Weekly Update 5/26/2026
Weekly Update 5/26/2026 Capitol Advocacy Partners
Appropriations:
Legislative Branch funding bill clears House Appropriations Committee: The House Appropriations Committee voted 34-28 last week to advance a $7.3 billion fiscal year 2027 bill funding Congress and its support agencies. The debate focused heavily on sexual misconduct accountability measures following allegations against several current and former…
President and Administration:
Suspect killed after firing shots near White House security checkpoint: A man who opened fire near a White House security checkpoint on Saturday (5/23) is dead after being shot by officers who returned fire, the U.S. Secret Service said. It was the third time shots were fired in the vicinity of President Trump in the past month…
Congress:
Budget chair wants House to advance a budget blueprint in June: House Budget Committee Chair Jodey Arrington said he wants the House to pass a budget resolution in June to launch a third budget reconciliation package, informally called Reconciliation 3.0. The bill would be narrower than last year's "big, beautiful bill" but broader than the current immigration enforcement…
Republicans, Democrats are in legislative dealmaking mode: With midterm campaigns approaching, lawmakers from both parties are pushing to pass stalled bipartisan housing affordability, college athletics reform, energy…
Senate panel backs party-line ICE, Border Patrol bill for floor action: The Senate Budget Committee voted 11-10 last week to advance a $72 billion immigration enforcement bill, teeing it up for floor debate…
House GOP leaders plan housing bill vote despite Trump ultimatum: House Republican leaders moved forward last week on a bipartisan housing affordability bill without adding the SAVE America Act aimed at restricting voting and requiring government issued photo identification, which the President demanded be attached via Truth Social. GOP aides…
Pope Leo XIV calls for robust regulation of AI: In his first encyclical, "Magnifica Humanitas," Pope Leo XIV called last week for robust legal frameworks and independent oversight of artificial intelligence, arguing that voluntary ethics commitments from developers are insufficient. The pope denounced the concentration of AI power and data in the hands of…
California:
California moves to address AI in the workplace: The California Assembly voted 41-14 last week to pass AB 1979, authored by Assemblymember Mia Bonta (D-Oakland), which would bar hospitals and clinics from using AI to replace medical decisions made by licensed providers and require health chatbots to comply with existing medical privacy laws. The measure passed the same day Gov. Gavin Newsom released an executive order addressing AI-driven job displacement, outlining new task forces, updates to the state's WARN Act strategies, and pilots to scale unemployment insurance through the Employment…
Assembly passes ballot measure to reshape California Public Utilities Commission: The California Assembly passed ACA 9 last week, a constitutional amendment that would significantly restructure the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC). The measure would expand the commission's membership from five to nine and give the Senate Rules Committee and the Assembly speaker authority to appoint two commissioners each, shifting power away from exclusive gubernatorial…
Bay Area braces for Trump's tougher CalFresh rules: More than 665,000 Californians are expected to lose CalFresh food assistance starting June 1 under new work requirements in H.R. 1, President Donald Trump's domestic policy law. The law expands existing requirements to cover veterans, homeless people, adults between 55 and 64, and parents…
Education:
White House blocks $2 billion for education: The administration is withholding more than $2 billion in congressionally approved Education Department funds by not releasing routine budget apportionments through the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). As of May 21, OMB has apportioned little or no fiscal year 2026 funding for 33…
House passes bill mandating parental consent on student pronoun use: The House passed the PROTECT Kids Act last week on a 217-198 vote, a measure that would strip federal funding from public elementary and middle schools that change a student's name, gender, or pronouns in school records without parental consent. Eight Democrats…
Current admin OKs another state's ask for school funding leeway: The Education Department approved Louisiana's request to merge state-level portions of four federal K-12 grant programs into a single flexible fund for statewide school improvement, the second such Every Student Succeeds Act waiver granted under the current…
Pressure mounts for ED to release research funds: A bipartisan group of 19 U.S. senators and a coalition of 97 education organizations sent separate letters to Education Secretary Linda McMahon this month urging the release of nearly $300 million in unspent Institute of Education Sciences funds from fiscal years 2025 and 2026. The fiscal year 2025 funds will expire…
Surgeon General advisory urges caution on youth screen use: The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services issued a surgeon general's advisory last week, calling harmful screen use among children and teens a public health concern, citing negative effects on cognitive development, mental health, and academic performance. The advisory was accompanied by a toolkit urging…
12.6M kids lack access to summer programming: A report released last week by the Afterschool Alliance found that about 12.6 million children lack access to structured summer programming, with cost cited as the top barrier by 38% of surveyed families. Children from high-income households are three times more likely to be enrolled in summer programs than those from low-income…
National Assessment Governing Board to restore previously cut NAEP exams: The National Assessment Governing Board voted last week to restore state-level 12th-grade reading and math assessments in 2032, which had been cut last year due to staffing reductions and shifting resource allocations at the Education Department. The board also announced that beginning…
Title IX rescissions throw resolution agreements into uncertainty: The Education Department's Office for Civil Rights last month rescinded parts of Title IX resolution agreements, a federal civil rights law prohibiting sex-based discrimination in any school or education program that receives federal funding, with five school districts and one college entered under the Biden and Obama administrations, saying those agreements distorted the law by extending sex-based protections to gender…
20-plus states sue Education Department over graduate loan caps: More than 20 states, including California, New York, and Massachusetts, filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Maryland last week challenging the Education Department's rule defining which graduate students qualify for higher federal loan limits. Congress capped graduate loans at $20,500 per year in last year's reconciliation bill, with a higher $50,000 cap for students in professional programs. The department designated …
Rural apprenticeship programs offer a model for workforce development: A growing number of rural communities are using registered apprenticeship programs to address critical labor shortages in fields like special education and manufacturing, allowing workers to earn wages while completing degrees close to home. Missouri State University's Pathways for Paraprofessionals…