A new proposal by the Trump Administration would significantly expand offshore oil and gas lease sales to tracts off the Atlantic, Arctic, Gulf, and Pacific coasts. The draft five-year (2019 to 2024) plan is a major departure from the current 2017 to 2022 plan approved by the Obama Administration that limits lease sales to 10 tracts off the Gulf of Mexico and one off Alaska’s southern coast. In announcing the new policy, Interior Secretary Ryan Zincke said: “Responsibly developing our energy resources on the Outer Continental Shelf in a safe and well-regulated way is important to our economy and energy…

The House-passed version of the tax reform bill included repeal of the Johnson amendment, which prohibits nonprofit, tax-exempt organizations from endorsing specific candidates. Named after then-Senator Lyndon Johnson (TX-D), the amendment was adopted as part of 1954 tax reform legislation. It added a clause to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) definition of 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organizations that excludes any public charity, private foundation, or religious congregation “which does not participate in, or intervene in (including the publishing or distributing of statements), any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for public office.” Advocates of Johnson amendment repeal,…

On November 20, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced that Haitians living and working in the United States since an earthquake ravaged their country 2010 will have to leave or be deported by July 2019. About 60,000 Haitians currently benefit from the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) program, signed into law by President George H.W. Bush in 1990. The DHS announcement followed an October decision by the Trump Administration that ended the protection for 2,500 Nicaraguans. The protection is offered to U.S. resident and undocumented immigrants when war, natural disaster, or other “extraordinary” conditions temporarily make return to their native…

Members of Congress have weighed in on the case now before the U.S. Supreme Court that concerns a Colorado baker who refused because of his religious beliefs to make a cake to celebrate the marriage of a same-sex couple. To be determined in the case of Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission is whether creative businesses can refuse certain services due to their First Amendment rights of free speech and free exercise of religion in light of public accommodation laws. Dozens of civil rights, religious, legal, and other groups have filed briefs to argue on both sides of the…

Testifying at a House Natural Resources Committee hearing on November 7, Natalie Jresko, Executive Director of Puerto Rico’s Financial Oversight and Management Board, said that the island’s government could run out of money by the end of the year if it does not receive an “unprecedented” infusion of Federal aid. The hearing, “Examining Challenges to Puerto Rico’s Recovery and the Role of the Financial Oversight and Management Board,” focused on the Oversight Board’s role in Puerto Rico’s immediate and long-term recovery from Hurricane Maria. The board, created by the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act (PROMESA), signed into…

On September 22, the Department of Education replaced Obama-era guidance on campus sexual assault with temporary measures that would make it more difficult to prove sexual misconduct. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos cited concerns that the current policy denies due process to accused individuals. “One rape is one too many, one assault is one too many, one aggressive act of harrassment is one too many, one person denied process is one too many,” DeVos said at a speech at George Mason University. She added that school administrators have told her that the system es­tablished by the Obama Administration “has run amok.”…

On October 6, the Trump Administration released new rules that would allow employers to seek an exemption, for religious or moral reasons, to the Obamacare provision requiring insurance plans to cover contraception. According to a study commissioned by the Obama Ad­ministration, 55 million women now have access to free birth control because of the contraceptive coverage mandate. That provision has been the subject of more than five years of litigation, however. In August, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ruled that nonreligious anti-abortion groups must comply with the mandate. The court sided with the Federal Government in…

On August 28, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced that the Trump Administration would lift a two-year ban on the transfer of surplus military equipment from the Pentagon to police departments across the United States. In an address to the Fraternal Order of Police in Nashville, the attorney general said that the President’s Executive Order would make it easier for police officers to protect themselves and their communities. “We will not put superficial concerns over public safety,” he said, calling the equipment — which includes grenade launchers, armored vehicles, and bayonets — “lifesaving gear.” The program — known as 1033, after…

The Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee scheduled four days of hearings on shoring up the country’s health care system. Titled “Stabilizing Premiums and Helping Individuals in the Individual Insurance Market for 2018,” the hearings were held on September 6, 7, 12. The committee heard testimony testimony from State insurance commissioners, governors, health care experts, and insurance companies. The hearings marked the first time that Democratic and Republican senators have met together to look for ways to stabilize the health care system under Obamacare. The top Republican and the top Democrat on the committee each issued statements affirming their intention…

On June 8, the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee approved a bill to create a streamlined process by which the Federal Government would authorize commercial space launches. H.R. 2809, the American Space Commerce Free Enterprise Act, introduced by Committee Chair Lamar Smith (TX-R), would expand the authority of the Office of Space Commerce within the Department of Commerce to include supervision of commercial space activity. Because the private sector is increasingly investing and developing spacecraft, satellites, and other technologies for nongovernmental exploration of outer space, the bill would establish a certification process for the private sector to operate those technologies….