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The Gov Hub Newsletter: February 24, 2025

RFK Jr. allegedly wears jeans to the GYM, MapQuest let's you pick a name for the Gulf of Mexico, and GOP Reps. get their asses handed [verbally] to them at town halls

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Gov Hub
February 24, 2025

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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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GOOD NEWS BEARS

Positive political wins [yes, those do exist]

CT GOV. LAMONT ANNOUNCES $12.8M IN GRANTS TO REHAB HOUSING IN 8 SMALL CITIES: In a move that aims to modernize and update housing for low and moderate-income residents in Connecticut, Gov. Ned Lamont and Connecticut Housing Commissioner Seila Mosquera-Bruno have announced $12.8 in grants. The money is being dispersed across eight projects in eight small cities in the state. The needs being met with the funding vary per project, but largely include necessary building updates for safety and ADA accessibility. 

NY AG JAMES ANNOUNCES $970K IN GRANTS TO FUND A FAIR HOUSING PROGRAM: Almost $1 million in grants are being awarded through New York’s Office of the Attorney General [OAG] to fund a fair housing testing program in the state’s Capitol Region. Fair housing testing programs have been used previously by OAG to identify and investigate housing discrimination across NY. This iteration will be funded for a two year period and be put together by the United Tenants of Albany and the Fair Housing Justice Center. The overall goal is to eliminate housing discrimination.

MA GOV. HEALEY’S TAX RELIEF BILL FUNDS 14 AFFORDABLE HOUSING PROJECTS: Circa 2023 Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey signed a $1 billion tax relief bill, which raised the Low-Income Tax Credit to $60 million annually. That fundraising is paying off in the form of funded affordable housing projects in the state. As a result 14 projects have been awarded funds. Specifically, the funding will be used to build new affordable housing units and preserve existing units. The total units for this project is 1,138 across these areas.

KY GOV. BESHEAR ANNOUNCES $2M TO BOLSTER STATE’S TOURISM ECONOMY: Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear has announced that through the Regional Marketing and Matching Funds Program that 87 tourism organizations in the state will receive funding to assist in their marketing efforts. The $2 million will be allocated to orgs across 80 counties and aims to further enhance the state’s $13.8 billion tourism industry.

BOOKMARK IT

Save it, send it

→ MassVets Benefits Estimator: A new tool drop from the Healey-Driscoll Admin in Massachusetts, the MassVets Benefits Estimator enables veterans to easily determine their monthly benefits. It’s bye, bye mysteries, hello answers with a few clickity clackities. Try out the tool here.

→ Whistleblower Complaint Dropbox: TBH, we can’t read the term ‘whistleblower’ without Flo Rida’s ‘Whistle’ song getting stuck in our heads, but alas. More importantly, if you have a whistleblower complaint the Senate Democrats should know about, they’ve opened up a form that you can fill out here.

→ MapQuest Name the Gulf Of Mexico Tool: MapQuest – like FireFox – is popping back on the scene, and this time with the ability for users to “rebrand” and “rename” the Gulf of Mexico via this tool. Name the Gulf whatever the h-e-double hockey sticks you like, here.

 

Politics meets social media

  • Rep. Jasmine Crockett [D-TX] dropped the facts on how blue states financially keep red states afloat – and USAFacts has the stats in chart form. She also appeared on The Breakfast Club where she discussed wasteful spending in the DoD, their failed audits, and the defense contracts that put money in the pockets of Elon’s terrifyingly out of style skinny jeans.

  • GOP lawmakers across the country have been hosting town halls [as any elected official should] and getting absolutely verbally skewered by their constituents over DOGE, Elon’s hostile government takeover with a bunch of teenagers, mass firings of federal staff, and Trump’s wildin’ out executive orders of hell. An on the ground look from Rep. McCormick’s town hall [he’s the one that went viral for not supporting free school lunch] that literally was so packed it went outside, can be seen here.

  • Senator Tina Smith [D-MN] took to Twitter to call Elon and Trump bad bosses over their Saturday night request for federal employees to email them with bullet points on what they’d accomplished that week, along with the statement that a non-response would be taken as a resignation.

