Introduction

Causes - powered by Countable - provide millions of advocates an intuitive understanding of pending legislation and streamlines the communication process with lawmakers, enabling advocates to influence voting decisions effectively. Advocates can also sound off on issues of national, local, or personal importance: policy, news, campaigns, and more. 

As the only advocacy software to also run a community that consistently engages, Causes gives Countable a unique perspective. We get first-hand insights into what advocates think about and discuss, and we're passing these insights on to you. 

In this weeks policy roundup, we’ve gathered the latest bills advocates are talking about as well as highlighting comments from the advocates themselves.

BILL: Should We Invest in Preventing Invasive Species? - Invasive Species Prevention and Forest Restoration Act - H.R.3174

The Bill

H.R.3174 - Invasive Species Prevention and Forest Restoration Act

Bill Details 

• Sponsored by Rep. Becca Balint (D-Vt.) on May 10, 2023
• Committees: House - Agriculture 
• Latest action: Referred to the Subcommittee on Conservation, Research, and Biotechnology on June 1, 2023
• House: Not yet voted
• Senate: Not yet voted
• President: Not yet signed

Bill Overview

• The bill is a companion to the Senate legislation introduced by Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.).
• The bill would expand access to the U.S. Department of Agriculture emergency funding to combat the threat of non-native species to American forests. 
• It mandates a study to overcome the lack of centralization and prioritization of non-native insect and pathogen research and response within the federal government. The legislation would develop national strategies for saving tree species.

What's in the bill? 

Expands the USDA’s access to emergency funding to combat invasive species

• Invasive species threaten the stability of American ecosystems, and the bill would earmark funds to keep forests healthy.

Establishes a grant program

• The grant program would support institutions focused on researching the restoration of native tree species that have been severely damaged by invasive pests.

Supports research

• The bill authorizes funding to implement promising research findings on the protection of native tree species.
• The research will focus on noxious plants, invasive weeds, pests, and bolstering resistance in native species.

What advocates are saying:

BILL: Should We Cut Spending on Social Programs? - Limit, Save, Grow Act of 2023

The Bill

H.R.2811 - Limit, Save, Grow Act of 2023

Bill Details

• Sponsored by Jodey C Arrington (R-TX) on April 25, 2023
• Committees: House - Ways and Means; Budget; Appropriations; Oversight and Accountability; Education and the Workforce; Agriculture; Energy and Commerce; Judiciary; Rules; Transportation and Infrastructure; Natural Resources
• House: Passed
• Senate: Not yet voted
• President: Not yet signed

Bill Overview

• The GOP-backed bill is designed to raise the debt ceiling while cutting government spending, implementing "commonsense spending reforms" targeted at wasteful spending.
• The goal of the bill is to avert a historic default by the U.S. on its debt obligations by raising the debt ceiling, and ensuring that spending on social programs is reduced.
• The U.S. Treasury reached the current debt limit of $31.4 trillion in February, and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has employed "extraordinary measures" to avoid a default.
• The bill is designed to end the labor shortage "killing Main Street businesses" while reducing Democrat handouts to corporations.

What's in the bill?

Raises the debt limit

• The plan would lift the debt limit by $1.5 trillion or until March 31, 2024, whichever comes first.

Cutting government spending

• The bill will cut $4.5 trillion in government spending by canceling Biden's student loan forgiveness plan (which would offer relief of up to $20,000 per borrower), targeting welfare, and would recoup unspent Covid-19 assistance funds.
• Would eliminate $70 billion in additional IRS funding
• Limits increase in the federal budget to 1% per year.

Repeal green provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act

• Ends what the GOP is calling green Handouts to China, the Wealthy, and Corporations.
• Cuts hundreds of billions of dollars in special interest green energy handouts that are going to corporations.
• The Joint Committee on Taxation projects that green subsidies will cost more than double to $570 billion.
• Over 90% of the green electricity tax breaks flow to companies making $1 billion every year in sales. 

Adds work requirements to public relief programs

• Seeks to re-establish welfare reforms that impose work requirements as a condition of public assistance.
• The aim is to boost labor force participation, reduce chronic worker shortage, and reduce welfare rolls.
• As part of the fight against government handouts and subsidies for people to stay at home, GOP supporters say the bill will help small businesses struggling to find staff.

What advocates are saying:

BILL: Should We Ban Assault Weapons? - Assault Weapons Ban of 2023 - S.25

Bill

S.25 - Assault Weapons Ban of 2023

Bill Status

• Introduced: January 1, 2023, by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA)
• Committees: Senate - Judiciary
• Senate: Not yet passed
• President: Not yet signed

Bill Overview

• The bill bans the sale, manufacture, transfer, and importation of 205 military-style assault weapons by name.
• It exempts more than 2,200 guns from the ban, which can still be used for hunting, household defense, or recreational purposes.
• It shall be unlawful for a person to import, sell, manufacture, transfer, or possess a semi-automatic assault weapon.
• It requires a background check on any future sale, trade, or gifting of an assault weapon banned under the bill.
• It will impose secure storage procedures for grandfathered semi-automatic assault weapons like a trigger lock.
• Anyone in possession of a grandfathered weapon can not keep it in a place where it is accessible to an individual prohibited from possessing the firearm.

