Weekly Update 5/17/21

California

Governor Gavin Newsom has proposed a $196.8 billion general-fund budget for the next fiscal year as he plans to plow an unprecedented tax-revenue windfall back into the state’s economy…

A Sacramento-area resident has challenged the legitimacy of the recall drive against Gov. Newsom, telling the 3rd District Court of Appeals in San Francisco that Sacramento County Superior Court Judge James Arguelles violated the California constitution when he gave recall proponents more time to gather voter signatures…

Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s (D-CA) standing among California voters has plummeted this year after liberals in the state have soured on Feinstein’s centrist approach, according to a new poll…

California Attorney General Rob Bonta launched the Racial Justice Bureau last week within the California Department of Justice and announced plans for a virtual convening against hate crime with California’s Big City Mayors…

Coronavirus

Last week, President Biden announced that Uber and Lyft, two of the country’s largest ride-sharing services, would provide free rides to vaccination sites beginning 5/24 and ending on 7/4…

The judge who threw out a national moratorium on evictions agreed to keep the protection in place to avoid further spread of COVID-19 while the Biden administration appeals the ruling, even though she said the government isn’t likely to win…

President Biden will offer states $7.4 billion to recruit and hire public health workers to respond to COVID-19 while also preparing for future health crises, the White House said on Thursday, 5/13…

The Biden administration will begin updating its guidance for travel and other sectors - likely further relaxing rules across the U.S. largely lifted its mask mandate for vaccinated people…

The Small Business Administration (SBA) Administrator Isabella Guzman said the agency is considering creating a direct lending channel to underserved businesses that have had trouble accessing capital at banks…

President and Administration

The Federal Communications Commission, in partnership with the Department of Education, has launched the Emergency Broadband Benefit program a nationwide program providing discounted internet access to all families with children participating in the free or reduced-price lunch or school breakfast program and Pell Grant recipients for the 2020-21 award year…

About 39 million U.S. households will begin receiving monthly child tax-credit payments in mid-July, most of them automatically, as part of the COVID-19 recovery bill in March, administration officials said…

States seeking a slice of the $350 billion in funding available under the latest relief law received some guidelines from the Treasury Department on what they can and can’t do with the money…

Last week, President Joe Biden stepped up defense of his $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan after Republicans blamed the shockingly weak gain in April employment on federal benefit payments persuading those out of work to hold off on getting a job…

The Department of Labor (DOL) lacks a single Senate-confirmed leader other than Labor Secretary Marty Walsh, posing challenges for the Biden administration as it attempts to advance a robust agenda geared toward a post-pandemic workforce…

President Biden is expected to release his full fiscal 2022 budget request on 5/27…

Last week, the Biden administration said it would provide protections against discrimination in health care based on gender identity and sexual orientation…

Last week, the Biden administration announced that 1 million Americans have signed up for health coverage through the Affordable Care Act during the special enrollment period the administration launched in February…

Colonial Pipeline Co. paid nearly $5 million to Eastern European hackers last week…

President Biden on Wednesday, 5/12, signed an executive order intended to strengthen U.S. cybersecurity by improving information sharing about attacks with the private sector and adopting better safety practices throughout the government…

Congress 

A bipartisan group of House lawmakers proposed a $500 million Department of Homeland Security annual grant program that would run for five years to address cybersecurity vulnerabilities of state and local government networks…

More than 300 House members took advantage of Democrats’ decision to allow local project funding proposals for fiscal 2022, sending 2,887 requests totaling nearly $5.9 billion, according to a list released by the House Appropriations Committee…

Senate Republicans are set to deliver a revised offer of an infrastructure package that includes roads, public transportation and airports to the White House as early as today, 5/17…

The House passed stronger protections for pregnant workers in a 315-101 vote on Friday, 5/14, highlighting widespread support for one of the few labor measures that could break through the Senate’s partisan logjam…

Senate Republicans dramatically changed their party rules to take a hard line on the debt limit in the coming months…

