Federal Updates
Health Equity and Accountability Act (HEAA) Reintroduced
May 23, Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) reintroduced the Health Equity and Accountability Act (HEAA) in the House and Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-HI) is expected to introduce it in the Senate in the coming days as well. HEAA was originally introduced in 2007 by Rep. Robin Kelly (D-IL) and members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC), and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC). These groups are collectively known as the Congressional Tri-Caucus.
HEAA is a comprehensive bill that seeks to eliminate racial and ethnic health disparities by addressing intersections between immigration status, age, disability, sex, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, language access, and socio-economic status, along with obstacles associated with historical and contemporary injustices. HEAA would support data collection and reporting, culturally competent care, removing barriers to insurance coverage, addressing illnesses with disparate impacts on racial and ethnic minorities, and creating accountability measures in the process of eliminating health inequalities.
Senate Democrats Lead Push to Save Net Neutrality
In December 2017, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), led by its chairman Ajit Pai, voted to end net neutrality. The principle of net neutrality requires that internet service providers treat all content delivered to its customers equally. Without net neutrality, large companies like Comcast and Verizon can require websites and customers to pay more or risk having content blocked or their access slowed. May 16, the Senate voted in favor of a Congressional Review Act (CRA) motion to restore net neutrality after Senate Democrats gathered the 30 signatures required to force a vote. The CRA allows a majority in Congress to reverse rules set by the executive branch and prevents the rule from being considered again. Next, the House will have to approve the CRA motion as well. This will prove challenging since a majority of signatures is needed to force a vote in the House: If all House Democrats sign, 22 Republican signatures would still be needed. If the motion passes the House, it would then go to Trump for his signature.
White House Launches New Faith and Opportunity Initiative as a Another Possible Vehicle for Discrimination
May 3, Trump signed an executive order creating a new faith-based office, the White House Faith and Opportunity Initiative. The administration’s stated goals for the office are to protect religious freedom and to ensure religious organizations have access to government funding. Civil rights groups have voiced concerns that this is just the latest in a line of policies that the administration has used to facilitate discrimination under the guise of protecting “religious freedom.” Other examples of these policies have included rules released in October 2017 by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that would allow almost any employer, including educational institutions, to deny birth control coverage based on a claim of religious or “moral” objection, and the creation of a “Conscience and Religious Freedom” Division in the HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR) which granted a license to discriminate to providers and health care workers who, based on their personal beliefs, do not want to serve transgender individuals, women or same-sex couples.
Economic & Labor Justice
House Farm Bill Dies; Goes Back to the Drawing Board
May 18, the 2018 Farm Bill, H.R. 2, failed to pass the House. The partisan Farm Bill included proposed changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, also known as food stamps) which would expand work requirements for SNAP recipients. These harsh work requirements, demanded by Trump, were opposed by House Democrats and moderate Republicans. However, many conservatives thought the proposed changes to SNAP did not go far enough. In the end, the vote depended on the far-right House Freedom Caucus, who made their support for a Farm Bill contingent on revisiting various conservative immigration proposals. The Caucus is opposed to any pathway to citizenship for DACA recipients (“dreamers”), putting them at odds with some Republican moderates who are seeking permanent citizenship status for dreamers. The Senate is expected to vote on its version of the Farm Bill in June and the House is also expected to return with a renegotiated bill for a vote towards the end of June.
Supreme Court Deals Blow to Workers’ Rights
May 21, the Supreme Court (SCOTUS) ruled that companies can require their employees to resolve disputes through individual arbitration rather than allowing them join together to fight unfair labor practices in class-action lawsuits. Arbitration is an alternative, private process for resolving legal disputes without going to court. The parties in conflict meet privately with a neutral third party (arbitrator) who tries to help resolve the dispute. After hearing both sides, the arbitrator hands down a confidential decision, that both sides must agree to be bound by.
The SCOTUS case involved employees who joined together to bring a collective lawsuit against their employer who failed to pay them overtime. The issue was that as part of the hiring process, the employees were required to sign contracts agreeing to resolve issues through one-on-one arbitration, which employees do regularly without fully understanding what they are signing.
While the Obama administration stood with workers (and law that prohibits contracts that deny employees the right to engage in collective action), the Trump administration sided with the employer (and law that allows enforcement of arbitration agreements according to its terms). Employees have less power when they bring up disputes as individuals. Consequently, millions of employees will be barred from bringing collective action against their employers, including sexual harassment and employment discrimination lawsuits.
Sexual and Reproductive Rights
Title X Domestic Gag Rule Threatens Abortion Access
May 22, the Trump administration issued a new proposed rule targeting Title X grantees. Title X is the only federal grant program that ensures low-income individuals have access to preventive reproductive health care, such as birth control, cancer screenings, STI testing and treatment, and well-woman exams.
Title X serves 4 million people each year — many of whom would otherwise be unable to access these essential health care services. In rural and other underserved areas, and for Black, Latinx and low-income communities, Title-X funded clinics may be the only source of HIV testing and sexual health services. The current Title X language prohibits healthcare providers from withholding information about the full range of pregnancy options to their patients and requires that contraceptive methods provided by Title X projects are medically approved.
