Following the historic fires in Maui, Hawaii, climate activists and lawmakers ramped up a plea to President Biden to declare a national climate emergency. Such a declaration would allow the president to take more actions aimed at reducing the toll and destruction of climate-driven disasters. “Tomorrow, you could wake up and your whole community could be ashes,” Kaniela Ing, a Maui resident and the national director of the Green New Deal Network, a climate justice organization, told Politico amid the Maui fire disaster. “That’s the urgency we’re operating under, so if there was ever a moment to declare a climate…

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently finalized new blood donation guidelines that will make it easier for gay and bisexual men to give blood after decades of restrictions. The new guidelines removed a decades-long requirement that men who have sex with other men must abstain from sex for three months before donating blood in order to help protect blood supplies from HIV. Now, all potential blood donors will be given a questionnaire to evaluate individual risk for HIV based on factors such as sexual behavior and recent partners. Interested donors who report having had anal sex with new…

The Biden administration is going after what it calls “junk insurance” as part of its plan to lower health care costs for American consumers. In July the Health and Human Services, Treasury and Labor departments issued proposed rules that would limit short-term health plans to three months, with an option to be renewed for only one month. Initially created during the Obama administration, the short-term health plans were meant to be used during transition periods, such as times when people are between jobs, and were limited to 90-day periods. Under the Trump administration in 2018, the 90-day limit was expanded…

Building on growing debate in schools and libraries, the U.S. House recently passed legislation that sponsors say would guarantee parents and guardians certain rights over their children’s elementary and secondary school education. The Parents Bill of Rights (H.R. 5) passed in March by a 213-208 vote, with most Republicans in favor of the legislation and all Democrats opposing it. Among its requirements, the bill would mandate that schools publish curricula and allow parents to meet with teachers at least twice every school year, review the school’s budget and inspect reading materials in the school library. It would also require that…

As part of a crackdown on the nation’s largest source of emissions that contribute to climate change, the White House in April proposed rules to make cars and light trucks more efficient and push more consumers to drive electric vehicles. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that the standards would cut 7.3 billion tons of carbon dioxide through 2055, the equivalent of eliminating all greenhouse gas emissions from the entire current U.S. transportation sector for four years. The rules set tailpipe emission limits for passenger vehicles between model years 2027 and 2032 and, due to their stringency, will effectively…

For nearly a century, the House has been fixed with 435 members. A growing movement in Congress and in think tanks, however, seeks to bump that number up to increase public access to members, improve diversity and reduce workloads for individual members. In January, Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) introduced H.R. 622, the Restoring Equal and Accountable Legislators in the House (REAL House) Act, which would add 150 seats to the House, increasing it to 585 members. “Members of the House of Representatives are their constituents’ most direct connection to the federal government and its resources and services,” Blumenauer said in…

Congressional Republicans recently attempted to block a new rule from the U.S. Department of Labor that allows retirement plan fiduciaries to consider environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors when choosing investments. The ESG rule, formally known as the Prudence and Loyalty in Selecting Plan Investments and Exercising Shareholder Rights, went into effect on Jan. 30, following an executive order signed by President Joe Biden in May 2021. “The intensifying impacts of climate change present physical risk to assets, publicly traded securities, private investments, and companies — such as increased extreme weather risk leading to supply chain disruptions,” the executive order…

A lawsuit filed in a Texas federal district court is aiming to limit Americans’ access to mifepristone, commonly referred to as the abortion pill. Anti-abortion advocates say the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) should rescind its approval of the medication until it can be adequately tested. “The FDA has one job, which is just to protect Americans from dangerous drugs,” said Denise Harle, senior counsel with the Alliance Defending Freedom, one of the conservative-leaning groups that brought the lawsuit. “We’re asking the court to remove that chemical drug regimen until and unless the FDA actually goes through the proper…

The trend of local and state bans on certain books is now drawing the attention of the U.S. Congress. In September 2022, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) and Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) introduced a bicameral resolution to recognize Banned Books Week, an annual event aimed at bringing attention to books that have been banned or challenged in schools or libraries throughout history. Banned Books Week started in 1982 and is publicly promoted by the American Library Association and Amnesty International. Raskin, who chairs the House Oversight and Reform Committee’s Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, said in a statement that…

Republicans in Congress are attempting to reduce the $80 billion increase in funding for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) that Democrats approved as part of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. The funding was justified as a way to correct years of underfunding for the tax collection agency, leading to poor customer service and processing delays. The additional funding will be used for modernization and IT improvements as well as hiring 87,000 new IRS employees to help raise an additional $204 billion in tax revenue over a 10-year period. However, in January the House voted 221-210, along a party line…