Weekly Update 6/14/21

California

California is appealing a federal judge's ruling last week that overturned the state's longtime ban on assault-style weapons, and will ask the appeals court to stay the district court's ruling, which would extend the 30-day stay and leave the laws in place during the appeals process…

California health officials issued new COVID-19 test guidelines last week that distinguish between vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals…

Trying to stay away from the phrase “vaccine passport,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said Friday, 6/14, that California is on the cusp of releasing an electronic system that will allow businesses to confirm that their customers have received their shots…

On Wednesday, 6/9, a bipartisan group representing the state’s 13 largest cities backed the state legislature’s plan calling for $1 billion in spending annually for the next four years to boost local government efforts on homelessness…

The Biden administration is returning nearly $1 billion in federal funds to a California high-speed rail project that had been clawed back by the Trump administration…

Coronavirus

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced new rules stating that fully vaccinated higher-education campuses can mostly drop COVID-19 safety measures…

Last week, the U.S. State Department loosened its travel warnings for nations around the world including France, Canada and Germany, in a move that could loosen airline restrictions for people wanting to go overseas as the COVID-19 pandemic eases in parts of the world…

The Biden administration plans to purchase 500 million doses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine to distribute to other nations, significantly adding to its ongoing efforts to inoculate populations around the world…

The Paycheck Protection Program loans (PPP) - created to help small businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting shutdowns - allow for most of the loans to eventually be forgiven and many recipients assumed that the money would be tax free…

President and Administration

President Joe Biden laid out his first regulatory to-do list Friday, 6/11, detailing his ambitions to dramatically expand the scope of the federal government’s involvement in education, healthcare, and the environment, among other areas…

Lisa Hone, a longtime Federal Communications Commission attorney with deep expertise in broadband policy, has joined the National Economic Council team to steer the Biden administration's broadband expansion efforts…

Last week President Biden said his administration will defend at the U.S. Supreme Court a law that excludes Puerto Rico from a federal program that provides benefits to low-income elderly, blind and disabled people, adhering to the same policy as former President Trump…

Last week, the Biden administration outlined a swath of actions and recommendations meant to address supply chain disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and decrease reliance on other countries for crucial goods by increasing domestic production capacity…

The U.S. economy’s rebound from the pandemic is driving the biggest surge in inflation since August 2008 with consumer prices rising in May by five percent from a year ago…

Last week, the Biden administration withdrew a rule proposed by the Trump administration that aimed to limit eligibility for Agriculture Department food assistance…

Last week, Attorney General Merrick Garland unveiled two proposals meant to help curb gun violence…

The Department of Justice said in a court filing last week that it intends to “vigorously” defend an exemption to Title IX that allows religious colleges to discriminate against LGBTQ+ students…

Last week, the Senate confirmed President Biden’s first two judicial nominees with modest Republican support, the start of what Democrats intend to be a sprint to fill scores of federal vacancies and rebalance the ideological makeup of the courts after the Trump era…

Congress 

A group led by Sens. Rob Portman (R-OH) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) have come up with an infrastructure framework…

The Senate Commerce panel’s chair, Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA), and ranking member, Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS) are pushing to authorize $78 billion over five years for rail, freight, and safety programs in surface transportation legislation…

Legislation that would invest $50 billion in wastewater infrastructure over the next five years was approved by the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee on Wednesday, 6/9, despite pushback from Republicans…

Senate Appropriations Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) wants to start marking up fiscal 2022 spending bills in July…

A bipartisan group of negotiators is making headway on sweeping police reform legislation as they narrow in on a compromise over one of the most challenging issues plaguing the talks: qualified immunity…

Last week, Speaker Nancy Pelosi delivered an urgent call for Democrats not to abandon their marquee election reform bill in favor of more narrow legislation preferred by their party’s powerful and well-known centrist, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV)…

Congress must direct the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to designate at least some “forever chemicals” as hazardous wastes and seek data on those chemicals’ uses and their health effects, state and water utility officials told a Senate committee Wednesday, 6/9…

Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) says that bipartisan talks on background checks of private gun sales have stalled…

Last week, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) said he opposes ending the Hyde amendment, which bars federal funds for abortions except in the case of rape or incest or to save the life of the woman…

Corporal punishment would be banned in schools that receive federal funding under legislation announced last week…

Last week, a bipartisan group of senators introduced a bill that aims to continue feeding school children over the summer months as the nation recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic…

The Department of Housing and Urban Development reinstated a 2015 rule which lets the agency suspend housing grants to municipalities that don’t actively combat housing discrimination, but eased compliance requirements for grant recipients…

Last week, Rep. Mike Levin’s Training in High-demand Roles to Improve Veteran Employment (THRIVE) Act was signed into law by President Biden…

Education

Last week, the Department of Education held five days of public hearings, during which it heard from 600 individuals about how it can improve Title IX enforcement, following a directive from President Biden to re-examine the controversial regulations put in place by the Trump administration…

Through the pandemic, schools in Republican states offered in-person learning at nearly twice the rate of those in Democratic states, according to new data, amounting to an estimated 66 additional days - or 432 hours - of face-to-face instruction for those students…

Despite agreement between Democrats and Republicans, a provision that would make Pell Grants available for short-term programs was ultimately excluded from the U.S. Innovation and Competitiveness Act (“Endless Frontiers Act”)…

The Department of Education announced it will be making changes to the Free Application for Federal Student Aid in phases, with full simplification of the form occurring a year later than Congress intended…

The Education Department’s What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) recently released a new practice guide, “Designing and Delivering Career Pathways at Community Colleges”…

Last week, the Department of Education announced a series of actions it is taking to advance equity in education and ensure schools across the nation are serving all students…

On Friday, 6/11, the Education Department announced more political appointees that will lead various parts of the agency, including in the Office of Civil Rights, Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, Evaluation and Policy Development, and Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education…

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…