Tag Archive for "legislation"

Posts Tagged legislation

Budget deal reached, Congressional approval pending

As you probably know by now, President Barack Obama and congressional leaders reached an agreement Sunday on a legislative package that will extend the federal debt ceiling, while cutting spending and guaranteeing further deficit-reduction steps, pending Congressional approval.

Obama on the deal:

Despite what some Republicans have argued I believe we have to ask the wealthiest Americans and biggest corporations to pay their fair share … and despite what some in my own party have argued I believe that we need to make some modest adjustments to programs like Medicare to assure that they’re still around for future generations.

While it’s certainly a relief to see some real movement among all the partisan tantrums, it’s still mighty depressing in my view. The ...

By Chloe Angyal • 12 years ago

Quick hit: the New York Times editorial board on anti-abortion legislation

Today, the NYT’s editorial board is applauding the striking down of anti-abortion policies of the kind we’ve seen in Kansas and Indiana. In Indiana, the GOP has tried to de-fund Planned Parenthood, and in Kansas, the governor signed a law that would place on abortion clinics requirements so strict that it would be almost impossible for clinics to adhere to them. In both states, the courts have struck these measures down. But, there’s still a real threat to women’s health, in the form of budget cuts:

While these rulings are preliminary, each is a determination that enforcing the law would cause irreparable harm and that the plaintiffs are likely to prevail at trial. They do not, however, address other threats to ...

By Logic • 12 years ago

Campus Sexual Violence Elimination Act earns more sponsors

Most sexual assaults are not reported. Sexual assaults reported to campus security are rarely reported to the police. Colleges are left to investigate and respond according to their own, often lenient or ill-defined, standards. Victims of unreported sexual assault rarely receive appropriate post-trauma care.

The Campus Sexual Violence Elimination (SaVE) Act would require that college campuses respond to reports of sexual violence in a responsible manner.

Support the Campus SaVE Act. This bill recently gained more sponsors. The seven Senators supporting the bill (in chronological order):

Robert Casey (D-PA), 4/14/2011 Patty Murray (D-WA), 4/14/2011 Olympia Snowe (R-ME), 6/9/2011 Richard Durbin (D-IL), 6/14/2011 Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), 6/21/2011 Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), 6/23/2011 Jon Tester (D-MT), 6/27/2011

Write to your U.S. Senator to ask them to co-sponsor this non-partisan bill. Congratulate your Senator if they have already showed support ...

By Chloe Angyal • 12 years ago

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand pushes for DOMA repeal

It’s been a hell of a couple of days for advocates of LGBT rights around here. On Friday night, the New York State senate sent a passed marriage equality bill to the desk of Governor Andrew Cuomo, who signed it into law right away. And on Sunday, the streets of New York were filled with rainbow-clad revelers who had come from all over the world to participate in the annual Pride parade (and to get their hands on the hilarious freebies).

But, as the smoke – and the glitter and the confetti – clears, it’s time to start looking toward the next fight. And for many people, that fight is repealing the Defense of Marriage Act.

The Defense of Marriage Act ...

By Chloe Angyal • 12 years ago

NY State Assembly passes marriage equality bill

As Maya reported earlier, it looked on Monday as though New York State would vote on marriage equality some time this week – and lo and behold, last night the state Assembly voted in favour of marriage equality! The bill passed 80 votes to 63, and now it moves to the Senate, where we need just one more Senator to vote for it. The Advocate reported last night:

The decisive vote must come from a Republican senator, where since Monday, when three undecided Democrats from New York City who voted against the bill in 2009 – Joseph Addabbo, Shirley Huntley and Carl Kruger – announced their support, all Democrats except the avowedly antigay Ruben Diaz Sr. plan to ...

As Maya reported earlier, it looked on Monday as though New York State would vote on marriage equality some time this week – and lo and behold, last night the state Assembly voted in favour of ...

By Chloe Angyal • 12 years ago

Louisiana moves to outlaw abortion entirely

Yeah, you read that right. Last Tuesday, the Louisiana Health and Welfare Committee passed, with a 10-2 vote, a bill that would make abortion provision illegal, with exceptions to save the life of the woman, but no exception if the woman was pregnant as the result of rape or incest. HB 645 (formerly known as HB 587), would send doctors who perform abortions in Louisiana to prison for up to 15 years.

The Times-Picayune reports:

The bill would make it a crime to provide an abortion or prescribe drugs with the intent of ending a pregnancy. There would be exceptions for medically necessary abortions, as certified by a physician, but not for cases of rape or incest. The measure also ...

By Chloe Angyal • 12 years ago

Connie Schultz on the Ohio “Heartbeat” bill

Last night on The Rachel Maddow Show, Cleveland Plain-Dealer columnist Connie Schultz talked about the Ohio “Heartbeat” bill, which would ban abortion as early as 18 days after conception – as soon as the fetus has a heartbeat, and long before most women would realize they were pregnant at all.

Schultz, who was present at the March hearing at which a fetus “testified” in favour of the bill, observed that “this has nothing to do with protecting life. This has everything to do with playing to their extremist base.” And when you have male representatives giggling about how if we just had a vaginal probe, we could find the heartbeat – which they couldn’t, at one point – and making ...

By Chloe Angyal • 13 years ago

Ohio “Heartbeat” bill could ban abortion just 18 days after conception

Ohio lawmakers will soon introduce a new abortion bill that would make abortion illegal as soon as a fetal heartbeat is detected, a move that some commentators say would mean a complete ban on abortion.

The “Heartbeat” bill will apparently be introduced later this month, right before Valentine’s Day (Get it? Hearts! Why let an unprecedented attack on women’s bodily autonomy get in the way of your seriously tacky marketing?) by Republican Representative Lynn Wachtmann. The bill is the first of its kind in the country, and if it passes we can expect copycats from other strictly anti-choice states like Texas and Oklahoma.

Robin Marty, writing at Alternet, explains why this bill would be tantamount to a complete abortion ban:

By ...

The “Heartbeat” ...