Weekly Update 7/10/23

California

Robert Rivas, the incoming Assembly speaker, has drawn campaign donations and endorsements from charter interests and surrounded himself with allies who’ve done the same…

On Thursday, 6/29, a California task force presented its first-in-the-nation attempt to address the legacy of slavery to lawmakers who must decide whether to pursue a wide range of proposed remedies, including payments to descendants of enslaved people…

After a very slow start, fire season may be heating up in the United States. Meteorologists are warning of a potential jump in fire activity as heat waves combine with increased ignitions during the July Fourth holiday…

California is already being forced to update its strategy to tackle opioids in response to the emerging threat of the street drug tranq — just months after Governor Gavin Newsom released a comprehensive plan to combat the overdose crisis…

As the number of unhoused students in California’s public schools continues to rise to pre-pandemic levels, experts and educators fear that today’s economy paired with the state’s unrelenting housing crisis will lead to unprecedented rates of homeless youth…

On Wednesday, 7/5, California Democrats advanced some of the country’s most aggressive penalties for schools that restrict curriculum…

Governor Gavin Newsom and California Attorney General Rob Bonta called on the Justice Department to investigate the Florida program responsible for transporting migrants to Martha’s Vineyard and Sacramento…

The latest CalAIM reform, which went into effect July 1, is a revamp of the way behavioral health providers — those who treat people who struggle with mental illness or substance abuse — are paid…

President and Administration

 The Biden administration is planning a massive investment to help improve Puerto Rico’s electric grid, but critics say the expenditure could upend the transition to clean energy on the island…

On Thursday, 6/29, the Supreme Court rejected affirmative action in higher education, striking down race-conscious admissions programs at Harvard and the University of North Carolina…

A federal judge in Louisiana ruled on Tuesday, 7/4, that the Biden administration’s efforts to influence social media posts about COVID-19 likely violated the first amendment…

Substance use disorders among the older population, such as baby boomers, have climbed steeply…

Some of the most powerful conservative judges in the United States took collective aim at the idea that homeless people with nowhere else to go have a right to sleep in public, excoriating their liberal colleagues for ruling as much…

SAMHSA’s annual National Survey on Drug Use and Health found in 2021 that 70 percent of adults (or 21 million Americans) who had had a substance use condition identified as being in recovery…

Student Debt Relief Plan

On Friday, 6/30, the Supreme Court struck down President Biden’s plan to cancel up to $20,000 of student debt for tens of millions of Americans, thwarting a major domestic priority of the president as he seeks reelection…

The Secretary of Education initiated a rulemaking process aimed at opening an alternative path to debt relief for working and middle-class borrowers…

Congress

On Thursday, the Senate Appropriations Committee is scheduled to consider the FY2024 Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies spending bill (as-yet-unnumbered)…

In a Dear Colleague letter yesterday, 7/9, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) highlighted fiscal 2024 appropriations, the fiscal 2024 NDAA, AI-centered national security briefings and judicial confirmations as the four pillars of the Senate’s planned July business…

Education

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday, 6/26, declined to take up a case that could have upended the long-held view that charter schools are public, throwing into doubt — for now — a controversial effort to publicly finance religious schools…

Infrastructure and Transportation Update - June 2023

California

The California State Assembly voted to ban driverless trucks from the state’s roadways, requiring a safety driver be present…

After months of negotiations, Governor Gavin Newsom and the state legislature agreed on a $310.8 billion state budget that includes a key carve out of $5.1 billion over four years to help transit agencies stay afloat…

President and Administration

On Tuesday, 6/27, the U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg announced that the Department of Transportation is now taking applications for up to $5.575 billion in Infrastructure Law funding for projects of regional or national significance…

On Tuesday, 6/27, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) released the 2030 National Charging Network study – a new analysis that quantifies the estimated number, type, and location of the chargers needed nationwide to support rapidly growing EV adoption…

On Wednesday, 6/21, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) announced it is proposing a new rule aimed at improving public safety and preventing environmental impacts by strengthening requirements governing railroads’ provision of hazardous materials information to responders during a hazmat incident…

Electric vehicle charging availability is the biggest “friction point” for consumers considering going electric, with nearly half rejecting the idea overcharging worries, said analytics firm J.D. Power…

SAE International said it would put Tesla’s North American Charging Standard (NACS) through its standardization process on an expedited timeline to “establish a consensus-based approach for maintaining NACS and validating its ability to meet performance and interoperability criteria”…

Congress

On Friday, 6/9, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee released the text of its FAA reauthorization, a bill that would authorize approximately $103 billion for the FAA for the next five fiscal years…

Weekly Update 6/26/23

Appropriations 

Senate appropriators approved funding totals for a dozen fiscal 2024 spending bills along party lines on Thursday, 6/22, while acknowledging the need for reaching an agreement on more money in the coming months…

House Republicans have begun loading up government spending bills with partisan policy mandates aimed at amplifying political battles on social issues, setting up clashes with the Democratic-controlled Senate to go along with the funding disputes already looming…

With just over three months until the end of the federal fiscal year (September 30), Democrats and Republicans are nowhere near a bipartisan deal to fund the government by the start of the new fiscal year…

President and Administration

This TIP supports learning about the key aspects, functions, and uses of Peer Support Services (PSS) in recovery from problematic substance use, which will help providers, supervisors, and administrators in SUD treatment programs better understand and respond to these changes…

 The Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) and the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division jointly issued resources…

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), issued a new advisory today…

