this team!
Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., leads a 2019 press conference with fellow Democrats in support of the Violence Against Women Act.
J. Scott Applewhite/AP
Updated at 7:13 p.m. ET
The House approved with bipartisan support a reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, a popular 1994 law that protects and provides resources for victims of domestic abuse and sexual violence. The measure passed 244-172.
As a senator, President Biden played a lead role in passing the landmark law, which he recently called "one of my proudest legislative achievements."
The law was last reauthorized in 2013, but it lapsed at the end of 2018 after Congress failed to act due to partisan disputes over guns and transgender issues. The lapse has had little practical effect because Congress continues to fund related programs despite the lack of authorization.
The core legislation has broad support, but certain provisions added to the bill in the previous Congress exposed divisions among Republicans. In 2019, the House passed the measure with 33 Republicans voting with Democrats, but it was never brought up in the then-GOP-led Senate.
In a statement Wednesday evening, Biden said "writing and passing VAWA is one of the legislative accomplishments of which I'm most proud," and urged the Senate to follow suit.
"This should not be a Democratic or Republican issue — it's about standing up against the abuse of power and preventing violence," he said.
A number of Republican senators said this week they are working on finding a bipartisan compromise that can pass the now-Democratic-controlled chamber. "I think it's fair to say that there is a good strong interest in trying to advance VAWA," said Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska.
The most contentious issue in the House-passed bill is a provision that expands the criminal threshold to bar an individual from buying a gun to include misdemeanor convictions of domestic abuse or stalking. It would also close the so-called boyfriend loophole to expand the definition of who is affected by existing gun prohibitions to include dating partners. "This legislation makes it clear that Democrats consider gun ownership a second-class right," said Rep. Bob Good, R-Va.
In 2019, the National Rifle Association opposed the legislation for the first time, which put GOP lawmakers in a tough political position of voting against a popular law to support victims of domestic and sexual violence, or voting against the gun lobby. The NRA continues to oppose the legislation because of the gun provisions.
"The NRA did not score the legislation until last Congress because it never impacted Second Amendment rights," said Jason Ouimet, executive director of the NRA's lobbying arm. "However, Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi and anti-gun lawmakers chose to insert gun control provisions into this bill in 2019 to pit pro-gun lawmakers against it so that they can falsely and maliciously claim these lawmakers don't care about women."
The House-passed bill would also strengthen existing protections for transgender women to access women's shelters and serve in prisons that match their gender identity.
VAWA advocates say the gun and transgender provisions are necessary to protect victims. "Everything that we advocate for in VAWA is based on the reality of what we know victims are being subjected to, and what we know survivors need to seek safety, accountability, healing," Jennifer Becker, deputy legal director of Legal Momentum, the oldest legal advocacy group for women in the country, told NPR. "These provisions are central to ensuring that people stay alive," she said.
Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., the lead Republican sponsor of the legislation, echoed that sentiment and said the updated version of the law "addresses the challenges identified by survivors and by domestic violence shelters, rape crisis centers, and other organizations that serve survivors."
Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma, the top Republican on the House Rules Committee, supports the legislation but called the provisions "unnecessarily partisan" and said they could once again block its reauthorization. "The last time we adopted this course of action, frankly, the legislation was never enacted into law, and I am afraid we are running that risk again." Cole voted in favor of the bill because it provides critical assistance to the Native American communities in his state.
Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, is taking the lead on crafting the Senate GOP's counterproposal to the House bill. "What we're hoping to show is that we have enough Republican support on our bill, and that we're willing to work with Democrats on this, and hopefully, by combining forces we can come up with the 60 votes needed, and pass a good modernized bill that will work for the Senate," she said Tuesday.
However, Ernst indicated the gun provisions would be a problem in the Senate. "That's a big one for a number of us, some stripping away of people's constitutional rights is not something that we should be doing," she said, "So why don't we just kind of backtrack a little bit and figure out where we can agree?"
Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., told reporters Tuesday that VAWA would get a vote in the Senate. "We're ready to move," he said.
