Weekly Update 9/28/2026
Weekly Update 9/28/2026 Capitol Advocacy Partners
Appropriations:
White House moves to cancel almost $1 billion in funding Congress appropriated: The administration is seeking to cancel nearly $1 billion in congressionally approved funding using a process known as a “pocket rescission,” which Senators have pushed back strongly against. Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins (R-ME) said…
President and Administration:
White House drops planned executive order for politico grant funding control: Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said last week the administration abandoned the plan after she urged that research grants be awarded on merit. The order would have created a board to control National Institutes of Health (NIH) grantmaking with a goal of cutting Harvard University's funding, giving White House Budget Director Russ Vought a seat and veto power over…
Watchdog finds Homeland Security grant terminations delayed some disaster mitigation projects by nearly a year: Following a February 2025 executive order directing agencies to work with the U.S. Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to review and terminate grants within 30 days, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) paused all obligated grant disbursements and terminated 362 grants, deobligating about $1 billion, according to a Government Accountability Office…
Supreme Court allows states to screen voter rolls using expanded federal citizenship database: Following a March 2025 executive order, DHS overhauled its Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) system, long used to check immigration status for benefits and licenses, by adding Social Security data so election officials could verify voters' citizenship. In an emergency order last week in Department of Homeland Security v. League of Women Voters, the Supreme Court found improper a June ruling by U.S. District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan blocking the system, noting that federal law limits large voter roll changes with…
White House restores press access for Politico, CNN, and MS NOW after court order: Reporters from Politico, CNN, and MS NOW regained access to White House grounds on Sept. 24 after initially being turned away that morning despite a temporary restraining order issued by U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly requiring the administration to restore their credentials for at least two weeks while litigation continues. The outlets had been barred from White House grounds…
Average 30 year mortgage rate reaches 7% for the first time since January 2025: Concerns that higher energy prices from the war with Iran will spread through the economy have pushed the 10-year Treasury yield, which underpins mortgage rates, above five percent for the first time since before the global financial crisis. The average 30-year fixed rate mortgage rose to 7.03% last week, according to Freddie Mac, up from 6.3% a year ago and from below six percent in late February. Annual inflation ran…
NBC News polling average shows presidential approval at 39%: An NBC News Decision Desk poll in April found 32% of adults approved of the President's handling of inflation and the cost of living, down from 40% in April 2025. Trump’s overall approval stands at 39%, with 59% disapproving, in a new NBC News polling average that weights publicly available polls meeting standards for methodology and transparency, down from 50% at the start of his term. Approval among independents has fallen to 26%,…
Congress:
Health and Human Services has spent about $500,000 of $101 million Congress provided for teen pregnancy prevention grants: With less than a week remaining in fiscal year 2026, 92 lawmakers led by Rep. Judy Chu (D-CA) sent a Sept. 25 letter to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) raising concerns over the agency’s withholding of funds for the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program (TPP). Congress provided $101 million for the program in a February spending…
Senate rejects resolution to remove U.S. forces from hostilities with Iran: Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Rand Paul (R-KY), and Thom Tillis (R-NC) joined Democrats last week in supporting a war powers resolution to remove U.S. forces from hostilities with Iran, while Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) was the lone Democrat opposed. The resolution failed in one of the Senate’s final votes before leaving Washington, meaning Congress has not formally rebuked the President…
Senate returns this week to take up data center electricity cost bill before leaving Washington: A bill from Sen. Jon Husted (R-OH) would set a federal standard requiring data center operators to cover energy infrastructure upgrade costs, but state public utility commissions would only be required to consider adopting it. After the bill passed the House earlier this month, Democrats blocked a fast-track attempt in the Senate, arguing it falls short, and are expected to block it again when Republican…
California:
California Supreme Court orders Riverside County sheriff to return seized ballots and affirms attorney general oversight of sheriffs: Earlier this year, Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco seized about 650,000 ballots from a 2025 special election on a redistricting measure after a local watchdog group alleged vote tallying discrepancies, continuing his investigation despite repeated warnings from Attorney General Rob Bonta. In a unanimous decision last week, the California Supreme Court found Bianco unlawfully took custody of the ballots and ordered them returned, and a second unanimous ruling in Bonta v. Bianco…
Environmental Protection Agency agrees to restore about 25 University of California research grants in settlement: University of California (UC) researchers who sued seven federal agencies last year over grant terminations reached a partial settlement last week with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), according to court filings. The EPA agreed to restore about 25 grants worth $19 million, according to a lawyer for the plaintiffs, and not to terminate, indefinitely suspend, or disallow costs from them, while denying liability, as the other six agencies continue to litigate. The EPA acknowledged the grants were cut for their ties to…
Newsom signs bills requiring faster cleanup and higher penalties after Boyle Heights warehouse fire: Local governments will have to move more quickly to eliminate rats and fleas from a disaster site once a state of emergency is declared under AB 817, one of two bills Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Sept. 27 responding to the slow cleanup of the June Lineage cold storage warehouse fire in Los Angeles' Boyle Heights neighborhood. The bill, by Assemblymember Mark Gonzalez, also requires cold food storage facilities to maintain a contingency fund accessible during states of emergency. SB 716, by state Sen. María Elena Durazo, raises the maximum…
Education:
Education Department pauses comprehensive oversight of K-12 funding, watchdog finds: The Education Department suspended its consolidated monitoring of Elementary and Secondary Education Act programs this year, including Title I for high poverty schools, leaving billions in federal funding at heightened risk of undetected fraud, waste, and abuse, a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report found. GAO also found the department's formula produces unreliable chronic…
States split on federal scholarship tax credit as rules near release: Thirty states have opted into the new Federal Scholarship Tax Credit, but California has not, as the White House reviews Treasury Department rules expected by the end of the month. Starting next year, donors to nonprofit scholarship granting organizations can claim a dollar-for-dollar credit of up to $1,700…
Federal data show violent victimization of students at school rose in 2024: Students ages 12 to 18 reported 27 victimizations per 1,000 students at school in 2024, compared with 17.7 away from school, according to a Bureau of Justice Statistics report based on the National Crime Victimization Survey. Nonfatal violent victimization at school rose from 14.2 to 21.8 per 1,000 between 2023 and 2024, with simple assault accounting for much of it, though the overall rate has not changed…