Weekly Update 11/02/2026 Capitol Advocacy Partners
Grant Management
Upcoming FEMA Grants Management System Transition: Beginning in late November, FEMA GO and other Federal Emergency Management Agency grant management systems will have a period of limited functionality. During this time, users will not be able to process financial transactions, such as drawdowns, payments, requests, obligations…
Midterm Elections:
Trump asks Supreme Court to set aside 20,000 California ballots after lower courts refuse: The administration asked the Supreme Court on Nov. 2 to temporarily require California to set aside ballots from more than 20,000 people the Justice Department says may be noncitizens, after lower courts repeatedly refused to intervene. The department sued California in mid-October after comparing voter-registration records with federal citizenship data and sought to segregate ballots tied to those names pending verification. U.S. District Judge David O. Carter denied the request, citing a “pattern of attempted election interference.” A divided 9th Circuit panel also rejected the emergency bid, warning it could disenfranchise eligible voters and disrupt vote counting. An earlier 9th Circuit…
Polling places should expect more observers than usual:The Justice Department is planning its largest monitoring effort ever, sending about 1,000 staff to every state with a focus on large population centers, places with past problems, and close races. State Democratic parties, Common Cause, and a coalition of 300 groups have trained tens of thousands of volunteers, while the Republican National Committee has enlisted nearly 22,000 poll workers and is recruiting poll watchers for competitive…
House control may depend on a handful of districts outside California: Whichever party wins the House will lead the committees that write the spending bills funding client programs, and that outcome will likely be settled in a small number of districts. Republicans hold a narrow 4 member majority, and Democrats need to gain four seats to take over, according to a Reuters review of 10 key races. Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) is seen as the most vulnerable House Republican, as one of three who represent districts Kamala Harris won in 2024. Republican groups have spent $12.6 million compared to six million by Democra…
Democrats need four seats to win Senate: Control of the Senate, which confirms nominees and must pass every spending bill, depends on whether Democrats can gain at least four seats from a 53 to 47 Republican majority, Reuters reports. Democrats are targeting Republican seats in Alaska, Kansas, Maine,, Ohio, and Texas, plus open seats in Iowa and North Carolina left by the retirements of Sens. Joni Ernst (R-IA) and Thom Tillis (R-NC). Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) is the only Republican incumbent…
California city: Obernolte faces Hodge in the desert district that includes California City: California City sits entirely within the new 23rd District, where about 90% of residents live in San Bernardino County and the rest in Kern, Los Angeles, and Riverside counties, according to the Senate Office of Demographics. Rep. Jay Obernolte (R-CA), a former state Assembly member and Big Bear Lake City Council member first elected to Congress in 2020, faces Democrat Tessa Lynn Hodge in tomorrow’s general election ballot…
Gray faces a well-funded Republican challenge: Rep. Adam Gray (D-CA), who won by 187 votes in 2024, faces former Stockton Mayor Kevin Lincoln, a Republican. The district runs from Stockton down State Route 99 to Merced, and the Cook Political Report moved it to lean Democratic in January after Proposition 50 redrew the lines. The Congressional Leadership Fund, a super PAC aligned with House Republican leaders, had spent more than $4.34 million in the race as of Oct. 11, compare…
Wahab, Hernandez meet again: Voters in the 14th District will choose between two Democrats, Aisha Wahab and Melissa Hernandez, for the full two-year term that starts in January. The two finished first and second in the June 2 primary, setting up the November rematch. The district includes Hayward, Pleasanton, Livermore, Union City, Castro Valley, and parts of Dublin and Fremont. Wahab, a state senator from Hayward, beat Hernandez, a Bay Area Rapid Transit board membe…
Judge dismisses federal suit over Alaska's two Dan Sullivans: Alaska's Senate race could decide which party controls the Senate and may come down to a few thousand votes. Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK) faces former Rep. Mary Peltola (D-AK) and a second candidate, Daniel J. Sullivan Jr. (D-Independent) who is a retired schoolteacher. Republicans call him a Democratic…
President and Administration:
States not ready for Medicaid work requirements as a judge loosens the frailty exemption: Counties and clinics that help people keep Medicaid have two months before federal work requirements take effect January 1. Several states say they will not be ready. Last week, U.S. District Judge Richard Stearns in Boston ruled that the administration's narrower definition of "medically frail" is contrary to law. People with a qualifying diagnosis no longer have to separately prove that it limits their ability to work…
New rule makes drug middlemen disclose pay of self insured employers: Employers that self-insure their health plans will soon be able to see how the companies managing their prescription drug benefits get paid. A Department of Labor final rule released last week requires pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), which negotiate drug discounts, pay pharmacies, and decide which drugs patients can get, to disclose for the first time every fee and payment they receive from drugmakers, pharmacies, consultants…
Marketplace premiums rise again as open enrollment begins: People who buy their own coverage through the Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplaces, including many small business owners and their workers, face a second straight year of double-digit increases. Premiums will typically rise about 15% in 2027, according to a Washington Post analysis, on top of an average 58% jump when enhanced federal subsidies expire, Politico Pro reports. Open enrollment began November 1…
