Politico

President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address unveiled a tech agenda focused on protecting children’s privacy online.

Biden’s speech called out tech companies’ grip on young Americans, and sounded the alarm on how social media affects teenagers’ mental health.

“It’s time to pass bipartisan legislation to stop Big Tech from collecting personal data on our kids and teenagers online,” Biden said. “Ban targeted advertising on children, and impose stricter limits on the personal data that companies collect on all of us.”

He called for similar measures at last year’s State of the Union as well.

Biden’s speech gives significant momentum to Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), who plans to reintroduce the Children and Teens’ Online Privacy Protection Act this Congress.

The bill, which is often referred to as COPPA 2.0, is an update to the 1998 Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, which Markey wrote as a House representative.

Since then, digital privacy concerns for children have grown exponentially, especially as more than half of America’s teens say it’d be difficult to give up social media. Those concerns include the use of targeted advertising geared toward children, and the collection of their data, both of which are bipartisan issues on Capitol Hill.

“This Congress, Senator Markey will continue to prioritize passage of his COPPA 2.0 legislation, which would finally put in place commonsense guardrails to stop Big Tech from tracking, targeting, and traumatizing America’s kids online,” said Rosemary Boeglin, a Markey spokesperson.

The biggest change from the original 1998 bill is that it increases the cut-off age for privacy protections from 13 to 16. Under COPPA, tech companies and data brokers are still allowed to collect and share data belonging to people over the age of 13, as well as target ads to teenagers.

Lawmakers and advocacy groups are concerned this has caused mental health issues for teens, which President Biden raised as a concern in his speech on Tuesday.

COPPA 2.0 would ban targeted advertising to children, aligning with Biden’s remarks on Tuesday night.

The bill also creates a Youth Privacy and Marketing division at the FTC to address issues related to kids’ online privacy.

COPPA 2.0 failed to get a floor vote in the Senate last year after it passed out of committee.

Republicans on the committee largely opposed the bill, arguing that Congress should focus on privacy legislation for all Americans instead. Republicans were also concerned about giving the FTC more rulemaking authority under the bill.

Markey has attempted to pass an update for kids’ privacy regulations since 2011. While he has momentum from the Biden administration, a split Congress could mean a 13th attempt in 2024.

Labor Secretary Marty Walsh is leaving the Biden administration to run the NHL Players Association, a person familiar with the matter confirmed.

Walsh’s departure comes amid a wider shakeup within the Biden administration as it begins the tail end of its first term in office and prepares for a possible reelection campaign.

A former union official — he previously headed up the Building and Construction Trades Council in Boston — Walsh will be returning to his roots in organized labor after giving some consideration to making another run at elected office in his home state of Massachusetts.

News of Walsh’s departure was first reported by The Daily Faceoff. It was not immediately clear what his exit day would be, and neither the White House nor the Labor Department immediately returned requests for comment.

Prior to his departure, Walsh played a high-profile role in several of the administration’s interactions with organized labor. He brokered an eleventh-hour compromise between freight rail carriers and unions in September and visited the West Coast as port workers renegotiated their contract with employers. But it’s a mixed track record: Congress eventually had to weigh in on the railroad dispute, and West Coast port talks remain ongoing.

With much of Biden’s pro-union reform concentrated in the White House, Walsh also is set to leave with several pivotal regulations still in the works at the Labor Department, including a proposed rule — initially expected months ago — that would expand the number of workers eligible for overtime pay and a final rule redefining which workers qualify as independent contractors. The latter carries significant ramifications for gig work companies like Lyft and Uber, whose profit models are dependent on how they qualify their workforce.

With Republicans taking over control of the House, Walsh would have faced significant congressional oversight from newly installed House Education and Workforce Chair Virginia Foxx. The North Carolina Republican, who received a rare waiver to helm the committee again despite conference term limits, said in an interview last month that she’s centering her agenda on “trying to monitor what the Department [of Labor] is doing” and “calling the department’s hand.” She cited Walsh’s visit to Kellogg picket lines in October, among other things: “We’re watching Walsh not remain an objective observer of what’s happening, going and getting on the picket lines.”

House Republicans are planning to press DOL’s solicitor general on whether Walsh followed proper ethics protocols while pursuing the NHLPA job.

