WASHINGTON —

Video above: U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin meet with Israeli counterpart at the Pentagon to discuss military readiness against Iran and shared security interest in the region

President Joe Biden signed the National Defense Authorization Act into law, authorizing $768.2 billion in military spending, including a 2.7% pay raise for service members, for 2022.

The NDAA authorizes a 5% increase in military spending, and is the product of intense negotiations between Democrats and Republicans over issues ranging from reforms of the military justice system to COVID-19 vaccine requirements for soldiers.

“The Act provides vital benefits and enhances access to justice for military personnel and their families, and includes critical authorities to support our country’s national defense,” Biden said Monday in a statement.

The $768.2 billion price tag marks $25 billion more than Biden initially requested from Congress, a prior proposal that was rejected by members of both parties out of concerns it would undermine U.S. efforts to keep pace militarily with China and Russia.

The new bill passed earlier this month with bipartisan support, with Democrats and Republicans touting wins in the final package.

Democrats applauded provisions in the bill overhauling how the military justice system handles sexual assault and other related crimes, effectively taking prosecutorial jurisdiction over such crimes out of the hands of military commanders.

Republicans, meanwhile, touted success in blocking an effort to add women to the draft, as well as the inclusion of a provision that bars dishonorable discharges for service members who refuse the COVID-19 vaccine.

The bill includes $7.1 billion for the Pacific Deterrence Initiative and a statement of congressional support for the defense of Taiwan, measures intended to counteract China’s influence in the region.

It also includes $300 million for the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, a show of support in the face of Russian aggression, as well as $4 billion for the European Defense Initiative.

In his statement, the president also outlined a number of provisions his administration opposes over what he characterized as “constitutional concerns or questions of construction.”

Those plans include provisions that restrict the use of funds to transfer or release individuals detained at the Guantanamo Bay detention center, which the Biden administration is moving to close. Biden’s statement said the provisions "unduly impair” the executive branch’s ability to decide when and where to prosecute detainees and where to send them when they’re released, and could constrain U.S. negotiations with foreign countries over the transfer of detainees in a way that could undermine national security.

The law also has provisions barring goods produced by forced Uyghur labor in China from entering the U.S., and it begins to lay out plans for the new Global War on Terror Memorial, which would be the latest addition to the National Mall.

WASHINTON, D.C. -- Senate Democrats are unveiling a plan to extend additional unemployment benefits.

This is for the extra $600 every week, on top of what states already offer for unemployment.

The new proposal would decrease the added benefit as the unemployment rate drops.

The Economic Policy Institute supports that plan, saying the additional benefit should stay in place as long as needed.

“People are really, really uncertain about how this is going to unfold over the coming months, so putting some arbitrary end date on any provisions related to supporting the economy and the people in it during this crisis makes no sense,” said Heidi Shierholz, Senior Economist and Director of Policy at the Economic Policy Institute.

The institute tells us the expansion makes a huge difference, not just for the individual, but for all of us. It estimates if it cuts off at the end of July, that could cost the U.S. 5 million jobs over the next year. That's because less spending creates a further drag on the economy.

However, Republicans say the expanded benefit gives people a reason to not go back to work.

Some studies have found the economy could actually be worse off if people don't get working again.

The American Enterprise Institute agrees, saying the move was just meant to get through the initial lockdown.

“This is becoming less of a, the pandemic caused us to initiate lockdowns and people are at home, and now it's just we have a large number of unemployed people, what should we do to assist them, and $600 addition to unemployment checks in a bad economy is a really unprecedented step,” said Matt Weidinger with the American Enterprise Institute.

The group says extending the benefits could set that precedent for Congress to act similarly for any future recessions.

MILWAUKEE, Wis. — President Joe Biden said Tuesday that he won’t be canceling $50,000 of student loan debt for borrowers, as has been proposed by other top Democrats.

When asked about the matter during his first presidential town hall with CNN, Biden said, “I will not make that happen.”

Though, during his campaign for the presidency, Biden did say that he supports canceling up to $10,000 in federal student loan debt and he reiterated that during the town hall.

"My point is: I understand the impact of debt, and it can be debilitating," Biden said. "I am prepared to write off the $10,000 debt, but not [$50,000], because I don't think I have the authority to do it."

The president said he would consider a program in which student loan debt is forgiven for those who give back to their communities.

"In terms of student debt that's accumulated, is provide for changing the existing system now for debt forgiveness if you engage in volunteer activity,” said Biden. “For example, if you're teaching school, after five years, you'd have $50,000 of your debt forgiven. If you worked in a battered women's shelter, you'd be able to forgive debt."

The Biden administration has said canceling more debt than that would take congressional action.

“The President continues to support the cancelling of student debt to bring relief to students and families,” tweeted White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki. “Our team is reviewing whether there are any steps he can take through executive action and he would welcome the opportunity to sign a bill sent to him by Congress.”

