Senate Democrats are preparing to release a revised voting rights bill as soon as this week, hoping to keep the legislation alive a month after Republicans blocked the consideration of a previous, more sweeping proposal.

Several key senators huddled inside Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer’s office on Wednesday to hash out the details of the bill, which is expected to at least partially incorporate a framework assembled by Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.), who expressed qualms about the previous bill, known as the For the People Act.

They emerged saying a new product could be released in a matter of days.

“It’s important that the American people understand that this is very much on our radar, and we understand the urgency, and we’re committed to getting some progress,” said Sen. Raphael G. Warnock (D-Ga.), who said he asked Schumer (D-N.Y.) to call the meeting.

The delta variant of the coronavirus appears to cause more severe illness than earlier variants and spreads as easily as chickenpox, according to an internal federal health document that argues officials must “acknowledge the war has changed.”....

One of the slides states that there is a higher risk among older age groups for hospitalization and death relative to younger people, regardless of vaccination status. Another estimates that there are 35,000 symptomatic infections per week among 162 million vaccinated Americans......

The CDC’s revised mask guidance stops short of what the internal document calls for. “Given higher transmissibility and current vaccine coverage, universal masking is essential to reduce transmission of the Delta variant,” it states.

The document makes clear that vaccination provides substantial protection against the virus. But it also states that the CDC must “improve communications around individual risk among [the] vaccinated” because that risk depends on a host of factors, including age and whether someone has a compromised immune system.

The document includes CDC data from studies showing that the vaccines are not as effective in immunocompromised patients and nursing home residents, raising the possibility that some at-risk individuals will need an additional vaccine dose.

ADL (the Anti-Defamation League) applauded the announcement that Emory University professor and historian Deborah E. Lipstadt has been selected to serve as the next U.S. Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism. Lipstadt is one of the world’s leading historians on antisemitism and is the author of the seminal book, “Antisemitism: Here and Now.” She has also served as a fellow at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and successfully faced down a lawsuit against notorious Holocaust denier David Irving.

Jonathan A. Greenblatt, ADL CEO and National Director, issued the following statement:

“Dr. Deborah Lipstadt is an inspired selection to serve as the next Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism. She is eminently qualified as a distinguished scholar who understands the arc of history and knows that those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it. At a time of rising extremism from all sides, this awareness is essential and makes her a superior choice for this critical role.

“Professor Lipstadt is a woman of courage who has fought antisemitism in the courts, confronted it on campus and spoken truth to power. She is a champion of facts who will call out hatred against the Jewish people regardless of the source – but also a person who aptly has noted that antisemitism might start with the Jews, but it never ends with the Jews. This insight is critical, and Professor Lipstadt understands the relationship between anti-Jewish hate and other forms of bigotry and intolerance.

“The Special Envoy is critical in urging foreign governments to protect their Jewish communities, establishing national coordinators to address antisemitism, and developing and implementing policies to combat antisemitism and hate. The presence and efforts of an ambassador to monitor and respond to antisemitism sends a strong message to the world that the U.S. views antisemitism as a serious threat. ADL has worked with Professor Lipstadt for years and looks forward to supporting her in this new capacity as she turns her deep knowledge and considerable talent to serving the Jewish community and defending Jewish communities around the world.”

House Democrats passed a $600 billion spending package Thursday in their bid to fund the government, approving millions of dollars in bipartisan pet projects after a decade-long ban on earmarks.

The seven-bill “minibus,” which passed in a 219-208 vote, would increase budgets at the departments of Labor, Education, Health and Human Services, Agriculture, Transportation and more. The House also passed two bills Wednesday night that would provide about $67 billion for the State Department, foreign aid programs and the Legislative Branch, largely along party lines.

Congress is no closer to a bipartisan funding deal that would stave off a government shutdown in two months, however, despite House passage this week of nine out of the 12 annual spending bills.

“Nobody thinks we’re going to do anything until after Sept. 30," said Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma, the top Republican in charge of the Labor-HHS-Education bill that provides the largest share of non-defense spending.

Country crooner and pop culture icon Willie Nelson will perform at the Texas Capitol at Saturday’s finale of a four-day march in Central Texas aimed at building support for passage of federal voting protections, organizers said early Thursday.

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In a written statement, Nelson denounced as “unAmerican” the election law proposals advancing in red states, such as GOP-backed measures now pending before each chamber of the Texas Legislature.

“Laws making it more difficult for people to vote are unAmerican and are intended to punish people of color, the elderly and disabled,” said Nelson, a Country Music Hall of Fame honoree and activist.

“Why? If you can’t win playing by the rules, then it’s you and your platform [at fault] — not everyone else’s ability to vote,” he said.

Nelson will perform at the concluding event of the “March for Democracy,” which is asking Congress to pass the For the People Act and to restore portions of the 1965 Voting Rights Act that the U.S. Supreme Court has invalidated. The march is styled after the Selma to Montgomery marches in Alabama in March 1965.