The pros and cons of corporate influence in the White House came up for debate last fall when President-Elect Joe Biden began assembling his transition and administration teams. When Biden tapped several top staff members with backgrounds in the lobbying and corporate worlds, some progressives worried that the administration could favor the interests of big business over those of everyday Americans. For example, Biden’s choice for White House counselor, Steve Ricchetti, came under fire when reports surfaced that his brother, Jeff Ricchetti, had lobbying contracts with at least two pharmaceutical companies and Amazon. Ethics attorneys argued that Steve Ricchetti, a…

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is weighing whether or not to ban a pesticide used at tens of thousands of farms across the U.S. that has been linked to brain damage in children. The pesticide in question — chlorpyrifos — has been used in the U.S. since 1965 to protect crops such as berries, nuts, citrus and vegetables. Anyone can be exposed to the pesticide through the food they eat, but farmworkers and those living near farms that use chlorpyrifos are at a higher risk of exposure. The use of chlorpyrifos in homes was largely banned in 2000 and…

The Trump administration announced this fall that it would accept a lower number of refugee admissions in the coming year. In a proposal sent to Congress, the administration said it would accept 15,000 refugees in fiscal year 2021, a more than 15% reduction from fiscal year 2020. The U.S. State Department justified the plan, saying it reflects the administration’s mission to protect Americans, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. “The president’s proposal for refugee resettlement in FY 2021 reaffirms America’s enduring commitment to assist the world’s most vulnerable people while fulfilling our first duty to protect and serve the American people,”…

The Trump administration moved to protect Americans’ data privacy in September when it banned Chinese-developed social media apps TikTok and WeChat from U.S. app stores, sparking a debate over national security and free speech. The U.S. Commerce Department’s order barred all new U.S. downloads of the apps after Sept. 20 and would ban the apps’ functionality beginning on Nov. 12. Ahead of the September announcement, President Donald Trump had argued for weeks that the apps were allowing the Chinese Communist Party to surveil Americans. “The spread in the United States of mobile applications developed and owned by companies in the…

In August 2020, a group of senators introduced a plan for a “bill of rights” aimed at empowering and protecting college athletes. The lawmakers, led by Sens. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), proposed that college athletes should receive fair and equitable compensation as well as better educational opportunities. The bill of rights would also enforce health and safety standards, an issue that became particularly relevant during the COVID-19 pandemic. “The NCAA has failed generations of young men and women even when it comes to their most basic responsibility — keeping the athletes under their charge healthy and safe,”…

In an effort to help boost the fortunes of the oil and gas industry, the Trump administration in August rolled back an Obama-era rule on methane emissions, spurring mixed reactions from within the industry as well as strong opposition from environmentalists. The administration’s rule would remove the requirement for oil and gas companies to install technology to monitor and limit methane leaks from new wells, storage facilities and pipelines. Methane is one of the main components of natural gas, and it is also a potent greenhouse gas that plays a major role in global warming when released during natural gas…

Amid the dismissal of several inspectors general (IGs) by President Donald Trump this past spring, lawmakers of both parties introduced legislation to protect the independence of these agency watchdogs. Congress initially passed legislation in 1978 to establish oversight within federal agencies via the independent inspectors general positions. The law, which was updated in 2008, requires the president to notify Congress at least 30 days prior to removing an IG from office and to provide a reason for the removal. In just a few weeks in spring 2020, President Trump removed two IGs and replaced three acting IGs. In May, he…

In June, the Trump administration issued regulation reversing an Obama-era rule that established nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ patients under Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Under the new rule, the government interprets sex discrimination based on the plain meaning of “sex” as male or female and as determined by biology, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The agency argued that the new rule restores the civil rights provision in the ACA to not go beyond the “plain meaning of the law.” Under the Obama administration’s rule, “sex discrimination” was broadened to include discrimination…

National parks, wildlife refuges and recreational areas in the U.S. received a boost in funding this August when President Donald Trump signed the Great American Outdoors Act (P.L. 116-152) into law on Aug. 4. The law will provide $9.5 billion over five years to help maintain and expand parks and natural areas throughout the country. It also provides $900 million a year to the Land and Water Conservation Fund, which provides grants to local, state and federal governments to preserve and acquire land and water areas. The revenue from energy development and oil and gas exploration will fund these conservation…

In a historic move, the U.S. House of Representatives voted in late June to make the District of Columbia a state. The D.C. Admission Act (H.R. 51), introduced by the District’s long-serving, nonvoting Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, would make D.C. the 51st state, allowing it to hold elections for two senators and one representative. The new state would be renamed “Washington, Douglass Commonwealth.” The bill passed the House by a largely party-line vote of 232-180. No Republicans voted for the bill, which conservatives have decried as a “power grab” by Democrats (one Democrat, Rep. Collin Peterson of Minnesota, voted against…