Appropriations
On Thursday, 11/2, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) floated a fresh idea on for heading off a shutdown after the Nov. 17 deadline, one that would seemingly create a series of rolling funding threats and could draw opposition from across the political spectrum…
The House delayed consideration of its transportation funding bill until this week, as some Republicans expressed concerns with the bill’s proposed Amtrak cuts…
On Wednesday, 11/1, The Senate passed its three-bill funding package nearly two months after the measure cleared its first legislative hurdle in the upper chamber…
On Friday, 11/3, the House on voted 213-203 to approve a $25.4 billion fiscal 2024 funding bill for the EPA and Interior Department, a measure that would dramatically slash funds for the agencies and the Biden administration’s climate change priorities, but which has no hope of passing the Democratic-controlled Senate or being signed by President Biden…
Senate appropriators are mulling a continuing resolution that would run until mid-December, which would put the chamber on a collision course with new Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), who’s been pushing to kick final spending decisions into next year…
The House Republican Israel aid bill that passed Thursday night, 11/2, with help from a dozen Democrats has no shot at passage in the Senate, where Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has said he won’t even put it on the floor…
On Thursday, 11/2, the House Ways and Means Committee unanimously approved $4.9 billion in tax breaks for disaster victims…
Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed a new law that will help officials track down missing Black women and children…
California
California's last-ditch property insurer for wildfire coverage is expanding at its fastest rate yet as home and commercial property owners find it difficult to buy policies on the regular market, according to figures released Wednesday, 11/1…
Wildfire smoke contributes to thousands of deaths each year in the United States, according to a new report that also finds that exposure to soot and smog adds to the likelihood that babies will be born prematurely or have low birth weight, writes E&E News' Sean Reilly…
California officials are pushing hard to secure $3 billion in federal infrastructure funding to ramp up construction on the state’s embattled high-speed rail project…
The effort to legalize magic mushrooms in California has taken an unexpected bipartisan twist that could improve its odds of passage…
Sen. Laphonza Butler is tapping Marvin Figueroa as chief of staff…
President and Administration
Top Biden officials are preparing Democratic lawmakers and immigration policy advocates for the likelihood the administration will have to swallow compromises on asylum law in order for the president’s national security funding request to pass…
President Biden’s Treasury Department is expected to announce a decision that could make it even harder to persuade Americans to buy electric cars — or could fuel new GOP accusations that his policies are aiding China…
President Biden is considering canceling student debt for borrowers whose balances have ballooned because of interest accrual, those who’ve been trying to repay for 25 years and students who attended low-performing colleges…
As the Biden administration reiterates calls for tougher gun measures in response to the mass shooting in Maine two weeks ago, House Republicans updated a fiscal 2024 spending bill with provisions that take the opposite track…
On Tuesday, 10/31, the court will consider whether school officials — in one case, board members for the San Diego-area Poway school district — can block constituents from responding to posts on platforms like Facebook and X…
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) released its annual report on food security, showing that 44.2 million people (in 17.0 million households) in the U.S. could not afford enough food to eat at some point in 2022…
Congress
The top Democrat and Republican senators on the Finance Committee released a discussion draft aimed at reining in pharmacy benefit managers (PBM) and boosting mental health access…
Democratic lawmakers are putting new pressure on congressional leaders to secure emergency funding in the upcoming federal stopgap funding measure to keep afloat the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, known as WIC…
On Wednesday, 11/1, a pair of Senate committees launched an investigation pressing private insurance companies to explain how they plan to cover escalating losses arising from extreme weather fueled by climate change…
Education
A new study finds that “charter schools tend to demonstrate greater efficiency on both metrics of cost-effectiveness and return on investment, using fewer dollars to achieve better outcomes, relative to traditional public schools…”
Developed by K-12 IT practitioners, for K-12 IT practitioners—and aligned to cybersecurity risk management best practices—the K12 SIX Essentials series establishes baseline cybersecurity standards for U.S. school districts and provides guidance and tools to support their implementation…
Excluding students — particularly Black, Latino and indigenous students — from class leads to a big drop in their GPAs , according to a study by researchers with UCSF…
An overwhelming majority of Americans want children to have active shooter drills in school, but a new NPR/Ipsos poll finds that they differ on how to conduct them, and what safety measures to invest in…