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…

U.S. consumer advocates could be moving to limit the use of gas stoves in Americans’ homes in order to protect children’s health. This winter, members of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) began floating ways to stop indoor use of gas stoves, citing research linking them with an increased risk of childhood asthma. For example, the CPSC pointed to a study published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health that said gas stoves are responsible for 12.7% of childhood asthma cases in the U.S. “When gas stoves are turned on and burning at a hot temperature,…

Members of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma are advocating to have a delegate from the tribe seated in Congress in this legislative session. They point to the 1835 Treaty of New Echota, which provided members of the Cherokee Nation with $5 million and land in Oklahoma in exchange for several million acres of their ancestral homeland east of the Mississippi River. That treaty also included a right to have a delegate from the tribe in the U.S. House of Representatives, a right that so far has never been exercised. In the fall of 2022, the U.S. House Committee on Rules…

Some members of Congress are advocating for legislation that would ban the popular social media platform TikTok in the U.S. Those in favor of the ban argue that the social media site is dangerous to American security given that the app is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, which, many argue, could be controlled by the Chinese Communist Party. Continued use of the app, they say, could put Americans’ data at risk. In the omnibus spending bill that passed in December, Congress included language banning TikTok’s use on government-issued phones and devices, following the lead of several states that enacted…

A bill that would provide greater protections for journalists is currently making its way through Congress. The Protect Reporters from Exploitative State Spying (PRESS) Act (H.R. 4330) would create a federal law shielding journalists from having to divulge confidential information, including information from sources, except in cases where the information relates to an act of terrorism or imminent violence. “With the PRESS Act closer than ever to becoming law, a federal press shield law is within reach that affords journalists protection from government overreach and abuse of the subpoena power,” said Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) in a statement after the…