Walsh, a personal friend of Biden’s, beat out several candidates for the Labor job in 2021, including Rep. Andy Levin (D-Mich.), former Deputy Labor Secretary Seth Harris, California Labor Secretary Julie Su and AFL-CIO Chief Economist Bill Spriggs. He enjoyed more bipartisan support than many other Biden nominees, leaning on his track record as Boston mayor to win over corporate America and even some congressional Republicans, who saw him as the friendliest option.

The former Boston mayor left toward the end of his second term to join the Biden administration but never moved to Washington, D.C., instead footing the bill to commute between his home in the city’s Dorchester neighborhood and his job.

By taking the players’ association gig, Walsh is now in line for a massive pay bump. Walsh makes a little over $200,000 as labor secretary. The current NHLPA executive director reportedly makes about $3 million.

Walsh had been regularly talked about as a future candidate for office in Massachusetts. But he passed on running for the state’s open governor’s seat last year, unwilling to get involved in a primary against Democrats’ heir apparent, now-Gov. Maura Healey. In addition, Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey (D-Mass.) have both pledged to seek reelection to their Senate seats in 2024 and 2026, respectively.

The White House’s guest list for President Joe Biden’s State of the Union speech represents a wide range of policy priorities for the Biden administration, notably including Ukraine’s Ambassador to the U.S. Oksana Markarova, Tyre Nichols’ parents and Paul Pelosi.

“Each of these individuals were invited by the White House because they personify issues or themes to be addressed by the President in his speech, or they embody the Biden-Harris Administration’s policies at work for the American people,” the Biden administration said in a Tuesday announcement of the 26 guests who will join first lady Jill Biden in the White House viewing box.

The announcement comes ahead of Biden’s State of the Union address on Tuesday evening at the Capitol, where he’s expected to touch on key efforts of his administration and soft-launch a 2024 reelection campaign message.

The United States’ ongoing support of Ukraine is likely to be a highlight of Biden’s address, especially with Markarova joining the first lady as a guest for the second year in a row. The Ukraine ambassador received a standing ovation at last year’s State of the Union, just days after Russia had launched its war on Ukraine.

Politically motivated violence and extremism are sure to be topics of Biden’s speech with Paul Pelosi on the guest list, after the former House speaker’s husband was violently attacked by a home intruder in the fall of 2022. The White House guest list also includes Monterey Park, Calif., Lunar New Year shooting survivor Brandon Tsay, who heroically stopped the gunman from carrying out a second attack.

The president is also expected to discuss justice in policing, given the attendance of the parents of Tyre Nichols, a Black man who died in Memphis last month after being beaten by police.

Several people on the guest list have been impacted in some way by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, including Saria Gwin-Maye, an ironworker and union member who will work on repairing a bridge in Kentucky that’s receiving an investment because of the legislation. Another guest, Deanna Branch is working to build a lead-safe community after her son suffered from lead poisoning, an initiative Biden’s infrastructure law has provided funding for.

The White House’s other guests highlight key topics such as job growth, the Inflation Reduction Act, abortion, mental health, cancer and combating antisemitism, among others. The first lady also invited U2 lead singer Bono, who’s a well-known activist in the fight against HIV and AIDS.

President Joe Biden is poised to shake up his leadership team with two veteran economic minds likely to assume new roles just as he faces his best chance yet to avoid a recession that could derail his reelection effort.

Biden aides expect a rapid succession of appointments, including Federal Reserve Vice Chair Lael Brainard as the next National Economic Council director and long-time Biden confidant Jared Bernstein as chair of the Council of Economic Advisers. Biden has already named businessman and former Covid-response czar Jeff Zients as his next chief of staff.

The shakeup would give the president three well-known players from across the Obama-Biden presidential years at a key moment for the economy. The Federal Reserve is slowing the pace of its sharp and brutal rate hikes aimed at crushing 40-year-high inflation, the job market is holding up, and big overseas economies including the Eurozone are narrowly avoiding recessions.

But it remains highly uncertain whether the Fed can navigate a so-called soft-landing for the economy, in which growth slows but the country averts a recession. And other big headaches loom, including a GOP-controlled House potentially forcing a market-shaking showdown over raising the government’s debt limit.

