Biden wants Congress to take action on gun reform

The House Ways and Means Committee on Monday is expected to lay out a proposal to send $3,600 per child to millions of American families, as House Democrats work to assemble the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package proposed by President Biden.

The 22-page proposal, first obtained by the Washington Post and confirmed by ABC News, would send $3,600 per child under 6 years old to American families, and $3,000 per child between the ages of 6 and 17. The benefit would decrease for Americans making more than $75,000 annually, or couples earning more than $150,000 a year.

The program would be administered by the Internal Revenue Service. The payments, which would start going out in July, would follow through on the Biden administration's call to expand the Child Tax Credit.

“The pandemic is driving families deeper and deeper into poverty, and it’s devastating. We are making the Child Tax Credit more generous, more accessible, and by paying it out monthly, this money is going to be the difference in a roof over someone’s head or food on their table," Chairman Richard Neal, D-Mass., said in a statement.

Neal's committee is just one of many in the House working on the COVID-19 relief package. The panel is expected to release its full slate of tax-related proposals for the stimulus bill later Monday.

The committees' work will be combined before any vote on the House floor -- and it's unclear if this specific proposal will pass muster with the Senate parliamentarian under the strict rules of the process Democrats are using to pass the package with 50 votes in the Senate.

A Columbia University study of Biden's proposal found that it could cut child poverty in half, and impact more than 5 million American children under 18.

-ABC News' Ben Siegel

The U.S. will "reengage" with the United Nations Human Rights Council, according to new statement from a spokesperson for the U.S. mission to the United Nations, nearly three years after President Donald Trump withdrew the U.S. from organization in 2018.

“We recognize the UN Human Rights Council has its flaws, but we also believe it can help promote fundamental freedoms around the world," spokesperson Olivia Alair Dalton wrote in a statement.

The statement makes it clear the U.S. will be "at the table as an observer."

"Through our leadership on the UN Security Council and by reengaging with the Human Rights Council, the United States will continue to fight for global peace and security, and to promote human rights and fundamental freedoms for all," the statement continued.

The move is a first step to rejoin the group, which was a campaign promise Biden made in December 2019.

"As president, I will take decisive steps to demonstrate that America is prepared to lead again — not just with the example of our power, but the power of our example ... We will rejoin the UN Human Rights Council and work to ensure that body truly lives up to its values," Biden wrote in a December 2019 statement on Human Rights Day.

-ABC News' Molly Nagle and Sarah Kolinovsky

The question of conviction is hardly a question at all. That makes it only a piece of a broader and more complex puzzle for the Republican Party as it seeks a new path in a post-Trump era that is far from rid of Trumpism.

The result of former President Donald Trump's impeachment trial this week seems certain, with perhaps only Trump's ability to restrain himself standing between him and a second acquittal in the Senate.

Still, the words and actions of the former president and some of his supporters up to and even after Jan. 6 have forced a GOP reckoning that has become louder and more contentious over the past month. It's convinced a growing minority of Republican elected officials that the party needs to be done with Trump once and for all.

As for Republican voters more broadly, Trump's hold on the party is strong but not total. The ABC News/Ipsos poll released Sunday found 15% of Republicans supporting Trump's conviction in the Senate -- not a huge number, but a substantial share given that Trump's approval rating inside his own party was well into the 90s for much of his presidency.

While Trump himself will not testify this week, his lawyers have made clear that he does not intend to convey regret over his actions -- or even to concede the falsity of his claims to have won the election.

Senate Republicans appear likely to keep general unity on the question of whether an impeachment trial for a former president is constitutionally appropriate. But even ending the trial won't come close to ending the Trump era for the Republican Party.

-ABC News' Rick Klein

President Joe Biden released a statement Sunday night paying tribute to George P. Shultz, the 60th secretary of state, who died Saturday at age 100.

Shultz served three different presidents in his lifetime. In 1955, he served as a senior staff economist on President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s Council of Economic Advisers. In 1969, he was appointed to be secretary of labor by President Richard Nixon before serving as the first director of the Office of Management and Budget and then as the secretary of the treasury. Eventually, in 1982, he served as secretary of state for seven years under President Ronald Reagan.

“He was a gentleman of honor and ideas, dedicated to public service and respectful debate, even into his 100th year on Earth,” Biden said. “That’s why multiple presidents, of both political parties, sought his counsel. I regret that, as president, I will not be able to benefit from his wisdom, as have so many of my predecessors.”

Shultz celebrated his 100th birthday Dec. 13.

“He was a man of incredible courage,” Biden said. “Whether it was donning the uniform of the United States Marines to defend the cause of liberty in World War II, or speaking out directly to the President of the United States when he disagreed with a policy, George Shultz knew when to stand and fight. For the young women and men whose minds he helped shape throughout his career, there was no better role model for a life of integrity and service than George Shultz.”

ABC News’ Celia Darrough, Justin Gomez and Conor Finnegan contributed to this report.