Today, 6/26, President Biden announced more than $42 billion in new federal funding to expand high-speed internet access nationwide, commencing the largest-ever campaign to help an estimated 8.5 million families and small businesses finally take advantage of modern-day connectivity…

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will spend more than $2 billion to help people hurt by the expiration of pandemic-era benefits…

Education

COVID-19’s cataclysmic impact on K–12 education, coming on the heels of a decade of stagnation in schools, has yielded a lost generation of growth for adolescents, new federal data reveal…

Elijah Calderon, after a yearlong training program at Los Angeles Trade-Technical College, is poised to earn about $105,000 annually as a power lineman…

As two leading advocates for folks who learn differently, we remember when it was not uncommon for students with disabilities to be openly ostracized in the classroom…

Public Safety and Justice Update: 6/23/23

Last week, President Joe Biden spoke at a firearms safety summit in Connecticut attended by victims of gun violence…

A rare House Republican, Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) who supports stricter gun measures, said he won’t back a Democratic effort to end-run Speaker Kevin McCarthy and force a vote on a trio of bills to implement those restrictions…

The U.S. Senate on 6/22 rejected the repeal of ATF’s arm brace rule after the legislation narrowly passed in the U.S. House last week…

Federal and state politicians joined together in San Francisco last week, 6/16, to voice support for bringing California’s gun laws to the rest of the country, but many acknowledged the challenges in getting such legislation passed…

The proposed California 2023-2024 State Budget allocates significant funding aimed at combating crime and improving public safety…

This week, the state Supreme Court broadened Californians’ right to seek damages for abusive conduct by police, overturning decades of rulings that shielded police and the agencies that employed them from liability for any actions officers took during investigations…

Mass shootings and violence killed and wounded people across the United States last weekend, including at least 60 shot in the Chicago area alone…

Oversight of local law enforcement agencies in the form of consent decrees — legally binding, court-enforced agreements — is the federal government’s method for overhauling troubled police departments, often after high-profile incidents…

Police often are not the proper response for people experiencing a mental health crisis - and can lead to avoidable deaths and criminalization of mental illness, especially among people of color…

Three years after George Floyd’s death, advocates say they’ve won key victories but the pace of progress has slowed since the aftermath of the killing and could be losing momentum amid San Francisco’s shifting priorities and political landscape…

A Bay Area man is wanted for involvement in two mass shootings, one in San Francisco where nine people were injured and the other in January in Oakland where a teen was gunned down and others were struck by bullets during a music video shoot, multiple law enforcement officials said Monday…

Hunter Biden will plead guilty to two misdemeanor counts of failing to pay his taxes on time…

Last month, the Justice Department announced it is launching an environmental crimes task force focused on Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands…

Weekly Update 6/20/23

California

The first task force in the nation exploring how a state could make reparations to Black Americans hurt by slavery and discrimination is set to issue a nearly-1,000 page report to California’s legislature later this month…

On Wednesday, 6/14, Attorney General Rob Bonta announced that a San Jose-based developer and property manager must refund more than $331,000 to 20 tenants in overpaid rent…

Kool non-menthol cigarettes don’t violate California’s ban on flavored tobacco, according to a determination from state Attorney General Rob Bonta — a finding that could bode poorly for a federal menthol prohibition being considered by the Biden administration…

According to a study released by the University of California, San Francisco Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative, homelessness in California is unequivocally linked to a shortage of affordable housing…

More than 100 environmental groups — including the Sierra Club of California and The Environmental Defense Center — are joining to fight a package Governor Newsom designed to make it easier to build infrastructure in California…

President and Administration

The White House has released the first-ever “U.S. National Plan to End Gender-Based Violence: Strategies for Action”…

On Thursday, 6/15, President Biden announced that several ticketing and travel companies are committing to get rid of hidden fees for buyers in the U.S…

SAMHSA has issued a new practical guide on trauma-informed approach (TIA)…

The Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN) 2022 Findings on Drug-Related Emergency Related Visits presents national estimates of drug-related emergency department (ED) visits…

Congress

House Republicans’ latest plan to improve the student loan system focuses on helping defaulted borrowers get back on track and adjusting income-driven repayment plans…

Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) unveiled a package of bills Wednesday, 6/14, that he and other Senate Republicans said would rein in the cost of a college education and address the root causes that are driving students to take on more loans…

Appropriations

House Republicans have decided to undercut the bipartisan compromise Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) struck with President Biden by limiting their spending bills to overall totals from fiscal 2022…

House Republicans are expected to approve their totals for a dozen appropriations bills tomorrow, 6/21, outlining how they propose to fund the government well below current levels and the totals set under the bipartisan budget deal…

A partisan rift over the distribution of earmarks in next year's appropriations bills spilled out into the open on Wednesday, 6/14, as House Democratic appropriators accused panel Republicans of sharing far more money with their own side of the aisle than is equitable…

The decision by House Republicans to write spending bills below the caps established in this month’s bipartisan debt ceiling deal sets the stage for a clash with Democrats in the Senate and White House — and heightens the odds of a government shutdown later in the year…

Education

According to a new Gallup poll, middle and high schoolers handed out just-okay marks to their own schools, assigning them a B-minus for average performance…

A former Democratic congressman who founded a network of Hebrew-language charter schools in Florida hopes to launch the second explicitly religious charter in the nation…

What do real-time job-openings data reveal about teacher hiring and shortages? Dan Goldhaber and a team of researchers at the University of Washington wanted to find out…

A new survey from the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools found that the majority of public school teachers agree they don't want politics to affect their ability to teach…