Multiple senior Biden aides and others close to the process described the selection of Brainard and Bernstein, who is currently a member of the Council of Economic Advisers, as close to assured, but no formal announcement is set yet. It’s still possible that either job could wind up slipping to one of several other candidates or that new names could emerge, they said.

Brainard, who is meeting with other Fed officials this week in Washington to decide on the central bank’s next interest rate hike, could not be reached for comment.

“It’s not totally done yet,” one top White House official said, while not disputing that Brainard and Bernstein are the leading candidates. Another senior official agreed, while a third said the two appointments seemed definite but that Biden had not given a final sign-off.

White House Deputy Press Secretary Emilie Simons said in a statement, “There is no decision on either of these positions and any reporting to the contrary is inaccurate.”

The White House officials said installing Brainard at NEC to succeed Brian Deese would offer gender diversity to the economic leadership, It would also make it easier for Biden to pick his friend Bernstein, who is among a group of older, white male advisers, to head the CEA, the White House’s in-house economic research office. Current CEA Chair Cecilia Rouse is returning to Princeton. Deese is leaving the NEC — which is housed inside the West Wing and is the more powerful of the two offices — to be closer to his family,

A Brainard and Bernstein combination would at least partially satisfy left-leaning Democrats who pushed for a younger and more aggressive candidate for the NEC job such as Bharat Ramamurti, the current NEC deputy and a former top staffer for Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).

Progressives had questioned Brainard’s commitment on some of their key issues since she served as President Barack Obama’s Treasury undersecretary for international affairs under then-Secretary Timothy Geithner. At the time, Brainard was viewed by many progressives as insufficiently aggressive on using executive tools to fight climate change and economic inequality and as too pro-free trade and friendly with elite global bankers.

But Brainard has nudged left on some of those issues and been a progressive at the Fed on monetary policy — mostly preferring a gentler path of rate hikes to fight high inflation.

Bernstein is widely admired in progressive circles while also holding credibility with more centrist-leaning Democrats and even some Capitol Hill Republicans. He has long been a vocal critic of trade agreements so could limit any fallout among organized labor groups over the Brainard pick.

The selection of Brainard and Bernstein would come after weeks of feverish jockeying, often through strategic press leaks, for the top economic jobs, with a variety of names being floated as front-runners by Democratic insiders eager to see their preferred candidates get the jobs.

The White House has also flirted with various Wall Street veterans for top positions, including investment bankers Blair Effron and Antonio Weiss. Putting any such candidate into a policy-influencing spot would likely have enraged progressives, and the idea appears to have been mostly dropped.

Other candidates mentioned as candidates for NEC have included Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo, American University President and former Obama cabinet member Sylvia Mathews Burwell, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and senior Biden economic adviser Gene Sperling.

Friends say that Sperling, who served as NEC director under both Presidents Bill Clinton and Obama, coveted doing the job for what would be a record third time. Sperling, who splits his time between Washington and Los Angeles, has repeatedly denied wanting or campaigning for the job.

Zients is viewed as a masterful manager and problem solver but less well-versed or interested in the kind of backroom political horse-trading required to push things like a debt limit deal through on Capitol Hill. Brainard has extensive Hill relationships as does Bernstein.

Bernstein and Brainard are both considered centrist enough to offer some comfort to Wall Street investors and not averse to cutting deals with Republicans if that’s what it takes.

Brainard’s departure from the Fed would leave a significant hole at the central bank, where she is a trusted No. 2 to Chair Jerome Powell.

Brainard, a Ph.D. economist, also chairs four of the central bank’s internal committees, leading policy in key areas like whether the Fed should issue a central bank digital currency.

Victoria Guida contributed to this report. 

House Republicans’ expectations for Speaker Kevin McCarthy and President Joe Biden’s first one-on-one sitdown are so low that many of them point to a single goal: For the president to suggest he’ll negotiate at all on spending cuts.

As the new GOP majority digs in on its demands ahead of a looming debt crisis, Democrats have so far refused to even entertain giving ground in talks. The White House and Senate Democrats want Republicans to outline the cuts they’d seek in exchange for lifting the $31.4 trillion debt ceiling — or offer any proof of what they can pass with their minuscule margin in the House.

Given the current debt stalemate, few members of either party expect the McCarthy-Biden encounter to yield any significant breakthroughs. This leaves McCarthy’s conference with little to do but organize its often-fractious ranks for the fight ahead: House Republicans will hold a debt limit meeting Wednesday morning, ahead of their speaker’s time with Biden.

