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--:-- John Bickley: Welcome to Morning Wire. I'm John Bickley, and I'm here with Georgia Howe.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Thanks for waking up with us, folks. It's Friday, October 1st.
--:-- John Bickley: President Biden's agenda was on the line in the House on Thursday. While Congress did pass a temporary funding bill to avoid a government shutdown, the Nancy Pelosi-led House was deeply divided over the president's sweeping $3.5 trillion spending bill and a bipartisan infrastructure bill.
--:-- Georgia Howe: We'll discuss the results of the votes and what it all means for the president's agenda.
--:-- John Bickley: The Biden administration has proposed a new version of President Obama's controversial DACA order that exempted some non-citizens from deportation.
--:-- Georgia Howe: We'll look at why a federal judge struck down the original order and what President Biden's new version includes.
--:-- John Bickley: And in a Daily Wire exclusive, new documents show that a law firm employing a Virginia gubernatorial candidate is trying to silence parents who say public school staff abused their special needs children.
--:-- Georgia Howe: What are parents claiming and how is the law firm responding?
--:-- John Bickley: Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know.
--:-- John Bickley: This show is sponsored by WyoTech. WyoTech, one of the nation's leading auto and diesel training schools, sees the trades as America's front lines.
--:-- Georgia Howe: WyoTech is shaping young men, women, and veterans to build careers and businesses. America is built on the trades, and WyoTech is leading the way in training.
--:-- John Bickley: Visit wyotech.edu to subscribe and donate to the future technicians of America.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So, there are two main bills being discussed. First is the so-called bipartisan infrastructure bill. That's a trillion-dollar measure that would cover things traditionally associated with infrastructure, like roads, bridges, airports. You get the picture.
--:-- John Bickley: The second piece of legislation being debated right now is a social spending bill worth $3.5 trillion at the moment.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: This would include many of President Biden's campaign promises, including massive increases in entitlement spending, climate change measures, free child care, and expanded paid family leave, among many, many other things.
--:-- John Bickley: It's much more of a progressive far-left bill.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Right, so most of his big-picture agenda items.
--:-- John Bickley: Exactly. What's behind the controversy now?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So earlier in the summer, that trillion-dollar infrastructure measure passed the Senate actually with bipartisan support.
--:-- John Bickley: Right. But now it's being held up by Democrats in the House who say they won't support it unless they get certain assurances regarding that separate $3.5 trillion social spending measure.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: They're worried that if they vote yes on this trillion-dollar infrastructure bill, they'll lose leverage on the social spending bill and won't get everything on their wish list.
--:-- John Bickley: Got it. So they're kind of holding the infrastructure bill hostage for the larger social spending bill.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Yeah, that's not a bad metaphor. And it's got House Republicans really upset.
--:-- John Bickley: Even though a lot of them were initially open to supporting that first infrastructure bill, pretty much everyone in the party now opposes it because it is tied to the larger social spending bill.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: That bill includes massive tax hikes and a reversal of numerous Trump-era tax cuts.
--:-- John Bickley: So not exactly popular stuff amongst Republicans.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: But the social spending measure can still pass thanks to an elaborate process in the House called budget reconciliation.
--:-- John Bickley: That process allows Democrats to bypass a Republican filibuster, which they would do, as long as they can come to an agreement amongst themselves on what's in the bill.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: And that's where the holdup is now. They cannot seem to agree on what to put in that reconciliation.
--:-- John Bickley: All right. So unpack that for us a little bit more. What are the disagreements among Democrats?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: The main snag right now is the cost. Basically, moderate Democrats say it's too high. Progressives say, if anything, it's not enough.
--:-- John Bickley: In August, a group of a dozen moderates in the party said they refused to vote on the package until they had assurances that there would be a vote on the infrastructure package as well.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Remember, Democrats only have a single-digit advantage in the House. So those 12 votes are crucial to them.
--:-- John Bickley: So Speaker Pelosi initially promised them that they'd get their infrastructure vote.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: But then moderate Democrats in the Senate became the holdup.
--:-- John Bickley: Okay. Democrat Joe Manchin from West Virginia is among the only swing votes in the Senate, and his support is crucial to the bill passing.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: He said the $3.5 trillion price tag was, quote, fiscal insanity, and that he refused to support anything higher than $1.5 trillion.
--:-- John Bickley: The party's other swing vote, Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, had a similar stance, saying $3.5 trillion was far too high for her to support.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: But we also saw progressives in the Democratic Party pushing back as well.
