Coronavirus and D.C. Update 3/18/21

Coronavirus

After almost three months, more than one million doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered to Orange County residents…

President Joe Biden is poised to meet his goal of delivering 100 million COVID-19 vaccine shots in his first 100 days in office as soon as today, 3/18, reaching the milestone more than a month ahead of time…

The White House is poised to launch a sweeping new campaign, coordinated across the federal government’s health agencies, focused on addressing vaccine skepticism and accessibility, and aims to combat misinformation about the vaccine’s efficacy and safety, sources said…

Although top GOP leaders, including Sen. Mitch McConnell (KY) and Rep. Kevin McCarthy (CA), were vaccinated in December - and encouraged the public to follow suit - a number of high-profile rank-and-file members intend to ignore the advice…

More people are dying now of COVID-19 in Europe than they were a year ago, when the virus first tore through the continent… 

D.C. Update

The Biden administration will spend $10 billion to have the CDC screen schoolchildren for COVID-19 to help hasten a return to in-person learning…

Yesterday, 3/17, the U.S. Department of Education announced the amount of ARP Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funding that each state, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia will receive to support efforts to reopen K-12 schools safely  and equitably expand opportunity for students who need it most…

New Secretary Confirmations…

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is delaying the 4/15 tax-filing deadline to 5/17, giving taxpayers an additional month to file returns and pay any outstanding levies…

Transportation and Infrastructure Update 3/16/21

Public transportation systems have been on the verge of collapse for almost a year, but last week’s signing of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 will funnel $30.5 billion to transit agencies, the largest the industry has ever received…

House Democrats introduced an infrastructure package yesterday, 3/15, investing in climate, broadband, and public health following the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package…

It’s possible the bill would not rely solely on government debt as it becomes increasingly clear tax hikes will likely be a component with possible increases in both the corporate tax rate and the individual rate for high earners…

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), America's ultimate swing voter, insists Republicans have more of a voice on President Biden's next big package than they did on the COVID stimulus, according to Axios on HBO… 

The White House remains tight-lipped on whether Biden would use the fast-track parliamentary measure used for coronavirus relief on infrastructure, but two of the most influential forces in the Senate Democratic caucus are colliding on strategy…

Tied to the infrastructure push, lawmakers are facing a 9/30 deadline to reauthorize highway, transit, and rail programs…

Last month, Pete Buttigieg, former South Bend, IN mayor and 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, was confirmed as transportation secretary to help oversee President Biden’s overhaul of the nation’s infrastructure…

Rep. Sam Graves (R-MO), the top Republican on the House Transportation and Infrastructure committee, has long supported a VMT tax as a replacement for the gas tax and is interested in working with Buttigieg on it…

Buttigieg wants to ensure “transportation is an engine for equity in this country,” citing that Black and Brown communities have suffered from moves like building highways through their neighborhoods… 

Pushback from Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) cites fears over prioritizing “urban areas over the very real needs of our rural communities”…

The current backlog of road, highway and transit repairs is a national issue approaching $1 trillion… 

Buttigieg’s investment approach earned him high marks from transportation advocates when he was running for president in 2020…

Beginning today, 3/15, California expanded its COVID-19 vaccine eligibility guidelines to include public transit workers and residents and workers of homeless shelters, jails and detention centers…  

Weekly Update 3/15/21

California

California would take a step toward having counselors rather than police respond to people experiencing mental health crises under a bill backed by gun-violence prevention groups…

House impeachment manager and intelligence subcommittee chairman, Rep. Swalwell (D-CA), has filed a federal lawsuit against former president Trump, Donald Trump Jr., Rudolph Giuliani and Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL), claiming they should be held liable for injuries and destruction caused by their incitement of the Jan. 6 mob assault on the Capitol…

San Francisco school officials plan to reopen classrooms for younger students beginning 4/12…

The $1.9 trillion federal stimulus package includes a temporary expansion of the child tax credit…

On Wednesday, 3/10, the group organizing the recall of Governor Newsom announced it had collected over two million signatures…

Mike Bloomberg spends over $600,000 to defend California flavored tobacco ban…

Coronavirus

School closings have been controversial since the pandemic erupted…

A new study on air circulation in buses demonstrates that wearing masks reduced the overall particle count released in the bus by an average of 50 percent or more depending on mask quality, and reduced the dispersion distance by several feet…

A NBER paper on the impact of Saga Education's tutoring found that students who received Saga tutoring learned as much as an extra two and a half years of math in one academic year for the relatively low cost of between $3,500 and $4,300 per participant per year tutoring…

