Aysha Schomburg, Associate Commissioner for the Children’s Bureau, helped to open CWLA’s successful 2021 virtual conference on Tuesday, May 4, 2021. In her opening remarks to CWLA attendees, she discussed her experiences over the past year during the pandemic and some of the lessons learned. At the time, Commissioner Schomburg was working at New York
On Monday, April 26, 2021, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to consider Texas’ challenge to California’s ban on California-funded business trips to other states deemed to discriminate against LGBTQ people. The ban does not apply to California law enforcement, tax auditors, and collectors, and anyone who needs to travel to these states to appear before
A Way Home America is a national initiative to build the movement to prevent and end homelessness among young people. The New Deal to End Youth Homelessness is a federal policy proposal that offers a roadmap to transform how young people, particularly Black, Brown, Indigenous, and LGBTQ young people, are supported in our society. The
The $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief measure has a lot in it that directly and indirectly addresses the impact of this year-long pandemic. It includes several issues that have received increased focus because of this past year’s struggles (for example, the racial and regional inequities within the economy and health care system). There are limited added funds specific
Last week, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) held their first Project THRIVE Policy Briefing of 2021. Project THRIVE is a collaborative, national campaign to support LGBTQ youth. During the briefing, HRC highlighted the Equality Act’s advances while calling attention to the attacks against the Transgender community occurring in State Legislatures. On February 25, the
Last week, nine House Committees acted on their parts of a reconciliation bill that will make up President Biden’s COVID-19 relief measure. Within the package are key CWLA priorities, including more than $39 billion in child care funding, year one of a Children’s Allowance, $350 billion in state and local government relief, $350 million more in
Chairman Ron Wyden (D-OR) of the Finance Committee sent a letter to the Acting HHS Secretary W. Cochran urging the Biden Administration to halt the implementation of a Trump-era HHS final rule that would allow taxpayer-funded discrimination. If this final rule goes into effect on February 11, 2021, Senator Wyden inserted that “it has the potential
On Tuesday, January 26, 2021, President Biden signed into place four Executive Orders to promote and advance racial equity and support underserved communities. Unlike the mainly individualist American mentality, Biden rebuked America as a “zero-sum game” where “if one of us wins, one must lose.” Instead, Biden emphasized that racial equity must be an issue
One of the first critical decisions that will have to be worked out over the next several days is how President Biden will get his COVID-19 proposal through Congress. As a veteran senator who was also key to many of the Obama Administration’s congressional negotiations, he has raised hopes for bipartisan action, but that would
Among the dozens of Executive Orders signed or expected to be signed by President Biden starting on January 20, 2021, were: an extension on a freeze on evictions and foreclosures through the end of March, a freeze on student loans, a repeal of President Trump order that attempted to stop diversity training by federal agencies,