--:-- John Bickley: Yeah, they're in the mix too, and much more so now.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So they want to see even more spending, actually as high as $6 trillion as opposed to $3.5.
--:-- John Bickley: And they've told Speaker Pelosi that they now have 50 members who've pledged to vote no on the infrastructure bill, unless they get their say on that social spending bill.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: And how has Pelosi handled this so far?
--:-- John Bickley: Well, obviously, she's in a tough spot here.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: She has to appease those progressive House members if infrastructure has any hope of passing.
--:-- John Bickley: But at the same time, that means keeping the price tag at $3.5 trillion or higher, which would almost certainly lead to the bill dying in the Senate.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So her main stance so far has just been optimism, saying she's confident the bill would pass, despite members consistently saying otherwise.
--:-- John Bickley: She also defended the price of the social spending bill, saying the cost would actually be zero because of tax increases.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: It's not a bad dollar amount. The dollar amount, as the president said, is zero. This bill will be paid for. Zero.
--:-- John Bickley: OK, so what now?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: On Thursday night, Democrat leadership announced that the infrastructure bill, which was supposed to be voted on last night, would actually be delayed.
--:-- John Bickley: This was viewed as kind of a blow to President Biden, who'd signaled earlier in the month that he was confident it would pass easily.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: It's also significant because previously Senators Manchin and Sinema had indicated that they would totally withdraw support if it was delayed at all.
--:-- John Bickley: So now the chances of it passing are even more slim than they were before.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: But this battle is not over. You're going to be hearing a lot more about this in the coming days and probably weeks.
--:-- John Bickley: All right, Cabot, thanks for keeping us up to date.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Daily Wire managing editor, Cabot Phillips.
--:-- John Bickley: Coming up, the Biden administration proposes a new version of DACA. You can get this show and all of the content you love wherever you are, all on the Daily Wire app.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Even if you're not a Daily Wire member, you'll be the first to know what's trending with mobile notifications for the latest news, and you'll get content from all your favorite Daily Wire shows.
--:-- John Bickley: Download the Daily Wire app and keep up with the facts no matter where your day takes you.
--:-- Ben Johnson: Well, the new DACA is basically the same as the old DACA. The Biden administration essentially took the June 2012 memo from Janet Napolitano that announced the policy and put it in the form of a federal regulation.
--:-- John Bickley: According to the rule, which was published on Tuesday, anyone between the age of 15 and 40 can apply for DACA status if they meet six criteria.
--:-- Ben Johnson: The person had to come to the U.S. illegally before the age of 16.
--:-- John Bickley: He had to continuously reside in the U.S. since June 15, 2007, and prove he was physically present in the United States on June 15, 2012.
--:-- Ben Johnson: That's the date the original DACA policy was announced.
--:-- John Bickley: The person has to be honorably discharged as a veteran or have completed a high school education or currently be enrolled in some kind of schooling, including vocational education.
--:-- Ben Johnson: And the applicant cannot have been convicted of a felony, a serious misdemeanor, or three or more other separate misdemeanors.
--:-- John Bickley: Someone younger than 15 can apply if they're currently in removal proceedings or have a final deportation order.
--:-- Ben Johnson: And how many people would the new DACA order apply to?
--:-- John Bickley: More than 825,000 people received DACA status between 2012 and this July, but the number eligible is estimated at at least 1.8 million people.
--:-- Ben Johnson: And why did President Biden choose to go this route through regulation?
--:-- John Bickley: Well, he felt he had to. A federal judge struck down the DACA program on July 16th.
--:-- Ben Johnson: Originally, President Barack Obama hoped Congress would pass the DREAM Act, but when it didn't, he crafted DACA to apply to the same people.
--:-- John Bickley: Even President Obama seemed to question his own authority to issue this kind of sweeping deportation stay by memo.
--:-- Ben Johnson: Well, immigration is a really contentious issue right now.
--:-- John Bickley: What are the arguments for or against this new DACA?
--:-- Ben Johnson: So in a nutshell, supporters say that DACA recipients came to the United States through no fault of their own.
--:-- John Bickley: In many cases, this is the only country they've ever known, and they will contribute to the economy.
--:-- Ben Johnson: Now, opponents point out that many DACA recipients came here as unaccompanied minors with the help of human smugglers.
--:-- John Bickley: And DACA will encourage others to do the same.
--:-- Ben Johnson: It's worth noting the number of unaccompanied minors has skyrocketed from 16,000 in 2011, the year before DACA, to more than 130,000 this year.
