Biden wants Congress to take action on gun reform

The call for gun reform comes on the third anniversary of the Parkland shooting.

This is Day 26 of the administration of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.


0

House Democrats to meet with Biden to talk about COVID-19 aid

House Democrats will head to the White House on Friday for a meeting with Biden to discuss his $1.9 trillion COVID-19 rescue package, sources familiar confirm to ABC News.

This will be Biden's first in-person meeting with House Democrats since being sworn in. The meeting includes House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Democratic Leader Steny Hoyer, and other party leaders and committee chairs.

Biden met with a group of 10 Republican senators on Monday who offered a counterproposal to the president's relief bill and with 11 Democratic Senate leaders on Wednesday.

"We'll get Republican support," Biden said Wednesday of negotiations over his bill. "I think we'll get some Republicans."

-ABC News' Mariam Khan


House Democrats making floor speeches about Jan. 6 experiences

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., is leading a special hour of floor speeches where she and other House Democrats are sharing their accounts of the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.

"Less than 29 days later, with little to no accountability for the bloodshed and trauma of the 6th, some are already demanding that we move on -- or worse, attempting to minimize, discredit or belittle the accounts of survivors," Ocasio-Cortez said.


Pentagon to require mask wearing indoors and outdoors

In compliance with Biden’s executive order requiring masks on federal properties, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has announced new mask-wearing rules that require masks by worn by all individuals on military installations indoors and outdoors including “all individuals performing official duties on behalf of the Department.”

Some exceptions remain for when someone is alone in an enclosed room with a closed door, while eating, for ID purposes and for a disability.

Mask-wearing rules at military facilities had already been in place but there had been more exceptions.

Thursday's order changes rules at the Pentagon that allowed for no mask-wearing in shared office spaces as long as one could maintain social distancing.

-ABC News' Luis Martinez


Senate 'vote-a-rama' makes way for Biden COVID-19 relief

With control of both chambers of Congress, Democrats are now moving to advance Biden's COVID-19 relief package through a budget reconciliation process that would allow Democrats to pass the measure with a simple majority vote.

On Capitol Hill Thursday afternoon, a "vote-a-rama" is underway in the Senate -- part of the reconciliation process that allows nonstop consideration of amendments to the annual budget. There’s no limit to how many amendments can be considered.

The Senate conducts about three 20-minute votes per hour, which would mean about 36 amendments will be voted on by 1 a.m. Friday.

-ABC News' Trish Turner