But the GOP is also entertaining hope that the president shows a shred of openness to taking its demands seriously, even as very few of its members specify what they want Biden to negotiate on. A rare Republican with a concrete proposal was Texas Rep. Chip Roy, who on Tuesday called directly for federal spending caps.

“It’s a lot of work. We got to do it. We’re in a big hole because of irresponsibility on both sides of the aisle,” said Roy, who has also specified that the cuts shouldn’t touch the Pentagon’s budget or programs like Medicare or Social Security. “But there is a path, and we ought to sit down and figure it out.”

That growing fiscal slash-and-burn pressure from the GOP’s right flank leaves both parties in a state of high-stakes uncertainty as Congress veers towards a summertime cliff that draws parallels to the Obama administration’s flirtation with debt calamity more than a decade ago. And this time around, Biden’s lead negotiating partner won’t be his generational counterpart Mitch McConnell but the younger speaker from California, who brings a more Trump-friendly conservatism and less predictable style to the table.

McCarthy will also be speaking for a conference where fiscal hawks hold significant sway and spending caps are gaining momentum as a proposed solution. That outcome would be similar to the 2011 debt limit standoff, which ended with Congress enacting strict spending limits that technically lasted a decade, but were waived more times than not.

“I think the first thing [Biden] should do, especially as president of the United States, is say he’s willing to sit down and find a common ground and negotiate together,” McCarthy told reporters Tuesday morning when asked what he would need to see from Biden to consider the meeting a success.

House Freedom Caucus Chair Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) put it more simply: “It would be awesome if the president would admit he is going to negotiate. That would be awesome.”

But GOP members are still fiercely split over major issues like whether to slash the Pentagon’s budget or touch entitlement programs, and broad domestic spending cuts could prove problematic for more moderate, electorally vulnerable members.

Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.), another conservative who supports limits on domestic spending, said of Biden: “He wants to do a free debt ceiling. And I don’t think that’s what the American people want.”

The first step this time, as House Republicans see it, is for Biden to acknowledge to their leader that the U.S. needs to start chipping away at the nation’s rising borrowing bills. While GOP leaders have agreed to look at capping spending at fiscal 2022 levels in future spending bills, there’s been little open discussion about whether those demands would carry into the debt conversations.

“We can’t even talk about it without the president and Democrats coming to the table,” said House Budget Committee Chair Jodey Arrington (R-Texas).

Democrats, meanwhile, are looking for their own concessions. Biden plans to seek a commitment from McCarthy that the U.S. will never default on its financial obligations, according to a White House memo released earlier Tuesday. Administration officials also said they plan to unveil their proposed budget for the coming fiscal year on March 9, demanding that House GOP leaders reveal their own blueprint detailing their vision for spending cuts.

Some Senate Democrats have said they’re willing to discuss government funding as part of the annual appropriations process, but not while using the nation’s borrowing limit as a bargaining chip.

“There shouldn’t be a negotiation about whether or not we pay our bills,” said Sen. Debbie Stabenow of Michigan, a member of the chamber’s Democratic leadership. “If they want to talk about next year’s budget, certainly that’s a legitimate thing. But we don’t negotiate to pay our bills.”

Centrist Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), however, has said it would be a mistake for the White House not to negotiate with Republicans over the debt ceiling. Manchin met with McCarthy last week, after which he said the GOP leader agreed not to cut Medicare and Social Security.

“I think those two can get something done,” Manchin said Monday night of the president and House GOP leader. “I really feel confident about that.”

Unlike some House Republicans, though, Senate Minority Whip John Thune (R-S.D.) said he hopes Biden will entertain changes to ensure the long-term solvency of programs like Social Security and Medicare, which “are both headed for bankruptcy.”

“That doesn’t mean you have to cut programs, but it does mean that you’ve got to make reforms … that will translate into making those programs more sustainable for the long term,” Thune said Tuesday. “If you take that off the table in these negotiations, it does obviously limit the amount of the budget that you can address.”

More than a decade ago, then-Vice President Biden and Senate GOP leader McConnell successfully hashed out a spending caps deal to stave off a market-rattling default. But this time, McConnell has said McCarthy should take the lead, arguing that nothing would get through the Democratic-led Senate if it can’t pass the Republican-led House.