The White House on Thursday, 5/13, launched an effort to increase the number of American workers belonging to unions, address income inequality and redress a power imbalance that favors employers…

The Senate confirmed the No. 2’s at the Health and Human Services (HHS) and Education Departments last week…

Education

The U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has announced a virtual public hearing to be held from 6/7 to 6/11, to gather information for improving enforcement of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972…

Legislation to permanently extend college students’ eligibility for the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) was introduced in Congress last week…

A new report has found that parents and caregivers took greater responsibility for school decision-making during the pandemic…

International students and those without legal immigration status will be eligible for COVID-19 aid meant to help pay for expenses like food, housing, and child care during the COVID-19 pandemic, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said, in a reversal from the Trump administration…

The U.S. loses out on hundreds of billions of dollars each year because of racial and socioeconomic inequities in higher education attainment, according to a new report by the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce…

Last week, the Senate voted 54-44 to confirm San Diego Unified School District Superintendent Cynthia Marten to be Deputy Secretary of Education…

On Thursday, 5/13, President Biden announced his intention to nominate Catherine Lhamon for Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights at the Education Department…

Mental Health

Youth vape and e-cigarette use has dropped precipitously during the pandemic, according to a recent study — reversing a years-long explosion in teen use…

College students who were at risk for failing and who spent more time with therapy dogs over the course of a four-week academic stress management program were more likely to experience improvements in their executive functioning skills, such as time management and coping techniques, than students who spent less time interacting with the dogs, found a recently published study…

Weekly Update 5/10/21

California

Although 87% of California’s traditional public schools have reopened for some form of in-person instruction, fewer than half of students have returned either full time or part time in a hybrid model…

On Wednesday, 5/5, the Secretary of State’s office released the final tally of verified signatures for the California recall election - 1,719,943…

In an effort to accelerate vaccination of teens, California health officials say they will allow pediatricians to obtain doses without going through the state’s problematic registration site MyTurn…

Coronavirus

This afternoon, 5/10, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Pfizer and BioNTech’s request to allow their COVID-19 vaccine to be given to kids ages 12 to 15 on an emergency use basis, allowing states to get middle school students vaccinated before the fall…

President and Administration

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has announced that eligible households can begin applying for the Emergency Broadband Benefit on 5/12… 

On Friday, 5/7, the Justice Department released a proposed rule that would broaden the definition of a firearm, requiring some gun-making kits to include a serial number as the Biden administration moves forward to combat so-called “ghost guns”…

President Biden signed legislation Tuesday, 5/4, extending a ban on addictive fentanyl-like substances into October, which comes two days before the previous ban was set to expire…

On Wednesday, 5/5, President Biden announced that he is open to compromise on his proposal to raise the corporate tax rate to pay for this American Jobs Plan, but clarified that he was not willing to deficit spend…

On Wednesday, 5/5, the Biden administration released a report that outlines how it plans to achieve its goal of conserving 30 percent of American’s lands and waters by 2030…

Congress, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) are working to combat ransomware attacks which have skyrocketed during the COVID-19 pandemic…

The Biden administration announced their plans to withdraw the Independent Contractor rule that allowed businesses to classify workers as independent contractors rather than employees on Wednesday, 5/5…

Last week, The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) moved to sharply reduce the use and production of powerful greenhouse gases central to refrigeration and air-conditioning…

A Harvard CAPS-Harris Poll released last week showed that 59 percent of voters say they approve of President Biden’s job in office…

Congress 

Yesterday, 5/9, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said the price range he is willing to accept is between $600 billion and $800 billion for an infrastructure bill…

House lawmakers will mark up fiscal 2022 spending bills in June ahead of July floor votes…

Thirteen House Democrats sent a letter on Thursday, 5/6, to leadership voicing concern that the Biden administration’s plan to tax some individuals’ unrealized capital tax gains when they die could create an “unintended burden” on farms and family businesses…

