A5
THE ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2021
Appeals court stays
vaccine mandate on
larger businesses
guage employed by the
judges gave the decision a
national scope.
“This is a great vic-
tory for the American peo-
ple out there. Never before
has the federal government
tried in a such a forceful
way to get between the
choices of an American
citizen and their doctor. To
me that’s the heart of the
entire issue,” he said.
At least 27 states fi led
lawsuits challenging the
rule in several circuits,
some of which were made
more conservative by the
judicial appointments of
former President Donald
Trump.
The Biden administra-
tion has been encouraging
widespread vaccinations as
the quickest way to end the
pandemic that has claimed
more than 750,000 lives in
the United States.
The
administration
says it is confi dent that
the requirement, which
includes penalties of nearly
$14,000 per violation, will
withstand legal challenges
in part because its safety
rules preempt state laws.
The 5th Circuit, based
in New Orleans, said it was
delaying the federal vac-
cine requirement because
of potential “grave stat-
utory and constitutional
issues” raised by the plain-
tiff s. The government
needed to provide an expe-
dited reply to the motion
for a permanent injunction
Monday, followed by peti-
tioners’ reply on Tuesday.
Lawrence Gostin, a
professor at Georgetown
University Law Center
and director of the World
Health Organization’s cen-
ter on global health law,
said it was troubling that a
federal appeals court would
stop or delay safety rules in
a health crisis, saying no
one has a right to go into
a workplace “unmasked,
unvaxxed and untested.”
“Unelected judges that
have no scientifi c expe-
rience shouldn’t be sec-
ond-guessing health and
safety professionals at
OSHA,” he said.
Associated Press
Alex Brandon/AP Photo
President Joe Biden speaks about the bipartisan infrastructure bill at the White House on Saturday.
Congress passes $1 trillion
infrastructure legislation
By ALAN FRAM, ZEKE
MILLER and MARY
CLARE JALONICK
Associated Press
‘FINALLY, INFRASTRUCTURE
WEEK. I’M SO HAPPY TO SAY
THAT: INFRASTRUCTURE WEEK.’
WASHINGTON — Pres-
ident Joe Biden on Saturday
hailed Congress’ passage of
his $1 trillion infrastructure
package as a “monumental
step forward for the nation”
after fractious fellow Demo-
crats resolved a months-long
standoff in their ranks to seal
the deal.
“Finally,
infrastructure
week,” a beaming Biden told
reporters. “I’m so happy to
say that: infrastructure week.”
The bill cleared the House
on a 228-206 vote, ending
weeks of intraparty negotia-
tions in which liberal Demo-
crats insisted the legislation
be tied to a larger, $1.75 tril-
lion social spending bill —
an eff ort to press more mod-
erate Democrats to support
both.
The Senate passed the
legislation on a 69-30 vote in
August after rare bipartisan
negotiations, and the House
kept that compromise intact.
Thirteen House Republi-
cans voted for the bill, giv-
ing Democrats more than
enough votes to overcome a
handful of defections from
progressives.
Approval of the bill,
which promises to create
legions of jobs and improve
broadband, water supplies
and other public works,
sends it to the desk of a pres-
ident whose approval ratings
have dropped and whose ner-
vous party got a cold shoul-
der from voters in this past
week’s off -year elections.
Democratic candidates
for governor were defeated
in Virginia and squeaked
through in New Jersey, two
blue-leaning states. Those
setbacks made party lead-
ers — and moderates and
liberals alike — impatient
to produce impactful legis-
President Joe Biden
lation and demonstrate they
know how to govern. Dem-
ocrats can ill aff ord to seem
in disarray a year before mid-
term elections that could give
Republicans congressional
control.
Voters “want us to
deliver,” Biden said, and Fri-
day’s vote “proved we can.”
“On one big item, we
delivered,” he added.
The president will hold a
signing ceremony when law-
makers return from a week’s
recess.
The infrastructure pack-
age is a historic invest-
ment by any measure, one
that Biden compares in its
breadth to the building of
the interstate highway sys-
tem in the last century or the
transcontinental railroad the
century before. He called it
a “blue collar blueprint to
rebuilding America.”
