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News and updates

News and updates

Senate Passes Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill

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The Senate voted 69-30 to pass a $1 trillion, bipartisan, infrastructure bill. The legislation includes numerous provisions for rail, roads, water pipes, ports, combatting pollution, and electric vehicle charging stations among other things. Read more here. The bill now heads to the House, which is in recess until the end of the month.

And coming up- Democrats are expected to use the reconciliation process to pass their “human infrastructure” agenda. Many House progressives say they will not send the bipartisan infrastructure bill to the President’s desk without the human infrastructure component. This is slated to include more education-related provisions, childcare, and a path to citizenship for DREAMERS, as well as a deficit reduction. However, the rules of reconciliation are very narrow, so it’s very possible not everything will make it through.

Nine Down, Three to Go, in the House

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After passing the Legislative Branch and State-Foreign Operations spending bills on Wednesday, the House approved mostly along party lines a seven-bill appropriations package for FY2022 on Thursday.  This means that the chamber has cleared nine of the 12 annual appropriations measures.

Included in Thursday’s package were:  Agriculture; Energy and Water Development; Financial Services; Interior and Environment; Labor-HHS-Education; Military Construction-Veterans Affairs; and Transportation-HUD.

The chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Patrick Leahy (D-VT), confirmed earlier today that the first three bills in that chamber– Agriculture, Energy and Water, and Mil Con-VA– will move next week, with the measures expected to go through the respective subcommittees on Monday and heading to the full committee on Wednesday.

 

 

USCIS Publishes New DACA FAQs

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USCIS (US Citizenship and Immigration Services) has published updated FAQs regarding the DACA program following the recent decision in State of Texas, et al., v. United States of America, et al., 1:18-CV-00068, (S.D. Texas July 16, 2021) (“Texas II”).

 

Federal Judge Blocks New DACA Applications

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A federal judge in Texas has issued a ruling to block all new DACA applications nationwide. Existing recipients and renewal applications will be unaffected for now.

US District Judge Andrew S. Hanen stated that the program oversteps executive authority. He remanded the issue to the Department of Homeland Security, which asserted it is ready and willing to try and fix legal defects in the program.

Read more here. The full opinion is available here.

UW’s 2021 Federal Agenda urges Congress to pass permanent, positive solutions for DACA recipients and their families as part of a comprehensive immigration reform package.

House Appropriations Process Continues to Move Forward

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The House appropriations process continues to plow ahead, with the committee approving earlier today the FY2022 Energy and Water Development bill by a vote of 33 – 24.  The bill is expected to be part of the larger package of bills brought to the floor during the week of July 26.

The bill summary is available here and the report for the bill is available here.

The bill funds a number of offices and programs of interest to UW, such as the following:

  • Office of Science– an overall level of $7.32 billion, an increase of $294 million
    • Within Office of Science, the legislation calls for the following amounts–
      • Fusion Energy– $698 million ($26-million increase)
      • Basic Energy Science– $2.29 billion ($48-million increase)
      • Nuclear physics– $665 million ($30-million increase)
      • High Energy Physics– $1.08 billion ($49-million increase)
      • Advanced Scientific Computing– $1.023 billion ($10-million increase)
  • Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy– $3.77 billion, an increase of $906 million
  • ARPA-E– $600 million, an increase of $175 million