In an interview over the weekend, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) came out against restoring the State and Local Tax (SALT) deduction saying that it would send a terrible, terrible message - “You can't be on the side of the wealthy and the powerful if you're gonna really fight for working families”…

Last week, the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs began preparing to send a large collection of bills to the House floor ahead of Memorial Day weekend…

As the Biden administration debates how much student loan debt to cancel through executive action, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) wants President Biden to see the plight of one particular group as a reason to go big: veterans…

Congressional Democrats have tweaked the For the People Act, their voting-rights, campaign-finance and ethics bill, ahead of a Senate committee vote this week, addressing concerns raised by elections administrators but forgoing a more radical rewrite of the legislation…

The first 2020 U.S. census results showed a population of more than 331 million people, or more than 761,000 per congressional district - a constituent-to-representative ratio much higher than in the legislatures of other developed countries…

Education

The Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights will hold a virtual public hearing on improving Title IX enforcement beginning 6/7…

Four bipartisan bills were recently introduced in Congress that aim to increase the transparency of information that students receive about the cost of and payment for college throughout their postsecondary education - a change that experts and advocates say would be helpful but still wouldn’t solve the student debt crisis…

Last week, Arizona became the 24th state in the country to allow community colleges to offer bachelor's degrees…

Last week, the Education Department announced that it had selected Richard Cordray as the Chief Operating Officer of Federal Student Aid…

Mental Health

While young people, on the whole, have fared better physically than adults during the pandemic, researchers say isolation — such as that caused by school closures and quarantining - is leading to a “mental health tsunami”…

Last week Boston University’s Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation released two guides - one for students and their families and one for administrators, faculty and staff members - about best practices for leaves of absence from college…

Walmart said on Thursday, 5/6, that it purchased telehealth provider MeMD and plans to offer nationwide virtual health care services, another sign of the retail behemoth’s healthcare ambitions…

Public Safety Update 5/10/21

Police Reform and Public Safety

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are inching closer to an agreement to set federal standards for no-knock warrants, ban chokeholds except in life-threatening situations and place limits on equipment the Defense Department can send to state and local police departments…

Despite being close to bipartisan agreement on major police reform, the debate over the fate of qualified immunity for law enforcement officers continues…

Attorney General Merrick Garland announced last week his intent to launch federal investigations into local law enforcement agencies, hoping to spark a rebuilding of trust among marginalized communities and police…

The police-involved shootings and fatalities of the past year have launched a national movement calling for criminal justice reform, largely due to actual footage released of these incidents…

In his first joint address to Congress last week, on 4/28, President Biden urged lawmakers once again to pass stricter gun safety laws as shootings continue across the country…

A 32-year-old man shot and wounded three people, including a 4-year-old child, in Times Square, NY over the weekend…

The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to examine a New York law barring people from carrying guns outside their homes could weaken state-level efforts to curb violence after a slew of mass shootings…

Despite being among the first front-line workers to gain priority access to coronavirus vaccines, vaccination rates among police are lower than or about the same as those of the general public…

Jane Coaston of The New York Times held a roundtable discussion with Randy Shrewsberry, a former police officer and the executive director of the Institute for Criminal Justice Training Reform; Rashawn Ray, a professor of sociology at the University of Maryland and a David M. Rubenstein fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution; and Ash-Lee Woodard Henderson, a leader in the Movement for Black Lives and an executive director of the Highlander Research and Education Center in Tennessee to discuss how the nation can “fix” America's policing system…

Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia have seen major police reform measures since last year’s murder of George Floyd on May 25, 2020…

Former police officer Derek Chauvin was found guilty on 4/20 of second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter for the killing of George Floyd last May…

Chauvin’s defense attorney requested a new trial, claiming the court abused its discretion on several points and that the verdict should be impeached due to jury misconduct…

As the nation was captivated by the Chauvin trial, the reality of the danger law enforcement officers face each day, as well as the urgent need for new policing and response solutions, remained evident through the dozens of officer-involved fatalities and shootings as the country awaited a verdict…

