President and Administration
The Biden administration is drafting an executive order invoking the Defense Production Act to alleviate shortages of key minerals needed for the technology to store clean energy…
This morning President Joe Biden unveiled a $5.8 trillion budget request with a proposal that emphasized deficit reduction, additional funding for police and veterans, and flexibility to negotiate new social spending programs…
The Biden administration unveiled a comprehensive action plan last week to root out racial bias and discrimination in home valuations…
Substantial population loss in some of the nation’s largest and most vibrant cities was the primary reason 2021 was the slowest year of population growth in U.S. history, new Census data shows…
Education Secretary Miguel Cardona and Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra reaffirmed their commitment to children and youth by launching a joint-department effort to expand school-based health services, ensuring children have the health services and supports necessary to build resilience and thrive…
This morning, 3/28, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona issued a nationwide call to action for states, higher education leaders, and schools to tap federal resources and work together to address the teacher shortage and aid student recovery…
The Biden administration is partnering with the Aspen Institute to jointly host forums in several cities across the country…
On Thursday, 3/24, the Department of Labor reported that new unemployment claims last week fell by 28,000 to 187,000, the lowest number of new jobless claims since 1969…
The United States on Wednesday, 3/23, formally accused unnamed members of Russia’s armed forces of committing war crimes in Ukraine and promised to hold Moscow accountable, including through potential criminal prosecutions…
Congress
One of the top legislative priorities for Congress during the next few months will be finishing work on the Bipartisan Innovation Act, which has previously had about a handful of different names…
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden (D-OR) anticipates that senators will focus on a reconciliation bill after they return from their April break…
The Senate Judiciary Committee could vote today, 3/28, on Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s nomination to the Supreme Court, but it is expected to hold over the nomination until next week…
The House is set to vote this week on a bill to end federal prohibitions on marijuana, as well as expunge federal arrests and convictions of nonviolent marijuana offenders and ban the denial of federal public benefits for marijuana use…
All three octogenarian House Democratic leaders are officially running for reelection: Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) and Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-SC)…
Education
LaGuardia Community College in New York is creating an Office of Credit for Prior Learning and plans to launch an enrollment initiative dedicated to giving working adults, especially those returning to college, credits for work experience and accomplishments outside the classroom that will help them earn degrees in less time…
Last week, the California State University Board of Trustees voted unanimously to no longer use standardized SAT and ACT tests in undergraduate admissions…
A coalition of education officials, nutrition directors, and mayors from across the country are urging Congress to reverse course and extend flexibility that has allowed the nation’s schools to serve universal free meals since the pandemic’s start…
Private student lenders are pressuring the Biden administration to restart federal student loan payments because the moratorium started early in the pandemic continues to hurt their bottom line…
A new analysis by the California Policy Lab and the Student Loan Law Initiative shows that the student loan pause improved the credit standing for most of the 26 million affected borrowers who have had their payments paused since March 2020…
The Education Department announced new measures that will hold companies that own for-profit colleges that fail responsible for the funds owed to the federal government, including liabilities arising from closed-college loan discharges and borrower defense to repayment claims…
A third of teachers faced verbal abuse or threats of violence from students and parents last school year and almost half were looking to leave their jobs, according to alarming data released last week…
The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) is the only national, comparative gauge of K-12 student achievement…