On October 6, the Trump Administration released new rules that would allow employers to seek an exemption, for religious or moral reasons, to the Obamacare provision requiring insurance plans to cover contraception. According to a study commissioned by the Obama Ad­ministration, 55 million women now have access to free birth control because of the contraceptive coverage mandate. That provision has been the subject of more than five years of litigation, however. In August, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ruled that nonreligious anti-abortion groups must comply with the mandate. The court sided with the Federal Government in…

On August 28, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced that the Trump Administration would lift a two-year ban on the transfer of surplus military equipment from the Pentagon to police departments across the United States. In an address to the Fraternal Order of Police in Nashville, the attorney general said that the President’s Executive Order would make it easier for police officers to protect themselves and their communities. “We will not put superficial concerns over public safety,” he said, calling the equipment — which includes grenade launchers, armored vehicles, and bayonets — “lifesaving gear.” The program — known as 1033, after…

The Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee scheduled four days of hearings on shoring up the country’s health care system. Titled “Stabilizing Premiums and Helping Individuals in the Individual Insurance Market for 2018,” the hearings were held on September 6, 7, 12. The committee heard testimony testimony from State insurance commissioners, governors, health care experts, and insurance companies. The hearings marked the first time that Democratic and Republican senators have met together to look for ways to stabilize the health care system under Obamacare. The top Republican and the top Democrat on the committee each issued statements affirming their intention…

On June 8, the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee approved a bill to create a streamlined process by which the Federal Government would authorize commercial space launches. H.R. 2809, the American Space Commerce Free Enterprise Act, introduced by Committee Chair Lamar Smith (TX-R), would expand the authority of the Office of Space Commerce within the Department of Commerce to include supervision of commercial space activity. Because the private sector is increasingly investing and developing spacecraft, satellites, and other technologies for nongovernmental exploration of outer space, the bill would establish a certification process for the private sector to operate those technologies….

The Trump Administration has cut $216 million in funding for the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program, administered by the Health and Human Services Department’s Office of Adolescent Health (OAH). OAH describes the program as “a national, evidence-based program that funds diverse organizations working to prevent teen pregnancy across the United States … with a focus on populations with the greatest need in order to reduce disparities in teen pregnancy and birth rates.” The cuts will affect more than 80 institutions around the country that are currently conducting multi-year research projects. The projects were awarded five-year grants in 2015 that will now end…

On April 11, Attorney General Jeff Sessions issued a policy memorandum prioritizing cases involving immigration-related offenses. The memorandum “directs Federal prosecutors to focus on particular offenses that, if aggressively charged and prosecuted, can help prevent and deter illegal immigration.” The memorandum asks prosecutors to pursue cases against individuals accused of harboring undocumented immigrants, and against undocumented immigrants who have been caught crossing the border multiple times. It also requires prosecutors to seek, as often as possible, deportation orders against defendants in immigration-related cases. The attorney general announced the new guidelines during a tour of the Arizona–Mexico border, and said the…

During his campaign for the presidency, Donald Trump proposed spending $1 trillion on infrastructure over 10 years by relying primarily on private investors. He repeated this pledge in his February 28 speech before a joint session of Congress, stating: “Crumbling infrastructure will be replaced with new roads, bridges, tunnels, airports, and railways, gleaming across our very, very beautiful land.” One issue that needs to be resolved is how to define infrastructure. President Trump campaigned on a broad definition that also included energy, schools, and hospitals. Senator Susan Collins (ME-R), Chair of the Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development Appropriations Subcommittee, said…

Another one of President Trump’s first acts in office was to restore a policy preventing recipients of American foreign aid from performing or counseling on abortions. The policy — known as the Mexico City Policy by its proponents for the location of a United Nations meeting where President Ronald Reagan first announced it in 1984 — has been in effect during successive Republican administrations and revoked under Democratic ones. President George W. Bush last reinstated the policy in 2001 in an Executive order that rescinded President Bill Clinton’s Executive order issued in 1993. President Barack Obama reversed the order again…

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, (CFPB), which was the brainchild of Senator Elizabeth Warren (MA-D), is in danger of being weakened or abolished under a Trump Administration. Conservatives in Congress have long opposed the agency as having too much independence, and have supported legislation to restructure it by turning it into a five-member commission and bringing it into the appropriations process. The Bureau is currently funded through the Federal Reserve. Also controversial is the manner in which CFPB’s current director, Richard Cordray, was confirmed. His 2012 nomination was held up by the Republican leadership until July 2013 after Senate Democrats…

One of the hallmarks of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign was his promise to build a wall along the Mexican border to prevent illegal immigrants from entering the United States. His original plan was to force Mexico to pay for the wall by threatening to impose regulations that would stop the flow of cash remittances sent from undocumented Mexicans living in the United States to their relatives at home. In early January, however, President-elect Trump’s transition team signaled to Republicans leaders in Congress that his preference would be to fund the border wall through the appropriations pocess and have Mexico reimburse…