The new law promises to
reach almost every corner
of the country. It’s a historic
investment that the president
has compared to the building
of the transcontinental rail-
road and Interstate Highway
System. The White House
is projecting that the invest-
ments will add, on average,
about 2 million jobs per year
over the coming decade.
Here’s a breakdown of the
bill:
Roads and bridges
The bill would provide
$110 billion to repair the
nation’s aging highways,
bridges and roads. Accord-
ing to the White House,
173,000 total miles of Amer-
ica’s highways and major
roads and 45,000 bridges
are in poor condition. And
SEVENDAY FORECAST FOR ASTORIA
TODAY
WEDNESDAY THURSDAY
electric vehicles to curb cli-
mate change. It would also
provide $5 billion for the
purchase of electric school
buses and hybrids, reducing
reliance on school buses that
run on diesel fuel.
the almost $40 billion for
bridges is the single larg-
est dedicated bridge invest-
ment since the construction
of the national highway sys-
tem, according to the Biden
administration.
Public transit
The $39 billion for pub-
lic transit in the legislation
would expand transporta-
tion systems, improve acces-
sibility for people with dis-
abilities and provide dollars
to state and local govern-
ments to buy zero-emission
and low-emission buses. The
Transportation Department
estimates that the current
repair backlog is more than
24,000 buses, 5,000 rail cars,
200 stations and thousands
of miles of track and power
systems.
Internet access
The legislation’s $65 bil-
lion for broadband access
would aim to improve inter-
net services for rural areas,
low-income families and
tribal communities. Most of
the money would be made
available through grants to
states.
Modernizing
the electric grid
To protect against the
power outages that have
become more frequent in
recent years, the bill would
spend $65 billion to improve
the reliability and resiliency
of the power grid. It would
also boost carbon capture
technologies and more envi-
ronmentally friendly elec-
tricity sources like clean
hydrogen.
Passenger
and freight rail
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To reduce Amtrak’s main-
tenance backlog, which has
worsened since Superstorm
Sandy nine years ago, the bill
would provide $66 billion to
improve the rail service’s
Northeast Corridor as well
as other routes. It’s less than
the $80 billion Biden — who
famously rode Amtrak from
Delaware to Washington
during his time in the Senate
— originally asked for, but
it would be the largest fed-
eral investment in passenger
rail service since Amtrak was
founded 50 years ago.
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Electric vehicles
The bill would spend $7.5
billion for electric vehicle
charging stations, which the
administration says are criti-
cal to accelerating the use of
FRIDAY
SATURDAY
NEW ORLEANS —
A federal appeals court
on Saturday temporarily
halted the Biden adminis-
tration’s vaccine require-
ment for businesses with
100 or more workers.
The 5th U.S. Circuit
Court of Appeals granted
an emergency stay of the
requirement by the fed-
eral Occupational Safety
and Health Administration
that those workers be vac-
cinated by Jan. 4 or face
mask requirements and
weekly tests.
Louisiana
Attorney
General Jeff Landry said
the action stops President
Joe Biden “from moving
forward with his unlawful
overreach.”
“The president will
not impose medical pro-
cedures on the American
people without the checks
and balances aff orded by
the constitution,” said a
statement from Landry, a
Republican.
The U.S. Labor Depart-
ment’s top legal adviser,
Solicitor of Labor Seema
Nanda, said the depart-
ment is “confi dent in its
legal authority to issue the
emergency temporary stan-
dard on vaccination and
testing.”
OSHA has the authority
“to act quickly in an emer-
gency where the agency
fi nds that workers are sub-
jected to a grave danger
and a new standard is nec-
essary to protect them,”
she said.
A
spokesman
for
the Justice Department,
Anthony Coley, said in a
statement: “The OSHA
emergency
temporary
standard is a critical tool
to keep America’s work-
places safe as we fi ght our
way out of this pandemic.
The Justice Department
will vigorously defend this
rule in court.”
Such circuit decisions
normally apply to states
within a district — Mis-
sissippi, Louisiana and
Texas, in this case —
but Landry said the lan-
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REGIONAL FORECAST
Shown is today’s weather. Temperatures are today’s highs and tonight’s lows.