--:-- John Bickley: And they dispute the economic contribution.
--:-- Ben Johnson: Now, is this the same thing as giving amnesty?
--:-- John Bickley: In other words, will DACA recipients receive citizenship?
--:-- Ben Johnson: DACA only stays deportation. It does not give its recipients U.S. citizenship.
--:-- John Bickley: But President Biden does support legislation to that effect.
--:-- Ben Johnson: The U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021 would grant everyone who's in the country illegally U.S. citizenship within eight years.
--:-- John Bickley: Ben, thanks so much for breaking all that down for us.
--:-- Ben Johnson: Thanks for having me.
--:-- Luke Rosiak: In 2019, McAuliffe took a job with a law firm called Hunton Andrews Kurth.
--:-- John Bickley: Let's call it Hunton. It's one of the largest vendors in the Fairfax County public schools.
--:-- Luke Rosiak: It's gotten millions of dollars, and a lot of times it's doing work that consists of essentially fighting parents who have some sort of dispute with school district.
--:-- John Bickley: The most disturbing example is what's actually been a class action lawsuit from quite a number of parents of special needs kids who say that those kids were essentially systematically physically abused by school staff.
--:-- Luke Rosiak: They said teachers would sometimes just leave these kids alone in rooms rather than educate them.
--:-- John Bickley: And other times they allegedly assaulted them.
--:-- Luke Rosiak: And what were some of the allegations in the lawsuit?
--:-- John Bickley: Some of them are pretty horrifying.
--:-- Luke Rosiak: Putting a nonverbal autistic kid, 13-year-old, I believe, in solitary confinement 700 times.
--:-- Luke Rosiak: Shoving a bullied 8-year-old into a cardboard box and telling him it was this, quote, safe space.
--:-- John Bickley: Putting a little kid in a chokehold.
--:-- Luke Rosiak: Oh, my gosh. Because their parents were trying to advocate for these kids.
--:-- John Bickley: And the school district uses their tax money to pay $700 an hour to this white shoe law firm, which tried to get their lawsuit dismissed.
--:-- Luke Rosiak: That was unsuccessful in that, but it's been fighting them ever since.
--:-- John Bickley: So, you know, you have teachers unions who are one of the biggest funders to McAuliffe's campaign.
--:-- Luke Rosiak: They've given them a million bucks.
--:-- John Bickley: But then you have parents' interests.
--:-- Luke Rosiak: And really what we've seen over the coronavirus, especially with those school shutdowns, is the interests of school bureaucracies and school staff are not always the same interests of parents.
--:-- John Bickley: And we've seen there's an update to this story.
--:-- Luke Rosiak: Can you explain to us what happened there with the mother that is being sued?
--:-- John Bickley: Yeah, it's really wild.
--:-- Luke Rosiak: I mean, the way that I was able to write that story was the mom of a special ed kid filed a Freedom of Information Act request for the billing records that the school was spending on law firms.
--:-- John Bickley: And so she paid 300 bucks to the FOIA office.
--:-- Luke Rosiak: They gave her these records. She gave it to me. And I used it to write the story.
--:-- John Bickley: Well, right after we published this story, which drew a lot of negative attention to McAuliffe and to the school system, she was sued.
--:-- Luke Rosiak: She was sued for possessing and giving out the records showing what our taxpayer dollars were spent on, information that she was given by the school system.
--:-- John Bickley: Luke, thanks so much for drawing attention to this story.
--:-- Luke Rosiak: Thank you.
--:-- John Bickley: Another story we're tracking this week, a North Carolina-based hospital system has fired about 175 unvaccinated employees for failing to comply with a COVID vaccine mandate.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Novant Health said last week that some 375 unvaccinated workers have been suspended and given five days to comply with the mandate.
--:-- John Bickley: United Airlines is also poised to fire hundreds of employees after its vaccination deadline for U.S.-based workers passed this week.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Almost 600 employees face losing their jobs for not complying.
--:-- John Bickley: If you like this episode and are interested in hearing more, subscribe to Morning Wire on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you're listening, and give us a five-star review.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That's all the time we've got this morning.
--:-- John Bickley: Thanks for waking up with us.
--:-- Georgia Howe: We'll be back tomorrow with the news you need to know.
--:-- John Bickley: If you like this podcast, get the Morning Wire newsletter delivered straight to your inbox when you join at dailywire.com slash subscribe.
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