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The Gov Hub Newsletter: January 6, 2024

Anti-corruption bill and pro-outdoor rec bills signed, Melania makes a movie, pilates princesses for Congress, and Senator Kim's cute kiddos

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Gov Hub
January 06, 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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CHRONICALLY ONLINE

Politics meets social media

  • Some say “if these walls could talk” but in the U.S. Senate, it’s really, “if these drawers could talk” with VP Harris adding her name to the drawer of the desk that she sat at while a Senator serving California. It’s like HAGS in a yearbook but make it federal politics edition.

  • Keeping it Senatorial, there were cute AF moments like Senator Andy Kim’s kids giving business cards to VP Harris, iconic moments like Senator McCormick’s daughter sharing with the VP that she’d voted for her, no love lost moments like the one with Bernie Sanders, and a heinous/rude/big ick moment with Senator Deb Fischer’s husband who referred to shake VP Harris’s hand.

  • If this app existed – one that would pass period cramps to a politician who doesn’t support repro health – we’d start with the male GOP state reps in South Carolina that have refiled a bill that would enable those who receive abortion care to be charged with murder [if passed and signed into law].

  • Former and future First Lady Melania Trump’s memoir is set to be the basis for a documentary-style project that will debut on Amazon Prime at a TBD date. Melania will serve as a producer on the film, which makes us hopeful that the infamous “I like my sooootcase clip” of Baron makes it into the final cut.

  • For those looking around at who should run for office, or at least thinking about who they should ask, we’d give our stamp of approval on this group of A+ public speakers and pilates princesses. P.S. also for the pilates princesses, this list of recs to check/save/send, you get the drill.

  • NY City Councilmember Erik Bottcher discussed what crime statistics are not capturing and why there’s a disconnect between what New Yorkers are experiencing versus what stat preachers are saying.

GOOD NEWS BEARS

Positive political wins [yes, those do exist]

BIPARTISAN SOCIAL SECURITY FAIRNESS ACT SIGNED INTO LAW BY BIDEN: A bill that’s been in the making for over two decades – the Social Security Fairness Act – has been signed into law by President Biden, enabling public pension recipients to collect their full social security benefits. The new law is estimated to increase social security benefits by $360 per recipient/month for 2.5+ million people, encompassing firefighters, teachers, and other public sector retirees [and/or their spouses]. The change in policy was made possible by the repeal of two statutes that had reduced Social Security benefits for public sector workers that had collected pensions not covered by Social Security – the Windfall Elimination Provision [WEP] and the Government Pension Offset [GPO]. The mandate will also provide a lump-sum payment for the benefits that recipients should’ve received during the 2024 year.

BIDEN SIGNS ANTI-CORRUPTION BILL SPURRED BY MENENDEZ SCANDAL: Bobby Goldbars i.e. former Senator Bob Menendez and his convictions surrounding more than a dozen bribery related charges spurred a bill from the office of Senator Jacky Rosen. The bill, now signed into law by President Biden, bans members of Congress who are found guilty of “crimes related to public corruption” from receiving taxpayer-funded pension payments upon retirement. The law’s mandate makes the ban on funds dispersed upon the initial conviction i.e. appeals need to apply if the argument is receiving the pension money.

BIPARTISAN, FEDERAL OUTDOOR RECREATION BILL BECOMES LAW: We do wonder if the signing of this bill into law will make more people go take grass, but guess we’ll just have to wait and see how the Expanding Public Lands Outdoor Recreation Experiences Act will impact things. The bipartisan bill turned law aims to enhance access to national parks and outdoor public spaces for all, and is inclusive of provisions that expand access for disabled people and military veterans. Also amongst the law’s deats are improved protections for rock climbing, development of restrooms at rec spots [thank the lawddddd!], the addition of parking lots so people can actually access sites, reduced fees for small businesses that reply on public lands [think tour guide companies], the a-okay on the building of long distance bike trails, and more.

NEW MINNESOTA LAW WILL REQUIRE INSURANCE COMPANIES TO COVER WIG COSTS FOR CANCER PATIENTS: A new law is in effect in Minnesota the requires health insurance companies operating in the state to cover the cost of wigs for those that have lost their hair due to a medical condition. Previously the requirement for coverage was only mandated for patients diagnosed with alopecia areata, and did not cover those who suffered hair loss due to cancer. The new provision was championed by the late MN state Senator Kari Dziedzic who recently passed away after a battle with ovarian cancer.

