Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra testifies at his 2021 confirmation hearing before the Senate Finance Committee. HHS published a final rule May 3, 2024 to expand health care access to DACA recipients. (Photo by Michael Reynolds-Pool/Getty Images) WASHINGTON — The Biden administration will publish a final rule Friday that will allow about 100,000 uninsured people in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program to enroll in state-run or private health insurance plans provided under the Affordable Care Act, administration officials said. The new rule from the U.S. Departm ..read more

UpLift project managers said that the guaranteed income program will continue until its planned conclusion in the spring of 2025 with private funding support following the new law's signing. (Photo by BetterPhoto/iStock/Getty Images) Although Iowa has a new law preventing local governments from funding guaranteed income programs, the UpLift program in Iowa plans to continue through outside support. Gov. Kim Reynolds signed House File 2319 into law Wednesday. The measure prevents cities and counties from implementing programs that support supplemental incomes to residents with no work requirem ..read more

Workers sort packages at the Amazon AGS5 facility on Oct. 27, 2022, in Appling, Georgia. Two U.S. Senate Democrats plan to introduce a bill to address quota systems they say lead to injuries for warehouse workers. (Photo by Sean Rayford/Getty Images) WASHINGTON  — Two Democratic U.S. senators announced Thursday they plan to introduce legislation that would require large companies to disclose quota practices to workers and prevent those quotas from interfering with a worker’s health. “The Warehouse Worker Protection Act would put an end to the most dangerous quotas that plague warehouses,” Dem ..read more

University of Wisconsin-Madison protesters sit around tents on May 1, 2024, as police work to dismantle their encampment on Library Mall. (Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner) WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden responded Thursday to weeks of protest on college campuses calling for a ceasefire in Gaza with a brief statement that the right to protest should be protected, but “not the right to cause chaos.” “We are not an authoritarian nation where we silence people or squash dissent,” Biden said from the White House’s Roosevelt Room. “In fact, peaceful protest is in the best tradition of ho ..read more

Immigrant advocacy organizations hosted a rally on the terrace of the Iowa State Capitol in Des Moines May 1, 2024 in opposition to the Iowa law making illegal immigration a state crime. (Photo by Robin Opsahl/Iowa Capital Dispatch) Immigrant advocacy groups held five events in cities across the state Wednesday to oppose a new law that makes illegal immigration a state crime in Iowa. In Des Moines, more than 70 people gathered under umbrellas and canopies on the terrace of the Iowa State Capitol, holding signs and listening to speakers with Latinx Immigrants of Iowa discuss the impacts of a n ..read more

Tim Blakeley, manager of Sunset Junction medical marijuana dispensary, shows marijuana plant buds on May 11, 2010 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images) Leading U.S. Senate Democrats reintroduced a bill Wednesday to remove marijuana from the list of federal controlled substances, following the Biden administration’s move a day earlier to significantly ease regulations on the drug. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York, Senate Finance Chairman Ron Wyden of Oregon and Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey, on Wednesday at a press conference applauded the Justi ..read more

Gov. Kim Reynolds, joined by Lt. Gov. Adam Gregg, left, Sen. Dan Dawson, right, and other lawmakers and lobbyists, signed into law on May 1, 2024, a bill that will reduce Iowa's individual income tax rate in 2025. (Photo by Robin Opsahl/Iowa Capital Dispatch) Gov. Kim Reynolds signed into law a measure speeding up income tax cuts, lowering Iowa’s individual income tax to a 3.8% single tax rate beginning in 2025. Reynolds signed Senate File 2442 into law Wednesday, a measure speeding up the cut made in 2022 to decrease Iowa’s individual income tax rate to a 3.9% single rate by 2026. The govern ..read more

(Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images) There is consensus among state lawmakers to update a fund that protects farmers when corn and soybean buyers go bankrupt, but a bill related to that goal failed this year because others took priority, according to a lawmaker who managed it. “We ran a little bit short of time,” said Rep. Dave Deyoe, R-Nevada, who managed the bill in the Iowa House. Senate File 2401 gained unanimous approval in the Senate in early April, less than three weeks before the legislative session adjourned. The bill would have roughly doubled the typical operating balance of the sta ..read more

UnitedHealth CEO Andrew Witty testified before the U.S. Senate Finance Committee on May 1, 2024, about a cyberattack on Change Healthcare, a subsidiary. (Screenshot from committee webcast) WASHINGTON — Capitol Hill lawmakers from both parties on Wednesday grilled UnitedHealth Group’s CEO over the largest-ever cyberattack on the U.S. health care industry, which has crippled payments to providers and pharmacies and left millions of patients clueless about whether their information is now on the dark web. A Russia-linked cybercrime organization dubbed “BlackCat” infiltrated a vulnerabl ..read more

Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene speaks during a press conference outside the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, May 1, 2024, about removing U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson from the leadership office. Kentucky Republican Rep. Thomas Massie, who supports the effort, stands to her left. (Photo by Jennifer Shutt/States Newsroom) WASHINGTON — Two U.S. House Republicans, aggrieved by Speaker Mike Johnson’s bipartisanship amid divided government, said Wednesday they plan to force a vote next week on removing him from the leadership office — despite the extremely long odds of success. Georgia ..read more