Earlier this month, congressional Democrats released a plan that seeks to forgive up to $50,000 in federal student loans per borrower. They called on Biden to make it happened through executive action.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sen. Elizabeth Warren are two of lawmakers advocating for $50,000. Wednesday, they responded to Biden’s town hall comments with a joint statement.

“Presidents Obama and Trump used their executive authority to cancel student loan debt,” they wrote. The Biden administration has said it is reviewing options for cancelling up to $50,000 in student debt by executive action, and we are confident they will agree with the standards Obama and Trump used as well as leading legal experts who have concluded that the administration has broad authority to immediately deliver much-needed relief to millions of Americans. An ocean of student loan debt is holding back 43 million borrowers and disproportionately weighing down Black and Brown Americans. Cancelling $50,000 in federal student loan debt will help close the racial wealth gap, benefit the 40% of borrowers who do not have a college degree, and help stimulate the economy. It’s time to act. We will keep fighting.”

President Joe Biden will push the case for his $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan in the reliably Republican state of Louisiana — directly challenging GOP lawmakers who say that low taxes for corporations and the wealthy will fuel economic growth.

Biden is leaning into the stagecraft of the presidency on Thursday by choosing to speak in the city of Lake Charles in front of a 70-year-old bridge that is 20 years past its designed lifespan.

Even as he engages with Republicans in Washington, Biden is trying to sell their voters on the idea that higher corporate taxes can provide $115 billion for roads and bridges and hundreds of billions of dollars more to upgrade the electrical grid, make the water system safer, rebuild homes and jump-start the manufacturing of electric vehicles.

He's proposing to pay for his plan by undoing the 2017 tax cuts signed into law by President Donald Trump and raising the corporate tax rate from 21% to 28%. Biden contends his programs would bolster the middle class and make the country stronger than tax cuts for big companies and CEOs.

Biden hinted at the theme when answering questions from reporters after a Wednesday speech at the White House that also emphasized his separate $1.8 trillion plan for education and children to be funded by higher taxes on the wealthiest Americans.

"What’s going to grow America more?" Biden said. "What’s going to help you and your security more? The super wealthy having to pay 3.9% less tax or having an entire generation of Americans having associate degrees?

"Guess what? It grows the economy," he said. "Benefits everybody. Hurts nobody."

Republican lawmakers have doubled down on low taxes as a core pillar of their ideology and partisan identity. Several GOP senators favor spending $568 billion on infrastructure over five years, a small fraction of what the Democratic president has proposed — a sign of how difficult a deal might be.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said that Republicans would rather finance infrastructure through user fees such as tolls and gasoline taxes, though he declined to specify which fees he would back.

"We’re open to doing a roughly $600 billion package, which deals with what all of us agree is infrastructure and to talk about how to pay for that in any way other than reopening the 2017 tax reform bill," McConnell said this week at the University of Louisville.

McConnell also said that "100%" of his focus was "on stopping this new administration," echoing similarly obstructionist threats he made during President Barack Obama's term and underscoring the challenge Biden faces in trying to work across the aisle.

Biden brushed off the vow, noting that as vice president he was "able to get a lot done" with McConnell during the Obama era, but his event in Louisiana showed that, once more, his true audience is Republican voters, not GOP lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

The Biden administration is banking that its message on infrastructure could play in Louisiana, which last backed a Democratic presidential candidate in 1996. Louisiana has been barraged by 30 extreme weather events over the past decade that caused $50 billion worth of damage. Biden is seeking $50 billion to make infrastructure better able to withstand storms, winds and flooding.

Hurricanes battered Lake Charles, a city of 78,000 residents, twice last year over the course of six weeks. Biden also plans to tour a water plant in New Orleans.

His infrastructure package received support in a newspaper editorial last week by Lake Charles Mayor Nic Hunter, a Republican, and Shreveport Mayor Adrian Perkins, a Democrat.

"The unfortunate truth is that our aging infrastructure and local government budgets cannot withstand the strain of increasingly frequent storms," they wrote. "As mayors of great American cities in the South, we lie awake at night dreading each forecasted storm."

But Rep. Steve Scalise, the Republican whip who represents portions of Louisiana, derided Biden's plan as a "budget-busting tax hike spending boondoggle masquerading as an infrastructure bill."

"Raising taxes that will force middle-class jobs overseas is not infrastructure," Scalise said. "Unionizing health care workers is not infrastructure."

There is general agreement among Democrats and Republicans in Washington about the need for infrastructure spending, and the White House has been quick to point out that some GOP mayors and governors have supported elements of Biden's plan even if those in Congress do not. But there are significant hurdles for Biden's proposal to garner Republican backing.

Republicans want to define infrastructure more narrowly, concentrating on roads, bridges, airports, transit and broadband rather than renewable energy and access to caregivers. They object to undoing the 2017 tax cuts and imposing higher taxes on corporations and the wealthy.