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TODAY'S HEADLINES:

The Democratic controlled House of Representatives voted by an overwhelming majority yesterday to increase Coronavirus relief checks to $2,000, matching Trump’s demand for bigger payments and sending the bill to the GOP-controlled Senate and a perturbed Mitch McConnell.

Meanwhile, an innovative aid group is attempting to improve medical care for migrants on their way to the United States. They’ve already helped thousands of people at a refugee camp on Mexico’s border with Texas.

And lastly, tenants’ rights advocates are praising new legislation to prevent evictions just passed by lawmakers in New York. It doesn’t solve the problem of unpaid back rent, but it should save some people from getting thrown on the streets in a pandemic.

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

In the House of Representatives yesterday Democrats led passage of an increase in covid payments from 600 to 2000 dollars. the Democrats voted near unanimously to support the measure and were joined by over two dozen republicans for a 275-134 vote. Because this vote required a suspension of the normal rules of the house a 2/3 majority bar had to be overcome and was.

The bill now heads to the senate where Mitch McConnell surely has plans to kill it. McConnell has a dilemma- as does his caucus- will they buck the president, the most popular politician in their party, or will they help the American people and economy with a Democratic President taking the oath only weeks from now? But even more problematic and immediate for McConnell is how denying a vote to provide hundreds, if not thousands of dollars of relief, for struggling American families will impact the Georgia run-off elections happening a week from today. Majority control of the senate hangs in the balance.

According to Politico- McConnell now has one more massive headache to deal with- Bernie Sanders. Senator Sanders announced last evening that he intends to filibuster the Senate’s vote to override Trump’s veto of the Defense Authorization Act unless McConnell allows a vote on the House approved increase in relief checks. It was this override vote that brought House and Senate lawmakers back into session early from christmas vacation.

Politico reports that in an interview Monday night Sanders said ““McConnell and the Senate want to expedite the override vote and I understand that. But I’m not going to allow that to happen unless there is a vote, no matter how long that takes, on the $2,000 direct payment,” According to Politico Sanders can’t ultimately stop the vote but he can delay it to the New Year- which will keep Perdue and Loeffler off the campaign trail in the days leading to their run off elections in Georgia against Democratic challengers Jon Ossof and Rapheal Warnock respectively.

It will also draw far more attention to McConnell’s denying of Americans the help they need. This may be a losing fight but it is one which may exact a very high price for the Republicans. Fingers crossed on the relief and the runoffs.

Migrant Aid Group Innovates

From the Associated Press comes this story of a nonprofit aid group bringing care to people stuck in refugee camps thanks to Donald Trump’s border policies. Led by US military veterans, Global Response Management is staffed primarily by American volunteers. The group also employs paid asylum seekers who are medical professionals. They have treated thousands of migrants over the past year at two clinics in Matamoros, Mexico, including one inside the camp there. Among those who’ve benefited is Aurora Leticia Cruz, who fled Guatemala more than a year ago. Cruz has tried to keep up with her blood pressure medication, but being stuck in the sprawling camp has made that hard. On one recent day, Cruz felt woozy as her blood pressure skyrocketed. It could have ended in tragedy, leaving her 17-year-old granddaughter and two great-grandchildren under 3 alone in the camp. But instead, a nurse from Oregon and a Cuban doctor were able to pull up her medical record and prescribe the correct dosage.

Medics with the group have innovated to bring care to the austere environment, building on what they learned in countries such as Bangladesh and Iraq, the AP reports. They have used telemedicine to consult specialists in the US and connected a portable device to an iPhone to perform a sonogram. They have also worked with local leaders in the camp to control the spread of the coronavirus by encouraging mask wearing, among other things. Only one person from the camp has been hospitalized with the virus, even as medical facilities in the area struggled to keep up with infected patients this summer.

With public hospitals overwhelmed by virus cases, migrants with heart conditions or problematic pregnancies have nowhere to go, the AP reports. Others have been prescribed ineffective medications because doctors lacked their medical histories. The group is working to connect migrants to health care by asking them what they need via WhatsApp. The idea is to treat their health problems before they worsen, and create a system where their records can be accessed by doctors along the way. It is a daunting task. Hats off to these aid workers who are doing their best to improve a miserable situation.

NY Passes Evictions Moratorium

SAM: Do you hear? It’s the sweet sound of landlords crying. The New York Legislature yesterday passed one of the most comprehensive anti-eviction laws in the nation, the New York Times reports. Under the new measure, landlords would be barred from evicting most tenants for at least another sixty days. A tenant in danger of being kicked out of a home could submit a document stating financial hardship related to the coronavirus to postpone an eviction. The legislation would also make it harder for banks to foreclose on smaller landlords who are themselves struggling to pay bills. But advocacy groups for landlords said the bill could leave many in a lurch. Well boo-hoo. Join the club!

As of late November, there have been thirty-eight requests for eviction warrants in New York City, the Times reports. Every one of those cases began before the pandemic. Most involved properties in central Brooklyn. Tenant lawyers and advocacy groups said the state law would prevent landlords from throwing thousands of cash-strapped renters onto the streets in the winter as virus case numbers continue to rise. Ellen Davidson, a staff attorney at the Legal Aid Society, told the Times QUOTE It’s going to save a lot of people’s homes. It’s going to save lives ENDQUOTE.

The new law is by no means a panacea, the Times reports. Tenants will continue to owe landlords any back rent they haven’t paid, once the moratorium ends. The $1.3 billion in rent relief authorized by the federal government should help, but it will not be enough to cover all tenants’ back rent. Michael McKee, the treasurer of Tenants PAC, praised the law as close to everything his organization wanted. But he also warned that there will still be people owing thousands of dollars in back rent they cannot pay. Sounds like a job for Joe Biden.

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

The House of Representatives voted last night to override Donald Trump’s veto of the annual military spending bill. Trump had objected to a provision in the bill directing the military to strip the names of Confederate leaders from bases. Despite this latest failure, he may be remembered as the most successful Confederate president.

Here’s a scary story for you, folks. The New York Times reports that a small number of Covid patients who had never experienced mental health problems are developing severe psychotic symptoms weeks after contracting the coronavirus. It really ain’t the flu, folks.

The suspect in a deadly shooting Saturday night at an Illinois bowling alley is a Green Beret, CBS News reports. Duke Webb, a 37-year-old Florida resident, allegedly killed three people and wounded three others at Don Carter Lanes in Rockford, Illinois. His commander issued a statement calling his actions abhorrent and absolutely not representative of the Special Forces Regiment, which prefers all such bloodshed to take place overseas.

The twenty-seven European Union member states yesterday gave unanimous support to a twelve-hundred page trade and security deal with Britain, the Guardian reports. But is it a better deal than Britain had before Brexit? Even the government doesn’t seem sure, with cabinet minister Michael Gove warning that the road ahead will feature some QUOTE bumpy moments ENDQUOTE. Love that British understatement!

That’s all for the AM Quickie. The Majority Report returns next Monday.

DEC 29, 2020 - AM QUICKIE

HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner

WRITER - Corey Pein

PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn