Weekly Update 2/22/21

California

Gov. Gavin Newsom and state lawmakers have worked out a $9.6 billion dollar COVID-19 relief package that will set aside $2 billion for small business and nonprofit grants and fee waivers, as well as another $2 billion for tax relief for small businesses….

Newsom conceded that he has not yet struck a school reopening deal after having said it could arrive last week…

On Thursday, 2/18, state legislation emerged requiring schools in the state’s red tier or better to open for kindergarteners through sixth graders, and would channel billions to schools willing to open by mid-April…

Coronavirus

The U.S. recorded its unfathomable 500,000th death from COVID-19 today, 2/22…

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released the first of two volumes of a COVID-19 Handbook that has implementation guidance, strategies, and considerations for the education community…

Last week, as part of his national strategy for COVID-19 response, President Joe Biden announced a series of actions to expand COVID-19 testing, improve the availability of tests, and better prepare for the threat of variants…

On Friday, 2/19, President Biden announced during the virtual G7 summit that the U.S. would contribute up to $4 billion to COVAX, the World Health Organization-backed initiative aimed at ensuring equitable access to vaccines around the world…

President and Administration

A multimillion dollar advertising campaign is being led by the advocacy groups Judicial Crisis Network, Heritage Action for America, and Americans for Public Trust…

Vice President Kamala Harris said on Thursday, 2/18, that the 2.5 million women who have left the workforce during the pandemic constituted a “national emergency” to be addressed by the Biden administration’s COVID-19 relief plan…

When President Biden met with a group of mayors and governors last week, he bluntly told them to get ready for a legislative defeat: his proposed minimum wage hike was unlikely to happen, he said, at least in the near term…

President Biden last week reaffirmed his commitment to expanding registered apprenticeships to reward work, rebuild the middle-class, and connect a diverse workforce to family-supporting, living wage jobs by endorsing Congressman Bobby Scott’s (D-VA) bipartisan National Apprenticeship Act of 2021…

The Biden administration will give the nation’s smallest businesses exclusive access to the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) for two weeks as part of a broader effort to steer federal aid to the most vulnerable parts of the economy…

Congress 

House Democrats renewed a push Friday, 2/19, for a federal hate crimes tracking law, amid an increase in assaults on members of Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic…

The debate over reopening schools amid the ongoing pandemic is spilling into negotiations over billions of dollars in new money to help students without home internet access…

Democrats’ second major legislative initiative later this year is expected to include a massive infrastructure proposal—plus some extra provisions—but it’s unclear if they’ll look to add a corporate tax increase, an immigration plan, or debt limit measures to the package…

Democrats begin the final push for their $1.9 trillion stimulus bill this week, dropping any pretense of bipartisanship to quickly pass the package before an earlier round of benefits runs out….

Education

Student veterans are reporting increased need for support due to the COVID-19 pandemic, suggests a study from Operation College Promise and the Texas A&M University system…

The Center for Collegiate Mental Health (CCMH) concluded that the negative impacts of the pandemic are disproportionately higher “by students with minority identities”…

A survey of high school seniors by YouthTruth has found that their plans for the fall are fluid, especially for minority students…

Weekly Update 2/16/21

California

Gov. Newsom is in defense-mode with daily appearances up and down the state, complete with local officials praising his work and swiping at his would-be opponents…

On Friday, 2/12, California released data on COVID-19 vaccine distribution by race and ethnicity across the state…

Coronavirus

U.S. public health officials are weighing whether to require domestic travelers to show proof of a negative COVID-19 test before boarding their flights, drawing fierce opposition from airlines, labor unions, and lawmakers but underscoring the severity of the pandemic and difficult trade-offs involved with trying to subdue it…

The Biden Administration's guidelines for reopening schools includes recommendations for phased reopening based on rates of community transmission, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said Friday, 2/12..

President and Administration

The Biden administration is preparing to remove nearly all remaining federal prosecutors appointed by former President Trump, with an exception for those handling highly sensitive investigations to continue with their work, a senior Justice Department official said Monday, 2/8…

President Joe Biden on Sunday, 2/14, called on Congress to institute "common sense gun law reforms," including widespread firearm sales background checks and a ban on assault weapons, highlighting an "epidemic of gun violence" in the U.S. on the third anniversary of the deadly Parkland school shooting…

The Biden administration is moving to roll back Medicaid work requirements in its latest effort to undo a controversial Trump-era policy… 

Raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour — a proposal included in the President Biden’s relief package — would add $54 billion to the budget deficit over the next decade, the Congressional Budget Office concluded…

The Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee met Thursday, 2/11, and approved the nominations of Miguel Cardona and Marty Walsh to be the Secretaries of Education and Labor…

Congress 

 The Senate voted Saturday to acquit former President Trump of inciting the deadly insurrection of Jan. 6. In the end, seven Republicans supported a conviction — 10 votes short of the two-thirds threshold required…

The House is aiming to vote 2/26 on President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion stimulus plan, as Democrats pivot quickly to their top priorities after Donald Trump’s impeachment trial ended in acquittal…

Rep. Ron Wright (R-TX) has died after a recent battle with COVID-19. Wright, 67, tested positive for COVID-19 last month and had been hospitalized in Dallas for the past two weeks…

The new chairs of the House and Senate Appropriations panels will announce in the coming weeks that Democrats will reinstate earmarks (also known as “member-directed spending”) in next fiscal year's spending bills…

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) wrote in a letter to House Democrats on Monday, 2/15, that Congress must “get to the truth” behind the Jan. 6 insurrection, saying the House will move quickly to establish a 9/11 Commission-style review of the deadly attack and the security failures that allowed a mob to overrun the Capitol… 

Education

According to an analysis by the National College Attainment Network, which focuses on reducing equity gaps in postsecondary access and success, the early data on FAFSA renewals by current college and university students are actually pretty good…

Weekly Update 2/8/21

California

The spread of the highly contagious COVID-19 variant first identified in Britain is sparking worry about a future surge in Southern California, one of the nation’s two hot spots of the strain…

Senator Padilla will serve on the U.S. Senate Committees on Budget; Rules and Administration; Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs (HSGAC); Environment and Public Works (EPW); and Judiciary…

On Monday, 2/2, the state Department of Finance formally notified lawmakers that California had received an unanticipated $1.7 billion in federal funds to help with its COVID-19 response and vaccination efforts…

Los Angeles County campuses that closed amid the COVID-19 pandemic should immediately reopen, according to a regional affiliate of the American Academy of Pediatrics, because the harms of keeping children out of school outweigh the risks of safely and carefully managed classrooms…

Coronavirus

President Biden is hoping Vice President Kamala Harris, the highest ranking and most visible person of color in the federal government, can sell communities of color on trusting and receiving the COVID-19 vaccine, particularly the African American community, which has been among the most skeptical of any about getting the vaccine…

COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. surpassed 450,000 on Thursday, 2/4, and daily deaths remain stubbornly high at more than 3,000 a day, despite falling infections and the arrival of multiple vaccines…

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is preparing to release new standards for COVID-19 vaccine booster shots, tests and drugs in the coming weeks — all aimed at preparing the country to beat back fast-spreading virus variants that are less susceptible to existing shots…

President Joe Biden said it’s unlikely the U.S. will reach herd immunity for COVID-19 before the end of the summer due to a shortfall in vaccine availability…

Johnson & Johnson (J&J) asked the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to clear its experimental COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use…

Regulators in the U.S. have begun to review certain data required for clearance of Novavax Inc.’s COVID-19 vaccine while final-phase clinical trials are still underway, the company said in a statement…

President and Administration

The Biden administration said it would release $1.3 billion in aid that Puerto Rico can use to protect against future climate disasters, and is starting to remove some restrictions put in place by the Trump administration on spending that was to help the island after Hurricane Maria in 2017… 

President Joe Biden’s quest to increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour as part of his $1.9 trillion pandemic-relief package may have hit a political and procedural roadblock in a new report from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO)…

President Biden has offered Julie Su, who heads California’s Labor and Workforce Development Agency, the role of deputy Labor secretary, and she accepted…

Congress 

House Democrats on Monday, 2/8, released the first draft text for key pieces of legislation that will comprise President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 relief bill…

Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) will keep her job as the No. 3 House Republican after a resounding victory Wednesday, 2/3, easily beating back a conservative-led push to oust her as conference chair for voting to impeach Donald Trump…

On Thursday, 2/4, House Democrats stripped freshman Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) of her committee assignments after Republican leaders refused to act unilaterally…

Education

The Center for Collegiate Mental Health, a research group made up of college counseling centers and based at Pennsylvania State University, released new data on Tuesday, 2/2…

A new report on California’s online charter schools says that the state is “wasting hundreds of millions of dollars a year by funding these schools at a level far above their costs”…

To help safely reopen America's schools and promote educational equity, the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) at the U.S. Department of Education announced the largest representative and highest-quality effort yet to gather vital data on the impact of COVID-19 on students and the status of in-person learning…