What's in the bill?

Would make communities safer

• A vast majority of mass shootings in the U.S. involve assault rifles, which are designed to kill quickly in a military context.
• Since 2006, 2,880 people have died in mass shootings in the U.S.

Would re-establish former assault weapons ban 

• The bill is a more expansive modern version of the 1994 Federal Assault Weapons Ban.
• From 1994 through 2004, when the federal ban on assault weapons was in place, mass shootings decreased. Data shows an immediate rise in shootings after the ban expired in 2004.

Bans the sale, transfer, manufacture, and importation of military-style assault weapons

• The bill will also ban high-capacity magazines and ammunition-feeding devices that hold more than 10 rounds of ammunition.
• It also bans bump-fire stocks and other devices that allow semi-automatic weapons to fire at fully automatic rates.

Would ban the AR-15 assault rifle

• Barry Moore (R-AL) has promoted a bill to make the AR-15 the national gun of the U.S. This bill would outlaw the possession of AR-15s.
• As of May 2022, before the Uvalde and Buffalo shootings, 51% of Americans favored a nationwide ban on the sale of AR-15 rifles.

Creates a record of crimes that have been committed with a banned weapon

• It enables the Attorney General to establish and maintain records of any semi-automatic assault weapons used in committing a crime. The Attorney General will submit the records to Congress and make the records public on an annual basis.

What advocates are saying:

BILL: Secure the Border Act of 2023 – H.R.2 – Tell Your Senators How To Vote

The Bill

• H.R.2 - Secure the Border Act of 2023

Bill Details

• Sponsored by Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL)
• The Act passed in a 219-213 vote.
• Two Republicans — John Duarte of California and Thomas Massie of Kentucky — joined all Democrats in opposing the new immigration restrictions.
• House - Passed
• Senate - Not Yet Voted
• President - Not Yet Signed

Bill Overview

• The GOP's "Secure the Border Act of 2023" (H.R. 2) would severely restrict the right to seek asylum in the U.S., limit lawful immigration avenues, pressure border communities, and establish new criminal penalties related to immigration law.
• It would restart border wall construction, increase enforcement personnel and defund NGOs that provide services to migrants. 
• H.R. 2 would limit access and eligibility for asylum as well as roll back safeguards for children in detention by making it easier for families with minor children to be held in detention indefinitely and fast-tracking removal proceedings for vulnerable minors.
• The bill would limit executive branch parole powers and criminalize visa overstays with up to six months in prison for a first offense.

What's in the bill?

The Act comprises two main divisions.

Division A

• Division A, dedicated to border security, includes plans for border wall construction, improvements in border and port security technology, the strengthening of requirements for barriers along the southern border, technology upgrades for U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and the reauthorization of the Anti-Border Corruption Act.
• The Act also calls for establishing workload staffing models for CBP's U.S. Border Patrol and Air and Marine Operations.
• Division A includes restrictions on funding, the collection of DNA and biometric information at the border, and regular publication of operational statistics by CBP.
• The Act also bans COVID-19 vaccine mandates or adverse action against Department of Homeland Security (DHS) employees.

Division B

• Division B addresses immigration enforcement and foreign affairs--including asylum reform and border protection, border safety and migrant protection, immigration parole reform, and provisions for the protection of children.

Asylum Reform

• The Act undoes protections for migrant children which are currently upheld by the Flores Settlement Agreement.
  • This landmark agreement stipulates conditions for the legal detention of children in U.S. immigration custody.
• The Act proposes to diminish these protections by removing the existing presumption against detaining noncitizen children accompanying their families.
• Under the proposed Act, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) would be mandated to reinstitute family detention, effectively holding parents and children who enter the U.S. unauthorized in immigration detention if the parent is charged with improper entry.
• The Act introduces an amendment to the bipartisan William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008, mandating the return of all unaccompanied migrant children — not just those from Mexico and Canada — to their countries of origin unless they are trafficking victims or express fear of return.
• The legislation proposes to fast-track removal proceedings for unaccompanied migrant children who may qualify for humanitarian relief. These expedited proceedings would occur within two weeks of an initial screening, which would take place within 48 hours of apprehension.
• H.R. 2 seeks to extend the transfer timeline of unaccompanied migrant children to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) from 72 hours to 30 days for those with humanitarian claims. It also introduces discretionary transfers, extending the time migrant children could be held in border facilities unequipped to care for minors.
• The Act will also require significant changes in the employment eligibility verification process and system. It enhances penalties for fraud and misuse of documents and carries out identity authentication employment eligibility verification pilot programs.

Employer Reform

The bill requires employers to provide and maintain proof of hiring only documented workers. Specifically, the bill calls for the following:

• A nationwide mandate requiring employers to verify the eligibility of their employees to legally work in the U.S., placing a heavy burden on small businesses and key sectors.
• Employers would need to attest under penalty of perjury that they have verified a potential employee's immigration status.
• The introduction of a new Employment Eligibility Verification System (EEVS), administered by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), through which employers would verify workers' eligibility.
• Employers would be required to end the employment of foreign nationals confirmed as ineligible to work.
• Escalated criminal penalties for habitual hiring violations, including imprisonment for up to 18 months and fines up to $5,000 per unauthorized worker.

 

 What advocates are saying: