The Gov Hub: June 12, 2023

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Gov Hub
June 12, 2023

Welcome to The Gov Hub Newsletter by Girl and the Gov®. This weekly pop of politics is designed to share action items, resources, and quick links to civic engagement tools and topics to inboxes far and wide.

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The Action Items

ACTION 1:

The Ask: Tell your [federal] reps to create a pathway to citizenship for DACA recipients and DACA-eligible youth.

The Action: Sign this petition from United We Dream.

The Background: Hundreds of thousands of DACA recipients and DACA-eligible young people continue to live in limbo. The legal battle to end DACA has spanned more than 11 years with many ups and downs. This not only impacts DACA recipients but also those who work with, live with, and otherwise depend on DACA recipients. DACA is right and legal. It has helped young people finish school, apply for a work permit, and be protected from detention and deportation. DACA has had significant positive impacts on entire families, communities, and our country as a whole. But DACA is only a bandaid, and a pathway to citizenship is needed – and Congress needs to step up and make it happen.

ACTION 2:

The Ask: Tell Congress to put a stop to H.J. Res 44/S.J. Res 20, which would reverse Biden’s federal rule to regulate “stabilizing braces” which turn pistols into illegal short-barreled rifles aka more dangerous weapons.

The Action: Send your [federal] rep this pre-written digital note from Brady.

The Background: Good intentions are great, but often they’re a miss. Stabilizing braces are a great example of that, and despite being originally used to help gun owners with disabilities, have been misused [understatement of the century]. These braces have been used to turn guns into mass casualty weapons, and have been used in numerous mass shootings. Making these braces more available and removing regulation of their use is the opposite of the answer to reducing gun violence. Stopping this resolution in its tracks will save lives.

ACTION 3: Ohio

The Ask: Tell your rep to stop HB 103, a bill that would overhaul Ohio’s social studies curriculum to be based on the extremist model known as the ‘American Birthright: The Civics Alliance’s Model K-12 Social Studies Standards.”

The Action: Email your [state] rep here via the Honesty For Ohio Education’s ready-to-roll template.

The Background: HB 103 presents a number of critically concerning changes to the state’s social studies curriculum, which would change vastly should this bill be passed. First, it would create a government-appointed task force that would overhaul the state’s K-12 social studies standards. They would do this using a known extremist curriculum standard [this heinous thing], which has been strongly rejected by the National and Ohio Council for the Social Studies. To best illuminate what this curriculum is against, this quote highlighted by Honesty For Ohio Education, from the American Birthright’s standards should do the trick: “Furthermore, we judge that a great many pedagogies actively inhibit student learning, including action civics, so-called “anti-racism,” civic engagement, critical race theory, current events learning, inquiry-based learning, media literacy, project-based learning, social-emotional learning, and virtually any pedagogy that claims to promote “diversity, equity, and inclusion” or “social justice.”

ACTION 4:

The Ask: Tell Biden to designate the Grand Canyon as a national monument and protect it from uranium mining threats.

The Action: Sign this petition and tell the admin that this issue is important to you. And stay tuned for the part two action [estimated completion time: 20 seconds or less].

The Background: The Grand Canyon region is home to immense amounts of biodiversity and cultural sites that are critically important. In order to protect this area, especially from the toxic harms of uranium mining that have come into play in the area, designating it as a national monument is needed. Established through an executive order, this process of protection is much faster than going through Congressional legislation [tbh, a turtle moves faster].

Looking for more action items? Check our library of past Gov Hub’s.

Back On Our BILLsh*t

New bills, new BILLsh*t. For ones that are floating our boat, see these:

  • FEDERAL: Another trio behind a bill of note, includes the Educating Future Nurses Act, which has been brought to the table by Rep. Lauren Underwood [IL-14], Rep. Suzanne Bonamici [OR-01], and Rep. Steven Horsford [NV-04]. The bill endeavors to expand clinical education and training opportunities for future Advanced Practice Registered Nurses (APRNs). It would do so by creating a permanent federal funding stream for hospitals to partner with schools of nursing, community-based care settings, and other hospitals to address clinical training costs for graduate nursing students. For a bit of context, “The cost of clinical training has limited the number of APRN students that hospitals can accept; funding from this bill would help these hospitals accept APRN students, enabling them to train and work in geographically diverse areas, especially rural and underserved communities.”

