News
Dems, Staffers Concerned Labor Board Buyouts Could Undermine Agency
by Hassan Kanu
07.24.18 Staffers inside the federal labor board and some Democrats on Capitol Hill are concerned that President Donald Trump's appointees are working to slim down the agency to a level that would significantly hinder its ability to perform its mission. The concern isn't new. But worker advocates and National Labor Relations Board employee representatives say they suspect the labor board's top prosecutor shifted away from earlier reorganization proposals, possibly in response to a barrage of criticism f… Continue Reading
Debt-free college? House Democrats introduce higher education bill
by Susan Svrluga
07.24.18 House Democrats this week are expected to unveil a sweeping plan to make college more affordable by reducing debt and simplifying financial aid. The Democrats' plan would also endeavor to boost graduation rates. The proposal counters a Republican bill that aims to overhaul the law that dictates the federal government's role in higher education. The Higher Education Act, originally passed in 1965, is supposed to be renewed every five years but was last reauthorized a decade ago. The debate has b… Continue Reading
Do You Have a Social Security Card? Then Take This Executive Order Personally.
by Marilyn Zahm
07.18.18 Marilyn Zahm, an administrative law judge who hears Social Security cases in Buffalo, is the president of the Association of Administrative Law Judges, which represents the administrative law judges employed at the Social Security Administration. Do you have a Social Security card? If you do, you should be concerned about how a recent executive order signed by President Trump could affect you. On July 10, the White House released an executive order ending a merit-based system for selecting fed… Continue Reading
Top Dems urge Trump officials to reverse suspension of ObamaCare payments
by Peter Sullivan
07.16.18 Top congressional Democrats are calling on the Trump administration to reverse its decision to suspend key ObamaCare payments to insurers, warning the suspension will cause premiums to rise. "The Administration's decision to suspend these collections and payments, which are required under federal law, appears to be yet another attempt by the Trump Administration to sabotage the nation's health care system for partisan gain," the Democrats wrote in a letter to the Department of Health and Human … Continue Reading
Rollback of Affirmative Action Guidelines Could Reshape K-12 School Districts
by Michelle Hackman
07.14.18 WASHINGTON-The Trump administration's recent decision to roll back affirmative action guidelines sent a ripple through the nation's colleges and universities, but it will also likely have a far-reaching impact on K-12 schools. Public school districts across the country have long wrestled with how to desegregate their schools in ways supported by the law, which forbids districts from using the race of individual students to determine their placement. During the Obama administration, their effor… Continue Reading
Trump order risks ‘politicization’ of administrative, mostly Social Security, judiciary
by Joe Davidson
07.13.18 President Trump's latest action upsetting the established order of the federal workforce has spawned a bevy of accusations that his move could politicize the administrative judiciary. A Trump executive order says administrative law judges, who primarily work for the Social Security Administration, will no longer be hired by the competitive civil service process that is a mainstay of an impartial bureaucracy. Instead, they will be selected by agency heads who could pick lawyers who do not need t… Continue Reading
Trump Officials Slash Grants That Help Consumers Get Obamacare
by Robert Pear
07.11.18 WASHINGTON - The Trump administration announced on Tuesday that it was slashing grants to nonprofit organizations that help people obtain health insurance under the Affordable Care Act, the latest step in an escalating attack on the law that threatens to destabilize its insurance markets. The cuts are the second round in two years. The government will provide $10 million this fall, down from $36 million last autumn and $63 million in late 2016 - a total reduction of more than 80 percent. Trump… Continue Reading
Democrats, Advocacy Groups Pan Order Moving Administrative Judges Out of Competitive Service
by Erich Wagner
07.11.18 This story has been updated to include comments from lawmakers. President Trump's executive order giving broader latitude to agency heads in hiring administrative law judges drew swift opposition from advocacy groups and Democrats in Congress on Wednesday. The order, signed Tuesday, pulls ALJs out of the competitive service, where candidates are vetted by the Office of Personnel Management, and moves them into the excepted service, where agency heads are able to set their own criteria for hiri… Continue Reading
How Do Hungry Kids Get Food After School's Out? Summer Program Fills Gap in Richmond
by Justin Mattingly
07.10.18 Shortly after noon on Tuesday, the utility room of the Bellmeade Community Center in Richmond's South Side turned into a de facto lunch room. Four rows of folding tables filled the middle of the space, with dozens of elementary school-age children lining their sides. Just like during the school year, the children laughed and played with one another. They also got lunch - a sandwich with fruits and vegetables, and milk to wash it down - for no charge. The community center borders Oak Grove-Bell… Continue Reading
Child Immigrants in Federal Custody Are Entitled to Education. Here's How It Works.
