WASHINGTON UPDATES
Capitol Advocacy Partners provides weekly newsletter updates featuring curated news from the executive and legislative branches, along with timely information on federal funding opportunities—tailored to keep you informed and ahead.
Weekly Update: 2/24/20
Weekly Update: 2/24/20
President and Administration
Today, 2/24, President Trump was offered a warm welcome during his first trip to India and announced that the U.S. and India would sign a defense deal for New Delhi to purchase more than $3 billion in American helicopters and other military equipment.
The Ad Council, which was behind the Smokey Bear and “Just Say No” campaigns for the U.S. government, is set to launch a national advertising promotion for postsecondary education and training alternatives to the four-year college degree….
Education
On Monday, 2/10, Secretary DeVos and senior officials from the Departments of Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, and Justice met with families from the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting at the White House and launched the Federal School Safety Clearinghouse at SchoolSafety.gov….
Eight universities in California are embarking on an experiment to help students pay for college through public service….
Congress
On Wednesday, 2/13, the House approved a resolution to eliminate a deadline for states to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment. The resolution would ban discrimination on the basis of sex and guarantee equality for women under the Constitution….
The House will vote this week on H.R.2339 - Reversing the Youth Tobacco Epidemic Act of 2019, a bill aimed at reducing youth vaping rates by banning the sale of flavored tobacco products, including e-cigarettes….
In January, House Democrats presented the “Moving Forward Framework, a proposal to invest $760 billion over five years in the nation’s roads, bridges, transit systems, railways, airports, ports, inland waterways, wastewater and drinking water systems, brownfields, and broadband….
The President included an infrastructure proposal in his budget, released 2/4, and provides $1 trillion in direct Federal investment….
On Thursday, 2/27, the House Committee on Small Business Contracting and Infrastructure Subcommittee will hold a hearing entitled “Moving America’s Infrastructure Forward.”
Weekly Update: 2/10/20
President and Administration
Today, 2/10, the President released his proposed 2021 Budget…
On Tuesday, 2/4, President Trump delivered the 2020 State of the Union address. President Trump focused a large part of the speech on immigration and called on Congress to ban “free government health care for illegal aliens”...
On Thursday, 2/7, the Administration’s partial vaping ban took effect. The ban affects most e-cigarettes that use pre-filled pods…
Education
In his address, President Trump called on Congress to pass a controversial tax credit scholarship that would allow states to direct billions of dollars to private and religious schools….
Congress
The Senate voted to acquit President Donald Trump on two articles of impeachment Wednesday, 2/5, marking the inevitable and historic end to a bitterly fought, divisive impeachment trial that will reverberate into the 2020 election and shape Trump's presidential legacy.
On Tuesday, 2/4, the House passed a resolution officially condemning the Trump administration’s new Medicaid block grant plan...
Last week, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi unveiled a $760 billion legislative infrastructure framework and signaled her willingness to include in the infrastructure plan a bill that would create a $70 billion grant program and a $30 billion tax credit bond program for high-poverty schools….
Other
The frequency of ransomware attacks — among the scariest and most costly online assaults — has been hard to pinpoint because many victims quietly pay off their attackers without notifying the authorities….
Weekly Update: 2/3/20
President and Administration
The White House announced on Friday, 1/31, the first decline in overdose deaths since the earliest days of the opioid crisis and attributed it to administration actions…
Congress
The Senate is scheduled to convene as a court of impeachment today, Monday 2/3, to hear the closing arguments on whether to remove President Trump from office...
The President's FY’21 budget will be released on Monday, 2/10, but the White House has reportedly told federal departments and agencies to wait until mid-March before testifying before Congress to defend their budget requests…
On Wednesday, 2/5, the House Committee on Oversight and Reform Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Subcommittee will hold a hearing entitled “A Threat to America’s Children: The Trump Administration’s Proposal to Gut Fair Housing Accountability.”
On Wednesday, 2/5, the House Committee on Energy and Commerce Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee will hold a hearing entitled “Vaping in America: E-Cigarette Manufacturers’ Impact on Public Health.”
On Wednesday, 2/5, the House Committee on Appropriations Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Subcommittee will hold a hearing entitled “Strengthening Community Recycling Programs: Challenges and Opportunities.”
On Thursday, 2/6, the House Committee on Oversight and Reform Economic and Consumer Policy Subcommittee will hold a hearing entitled “A Threat to America’s Children: The Trump Administration’s Proposed Changes to Broad Based Categorical Eligibility for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.”
Weekly Update: 1/27/20
President and Administration
The White House legal team resumed opening arguments at President Trump’s impeachment trial today, Monday, 1/27, in dramatically changed circumstances…
The Trump administration on Thursday finalized a rule that significantly reduces the federal government’s role in regulating waterways, fulfilling a campaign promise to farmers and energy interests and handing a win to conservatives who have pushed for changes to the Clean Water Act regulations…
Education
Today, 1/27, the House is expected to vote on a bipartisan Holocaust Education Bill under a suspension of the rules, according to the floor schedule released by House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer…
House Democrats are moving ahead this week with a package of bills related to consumer credit reporting, including legislation that would provide new benefits and protections to private student loan borrowers who fall behind on their payments…
Congress
House Democrats are weighing a return to an earmark-like system that would allow members to secure cash for select projects at home...
On Wednesday, 12/18/19, immigration reform stalwart Richard J. Durbin’s announcement on the Senate floor about a rare bipartisan breakthrough flew largely under the radar, overshadowed in the chaotic flurry of impeachment…
Other
A Swiss company is bringing its apprenticeship model to Utah to build a skilled workforce for its new facility in this country…
Weekly Update: 1/21/20
President and Administration
President Donald Trump’s lawyers on Monday, 1/20, offered a sweeping condemnation of the articles of impeachment against him, contending they’re a legally defective “affront to the Constitution and to our democratic institutions”...
Education
In a bipartisan vote on 1/16, the House passed legislation to overturn Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’ rule that curtails student loan forgiveness for students who claim they were defrauded by their college...
The U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments Wednesday in Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue(Case No. 18-1195), a case brought by three Montana families who argue the state unconstitutionally prohibited religious schools from a program that would provide tax credits for donations to private school scholarship programs...
The U.S. Department of Agriculture Friday, 1/17, announced plans to further relax heightened school meal nutrition standards created by the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010...
Upcoming changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) are expected to affect nearly 700,000 Americans, with college students among them...
Congress
The seven House Democratic managers released their own legal brief on Monday, 1/20, arguing that the Trump team’s objection to the abuse of power charge ignored the intentions of the founders, and in doing so left the country “powerless to remove a president for corruptly using his office to cheat in the next election”...
More than 40 U.S. states could allow some form of legal marijuana by the end of 2020, including deep-red Mississippi and South Dakota...