Weekly Update 5/22/23

California

The Biden administration will target six U.S. locations as part of a new strategy to reduce homelessness, the White House said Thursday, 5/17…

New numbers released by the Newsom administration show that California added homes to its housing stock at a faster clip than any time since the Great Recession — 123,350 additional units, or an increase of 0.85 percent…

California figured out how to build sports stadiums faster, and it can do the same for big energy, transportation and water projects, Governor Gavin Newsom said Friday, 5/19, while announcing legislation to speed up the state's notoriously slow permitting process…

President and Administration

The federal government has directed billions of dollars to repair Puerto Rico’s troubled energy grid, but there is disagreement on how it’s being spent…

Today, the U.S. Department of Education expressed its support for the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico's decision and commitment to decentralize the Puerto Rico Department of Education (PRDE)…

This afternoon, President Biden and Speaker McCarthy plan to meet to discuss how to raise the debt limit after a weekend of staff negotiations which left each side accusing the other of throwing up new roadblocks to a deal…

 The U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced a resolution agreement with Forsyth County Schools (district) in Georgia concerning whether the removal of books from its school libraries created a hostile environment for students based on sex, race, color, or national origin under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964…

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) will launch a pilot program next year that will allow a small number of people to electronically file their tax returns directly with the agency…

In an alarming reversal, death rates have now risen to the highest level in nearly 15 years, particularly driven by homicides, drug overdoses, car accidents and suicides, according to an analysis of federal death statistics from the Center on Society and Health at Virginia Commonwealth University…

A proposed change to federal policy on transgender students’ participation in school sports, released by the U.S. Department of Education in April, sought to find middle ground in a debate that has grown increasingly polarized and politically charged…

Two-thirds of the U.S. and Canada could face electricity shortfalls and blackouts this summer if temperatures spike, according to the North American Electric Reliability Corp.’s latest reliability assessment…

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released provisional data that found 109,680 people in the U.S. died from drug overdoses in 2022. The new data highlights a significant — and growing — problem in the U.S. that lawmakers in Washington and states are scrambling to fix…

Congress

Senate Appropriations Chair Patty Murray (D-WA) said she hopes to "soon" mark up fiscal 2024 spending bills…

House appropriators took up their Agriculture-FDA and Homeland Security spending measures in a subcommittee last Thursday, releasing the bills about 24 hours in advance of the markups…

 House lawmakers who requested earmarks in the next tranche of annual spending bills should expect to see their funding requests slashed under the levels Republicans are seeking, Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) warned her colleagues in a private letter…

House Republicans unveiled their Homeland Security spending bill on Wednesday, 5/17, proposing a $2 billion increase for fiscal 2024, an increase of more than three percent  above current funding levels…

House Republicans’ fiscal year 2024 spending bill for the Agriculture Department and Food and Drug Administration would take a razor to programs popular among farmers and food companies while advancing Republicans’ agenda to rein in government spending…

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) is launching a new package in response to monthslong discussions on the Senate HELP Committee about how to address growing health workforce shortages and financial woes of community health centers in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic…

Education

The Biden administration released its long-awaited gainful-employment rule on Wednesday, 5/16, as part of a 1,000-page package of regulations that also includes rules on financial responsibility, administrative capability, certified procedures and ability to benefit…

Data released today by the nonprofit group YouthTruth suggest that it could be a tough year for colleges. In a survey of 25,000 high school seniors, the group found significant gaps between those who want to go to college and those who think they will go…

The U.S. Department of Education is releasing a new report on the state of diversity within America's schools…

House Republicans’ frustrations with the Biden administration’s education policies and embrace of the culture wars over education were on full display when Education Secretary Miguel Cardona testified before the House Education and the Workforce Committee…

The nation’s public pre-K programs saw a rebound last year as enrollment nearly reached pre-pandemic levels, new data shows…

The Hispanic population in the U.S. has made significant gains in college enrollment and educational attainment since 2005, according to recently released U.S. Census Bureau data…

A Grinnell College National Poll asked 1,000 adults over 18 whether states should be allowed to subsidize religious education with public funds…

 The Biden administration recently filed a motion to a federal judge to dismiss the lawsuit brought on by private lender SoFi, which put a pause on its student loan forgiveness plans earlier this year…

Weekly Update 5/15/23

California

Plans to build affordable housing for 400 community college students at Cerritos College are drafted, featuring communal kitchens and spaces where tutors and mental health specialists can visit students…

A handful of California cities are enforcing laws that protect tenants from eviction or rent increases, extending pandemic-era policies that most of the country wound down more than a year ago…