McConnell said Tuesday that the 2011 deal was successful when it came to restricting spending in the short-term, but it squeezed defense funding too much.

“We’re all behind Kevin and wishing him well in negotiations,” McConnell said.

Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.), a senior party appropriator, said Biden will ultimately have to negotiate with the GOP to stave off a debt default that — in Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s recent words — could result in a “global financial crisis.”

“No one holds all the cards,” Fleischmann said.

Jennifer Scholtes and Katherine Tully-McManus contributed to this report.

A coalition of major gun safetygroups is pressing President Joe Biden to appoint a gun czar and declare a national emergency over gun violence. They also want concrete policy proposals beyond his futile pleas to Congress for an assault weapons ban.

In a letter to Biden first obtained by POLITICO, the groups are heating up the pressure campaign ahead of the president’s State of the Union address next week. The coalition of 117 organizations also called for a series of executive actions and for the White House to detail how it plans to implement the historic gun legislation the president signed into law last year.

“For a president who ran on one of the most comprehensive gun violence prevention strategies in probably American history, who has repeatedly said that he will do everything in his power to help solve this crisis, he’s simply left too many solutions on the table,” said Igor Volsky, executive director of Guns Down America, one of the main co-signers. “He has a real obligation to live up to his promises and live up to his word and do everything and anything he can to make progress.”

The letter by the coalition — also led by Brady United, Community Justice Action Fund, March for Our Lives and Newtown Action Alliance — illustrates the breadth of the issues the president will be pushed to tackle during this year’s State of the Union, a speech that comes at the halfway point of his first term. It also underscores the degree to which progressive-leaning institutions aren’t simply content to let Biden rest on his accomplishments as he begins gearing up for a likely reelection bid.

The coalition’s latest effort comes amid a flurry of mass shootings. But it is also reminiscent of the early days of Biden’s presidency, when many of the same groups wrote the president a letter outlining executive actions they sought, frustrated he hadn’t come out as aggressively as he promised on the campaign trail.

“Now two years later, we’re circulating another letter,” said Po Murray, chair of the Newtown Action Alliance. “We want Biden to address this and tell the world what his plan is to tackle this issue.”

The Biden White House has made historic strides on gun policy. The president has taken a slew of executive actions, and his administration has invested in community violence intervention. And following back-to-back shootings in Buffalo, N.Y., and then Uvalde, Texas, in 2022, the White House worked with a bipartisan coalition in Congress to pass the first gun legislation into law in nearly three decades. That deal, signed by Biden in June, toughened background checks for young gun buyers, helped states implement red flag laws and kept firearms from more domestic violence offenders. The following month, the Senate confirmed the first director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms since 2013.

Earlier this month, the administration announced a new rule to tighten regulations on guns with stabilizing braces, used by shooters in Boulder, Colo., and Dayton, Ohio. The White House did not respond to requests for comment on the president’s next policy moves, but press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said last week that Biden’s team would continue to examine avenues for executive action.

“We’ll continue to pursue executive actions to reduce gun violence,” Jean-Pierre said, noting she didn’t have “anything right now to share or preview.” She added the administration is always striving to find ways “to deal with an issue, again, that is devastating communities across the country. But I also want to be very, very clear here. In order to deal with this, we need Congress to act.”

Already in 2023, there have been 41 mass shootings in which four or more people were injured or killed, according to the Gun Violence Archive. At least 69 people have been killed, and that’s not counting the thousands dead this month due to other acts of gun violence or firearm suicide. Now, with a split Congress, the coalition of gun groups argues Biden has more of a responsibility to shoulder the burden for pushing reform — and they insist that he has options on the table.

The groups encouraged Biden to focus on implementation of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act he signed into law more than six months ago, including by making use of the federal statute outlined in the legislation to target gun traffickers. They also called for the administration to ensure FBI investigators are properly trained in conducting background checks on buyers under the age of 21.

The letter also asked the administration to address the background check loophole by clarifying who is considered “engaged in the business” of selling firearms. The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act updated federal law, requiring anyone who sells guns for profit to be licensed. The coalition argues that by issuing a new rule, the ATF could clarify who qualifies as a firearms dealer and, therefore, who must conduct background checks on gun buyers.

