On August 9, Vice President Pence laid out an ambitious plan to establish a “Space Force” by 2020 as the sixth branch of the U.S. military. The new branch would be the first since the Air Force was formed shortly after World War II. Pence stated: “The space environment has fundamentally changed in the last generation. What was once peaceful and uncontested is now crowded and adversarial. Today, other nations are seeking to disrupt our space-based systems and challenge American supremacy in space as never before.” Pence cited he pursuit of new space weapons by Russia, China, North Korea, and…

Ten Senate Republicans have introduced a bill designed to guarantee protections for patients with pre-existing conditions in the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The move is in response to a lawsuit brought by 20 States that are seeking to invalidate the law since Congress effectively ended the “individual mandate” that requires most Americans to have health insurance coverage or pay a fine. The U.S. Department of Justice has declined to defend the ACA in court and has called provisions of that prohibit discrimination based on pre-existing conditions unconstitutional. Oral arguments in Texas v. United States began in early September. The Republican…

On August 8, the Senate defeated a proposal to provide States with $250 million in Fiscal Year (FY) 2019 to secure their voting systems. The 50-to-47 vote — on an amendment to H.R. 6147, an appropriations package — fell short of the number needed for adoption. Senator Bob Corker (TN-R) was the only Republican to support it. Democrats have been seeking to provide extra fund­ing for Election Assistance Commission grants to States. Congress previously provided $380 million for the grants in the FY 2018 omnibus appropriations bill, and Republi­cans have stated that they prefer to wait before providing more. They…

Senate Democrats and attorneys general from eight States and the District of Columbia have launched a campaign to block the availability online of computer models of firearms. These models can be used in conjunction with new 3D printing technology to manufacture guns and gun parts. Senators Ed Markey (MA-D), Richard Blumenthal (CT-D), and others have filed legislation to prohibit the publi­cation of a digital file online that allows a 3D printer to manufacture a firearm. A separate bill would require all guns to have at least one significant component made of metal. Lawmakers and the attorneys general are concerned that…

At an April 18 House Appropriations Subcommittee hearing on the Fiscal Year 2019 budget for the Judiciary, James Duff, Director of the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, testified about the findings of a working group on workplace misconduct policies and procedures. Duff told the subcommittee members that the Federal Judiciary Workplace Conduct Working Group, which he chairs, found that a main barrier to reporting sexual harassment and other misconduct in the Judicial Branch is the formal nature of the complaint process. He told the panel: “What we’ve been hearing [is that] employees need and want a less formalistic process….

Pending legislation titled the Special Counsel Independence and Integrity Act states that only the Justice Department can fire special counsels and only for “good cause” — in effect codifying an existing Justice Department regulation. The bill would give the special counsel 10 days to dispute the firing in court. If a panel of three Federal judges determined that the firing was not for “good cause,” the special counsel would be reinstated. In the interim, his staff and investigative materials would be preserved. Senator Lindsey Graham (SC-R) introduced the Sen­ate bill (S. 2644) with cosponsors Senators Chris Coons (DE-D), Thom Tillis…

President Trump’s infrastructure plan, unveiled on Feb­ruary 12, would direct $20 billion toward a new “Transformative Projects Program” for “ambitious, exploratory, and ground-breaking project ideas that have significantly more risk than standard infrastruc­ture projects.” One of the first such innovations that could be fund­ed through the program, according to Undersecretary of Transportation Derek Kan, is the Hyperloop system, a project of SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk. The concept envisions a network of low-pressure tubes that carry passengers and cargo between cities in hovering capsules, reducing travel time from hours to minutes. Maryland transportation officials have already grant­ed authority for…

On March 14, the House passed, 407 to 10, H.R. 4904, the STOP School Violence Act. Introduced by Representative John Rutherford (FL-R), the bill would authorize $50 million in grant funding for schools to con­duct training to prevent violence, set up anonymous re­porting systems for threats, and implement other safety measures. Representative Rutherford said, “The best way to keep our students and teachers safe is to give them to tools and the training to recognize warning signs to prevent violence from ever entering our schools’ grounds … this bill aims to do just that.” A Senate companion measure, S. 2495,…

On March 7, Senate Democrats Debbie Stabenow (MI) and Bill Nelson (FL) cohosted a hearing titled, “America Speaks Out: Protecting Our Children from Gun Violence.” The senators heard testimony from sur­vivors of the February shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, along with educators, activists, policy officers, and family members of victims of other mass shootings, including those at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut, and Virginia Tech. Although Republican congressional leaders seem re­uluctant to bring gun legislation to the floor in an election year, a number of bills have been introduced in recent weeks, and some…

On January 11, Representative Peter DeFazio (OR-D) introduced legislation designed to accelerate implementation of a key train safety feature. H.R. 4766, the Positive Train Control Implementa­tion and Financing Act, would give railroads until the end of the year to put in place Positive Train Control (PTC), which automatically decreases the speed of a train traveling over the speed limit. It would also prevent the Department of Transportation from granting extensions to railroads seeking to delay that deadline. “Since Congress first passed legislation to mandate PTC implementation in 2008, some railroads have been diligent in implementing PTC while others have clearly…