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The Gov Hub Newsletter: December 16, 2024

Polio, Dr. Phil, Drone-gate, and a victory against the NRA - a classic round-up

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Gov Hub
December 16, 2024

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Welcome to The Gov Hub Newsletter by Girl and the Gov® – a Dem tent weekly that shares action items you can do from your phone, good political news, civic engagement tools and topics, and a little dose of political goss too, right to your inbox.  

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THE ACTION ITEMS

Get ‘em done from your phone

ACTION 1 – FEDERAL FIREFIGHTER WAGES

The Ask: Tell Congress to pass the bipartisan Wildland Firefighter Paycheck Protections Act.

The Background: The bipartisan Wildland Firefighter Paycheck Protections Act was introduced to improve work benefits for wildland firefighters. The bill would permanently increase the base pay, deployment pay, and related benefits for this group of federal firefights that battle wildfires. 

ACTION 2 – HEALTHCARE; OXYGEN ACCESS

The Ask: Tell Congress to pass the Supplemental Oxygen Access Reform [SOAR] Act.

The Background: The bipartisan SOAR Act aims to improve access to supplemental oxygen for Medicare beneficiaries. The bill would remove all oxygen and oxygen equipment from the Medicare competitive bidding process and instead create a separate payment rate for liquid oxygen. It would also create a new add-on to the supplemental oxygen rate to reimburse for respiratory services. Lastly, it would create protections for Medicare beneficiaries who use supplemental oxygen.

ACTION 3 – PAID FAMILY & MEDICAL LEAVE

The Ask: Tell Congress to support legislation that provides paid leave for all.

The Background: If the state of Kentucky can make paid medical and family leave happen for its state executive branch [scroll to Good News Bears], the federal crew of electeds can make it happen nationwide. P.S. if you’re not familiar with how paid leave would work in this capacity, a few of those FAQs are answered here.

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

  • Hell hath frozen over because we’re aligned with Mitch McConnell [polio survivor] on something – that something is that the polio vaccine that’s eradicated the disease in the U.S. is a good thing, and that RFK Jr.’s lawyer and bestie-in-chief Aaron Siri had petitioned the FDA in 2022 to revoke the approval of the vaccine. Said bestie, who sounds just as annoying as Siri on our  phones, spends his time suing over vaccines. Someone bring back hobbies. Plz.

  • We’ve been waiting for Dr. Phil to pop up in the Trump post-election sphere, and he finally did… by organizing a meeting with NYC’s Mayor, Eric Adams and Trump’s incoming border czar, Tom Homan. Per the Gothamist, the idea for the meeting came to be on Dr. Phil’s private jet, as one might expect from a guy who started a tv network that’s been dubbed as a home for “right-wing fixations.”

  • Timing is everything, and it may be the achilles heel of a bipartisan bill that passed the Senate this summer that would add 63 federal judgeships, and the House as of late last week. The goal of the bill is to alleviate caseload. The timing of the bill however would mean that the Trump Admin would get 63 federal judgeships to fill. Biden’s plan on it? Veto it.

  • For the first time in literally TWO decades, not a single House committee will be led by a woman. They all will be led by white straight men – most with gray hair, and one with a bad tupeé. 

  • At this point, we might as well be living in a SciFi movie, because drone-mystery-wtf is happening-gate continues to evolve. This is the “what we know as of now” and this is the update from NJ’s Ocean County where NJ Congressman Chris Smith shared that he’ll be introducing legislation to address this situation.

  • And sorry for the nightmare fuel, but health insurance claim denials have skyrocketed, like BEYOND. These are the stats of hell. 

GOOD NEWS BEARS

Positive political wins [yes, those do exist]

MONARCH BUTTERFLIES ARE SET TO GET FEDERAL PROTECTIONS: We’re hoping that the federal protections that monarch butterflies are getting by being designated a threatened species are a little bit better in quality than the output from the Secret Service [sorwz]. The stunners, i.e. Monarch Butterflies, have suffered from habitat loss over the years, been impacted by climate change [same, girlies, same], as well as pesticide use [resi & commercial uses]. The good news is that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is proposing to put the Monarchs on the threatened species list by the end of 2025 – this will happen after a public comment period on said proposal [yes, you can participate]. The protection proposal would designate 4,395 acres across coastal areas in California as “critical habitat” for the species and thus ban federal agencies from interceding with or destroying in any way that habitat. Should the proposal get approved, the threatened species listing will happen within the Endangered Species Act.

BIPARTISAN ANTI-HAZING BILL HEADED TO BIDEN’S DESK: The Stop Campus Hazing Act, a bill that has been lobbied for by the families of college hazing victims, passed the U.S. Senate last week. The bill, which aims to reduce campus hazing and related deaths, now heads to President Biden’s desk for consideration [and likely signature into law]. The Act will require colleges to include any hazing incidents in its Annual Security Report, create “campus-wide, research-based hazing education and prevention programs,” as well as requiring colleges/universities to publish their hazing policies online and any orgs that have violated those policies.

