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Category Archives: Congress

Here’s every word from the sixth Jan. 6 committee hearing on its investigation

NPR: Below, read the full transcript from the June 28 hearing of the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol attack. The transcript was produced by CQ. [sipped] BENNIE THOMPSON: The Select Committee to investigate the January 6th attack on the United States Capitol will be in order. Without objection, the chair is authorized… Continue Reading

Lawmakers v. The Scientific Realities of Human Reproduction

New England Journal of Medicine: “The just-announced U.S. Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization represents a stunning reversal of precedent that inserts government into the personal lives and health care of Americans. Yet it was not unexpected. In the long, painful prelude to the decision, many states have severely limited access… Continue Reading

Congresswoman Sara Jacobs – we need to protect reproductive health data

Sara Jacobs: “On June 24, 2022 “the Supreme Court of the United States released their decision in Dobbs v. Jackson, finding there is no constitutional right to an abortion and effectively overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade decision from 1973. “This decision is outrageous and has dangerous and far-reaching implications for Americans’ right to privacy… Continue Reading

With Roe overturned, updated ABA Legal Fact Check explores doctrine of legal precedent

“With the decision today by the U.S. Supreme Court overturning the landmark abortion decision of Roe v. Wade, the posted ABA Legal Fact Check has been revised to reflect the developments to assist reporters and the public to better understand the legal principle of stare decisis, or legal precedent, and how it came to be.… Continue Reading

Bipartisan Safer Communities Act

Senator Chris Murphy: “Following agreement between U.S. Senators Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), John Cornyn (R-Texas), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) on legislative text that will allow the Senate to vote to end a three decades long logjam on gun safety legislation, Murphy released the following statement: “For decades, the anti-gun violence movement has been… Continue Reading

Study – Google search results for abortion services are leading users to ‘fake clinics’

Inside Daily Brief: “Congressional Democrats have sent a letter to Google encouraging the search engine to improve its results for users seeking abortions. The letter follows a study from the Center for Countering Digital Hate which found that 11% of abortion searches in states with “trigger laws” – states which will automatically ban abortion if the… Continue Reading

Compiling Congressional Districts

Via Center for Data Innovation – Grossmann, M., Lucas, C., McCrain, J, & Ostrander, I. (2022). CongressData. East Lansing, MI: Institute for Public Policy and Social Research (IPPSR) – “Researchers at Michigan State University have created a dataset tracking the history of U.S. congressional districts. The dataset consists of congressional districts from 1789 to 2021… Continue Reading

Warren, Wyden, Murray, Whitehouse, Sanders Introduce Legislation to Ban Data Brokers from Selling Americans’ Location and Health Data

Bill Text (PDF) | One-Pager (PDF) – “United States Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) introduced the Health and Location Data Protection Act, legislation that bans data brokers from selling some of the most sensitive data available about everyday Americans: their health and location data. The legislation is cosponsored by Senators Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Chair of the… Continue Reading

What the TSA could teach Congress about gun control

Recode – “TSA PreCheck uses enhanced background checks to make everyone safer. With the country continually in mourning over gun violence — we keep seeing mass shooting after mass shooting after mass shooting — it’s time to find ways to prevent it, lest we remain the “only nation where this regularly happens.” Those solutions needn’t be… Continue Reading

As traditional news use declines, online news isn’t making up the gap

Nieman Lab: ” The pandemic brought a bump in news consumption that now seems to be fading away, Oxford’s Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism (RISJ) found in its 2022 Digital News Report, out this week. RISJ surveyed more than 90,000 people in 46 countries about their digital news consumption, and found evidence of… Continue Reading

Your connected car could be putting your privacy at risk

Popular Science – “As the U.S. enters a new era of lawmaking, connected cars could become the new front of legal battles. Most modern cars know their locations better than their owners do. As suites of connected-car apps become mainstream for both emergency functionality (such as General Motors’ OnStar) or for owner conveniences such as remote… Continue Reading

Short-and Long-Term Solutions to Extreme Drought in the Western United States

CRS – Statement of Charles V. Stern, Specialist in Natural Resources Policy, Before Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, U.S. Senate Hearing on “Short-and Long-Term Solutions to Extreme Drought in the Western United States” June 14, 2022: “Chairman Manchin, Ranking Member Barrasso, and Members of the committee, thank you for inviting the Congressional Research Service… Continue Reading