  • FEDERAL: This bill – Pets Belong with Families Act – gets three wags and many boops of approval. Reintroduced by Rep. Schiff [CA] with bipartisan support, would prohibit broad and sweeping restrictions on pets in public housing based on breed, keeping more people with their pets. A sister bill, the Providing for Unhoused People with Pets Act of 2023 (PUPP Act), would provide funding for shelters to retrofit their facilities to better accommodate pets. Both bills would ensure that individuals don’t have to make the impossible decision between having a roof over their head or staying with their beloved pet. Pup pal Tallulah got the full presser on the bills:

…and 100 bad bills that got hit with a big ‘ol veto pen a la Arizona Governor Hobbs, which include these two:

  • A heinous bill that would’ve “required cities to tear down homeless encampments and allow people living in them to be charged with trespassing, saying it "effectively criminalizes" homelessness.”

BOOKMARK IT

Don’t lose the link you love, bookmark it

AIRNOW: If you were on the east coast this past week, the sky looked a little something like this, and the air quality hit a record no one was proud of. However, tracking air quality and understanding the skies around isn’t just a thing to do when Canada hot-boxes NYC, it’s something you should keep an eye on regularly. Cue, AirNow, which provides an air quality report from the EPA in less than three seconds. All you need to do is type in your zip code and hit return. See the air quality, trends, predictions, and all the things you need to know before you go. Bookmark it here.

INVEST.GOV: Following that money honey, can be overwhelming, especially when it comes to figuring out where the dollars bills in Biden’s Investing in America Agenda [ex: the CHIPS Act] have gone. This is nothing that an interactive graphic map can’t fix – like, call us nerds all you want, but an interactive graphic really gets our attention. This one lets you see the type of investment made [ex: clean energy], and where it’s been made, and the public infrastructure positively impacted. Prepare to see a lot of green dots covering the map of the U-S-A when you bookmark it here.

Photo Courtesy of Invest.Gov

New On Girl and the Gov, The Podcast

New to the podcast library, is the pod’s interview with West Virginia Delegate Kayla Young, its very first deep dive into WV politics. If you’ve been confused by Manchin the Menace, this eppy will help to clear it up. If you’re curious about how Jim Justice is not being served justice and is running for Senate while running his companies into the ground from the governor’s office, then yep – this episode is for you. If you’re curious about the child marriage debate that kicked up dust, debris, and debate this spring in the state and brought eyes to a practice that’s scarily legal in most states – you’re in luck. If learning how funding childcare can change the course of investment and the economy is up your alley – again, you’re going to want to hit play, which is possible on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube.

PREVIEW: AP News noted that this year’s legislative sesh in Nebraska was most akin to reality TV. And there’s quite a few reasons for that, including marathon filibusters and bad bills that progressive state senators pledged they would stand [quite literally] against. It’s that fight, which involved Nebraska State Senator Megan Hunt at its core, that we needed to know more about – hence, this coming Wednesday’s episode which includes a sit-down interview with Megan. What’s also included and key for understanding future seshes [reality show seasons] is how the Nebraska legislature works in its unicameral design and its interestingly transparent one-issue bill design. It’s an explainer meets backgrounder meets eyeopener you won’t want to miss. Subscribe on Apple to get notified when the interview drops.

LIKE-MINDED LISTENS

Grab these [political] shows on the go to stay in the know

  • Arizona races are always top of mind for this org, but who are the players going to be in the ‘24 congressional matchups? The Gaggle from AZCentral talks about who’s in and who’s out, thus far.

Subscribe while you scroll, sign up for The Gov Hub Newsletter here if you’re not already on the list.

Candidate Watch ‘24

The following have said put me in coach for….

  • New Castle County [DE] County Executive Matt Meyer is running for Governor. Learn more about his campaign here.

  • Former Bucks County Solicitor, Joe Khan announced that he is running for Attorney General in PA. Learn more about his campaign here.

Election Szn ‘23 🤝 Candidate Watch ‘23

  • Dustin Granger is running for Louisiana State Treasurer [FYI, this explainer will get you up to speed on what a state treasurer does]. Learn more about his campaign here.

  • Jonathan Dromgoole is running for Arlington [Virginia] County Board. Learn more about his campaign here

ACTION REMINDER: June 15th is just a few days away and it’s also the day that volunteers need to return their signature books in Ohio on behalf of the Ohioans For Reproductive Freedom ballot initiative. Find a location to do that here.

Have you forwarded this newsletter to a friend yet? Make their inbox shine, send it their way :)

FULL SEND….IT TO A FRIEND

  • This poll shows that wanting SCOTUS and their spouses [arguably partners in crime – bombastic side eye Clarence & Ginni Thomas] to abide by a Code of Ethics is bipartisan AF. This shares a few changes that can be made to get SCOTUS back into tip top shape.

