Weekly Federal Update 6/21/22

President and Administration

House and Senate leaders have decided to narrow the scope of the USICA negotiations in a bid to pass the package before the August recess…

The Education Protection Agency released new health advisories last week for a ubiquitous class of compounds known as polyfluoroalkyl and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) underscoring the risk facing dozens of communities across the country… 

President Joe Biden said Thursday, 6/16, the American people are “really, really down” after a tumultuous two years with the COVID-19 pandemic, volatility in the economy and now surging gasoline prices that are slamming family budgets…

Last week, the Departments of Education and Health and Human Services issued a Dear Colleague Letter with four recommendations to equitably support the social-emotional development and mental health of young children… 

The White House on Thursday, 6/16, launched a task force focused on the prevention of online abuse, marking one of the most significant steps the Biden administration has taken to examine the connection between digital vitriol and violence…

There are 611,470 DACA recipients, according to USCIS data from Dec. 31, 2021, and more than 800,000 people have been enrolled since its inception…

The Supreme Court ruled today, 6/21, that Maine may not exclude religious schools from a state tuition program, the latest decision by a conservative majority that has increasingly favored the role of religion in public life… 

With the price of gas soaring to more than $5 per gallon, President Biden is calling on top oil companies to account for the surge…

Last week, the Federal Reserve made an aggressive move in its campaign to bring down inflation, raising its target interest rate by three-quarters of a percentage point, the steepest rate hike since 1994 - and indicated another similar move could be coming next month…

Last week, President Biden ordered his health agency to begin efforts to ban conversion therapy and expand access to gender-affirming treatment after a slew of state attempts to limit transgender health care, particularly for children… 

Congress  

It appears that the bipartisan gun control negotiations are back “on track” following discussions over the weekend between the bipartisan groups of senators trying to hash out the package…

Senate Majority Leader Schumer could file cloture as early as today, 6/21, on Steven Dettelbach’s nomination to director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF)…

Last week, Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) announced that a bicameral group of negotiators will hopefully announce a deal this week to extend a program that offers free school meals to millions of children…

Democrats and Republicans are putting pressure on the Biden administration to clarify many questions regarding his plan to cancel student debt…

Education

A North Carolina charter school is weighing whether to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court a Tuesday, 6/14, ruling that clarified that charter schools are public and subject to equal protection laws… 

On Tuesday, 6/28, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) will host an informational webinar on preventing and protecting against potential physical attacks and threats in K-12 schools…

A group of tech companies, community college leaders and online university leaders are urging Congressional leadership to include online-only programs in short-term Pell grant eligibility…

A poll of one thousand Americans conducted by NPR and Ipsos found that although debt forgiveness is popular among Americans, a majority would prefer the Biden administration focus on efforts to make college more affordable…

Public Safety Update 6/17/22

Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) said Tuesday, 6/14, that a bipartisan group of senators are seeking to pass a gun safety bill before the July 4 Congressional recess, despite hang ups around red flag laws…

 A key point in the Senate’s potential gun safety bill that will face GOP pushback is a provision to provide resources to help states create and administer red flag laws, which allow firearms to be removed from those deemed by a court to be a danger to themselves or others…

A new study by the Violence Prevention Research Program at the University of California-Davis reveals how California’s six-year-old red flag law is making an impact: It disarmed 58 people who were threatening a gun massacre…

The Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing Wednesday, 6/15, on children and gun violence with witnesses from major cities including Chicago and Phoenix…

On Monday, 6/13, the Department of Education disbursed a $1.5 million School Emergency Response to Violence (Project SERV) grant to the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District (UCISD)… 

Ohio Governor Mike Dewine this week signed state legislation to make it easier for teachers to carry guns in school…

A conversation with Becky Pringle, the President of the National Education Association, revealed that the union will continue to ask for a ban on assault weapons and to raise the age limit for those who can purchase them… 

The National Alliance for Mental Illness (NAMI) will hold a series of webinars to highlight community response to mental health crises… 

California would be the first state to require gun owners to buy liability insurance to cover the negligent or accidental use of their firearms, if lawmakers approve a measure announced Thursday, 6/16…

Governor Gavin Newsom announced a record $156 million in gun violence prevention grants provided as part of the California Violence Intervention and Prevention Grant Program (CalVIP)…

Weekly CA-COVID Update 6/14/22

California

Tomorrow, 6/15, is the constitutional deadline for lawmakers to pass some sort of plan for the next fiscal year - otherwise, they run the risk of not getting paid…

During primary day, California voters weren’t very excited - it wasn’t a complete surprise…

California contests that will shape control of Congress came into focus in the midterm primary last week…

As wildfires intensify, thousands of overworked California firefighters carry a heavy load of trauma, pain and grief… 

