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…

President Trump recently signed legislation to protect amateur athletes from sexual abuse by enforcing mandatory reporting requirements and extend­ing the statute of limitations for child victims. The Protecting Young Victims from Sexual Abuse and Safe Sport Authorization Act, sponsored by Senator Dianne Feinstein (CA-D), first passed the Sen­ate by unanimous consent on November 14, 2017. The House approved it by a vote of 403 to 3 on January 20, 2018, amended, and the Senate concurred on January 30, by voice vote. The Act requires amateur athletic governing bodies like USA Gymnastics and other amateur sports organizations, including college athletics, to…

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.”…