Action

The Senate has once again turned to the Congressional Review Act, a measure they've been usually nonstop over the past two months to repeal laws issued by the prior administration with only a majority vote.  Earlier this week, they approved a bill nearly along party lines to repeal hunting restrictions on national wildlife refuges in Alaska.  These restrictions were instituted by the Fish and Wildlife Service in 2016 to protect predator species from hunters.   

On March 8th, we shared that the Senate voted 49-48 to eliminate a regulation requiring federal contractors to disclose and correct safety violations.

Again on March 22nd, the Senate voted against worker protections and work place safety, this time by a 50-48 vote.  In this case, the vote was to nix an OSHA rule that allowed up to five years to penalize a company for failing to report harmful incidents.

An executive order is anticipated this week that will dismantle efforts of President Obama to curb the impacts of climate change and lower 

The moves are intended to send an unmistakable signal to the nation and the world that Trump intends to follow through on his campaign vows to rip apart every element of .... policies to address climate change.

In an effort to cut domestic spending by more than $50 billion, Trump's budget proposal would slash the budget of the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The plan would squeeze public housing support and end most federally funded community development grants, which provide services such as meal assistance and cleaning up abandoned properties in low-income neighborhoods.

In an unsurprising, yet no less significant, vote the Senate moved one step closer to eliminating a regulation that requires federal contractors to disclose and correct safety violations.

 In a narrow result that divided along party lines, the Senate voted 49 to 48 to eliminate the regulation, dubbed the Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces rule. Finalized in August and blocked by a court order in October, the rule would limit the ability of companies with recent safety problems to compete for government contracts unless they agreed to remedies.

The budget guidelines offered by the White House last week include deep cuts to numerous important agencies and programs while proposing to pour the savings into military spending which already equals the next seven countires combined (China, Saudi Arabia, Russia, UK, India, France, Japan).  

Although none have been passed into law at this time, please be aware that our practice of exhibiting Smart Dissent via protests, marches, and demostrations has Republican lawmakers in at least 18 states concerned.  Keep it up!  The source linked below contains details on each state proposal.

We are getting closer to understanding the level of illegal and unethical behavior it takes to find Republican lawmakers willing to speak up with their Democratic colleagues.  Denying meeting with Russia officials while under oath, Jeff Sessions is reportedly the fifth Trump Cabinet member to lie under oath during confirmation hearings according to ProPublica.

In an explicitly stated attempt to place economic interests above the environment and safe drinking water, the President and his new EPA director began the process to roll back an Obama-era environmental protection rule.

The Trump administration is moving to roll back an environmental rule intended to define which small bodies of water are subject to federal authority under the Clean Water Act.

One would think that the health of our nation’s citizens is a unifying issue.  Politicians on both sides of the aisle, however, have used the Affordable Care Act, and ultimately public health, as a partisan political tool at the expense of their constituents.