Weekly Update 11/25/24

Appropriations

House GOP leaders are outlining an ambitious agenda for the coming year, with five key reconciliation priorities: extending expiring tax cuts, boosting domestic energy production, funding the border wall alongside increased immigration enforcement…

Trump-Vance Administration Nominees

President-elect Donald Trump tapped Republican Sean Duffy, a former Wisconsin representative in the House, to head the Transportation Department…

President-elect Donald Trump has chosen Mehmet Oz, the celebrity physician and TV personality known as Dr. Oz, to be administrator of CMS…

President-elect Donald Trump is expected to tap Brooke Rollins as his Agriculture secretary…

President-elect Donald Trump has tapped former Florida Rep. Dave Weldon to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention…

President-elect Donald Trump said Friday (11/22) he has chosen Dr. Janette Nesheiwat to serve as surgeon general in his new administration…

Linda McMahon, the co-chair of President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team who spent much of her career as a pro-wrestling executive, is the incoming president’s choice to serve as secretary of education…

President-elect Donald Trump nominated former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi to lead the Justice Department…

President and Administration

On Tuesday (11/19), U.S. Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy released Eliminating Tobacco-Related Disease and Death: Addressing Disparities, A Report of the Surgeon General…

The Senate unanimously passed a bill in the early hours of Thursday morning (11/21) that would mandate an October 1 launch of the federal student aid form…

California

California's once-record budget deficit has shrunk to $2 billion but there's "no capacity" for expanding programs and future shortfalls loom…

The defeat of an initiative to raise the minimum wage to $18 an hour makes California the first state to reject a statewide minimum-wage increase at the ballot in almost 30 years…

California Assembly Majority Leader Cecilia Aguiar-Curry will introduce another proposal to guarantee paid pregnancy leave to school staff during the upcoming legislative session…

Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a plan today to Trump-proof — and maybe even Tesla-proof — California’s nation-leading electric vehicle market…

Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price conceded her recall in a news conference Monday (11/18)…

California is bracing for a prolonged war with the Trump administration come January…

Education

President-elect Donald Trump’s proposal to dismantle the federal Department of Education — and the impact it would have on the nation’s special education teacher shortage…

Students who started school as English learners but later shed that designation by becoming proficient in the language are more likely than their classmates to graduate from high school…

Students with disabilities and their families could experience significant ripple effects from the incoming Trump administration’s pledges to dramatically scale back the federal government’s role in education policy…

The majority of states, 26, saw declines in high school graduation rates following the pandemic, new research shows…

In the article "So You Want To Make Education Great Again? 3 Executive Orders For Trump On Day 1," Jeanne Allen outlines three executive actions President-elect Donald Trump could implement to reform the U.S. education system…

Weekly Update 11/18/24

Appropriations

Several of the appropriators who were still awaiting final ballot-box tallies last week won re-election…

Trump-Vance Administration Nominees

President-elect Donald Trump is moving swiftly to staff his senior team and Cabinet positions, with news already broken about high-profile choices for secretary of state, EPA director, and ambassador to the United Nations…

Donald Trump has nominated one of his previous attorneys and former GOP House member Doug Collins to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)…

GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) resigned from the House Wednesday (11/13), the same day that President-elect Trump announced his nomination for Attorney General…

CAP will continue to update cabinet nominations and other appointments as they are announced…

Congress

John Thune will lead the Senate Republican conference next term, winning a three-way election to succeed Minority Leader Mitch McConnell in a closed-door vote on Wednesday…

Mike Johnson clinched the internal GOP nod to serve as speaker again…

Reps. Tim Walberg (R-MI) and Burgess Owens (R-UT) are vying to replace outgoing House Education and the Workforce Chair Virginia Foxx (R-NC)…

California

California regulators will delay launch of the cap-and-trade rulemaking to early 2025, the agency confirmed to POLITICO on Thursday (11/14)…

Governor Gavin Newsom’s call for a special legislative session to address challenges facing California in light of President-elect Donald Trump's policies highlights his proactive approach to state governance…

President and Administration

Education Secretary Miguel Cardona is visiting Puerto Rico today to present the attached Transition Guide…

Education

After leadership votes and rules changes, the last order of business last week in the House was to vote on legislation…

Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) has revised its leading effort to boost academic outcomes for Black students after conservative Virginia-based activists filed a civil rights complaint…

The METCO program, established in 1966, enables students from Boston to attend schools in participating suburban districts…