Much of Biden’s rhetoric on guns has been focused on his intent to reinstate the assault weapons ban that he helped pass in 1994 as senator, but which lapsed in 2004.

But Peter Ambler, executive director of Giffords, which sent its own, separate memo to the White House on Monday, said the narrow focus on the ban reduces the need to talk about other weighty issues like background check loopholes and the need for investment in community violence intervention.

“Because when you just say assault weapons, honestly, you just think about mass shootings But gun safety solutions are also critical to combatting crime, intervening in cycles of community violence, addressing suicide, and more,” Ambler said. Along similar lines, the coalition’s letter asked the president to use his office “to communicate the scope of this crisis.”

And though the president doesn’t appear to have the votes for an assault weapons ban in Congress, the groups argue that Biden has tools at his disposal to further limit the proliferation of these guns in the U.S., including by fully enforcing the importation ban of foreign-made assault weapons that do not have a “sporting purpose.” As Giffords notes in its memo, the ATF, which oversees the importation of guns in the U.S., “has not conducted a comprehensive review of semi-automatic assault rifles and handguns under the sporting purposes test” since the Clinton administration.

The groups also are seeking a leader in the White House to oversee this work. Right now, the White House, Department of Justice and ATF are working in silos, Ambler said, and could benefit from greater capacity and coordination across agencies.

Susan Rice, whose portfolio as head of the White House Domestic Policy Council spans across a multitude of issues, is primarily seen as the point-person on gun policy. White House policy adviser Stefanie Feldman also works extensively on the issue. Tuesday’s letter specifically asks the president to establish a federal office of gun violence prevention, a move that would ensure someone is “driving this issue every single day,” said Volsky, who has routinely pushed the White House to place a gun-policy centric portfolio under a cabinet-level aide.

“They’ve clearly failed to do so thus far,” he said. “And so we’re using this opportunity — in light of all the recent tragedies — to call on him not to just ask Congress to do something, but to also do more himself.”

NEW YORK — Mayor Eric Adams said Friday he has been in contact with the White House and mayors across the country as the nation prepares for Tennessee officials to release video footage showing the traffic stop that turned deadly for Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man who was beaten by Memphis police.

“As a human being, I am devastated. As a mayor, I am outraged. And as someone who spent decades fighting for police diversity and against police abuse, I feel betrayed by these officers,” Adams said Friday night in a live address from City Hall.

On Thursday, five Memphis police officers were charged with murder after pulling over Nichols on Jan. 7 and — according to officials who have seen the footage — beating him so savagely he died in a hospital three days later.

With several demonstrations already in the works, Adams urged New Yorkers to express themselves peacefully.

“My message to New York is to respect the wishes of Mr. Nichols’ mother. If you need to express your anger and outrage, do so peacefully,” he said. “My message to the NYPD has been and will continue to be to exercise restraint.”

Adams said prior to his discussion with the White House, he convened a call with elected officials from across government to discuss the release of the footage.

One person familiar with the call said Police Chief Keechant Sewell urged restraint, with the aim of avoiding a repeat of the NYPD’s sometimes violent crackdown on the social justice protests of 2020. Several officials voiced support for reforms to the NYPD on the call, while Adams himself mentioned the potential for bad actors to exploit mass gatherings.

Adams came into office promising a balance between support for law enforcement and preventing overly aggressive policing that has historically afflicted communities of color. The protests planned for Friday evening could prove a major test of that balancing act.

“I have stated over and over again that we have a sacred covenant. Our officers must follow the law and be held accountable for their actions,” he said. “Otherwise there is no law.”

Vice President Kamala Harris will once again head the U.S. delegation to the Munich Security Conference, two people familiar with her plans said, a sign of the continued importance the U.S. is putting on transatlantic cooperation on Ukraine nearly one year into the war.

Harris’ appearance at Europe’s premier defense conferenceis meant tounderscore that America won’t abandon Kyiv even as the war is expected to grind on for at least another year. She’ll arrive in the southern German city after a few tense weeks of negotiations between Washington and Berlin over supplying more advanced weapons to Ukraine.

Following discussions with German officials, who had said they’d send their Leopard tanks to Ukraine if the U.S. sent its Abrams tanks, President Joe Biden authorized the transfer of 31 Abramson Wednesday. In response, Germany quickly greenlighted its own Leopard tanks and those held by other nations.