Washington (CNN)President Joe Biden said Vladimir Putin "will pay a price" for his efforts to undermine the 2020 US election following a landmark American intelligence assessment which found that the Russian government meddled in the 2020 election with the aim of "denigrating" Biden's candidacy.
"He will pay a price," Biden said of Putin in an interview that aired Wednesday on ABC's "Good Morning America". "We had a long talk, he and I, and relatively well. And the conversation started -- 'I know you and you know me. If I establish this occurred, be prepared.'"
Biden held his first call with Putin in late January. The White House said at the time that Biden confronted the Russian president on a number of issues, including Moscow's interference in the 2020 US presidential elections, the massive Solarwinds cyberattack, the suspected poisoning of Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny and reports of Russian bounties on American troops serving in Afghanistan.
The President wouldn't provide more details to ABC on what "price" Putin will pay, but the Biden administration is expected to announce sanctions related to election interference as soon as next week, three US State Department officials have told CNN. The officials did not disclose any details related to the expected sanctions but said that they will target multiple countries including Russia, China and Iran.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence released an assessment on Tuesday about foreign threats to the 2020 US federal elections. The assessment found that Russia pursued efforts aimed at "denigrating President Biden's candidacy and the Democratic Party, supporting former President Trump, undermining public confidence in the electoral process, and exacerbating sociopolitical divisions in the US.:
The report is the most comprehensive assessment of foreign threats to the 2020 elections to date, detailing extensive influence operations by US adversaries that sought to undermine confidence in the democratic process, in addition to targeting specific presidential candidates.
It also confirms what was largely assumed, and barely hidden, last year: former President Donald Trump and his closest allies publicly embraced Russia's disinformation campaign against Biden, met with Kremlin-linked figures who were part of the effort, and promoted their conspiracy theories.
Biden claims he told Putin he didn't think Putin had a soul. Putin's response, Biden recalls, was to say, "We understand one another."
"Look, most important thing dealing with foreign leaders, and I've dealt with a lot of them over my career, is just know the other guy," Biden told ABC.
When interviewer George Stephanopoulos asked Biden if he thought Putin was "a killer," the President said, "Mhmm. I do."
"The price he's going to pay, well, you'll see shortly," Biden continued. "There are places where it's in our mutual interest to work together. That's why I renewed the START agreement with him. That occurred while he's doing this, but that's overwhelmingly in the interest of humanity that we diminish the prospect of a nuclear exchange."
CNN's Zachary Cohen, Marshall Cohen and Katelyn Polantz contributed to this report.
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RUSSIA INTERFERING IN THE 2020 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION? HMM, WHERE HAVE I HEARD ABOUT RUSSIAN INTERFERENCE IN A PREVIOUS U.S. PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION? MAYBE WE SHOULD ASK HILLARY CLINTON.
Last week, the House passed the new universal background checks bill. Now, we’re pouring everything we have into urging the Senate to pass it so it can become law – and we couldn’t do it without your support.
We’ve been working tirelessly to expand background checks for eight years. And because of your action, we’re closer than we’ve ever been to making this lifesaving reform a reality.
We remember all too well what those months were like after our boys – Nicole’s beautiful butterfly Dylan and Mark’s sweet little Daniel – were murdered at Sandy Hook Elementary. On top of the all-consuming grief, we were constantly exhausted from spending day after day visiting congressional offices and showing lawmakers pictures of our sons – pictures that show the human toll of inaction.
When some of those same lawmakers voted down that bill, it was devastating, but the thought of giving up never crossed our minds. We knew we had to keep working to make sure Dylan and Daniel didn’t die in vain. We knew a moment exactly like this one would come as long as we kept going.
David, having people like you by our side has helped us push through, even on the most painful days. Now, our best chance yet to pass universal background checks is in front of us, and it’s all thanks to you.
We’re overwhelmed with gratitude for all you’re doing to help us build a legacy for our boys and prevent other parents from having to experience the unending pain of having their child taken by gun violence. We have more reason than ever to be filled with the hope of real, lifesaving change.
Thank you so much,
Nicole Hockley (Dylan’s mom) and Mark Barden (Daniel’s Dad)