Congress:
Sen. Chris Murphy hospitalized after a stroke: Senator Murphy (D-CT) is being treated at Johns Hopkins after having a stroke last week, his office said Sunday. Murphy felt numbness in his arm at his son’s hockey game and was taken to a local hospital, where doctors found the stroke, according to his chief of staff, Allison Herwitt, who said he is “awake and alert” and that staff are “optimistic he will make a full recovery”. Murphy had been campaigning for candidates around the country…
Education:
Newsom, governors want answers before deciding on the federal scholarship tax credit: California's decision on joining the federal scholarship tax credit by the January 1 deadline may hinge on answers the Treasury Department has not given. In an October 22 letter, Gov. Gavin Newsom and the governors of Connecticut, Massachusetts, Michigan…
Education Department investigates ethnic studies surveys at three California districts: Districts that ask students about their identity in class face new federal scrutiny. The Education Department opened investigations last week into the San Francisco, Palo Alto, and North Monterey County districts, saying ethnic studies lessons asked students about sexual orientation, race…
Special education complaints rising, with California among the leaders: Written state complaints about special education rose seven percent nationwide from 2023-24 to 2024-25, according to an analysis by the Center for Appropriate Dispute Resolution in Special Education, EdSource reports. California, Texas, and Massachusetts accounted for a quarter of the 10,610 complaints…
Transitional kindergarten draws some 4-year-olds away from subsidized child care: Child care providers are losing some 4-year-olds to California's transitional kindergarten (TK), though fewer than many expected. TK-eligible children were 2.1 percent more likely to leave subsidized care at the start of the school year, mostly from centers, according to a Public Policy Institute of…
Districts struggle to cook school meals from scratch as costs climb: School meal programs are putting pressure on district budgets. In an AASA survey of 423 district leaders, 31 percent reported major trouble meeting federal meal standards, and 40 percent had cut instructional materials or tutoring, or tapped reserves, to cover meal costs, Education Week reports…
Rising health insurance costs squeeze district budgets: Employee health care is taking a bigger share of district budgets as claims climb, Education Week reports. The West Aurora district near Chicago spent $26 million on medical costs in 2026, more than 10 percent of its $215 million operating budget, and expects $5 million more next…
Teachers union sues over delays in public service loan forgiveness: Teachers and other school staff counting on Public Service Loan Forgiveness could be affected by a new lawsuit. The American Federation of Teachers sued the Education Department last week, saying it took back payment credits after August…
Supreme Court weighs whether religious preschools that exclude LGBTQ families can get state money: States and districts that run universal preschool with antidiscrimination rules are watching this case. The Supreme Court hears arguments Nov. 3 in a challenge by a Catholic parish preschool and…
California:
Federal rural health announcement for California repackages money awarded in August: Rural hospitals and clinics hoping for new federal help should know the $233.6 million announced for California last week is not new money. "Currently, California has not received additional funding," said a spokesperson for the state Department of Health Care Access and Information. CMS promoted the funding as an investment in rural care in the north state, Central Valley, and Orange County, but state officials say it is California's share of the $50 billion Rural Health Transformation Program, awarded in August after the state applied nearly…
Los Angeles fire survivors run short on help as recovery aid stalls: Communities recovering from disasters may have to carry more of the cost themselves. Nearly two years after the Eaton and Palisades fires, many survivors are still displaced from their homes, FEMA rental aid ended October 9, and 28 percent of survivors have run out of displacement coverage, according to a Department of Angels survey that also found mental health and long-term finances as urgent concerns, CalMatters reports. California requested $16 billion…
CA education commissioner will change how the state runs schools: Districts will soon answer to an education commissioner appointed by the governor. Assembly Bill 181, passed in July at Newsom's urging, creates the post to run the California Department of Education, shifting most duties away from the elected state superintendent, ending a system split among the superintendent, the State Board of Education, the governor, the Legislature, and local boards, in favor of a governor-led structure that most other states…
California schools face a 2029 start on phasing out ultra processed food: Districts have a few years to rework their menus under a state law with one of the country's broadest definitions of ultra processed food. California public schools must start phasing out those foods by July 1, 2029, and stop serving them by July 1, 2032, The Washington Post reports. The law covers almost any item with an ingredient made or separated in a lab, from artificial coloring to stabilizers, and lawmakers in at least 32 states have introduced similar…
CSU researchers sue over canceled science grants: California university faculty who lost federal research grants could have a new path to getting them back. Three California State University (CSU) researchers filed a class action suit last week in federal court in San Jose, saying the National Science Foundation (NSF) canceled more than 30 CSU grants worth $9.4 million in April 2025 because of the viewpoints they expressed, violating the First Amendment, Politico Pro reports. The researchers say NSF flagged projects using diversity, equity, and inclusion keywords from a database released by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), then sent identical…