US President Joe Biden's American Jobs Plan infrastructure program is just one of several New Deal-like spending bills he has proposed since taking office in January. Others include the education and parental support-focused American Families Plan and the already-implemented American Rescue Plan, a coronavirus relief bill.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki revealed on Friday that the Biden administration had reduced the price of its massive forthcoming infrastructure bill by one-quarter, from $2.3 trillion to $1.7 trillion, "in the spirit of finding common ground" with reluctant Republicans.

Psaki said the White House would reveal further details about the new plan later on Friday, but noted that it would still include parts of the original deal Biden considers key to US economic growth.

Earlier this week, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo sat down with leading Senate Republicans to talk about the $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan, but aside from making a $568 billion counter-proposal, the GOP offered few details about the contents of their alternative apart from that it sought to focus primarily on roads, bridges, waterways and broadband internet access.

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https://sputniknews.com/us/202105211082960456-white-house-says-it-pared-down-225-trillion-infrastructure-proposal/

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By Glenn Greenwald

A federal appellate court on Thursday invalidated the racial and gender preferences in President Biden's $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act as unconstitutional. The Cincinnati-based Sixth Circuit of Appeals ruled that provisions of that law, designed to grant preferences to minority-owned small-restaurant owners for COVID relief, violate the 14th Amendment's guarantee of equal protection under the law:

"No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."

The specific provision struck down was part of the law's $29 billion Restaurant Revitalization Fund grant program for small, privately owned restaurants struggling to meet payroll and rent due to the COVID crisis. The law, which was passed almost entirely by a party-line vote in March, grants priority status to restaurants that have 51% ownership or more composed of specific racial and ethnic groups as well as women. By effectively relegating struggling businesses owned by white males or ethnicities and nationalities excluded from a priority designation “to the back of the line,” the COVID relief program, ruled the court by a 2-1 decision, ran afoul of core constitutional guarantees.

...

The lawsuit was brought by Jake’s Bar and Grill, a restaurant jointly owned by Antonio Vitolo, who is white, and his wife, who is Hispanic. If Vitolo's wife owned more than 50% of the restaurant, then Jake’s Bar and Grill would be eligible to receive priority treatment for a grant, since her ethnicity qualifies as “socially and economically disadvantaged” under the law. But because she only owns 50% — her white husband owns the other half — the restaurant's application cannot be considered until the Small Business Administration (SBA) first processes all applications from restaurants entitled to priority status based on race and gender, as well as veteran status.

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https://greenwald.substack.com/p/appellate-court-strikes-down-racial

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