Do you love our Policy Updates? PWN is hiring a Policy Director! See job description and all details to apply here.
Federal Updates
New Congress in session
The 116th Congress was seated on January 3, 2019. An historic number of women, people of color and LGBTQ people were sworn into office. Representative Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) was elected as Speaker of the House as Democrats assumed control of this chamber of Congress for the first time in eight years.
House Democrats wasted no time, adopting a series of rules changes early in the new session. The package imposes PAYGO (“pay-as-you-go”) a budget rule that requires Congress to offset any new spending with either tax increases or budget cuts. Critics like Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez say PAYGO could hamper efforts to pass progressive legislation like Medicare for All. The rules package also contained more progressive provisions, such as prohibiting House employees from discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation, protecting members’ right to wear religious headgear in the House chamber, and authorizing the House’s general counsel to intervene in Texas v. Azar, the case where a federal district court in Texas ruled the entire Affordable Care Act (ACA) unconstitutional. On January 4, lawyers for the House announced that they had, in fact, intervened.
Government shutdown over (for now)
The U.S. federal government was partially shut down for 35 days, the longest time in history. Trump forced the shutdown when both houses of Congress refused to fund his wall at the U.S. Southern border, which would cost taxpayers billions and pose a grave danger to human life and the environment, in their spending bills. Initially, Trump refused to sign any bill that did not contain $5 billion in funding for the wall. On January 25, Trump caved, agreeing to temporarily reopen the government without wall funding. On January 25, Trump signed a continuing resolution will fund the government until February 15.
The closure directly impacted about a quarter of the federal government, or in human terms, about 800,000 federal workers, who were either furloughed, i.e. forced to take unpaid leave, or required to work without pay. The ripple effects of the shutdown reached well beyond federal government workers. Native American communities experienced shortages in essential medicine and food, which the government is required to assure because of treaty obligations. People incarcerated in federal prisons experienced delays in compassionate release and medication distribution, commissary shortages on essentials, like food and toiletries, and a halt to family visits. SNAP (food stamp) recipients of losing the help of the nutrition program.
Many public health programs, like the ACA, Medicaid, Medicare, and the Ryan White program, remained funded through the shutdown, mitigating some harm to people living with HIV. However, much of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) was closed, generating fear of eviction for some subsidized housing tenants and creating a crisis for anti-homelessness efforts.
Ramping up for 2020
The Democratic field for the 2020 Presidential race is already becoming crowded. Notable candidates who have committed to running include Julian Castro (former secretary of HUD under President Obama), John Delaney (former Maryland Congressman), Representative Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI), Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Senator Kamala Harris (D-CA), Richard Ojeda (former West Virginia state senator), Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), and Andrew Yang (head of economic development nonprofit).
William Barr Confirmation Hearing
The Senate Judiciary Committee held two days of confirmation hearings for William Barr, Trump’s nominee to succeed Jeff Sessions for U.S. Attorney General. PWN-USA has previously reported on Barr’s concerning record on rights of immigrants, LGTBQ communities, and people living with HIV.
Barr faced probing questions about how he would handle the Mueller investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. Barr pledged to allow the investigation to continue and not fire Mueller absent good cause. He refused to say if he would recuse himself from overseeing the investigation and defended an unsolicited memo he authored that described a possible investigation into Trump obstructing the Mueller investigation as “fatally misconceived.” He also suggested that the report from Mueller’s investigation might not be made public, which would be a deal breaker for the ranking Democrat of the Judiciary Committee, Senator Dianne Feinstein. The heavy focus on the Mueller investigation left little time to interrogate other troubling aspects of Barr’s hardline, deeply conservative views, but he did field questions on criminal justice, immigration and his support for a border wall, and his anti-LGBT writings.
The Senate Judiciary Committee vote has been delayed until February 7 due to concerns brought by the Democrats, but Barr is expected to pass the full Senate vote.
Economic Justice
Raise the Wage Act 2019
A bill to raise the minimum wage for federal employees, H.R. 15, was introduced in the US House of Representatives on January 16. The bill would raise the minimum wage to $15 over the next 5 years and has more than 150 co-sponsors. It’s been nearly a decade since the federal minimum wage has been raised, and, with inflation, the minimum wage is slightly less than it was in 2009. Recently, more than 30,000 teachers in Los Angeles’ public school system, the second largest public school system in the country, went on strike for a week to demand a salary increase (among other things). They won. This was the latest in a nationwide series of teacher strikes that have protested stagnating wages and inadequate funding for education.