NEW MASS. LAW ON SALARY TRANSPARENCY TO TAKE EFFECT IN OCTOBER: A 2024 legislative win in Massachusetts will take effect this coming October [see, there are things to look fwd to!]. The new law will require both private and public employers with over 25 employees to disclose pay ranges for positions in job postings. In addition, those employers will be required to provide the pay range to an employee that’s offered a transfer to a different role or a promotion. In the same vein, that employee must be provided per request the pay range for the employees that currently hold the position they’re applying for/being promoted to, etc. The enforcement mechanism for the new law will run through the state Attorney General’s Office, which can fine violations or serve them with civil citations.

VERMONT MANDATES FULL INSURANCE COVERAGE OF COLORECTAL SCREENINGS FOR THOSE 45 & OLDER: According to Vermont Public, colorectal cancer is the third leading cause of cancer deaths in the state, and a new mandate aims to reduce that statistic by requiring that health insurance companies fully cover colorectal screenings for those 45 and older. The age basement on the mandate was lowered in accordance with recommendations from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. The coverage requirement began on January 1, 2025 and will mean that those seeking screening will not pay a co-pay, not deal with deductibles or cost-sharing.

FULL SEND…TO A FRIEND

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

  • Ohio Governor Mike DeWine signed a controversial new measure into law that will allow police departments to charge the public to release requested camera footage from a dash, body, or surveillance camera. The departments will be able to charge up to $75/hour and up to $750 total per footage request.

  • Recent-to-new age-verification laws in 16 states across the South have resulted in Pornhub no longer being accessible in those states. The sleuth of laws have been marketed as a way to “protect children from lewd content” but have faced criticism for the data collection they enable, as well as violations in privacy and expression of free speech.

  • NYC has a helluva election this year – the mayoral, ya know the decision to keep or not keep the guy embroiled in indictments at the top of the heap. So far, this is the who is who of candidates and what they’re about. 

THE ACTION ITEMS

Get ‘em done from your phone

ACTION 1 – HOUSING

The Ask: Tell your [federal] reps to pass the Fair Housing Improvement Act.

The Background: The Fair Housing Improvement Act is back on the table. It would prohibit discrimination against individuals based on their source of income and/or military or veteran status when they go to rent or purchase housing.

ACTION 2 – EQUAL RIGHTS AMENDMENT

The Ask: Tell Biden to publish the Equal Rights Amendment as the 28th Amendment.

The Background: It’s 2025 and we still don’t have the ERA offish, offish. Tell President Biden it’s time to make moves on making it Facebook Constitutionally official ASAP aka before Trump takes office.


ACTION 3 – ENERGY

Brought to readers by American Energy Action

The Ask: TEXAS RESIDENTS ONLY – Tell your state reps to invest in clean energy solutions and fix grid reliability issues.

The Background: In February 2021, brutal winter weather caused Texas’ electricity grid to fail. Millions of people lost power, and more than 240 lost their lives. Improvements were made, but Texans today still face high energy bills that put many families at risk. Tell your state reps to kick solutions into gear to reduce costs.

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

BACK ON OUR BILLSH*T

Bills, bills, bills

FEDERAL: This bipartisan bill – the Lowering Costs for Caregivers Act – is back in the play this sesh. The bill in its current form would allow caregivers to use their HSA’s [tax-free health savings accounts] and/or FSA’s [flexible spending accounts] to cover medical expenses for their parents/loved ones they’re taking care of even if those that they’re caring for are not considered dependents. 

FEDERAL: An anti-trans athlete bill that the GOP is trying to fast track is H.R. 28. The bill would amend Title IX and what compliance with the law would look like. Compliance would be based on defining a person’s gender only as by their biological markers at birth.

KEY READS

Important stories from around the USA

  • Politico: DOJ: 200 Jan 6. Cases pending as Trump prepares to retake office

  • The Hill: As many as 23M Americans exposed to toxic ‘forever chemicals’ via treated wastewater: Study

  • CNN: Pentagon reaches settlement that could restore benefits to LGBTQ+ veterans discharged under ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’

  • USA Today: What’s the Inauguration Day schedule? Here are the day’s key events

BEFORE YOU GO…

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