In a move intended to help college students who’ve lost their jobs during the pandemic, the Education Department wrote financial aid administrators on Friday, 1/29, reminding them they have the discretion to consider special circumstances in deciding whether students are eligible for federal student aid…

Weekly Update 2/1/21

California

Facing criticism for its chaotic COVID-19 vaccine rollout, California has quietly launched a long-promised statewide website to help residents learn when they are eligible to receive the vaccine and schedule appointments…

A federal appeals court ruled Friday, 1/22, in favor of California's indoor worship ban in areas hardest hit by COVID-19, but opposed strict numerical caps in less-imperiled counties…

In 2022, California voters will choose whether to keep a ban on flavored tobacco products…

Preliminary estimates from 1/28 showed California spent nearly $19 million for a week’s worth of high security around the state Capitol and other locations due to fears of civil unrest surrounding the inauguration of President Biden…

In a significant reshuffling of vaccine eligibility guidelines, California officials said Monday, 1/25, they will be shifting who is prioritized in the next round of COVID-19 inoculations to focus on age rather than specific occupations considered higher risk…

Tenants would be protected from eviction through the end of June under a deal announced Monday, 1/25, by Gov. Newsom and legislative leaders…

Coronavirus 

President Joe Biden said Monday, 1/25, he believes it'll be "this spring" when any American who wants a COVID-19 vaccine will be able to get one…

Pregnant women looking for guidance on COVID-19 vaccines are facing the kind of confusion that has dogged the pandemic from the start… 

President and Administration

President Joe Biden is open to some negotiation on his $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package, but the $600 billion counterproposal announced by some Republican senators Sunday, 1/31, is "not going to scratch the itch”…

Ten Republican senators have proposed an alternative plan for COVID-19 economic stimulus costing about $600 billion that they say would attract bipartisan support, and urged a meeting with President Joe Biden to discuss it…

More than 50 House progressives are pushing President Biden to prioritize recurring direct checks instead of one-time payments in the next rescue package, upping the demands on Democratic leaders in their race to draft a bill…

Congress

The Census Bureau blew its December deadline for delivering apportionment data because of the pandemic, slowing the mapmaking process to a crawl and leaving both parties essentially immobilized at a crucial moment…

A bipartisan group of senators on Tuesday, 1/26, proposed providing federal grants to help partnerships between community or technical colleges and workforce development groups to help the unemployed or underemployed earn degrees and partnerships…

Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) intends to become the top Republican on the Senate health and education committee…

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Representative Tom Suozzi (D-NY) are leading efforts to fully repeal the $10,000 limit on state and local tax deductions, or SALT…

Congressional Democrats introduced legislation Thursday, 1/28, to guarantee women and men are paid equally for the same jobs — one of several gender equity priorities backed by President Biden…

Incoming Senate Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin (D-IL) says he wants quick action on a measure to provide a pathway to citizenship for young undocumented immigrants in a limited initial attempt to alter U.S. immigration policy under the Biden administration…

Education

Dozens of higher education groups, including associations representing the nation’s colleges and universities, urged the Education Department on Thursday, 1/28, to clarify that undocumented and international students are eligible for emergency student grants created in the COVID-19 relief package Congress approved in December…

A recent survey from the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics found that community college is playing a greater role in the educational trajectories of people with bachelor's degrees… 

Miguel Cardona, President Biden’s nominee to become education secretary, said increasing access to community colleges would be a high priority if he is confirmed by the Senate…

The Department of Justice (DOJ) is considering a proposed amnesty program through which academics could disclose past foreign funding without fear of punishment…

Higher education groups asked Congress on Monday, 1/25, for $97 billion more in aid if there is an additional COVID-19 relief package…

Trump

Former President Donald Trump has opened an office to “advance the interests of the United States and to carry on the agenda” of his administration, according to a statement released Monday, 1/25…

Former President Trump's five impeachment defense attorneys have left a little more than a week before his trial is set to begin, amid a disagreement over his legal strategy…

Former President Trump’s upcoming Senate impeachment trial poses a security concern that federal law enforcement officials told lawmakers last week requires as many as 5,000 National Guard troops to remain in Washington through mid-March…

Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT), the Senate president pro tempore, is expected to preside over former President Trump’s impeachment trial, assuming a role filled last year by Chief Justice Roberts…

Weekly Update 1/25/21

California

Gov. Gavin Newsom lifted stay-at-home orders statewide today, 1/25, allowing restaurants to reopen for outdoor dining and salons to resume appointments indoors…