CATACLYSMIC CORRUPTION

Mostly stories that involve Elon

  • The Trump fambam has racked in over $190 million since the 78-year-old man’s inauguration. The dollar bills have come from memecoins [imagine explaining that concept to a founding father], meta, Twitter, Amazon, and Disney.

  • The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which is the Sherlock Holmes of vehicle safety issues and standards, has been the subject of firings from DOGE. And you guessed it, the firings are at an agency that’s launched investigations into deadly crashes involving Tesla. Also on this topic, MotherJones has reported that Cybertrucks have a fatality rate 17x that of the infamously dangerous Ford Pinto.

BACK ON OUR BILLSH*T

Bills, bills, bills

MISSOURI, PREGNANCY: Breaking News – an old white dude whose career experience has been in manufacturing sales, has introduced a bill that would create a state-run registry of pregnant women that the Missouri government deems “at-risk for seeking an abortion.” And to make the matter even creepier, those that are interested in adopting babies would be given access to the registry. The bill has been dubbed “e-Harmony for babies.” The bill is HB 807.

IOWA, BOOK BANS: Instead of banning something harmful [can think of a ton of chemicals that fit the bill], a new book ban bill has been brought to the table in the state Senate. SB 347, if passed, would ban librarians at public libraries from purchasing materials with depictions of a “sex act.” It would use the same definition of a “sex act” as the state’s criminal code does. Libraries found to be in violation of the bill would be hit with insanely high fees per day. And lastly, because of course people can’t do hobbies instead of hate, the bill drafts an avenue for parents to be able to sue libraries for carrying materials that they “disagree with” – how free speech-y of them.

RHODE ISLAND, ASSAULT WEAPONS: A bill included in the Governor’s budget proposal is this one – a ban on assault weapons. If passed, the ban would apply to the “sale, creation, purchase, transfer, or ownership of weapons which fall under its provisions, and there would be criminal penalties for people convicted of violating the ban” according to the Rhode Island Current.

FULL SEND…TO A FRIEND

News that’s just about guaranteed to make it to the group chat

  • 23 Dem attorneys general have filed an amicus brief arguing that any closure of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau would harm consumers and make the enforcement of consumer protection laws hard AF. The CFPB, BTW, was created in 2011 to fight back against corporations and banks taking advantage of consumers – like the ones that played a huge role in the Great Recession of 2008.

  • ProPublica has had its eye on how Texas’s abortion ban has impacted women, and the result is bone-chilling, yet expected. It found that sepsis [you can die from that] in the second trimester has risen 50% since Texas’s abortion ban was put in place three years ago.

  • Lies, lies, lies isn’t just a Morgan Wallen song, it’s what Elon Musk has been doing when speaking about social security – making inaccurate claims that millions of people over the age of 100 are getting social security checks. The reality [check] can be summed up with this and this.

  • Because the U.S. has now become a live episode of The Apprentice, this is just a tiny portion of who was fired from their federal jobs the past two weeks:

  • FAA employees that produce air traffic navigation maps.

    • At first 180 workers that manage the country’s nuclear arsenal, followed by the Admin scrambling to get them back when they ~checks notes~ realized what their job was. 28 of the 180 were still ultimately fired however.

    • 1,000 workers at the Department of Veterans Affairs were fired with now there being a slight back step on rehiring workers for the Veterans Crisis Line. 

    • 200 workers at the Bonneville Power Administration – you know like that crew that runs the hydroelectric dam. Then 30 people were rehired.

    • 6,700 employees at the IRS in the height of tax season.

    • 5,400 civilian employees are slated to be fired this week at the Pentagon.

  • On the “hiring end of things” conservative podcaster and former Fox News talking head Dan Bongino was named as Trump’s deputy FBI Director. 

EXTREMISM

…that’s the tweet [or the x]

  • The very same event for Conservatives also featured Elon wearing a shirt in a live, laugh, love font, a creepy MAGA hat, a cheap looking rodeo-style belt, sunglasses like he’s actually going to get into the club, and a blinged out chainsaw given to him by a guy that looks like he has a few screws loose – Argentinian President Javier Milei.

