9/14 Weekly Legislative Update

NATIONAL

Legislation coming up:
H.R. 2574: Equity and Inclusion Enforcement Act
GovTrack.us: “To amend title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to restore the right to individual civil actions in cases involving disparate impact, and for other purposes.” 
This bill has been added to the House’s schedule for the coming week, according to the House Majority Leader. See the week ahead.
H.R. 2694: Pregnant Workers Fairness Act
GovTrack.us: “To eliminate discrimination and promote women’s health and economic security by ensuring reasonable workplace accommodations for workers whose ability to perform the functions of a job are limited by pregnancy, childbirth, or a related medical condition.”
This bill has been added to the House’s schedule for the coming week, according to the House Majority Leader. See the week ahead.
H.Res. 908: Condemning all forms of anti-Asian sentiment as related to COVID-19.
GovTrack.us: “This resolution calls on all public officials to condemn and denounce anti-Asian sentiment, racism, discrimination, and religious intolerance related to COVID-19 (i.e., coronavirus disease 2019), and to call on federal law enforcement officials, working with state and local officials, to take specified steps.”
This resolution has been added to the House’s schedule for the coming week, according to the House Majority Leader. See the week ahead.
H.R. 2639: Strength in Diversity Act of 2019
GovTrack.us: “This bill directs the Department of Education to award grants to specified educational agencies to develop or implement plans to improve diversity and reduce or eliminate racial or socioeconomic isolation in publicly funded early childhood education programs, public elementary schools, or public secondary schools.”
This bill has been added to the House’s schedule for the coming week, according to the House Majority Leader. See the week ahead.

In the Senate:

The Republican’s coronavirus relief bill did not come up for a vote after a failure on a procedural vote to bring the bill to the floor for debate. The possibility of passing another relief bill fluctuates daily. The White House has hinted that it will go up to $1.5 trillion while Democrats have agreed to come down to $2.1 trillion. Although White House economic advisor Larry Kudlow and House Speaker Pelosi hinted at compromise, GOP leadership downplayed the possibility. (Brown, Shelby, Clifford Solby and Alison DeNisco Rayome. “GOP’s COVID relief bill failed: Here’s what could happen next: The Republicans’ “skinny” coronavirus relief bill failed to advance in the Senate. Now what?” CNET. 13 September 2020: https://www.cnet.com/personal-finance/gops-covid-relief-bill-failed-heres-what-could-happen-next/.) 
The Senate’s ‘skinny bill’ was a $500 billion relief bill that Democrats said failed to provide the essential economic help needed. The House passed a much more comprehensive bill in May, the Heroes Act, that Mitch McConnell has refused to consider. (Segers, Grace. “Senate Fails to Advance Slimmed-Down Coronavirus Relief Bill.” CBS News. 11 September 2020: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/
covid-relief-bill-senate-vote-fails-republicans/
)

This coming week the Senate is expected to confirm several district federal court judges. The Senate may work with the House on a joint short term continuing resolution to fund the government through the election to avoid a partial government shutdown. (Revell, Eric. “Senate to Confirm More Federal Judges, House to Return for Anti-Discrimination Votes.” Causes.com. 13 September 2020: https://www.causes.com/
articles/46116-senate-confirm-
federal-judges-house-return-anti-discrimination-votes
.)

Committees:
House committees will hold hearings on the “infiltration of local police departments” by “white supremacy in blue”, worldwide threats to the homeland, and enforcing the ban on imports produced by forced labor in Xinjiang, China. (Revell, Eric. “Senate to Confirm More Federal Judges, House to Return for Anti-Discrimination Votes.” Causes.com. 13 September 2020: https://www.causes.com/
articles/46116-senate-confirm-
federal-judges-house-return-anti-discrimination-votes
.) 
Learn more about these hearings: https://docs.house.gov/
Committee/Calendar/ByWeek.aspx?WeekOf=09132020_09192020


Senate Committees will hold hearings on “federal housing assistance programs, advancing U.S. engagement and competing with China, compensating college athletes, and fixing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA).” (Revell, Eric. “Senate to Confirm More Federal Judges, House to Return for Anti-Discrimination Votes.” Causes.com. 13 September 2020: https://www.causes.com/
articles/46116-senate-confirm-federal-judges-house-return-anti-discrimination-votes
.) Learn more about these hearings: https://www.senate.gov/
committees/hearings_meetings.htm
.

To find and contact your Members of Congress: https://www.govtrack.us/congress/members

In Other News

Trump threatened to withhold federal funding from California Public Schools if they are teaching the 1619 Project. This proposed action is in addition to a bill introduced in the Senate. (Liptak, Kevin. “Trump says Department of Education will investigate use of 1619 Project in schools.” CNN. 06 September 2020: https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/06/politics/trump-education-department-1619-project/index.html)
See a brief summary from GovTrack of the pros and cons of the bill, Saving American History Act, that would ban public schools from teaching the New York Times’ 1619 Project curriculum: https://govtrackinsider.com/saving-american-history-act-would-ban-public-schools-from-teaching-new-york-times-1619-project-9007b4078a1f. This bill was introduced in the Senate by Senator Tom Cotton in July and has attracted no co-sponsors.

The House Oversight committee will investigate Louis DeJoy, the US postmaster general, for allegedly reimbursing employees who donated to GOP candidates. (Duster, Chandelis and Lauren Fox. “House committee to investigate US postmaster general for allegedly reimbursing employees who donated to GOP candidates.” CNN. 08 September 2020:https://cutt.ly/4fI4LuD

Though continued Russian interference and foreign terrorism were listed as threats on DHS draft documents, white supremacy was at the top of the list. The three drafts differ in their wording overall, but each contain this language: “Among DVEs [Domestic Violent Extremists], we judge that white supremacist extremists (WSEs) will remain the most persistent and lethal threat in the Homeland through 2021.” (Sands, Geneva. “White supremacy is ‘most lethal threat’ to the US, DHS draft assessment says.: CNN. 08 September 2020: https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/08/politics/white-supremacy-dhs-draft-assessment/index.html.)

After an examination of the effect of climate change on the financial system, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s climate subcommittee released its report, which “detailed the potential catastrophic consequences of climate change on the financial system and American economy, imploring Congress to act quickly to combat the crises. The report comes as states are reeling with record-setting wildfires down the west coast of the United States.” It concludes that “climate change poses a major risk to the stability of the U.S. financial system and to its ability to sustain the American economy.” This is the first such report from a government agency. (CFTC. “CFTC’s Climate-Related Market Risk Subcommittee Releases Report.” CFTC Commodity Futures Trading Commission. 09 September 2020: https://www.cftc.gov/PressRoom/PressReleases/8234-20.)

The Census and the courts:

Trump can’t interfere in the Census count by requesting a count of illegal immigrants and blocking their number from counts for congressional apportionments (Schneider, Mike. “Trump can’t exclude people from district drawings” Associated Press. 10 September2020: https://cutt.ly/yfI40Gb)
On Thursday, a federal court in New York blocked a Trump administration effort to exclude unauthorized immigrants from a 2020 census count used to allocate congressional seats. [CBS News / Camilo Montoya-Galvez] The panel’s decision permanently blocks both the Census Bureau and the Commerce Department from reporting any information about “the number of aliens in each State who are not in a lawful immigration status” to Trump, though it may still be appealed. [NPR / Hansi Lo Wang]

Indiana

Indiana civic and corporate leaders: State must get on the right side of mail-in voting
The Indianapolis Star
We encourage Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb and the Indiana Election Commission to join the great majority of states and institute no-excuse mail-in …

Indiana GOP pushing mail voting despite Trump’s derision
Tulsa World
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — The Indiana Republican Party is directly appealing to voters across the state to submit mail-in ballots even as President …

DOJ, Curtis Hill file support for Archdiocese of Indianapolis in same-sex marriage lawsuit IndyStar

Gary school leaders pitch need for $71M tax referendum; council mulls endorsement NWI

“An Indiana court rejected an appeal Thursday from conservative religious groups that have unsuccessfully challenged limits on the state’s religious objections law that were adopted under then-Gov. Mike Pence.” (Davies, Tom. “Indiana court denies challenge to religious objection limits.” Crux. 11 September 2020: https://cruxnow.com/church-in-the-usa/2020/09/indiana-court-denies-challenge-to-religious-objection-limits/.)
Indiana court denies challenge to religious objection limits
WRTV INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — An Indiana court has rejected an appeal from conservative religious groups that have unsuccessfully challenged limits on the …

Poll shows tighter race for Indiana governor than months prior WRTV

In the race to replace Curtis Hill as Attorney General, our latest Indy Politics/Change Research poll shows Republican Todd Rokita ahead of  Democrat Jonathan Weinzapfel.   (Indy Politics)

Republican State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jennifer McCormick announced Thursday that she is endorsing Democratic Indiana attorney general candidate Jonathan Weinzapfel.  (The Statehouse File)

Hoosier budget officials are keeping a close watch on Indiana’s volatile tax revenue as various payment deferrals and delays associated with the COVID-19 pandemic make it difficult to comprehensively evaluate the state’s finances.  (Times of Northwest Indiana)

Study: Indiana and Kentucky among top states with financial distress during pandemic
WKRC TV Cincinnati

Some police reforms championed by Mayor Joe Hogsett and Indianapolis police leadership are facing scrutiny by top law enforcement officials across the state.   (Indy Star)

Educators and their communities have pushed officials to publicly track COVID-19 cases found in schools, but one expert warns there hasn’t been enough testing to make those numbers meaningful.  (WFIU)

A study from researchers at Indiana University in partnership with the Indiana State Department of Health studied how the infection–fatality ratio fro coronavirus differs by age, race and other demographic factors.
(Anderson, Lynne. Coronavirus is hundreds of times more deadly for people over 60 than people under 40. The Conversation. 11 September 2020: https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-is-hundreds-of-times-more-deadly-for-people-over-60-than-people-under-40-145510

Indiana Voter Registration Deadline Fast Approaching 
Eagle 99.3 FM WSCH – The voter registration deadline is approaching in Indiana. The last day to register for the November 3 General Election is Monday, October 5. Hoosiers …