#nationwide-policy-impact

#nationwide-policy-impact

John Kaehny has written and successfully lobbied for the passage of state and New York City laws related to government transparency and accountability, including the first open data law in the world in 2012.

The tax provides more than $23 billion per year in revenue for federal highway and public transit programs. The federal gas tax has been in place, in one way or another, since 1919 and was last raised in 1993.

Keep state as close as possible to where it's actually used. Lift it when multiple components need it or you need to coordinate behavior between components.

The affordability crisis is hitting rural America hard. Across the country, broadband, electricity, and clean water remain out of reach for far too many families.

The Recovery Engagement and Coordination for Health-Veteran Enhanced Treatment, or REACH VET, program identifies veterans in the top 0.1% of suicide risk by analyzing health records for specific indicators of potential self-harm.

Starting next month, the cost of renouncing your U.S. citizenship will go down dramatically - a boon for people already shouldering the burden of paying for a major overseas move. Anyone wishing to formally shed their American citizenship is required to obtain a form called a Certificate of Loss of Nationality, and right now it comes with a whopping $2,350 fee. In April, that fee will drop by 80% to $450.

The bulk of the money Missouri gives to its crisis pregnancy centers comes from federal funds meant to assist families experiencing poverty with basic necessities and child care, Republican Rep. Jason Smith said on the U.S. House floor in January. As many as $3 of every $4 for pregnancy centers in Missouri was from the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program in 2024, and in the 2026 fiscal year, it will be $2 out of $3.

In light of the systemic dismantling of America's public health agencies, these moves essentially create a shadow infrastructure to maintain some of what is being lost. While this is a promising development, it does nothing to stop a troubling trend that has been emerging for some time: The country is quickly becoming fragmented along partisan lines when it comes to public health.

Starting this summer, most college programs will have to show that their students earn more than someone with only a high school diploma to avoid being cut off from federal funding, as part of a new accountability measure. Congress created the earnings test known as Do No Harm when it passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act last summer. The Education Department is still working to finalize the regulations that outline how it will work.

The loan limits-which were prompted by congressional legislation and fleshed out through a contentious rule-making process -cap the amount a graduate student can borrow based on the type of program they enroll in. If their program is deemed "professional," they can borrow up to $50,000 a year or $200,000 total; meanwhile, students in programs labeled "graduate" can only take out half that-$20,500 a year or $100,000 total. Under the proposed regulations, only 11 degree programs are considered professional.

The legislation focuses on reducing regulatory and procedural barriers to housing development, aiming to accelerate the construction of both market-rate and affordable housing nationwide. The Housing for the 21st Century Act is the House counterpart to the ROAD to Housing Act. The bill seeks to accelerate housing development by encouraging zoning reforms, supporting accessory dwelling units and small multifamily projects, and lowering costs tied to permitting and design. It also includes grants for preapproved building plans intended to shorten approval timelines.

Once we get past this issue, there's decent agreement on everything else,

The lawmakers provided examples of childcare workers ensnared by Trump's deportation push, including a nanny in Wisconsin, an asylum seeker with no criminal record who was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after a routine check-in, and immigrant teachers at a preschool in Washington DC who lost their work authorizations and were forced to quit due to TPS terminations by the Trump administration.

These new restrictions-which can be found throughout the appropriations bill for the Department of Education and other sections of the 11-part funding package that was signed into law last week-are part of what policy experts describe as a bipartisan attempt to rebuke the Trump administration's budget proposal and restore Congress's power of the purse. Historically, the language of these budget bills has largely stayed the same, serving as little more than a template into which lawmakers plug that year's dollar amounts and policy riders.

Earlier in the day, Democrats blocked a spending bill using a filibuster in order to force the Trump administration into negotiations over its violent deportation campaign in cities across the U.S. The raids have involved DHS agents - most notably from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) - terrorizing and abducting residents, with immigration agents killing two people in Minneapolis this month.