Gov. Gavin Newsom recently proposed mandatory screenings for dyslexia at schools, lending key support to imperiled legislation and repudiating the longtime stance of the state's largest teachers union…

A  proposal to pay Black people in California up to $1.2 million in restitution for slavery ran into political headwinds as Governor Gavin Newsom and a lawmaker who was on the state panel raised doubts about the prospect of cash payments…

Governor Newsom is proposing to cut or delay nearly $10 billion in spending as California's projected budget deficit grows to $31.5 billion, touching off the toughest budget negotiations in a decade…

Student Loan Cancellation

A Michigan legal advocacy organization wants a federal judge to force the Education Department to restart payments, arguing that the ongoing student loan payment pause is unlawful…

The Education Department has discharged $42 billion through the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program since October 2021…

The Office of Federal Student Aid faces a “colossal undertaking” as it prepares to resume student loan payments after an unprecedented three-year pause, and funding constraints could hamper that effort, student loan experts say…

The cost of borrowing money from the federal government to pay for college is set to jump to the highest level in at least a decade…

House Republicans on the Education and Workforce Committee advanced a resolution on Wednesday, 5/10, on a party-line vote to overturn President Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan…

 NBC News reviewed student loan forgiveness policies in states in which a Republican governor has called for an end to President Biden's plan or a Republican attorney general has sued to stop it…

Regardless of where the Supreme Court comes out on President  Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan, education debt isn’t going away…

President and Administration

 The Education Department and Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will take new steps to promote the use of Bipartisan Safer Communities Act funds (BSCA), the White House said Sunday, 5/14, after President Biden ordered his Cabinet to report their progress on implementing the gun safety law in March…

 The Senate has confirmed Glenna Wright-Gallo as assistant secretary for special education and rehabilitative services at the U.S. Department of Education…

On Tuesday, 5/9, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) issued the “Temporary Extension of COVID-19 Telemedicine Flexibilities for Prescription of Controlled Medications” —a temporary rule that extends telemedicine flexibilities adopted during the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency (PHE)…

Another independent forecaster projects that the U.S. could slam into the debt ceiling as soon as early June…

Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) said he wanted an agreement on raising the debt limit and cutting federal spending by this week…

President Biden on Tuesday, 5/9, said he was “considering” the use of the 14th amendment as a means to circumvent the debt ceiling standoff he currently finds himself in with House Republicans…

 A new analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) estimates how much-insured people might pay for different types of COVID-19 tests…

Congress

House Budget Committee Chair Jodey Arrington (R-TX) is bullish about his ability to produce a budget resolution…

 On Sunday, 5/14, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) said that there could be a ‘popular revolt,’ if the Supreme Court blocks some kinds of gun control legislation…

Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA), the top Democrat on the House Education and Workforce Committee, said Congress will have to go after admissions barriers for underrepresented students if the Supreme Court decides to strike down the use of race in college admissions…

Education

Ed Choice recently released a report entitled “Teens and Their Schooling Perspectives,” which reveals that teens indicate their lives have improved in many areas since the height of the COVID-19 pandemic…

A December 2022 National Bureau of Economic Research working paper found that teen suicide rates plummeted in March 2020, when schools across the United States closed their doors and shifted learning online…

Catholic Church leaders in Oklahoma could within weeks get the go-ahead to create the nation’s first explicitly religious, taxpayer-supported charter school…

My daughter knows I am going to move mountains. This is why I decided to attend Charter Family Hill Day this year alongside 40 other public charter parents from nine states and the District of Columbia…

According to a new report from a government watchdog group, charter schools that received federal funding for start-up costs were less likely to close within five years than those without the financial boost…

A month after Education Department Secretary Miguel Cardona called the sluggish pace 'unacceptable,' only one state has distributed money from the post-Uvalde law…

One of several changes coming to the new version of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid will make it easier for students who are at risk of or are experiencing homelessness to access financial aid…

The Common Application released a report on its applications from students who are seeking to transfer, not gain admission for the first time…

Public Safety and Justice Update: 5/12/23

A gunman shot and killed eight people, including three children, and injured at least seven more at an outdoor mall on 5/6 in Allen, Texas. A police officer shot and killed the gunman…

Sam Harless, a Republican in the Texas statehouse, voted this week in favor of stricter gun laws…

Recent U.S. mass shootings have led several countries to issue warnings over gun violence for travelers heading to American destinations…

Healthcare officials and state leaders are voicing growing concern over violence in medical facilities, highlighted by last week’s deadly shooting at an Atlanta medical office building…