The new rule, referred to as a domestic “gag rule”, follows in the footsteps of the “global gag rule”, by making it illegal for Title X healthcare providers to refer their patients for safe, legal abortion. It restricts birth control and preventive care access and would remove requirements that contraceptive methods provided by Title X projects be medically approved. After the rule is officially posted to the federal register, advocates will have a 30 or 60 day comment period to weigh in and express concerns. Read PWN’s statement on the gag rule here.
Head of Multiple Anti-Choice Clinics Put in Charge of Title X Funding Office
May 29, Diane Foley was quietly appointed to the role of deputy assistant secretary for population affairs. In this role, Foley will oversee the Office of Population Affairs (OPA) which is responsible for administering Title X funding. Before her appointment, Foley was the president and CEO of Life Network, which operates two anti-choice clinics (so-called “crisis pregnancy centers”) in Colorado Springs and creates abstinence-only programming.
Life Network is an affiliate of CareNet, which operates one of the largest networks of fake clinics in the U.S. CareNet gets support from Focus on the Family, a prominent anti-choice organization that also opposes some forms of contraception. The Trump administration’s previous appointments to Foley’s position have also been staunchly anti-choice.
Immigrant Justice
Caravan Immigrants Face Asylum Challenge
In late April, the first of a caravan of over 300 Central American refugees fleeing from violence in their countries arrived at the U.S./Mexico border and prepared to begin the asylum process. The group, organized by Pueblo Sin Fronteras, consists of predominately Honduran, Salvadoran and Guatemalan members, who have traveled over 2,000 miles from southern Mexico to reach the U.S.. Currently, only small groups of caravan members are being allowed through the crossing to make their case for asylum, which may be made more difficult as the Trump administration is pushing for a stricter evidence standard for asylees, who already face navigating a complicated legal process. The first step of an asylum petition requires the asylee to go through a “credible fear” interview with immigration officials. During the interview, the asylee must show that they are genuinely afraid of returning to their home because they would face a “significant possibility” of torture or persecution. There is currently a large backlog of 311,000 asylum cases waiting to be processed; Francis Cissna, the director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, has proposed making it harder to pass these interviews.
Trump Ends Temporary Protected Status for Honduran Refugees
May 4, the administration ended temporary protected status (TPS) for nearly 90,000 Hondurans who have been living in the U.S. for 20 years, after a hurricane devastated the country in 1998. By January 5, 2020, all 57,000 Hondurans will lose their work authorizations and be subject to deportation proceedings. TPS offers no path to citizenship, so immigrants from countries under TPS are left fully at the whim of the administration’s decision to end the program rather than renew it. The administration is asked to consider “extraordinary and temporary conditions in the foreign state that prevent aliens who are nationals of the state from returning to the state in safety.”
According to the administration, the decision was based on an assessment that Honduras has recovered sufficiently from the 1998 hurricane. However, the administration’s analysis does not appear to consider that Honduras is currently experiencing great political unrest, leading many Hondurans to flee their country for safety. To date, the Trump administration has also been ended TPS for Sudan, Nicaragua, Nepal, Liberia, Haiti, and El Salvador, meaning more than 400,000 people currently residing in the U.S. will be vulnerable to deportation by 2020.
Department of Justice Announces Zero Tolerance Immigration Policy
May 7, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the administration’s “zero tolerance” immigration policy. The previous policy for undocumented immigrants detained at the U.S./Mexico border was to send them back to Mexico. Now, the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Homeland Security (DHS) are pursuing a new policy of “100 percent” prosecution of all undocumented immigrants crossing the border, meaning they could face up to six months in prison.
Additionally, Sessions announced that immigrant families traveling with children will be separated, with children sent to juvenile detainment facilities. This is of particular concern as a new ACLU report, examining immigration detention facilities from 2009-2014, highlighted a pattern of abuse and violence against immigrant children. Immigrant children have always been placed in foster care after their parents are arrested; however separation of children from their families has only under this administration become an official policy of the US government.
Office of Refugee Resettlement and “Missing” Unaccompanied Minors
The Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) under the HHS, is responsible for the care of unaccompanied immigrant minors (as well as children separated from their parents). These unaccompanied minors are generally placed with sponsors, usually parents or close relatives, while awaiting deportation proceedings or filing for relief from deportation. The ORR has stated that it is no longer legally responsible for the minors once they are placed with the sponsors. In 2016, under the Obama administration, the Senate Homeland Security subcommittee, released a report finding that the HHS did not have sufficient safeguards in place to prevent unaccompanied minors from ending up with traffickers. At the time, Homeland Security and HHS agreed to create new procedures to prevent trafficking of the children within a year; that has yet to happen.
During the last week of May, reports surfaced that HHS had “lost” 1,500 unaccompanied minors after being placed with sponsors. HHS has released a statement refuting these reports, saying that the minors are not lost, but rather their sponsors could not be contacted by HHS.
