Weekly Update 10/19/2026 Capitol Advocacy Partners
Appropriations:
Education Department pays multiyear grants up front, leaving fewer awards for new applicants: Federal education grant applicants this year faced fewer openings than the Education Department advertised. Sens. Patty Murray (D-WA) and Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), the vice chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee and the top Democrat on its education subcommittee, said in a letter last week that the department is withholding about $630 million across about 35 programs by frontloading, or paying several years of a grant at once instead of funding more grants. The department estimated 148 awards for Child Care Access Means Parent…
President and Administration:
FEMA memo signals a smaller federal role in disaster recovery: Cities that count on federal help after wildfires, floods, and storms should plan for more of that work and cost to fall on them. In an Oct. 15 memo to staff obtained by Politico Pro, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Administrator Cameron Hamilton said the agency will build state and local emergency management capacity to reduce reliance on federal aid and will cut unnecessary centralization in Washington, D.C. The memo…
Federal marketplace cuts widen as CMS ends 189,000 duplicate enrollments: Californians are shielded from the latest federal crackdown on Affordable Care Act (ACA) enrollment, but the federal marketplace keeps shrinking. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) said last week it ended 189,000 enrollments on the federal exchange held by people who also had Medicare, Medicaid, or Children's Health Insurance Program coverage or who had died, projecting $1.5 billion in savings and saying no one lost insurance. That follows CMS's September cancellation of 760,000 enrollments for suspected fraud; KFF Health News…
Education:
Districts warn that ending E-rate would shift internet costs to local budgets: School districts could lose their fifth-largest federal funding stream if the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) scales back E-rate, the 30-year-old program that discounts internet service for schools and libraries. Initial comments closed last week on an FCC proposal asking whether E-rate should be limited, including to rural areas, or sunset; reply comments are due Nov. 12, and the proposal sets no date for a…
California among 16 states still undecided on federal scholarship tax credit: Students in states that skip the new federal school choice program will lose access to scholarships for tutoring, after-school programs, and private school tuition. Education Week reports that 16 governors, including California's, and the District of Columbia mayor have not said whether they will opt in before the Federal…
Ohio will appeal a second state ruling against its voucher program as spending tops $1 billion: State constitutions are emerging as a key test for large private school choice programs as Ohio’s largest private school choice program now heads to the state Supreme Court. EdChoice, the state-funded voucher program that pays private school tuition of up to $6,166 for students in kindergarten through eighth grade and up to $8,408 for high schoolers to attend private schools, was found unconstitutional…
Oklahoma authorizing board again rejects religious charter school: The Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board rejected Ben Gamla Jewish Charter School's application for a second time last week, one vote short of approval, after a federal judge ruled that a private operator does not become a…
PR CLIENTS: Puerto Rico Head Start providers seek waiver from English-only instruction proposal: The administration's proposed Head Start overhaul would hit Puerto Rico harder than anywhere else. The plan requires instruction exclusively in English, but 99% of children in the island's more than 700 Head Start centers come from Spanish-speaking homes, and fewer than 10% of its Head Start teachers are fluent in English, local leaders said. The change would require costly materials and teacher training, with providers warning of teacher resignations or difficulties in recruiting bilingual teachers. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has stressed that providers have the option to pursue waivers, a path…
California:
Testing contractor breach exposes records of seven million California students: California districts and charter schools should be ready for questions from families after the state's testing contractor was hacked. The California Department of Education said last week that someone using a compromised login copied the names, addresses, demographic information, and disability status of all seven million students enrolled in California public schools over the past three school years from systems run by the Education Testing Service (ETS), the nonprofit that administers the state's standardized tests. The files were copied between May 22 and Sept. 18…
Test scores inch up as falling enrollment squeezes school budgets: Shrinking enrollment may matter more to district budgets this year than modest test score gains. State data released last week show enrollment fell by 74,000 students to 5.7 million, and because California funds schools based on daily attendance, many districts will see less revenue, CalMatters reports. English proficiency rose half a percentage point to 49.3%, and math rose 1.1 points to 38.4%, both still below the levels before the pandemic of 51.7% and 39.7%, according to Politico Pro. Chronic absenteeism fell to 18.3%, down from a peak of 30%…
State audit finds Medi-Cal has not investigated most of its highest risk providers: Health providers should expect closer scrutiny of Medi-Cal billing after a critical state audit. State Auditor Grant Parks reported last week that the Department of Health Care Services had not begun investigating 26,000 of the 28,000 Medi-Cal providers it considers at highest risk of fraud or abuse, and classified the department as high risk for fraud, waste, and abuse. The uninvestigated providers billed at least $12 billion in the 2024-25 fiscal year. The department disputed the findings as incomplete. The report makes no recommendations and…
California sues to stop immigration arrests at state courthouses: City and police leaders may field more questions about immigration enforcement near courthouses as California takes the issue to federal court. Attorney General Rob Bonta filed suit last week in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, arguing that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrests at state courthouses violate the Tenth Amendment and a longstanding common law bar on civil arrests at courthouses. Bonta said monthly arrests in and near courthouses have grown about six and a half times in a year, with…