California
The House has dismissed a Republican attempt to remove Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) from the House intelligence panel over his contact more than six years ago with a suspected Chinese spy who targeted politicians in the United States…
“We’re anticipating within five-and-a-half weeks where we can eliminate all of the tiering,” said California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday, 3/19, “and make available vaccines to everybody across the spectrum because supply will exponentially increase”…
Last week, Judge Cynthia Freeland issued a temporary restraining order blocking California from enforcing a wide swath of rules that limit and regulate school openings, saying the state has denied children their right to an education by forcing many to stay in online learning…
Last week, Newsom committed to nominating a Black woman to the U.S. Senate should Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) resign…
The Senate narrowly confirmed California Attorney General Xavier Becerra to become the new Secretary of Health and Human Services last Thursday, 3/18…
Coronavirus
The COVID-19 vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford provided strong protection against COVID-19 in a large clinical trial in the U.S., completely preventing the worst outcomes from the disease while causing no serious side effects, according to results announced today, 3/22…
Schools can allow social distancing of three feet, rather than six, between students in classrooms, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced Friday, 3/19, in what is expected to be a boost to reopening schools nationwide…
A new analysis found that states such as South Carolina and Florida that rushed to offer the vaccine to ever-larger groups of people have actually vaccinated smaller shares of their population than those that moved more slowly and methodically, such as Hawaii and Connecticut…
The Small Business Administration (SBA) will begin accepting online applications on 4/8 for more than $16 billion in grants for performing arts centers, movie theaters and museums that have been shut down during the pandemic…
The Senate must move to prevent a lapse in new loans for small businesses bruised by the pandemic…
President and Administration
White House officials are weighing a number of means to pass the Biden administration’s next big legislative push, “Build Back Better,” including breaking the jobs plan into as many as three bills…
The Education Department announced Thursday, 3/18, that students who were cheated by for-profit institutions and previously granted partial relief on their direct federal loans will now be granted full relief…
As the U.S. reels from major cyber-attacks by suspected Russian and Chinese hackers, officials are looking to implement new technologies that would allow the federal government to respond more effectively…
President Biden’s next major economic package will almost certainly have to rely once again on a Democrat-only approach after Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) shut the door on Republican support for tax hikes to pay for it…
States are demanding the Biden administration clarify a last-minute provision in the latest virus relief package that bars them from using federal benefits to cut taxes…
President Biden is considering keeping U.S. troops in Afghanistan until November, rather than withdrawing them by a 5/1 deadline outlined in an agreement his predecessor negotiated with the Taliban…
Congress
House lawmakers described the fear and trauma rippling through the Asian-American community and argued the rise in violence was a result of anti-China messaging stoked during the pandemic…
House Republicans voted to allow their members to request dedicated-spending projects, known as earmarks, following that same move by Democrats, in a positive sign for Biden’s hopes for a bipartisan infrastructure bill…
President Biden on Tuesday, 3/16, said he supports changing the Senate’s filibuster rule back to requiring senators talk on the floor to hold up a bill, the first time he has endorsed reforming the procedure…
On Tuesday, 3/16, a bipartisan bill was introduced - The Water Quality Protection and Job Creation Act of 2021 - that would authorize $50 billion in direct infrastructure investment over five years…
Backers of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) won a fresh victory in the House, with a vote to remove a ratification deadline they hope to see matched in the Senate and upheld in the courts…
The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee approved the bipartisan Protecting Firefighters from Adverse Substances Act on Wednesday, 3/17, legislation to protect firefighters from “forever chemicals” and reduce their releases into the environment…
The House moved on Wednesday, 3/17, to renew the Violence Against Women Act, adding firearm restrictions for convicted domestic abusers and other new provisions to a landmark law that has helped combat domestic violence, sexual assault and stalking but lapsed under former President Trump in 2019…
Education
Last week, the Department issued guidance regarding the use of funds received under the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund (HEERF) grant program…
Secretary of Education Cardona today, 3/22, sent a letter to The Honorable Pedro Pierluisi, Governor of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, informing him that the U.S. Department of Education has provided the Commonwealth immediate access to $912 million in Federal education funds, which had not been available to Puerto Rico as a result of previously imposed grant conditions…
A bipartisan group of Senators on Thursday, 3/18, introduced into Congress the College Transparency Act, which would remove the federal ban on a student-level data system…
Eleven districts in California are seeing an 89 percent surge in chronic absenteeism among students in elementary grades compared to last year at this time, according to new data presented to the California Department of Education…