Infrastructure and Transportation Update 6/9/21

News

President Joe Biden met with lead GOP negotiator, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), at the White House last week, but has since rejected an increased infrastructure offer from the Capito-led group of Senate Republicans…

All eyes are on today, 6/9, as the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee will begin debating a $547 billion highway and transit bill next week that could form one pillar of Biden’s broader proposal…

A new ruling by the Senate parliamentarian may block Democrats from using reconciliation to enact President Biden’s $4 trillion economic agenda without Republican support…

Rail companies and state officials want to see more high-speed rail money in infrastructure legislation, along with measures to encourage private capital for the industry…

The biggest threat to President Biden’s infrastructure plan, however, may be shortages of everything from workers to cement mills across the country….

President Biden’s Proposed FY22 Budget - Update 6/9/2021

President Joe Biden released his Fiscal Year 2022 budget blueprint, including for transportation, sustainability, infrastructure, clean energy, jobs, healthcare, energy and environmental justice, diversity in STEM, and state and local partnerships…

Weekly Update 6/7/21

California

U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez of San Diego ruled on Friday, 6/4, that the state’s definition of illegal military-style rifles unlawfully deprives law-abiding Californians of weapons commonly allowed in most other states and by the U.S. Supreme Court, overturning a three-decade-old ban on assault weapons…

A lawsuit charging that California has failed to offer equal education to low-income students of color during the pandemic got its first hearing in state Superior Court on Friday, 6/4…

On Wednesday, 6/2, California’s highest court wrestled with whether juries must decide unanimously and beyond a reasonable doubt to condemn a defendant to death, a question whose answer could overturn the sentences of hundreds of inmates sitting on death row…

California is beginning a historic study of reparations for African Americans…

Gov. Newsom will maintain an official state of emergency after Tuesday, 6/15, sustaining a designation from March 2020 that empowers him to flex his executive muscles…

Last week, California’s Legislature was on overdrive, meeting daily to work through hundreds of bills…

Coronavirus 

A new analysis of Census Bureau surveys offers the fullest look at hardship reduction under the recent stimulus aid…

Federal health officials have started a new study exploring whether mixing different COVID-19 vaccines can prolong immunity and better protect people from concerning variants of the virus…

Plummeting vaccination rates have turned what officials hoped would be the “last mile” of the COVID-19 immunization campaign into a marathon, threatening President Joe Biden’s goal of getting shots to at least 70 percent of adults by 7/4…

After weeks of internal deliberations, the Biden administration announced on Thursday, 6/3, which countries will share in the first COVID-19 vaccine doses donated by the U.S. to help end the pandemic…

The U.S. is one of the small number of countries where COVID-19 vaccinations are widely available…

Anthony Fauci’s correspondence from March and April 2020, obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, offers a peek into his world during the frantic early days of the COVID-19 crisis…

President and Administration

The U.S. Supreme Court rejected a challenge to the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) regulation of electronic cigarettes and vape pens, turning away an opportunity to put broad new restrictions on the power of federal administrative agencies…

Bipartisan talks on a U.S. stimulus bill are headed for a “big week” and there’s no firm deadline yet for a deal…

Last week, the Biden administration unveiled new actions to take on discrimination in the U.S. housing market, including addressing the issues of home appraisals, as part of its effort to reduce the racial wealth gap…

President Joe Biden has tapped Vice President Kamala Harris to lead the administration’s push for voting rights legislation…

The U.S. government’s nationwide prohibition on evictions may remain in effect, a federal appeals court said…

President Biden’s $6 trillion budget request proposes record spending to reduce historical disparities in underserved communities, following his campaign pledge to promote racial equity as an inseparable part of rebuilding the economy…

Last week, the Biden administration suspended oil drilling leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, unspooling a signature achievement of the Trump presidency and delivering on a promise by President Biden to protect the fragile Alaskan tundra from fossil fuel extraction…

Last week Eric Lander was confirmed, on a voice vote by the Senate, to become head of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy…

Congress 

President Biden was more blunt about racism than perhaps any president before him in his remarks commemorating 100 years since the Tulsa Race Massacre last week… 

Over nearly a decade, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) has painstakingly cobbled together a bipartisan Senate majority for legislation that would overhaul the way the military handles sexual assault and other serious crimes, a shift that many experts say is long overdue…

Education

The Biden administration is taking the first steps this week to unravel former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’s controversial policies that critics say had a chilling effect on victims of sexual assault on college campuses…

For millions of Americans, there’s an unwelcome side of the return to business-as-usual after the pandemic: They’ll have to start repaying their student loans again…