AG LETITIA JAMES NOTCHES VICTORY AGAINST NRA: NY state’s Attorney General Letitia James pulled in a big win against the notorious NRA [National Rifle Association]. The victory is a judgement against the NRA that will require the organization to reform its governance structure to abide by the state’s not-for-profit laws. The judgment comes after a jury found that the NRA had failed, like failed in all caps, to “properly administer charitable funds and violated state laws, its former Executive-VP Wayne LaPierre caused the NRA $5.4 million in damages, and its former CFO Wilson “Woody” Phillips caused the NRA $2 million in damages.” Now, as a result of this, over 12 reforms are required to be made at the NRA in order for the org to not be in violation of state law in the future – from how it conducts its board elections to how it hires its consultants, it’s giving the concept of a makeover a run for its not-for-profit money. In addition, the jury-ordered judgment requires LaPierre and Phillips to pay $6.35 million with 9% interest.

KENTUCKY GOVERNOR BESHEAR BRINGS PAID FAMILY LEAVE TO STATE EXEC. BRANCH WORKERS: KY’s Governor Andy Beshear unveiled a new employee benefit for state executive branch workers that will provide them with six weeks paid family leave. The benefit will enable workers to take time away to deal with an illness, bond with a new child, and so on without penalty.  The new policy will be available in three intervals during one’s career, meaning a second opportunity for the leave will be possible after ten years in the role/office, and again at 20 years in the role/office. The benefit will be available right away, not requiring a certain amount of days to accumulate first. According to AP, 30,500 executive branch workers will be eligible for the benefit once it takes effect, which is estimated to be summer 2025.

CHRONICALLY ONLINE

Politics meets social media

  • In a game of “where in the world is outgoing Democratic Senator Joe Manchin?” The winning answer can be found here – where he’s seen hanging out in Trump’s suite at the Army-Navy game.

  • It seems like Trump missed his calling – according to the ever-funny Caleb Hearon, this is the career path Trump should’ve taken.

  • Lying about your Spotify Wrapped is weird. Lying about your Spotify Wrapped to get voters to thing you’re a die-hard Springsteen fan and thus should vote for you, is even weirder – and it's the move this Congressman running for NJ Governor made.

  • We didn’t know Abbott Elementary actress Sheryl Lee Ralph and PA state senator Vincent Hughes were married. Now we do!

BACK ON OUR BILLSH*T

A bill, bill, bill

FEDERAL: Paris Hilton has been seen around The Hill a number of times lobbying for the Stop Institutional Child Abuse Act, which passed the U.S. Senate last week, unanimously. The bill heads to the House for consideration. Said bill, if turned into law, would create an interagency Federal Work Group on Youth Residential Programs. The work group would be tasked with both supporting and implementing best practices as it relates to young people in youth residential programs. Recs for creating a national database on practices that work versus not will also be on the work group’s required to-do list. Lastly, the Dept. of Health and Human Services would be required to contract with the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to study + make recs on the federal and state oversight of youth residential programs.

FEDERAL: Senator Elizabeth Warren has introduced a new bill dubbed the Accountable Capitalism Act. The bill’s aim is to uplift workers and make it a more even playing field for them in the battle royale against shareholders. Specifically, the bill would make corporations that bring in over $1 billion in annual revenue to get a federal charter as a “United States Corporation” and that charter could be revoked if they do sketchy suss things. It would also require that 40% of a corps board of directors to be chosen by the corp’s employees. And for more, it would restrict corp directors and officers from selling stockers within five years of receiving the share or three years within a company stock buyback. Oh, wait one more goodie, all political spending by the corp would have to be approved by 75% of the shareholders and directors.

READ, REPEAT, SUBSCRIBE

Newsletters to tap into

  • If you follow The Recount on IG [you probs do], you may be pleased/overjoyed/jumping for joy to find out they have a newsletter with loads of political reporting involved as well, which you can subscribe to here.

  • For yappers, yappers in training, and those with a penchant for politics meets lifestyle, GATG’s Yapper’s Digest newsletter is about to be your end of week inbox BFF when you subscribe here.

WHEN IN DOUBT, VOTE THEM OUT

Our classic merch is back with a new look

TOP OF THE EARBUDS

Listens for now & later

  • Birthright citizenship has been in the news A LOT lately, and it’s also the focal point of this episode of the Tangle News Podcast – an episode that also talks about whether “Karens” are a good or bad thing.

  • Congressman Andy Kim is now Senator Andy Kim from NJ. This episode of Girl and the Gov, The Podcast gives the pitch on electing more “normal” people.

  • The cabinet nomination drama hasn’t stopped, nor has the ambassadorship drama, with Don Jr.s ex now likely packing a bag to Greece – and this episode of The Next Level gets into the deats.

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KEY READS

Important stories from around the USA

  • AP: The White House is cracking down on overdraft fees

  • The Hill: Supreme Court declines to block coal waste rule

  • Roll Call: House Democratic border hawks eye new influence next Congress

  • Politico: You should worry about Kash Patel running the FBI

BEFORE YOU GO…

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