Immigration
Updates on the U.S. southern border
According to a press release from the Pentagon, the Trump administration will extend the deployment of active duty troops at the Southern border until September 30, 2019 — nine months longer than expected. The Department of Homeland Security reportedly requested the deployment in October 2018 for logistical support for Customs and Border Protection in advance of the arrival of a “caravan” of Central American asylum-seekers, who were seeking their legal right to claim asylum while fleeing poverty, violence and persecution in their home countries. PWN-USA has previously reported on this here. The extension was accompanied by Trump’s xenophobic rhetoric, and the timing was suspicious, coming as Trump attempted to bolster claims of a “crisis” at the border in order to justify the nation’s longest government shutdown over funding for a wall at the U.S. southern border.
Under the Trump administration, there has been scant good news at the border, where agents have tear-gassed migrants, children have died in U.S. custody, and potentially one thousand more families were separated than previously believed. However, in one positive development, the Tornillo Detention Center — a “temporary” tent city that swelled to five-times its original capacity, making it the largest center for migrant children in the U.S. — is closing this month.
Census 2020 Citizenship Question
A federal judge in New York has ruled against the Trump administration’s decision to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census. In the ruling, the judge meticulously outlined six different ways that Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross was acting outside of the law when he attempted to add the question to the U.S. census. PWN-USA has reported more on this bold-faced attempt to undercount, underfund, and under-represent geographic areas with high immigrant populations, here and here. The ruling is expected to be appealed to the 2nd Circuit and then the Supreme Court.
Health Care Access
Universal health care gains steam
Congressional Democrats have yet to come to a consensus about the best approach to universal health care. A Kaiser Family Foundation report tracked at least eight legislative plans that would push the U.S. towards universal health care, some more comprehensive than others. Substantial momentum is building behind a Medicare-for-All proposal (particularly H.R. 676) for 2019.
The new Democratic majority in the House promised to hold hearings when the bill is introduced. According to Representative Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), who is co-chair of the 78-member Medicare for All Caucus, the hearings will be held in the House Rules and Budget committees and then the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Having a committee hearing is a significant step and could represent the most serious legislative attention single-payer health care has had in the US since the late 1940s.
On the city and state levels, New York City and California are also pushing for single payer systems. In California, Governor Gavin Newsom unveiled a sweeping health plan with the express purpose of moving the state towards universal health care. He calls for the restoration of the individual mandate, expanded access to health care for undocumented immigrants and increased state power to negotiate prescription drug prices. In New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio committed to guaranteeing every resident, including those who do not have immigration documents, access to health care.
Bills to lower drug prices
Senator Bernie Sanders, Representative Elijah Cummings (D-MD), and other House Democrats have introduced three proposals to reduce prescription drug prices: the Prescription Drug Price Relief Act, the Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Act and the Affordable and Safe Prescription Drug Importation Act.
The bills would allow the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) to negotiate for lower prices while pegging the price of prescription drugs to the median price in five major countries (Canada, France, Germany, Japan and the UK). They would also allow patients and pharmacists to import lower-cost drugs from Canada and other countries. According to the Center for Economic Policy Research, the US federal government could save about $360 billion, and Medicare beneficiaries could save about $95.2 billion, over the next decade by negotiating for the same drug pricing as in Canada.
Stealthy attacks on affordable health care
On January 24, the Trump administration published a proposed rule that risks raising out-of-pocket costs and premiums for people with low and moderate incomes, making it harder to afford essential health care. The rule proposes a seemingly small change to the way that premiums and out-of-pocket costs are adjusted each year. With the new formula, the amount that people with low and moderate incomes pay for essential health care will increase more rapidly.
According to estimates by the Center of Budget and Policy Priorities, the rule would cause maximum out-of-pocket costs to rise by $200 for an individual and $400 for a family. Moreover, premium increases could force 100,000 people to drop marketplace insurance coverage each year.
The rule would also make it more difficult to enroll for insurance on the ACA marketplace by further narrowing the navigator program, which trains people to help others sign up for the ACA marketplace, especially those in traditionally under-resourced areas. Public comment will be open until February 19, 2019.
Sexual and Reproductive Health, Rights, and Justice
Birth control rules
On January 14, a federal judge in Pennsylvania temporarily stopped the Trump administration from enacting a rule that would allow employers to deny birth control coverage to their employees. The Trump administration issued the final version of two rules that create broad religious and moral exemptions to the Affordable Care Act’s birth control mandate, allowing virtually any employer or university to deny insurance coverage for birth control to their employees or students by claiming such an objection.
