House expected to pass COVID relief bill next week

The United States officially rejoined the Paris Agreement on Friday.

Biden signed a memo on his first day in office as president initiating the country's re-entry into the climate accord -- a process that takes 30 days.

"The Paris Agreement is an unprecedented framework for global action. We know because we helped design it and make it a reality," U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement Friday. "Now, as momentous as our joining the Agreement was in 2016 -- and as momentous as our rejoining is today -- what we do in the coming weeks, months, and years is even more important."

To celebrate the move, Biden's special envoy for climate change, John Kerry, will hold four events on Friday, including with United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

The U.S. has not yet offered specifics around its re-entry. There has been no announcement about new financial support, U.S. climate financing or what will be the country's target emission reductions under the deal, known as its Nationally Determined Contribution.

The U.S. became the first country in the world to formally withdraw from the Paris Agreement in November, more than three years after former President Donald Trump announced the move.

"Climate change and science diplomacy can never again be 'add-ons' in our foreign policy discussions," Blinken said. "Addressing the real threats from climate change and listening to our scientists is at the center of our domestic and foreign policy priorities."

-ABC News' Conor Finnegan

The State Department has announced the U.S. is "ready" to accept talks with Iran and the other remaining parties of the Iran nuclear deal "to discuss a diplomatic way forward on Iran's nuclear program," according to spokesperson Ned Price.

The EU's deputy foreign affairs official Enrique Mora tweeted earlier Thursday that the body was ready to play facilitator again and host Iran and the P5+1 -- the permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany, who negotiated the nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA.

The announcement from Price comes after Secretary of State Antony Blinken met Thursday morning with his French, British, and German counterparts and presented a unified front on the way forward on Iran. In a statement, they notably agreed that Iran must return to compliance with the nuclear deal and then negotiate with the parties to "strengthen the JCPOA" and "address broader security concerns related to Iran's missile programs and regional activities" -- something Iran says it won't do.

The Biden administration is also rescinding moves by former President Donald Trump to restrict Iran at the United Nations. As a gesture of good will, it is easing the travel restrictions on Iran's diplomats in New York and withdrawing the Trump position that the U.S. had snapped back U.N. sanctions.

Offering to meet -- and that potential first meeting -- "may not necessarily be a breakthrough," said one official on a briefing call with reporters. "We're not going to hype it for what it isn't. But it is a step. Until we sit down and talk, nothing's going to happen. ... But if we don't take that step, the situation is going to go from bad to worse."

-ABC News' Conor Finnegan

Biden will once again take his message about COVID-19 vaccinations and relief on the road Friday, traveling to Kalamazoo, Michigan, to tour a Pfizer vaccine manufacturing plant. The trip was originally scheduled for Thursday but was postponed.

Before he travels to Michigan on Friday, the president will participate in a virtual G-7 conference. Biden plans to announce that the United States will contribute a total of $4 billion to a U.N.-backed program seeking to distribute COVID-19 vaccine doses to people in the poorest countries in the world, according to senior administration officials.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki gave a preview of Biden’s scheduled address to G-7 leaders during a press briefing Thursday, suggesting that he will take his main domestic agenda and apply it on the world stage.

“President Biden will focus on a global response to the COVID pandemic, including coordination on vaccine production, distribution and supplies, as well as continued efforts to mobilize and cooperate against the threat of emerging infectious diseases by building country capacity and establishing health security financing,” Psaki said.

The president will also virtually attend the Munich Security Conference on Friday.

-ABC News' Molly Nagle and Ben Gittleson

Congressional Democrats on Thursday unveiled sweeping immigration reform legislation, which essentially consists of a roundup of immigration priorities President Joe Biden laid out on his first day in office.

The reform proposal is the most ambitious effort so far to counteract the Trump administration's hardline border policies.

The U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021 would create an eight-year path to citizenship for the 11 million undocumented people in the country. The measure provides funding for more immigration judges and support staff to help with the backlog of asylum seekers. The bill provides for increased security at ports of entry focused on detecting drugs and other contraband.

Counties and municipalities will be able to petition for additional work visas as needed under the reform bill. The bill would also remove the word "alien" in the immigration code and replace it with "noncitizen."

It would end the three and 10-year bans on reentry for undocumented immigrants who voluntarily leave the country,
reform the legal immigration processes by no longer counting spouses and minor children against a country's share of allotted visas and would increase from 55,000 to 80,000 the number of diversity visas issued for countries with low rates of immigration to the U.S.

-ABC News' Cecilia Vega and Quinn Owen