It’ll be Harris’ second go in front of the conference, taking place Feb. 17-19.

Just ahead of the one-year anniversary of the invasion, Harris will get a chance to update transatlantic-minded officials and experts on the progress the U.S.-led Western resistance has made and potentially preview further steps. Ukraine, for instance, has made no secret about its desire to field fighter jets, including F-16s, from the United States.

Last year, the vice president gave a well-received speech just five days before Vladimir Putin sent his forces across the border into Ukraine. Harris, echoing her boss’ sentiments, vowed that the United States would stand up for Kyiv and the broader transatlantic alliance under such dire circumstances.

“If Russia further invades Ukraine, the United States, together with our Allies and partners, will impose significant and unprecedented economic costs,” she said.

A White House official said there’s no travel to announce for the vice president.

The news of Harris’ involvement in the event comes as rumors grow that Biden might make a visit to Europe in commemoration of the one-year mark of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The White House has yet to confirm any discussions of such a trip, let alone say that a flight over the Atlantic is officially on the schedule.

The Biden administration extended a program on Thursday that protects Hong Kong residents in the U.S. from deportation, less than two weeks before it was set to expire.

The two-year extension of the program — the Deferred Enforced Departure for Certain Hong Kong Citizens — means that Hong Kongers who would otherwise be deported for having overstayed the duration of their original visas can remain in the U.S. until Jan. 26, 2025.

The DED had been set to expire on Feb. 5, and the administration had been under pressure from a number of Democratic lawmakers in recent weeks to extend the program due to concerns about worsening repression in Hong Kong.

The White House has also expanded the number of people who may benefit from DED by allowing any Hong Kong residents present in the U.S. today, Jan. 26, to apply for the program.

“With this action, we are demonstrating again President Biden’s strong support for the people of Hong Kong in the face of increasing repression by the PRC,” the National Security Council said in a statement.

U.S.-based pro-democracy activists who have been lobbying the White House for months to extend DED welcomed the White House decision. Hong Kongers in the U.S. “can breathe a sigh of relief,” said Samuel Chu, president of the nonprofit The Campaign for Hong Kong. The expanded eligibility criteria means that “even more lives will be preserved and protected from persecution, rigged trials, long jail sentences, and loss of freedom,” Chu said.

The Chinese government has bristled at the deportation protection provided to Hong Kong residents in the U.S.

“The U.S. provided so-called ‘safe haven’ for anti-China insurgents fleeing overseas under the pretext of democracy and human rights, further exposing its sinister intention to jeopardize the peace of Hong Kong and to use the ‘Hong Kong card’ to contain China’s development,” Chinese embassy spokesperson Liu Pengyu said in a statement earlier this month.

The Biden administration first issued the deportation reprieve in August 2021, due to concerns about “the significant erosion” of rights and freedoms in Hong Kong. It granted an estimated 3,860 Hong Kong citizens present in the U.S. on that date the right to live and work in the U.S. for 18 months.

But repression in the territory has worsened during that time as government authorities have launched a prolonged crackdown to silence democracy activists and muzzle media. Police enforcement of the National Security Law,which imposes severe penalties for ambiguously defined crimes including “subversion” and “collusion with foreign countries”has led to the arrests of more than 160 people since June 2020 for crimes including organizing informal public opinion polls. Lawyers who represent victims of human rights abuses are fleeing the territory in the face of threats and intimidation.

The NSC said in its statement that Beijing is using the National Security Law to “deny the people of Hong Kong their human rights and fundamental freedoms, undermine Hong Kong’s autonomy, and chip away at Hong Kong’s remaining democratic processes and institutions.”

House Foreign Affairs Committee Ranking Member Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.) urged the White House earlier this month to “take immediate steps” to extend the program. Sens. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Tim Kaine (D-Va.) and Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) called for a DED extension of “another 18 months at a minimum,” in a letter last week.

Hong Kong pro-democracy activists are seeking congressional support to grant Temporary Protected Status to Hong Kongers to eliminate the uncertainty of DED extensions.

Renewing DED is “the bare minimum,” said Anna Kwok, executive director of the nonprofit Hong Kong Democracy Council. It “resets a countdown clock for Hong Kongers in the U.S. until the next wave of uncertainty and anxiety inevitably hits.”