Mon, May 23 at 9:08 AM
With Memorial Day recess around the corner, lawmakers are in for a less hectic week on Capitol Hill. The House is focusing on committee work, while the Senate is advancing pending nominations.
Table of Contents:
- Progressive Playbook
- House
- Senate
- Issues to Watch
- Key Dates
- What We’re Watching
Progressive Playbook
Today, certain politicians and their corporate backers abuse immigrants – even detaining and tearing families apart, caging children and putting refugees in danger – in order to distract us from their efforts to cut wages, defund public schools, and threaten seniors with cuts in Medicare and Social Security. We need to join together to create a fair immigration process that treats each person with dignity, provides meaningful opportunities for newcomers to participate equally in our society, become citizens, and make this a country that honors all families.
WORDS THAT WORK
- We need policies that honor the humanity of immigrants, and recognize their contributions as members of our communities, our neighbors and coworkers, taxpayers and innovators.
- No matter where someone came from or how they arrived in the United States, their life matters and they deserve to be treated with dignity and respect.
We must expand the roadmap to citizenship to ensure that it is realistic, achievable, and fair for families.
House
The House is focusing on committee work this week and will return on Tuesday, June 7, for votes.
House Committee Highlights
A full list of this week’s hearings and markups can be found here. Notable hearings and markups include:
Tuesday Hearings
Strengthening our Communications Networks: Legislation to Connect and Protect (Energy & Commerce)
Diversity Includes Disability: Exploring Inequities in Financial Services for Persons with Disabilities, Including Those Newly Disabled Due to Long-Term COVID (Financial Services)
Climate Smart from Farm to Fork: Building an Affordable and Resilient Food Supply Chain (Climate Crisis)
Wednesday Hearings
Tackling Teacher Shortages (Appropriations)
Voting in America: Access to the Ballot in Florida (House Administration)
Formula Safety and Supply: Protecting the Health of America’s Babies (Energy & Commerce)
Supporting Careers in Conservation: Workforce Training, Education, and Job Opportunities (Agriculture)
The Infant Formula Crisis (Appropriations)
Thursday Hearings
The Congressional Budget Office’s Budget and Economic Outlook (Budget)
Examining the Policies and Priorities of the U.S. Department of Education (Education & Labor)
Defense Environmental Restoration (Appropriations)Manufactured Housing: Supporting America’s Largest Unsubsidized Affordable Housing Stock (Appropriations)
Senate
Nominations
The Senate this week has teed up votes on the following nominees:
- Dara Lindenbaum to be a Member of the Federal Election Commission
- Evelyn Padin to be US District Judge for the District of New Jersey
- Charlotte Sweeney to be US District Judge for the District of Colorado
- Nina Morrison to be US District Judge for the Eastern District of New York
- Sandra Thompson to be Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency
- Henry Christopher Frey to be an Assistant Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency
- Lisa Gomez to be an Assistant Secretary of Labor
- Chavonda Jacobs-Young to be Under Secretary of Agriculture for Research, Education, and Economics
- Amy Loyd to be Assistant Secretary for Career, Technical, and Adult Education
- Kenneth Wainstein to be Under Secretary for Intelligence and Analysis, Department of Homeland Security
- Todd Harper to be a Member of the National Credit Union Administration
- Samuel Bagenstos to be General Counsel of the Department of Health and Human Services
- Robert Steven Huie to be US District Judge for the Southern District of California
- Shalanda Baker to be Director of the Office of Minority Economic Impact, Department of Energy
Senate Committee Highlights
A full list of this week’s Senate committee hearings, including confirmation hearings, can be found here. Notable committee hearings include:
Tuesday Hearings
Fiscal Year 2023 Budget Request for the United States Department of Education (Appropriations)
- Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona is testifying
Wednesday Hearings
Supporting Ukrainian Refugees (Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe)
Supply Chain Resiliency: Alleviating Backlogs and Strengthening Long-Term Security (Finance)
The JCPOA Negotiations and United States’ Policy on Iran Moving Forward (Foreign Relations)
Fiscal Year 2023 Budget Request for the Capitol Police, Library of Congress, and the Comptroller General of the United States (Appropriations)
Fiscal Year 2023 President’s Budget for the Department of Interior (Appropriations)
- Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland is testifying
Fiscal Year 2023 Budget Request for the U.S. Agency for International Development (Appropriations)
- USAID Administrator Samantha Power is testifying
Thursday HearingsOpportunities and Challenges Facing Farmers, Families, and Rural Communities (Agriculture)
Issues To Watch
Title 42
On Friday, a federal judge for the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana blocked the Biden Administration from lifting the Trump-era Title 42 policy, which was set to end today. In the lawsuit, the attorneys general for Arizona, Louisiana, and Missouri were joined by 24 other states and argued that the move violates the Administrative Procedures Act by failing to allow for a public comment period. They also argue that the Biden Administration failed to estimate the costs lifting Title 42 would have for states, citing increased health care costs and other administrative costs. The Justice Department said it would appeal the ruling, but will abide by the court’s injunction and continue to expel migrants under Title 42. The ruling comes as lawmakers in Congress were considering a vote to stop the Biden Administration from rolling back the policy. Under Title 42, over 1.7 million people seeking refuge in the United States have been expelled at the southern border, almost always without being allowed to make an asylum claim or have their day in court, despite the legal right to seek asylum in the U.S. Human Rights First documented more than 10,000 kidnappings, rapes, and attacks on people turned away at the border because of Title 42.
- Restoring the Legal Right to Seek Asylum: The Case for Ending Title 42 (PCAF)
- Title 42, the controversial Trump-era border policy, explained (Vox)
- Extending Title 42 Would Escalate Dangers, Exacerbate Disorder, and Magnify Discrimination (Human Rights First)
Invasion of Ukraine
Over the weekend, President Biden signed into the law the latest funding package to provide additional assistance to the Ukrainian government. The measure was overwhelmingly approved by Congress and provides more than $40 billion in emergency funding for military, economic, and humanitarian aid to Ukraine – $7 billion over the amount originally requested by the Biden Administration. This package now brings total U.S. spending on Ukraine to almost $54 billion following the $13.6 billion Congress approved in March. Over 6.5 million people have been forced to seek refuge in neighboring countries and more than 7 million people have been displaced internally since the Russian invasion began on February 24.
- As Biden Signs $40 Billion Aid Package for Ukraine, Calls Grow for a Cease-Fire (The New York Times)
Ukraine Emergency (UNHCR)
Key Dates
May: AAPI Heritage Month
May: Jewish American Heritage Month
May: Mental Health Awareness Month
May 24: Employer suppression of free speech: Unequal power in the workplace is silencing workers
May 27 – June 6: House is out of session
May 30: Memorial Day
May 30 – June 5: Senate is out of session
June: Immigrant Heritage Month
June: LGBTQ+ Pride Month
June 15th: 10th anniversary of DACA
June 18: Poor People’s Campaign Moral March on Washington
June 19: Juneteenth
June 28: Remote voting expires
What we are Reading
Democracy Crisis in the Making: How State Legislatures are Politicizing, Criminalizing, and Interfering with Elections (Protect Democracy)
How is Big Oil spending record profits? (EXXONKNEWS)
5 ways abortion bans could hurt women in the workforce (Vox)
What Record Quit Rates Really Mean (Roosevelt Institute)
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