Michael Fanone, a Washington, D.C. police officer injured fighting off pro-Trump rioters during the Jan. 6 insurrection on the Capitol, is speaking out about how events of the day have been downplayed…

Coronavirus and D.C. Update 5/6/21

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is likely to issue an emergency authorization for use of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for 12- to 15-year-olds “within several days,” White House chief medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci said yesterday, 5/5…

Education Secretary Miguel Cardona has announced that he expects all schools to be open full time in-person for all students by the fall…

New U.S. guidance for children at summer camps is “stringent,” Dr. Fauci said yesterday, 5/5, suggesting the rules may be loosened as new data comes in…

The Biden administration announced a new strategy to meet the goal of 70 percent of adults with at least their first dose by 7/4…

COVID-19 survivors with physical conditions like heart or lung problems are often able to find specialists, however finding treatment for mental health conditions proves more difficult…

In an order late yesterday, 5/5, the federal judge who blocked a national moratorium on evictions said she would temporarily allow the moratorium to continue while she considers an emergency request by the Biden administration…

The Restaurant Revitalization Fund was established by the American Rescue Plan passed in March 2021…

New York Yankees and Mets stadiums will reopen to all fans on 5/19, with separate sections for vaccinated and unvaccinated spectators…

Today, 5/6, India reported 412,000 infections and nearly 4,000 deaths in the previous 24 hours…

The preliminary results from a Moderna booster shot targeting key COVID-19 variants show that they are effective…

Yesterday, 5/5, President Biden announced his endorsement for waiving patent and intellectual property protections for COVID-19 to help expand the production of vaccines worldwide…

Weekly Update 5/3/21

California

Orange County Supervisors will keep the COVID-19 state of emergency and continue moving forward with a digital service that provides proof of vaccination that some businesses will require, but the city will not mandate so-called vaccine passports…

Last week, California election officials confirmed that recall proponents collected enough valid signatures for a special gubernatorial contest this year, making it all but certain that voters will decide Gov. Gavin Newsom's fate this fall…

According to a new Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) poll, CA voters overwhelmingly approve (59-40) of how Newsom has handled the reopening issue…

California health officials announced Tuesday, 4/27, that the state plans to follow new federal guidelines and allow fully vaccinated individuals to no longer wear masks outdoors…

On Thursday, 4/29, the Big City Mayors, comprising mayors from CA’s 13 largest cities, held a virtual presser asking Gov. Newsom and the Legislature to allocate $16 billion to house nearly every Californian who entered a homeless shelter in 2020…

Last week, the California Department of Public Health announced that the state would cover any school district’s or charter school’s cost of rapid diagnostic COVID-19 testing of students and staff through the summer and likely into the fall…

Sacramento District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert will challenge California Attorney General Rob Bonta in a prominent test of the state’s criminal justice trajectory…

Last week, California lawmakers advanced a bill to send unconditional monthly cash payments of $1,000 to California residents…

Coronavirus

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is preparing to authorize use of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine in adolescents 12 to 15 years old by early next week opening up the nation’s vaccination campaign to millions more Americans…

Widely circulating COVID-19 variants and persistent hesitancy about vaccines will keep the goal of herd immunity out of reach…

A group of Republican doctors and health care providers in Congress, led by Kansas Sen. Roger Marshall, launched a public service campaign last week to encourage COVID-19 vaccine participation among constituents…

President and Administration

President Biden held a follow-up call with Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) on Thursday, 4/29, as lawmakers continue to seek a bipartisan infrastructure deal, despite some Democrats’ doubts…

A growing number of retirement advocacy groups are clamoring for President Biden to augment his $1.8 trillion family-focused social spending plan with provisions designed to encourage long-term savings and shore-up investments sapped by the pandemic...

