As more and more states move to block genderaffirming care for minors, the issue of whether or not to give Americans under the age of 18 access to this type of medical treatment that includes puberty blockers, hormone therapies and surgeries is becoming more contentious. In the first half of 2023 several states, including Texas, Missouri and Idaho, enacted laws that ban such care, bringing the total number of states that prohibit genderaffirming care up to 20. Advocates of the bans argue that this type of medical care is endangering children and there is a lack of scientific evidence to…

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,”…

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…

Even as numbers of positive COVID-19 cases continued to climb in the U.S. and around the world in early July, the U.S. formally ended its relationship with the United Nations’ World Health Organization (WHO). The Trump administration first announced the controversial withdrawal in late May and cut off funding to the group; weeks later, the White House submitted an official departure notice. When the move takes effect — no sooner than July 2021 — the health organization will lose funding from one of its biggest contributors. President Donald Trump began voicing his discontent with the WHO early in the spring…