Under the rules, employers who want to object could choose either an “accommodation,” through which contraception would be covered but the employer would not pay, or an “exemption” through which contraception would not be covered at all. One day before, a judge in California issued a similar order to stop the rules, but it only applied to 13 states and the District of Columbia. PWN-USA has previously reported on the birth control rules here and here.
Violence Against Women
Changes to Domestic Violence Definition
A report from Slate.com revealed that the Trump administration quietly significantly narrowed the Department of Justice’s definition of “domestic violence” in April 2019. The new definition does not acknowledge non-physical violence — like psychological, emotional or economic abuse, which can cause more lasting damage than physical abuse in some cases – and attempts to limit domestic violence to the kind of physical harm that can be prosecuted as a crime.
This is a radical reversal from Obama-era policies that acknowledged that patterns of behavior that aim to establish power and control over an intimate partner are also a form violence. Casting intimate partner violence as an exclusively criminal concern is dangerous for the individual and society. It could result in people not recognizing their relationship as abusive until it escalates to physical violence and leave those who are unwilling to report violence to the police – whether because of immigration concerns, the risk of further violence, or a deep mistrust of the police grounded in past or community experiences – without the support and resources they need.
Trans Rights, Safety and Health
Trans military ban
The Supreme Court has given the Trump administration the green light to discriminate against people of trans experience in the military. In a 5-4 decision in favor of the Trump administration, the Court voted to lift directives from multiple lower courts that prevented a transphobic ban from being implemented. These directives are known as injunctions.
Trump initially announced that his administration would adopt a policy of banning people of trans experience from serving in the U.S. military in a series of tweets in July 2017. Former Secretary of Defense, Jim Mattis, later issued a memo outlining the administration’s rationale and plan for implementing Trump’s anti-trans policy, calling for a ban on service and to discharge of those military service members who wish to transition.
The Trump administration had been barred from enforcing the policy since December 2017 thanks to decisions from multiple lower courts. On January 4, 2019, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled against transgender service members, lifting one of these injunctions.
However, three nationwide preliminary injunctions in other cases still remained, effectively blocking the ban while they proceeded through the courts. Because of the Supreme Court’s decision, those injunctions are no longer in place, and the Trump administration is free to discharge and discriminate against military members of trans experience.
PWN-USA most recently reported on the ban here. This latest development is a troubling preview into this Supreme Court’s perspective on LGBTQ rights and equality.
Civil Rights
For the People Act
The first bill introduced by House Democrats in the 116th Congress was H.R. 1, otherwise known as the “For the People Act,” a strong anti-corruption measure, which aims to address campaign finance reform, redistricting, and governmental ethics laws. It would make it more difficult for lawmakers to gerrymander and easier for U.S. citizens to vote.
Anti-discrimination protections
According to the Washington Post, the Trump administration is considering a far-reaching rollback of civil rights law that protects against discrimination in education, voting, housing, and other aspects of life. The possible changes would dilute federal “disparate impact” regulations that prevent policies from being enacted if they will create an undue burden on minority communities.
State Updates
Florida
Floridians with past criminal records regain right to vote
Florida’s Amendment 4 went into effect on January 8, rendering more than a million people who had been convicted of certain crimes and completed their sentences eligible to vote for the first time in Florida. This re-enfranchisement will particularly impact Black communities: in 2019, more than one in five potential Black voters in Florida were denied their right to vote solely because of a felony record. However, they might have to pay restitution, court costs, and fees to be eligible to vote. Floridians convicted of murder or felony sex offenses are not included and will remain unable to vote.
To check whether or not the terms of your sentence have been completed (including probation, parole and financial obligations) you may check with the Clerk of Courts here. Complete a voter registration form online here.
New York
New York moves to protect reproductive rights
New York State took three significant steps to protect reproductive rights on the 46th anniversary of Roe v. Wade. The legislature passed the Reproductive Health Act (RHA), a long-awaited bill to repeal an antiquated and unconstitutional state law that criminalized abortion. It also permits abortion after 24 weeks when the pregnant person’s health is at risk or the fetus is not viable and empowers nurse practitioners and physicians’ assistants to give abortion care.
They also passed the Comprehensive Contractive Cares Act (CCCA), which protects women’s access to essential reproductive health care in the face of continued federal attacks by requiring all insurers cover all forms of FDA-approved contraception, including male contraceptive options, without a co-payment and authorizing pharmacists to dispense emergency contraception directly to those who need it.
Finally, they passed the Boss Bill, which prohibits employment discrimination based on an employee’s reproductive health decisions.