Some immigration experts believe that sponsors, who may be undocumented, are afraid to answer calls from HHS, for good reason: from June to August 2017, (Department of Homeland Security) DHS stings used unaccompanied minors to track down, arrest and detain their undocumented relatives and caregivers in the U.S.
LGBT Rights
Fight for Access to Bathrooms Continues
May 22, Judge Allen of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia denied a motion by the Gloucester County school board to dismiss the lawsuit brought by former student, Gavin Grimm. Gavin, a young transgender man, first filed the lawsuit in 2015 after the school board prohibited his high school’s administrators from letting him use the boys’ restrooms. Gavin claimed that the board policy violated Title IX as well as the equal protection clause of the Constitution.
Title IX is the federal law that prohibits sex-based discrimination in federally funded schools and educational programs. The board argued that Title IX allows for claims based on sex but not gender identity. Judge Allen disagreed, finding that the bathroom policy meant Gavin was subjected to sex-based stereotyping, which is a violation of federal law. It is unclear at this point if the school board will appeal the decision.
Bureau of Prisons Removes Protections for Incarcerated Trans People
May 11, the Trump administration rolled back Obama-era protections for incarcerated people of transgender experience. Previously, the Bureau of Prisons policy was to “recommend housing by gender identity when appropriate” and now says that designating inmates to facilities based on their identified gender “would be appropriate only in rare cases.” Now, the department will use “biological sex” as the basis for assigning facilities and bathrooms. The change comes after four cisgender women incarcerated in Texas brought a lawsuit against the Obama-era policy, arguing that transgender women posed a threat to cisgender women.
In a national survey of people of transgender experience in 2015, respondents who were incarcerated reported physical and sexual assault rates 6-10 times higher than cisgender prisoners. This change is expected to put people of transgender experience at even greater risk of violence and abuse while incarcerated.
CDC to Rollback Data Collection for LGBT People
May 17, the Williams Institute reported that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will end support for the collection of data on LGBT people through the Behavior Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS). The BRFSS is a federally-funded telephone survey that collects state data about U.S. residents’ health conditions and the use of preventative services. The survey also highlights the needs of individuals to the agencies responsible for providing critical services.
The CDC will be removing the gender identity and sexual orientation BRFSS modules starting in 2019. LGBT individuals (particularly LGBT people of color) still experience significant health disparities as compared to non-LGBT individuals and omitting sources of data that could improve health outcomes and service delivery presents a major setback in addressing them.
State Updates
South Carolina
Democrats Successfully Filibuster Abortion Ban
May 4, South Carolina Senate Democrats along with five Republicans joined forces to delay a final vote on an amendment that would have banned most abortions in the state. Those opposed to the abortion ban filibustered late into the evening. Finally, after being unable to get enough votes to end the filibuster, the Senate Republican majority gave up on passing the amendment. The measure has been sent back to the committee and is dead for the year.
Iowa
Most Restrictive Abortion Ban in the Country Passes
May 5, Iowa passed a bill that applies criminal penalties to doctors that perform abortions after 6 weeks, making it the most restrictive abortion ban in the country. Most people do not yet know they are pregnant at 6 weeks. Planned Parenthood and the ACLU are planning to sue to stop the ban from taking effect on July 1. Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds, who says abortion is “murder”, anticipated the legal challenge, and legislators who supported the bill are hoping that the case makes it to the Supreme Court with the goal of overturning Roe v. Wade, thus banning abortion nationally.
New York
Safe Injection Site Coming Soon
May 3, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio called for the city to open four overdose prevention centers for injectable drug users, citing the findings from a New York City Health Department study highlighting a 166% increase in overdose deaths since 2010 that reached 1,441 fatalities in 2017. These centers are more commonly known as safe injection facilities (SIFs) and are legally-sanctioned locations where people can use drugs they have obtained elsewhere, with trained staff on-site to prevent overdoses and ensure the use of sterile needles. San Francisco, Seattle, Baltimore, and Philadelphia have similar plans to open SIFs as well. San Francisco is set to be the first in the country, with plans to open two sites by July. However, legal obstacles remain, as federal law still prohibits narcotics use and federal law enforcement can raid the SIFs.
Michigan
HIV Modernization Bills
Introduced in the Michigan House of Representatives on May 16, bills HB 6023 and 6016 are aimed at modernizing the state’s current HIV laws. The package of bills would make non-disclosure a misdemeanor rather than a felony and better reflects advances in treatment and technology. However, a concerning clause included in the bills would require pregnant women from communities that are deemed “high risk” to take an HIV test in their third trimester, with the ability to opt-out of the test. The bills are expected to come up for a vote in the state House before mid-June.
California
Assembly Passes Bill Expanding Medicaid to Immigrants
California’s General Assembly passed a bill on May 30 that would expand Medicaid to allow immigrants access, regardless of their legal status. The bill will go to the state senate next, where it is expected to pass. California would the first state in the nation to allow access to Medicaid without legal residency requirements. The state has already scrapped the requirement for youth under 19 in its Medi-Cal program.