Their roles. The decision could change the direction of the party as we know it. Lets begin with jessica dean who joins us on the hill with more on this Power Sharing Agreement. Reporter the big thing here is democrats will now take control of the senate committees. When youre in control, youre setting the agenda. That means thing in joe bidens agenda that they wanted to get ahead, President Bidens agenda they wanted to push ahead like Merrick Garlands nomination for Attorney General can now move forward. Youll remember there has been a holdup on some of these nominees including Merrick Garland who is the nominee to be Attorney General because republicans maintained control of these committees, because they had to operate off the last congress because they didnt have this agreement in place. Now that democrats will take over these committees, that means democrats are going to have a much easier time getting things on the table. Theyre going to hold control. We expect now that someone l
House correspondent, Weekend Today cohost Peter Alexander, Garrett Haake on capitol hill, brendan buck, former Senior Adviser to house speakers paul ryan and john boehner, and former Maryland Democratic congresswoman Debra Everets and former senator claire mccaskill. Peter first to you. Lets start with the covid Relief Package. The white house releasing a statement after that monday meaning with republicans saying the president is open to reconciliation, but the republicans are in the conversation. So where do we stand . Are democrats on the Progressive Side getting nervous hell compromise too much, or are all saying hell go big even if it means going it alone . Reporter when everybody was said and done last night, it was clear President Biden, this white house wasnt really giving much ground here. They say that the meeting was substantive and productive but at the end of the day he said they had to meet this moment. The decision is whether to go big and go it alone or scale back this
vaccine shots in the first 100 days, being met today. the biden foreign policy challenge on front and center, after a testy day one of first biden talks with china. the american chinese trading insults, the same day a sneering back and forth from the russian president to team biden. this morning the president stressing what you might call a wait and see approach to both of these global challenges. what s your reaction to china last night? very proud of the secretary of state. are you going to take vladimir putin up on his offer to talk live with you? i m sure we ll talk at some point. have you on russia, sir? that will come in time. up first, though for us today a game changing move in america s covid back to school debate. the centers for disease control last hour changing its classroom safety guidelines. the cdc says three feet of separation is safe, cutting in half the current recommendation to keep students six feet apart. masks are still required but the
of massachusetts and utah and they did a study looking at half a million kids in massachusetts comparing students three and six feet apart. there are a lot of caveats. in areas of high transmission, they want to keep the high school and junior high school at six feet apart. let s say where there is a choir or singing, you want to increase that. the most important part to mention about these guidelines it depends on a lot of things. first of all, the amount of ventilation in a classroom. if you have a poorly ventilated classroom, even six feet may not be enough, certainly not if you are not wearing masks. also, in terms of getting teachers vaccinated, there is also the issue around level of community transmission as well. we have to be careful not to stick everything at the boiler plate of three feet or six feet. we will be talking to you later, but we wanted to start out with the breaking news and we will update that through the hour. president biden and vice president
the u.s. will hit 100 million shots in arms and another date, may 1st, listen to this. all adult americans will be eligible to get a vaccine to later than may 1. let me be clear. that doesn t mean everyone is going to have that shot immediately. but it means you ll be able to get in line beginning may 1. and then there is july 4th when the president said he aims for the country to be able to gather safely once again with loved ones. how does the administration meet and exceed these markers. that is one major question. also when every adult is eligible for a ashot how do they make sure everyone gets that shot quickly and president biden wants families to be able to gathered with loved ones on july 4th. does he mean be able to travel to get together with loved ones? he may have some answers. we ll bring you when the briefing begins, we ll bring it to you when they start speaking. and a few hours from now, another big event at the white house. a ceremonial bill signing of th