The Education Department has released a COVID-19 resource guide to provide information for higher education institutions about how to safely reopen for in-person instruction…

More than a year after the pandemic first disrupted higher education, transfer enrollment rates among community colleges have continued to decline, according to a new report from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center…

The State Department is continuing to prioritize applications for student visas, but department officials do not expect to return to full capacity quickly…

An accreditor that came under scrutiny following the collapse of two college chains is a step closer to termination, after a top Education Department official withdrew federal recognition…

The U.S. Senate is poised to pass Short-Term Pell as part of the US Innovation and Competition Act (USICA)…

After districts suffer school shootings, student enrollment plummets over the long term as wealthy families move away, according to the new report…

Immigration Update 5/27/21

California

Gov. Gavin Newsom wants to spend a portion of the state’s budget surplus on supporting migrant families at the U.S.-Mexico border, aiming to provide basic necessities to thousands of people…

Education

 A new study analyzed a decade’s worth of data from over 1.3 million Florida students, and links the presence of immigrant classmates with gains in academic performance for students born in the U.S., especially for Black and low-income youth…

Border Crisis

The number of unaccompanied minors encountered on the U.S. border with Mexico in April eased from an all-time high a month earlier, while more adults were found coming without families…

Vice President Kamala Harris is looking for leaders to partner with in the region known as the Northern Triangle to curb migration to the U.S… 

Harris will take her first international trip in office in early June to meet with the presidents of Guatemala and Mexico to discuss issues that past administrations have tried and failed to address… 

The Courts

Late last month, the U.S. Supreme Court said that it won’t hear a case filed by Texas and 13 other states that seeks to revive a Trump-era “public charge” immigration rule, stating they need an opinion from a lower court first…

President and Administration

Since Biden took office, U.S. border officials have carried out roughly 350,000 expulsions, with nearly 50,000 families among those expelled…

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is sending more staff and resources to the border for the “eventuality” that the COVID-19-fueled Title 42 restrictions will end…

In another reversal of Trump’s immigration enforcement policy, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced late last month that federal agents would no longer be permitted to arrest people in or near courthouses for most immigration violations…

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has diverted more than $2 billion meant for other health initiatives toward covering the cost of caring for unaccompanied immigrant children…

Texas and Louisiana are suing to enforce a Trump administration policy that required state prison officials to detain all undocumented immigrants for assessment by federal immigration officials, even if they pose no public risk...

Interviews with a dozen current and former immigration agents highlight growing dissatisfaction among some rank and file members of the CBP over Biden's swift reversal of some of President Trump's hardline immigration policies…

In a rebuke of terms widely used under the Trump administration, the Biden administration has ordered U.S. immigration enforcement agencies to stop using certain terms…

President Biden has signaled that he’s open to a piecemeal approach to immigration, calling on Congress to immediately pass measures with bipartisan support…

The Pentagon announced in late April that it had canceled projects related to the Trump administration’s border wall and was returning money that the previous president directed to the project to defense programs…

Congress

Yesterday, 5/27, the Judiciary Committee held a hearing to consider the confirmation of  Ur Jaddou, Biden’s nominee to be director of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services…

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) is quietly considering trying to use budget reconciliation - a fast-track budget maneuver - to legalize millions of undocumented immigrants should bipartisan talks on providing a pathway to citizenship fall apart…

Last week, Vice President Harris hosted members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) to discuss root causes of Central American and Mexican immigration to the United States…

Last month, Sens. John Cornyn (R-TX) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) introduced the Bipartisan Border Solutions Act, which is designed to alleviate the intense demands on the U.S. immigration system and help nudge the stymied debate over immigration law…

Democrats in both chambers have introduced legislation to expand health care to immigrants…

Legislation 

H.R. 2920 - American Families United Act…

Weekly Update 5/24/21

California

Last week state health officials confirmed that on 6/15 businesses can open at full capacity, the vaccinated can ditch their masks in most places, and large indoor events will once again be allowed, as long as attendees show proof of vaccination or test negative for the virus…

Amid a pandemic that left law enforcement agencies stretched thin and forced shutdowns that left people with little to do, California registered a devastating surge in homicides in 2020 that hit especially hard in Black and Latino communities…

Months after the state approved $2.6 billion to help California tenants pay rent amid hardship caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, advocates say a disappointingly low number of people have applied, as the program has been hampered by a slow start, confusion and bureaucratic red tape…

Last Thursday, 5/20, the state Legislature decided the fate of hundreds of measures…

CalMatters’ dashboard is intended to monitor whether the state is on track for a more equitable economic recovery…

