Senators say ready to move forward with $1.2T infrastructure bill – National & International News – WED 28Jul2021

Senate may open debate on infrastructure tonight. CDC tells vaccinated to mask-up indoors. Well-diggers find ‘world’s largest’ star sapphire.

NATIONAL NEWS

Senate may open debate on infrastructure tonight

A bipartisan group of Senators say they have reached agreements on “major issues” in the $1.2 trillion infrastructure package they’ve been negotiating for the last month. With this announcement, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer may call for a vote to open Senate debate on the bill as early as tonight.

The negotiators say they need a few more hours to finalize the language of the bill, but would have it ready in time for the vote.

Republican and Democratic Senators have only hinted at some of the contents of the bill. What we know so far is that the bill includes $550 billion in new spending for physical infrastructure, such as roads, bridges and broadband internet. This will include $65 billion in broadband deployment and affordability programs, according to Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME). Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) has also alluded to $110 billion for roads. The total $1.2 trillion figure factors in other expected funding for these projects. 

Funding questions remain

So far, there as been little clarity on the bill’s pay-fors. What we know is that the GOP negotiators rejected President Biden’s proposal to raise taxes on corporations and wealthy Americans. Republicans also recently ruled out a plan to beef up the IRS’ auditing and enforcement powers to bring in $billions the agency is due but has not been paid.

In previous negotiations with President Biden, GOP negotiators proposed using already-appropriated but still-unspent COVID money. This would likely redirect funding away from some of the enhanced social spending to keep struggling Americans and small businesses afloat during the pandemic. Several prominent Democrats have already widely denounced this idea.

However, senior GOP negotiator Sen. Rob Portman, (OH) insists that the bill is “paid for”. So it seems we will soon find out what sources of funding the negotiators have in mind.

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CDC tells vaccinated to wear masks indoors

The CDC’s Rochelle Walensky says that “new science” indicates that fully-vaccinated people who suffer breakthrough infections can still spread the COVID delta variant to others. As a result, Walensky is asking that even fully vaccinated people in certain areas of the country go back to donning masks at indoor gatherings and public indoor settings.

This announcement reverses the CDC’s advice in May that vaccinated people could take off their masks in most settings. 

Walensky explained that, “With prior variants, when people had these rare breakthrough infections, we didn’t see the capacity of them to spread the virus to others”. But Walensky says that the same does not hold true for the delta variant. “In those outbreak investigations,” she explains “we have been seeing that if you happen to have one of those breakthrough infections that you can actually now pass it to somebody else”.

NPR.org has a handy interactive map that breaks down by county where it’s safe to unmask and where you need to mask-up (opens in new tab). 

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INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Well-diggers find world’s largest star sapphire cluster

In the island nation of Sri Lanka, which is famed worldwide as a source of precious gems, workmen digging in a suburban backyard made an astounding chance discovery. The find was uncovered last year when a local gem merchant was having a well dug.

The homeowner says, “The person who was digging the well alerted us about some rare stones. Later we stumbled upon this huge specimen”. The find, dubbed the “Serendipity Sapphire”, weighed over 1,100 lbs, or 2.5 million carats. The total value has been estimated at round $100 million. As the cluster was being cleaned, a number of smaller specimens fell out, which proved to be high-quality light blue star sapphires.

Renowned gemmologist Dr. Gamini Zoysa says,”I have never seen such a large specimen before. This probably formed around 400 million years ago”. 

The gem’s owner lives in the region of Ratnapura, which means “city of gems” in the local Sinhalese language. 

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