California
California is appealing a federal judge's ruling last week that overturned the state's longtime ban on assault-style weapons, and will ask the appeals court to stay the district court's ruling, which would extend the 30-day stay and leave the laws in place during the appeals process…
California health officials issued new COVID-19 test guidelines last week that distinguish between vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals…
Trying to stay away from the phrase “vaccine passport,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said Friday, 6/14, that California is on the cusp of releasing an electronic system that will allow businesses to confirm that their customers have received their shots…
On Wednesday, 6/9, a bipartisan group representing the state’s 13 largest cities backed the state legislature’s plan calling for $1 billion in spending annually for the next four years to boost local government efforts on homelessness…
The Biden administration is returning nearly $1 billion in federal funds to a California high-speed rail project that had been clawed back by the Trump administration…
Coronavirus
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced new rules stating that fully vaccinated higher-education campuses can mostly drop COVID-19 safety measures…
Last week, the U.S. State Department loosened its travel warnings for nations around the world including France, Canada and Germany, in a move that could loosen airline restrictions for people wanting to go overseas as the COVID-19 pandemic eases in parts of the world…
The Biden administration plans to purchase 500 million doses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine to distribute to other nations, significantly adding to its ongoing efforts to inoculate populations around the world…
The Paycheck Protection Program loans (PPP) - created to help small businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting shutdowns - allow for most of the loans to eventually be forgiven and many recipients assumed that the money would be tax free…
President and Administration
President Joe Biden laid out his first regulatory to-do list Friday, 6/11, detailing his ambitions to dramatically expand the scope of the federal government’s involvement in education, healthcare, and the environment, among other areas…
Lisa Hone, a longtime Federal Communications Commission attorney with deep expertise in broadband policy, has joined the National Economic Council team to steer the Biden administration's broadband expansion efforts…
Last week President Biden said his administration will defend at the U.S. Supreme Court a law that excludes Puerto Rico from a federal program that provides benefits to low-income elderly, blind and disabled people, adhering to the same policy as former President Trump…
Last week, the Biden administration outlined a swath of actions and recommendations meant to address supply chain disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and decrease reliance on other countries for crucial goods by increasing domestic production capacity…
The U.S. economy’s rebound from the pandemic is driving the biggest surge in inflation since August 2008 with consumer prices rising in May by five percent from a year ago…
Last week, the Biden administration withdrew a rule proposed by the Trump administration that aimed to limit eligibility for Agriculture Department food assistance…
Last week, Attorney General Merrick Garland unveiled two proposals meant to help curb gun violence…
The Department of Justice said in a court filing last week that it intends to “vigorously” defend an exemption to Title IX that allows religious colleges to discriminate against LGBTQ+ students…
Last week, the Senate confirmed President Biden’s first two judicial nominees with modest Republican support, the start of what Democrats intend to be a sprint to fill scores of federal vacancies and rebalance the ideological makeup of the courts after the Trump era…
Congress
A group led by Sens. Rob Portman (R-OH) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) have come up with an infrastructure framework…
The Senate Commerce panel’s chair, Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA), and ranking member, Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS) are pushing to authorize $78 billion over five years for rail, freight, and safety programs in surface transportation legislation…
Legislation that would invest $50 billion in wastewater infrastructure over the next five years was approved by the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee on Wednesday, 6/9, despite pushback from Republicans…
Senate Appropriations Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) wants to start marking up fiscal 2022 spending bills in July…
A bipartisan group of negotiators is making headway on sweeping police reform legislation as they narrow in on a compromise over one of the most challenging issues plaguing the talks: qualified immunity…
Last week, Speaker Nancy Pelosi delivered an urgent call for Democrats not to abandon their marquee election reform bill in favor of more narrow legislation preferred by their party’s powerful and well-known centrist, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV)…
Congress must direct the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to designate at least some “forever chemicals” as hazardous wastes and seek data on those chemicals’ uses and their health effects, state and water utility officials told a Senate committee Wednesday, 6/9…
Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) says that bipartisan talks on background checks of private gun sales have stalled…
Last week, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) said he opposes ending the Hyde amendment, which bars federal funds for abortions except in the case of rape or incest or to save the life of the woman…
Corporal punishment would be banned in schools that receive federal funding under legislation announced last week…
Last week, a bipartisan group of senators introduced a bill that aims to continue feeding school children over the summer months as the nation recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic…
The Department of Housing and Urban Development reinstated a 2015 rule which lets the agency suspend housing grants to municipalities that don’t actively combat housing discrimination, but eased compliance requirements for grant recipients…
Last week, Rep. Mike Levin’s Training in High-demand Roles to Improve Veteran Employment (THRIVE) Act was signed into law by President Biden…
Education
Last week, the Department of Education held five days of public hearings, during which it heard from 600 individuals about how it can improve Title IX enforcement, following a directive from President Biden to re-examine the controversial regulations put in place by the Trump administration…
Through the pandemic, schools in Republican states offered in-person learning at nearly twice the rate of those in Democratic states, according to new data, amounting to an estimated 66 additional days - or 432 hours - of face-to-face instruction for those students…
Despite agreement between Democrats and Republicans, a provision that would make Pell Grants available for short-term programs was ultimately excluded from the U.S. Innovation and Competitiveness Act (“Endless Frontiers Act”)…
The Department of Education announced it will be making changes to the Free Application for Federal Student Aid in phases, with full simplification of the form occurring a year later than Congress intended…
The Education Department’s What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) recently released a new practice guide, “Designing and Delivering Career Pathways at Community Colleges”…
Last week, the Department of Education announced a series of actions it is taking to advance equity in education and ensure schools across the nation are serving all students…
On Friday, 6/11, the Education Department announced more political appointees that will lead various parts of the agency, including in the Office of Civil Rights, Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, Evaluation and Policy Development, and Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education…