President-elect Donald Trump has pledged to cut federal funding for schools that teach critical race theory or support transgender students…

Inflammatory rhetoric from the campaign trail is making its way into schools following the election…

The 2024 Gaggle Student Safety Report provides a comprehensive analysis of incidents involving student safety, focusing on the 2023–2024 academic year…

Weekly Update 11/12/24

Appropriations

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has told allies that he's leaning toward a Continuing Resolution (CR) that would extend into March with a disaster relief package attached…

Trump-Vance Administration Nominees

President-elect Trump is assembling his Cabinet and senior staff for his second term in the White House before taking office in January…

Congress

In the House, at least nine appropriators are not returning to Congress next year, and this number may increase as more than half a dozen appropriators’ races are still uncalled…

Three Republican senators are vying to be the majority leader in the upper chamber in the new Congress…

California

Proposition 2, a $10 billion bond to fund school repair, passed on Tuesday (11/5), a coup for school advocates and construction firms that had watched the measure struggle to gain traction throughout the fall…

While California’s 2024 legislative session wasn’t very heavy on landmark housing bills, the state began streamlining development and addressing homelessness…

With Donald Trump’s election, California is preparing to reprise a familiar role as a counterbalance on key national issues…

President and Administration

The nursing home industry views President-elect Donald Trump’s victory as a potential opportunity for change, particularly regarding the Biden administration’s recently implemented staffing rule…

As former President Donald Trump prepares to start a second term, changes to U.S. cyber policy and federal cybersecurity oversight may be on the horizon…

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will likely be a part of a second Trump administration’s HHS, where he could play a major role in shaping policy as the department grapples with cybersecurity and legal challenges…

Former President Donald Trump’s presidential campaign touched on numerous tax cut proposals, but he will soon need to navigate the practical challenges of implementing them…

Donald Trump’s promise to abolish the Education Department just got closer to reality…

Despite political polarization, this opinion article argues that the 2024 election has opened a potential "policy window" for national consensus on childcare reform in the U.S…

Jenniffer González of Puerto Rico’s pro-statehood New Progressive Party was leading polls on Wednesday (11/6) in a historic gubernatorial election…

CHC BOLD PAC, the campaign arm of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, congratulated Pablo José Hernández Rivera on Thursday (11/7) on his election as the Resident Commissioner of Puerto Rico…

Genera PR announced on Thursday (11/7) the awarding of $459 million from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for the purchase and installation of equipment…

Education

Recent state-level decisions in Kentucky, Nebraska, and Colorado saw voters rejecting ballot measures intended to expand or formally establish private school choice initiatives…

After yearslong failures to give families tax dollars for private tuition, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott now appears to have enough legislative support to move forward…

Special Post-Election Update - 11/7/24

Future of Community Project Requests and FY25 Appropriations

The FY25 budget still needs to be passed. It is currently scheduled to be considered in December, but with these election results it is possible that instead of passing a full budget…

Trump-Vance Administration - What to Expect

Donald Trump secured enough Electoral College votes to set the stage for a second term by flipping key swing states, including Georgia, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania…

House Majority Uncertain as Key Races Await Final Counts

As of November 6, 2024, the control over the House of Representatives is still undetermined, with 48 races yet to be called…

Republicans Take Senate Majority

As of November 6, 2024, the Republican Party has gained control of the U.S. Senate, marking a significant shift in the legislative branch…

Weekly Update 11/4/24

Changes in Electoral Vote Process

After the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol in 2022, the Electoral Count Reform Act (ECRA) was signed into law…

Congress

As voters head to the polls in Tuesday's elections, they’ll also be choosing a new Congress…

Reps. Burgess Owens (R-UT) and Tim Walberg (R-MI) are vying to replace Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC)…

Two majority-Latino House districts in California's heartland have become major targets for both parties heading into the election…

California

Gavin Newsom and his administration are making further contingency plans to shield the Golden State in case former President Donald Trump returns to the White House…

Education

The SEED School of Washington, D.C., a rare charter boarding campus in the District, has been accused of flouting local and federal education laws that protect students with disabilities…

New research shows older students are hitting a “decoding threshold…”

Tense conflict over issues like how districts teach about race, their policies related to LGBTQ+ students, and the books they keep in school libraries cost American schools more than $3 billion…

The 2024 election could have significant implications for K-12 schools, as the presidential candidates present distinctly different approaches to education policy…

A new report finds that more schools are now investing in social-emotional learning (SEL) curricula than just a few years ago…