Weekly Update 2/17/2026
Weekly Update 2/17/2026 Capitol Advocacy Partners
President and Administration:
Gallup will no longer track presidential approval ratings: The Gallup Organization will no longer track presidential approval ratings after nearly 90 years, ending a monthly poll that has been used to measure presidential performance since Franklin D. Roosevelt. The polling firm said the decision was based on a shift in corporate strategy intended…
Trump says all Democratic governors except Wes Moore and Jared Polis are invited to White House gathering: The President announced that invitations were sent to nearly all governors for a traditionally bipartisan White House gathering scheduled for February 20, amid confusion surrounding the annual meeting with the National Governors Association (NGA). The President stated that all governors were invited except Gov. Wes Moore (D-MD) of Maryland and Gov. Jared Polis (D-CO) of Colorado, though NGA…
Congress:
House votes to rein in Trump's Canada tariffs: The House of Representatives voted 219 to 211 to revoke tariffs that Trump imposed on Canada last year, with six Republicans crossing party lines to join Democrats, though the symbolic rebuke faces near-certain veto and override failure. The vote was made possible by a quirk in the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), which Trump invoked last year to declare a national emergency over fentanyl flows and impose 25 percent tariffs on Canadian…
House passes strict voter ID bill, amplifying Trump’s claims of fraud: The House recently passed legislation requiring proof of American citizenship to vote and allowing the Department of Homeland Security to seize voter rolls in any state, as Republicans advanced a measure that amplifies the Trump’s unsubstantiated claims of widespread voter fraud despite no path…
California:
Judge blocks Trump administration from cutting $600 million in public health funds: A federal judge in Chicago has temporarily blocked the administration from proceeding with $600 million in public health funding cuts affecting four Democratic-led states, including California. The ruling pauses the reductions for 14 days while litigation moves forward, with…
Education:
ICE taps into school security cameras to aid immigration crackdown: Police departments across the United States are using school district security cameras to assist federal immigration enforcement by searching a national database of automated license plate reader data, an investigation by The 74 reveals. Hundreds of thousands of audit logs from Texas school districts that contract with Flock Safety, an Atlanta-based company manufacturing artificial intelligence-powered license plate readers..