This morning, President Trump announced that he will declare a national emergency over the nonexistent “border crisis” in an attempt to secure up to 8 billion dollars in emergency funds to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. In a press conference this morning, Trump announced that he “can do the wall over a longer […]
Savanna’s Act, a bill that calls for the standardization of protocols for law enforcement agencies and for updating data for federal databases relevant to missing or murdered Native American women, was re-introduced to the floor on Monday by Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski. Savanna’s Act is named in honor of Savanna LaFontaine-Greywind, a pregnant Spirit Lake […]
On Monday, Congressional negotiators came to an “agreement in principle” on a spending bill to prevent another government shutdown from occurring Friday that includes an offer of $1.375 billion for 55 miles of new border fencing to satisfy President Trump’s demand for a border wall. Once the text of the actual spending bill is complete, […]
Yesterday, members of Congress, led by Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) and Rep. Nita Lowey (D-NY), announced their plan to introduce the Global Health Empowerment and Rights (HER) Act soon. The bill reverses and permanently bans the anti-abortion Global Gag Rule reinstated under the Trump administration, and protects access to healthcare, especially for women and girls, […]
On Tuesday, Congresswomen Jackie Speier (D-Ca.) and Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) hosted a press conference at the U.S. Capitol to announce the introduction of legislation in support of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). They were joined by activists and organizations spearheading the movement such as the Feminist Majority, the National Organization for Women, the National Women’s […]
Yesterday, Congress finally passed a deal to update its sexual harassment policy; the new policy now requires lawmakers to use their own money, not taxpayer funds, to settle suits for workplace sexual harassment. The new policy no longer allows members of Congress to use tax dollars to pay for sexual harassment settlements. Provisions such as […]
Yesterday, Nancy Pelosi announced that she will step down as the House Democratic leader by 2022 in order to secure the votes she needs to become the Speaker of the House in January. Pelosi’s support of leadership term limits won the votes of several Democrats and ensured she would have the 218 votes necessary to […]
Almost a year after Congress announced plans to pass sexual harassment legislation, Mitch McConnell announced that the legislation can still move forward before 2019. The House passed sexual harassment legislation in February while a weaker version of the bill was passed in the Senate in May. However, the Senate has struggled to negotiate the differences […]
Women won more seats in Congress yesterday than ever before, with over 110 women elected, including the first Muslim women, first Native American women, and two women in their twenties. The women who were elected include the former Teacher of the Year, small business owners, former military helicopter pilots, activists, a former CIA officer, and […]
Today is the 50th anniversary of Shirley Chisholm’s election to Congress as the first African American woman. Chisholm represented Brooklyn, New York in a district that was newly reapportioned and was majority African American and Hispanic. She served seven terms in Congress and ran for president. Shirley Chisholm was born in Brooklyn, NY in 1924 […]
On Monday, a three-judge panel on the Circuit Court of Appeals ruled North Carolina’s congressional district map as unconstitutionally gerrymandered to favor Republicans.
Pennsylvania currently has no women serving in the U.S. Congress, but that could soon change following a strong performance from women candidates in yesterday’s primary race, many of whom have a strong chance at winning their general elections.
On Tuesday, Texas was the first state to hold primary races in preparation for the November 2018 midterm elections. For the first time in 25 years, Democrats are running in all 36 of Texas’s congressional districts.
The House of Representatives passed a bipartisan bill last week that reforms the Congressional Accountability Act of 1995, which provides the current guidelines for how sexual harassment, discrimination and other related claims are handled on Capitol Hill. The new reform bill awaits a vote in the Senate.
On Monday, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that the state’s Republican drawn congressional districts were unconstitutional and ordered they be redrawn in the next several weeks.
Members of Congress returned to Washington yesterday after a month long August recess and there is a long agenda on the docket, but their first priority will be to pass a budget bill that will fund the government for fiscal year 2018. If they do not pass a budget bill by September 30, the federal […]
Featured presenters included Dr. Sima Samar, former Afghan Minister of Women’s Affairs and current Chairperson of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission; Gaisu Yari, former advisor to the Afghan Ministry of Women’s Affairs and a masters’ student in International Relations at Colombia University; and Belquis Ahmadi, Senior Program Officer at the United States Institute of Peace.
Like most perpetrators of mass shootings, Hodgkinson had a history of domestic abuse and battery.
Congress is expected to vote this week on a budget agreement that will keep the government funded through September, and that contains very few of the big ticket items the President had requested. The bill would be considered the first piece of bi-partisan legislation to move forward in the Congress since Trump took office.
On Thursday the Senate, using the Congressional Review Act, repealed a rule put in place by the Obama administration in December that blocked states from cutting off Title X funding to women’s health clinics that provide abortion services. The bill was already passed in the House of Representatives in February.