  • You’d think if this NY two-some wanted nepo-baby t-shirts so badly, they’d just ask Alex Cooper [IYKYK] themselves, but instead they went with this move.

  • September 30 is Libra Szn and it’s also the legislative deadline for five federal apples of many people’s eyes – which according to Punchbowl, includes: the Farm Bill, the reauthorization of the Federal Aviation Administration, the reauthorization of the Frank LoBiondo Coast Guard Authorization Act, government funding [that silly little thing!], and the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness and Advancing Innovation Act. Best wishes to all involved in the negotiations of any of the above and beyond.

  • “Cracker Barrel has fallen” - the right wing wack-a-doos at the Texas Family Project who are saying the restaurant chain has “caved to the work left” for inclusive language and marketing around Pride Month.

  • Look, we’ve been saying the Sticky Bandits we’re underestimated for years, and this evidence sure helps:

WEEKEND CATCH UP

Three top stories you may have missed

SCOTUS HANDS A BIG WIN TO VOTING RIGHTS ACT WITH THIS ALABAMA CASE DECISION: Late last week, SCOTUS handed over their decision on Allen v. Milligan, a case that centered on whether Alabama has violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act [VRA]. The argument was that the violation occurred when the state enacted a congressional map that created one rather than two majority Black Districts. Given that almost 27% of the state’s population is Black, red flags were flying all over this case. This red flag fiesta was proven in the application of what is known as the Gingles Test, which applies a set of criteria to redistricted maps to determine the racial vote dilution occuring. The test has been in use for the past 40 years and looks at these three keys:

  1. The minority group in question must be “sufficiently large and geographically compact” to constitute a political district;

  2. the minority group must be “politically cohesive,” meaning the group generally votes for similar candidates and

  3. the majority group must also be “politically cohesive” and vote to defeat the preferred candidates of the minority group.

How was the test applied and found in this case? Like so. The outcome means a more fair map will be coming to Alabama voters, and those in other states like Louisiana which has had a similar litigation in motion, could benefit.

FORMER PRESIDENT TRUMP INDICTED ON 37 FELONY COUNTS: Apparently storing classified documents in a poorly designed bathroom isn’t a great move, although it doesn’t stop you from running for prez. In fact, it can land you, like the orangeman of Mar-a-Lago, with 37 felony counts. Now, what comes with this all-inclusive package:

  • 31 counts of Willful Retention of National Defense Information under the Espionage Act [up to 10 years]

  • 1 count of Conspiracy to Obstruct Justice [ up to 20 years]

  • 1 count of Withholding a document or record [up to 20 years]

  • 1 count of Corruptly Concealing a Document or Record [up to 20 years]

  • 1 count of Concealing a Document in a Federal Investigation [ up to 20 years]

  • 1 count of scheme to conceal [up to 5 years]

  • 1 count of false statements and representations [ up to 5 years]

Maximum total prison year count: 100 years. We’ll just leave this here as a our response ;)

NAZI’S GATHERED OUTSIDE OF DISNEY IN ORLANDO TO PROTEST: Nazi’s have been getting way too comfortable these days [see the man mentioned in the story above to answer the “how we got here”]. That sentiment further came to the surface this weekend, when Nazi’s protested outside of Disney in Orlando, Florida. Carrying Nazi flags and signs in support of Governor Ron DeSantis, the white nationalist looney tunes connected the dots between their dangerous bigotry and the man running for president.

D2C - DIRECT TO CONSTITUENT

From their desk to your inbox

GEORGIA, CONGRESSWOMAN LUCY MCBATH: The Georgia Congresswoman is hosting an event for veterans and surviving families focused on how they access resources provided by the passing of the PACT Act. As a refresher, the PACT Act expanded access to health care and screenings related to toxic exposure experienced by our armed forces. Understanding how to file a claim and more will be core the event for constituents in this neck of the woods, Attendance details:

Where: The Gwinnett Justice & Administration Center - 75 Langley Drive, Lawrenceville, Georgia 30046

When: Thursday, July 6, 2023 at Noon

RSVP: Send in a yes RSVP to pactactga07.eventbrite.com or register here.

ALL THINGS GIRL AND THE GOV®

THE GOV CLUB: Focused on political networking and community amongst civically engaged besties, The Gov Club provides members access to free virtual networking events, 1v1s, and connect with one another. The Gov Club has also made moves from its old Slack channel home to the Geneva platform to make connecting with one another easy as pie. Sign up for the Gov Club, here.

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Other *tings* of note on the comms front:

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