Los Angeles Unified officials are retracting a school board motion made last week that authorized the district to sue the state over Gov. Gavin Newsom's school reopening plan, saying it was a mistake…

Gov. Gavin Newsom outlined his areas of agreement and places where he hopes to collaborate with the new administration Tuesday, 1/19, in a letter to Biden…

As Kamala Harris stepped into her role as vice president and out of her Senate office last week, Democrat Alex Padilla became the first Latino senator from California, a state where Latino residents make up 40 percent of the population, and will be one of six in the Senate…

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra announced Tuesday, 1/21, that he is involved in nine new lawsuits against President Donald Trump's environmental rollbacks on Trump's last full day in office…

Coronavirus

Federal health officials and corporate executives agree that it will be impossible to increase the immediate supply of vaccines before April because of lack of manufacturing capacity…

Up to 100 sites run by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) could begin offering the COVID-19 vaccine within the next month…

President and Administration

President Joe Biden signed an executive order Thursday, 1/21, directing federal agencies to get schools resources for COVID-19 testing, contact tracing, and vaccination for teachers…

President Biden’s administration on Friday, 1/22, revoked a last-minute memo issued by former President Trump’s Justice Department that sought to limit the scope of a landmark Supreme Court decision on workplace discrimination against the LGBTQ community…

In one of his first acts as president, Biden issued an executive order calling on the Secretary of Homeland Security to take all appropriate actions to “preserve and fortify” the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA)…

The U.S. Supreme Court sought the Biden administration’s views on a state-against-state clash over billions of dollars in income taxes paid by people who work from home during the COVID-19 pandemic…

Europe and the U.S. should jointly adopt a carbon tax on imports as a means to promote low-emission production globally, according to the leaders of Germany’s Greens, the country’s No. 2 political force…

President Joe Biden will keep FBI Director Christopher Wray on in that role…

U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chairman Joseph Simons said on Tuesday, 1/19, that he would resign effective Jan. 29, along with members of his senior staff…

 After four long years of Donald Trump’s attacks on North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Thursday, 1/21, that the defense alliance had survived the challenge — and that he looked forward to rebuilding the transatlantic relationship with President Biden…

The Kremlin on Friday, 1/22, welcomed the Biden administration’s offer to extend a nuclear disarmament treaty that is set to expire next month, signaling, as had been expected, that Russia intends to cooperate with the United States on nuclear security despite President Biden’s pledges to otherwise pursue a harder line with Moscow than his predecessor…

The Supreme Court declined today, 1/25, to hear a case concerning whether former President Donald Trump violated provisions of the Constitution that bar a president from profiting from a foreign government…

Congress

The Senate will start President Trump's second impeachment trial during the week of 2/8, Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer announced on Friday, 1/22…

Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) warned on Saturday, 1/23, that Donald Trump’s second impeachment could lead to the prosecution of former Democratic presidents if Republicans retake Congress in two years’ time… 

Senate Republicans vowed Thursday, 1/21, that President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 relief bill will not get 60 votes… 

Senior Democratic lawmakers are moving to fulfill President Biden’s desire to expand the child tax credit by drafting legislation that would direct the Internal Review Service (IRS) to send recurring monthly payments to tens of millions of American families which would amount to $3,600 over the course of the year for young children and $3,000 a year for older children…

Biden still only has two confirmed Cabinet Secretaries - the Defense Secretary and the Director of National Intelligence…

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said Friday, 1/15, that lawmakers found to have aided any aspect of the mob violence and insurrection that overran Capitol Hill last week could face prosecution…

A group of seven Senate Democrats filed an ethics complaint Thursday, 1/21, against Sens. Josh Hawley (R-MO) and Ted Cruz (R-TX) over their objections to the 1/6 certification of the presidential election results that coincided with the deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol…

Rep. Lou Correa (D-CA) Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-NY), Rep. Raul Ruiz (D-CA), and Rep. Brad Schneider (D-IL) are the most recent Congressmen to test positive for COVID-19… 

Education

President Joe Biden plans to nominate California Labor Secretary Julie Su for the No. 2 position at the U.S. Labor Department (DOL), after a chorus of progressives had called for her to land the agency’s top job, according to three sources briefed on the process…

President Joe Biden took the first steps this week to reverse Trump administration policies on the rights of transgender students…

S&P Global Ratings is keeping in place a negative outlook on the U.S. not-for-profit higher education sector’s bond rating stability for the fourth straight year and also has a negative outlook for universities it rates outside the country according to its annual report on the higher education sector…

U.S. Department of Education Announces Biden-Harris Appointees…