Seattle
53 44
53 46
56 50
An afternoon
Windy with rain
shower
Cloudy with
showers
58 49
57 47
54 45
54 46
Rain at times
Showers
possible
A shower
possible
Showers
possible
Aberdeen
Olympia
52/45
50/43
Wenatchee
Tacoma
Moses
Lake
50/40
ALMANAC
UNDER THE SKY
TODAY'S TIDES
Astoria through Sunday
Tonight’s Sky: Cygnus, the swan,
is beginning its annual nosedive
toward the western horizon.
Astoria / Port Docks
Temperatures
High/low ................................ 50/40
Normal high/low .................. 56/41
Record high .................. 68 in 1923
Record low .................... 30 in 1993
Precipitation
Sunday ..................................... 1.17”
Month to date ........................ 4.07”
Normal month to date ......... 2.24”
Year to date .......................... 54.38”
Normal year to date ........... 50.77”
Forecasts and graphics provided by
AccuWeather, Inc. ©2021
Time
High (ft.) Time Low (ft.)
4:56 a.m.
3:52 p.m.
7.0 10:15 a.m. 3.3
8.5 11:17 p.m. -0.4
Cape Disappointment
4:32 a.m.
3:29 p.m.
Source: Jim Todd, OMSI
Hammond
SUN AND MOON
Sunrise today .................. 7:08 a.m.
Sunset tonight ............... 4:50 p.m.
Moonrise today ........... 12:53 p.m.
Moonset today .............. 9:22 p.m.
First
Full
Last
New
4:41 a.m.
3:43 p.m.
Warrenton
4:51 a.m.
3:47 p.m.
Knappa
5:33 a.m.
4:29 p.m.
Depoe Bay
Nov 11 Nov 19 Nov 27 Dec 3
3:48 a.m.
2:41 p.m.
7.1 9:20 a.m. 3.8
8.5 10:23 p.m. -0.7
7.2 9:44 a.m. 3.4
8.7 10:43 p.m. -0.9
7.4 9:59 a.m. 3.4
8.9 11:01 p.m. -0.3
7.3 11:16 a.m. 2.8
8.8
none
7.2 8:51 a.m. 3.9
8.8 9:57 p.m. -0.8
City
Atlanta
Boston
Chicago
Dallas
Denver
Honolulu
Houston
Los Angeles
Miami
New York City
Phoenix
San Francisco
Wash., DC
Wed.
Hi/Lo/W
76/50/s
62/49/s
57/44/c
75/60/pc
61/39/pc
85/72/pc
76/60/pc
67/54/c
80/68/pc
66/51/s
82/58/s
65/54/sh
71/51/s
73/55/s
60/42/pc
58/51/c
75/55/t
58/30/pc
87/73/s
78/63/pc
74/59/s
81/73/sh
63/48/pc
82/59/s
64/56/pc
69/49/s
Weather (W): s-sunny, pc-partly cloudy,
c-cloudy, sh-showers, t-thunderstorms,
r-rain, sf-snow fl urries, sn-snow, i-ice.
49/37
Hermiston
The Dalles 56/40
Enterprise
Pendleton 49/28
51/38
52/40
La Grande
47/30
53/45
NATIONAL CITIES
Today
Hi/Lo/W
44/32
Kennewick Walla Walla
49/39 Lewiston
57/43
53/45
Salem
Pullman
51/30
Longview
53/44 Portland
53/45
46/31
Yakima 53/33
48/39
Astoria
Spokane
45/31
Corvallis
52/41
Albany
51/44
John Day
Eugene
Bend
53/43
47/39
51/35
Ontario
54/35
Caldwell
Burns
50/28
55/38
Medford
54/42
Klamath Falls
48/31
City
Baker City
Brookings
Ilwaco
Newberg
Newport
Today
Hi/Lo/W
46/27/sh
54/48/r
53/47/r
51/44/r
53/44/r
Wed.
Hi/Lo/W
44/27/c
57/53/r
55/46/c
53/47/c
53/48/c
City
North Bend
Roseburg
Seaside
Springfi eld
Vancouver
Today
Hi/Lo/W
56/46/r
53/44/r
53/45/r
51/44/r
52/45/r
Wed.
Hi/Lo/W
57/52/c
56/51/c
54/46/c
54/50/c
53/48/c