THE ACTION ITEMS

Get ‘em done from your phone

ACTION 1 – FEDERAL WORKERS

The Ask: Tell your [federal] reps to stop DOGE’s illegal war against federal workers and agencies.

The Background: As shown by this past weekend’s antics of the unelected body that comprises DOGE asking for an email with five things employees have done recently, and the partial list of federal firing disasters above, the careless and unconstitutional moves against federal workers have got to stop. 

ACTION 2 – VOTING RIGHTS

The Ask: Tell your [federal] reps “no” on the SAVE Act.

The Background: The SAVE Act is voter disenfranchisement with a strong dose of misogyny wrapped together without a bow [how tacky]. It would require all Americans to prove their citizenship status IRL when registering to vote, which means obtaining your birth certificate [that costs money] to present or your passport [146 million Americans don’t have a passport and it costs money to get]. It would also mean that married women who have changed their last name and thus do not have a birth certificate that matches current docs are B I G trouble if they want to vote.

ACTION 3 – MEDICAID

The Ask: Tell your [federal] reps “no” on cuts to Medicaid.

The Background: Medicaid is responsible for providing essential health care and services to Americans of every stripe, including those with disabilities. Cutting Medicaid, which provides a lifeline to the many people it serves, is not the move.

PS & BTW, CALL YOUR REPS TOO. XOXO TYSM

2025 SPECIAL ELECTION WATCH

Add to cal, tell a friend

  • MAINE: Sean Faircloth is running in a special election on February 25, 2025 for a state House seat [HD-24], which could increase the current small Dem majority.

  • IOWA: Nanette Griffin is running for a special election in Iowa state House District 100 to fill a seat recently made vacant. The election is on March 11, 2025.

  • PENNSYLVANIA: Dan Goughnour is running in a special election to fill a vacant state House seat in the Pittsburgh area, HD-35. The race will determine which party has the majority in the state House. The election is on March 25, 2025.

  • PENNSYLVANIA: James Malone is running to flip a state Senate seat in the 36th Senatorial District. The election is on March 25, 2025.

  • FLORIDA: Gay Valimont is running in a special election to fill the vacant Congressional District one seat formerly held by Matt Gaetz. The election is on April 1, 2025.

  • FLORIDA: Josh Weil is running in a special election to fill the now vacant District Six Congressional seat. The election is on April 1, 2025.

  • WISCONSIN: Susan Crawford is running for a seat on the Wisconsin state Supreme Court – a seat that will determine the lean of the court. The election is on April 1, 2025.

ELECTION SZN

2026 Dem Campaigns Loading

  • NEW YORK: County legislator Beth Davidson announced she’s running to flip NY’s 17th Congressional District blue – the district currently represented by GOP Rep. Mike Lawler.

  • MICHIGAN: Army veteran Alex Hawkins launched his campaign to flip Michigan’s 10th Congressional District - a seat currently held by GOP Rep. John James.

TOP OF THE EARBUDS

Listen, watch, learn

  • In bro-landia, Congressman Mike Levin joined the hosts of the Brogressive Podcast on this episode to chat all-things billionaire takeover of the gov and a few thoughts on the Padres, the Angels, and the Chargers.

  • From Live to the pod airwaves, is this convo with Senator Cory Booker and the hosts of the IHIP News podcast talking about how to combat the wackadoodle shit happening.

  • The Don Lemon Show dropped with this eppy with The Atlantic’s Thomas Chatterton Williams about how the “right” has gone “woke” and is in their new language policing era.

KEY READS

Important stories from around the USA

  • AP: Trumps says he may take control of the US Postal Service. Here’s what to know

  • Vanity Fair: “They’re Scared Shitless”: The Threat of Political Violence Informing Trump’s Grip on Congress

  • USA Today: Trump removes Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. CQ Brown in purge of military leaders

  • City & State Pennsylvania: 4 ways federal government actions are impacting Pennsylvania

BEFORE YOU GO…

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