The Senate Judiciary Committee. Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images
The Senate Judiciary Committee announced Wednesday that the confirmation hearing for William Barr, President Trump's nominee for attorney general, will be held on Jan. 15 and 16.
The big picture: If confirmed by the committee, Barr will be take over for acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker. Barr is a controversial AG pick who has previously called special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into question.
Photo: Timothy A. Clary/AFP via Getty Images
Joe Biden expanded his energy and climate plans Tuesday with a call for spending $2 trillion over four years on climate-friendly infrastructure — a proposal the campaign is casting as part of a wider economic recovery package.
Why it matters: The plan, which is the focus of a speech Biden will deliver this afternoon, represents a long-anticipated plan to move his climate platform further left and make it more expansive.
CDC director Robert Redfield and President Trump. Photo: Drew Angerer/Getty Images
Four former directors of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention blasted the Trump administration's "repeated efforts to subvert" agency guidelines related to reopening schools, accusing the White House in a scathing Washington Post op-ed of undermining science with "partisan potshots."
Why it matters: Former directors Tom Frieden, Jeffrey Koplan and David Satcher and acting head Richard Besser served in parts of the Obama, Bush and Clinton administrations. They said they "cannot recall over our collective tenure a single time when political pressure led to a change in the interpretation of scientific evidence."
Illustration: Annelise Capossela/Axios
A new visa guideline issued last week would strip international students in the U.S. of their student visa if their college classes are online-only amid the pandemic.
Why it matters: More than 360,000 Chinese students are enrolled at U.S. colleges. Many of them could be forced to return to China if the rule change is implemented.