California could become the first state to explicitly enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution if a Senate bill introduced last week clears the Legislature this month…

Coastal Southern California - an area that includes Los Angeles and more than half the state’s population - increased water usage by more than 25 percent for the month of April compared to April 2020, lagging behind most other parts of the state in conservation and appearing to dismiss dire warnings of supply shortages… 

Last week, in a brief filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, five automakers rallied to California’s defense, saying the state’s tough mandates are helping them transition to an era of electric vehicles…

Coronavirus

Today, 6/14, the Department of Education launched the National Parents and Families Engagement Council to facilitate strong and effective relationships between schools and parents, families, and caregivers…

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are scheduled to meet this week to consider approving a vaccine for children under 5 and the Biden administration has already released its plan to quickly inoculate them… 

The FDA said on Sunday, 6/12, that three doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine appeared to be effective in preventing COVID illness in children under 5, judging by the level of virus-blocking antibodies the shots induced… 

An outside advisory panel voted overwhelmingly to recommend that the FDA authorize a COVID-19 vaccine made by Novavax for use in adults, a move that could lead to the addition of a fourth vaccine to the U.S. arsenal… 

A new study from researchers at Harvard Medical School, Boston Children’s Hospital and the FDA shows that fewer than 10 percent of kids who contracted COVID-19 in 2020 or early 2021 developed antibodies capable of warding off the Omicron variant of the virus…

A new poll of teenagers and their parents suggests the pandemic substantially altered how students relate to their families, friends, and peers at school…

On Sunday, 6/12, the Biden administration lifted pre-departure testing requirements for all travelers coming into the United States from overseas, one of the last COVID-19 travel restrictions still in place in America…

Weekly Federal Update 6/13/22

President and Administration

Today’s rapid price increases, the fastest since the 1980s, pose a glaring political liability that looms over every major policy decision the White House makes - leaving President Biden and his colleagues on the defensive as officials discover that there is no good way to talk to voters about inflation…

On May 18, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) announced its first-ever behavioral health Recovery Innovation Challenge…

Congress  

A bipartisan group of 20 senators led by Sens. Chris Murphy (D-CT) and John Cornyn (R-TX) reached a deal on a “framework” for a gun-control package…

The House Appropriations Committee will begin a two-week sprint on Wednesday, 6/15, to mark up all 12 annual spending bills before Congress leaves for the July 4th recess, but the endgame for FY 2023 government funding is cloudy with a chance for long delays…

Education

Last week, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona laid out his vision for how the nation can support teachers across the country and elevate the teaching profession. Secretary Cardona’s vision focused on three areas…

President Biden signed into law a bill that restores education benefits to veterans who attended for-profit colleges that closed or lost their accreditation due to fraudulent or misleading practices…

School segregation has increased in the last 30 years, especially in the 100 largest districts that enroll about 40 percent of the nation’s K-12 population…

A recently released Government Accountability Office report found that during the 2020-21 school year, students in all grade levels, whether learning in person or virtually, struggled with many obstacles…

Student Debt

President Biden is likely to decide later this summer, in July or August, whether to partially forgive student-loan debt for millions of borrowers, as the president and his senior advisers continue to weigh the political and economic fallout of any such move… 

It's common knowledge that many students take on loans each year to go to college with the hopes of boosting their earning potential…

Public Safety Update 6/10/22

The House passed a sweeping gun package on Wednesday, 6/8, in response to last month’s mass shootings in Buffalo, N.Y., and Uvalde, T.X., that killed more than 30 people and reignited gun reform talks on Capitol Hill…

Senators have an outline of a bill to address gun violence and respond to recent mass shootings, but crucial details that will determine whether the legislation can get 60 votes to pass remain…

Leaders of March for Our Lives, the organization founded by student survivors of the 2018 mass shooting at a Parkland, FL high school, are expecting thousands in Washington, DC tomorrow, 6/11, in support of ending gun violence…

Chief executives at 228 American companies co-signed a letter on Thursday, 6/9, urging members of the US Senate to take “bold, urgent action” to pass legislation aimed at reducing gun violence in America…

A day after a man armed with a pistol, a knife, and other weapons was arrested outside Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s home, House Democrats delayed consideration of a Senate-passed bill to bolster security for Supreme Court justices…

President Joe Biden’s nominee for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) secured the 50 votes needed for confirmation after two conservative Democrats came out in favor of his nomination on Thursday, 6/9…

On Thursday, 6/9, voters recalled D.A. Chesa Boudin, one of the nation’s most progressive prosecutors…

A new poll by UC Berkeley and The Times shows less than 1/3 of city voters surveyed said they approve of the LAPD’s overall performance — a startling drop from 2009, when a Times poll found 77 percent of people approved of the department…