Policy Analysis for California Education released a new study that examined 250,000 oral reading fluency scores for students in first through third grade last spring and fall in over 100 school districts across 22 states…

President and Administration

In his first prime-time address from the White House on Thursday, 3/11, President Biden said that he would order states to make all adults eligible for the vaccine by 5/1 and that a return to normalcy was possible by 7/4… 

Economists at Goldman Sachs raised their GDP growth expectations for the U.S. economy to 8 percent for 2021 in a note to clients yesterday, 3/14…

State tax administrators oppose changing the April 15 federal tax filing deadline, saying any adjustment by the Treasury Department would completely upend the state tax filing season…

The Pentagon is set to approve an extension of the National Guard deployment at the U.S. Capitol for about two more months, defense officials said Tuesday, 3/9…

Congress 

The House voted on two gun-related measures on 3/11… 

Democratic lawmakers said they would introduce a new bill addressing a rise in hate incidents directed at Asian Americans amid the COVID-19 pandemic…

America’s largest business lobby says it will not pull support for members of Congress based solely on whether they voted against certifying President Biden’s election win in Arizona and Pennsylvania, providing cover for 147 Republican lawmakers who supported former president Trump’s false claims of widespread voter fraud…

Last week, the House passed Democrats’ wide-ranging overhaul of labor laws, inching President Biden closer to fulfilling a campaign promise and coinciding with Amazon workers’ ongoing push to unionize an Alabama warehouse…

Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO), the number four GOP leader, is the latest senator to drop the retirement bombshell, announcing last week that he will not run for reelection in 2022…

Education

Following President Biden's signing the American Rescue Plan into law, the Department of Education (ED) announced additional details on how it will support schools in safely returning to in-person instruction…

A recent analysis found that an estimated 12 million students lack internet service or make do with a patchwork of short-term fixes to participate in remote learning…

Education Secretary Miguel Cardona has accepted the resignation of Federal Student Aid Chief Operating Officer Gen. Mark Brown…

American adults with a bachelor’s degree live longer than those without one, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Southern California and Princeton University…

On Tuesday, 3/9, officials from 11 states - including California - asked Education Secretary Cardona to reverse two Trump administration policies they say keeps them from being able to regulate private servicers of student loans…

Even as colleges and universities expanded in-person instruction this spring, undergraduate enrollment continued to tumble…

Weekly Update 3/8/21

California

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation Friday, 3/5, allocating billions of dollars to get schools reopened faster after struggling for months to reach an agreement…

California will now send 40 percent of all vaccine doses to its most vulnerable neighborhoods in an attempt to inoculate people most at risk from COVID-19 and reopen the state’s economy faster, Gov. Newsom said Thursday, 3/5…

California’s high poverty rate, low wages and frayed public safety net require a new “social compact” between workers, business and government, according to a report by a blue-ribbon Future of Work Commission highlighting the state’s widening inequality…

Coronavirus

Teenagers' demand for mental health care skyrocketed last year amid the pandemic, even as their overall need for care declined, according to a new analysis by FAIR Health…

Johnson & Johnson plans to test its COVID-19 vaccine in infants and newborns, as well as in pregnant women and people who have compromised immune systems… 

House lawmakers will hold a final vote as soon as tomorrow as Democrats aim to send their $1.9 trillion stimulus bill to President Joe Biden’s desk…

Last week, President Biden strongly criticized the decisions by Texas and Mississippi governors to lift statewide mask mandates, calling the plans “a big mistake” that reflected “Neanderthal thinking,” as his administration tries to manage the pandemic while state leaders set their own plans…

Vaccinated people can visit indoors without masks with other vaccinated people, but must still wear them in public and avoid large gatherings when around those who aren’t immunized or are at high risk for contracting COVID-19, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said today, 3/8…

An alarming figure came from Orange County’s top prosecutor during last month’s news conference in Little Saigon about hate toward the Asian American and Pacific Islander community during the COVID-19 pandemic…

President and Administration

Biden will formally create a Gender Policy Council within the White House as part of two executive orders he intends to sign today, 3/8, to mark International Women’s Day…

The Biden administration will offer $250 million in grants for local communities to improve health care, Vice President Kamala Harris announced at a National League of Cities event…

President Joe Biden will give his first prime-time address on Thursday, 3/11, as he marks the anniversary of COVID-19 shutdowns with a speech to the nation…

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) is nearing completion of a regulatory update to a significant rule it finalized late in the Trump administration that would clarify whether workers are employees or independent contractors…

