A NEWS CO-OP IN DC SO YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE

Monthly archive

September 2017

Childrens Health Insurance Program Put on Congressional Calendar—After it Expires

by

Republican leaders in the House have finally set a date to consider a bill reauthorizing a program providing health care assistance to tens of millions of Americans, specifically children. Unfortunately for the roughly 36 million people who currently rely on the Children Health Insurance Program (CHIP), the date scheduled for markup of the legislation falls after the initiative expires. The House Energy and Commerce Committee announced it would consider CHIP reauthorization on October 4, three days after it sunsets. So far details about the legislation have not been publicly…

Keep Reading

SCOTUS Agrees to Hear Koch-backed Union Busting Case

by

The Supreme Court on Thursday said it would decide a case that could see the last bedrock of the labor movement starved of funding. Justices granted plaintiffs’ request for a hearing in Janus v. AFSCME, Council 31—a challenge of an Illinois law requiring public sector employees to pay agency fees that fund collective bargaining. The Court looked set to strike down a similar law last year in the case Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association. Oral arguments were held in January, but the death of conservative hardliner…

Keep Reading

Voluntary FDA Enforcement Blasted by Inspector General

by

Federal food safety inspectors, in recent years, discovered a facility with a leaky roof and the presence of a life-threatening bacteria. But Food and Drug Administration officials merely issued a warning to the firm’s owners, only to repeatedly discover the same problems over the next 24 months. “Three subsequent inspections documented that the facility did not correct the violations, and FDA continued to find unsanitary conditions and the presence of Listeria monocytogenes,” a federal watchdog report stated this week. The findings were among discoveries in…

Keep Reading

DHS Chief Can’t Promise She Won’t Hand Over Dreamer Data to ICE

by

The acting Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security said on Wednesday that sensitive information about Dreamers could soon be handed over to federal deportation forces. Under questioning from Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), DHS Secretary Elaine Duke said she could not guarantee a promise made by the Obama administration to those who registered with the DACA program—known as Deferred Actions for Childhood Arrivals. “They were told by your agency that if they submitted this comprehensive information about their background and their status to apply for…

Keep Reading

Equifax CEO Retirement Puts Spotlight Back on Executive Pay “Clawback” Rule Delay

by

The top Democrat overseeing financial markets pushed the Securities and Exchange Commission to finalize an executive pay “clawback” regulation in the wake of the massive Equifax data breach. Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) prodded SEC Chair Jay Clayton on Tuesday to finish the rulemaking process, which was initially ordered more than seven years ago by Dodd-Frank financial reform. “I intend to finish the mandate. There is a prioritization,” Clayton told Brown, the vice chair of the Senate Banking Committee. “I am going to be very open with…

Keep Reading

FBI Has “Systemic Issues” Dealing with Misconduct

by

The Department of Justice’s Inspector General penned a memo this week to FBI Director Christopher Wray, raising concerns that serious allegations of misconduct by agents aren’t being properly investigated. Inspector Michael Horowitz warned of potential national security risks due to the bureau’s failure to abide by federal regulations that require employees with “high risk security” issues to be referred to oversight offices. “Despite these requirements, we identified several instances in which the FBI could not demonstrate that allegations of employee misconduct were referred either to…

Keep Reading

U.S. Government Increasingly on Hook for Non-Bank Mortgages, Despite Lack of Regulators and Preparedness

by

Ginnie Mae has struggled to keep tabs on the rapid growth of the lightly-regulated non-bank mortgage market. The wholesale mortgage guarantor’s unpreparedness may leave it struggling “to immediately respond to increased risks posed” by recent industry changes, according to a report published Monday by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) inspector general. “As a result, Ginnie Mae may not identify problems with issuers in time to prevent default,” the report warned. Ginnie Mae guarantees payments by issuers of certain mortgage-backed securities (MBS) to…

Keep Reading

Trump Creates Legal Chaos With Introduction of New Travel Ban

by

The US Supreme Court cancelled an upcoming hearing on the legality of the Trump administration’s Muslim travel ban, one day after the White House introduced a more sweeping, and punitive, measure. Arguments set for next month were removed from the high court’s calendar on the concerns that the President’s new executive order renders the case “moot.” Issued on Sunday evening, an updated travel ban—now in its third iteration—adds more countries to the restricted list, and proposes keeping the prohibitions in place indefinitely. Trump’s prior orders…

Keep Reading

Latest Local Official to Defy ICE Detention Requests Tells Trump Admin to Get a Warrant

by

The struggle over immigration policy between the Trump administration and local officials turned to New England this week. A county sheriff in Maine became the first in the state to announce he wouldn’t honor Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainer requests, according to the Associated Press. Cumberland County Sheriff Kevin Joyce revealed the decision in a letter last week to ICE officials. In interviews with local media on Wednesday, Joyce explained that he had concerns about the constitutionality of ICE operations. “Let’s say that the case…

Keep Reading

Federal Court: No Constitutional Right to Data Security

by

Victims of the massive data breach at the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) have no legal recourse, according to a DC federal court ruling this week. The decision cuts down a class action lawsuit filed on behalf of some of the 21 million Americans who had their names, addresses, and social security numbers exposed in a cyber intrusion against OPM in 2015, allegedly by Chinese hackers Those affected were primarily current, former, and prospective government employees. Interest groups and labor organizations, on their behalf, are seeking…

Keep Reading

Day After Trump’s Threats to “Totally Destroy North Korea,” UN Members Sign Nuclear Weapons Ban Treaty

by

A signing session at the United Nations inched the world closer to a first-of-its-kind nuclear weapons ban. Besieging the effort, however, is the nuclear-armed world. As General Assembly proceedings continued in New York on Thursday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres convened more than fifty nations to sign the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Absent from the ceremony were nations already in possession of nukes: the US, Russia, China, the UK, France, Israel, Pakistan, India, and North Korea. Nuclear-armed countries also declined to participate in…

Keep Reading

1 2 3
Go to Top