This week, Attorney General Rob Bonta opened a civil rights investigation into the Antioch Police Department, saying the agency beset by a growing number of scandals was “already on our radar” for an alarming rate of force that officers have used against residents…

California will pay a $24 million civil rights settlement to the family of a man who died in police custody while officers tried to take a blood sample…

A former White U.S. Marine who killed a homeless man by putting him in a chokehold on the New York City subway will be arrested today and charged with manslaughter…

Last year, police officers from the Solomon Islands traveled to China, where they visited local police and were trained in hand-to-hand combat, guarding VIPs and managing security at large events…

Weekly Update 5/8/23

California

The Biden administration is planning to allow tens of thousands of Afghans brought to the U.S. after the Taliban takeover of their homeland to apply to stay and work in the country legally for at least two more years, as efforts in Congress to legalize them have stalled…

California state superintendent Tony Thurmond will attempt to negotiate a labor agreement in the Oakland Unified School District after an open-ended teacher strike brought instruction to a standstill…

The California Legislature passed a preliminary budget legislation last Thursday, 5/4, which would create a loan program for struggling hospitals…

Several bipartisan bills are being proposed in the California legislature that would stock public schools with naloxone, a nasal spray that can reverse an opioid overdose…

California Attorney General Rob Bonta has warned tobacco companies that new cigarettes on California shelves are running afoul of the state’s flavored tobacco ban…

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) spoke to Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) recently and the California Democrat is "hopeful" she'll return to Washington this week, according to notes the Senate majority leader held at a press conference…

Economists advising California’s task force on reparations have released an estimate of the damage caused by the state’s history of slavery and its many vestiges of white supremacy: up to $1.2 million per Black resident over a lifetime…

President and Administration

In 2020, the rate of drug overdose deaths among Black Americans skyrocketed, increasing faster than that of any other racial or ethnic group nationwide…

 The Biden administration has reached a deal with the Mexican government that for the first time will allow U.S. authorities to deport non-Mexican migrants who entered the United States illegally back across the border…

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently launched FindSupport.gov, a new user-friendly website, designed for the general public, to help people identify available resources, explore unbiased information about various treatment options, and learn how to reach out to get the support they need for issues related to mental health, drugs, or alcohol…

 The White House announced that Rochelle Walensky, the director of the CDC, is leaving her post on June 30…

The Congressional Budget Office breaks down the Biden administration’s proposed income-driven student loan repayment plan in a presentation for the conservative American Enterprise Institute…

Congress

The U.S. must do more to prepare for future pandemics and biological threats, top federal health officials told the Senate HELP Committee on Thursday, 5/4…

A coalition of mostly progressive groups, including the nation’s largest labor unions and civil rights organizations, this morning are urging congressional leaders to reject a bid to block President Joe Biden’s student debt relief policies…

Education

Montana is making progress on creating more school choices for families…

Eighth graders’ knowledge of both history and civics fell significantly between 2018 and 2022, according to the latest scores from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)…

Communities looking to bolster work-based learning programs can receive funding through a new grant program launched in April by the U.S. Department of Education…

Public Safety & Justice Update: 5/5/2023

One-fifth of U.S. households purchased guns during the pandemic, a national arming that exposed more than 15 million Americans to firearms in the home for the first time, academic studies show. Americans purchased nearly 60 million guns between 2020-2022…

According to a new Fox News Poll, most voters prefer focusing on specific gun control measures rather than arming citizens to reduce gun violence…

A state appeals court has upheld a ban on semiautomatic AR-15-style rifles that state law classifies as “assault weapons”…

Amid an ongoing investigation regarding racism within the department, an Antioch police officer was fired in a separate incident…

Almost half of the people injured or killed during police chases in Los Angeles since 2018 were bystanders, according to new LAPD data…

Fentanyl kills more people in California than car accidents and homicides…

Last month, the Department of Justice (DOJ) issued a letter to state and local courts and juvenile justice agencies addressing the constitutional and legal issues and policy considerations related to juvenile and adult fines and fees…

A former UC Davis student has been arrested in connection with three stabbings -- two of which killed a college senior and a homeless man -- in Davis, California, police announced this week…

Heavily armed state and federal officers arrested Francisco Oropesa, 38, in a house a few miles from the site of last week’s shooting in San Jacinto County…

Last month,  the House approved a resolution to block a Washington, D.C., police accountability package that bans practices like chokeholds and includes greater public access to officer disciplinary records and body camera video…

An emerging debate over plans to arm some George Washington University (GWU) police officers on the D.C. campus near the White House shows enduring tensions over how best to protect college communities nationwide from gun violence…