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack is signaling a push to increase food assistance for the poor beyond the COVID-19 economic crisis…

Congress 

House Democrats approved a momentous overhaul of American policing late Wednesday, 3/4, responding to claims of racial injustice in law enforcement…

The House passed expansive legislation late Wednesday, 3/4, to advance a centerpiece of the Democratic voting rights agenda amid fierce Republican attacks that threaten to stop it cold in the Senate…

Acting Capitol Police Chief Yogananda Pittman told lawmakers on Wednesday, 3/4, that threats against members of Congress have nearly doubled in the past year…

Education

An opinion piece from Education Secretary Cardona was published in USA Today last week and details his plans to reopen schools…

The U.S. Department of Education might expect standardized assessments this year, but state and district leaders are predicting a lot of empty seats…

Ithaka S&R has published a report on efforts by community colleges to focus on students…

A years-long push to lessen the incentive for for-profit institutions to recruit veterans as students took a major step toward becoming law with the House’s passage of a $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package last week…

Weekly Update 3/1/21

California

Gov. Gavin Newsom and state lawmakers struck a deal Sunday, 2/28, that would push school districts to open certain classrooms by the end of March…

Gov. Newsom likes to say he’s “meeting the moment” when tackling the state’s problems, but with a rocky COVID-19 vaccine rollout and a potential recall election, the first-term Democrat will need to seize the moment before he delivers his next State of the State address…

All counties will play by the same rules starting today, 3/1, as Blue Shield takes over distribution of vaccines in California…

Coronavirus

On Saturday, 2/27, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorized the Johnson & Johnson (J&J) vaccine for emergency use…

A real-world test of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine in more than half a million people confirms it’s very effective at preventing serious illness or death, even after one dose…

A new 40,000-person study from Iceland has found that children under 15 are about half as likely as adults to be infected with COVID-19 and, when they do catch the virus, only half as likely as adults to transmit it to others…

Dozens of people contracted COVID-19 from high-intensity workouts in gyms. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warns that masks and better ventilation are necessary…

President and Administration

Acting Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairwoman Rosenworcel circulated a report and order for the Emergency Broadband Benefit…

The White House is weighing several gun safety proposals as it looks to deliver on Biden's campaign promises, including an executive order that would require buyers of so-called “ghost guns” — homemade or makeshift firearms that lack serial numbers — to undergo background checks…

President Biden said that once the COVID-19 pandemic has been defeated, his administration will target another deadly disease: cancer…

The Supreme Court last week said it will review a pair of Trump-era policies barring federal family planning funds to abortion clinics and limiting immigrants’ use of public benefits, even as the Biden administration signals it’s preparing to roll back those policies…

President Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package would trigger cuts to Medicare and other programs early next year unless Republicans agree to a waiver — a hurdle that could give the GOP leverage over Democrats’ slim majorities…

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) issued guidance today, 3/1, clarifying that businesses with forgiven Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans can still claim a tax credit meant to encourage businesses to keep employees on their payroll…

Congress 

The House passed the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package without any Republican votes and two Democrats (Reps. Jared Golden of Maine and Kurt Schrader of Oregon) voting against it…

Senate Democrats will begin efforts to solidify the expanded child credit included in Biden’s COVID-19 relief plan after Congress enacts the aid bill in coming weeks…

Congressmember Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) has revealed a plan to bring back Congressionally directed spending (otherwise known as “earmarks”)…

The House passed The Equality Act, an LGBTQ rights bill that bans discrimination on the basis of gender identity or sexual orientation…

Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s bid to create a broad bipartisan review of the Jan. 6 insurrection is in peril after Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) slammed the proposal on Wednesday, 2/24, as “partisan by design”…

On Thursday, 2/25, the Senate confirmed Jennifer Granholm to lead the Department of Energy…

Education

Twenty percent fewer kindergartners are on track to learn how to read than their peers were at this time last year, and most haven’t made much progress since the fall, according to new assessment data released Wednesday, 2/24…

Policymakers are considering whether schools should stay open this summer to make up for lost time, including President Joe Biden, who suggested as much earlier this week…

When schools don’t consistently enforce precautions such as social distancing and mask wearing, teachers can play a “central” role in COVID-19 transmission, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) study released late last week…

First Lady Dr. Jill Biden said in her first one-on-one interview since the inauguration that she is continuing to fight to make it free to go to two-year institutions…

The Education Department on Thursday, 2/25, announced a number of additional appointments of aides who will play prominent roles in shaping the nation’s higher education policies…