On Thursday, 4/29, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) moved to ban the sale of menthol cigarettes, citing their disproportionate effect on the health of African Americans… 

Last week, President Biden signed an executive order to create a task force that would aim to make it easier for workers to unionize…

President Biden’s plan to raise the capital gains tax rate could make one of the most generous breaks enacted by Donald Trump even more lucrative - if investors can stomach the uncertainty…

President Biden’s higher education proposal in the American Families Plan would make two years of community college free to students across the country and revives a 2015 proposal from then-President Barack Obama…

President Biden’s $45 billion proposal to expand school nutrition aid and promote healthy eating in his American Family Plan is opening a new front for partisan skirmishes over how much the government should spend as the nation recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic…

Political power in the U.S. will continue to shift south this decade, according to new data from the U.S. Census Bureau…

Last week, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said that the country can meet its goal to slash carbon emissions in half by 2030 even if Congress does not pass Biden’s infrastructure package…

President Biden will require federal contractors to pay workers at least $15 an hour in an executive order designed to leverage government purchasing power to boost working conditions for lower-earners employed via taxpayer funds…

Congress 

Senate Appropriations Chairman Leahy (D-VT) officially announced that the Senate will include earmarks in the FY22 appropriations bills…

A group of congressional Democrats and some Republicans are pushing to lift the $10,000 cap on the deduction for state and local taxes (SALT) as negotiations begin on President Biden’s infrastructure and economic plans…

 A bipartisan group of lawmakers are making a push to improve mental and behavioral health services for students by introducing new legislation dubbed the “Behavioral Intervention Guidelines (BIG) Act”…

House Ways and Means Committee Chair Richie Neal (D-MA) unveiled a new proposal last week called the “Building an Economy for Families Act”…

On Thursday, 4/29, the Senate passed a bipartisan drinking water and wastewater infrastructure bill (S. 914) on a 89-2 vote that would authorize $35 billion for drinking water and wastewater infrastructure projects, one component of the larger infrastructure effort being negotiated by lawmakers…

Student loan payments would be entitled to earn “matching” 401k retirement contributions from employers under a bill introduced Thursday, 4/29, by Senate Finance Chairman Ron Wyden (D-OR)…

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) offered a bipartisan bill to enhance electric grid security by incentivizing utility companies to invest in cybersecurity…

Education

The State Department announced on Tuesday, 4/27, that students enrolled in academic programs starting 8/1 or later will be eligible for exemptions from all regional COVID-19 travel restrictions currently in place, including restrictions limiting travel from Brazil, China, Iran and South Africa…

Last week, The Digital Learning Pulse released a survey that included responses from 772 teaching faculty, 514 academic administrators and 1,413 students who were registered at a U.S. higher education institution for both the fall 2020 and spring 2021 semesters…

TRIO programs provide personal mentoring and advising, academic support, and financial counseling to help first-generation and low-income students, as well as students with disabilities, military veterans and other underrepresented students to prepare for, enroll in, and graduate from college…

Spring undergraduate enrollment fell 5.9 percent compared to this time last year, the largest drop since the COVID-19 pandemic began, according to the latest data from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center…

The American College Health Association is recommending that colleges require vaccination against COVID-19 for all students coming to campuses this fall…

The future of students’ First Amendment rights is on the line after the Supreme Court heard oral arguments Wednesday in Mahanoy Area School District v. B.L, which is about a profane Snapchat post that could define schools’ authority to regulate off-campus speech - an issue that’s taken on particular relevance in the social media era…

On Friday, 4/30, the Department of Education (ED) launched the Safer Schools and Campuses Best Practices Clearinghouse (the Clearinghouse), a website that highlights the innovative work underway nationwide in continuing to reopen K-12 schools, early childhood centers and postsecondary institutions…

President Biden has only one of his Department of Education nominees confirmed by the Senate - Education Secretary Miguel Cardona - leaving 15 positions vacant and likely delaying his higher education agenda…

Roberto Rodriguez to be the Education Department’s assistant secretary of planning, evaluation and policy development…

An overview from the US Department of Education on it’s accomplishments and focuses for the past 100 days include…