Drought is afflicting 88% of the American West, up from 40% a year ago, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor…

Nearly a third of California’s restaurants permanently closed and two-thirds of workers at least temporarily lost their jobs as the pandemic set in more than a year ago, a legislative committee reported last week…

San Francisco could potentially break its record for drug-related deaths, one year after it recorded its deadliest year for overdoses…

Coronavirus

The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated hunger among military families, adding to pressure on bipartisan lawmakers to grant them more federal nutrition assistance…

The U.S. is on track to begin administering the COVID-19 vaccine to children younger than 12 by early next year, Anthony Fauci, the government’s leading infectious-disease expert, said last week…

The COVID-19 pandemic has hurt LGBTQ students in unique and troubling ways, according to a new report by the Point Foundation and the Williams Institute at University of California, Los Angeles, School of Law…

If the connection between child care and the economy hadn't been clear before the pandemic, it certainly is now, as some 2.3 million women were forced out of the labor market…

President and Administration

On Thursday, 5/20, President Joe Biden signed a bill meant to address a proliferation of assaults and other violent crimes against Asian-Americans since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, celebrating a rare moment of overwhelming bipartisanship but warning that Americans must do more to combat hate crimes…

The Supreme Court announced last week that it will reconsider the right to an abortion it established almost 50 years ago, agreeing to review Mississippi’s ban on the procedure after 15 weeks of pregnancy…

Administration officials have quietly begun evaluating clemency requests and have signaled to activists that President Biden could begin issuing pardons or commutations by the midpoint of his term…

The White House acknowledged on Friday, 5/21, that lawmakers are unlikely to pass an overhaul of policing practices in the U.S. by President Biden’s deadline, the 5/25 anniversary of George Floyd’s killing by a White police officer in Minneapolis…

White House officials have left key campaign promises on health care out of their upcoming budget proposal…

Congress 

The Biden administration on Friday, 5/21, said it was slashing the price tag on an infrastructure proposal by more than $500 billion in an attempt to win Republican support…

Democrats and Republicans divided over the scope of President Biden‘s infrastructure package are seeking a bipartisan deal on at least one component: beefing up job training for Americans out of work due to the COVID-19 pandemic…

On Friday, 5/21, a group of bipartisan House lawmakers introduced legislation designed to protect critical systems against cyberattacks, a week after a ransomware attack on the Colonial Pipeline significantly disrupted the fuel supply for portions of the country…

The Senate Commerce Committee approved Biden Cabinet nominee Eric Lander to lead the Office of Science and Technology Policy on Thursday, 5/20, in a bipartisan voice vote…

Education

When students read, do their personal and cultural backgrounds determine how they understand the text, or are the skills and knowledge they pick up in the classroom more important?…

California school districts have big plans for summer school this year…

Infrastructure and Transportation Update 5/20/21

Infrastructure Package

The White House Press Secretary Jennifer Psaki stated that there is no expectation of a floor vote on President Joe Biden’s infrastructure plan before Memorial Day…

Biden has been touting his proposed infrastructure package with trips to Louisiana and Pennsylvania, appealing for bipartisan support and his proposal to pay for the plan through raising the corporate tax rate…

When asked by Eugene Scott of The Washington Post about the debate on the semantics of the plan, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg urged that considerations such as broadband internet and EV charging networks should absolutely be considered infrastructure…

House Republicans introduced a five-year, $400 billion transportation bill on Wednesday, 5/19, that would direct historic levels of funding to highways, bridges and transit systems…

America’s needs do include considerations for projects considered “traditional” infrastructure, including approximately 220,000 U.S. bridges that need repair or replacement…

President Biden visited a Ford plant in Michigan on 5/18 to promote electric vehicles (EVs) as the White House looks to build support for its $174 billion proposal to transform the automobile industry even as a global chip shortage hinders production…

Biden’s push includes rebates and incentives to bring down the price of EVs, as well as supporting the expansion of charging networks…

Congress

The Senate passed a $35 billion measure this month to clean up our nation’s water systems but remains divided on Biden’s proposed multi trillion-dollar infrastructure bill…

Chair of the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure Peter DeFazio (D-OR) announced last month the full list of Vice Chairs for each of the Committee’s six subcommittees for the 117th Congress…

Cyberattack

One of the nation’s largest pipelines, Colonial Pipeline, which carries refined gasoline and jet fuel from Texas up the East Coast to New York, was forced to shut down earlier this month after being hit by ransomware…

The Biden Administration released a historic cybersecurity directive in the wake of the pipeline cyberattack, pressing for major changes in U.S. cybersecurity standards…