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News and updates

News and updates

What We’re Reading This Week, November 21 – 25

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Here’s a selection of articles the Federal Relations team is enjoying this week.

Medicaid Worries – In places like rural Kentucky, the ACA was a life changing law for Medicaid patients. Eliminating the expansion will have serious impacts. Read more at NPR.  

Trump & TV – Representatives from the broadcast and cable-TV news networks met with President-elect Donald Trump Monday. The unprecedented gathering follows Trump’s public disdain for most of the media which was evident throughout the election. Beyond what he often considered unfair coverage, the pre-election polling and Election Day exit polls appeared to predict a Hillary Clinton win. It did not go well according to inside sources. Read more in the New York Post. 

Whither OSTP? – For 40 years, the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) has closely counseled the President on matters of science and technology—everything from disease outbreaks to climate change to nanotechnology. However, the role of OSTP in the Trump administration is unclear. Read more in The Atlantic. 

Autism & Higher Ed – The first generation of students with an autism diagnosis is fanning out to schools across the country. They face a complex array of academic and social challenges. Read more in The New York Times. 

DeVos to be ED Secretary

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President-elect Donald Trump is nominating Betsy DeVos for Education Secretary. A billionaire GOP donor, she also once served as head of the Michigan Republican Party.

DeVos is a vocal advocate of allowing parents to use school vouchers to seek alternative schools and other policies strongly opposed by teachers unions. She is the current chairwoman of the American Federation for Children, an education advocacy group pushing school-choice-friendly policies.

 

 

Trump Taps SC Gov. Nikki Haley for UN

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South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley has accepted Donald Trump’s offer to be his ambassador to the United Nations. She is the first woman Trump has tapped to his cabinet, and would add diversity as a woman and the daughter of immigrants from India. A rising star in the GOP, she is the first woman to hold the Governor’s office in South Carolina. Haley served three terms in South Carolina’s State House before winning the governorship in 2010 and again in 2014. Haley’s limited foreign policy experience is likely to draw scrutiny during Senate confirmation hearings for the Cabinet-level position.

Trump Won’t Prosecute Clinton

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Today on the MSNBC program, Morning Joe, Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway said that President-elect Trump will not pursue prosecution of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, when Trump is President.  While on the campaign, Trump repeatedly promised to appoint a special prosecutor to pursue the investigations, arguing that President Obama and the Clintons had used their influence to shape the Justice Department’s investigation. Additionally, during Trump rallies, it was common to hear the chant “Lock her up.”

During a 60 Minutes interview earlier this month, President-elect Trump said that prosecuting Clinton would not be a priority for his administration.

 

Trump First Day Agenda

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President-elect Trump posted a 2 minute 37 second video on You Tube, which is the first time he’s addressed the American people directly since the election.

Mr. Trump’s video included six calls for action on trade, immigration, energy, regulatory curbs, national security (specifically cyber infrastructure), and lobbying ethics changes, most of which have already been announced either during the campaign or the transition period.

Of note, Trump did not mention action on the Affordable Care Act, his proposed wall along the southern border, the tax code, or the Iran nuclear deal, all of which were central arguments for his election.

See the video here or below.