State Department Policy Issued on March 29th, 2017 Policy Summary On March 29th, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson decided to proceed with a sale of F-16 fighter jets to Bahrain without human rights stipulations. The deal, which was proctored by President Obama and...
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Trumpcare’s Voting Fiasco
Despite the GOP’s efforts to lobby enough votes for the American Health Care Act (AHCA) to pass the House, they were not able to secure the necessary votes before the scheduled vote on Thursday, March 23. The Trump administration opted to postpone the vote until the follow day hoping they could gain some…
State Department Issues Keystone XL Pipeline Permit
A press release issued on March 24th by the Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs stated that a permit was issued to TransCanada for construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline. The statement detailed that this pipeline “would serve the national interest”, and follows President Trump’s call for the development of the…
Schools Must Do More for Disabled Students
The Supreme Court has unanimously ruled that schools must raise the bar on educational standards for disabled students. They rejected past rulings stating that the Individuals with Disabilities Act entitling disabled students to a free appropriate public education that is tailored to their needs, which simply meant that schools…
Effects of the Budget on Education
Donald Trump’s new budget plan proposes cutting 13.5 percent or $9.2 billion from education, removing $2.4 billion in grants going towards teacher training and $1.2 billion earmarked for summer and afterschool programs. The budget blueprint reduces or eliminates funding for need-based aid for college students, federal work…
Effects of the Budget on Immigration
House Speaker Paul Ryan proposed a budget estimate for 2017 that cuts funding to a wide variety of domestic priorities in order increase funding for the Department of Defense by $30 billion dollars and the Department of Homeland Security by $3 billion dollars. The projected results of this move are discussed across…
Effects of the Budget on Entitlement Programs
President Donald Trump released an outline of his budget proposal, America First, on Thursday, March 16 that substantially boosts spending on homeland security and defense while slashing spending in almost every other area. An important exception to this harsh slashing is entitlement programs such as Medicare…
Presidential Memorandum Regarding Construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline
President Trump released a presidential memorandum directing the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers (USACE) to expedite approval for the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) and to consider rescinding the Notice of Intent to Prepare a full Environmental Impact Statement released in the final days of the Obama…
Effects of the Budget on Foreign Policy
The White House published their first budget document on March 16th, and it detailed many cuts and increases for the 2018 budget. President Trump’s “skinny budget” only includes changes to discretionary spending, like a 28.7% cut to the State Department’s budget. President Trump plans to slash almost 2.5 billion dollars…
Trillion Dollar Infrastructure Plan
Trump has proposed that he will roll out a trillion-dollar public-private infrastructure project to fix the country’s aging highways. During his address to a joint session of Congress, he said: “Crumbling infrastructure will be replaced with new roads, bridges, tunnels, airports and railways gleaming across our beautiful land…