Author: McKinzie Strait

Here is a selection of article the Office of Federal Relations is reading this week.

Montana Special Election – The special election to fill Montana’s U.S. House seat took a weird turn on Wednesday night when the Republican candidate, Greg Gianforte, reportedly body-slammed Guardian reporter Ben Jacobs. What effect all this will have on today’s special election is … unclear. Suffice to say that we don’t have much precedent for election-eve body-slamming. As always, we’re interested in who wins… but we’re also interested in what the Montana result tells us about the national political environment. And when we’re judging the latter, we need to look at the margin of victory, not just who wins and loses. Read more from FiveThirtyEight.

Campus Free Speech – State legislatures, most led by Republicans, are advancing bills they say are intended to support free speech. The laws include measures to suspend students who interfere with the free-speech rights of others, remove free-speech zones that limit protests to small areas on campus and cut off money to schools that don’t protect the First Amendment. In the past few months, governors have signed legislation protecting free speech on campus in Colorado, Tennessee, Utah and Virginia. Meanwhile, Republican legislators have proposed bills in Illinois, Wisconsin, Texas, California, North Carolina, Michigan, Louisiana and Georgia. Read more from the Wall Street Journal.

Trump Budget Tough for Education – President Trump’s full budget proposal for fiscal year 2018, to be released Tuesday, calls for a $9.2 billion, or 13.5 percent, spending cut to education. The cuts would be spread across K-12 and aid to higher education, according to documents released by the White House.None of this can be finalized without Congress. And the political track record for Presidents who want to reduce education funding is not promising, even in a far less poisoned atmosphere than the one that hovers over Washington right now. Read more from NPR. 

Mid-Term Elections Preview – The midterm elections are still nearly a year and a half away, and the political dynamics could yet change, but we shouldn’t ignore the fact that history and the current environment are merging together for a potentially great set of elections for Democrats in November 2018. The president’s party has lost House seats in 18 of the last 20 midterm elections, and it’s lost an average of 33 seats in those 18 elections. Democrats need to gain 24 seats in order to take back the majority. Read more on Roll Call.

Tax Overhaul Hurdles – Republican leaders are applying a lesson learned from health care to the tax overhaul debate: build consensus before releasing a bill. It’s no secret that the House, Senate and White House are not on the same page on a tax overhaul. But GOP leaders are now more openly acknowledging those divisions as they work toward a goal of a unified plan. Read more on Roll Call. 

Americans Doing Better Financially – Americans’ sense of their overall financial health improved modestly last year, but adults without any college education lost ground for the first time since 2013, according to a new Federal Reserve survey. Read more on the Wall Street Journal.

Here is a selection of article the Office of Federal Relations is reading this week.

Trump Calls Comey “Nut Job” – The latest news the Trump-Russia saga: President Trump told Russian officials in the Oval Office this month that firing the F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, had relieved “great pressure” on him, according to a document summarizing the meeting. “I just fired the head of the F.B.I. He was crazy, a real nut job,” Mr. Trump said, according to the document, which was read to The New York Times by an American official. “I faced great pressure because of Russia. That’s taken off.” Mr. Trump added, “I’m not under investigation.” Read more from The New York Times.

Tracking the Trump Administration’s Russia Ties – Following the revelation late this afternoon that law enforcement is now investigating a senior White House advisor in the Russia-probe, we thought you may find this excellent infograph, which maps relationships between White House officials and Russian officials, from The Washington Post interesting. Check it out on the Washington Post. 

Widening the Gap in U.S. Life Expectancy – IHME got a great shoutout on NIH Director Francis Collins’ blog this week. The post notes that recent gains in longevity aren’t being enjoyed equally in all corners of the United States. In fact, depending on where you live in this great country, life expectancy can vary more than 20 years—a surprisingly wide gap that has widened significantly in recent decades. Read more from the NIH Director’s Blog.

Trump’s ED Budget is Leaked! – Funding for college work-study programs would be cut in half, public-service loan forgiveness would end and hundreds of millions of dollars that public schools could use for mental health, advanced coursework and other services would vanish under a Trump administration plan to cut $10.6 billion from federal education initiatives, according to budget documents obtained by The Washington Post. Read more at The Washington Post. 

Capitol Cat Watch – In case you didn’t already understand how crazy this town is these days, check out this cat on a leash (and with a stroller) in the Russell Senate Building. Bravo! Read more from Time.