Iowa
District court strikes down “heartbeat bill”
A district court judge struck down a so-called “heartbeat bill” as unconstitutional. The law, SF 359, would have prohibited abortion as soon as a fetal heartbeat could be detected, except in the case of medical emergency or if the abortion is medically necessary. It would have been the most restrictive abortion law in the country, since a fetal heartbeat could be detected as early as 6 weeks of pregnancy, or two weeks after a missed period, which is well before many people would realize that they are pregnant. The law would also force pregnant people to have an abdominal ultrasound to detect a heartbeat and would have heavily regulated the use of fetal tissue in research.
Kentucky
Kentucky legislators introduce a “heartbeat bill”
Lawmakers in Kentucky have introduced SB 9, a “heartbeat bill” that would banned abortion after a doctor detects “the presence of a fetal heartbeat.” This bill is similar to SF 359 in Iowa (noted above), which was recently struck down as unconstitutional.
Maine
Medicaid finally expanded under new governor
Maine’s Medicaid expansion efforts are finally moving forward more than a year after voters demanded expansion at the ballot box. Former Governor Paul LePage repeatedly blocked Medicaid expansion, even after the State Supreme Court ruled that it would take effect in July 2018.
But on January 3, Maine’s new Democratic governor, Janet Mills, signed an executive order directing the state Department of Health and Human Services to quickly begin implementing Medicaid expansion. This means that adults who are making 138 percent or less of the federal poverty level will now be eligible for health care coverage under the state Medicaid program, with the federal government covering 94% of the costs.
This is an undeniable win for health care access for those who need it most, with up to 800,000 Mainers expected to gain health insurance coverage.
Michigan
HIV criminalization laws modernized; concerns remain
Two bills, HB 6020 and HB 6021, were signed into law on December 27, 2018, to modernize Michigan’s HIV criminal law. The law used to subject people living with HIV to up to 4 years in prison for not disclosing their HIV status prior to any type of “sexual penetration,” regardless of whether sexual activities posed any risk of transmission. This update ensures that those who are virally suppressed and those engaging in oral sex are no longer at risk of prosecution. The law now aligns with modern understanding of treatment as prevention, or U=U (Undetectable = Untransmittable). However, for those who cannot maintain viral suppression, the threat of a felony prosecution still looms.
Given long-standing racial and economic inequities in access to health care, concerns remain that the Michigan law risks exacerbating discrimination faced by people of color and low-income people in HIV-related policing and criminal prosecutions. For more about these concerns, see the Center for HIV Law and Policy’s Consensus Statement on HIV “Treatment as Prevention” Criminal Law Reform.
Missouri
HIV criminalization modernization bills introduced
Missouri legislators will consider two HIV modernization bills, HB 166 and HB 167, in the 2019 legislative session. The bills would reduce criminal penalties for “knowingly exposing” others to HIV, apply the law to other “serious infections or communicable disease” like hepatitis, and pave the way for people living with HIV to become organ donors.
According to the language of the bills, a person does not “knowingly expose” if they have taken practical means to prevent the transmission of HIV, such as using a condom or following a medical treatment regimen. The Missouri Justice Coalition had endorsed the bills. However, there remain concerns that such modernization efforts will have the unjust consequence of exacerbating racial and socioeconomic disparities in HIV-related prosecutions.
Oklahoma
Trump administration to decide on Medicaid work requirements
The public comment period for Oklahoma’s proposed Medicaid work reporting requirements has closed and the Trump administration will decide whether to approve this harmful proposal. The state has proposed to require certain “able-bodied,” adult Medicaid beneficiaries to prove that they work, volunteer, or go to school at least 80 hours every month in order to remain on the essential health care program. If not, they will be removed from the program and lose health care coverage.
If approved, the work requirements would take effect in February and make Oklahoma the second state to add work reporting requirements without expanding its state Medicaid program (following Wisconsin). Oklahoma’s Medicaid eligibility requirements are already some of the strictest in the nation.
Research shows that the work reporting requirement would cause between 4,000 and 13,000 people to lost health care coverage and disproportionately harm low-income families with children, small towns, and rural communities.
Tennessee
Governor grants clemency to Cyntoia Brown
In early January, Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam granted clemency to Cyntoia Brown, a woman who was sentenced to life in prison at 16 years old for defending herself against a man threatening her with sexual violence. Brown served 15 years before her sentence was commuted and will remain subject to state supervision and parole for another decade.
Brown’s case sparked a national discussion about the criminalization of survivors of sexual violence, the criminalization of sex work, especially among Black women, and juveniles receiving life without parole in the U.S.