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- The Gov Hub Newsletter: March 25, 2024
The Gov Hub Newsletter: March 25, 2024
Gov Hub
March 25, 2024
Welcome to The Gov Hub Newsletter by Girl and the Gov®. This weekly pop of politics is designed to share action items, resources, & quick links to civic engagement tools & topics. Find a typo? Congrats, today is your lucky day.
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THE ACTION ITEMS
Get ‘em done from your phone
ACTION 1 – DIVORCE + BODILY AUTONOMY
The Ask: Tell [state] legislators to repeal the laws keeping pregnant women from getting divorced.
The Action: Sign this petition.
The Background: In the way that 2024 is going perhaps it is believable that in a number of states, pregnant people can’t have their divorce finalized until after they give birth. Regardless of the age of the laws, and slight variations on them, it’s the reality in Missouri, Arizona, Arkansas, California, and Texas. These laws have got to go.
ACTION 2 – ABORTION ACCESS X SCOTUS
The Ask: Tell SCOTUS hands off Mifepristone.
The Action: Sign this petition brought to you by Think Big America.
The Background: SCOTUS will be hearing a case on March 26th, 2024 [tomorrow] that could further restrict abortion access nationwide by limiting the availability of the safe, commonly used prescription abortion pill, Mifepristone. Tell the people in out-of-style robes that it’s your body, your choice, and restricting abortion access further is no dice.
ACTION 3 – GUN REFORM
The Ask: Tell Congress to pass a permitless gun carry ban.
The Action: Sign this petition.
The Background: You might need a license to drive a car, but to own and operate a gun? Not so much in quite a few states. The ability to just walk into a store, buy a gun, and walk out without a license or any training or any safety requirements, is not just unacceptable, it's a practice with dangerous consequences. Permitless carry has got to go.
Looking for more action items? Check our library of past Gov Hub’s.
FULL SEND…TO A FRIEND
Just about guaranteed to make it to the group chat
ELVIS is having a big moment – no not the famed artist directly, but close – Tennessee passed a bipartisan bill to protect musicians and songwriters against AI. Cue, the country singer guest list for the bill signing.
The Grandmother of Juneteenth, Opal Lee, has been gifted a brand new home 85 years after a racist mob forced and her family from their home in Fort Worth, Texas.
What’s it like to cover the US presidential election as a foreign reporter on the US campaign trail? This will give you the inside scoop.
This political pick-up line is so cheesy it almost has rizz. Double doggy dare someone to try it.
Then in TX, this man is swinging a sign that should be a billboard because Taylor Swift >>> Trump.
Do you have purse? Common Cause Texas does – like a few, and some hats too.
What’s going on in your neck of the woods? Find out with these local/state-wide focused newsrooms + their newsletters reporting on what’s going on in your backyard.
GOOD NEWS BEARS
Positive political wins [yes, those do exist]
BIDEN-HARRIS ADMIN CANCELS $6 BILLION IN STUDENT LOAN DEBT FOR SERVICE WORKERS: The Biden-Harris Administration has canceled federal student loan debt for 77,700 public service workers inclusive of social workers, teachers, firefighters, and nurses. The move comes despite a block to the White House’s initial student loan cancellation program – chess not checkers we suppose? Those receiving relief are borrowers that are enrolled in the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, with the cancellation enabled by fixes made to the program by the Administration. What’s ahead is more good news on this front, with the Administration on track to inform 380,000 more federal student loan borrowers – who are enrolled in PSLF – this week that they’re on track to have their debt canceled within the next two years.
EPA FINALIZES FULL BAN ON ASBESTOS: Fashionably late to the party, but better than never, the EPA has finalized a full and comprehensive ban on asbestos, which has still been being used in certain products and the manufacture of. The toxic carcinogen has been linked to causing a variety of cancers including lung and mesothelioma, and was originally banned in 1989 (Swifties, hi). However, and as told by AP, in 1991 a Court of Appeals decision came through that basically overturned the rule that allowed the EPA to say ‘not today asbestos.” Fast fwd to 2016, the Frank Lautenberg Chemical Safety Act came into play authorizing a mega amount of new rules for the toxics (no, not your situationship, chemicals). This ban comes via that landmark law and at the chagrin of quite a few lobbyists. Depending on what the asbestos is used for, the phase out to full ban differs, but this covers it.
BIDEN SIGNS EXECUTIVE ORDER to SHRINK WOMEN’S HEALTH RESEARCH GAP: There’s a wage gap, but there’s also a women’s health gap, like as in it wasn’t until the late 1980s into the early 90’s did the National Institutes of Health [NIH] begin to include women in medical studies (screams into pillow). We have some serious catching up to do, and this executive order aims to help with that by…
Integrating women’s health across the federal research portfolio
Prioritizing investments in women’s health research
Galvanizing new research on women’s midlife health
Assessing unmet needs to support women’s health research
In addition to the EO, $200 million will be invested into the launch of a new National Institutes of Health (NIH)-wide effort on women’s health research across lifespan starting in 2025. A few of the top-line research focuses include “the impact of perimenopause and menopause on heart health, brain health and bone health.”
MAXWELL FROST, TIKTOK, & GEN-Z
New on Girl and the Gov, The Podcast
What in the world is happening with this potential TikTok ban? And honestly, what even is it? Is it a ban? We asked Gen-Z Congressman Maxwell Frost, who gave us the 411 on the what, the why, the who, and the when. And while we were at, we also talked about the ‘24 elections – ya know, those big AF things happening THIS year. Specifically, we zeroed in on the youth vote and how those numbers are shaping up for the federal, and in another lens, what that looks like in FL. A convo of possibilities, our chat covers what the Congressman thinks is possible in FL this cycle and what needs to happen in the years to come. Listen in via Apple Podcasts and Spotify, and watch on YouTube.
WAIT, WAIT UPDATE ME
ICYMI, political ongoings of note
HIRING OF ELECTION DENIER RONNA MCDANIEL BY NBC CAUSES BIG STIR: Holy cable news drama – but tbh drama worth the peach fuzz – NBC hired former head of RNC [Republican National Committee] as a contributor. And while hiring a former HBIC from parties or elected officials is nothing new from networks, hiring someone that peddled false claims in 2020 like so, and then ironically was ousted from the RNC role for not peddling them enough and ‘going after alleged voter fraud’ is something of an entirely different stripe. Journalists and those who think that giving a paying platform position to someone that shed the ‘Romney’ part of her name because Trump requested that she do so, have put their grievances into sport mode – especially Chuck Todd, the former Meet the Press moderator who had this to say. How will this turn out? Well NBC said no comment and we say pass the clicker.
REPUBLICAN MIKE GALLAGHER DECIDES TO CUT TERM SHORT: Republican Congressman Mike Gallagher [Wisconsin] is packing his bags and headed out of Congress, announcing that he’s resigning on April 19, 2024. This announcement follows a resignation by his Colorado GOP colleague Ken Buck. Both decisions to exit the premises, leave the GOP in an even bigger pickle [dill, obvi], leaving them with a one vote margin. Gallagher’s seat won’t be filled until the general election vis a vis Wisconsin rules and cut-off dates. As we said when the news dropped Friday, gird your loins and grab your popcorn for how this will shake out for the baby, barely there GOP majority that can’t get anything done [albeit that’s sometimes a good thing, given what they want to pass].
MTG FILES MOTION TO BOOT MIKE JOHNSON AS SPEAKER: Holy Groundhog Day [actually a great holiday – our thoughts on it here], when it comes to Marjorie Taylor Greene filing a motion to oust Speaker Mike Johnson from his leadership post. The motion is less dramatic than the one that put the McCarthy 2.0 saga into motion however, because of the way it was filed – long story short, it will hang tight in committee where it ~probs~ won’t make it out. If it does, there are Dems saying they’d put on a cape and rescue Johnson to avoid the chaos. If it doesn’t, hell of a publicity stunt, MTG.
KEY READS
Important stories from around the USA
ATLAS
Stories from around the globe
NPR: What is ISIS-K, the group that claims it carried out the Moscow concert attack?
AP: Burkina Faso’s security forces are killing more civilians. Survivors detailed 1 village’s massacre.
The Guardian: Mass grave of at least 65 people found in Libya, UN migration agency says
BACK ON OUR BILLSH*T
Bills, bills, bills
FEDERAL: File this under the “see we told you bipartisanship does still exist” you just have to dig for it category. This bill – the Protecting Consumers from Deceptive AI Act – was intro’d by CA Congresswoman Eshoo and FL Congressman Dunn with the aim of taking on deepfakes. Overall the bill would create standards for both identifying and labeling any content that’s AI-generated. It would also create disclosure requirements for AI developers and online content platforms [ex: social media].
VOTER PREP
The Classics
Be a voter in this year’s elections and beyond, up and down the ballot. Think you’re registered? Check your status here. Need to get on board to get on the ballot? Register here. Know that you’re booked and busy and will need a lil’ reminder of upcoming election tings? Hop on the reminders list here.
BEFORE YOU GO….
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