Weekly Update 4/29/24

Appropriations

Fresh off a government funding fight that lasted almost half the ensuing fiscal year, the annual appropriations season is accelerating on schedule for fiscal 2025 — at least, for now…

Congress included about $15.3 billion in earmarks, spanning 7,234 projects, as part of fiscal 2023 government funding…

California

On Wednesday, 4/24, Governor Newsom announced that he’ll send California Highway Patrol to Bakersfield to provide additional law enforcement presence…

A proposal to provide extra education funding to schools based on their enrollment of Black students is unconstitutional…

On Thursday, 4/25, the Federal Communications Commission revived net neutrality rules that were repealed during the Trump administration…

Maybe California is not such a high tax state after all — at least for lower income families…

Kern County Supervisor Zack Scrivner, once seen as a rising star in Republican circles, is under investigation over allegations that he sexually assaulted a child…

California revenues fell $243 million short of projections for March and are now $5.8 billion below projections for the entire fiscal year…

Supporters of a proposal to roll back parts of Proposition 47 have shown they’re for real, submitting more than 900,000 signatures two weeks ago…

California city leaders were in Sacramento on Tuesday, 4/23, to ask the state for more funding to provide housing and services to combat homelessness…

The United States is juggling multiple — sometimes competing — goals when it comes to providing clean, safe and affordable drinking water to Americans…

President and Administration

On April 28-30, 2024, the Congressional Fire Services Institute (CFSI) will host the 34th Annual National Fire and Emergency Services Symposium and Dinner in Washington, DC…

A rise in bloodstream infections among people who inject drugs observed at a medical center in Vermont coincided with the rise of the illicit use of xylazine, a horse tranquilizer…

On Monday, 4/22, the Supreme Court’s conservative majority sounded highly skeptical about lower court rulings that held an Oregon city’s ordinance…

On Monday, 4/22, the Supreme Court agreed to hear a challenge to the Biden administration’s crackdown on the sale of do-it-yourself “ghost gun” kits…

On Tuesday, 4/23, the Biden-Harris Administration released the 2024 National Strategy for Suicide Prevention (National Strategy) and accomp to address the overdose and mental health crises…

A proposed ban on menthol cigarettes in the U.S. “will take significantly more time,” U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said in a statement…

President Biden is scrambling to fund his cancer moonshot and its ambitious goal of cutting the death rate by half…

The Biden administration finalized regulations to boost safeguards in federally funded health programs for LGBTQ+ patients and people seeking abortions…

Congress

The Senate passed a $95 billion foreign aid package for Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan to the president's desk Tuesday (4/23) and the President signed it on Wednesday (4/24)…

Hours after President Biden signed a bill that could potentially ban the popular social media app TikTok in the United States, Sen. Laphonza Butler (D-CA) was warning…

The $95 billion foreign aid bill President Biden signed into law Wednesday, 4/24, doesn’t include the $1.2 billion he requested last year…

Education

Access Academies is a nonprofit initiative that provides hundreds of St. Louis-area students with after-school activities, high school and postsecondary counseling, and financial assistance…

Students in rural America still lack access to high-speed internet at home despite government efforts during the pandemic to fill the void…

To gauge the magnitude of global learning loss during the pandemic, a team at the World Bank examined data from the Program for International Student Assessment…

GreatSchools wanted to dig deeper to understand how districts were communicating with parents post-pandemic and how parents were looking for schools in an era of exploration and increasing disengagement…

Afterschool program providers are “very concerned about their future sustainability” as federal pandemic relief funds begin to expire…

A new report from Gallup and the Walton Family Foundation surveyed more than 1,000 Gen Z students between the ages of 12 to 18…