by Mark Keierleber
07.06.18 In a letter to Trump Administration officials, Democrats on the House Committee on Education and the Workforce are demanding answers about the education services provided to unaccompanied minors housed in shelters. That includes about 2,000 migrant children who were separated from their parents at the border and remain in federal custody. In the Thursday letter to Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and other cabinet secretaries, the lawmakers note a federal court settlement requires the governmen… Continue Reading
Trump Didn't Gut Affirmative Action, But Its Future Is Far From Secure
by The Editorial Board
07.04.18 The Trump administration's decision to withdraw an Obama-era "guidance document" encouraging colleges to take race into account in their decisions about admissions is disappointing though not surprising. This is an administration that lacks a commitment to meaningful racial diversity in education or to the kind of affirmative action policies that encourage it. Fortunately, Tuesday's actions by Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions don't alter the law. The Supreme Court decisions the Obama administration rel… Continue Reading
Top House Dems request broad investigations into Trump immigration policy
by Nathaniel Weixel
06.29.18 Top House Democrats are asking federal agency watchdogs to conduct broad investigations into the Trump administration's "zero tolerance" immigration policy, including the separation of children from their parents and the president's recent executive order designed to halt the practice. "We have grave concerns about how the Department of Justice, Department of Homeland Security, and Department of Health and Human Services considered, prepared for, and executed these policies," the Democratic law… Continue Reading
'Fundamental Shift' Needed To Protect Miners From Deadly Black Lung
by Howard Berkes
06.28.18 New and tougher rules designed to protect coal miners from the coal and silica dust that causes the fatal disease black lung may not be enough to stem an "epidemic" of the worst stages of the disease or the highest rates of disease in central Appalachia in 25 years. That's the conclusion of a review of the federal government's latest efforts to keep coal miners from being exposed to excessive and toxic amounts of the dust they create as they cut into coal seams. The review, released Thursday f… Continue Reading
Democrats deem Supreme Court 'an arm of the Republican Party' after recent decisions
by Annie Geng
06.27.18 Congressional Democrats responded to three major 5-4 Supreme Court decisions this week that went against them with vehement criticism, including one lawmaker who deemed the court "an arm of the Republican Party." The Janus v. AFSCME ruling handed down Wednesday, which could fundamentally change how public sector unions operate, is the third this week to be decided by the court's conservative majority. Those decisions have led to Democrats in Congress bemoaning the court's political swing, even … Continue Reading
Thinking About an Association Health Plan? Read the Fine Print
by Michelle Andrews
06.26.18 If you own a restaurant, plumbing company or other small business, you may be intrigued by the expected expansion of association health plans under a new rule that got a stamp of approval from the Trump administration last week. Will they meet your needs? Save you money? Those are important questions for small businesses and self-employed people who struggle to buy affordable insurance for themselves and their workers. Federal officials said the new rule would help level the playing field for… Continue Reading
First-Generation College Students More Engaged Than Their Peers
by Ashley Smith
06.26.18 Popular perceptions of first-generation college students as being unsure about college and academically unprepared to succeed may not be true. New research from Campus Labs, a higher education data collection and software company, examined the noncognitive skills of first-generation students and compared them to their multigenerational peers, finding that first-generation students are more engaged and committed to their education. "Based on the literature, one would have negative assumptions a… Continue Reading
White House Wants to Merge Education, Labor Departments: 'When Everybody is in Charge, Nobody is in Charge'
by Erin Dooley
06.21.18 In a move that hearkens back to 1995, the Trump White House Thursday proposedmerging the federal Departments of Education and Labor. "They're doing the same thing," Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney said of the two existing departments at a Cabinet meeting Thursday afternoon. "Trying to get people ready for the workforce, sometimes it's education, sometimes it's vocational training - but all doing the same thing, so why not put them in the same place?" "When everybody is i… Continue Reading
Advocates Debate Charter Schools' Performance, Diversity With Lawmakers
by Andrew Ujifusa
06.13.18 Charter school supporters, along with one critic of how they've served his children, discussed charters' academic performance, whether they contribute to segregation in education, and whether they've been held properly accountable at a House education committee hearing on Wednesday. While witnesses testifying in favor of charter schools cited their ability to drive learning gains for needy students while still being held responsible through oversight and closures, one parent advocate told lawma… Continue Reading
ACA Lawsuit Could Jeopardize 52 Million Americans' Access to Health Care
by Carolyn Y. Johnson
06.08.18 An obscure district court lawsuit over the Affordable Care Act became a potent threat to one of the law's most popular provisions late Thursday, when the Justice Department filed a brief arguing that as of Jan. 1, 2019, the protections for people with preexisting conditions should be invalidated. The Justice Department argued the judge should strike down the section of the law that protects people buying insurance from being charged higher premiums because of their health history. The news ral… Continue Reading
Dems blast DOJ for 'stunning attack on the rule of law' in ObamaCare case
by Peter Sullivan
06.08.18 Top Democrats on the House's health-care committees denounced the Trump administration on Friday for a "stunning attack on the rule of law" after the Justice Department declined to defend ObamaCare in court on Thursday. "The Justice Department's refusal to defend the Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare) in federal court is a stunning attack on the rule of law, the stability of our health care system, and Americans' access to affordable health care," said Reps. Bobby Scott (Va.), Frank Pallone Jr. (N… Continue Reading