Legislation

Eileen O’Neill Burke, the newly sworn-in Cook County state’s attorney, has announced new policies focused on pretrial detention for violent offenses and stricter thresholds for retail theft. Burke’s approach marks a shift in priorities following the tenure of her predecessor, Kim Foxx.

Republican senators are demanding that negotiators remove a provision in the annual defense bill that requires women to register for the Selective Service System.

Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) announced that she intends to introduce a bill to freeze federal hiring and move agencies out of the swamp.

A new Senate report reveals that only 6% of federal employees are working in person daily, raising alarms about costs and productivity.

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court began deliberating the legality of Tennessee’s Senate Bill 1, a law prohibiting minors from accessing puberty blockers, hormone treatments, and other gender-transition-related medical interventions.

Efforts to transfer control of the land where the former RFK Stadium sits to Washington, D.C., could soon come to fruition through an unconventional legislative strategy. According to a report from Punchbowl News, the legislation may be included in a continuing resolution to fund the federal government, which lawmakers must pass by December 20 to avoid a government shutdown.

Chase Strangio, the transgender ACLU attorney arguing before the Supreme Court to challenge Tennessee’s SB1, stirred controversy during a CNN appearance on Wednesday by claiming that children as young as two years old can know they are transgender. Tennessee’s SB1 law bans puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and sex-change surgeries for minors, a move the ACLU claims violates the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause.

A proposed California bill will prioritize slave descendants in college admissions, according to a report from the Associated Press.

California Governor Gavin Newsom and incoming Senator Adam Schiff, both prominent Democrats, have criticized President Joe Biden for pardoning his son, Hunter Biden. The Sunday decision has sparked division within the Democratic Party, with Newsom and Schiff voicing concerns about the precedent it sets.

Senator Richard Blumenthal, chair of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, criticized airlines for exploiting passengers with rising fees for luggage, seat assignments, and other services. Blumenthal's remarks came ahead of a Wednesday hearing titled "The Sky’s the Limit — New Revelations About Airline Fees," where executives from major airlines, including American, United, Delta, Spirit, and Frontier, are set to testify.