October Newsletter | PA Elections, Biden's Agenda Stalled, Local Events in the Arts, Climate Action Booth
WE ARE for Science
Happy October! Inside this newsletter, you will find info on:
- Upcoming PA Elections
- Tension Surrounding President Biden’s Build Back Better Agenda
- Upcoming WAFS Events
- Local Events & The Arts
Upcoming PA Elections
The last day to register to vote for the upcoming November PA election is October 18, 2021. Municipal Elections for PA will be held on November 2, 2021. Municipal elections include mayoral candidates, local judges, and aspiring councilmen and councilwomen. You can learn more at https://www.vote.pa.gov/
Tension Surrounding President Biden’s Build Back Better Agenda
President Joe Biden has had quite an eventful start to his presidency, and, despite running on a centrist platform, is on track to become one of the most progressive presidents in American history. However, tension among a small number of Democrats in the senate combined with narrow margins of majority in both the House of Representatives and the Senate are coming to a head to create a possibility of stalling President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better Agenda.
The Build Back Better Plan is President Biden’s equivalent of the New Deal under President Franklin D. Roosevelt which, following the Great Depression, put people back to work in well-paying jobs and created the framework of social safety net programs such as the Social Security system. Following America’s sharpest economic decline since the Great Depression as a result of of the Covid-19 Pandemic, President Biden’s Build Back Better Act seeks to lower costs of social services such as child care and higher education, lower taxes for families with children and low wage workers, raise taxes on large corporations, and create jobs in clean energy and education. This plan would fund social programs of this nature for 10 years and currently carries a sticker price over that period of 3.5 trillion US Dollars, negotiated down from a prior 6 Trillion US Dollars.
To show that the United States style of democracy is functional, Joe Biden chose to negotiate out a portion of the Build Back Better Agenda pertaining to spending on infrastructure such as roads and bridges. This Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill passed the senate with a vote of 69 to 30, which the New York Times columnist Emily Corchrane refers to as “uncommonly bipartisan.” The Bipartisan Infrastructure plan even enjoyed support from Mitch McConnel, who has previously declared it his sole intention to stop Biden’s agenda. However, now that the bill has gone to the House of Representatives for a vote, it is currently being blocked by a lack of support from any sizeable amount of Republicans and a lack of support from the House Progressive Caucus. Led by Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, progressives want solid reassurance that Joe Biden’s Build Back Better plan will be voted into law in the senate. Reconciliation allows for a simple majority (50 Democrats + VP Kamala Harris) to pass the Build Back Better Plan into law; however, the act has not received support from senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema.
Currently a showdown of sorts is underway as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Plan will not pass the House of Representatives until Biden’s full Build Back Better Agenda receives support in the Senate from Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema. Many critics have come down particularly hard on Senator Sinema as she has the perception of not engaging in any sort of negotiation with the White House while Manchin has released statements suggesting he might be amicable to a lower cost of 1.5 Trillion US Dollars over 10 years. Senator Sinema has recently released a statement detailing that she is in fact engaging in “good-faith discussions with both President Biden and Senator Schumer to find common ground.” Recently, further issues have developed as adamant protestors have continued to follow Sinema into private spaces to express their frustrations. In Sinema’s home state of Arizona, the Arizona Democratic Party has passed a Resolution criticizing Sinema’s actions and has made their intention to issue a formal vote of ‘NO CONFIDENCE’ clear should she continue to stall the President’s Build Back Better Agenda.
Sources:
https://www.whitehouse.gov/build-back-better/
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/10/us/politics/infrastructure-bill-passes.html
Upcoming WAFS Events
On October 15 (tentative), WAFS will hold a Climate Action booth coordinated with the Science Policy Society. At this event we will have an outdoor booth where we disseminate information relevant to climate change, action, and policies for support. This is a student led event which will have some faculty participants. If you would like to get involved or if you would like to drop by and say hello, contact WE ARE For Science and look out for upcoming announcements.
Local Events & The Arts
Several exhibitions are currently on display at the Hub-Robeson Gallery located on the 2nd (main) floor of the Hub on PSU Campus. Works by artist Rosemarie Fiore are on display, which are paintings done via pyrographics (smoke and fire). The collection Wind Spirits in on display in the adjacent Art Alley and displays a detailed yet ornately beautiful recreation of birds and forests; the collection offers viewers a chance to boost their ecological knowledge through consuming art.
Hub Gallery Website:
https://studentaffairs.psu.edu/hub/art-galleries/current-exhibitions
A musical and visual performance celebrating Pacific and Indian Ocean cultures called Small Island Big Song is coming to Penn State campus this Spring. Via Amy Dupain Vashaw: Small Island Big Song explores the cultural connections between the descendants of the seafarers of the Pacific and Indian Oceans through the Austronesian migration. Working with artists who have made a choice to maintain the cultural voice of their people, to sing in the language, and to play the instruments of their land. SIBS will be on campus from April 4-7, with the public concert on the 7th at 7:30 in Eisenhower.