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Flurry of Bills Targeting Vaccine Makers and Mandates: Already this year lawmakers in 18 states have introduced over 80 measures dealing with vaccine policy, according to Dorit Reiss, a professor at...
With so much of our world online, data privacy has become a major concern for American policymakers. But in the absence of comprehensive federal legislation addressing data privacy, states are leading...
U.S. Rep Introduces Unique Measure Calling for Regulation of AI U.S. Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) introduced a resolution last week calling on Congress to establish a nonpartisan commission to make recommendations...
CA’s New Fast-Food Industry Law on Hold Implementation of a landmark law passed last year in California ( AB 257 ) aimed at improving working conditions for fast-food employees and potentially...
U.S. Hospital Use of Volunteers May Violate Federal Rules: Volunteer workers have become an integral part of the labor force at hospitals across the country. According to analysis of federal and other...
The massive $300 million budget approved by California lawmakers last week has generally been acknowledged as a placeholder that technically meets the June 15th constitutional deadline for getting a spending plan in place, thus allowing pols to keep getting paid while they work toward an agreement by the July 15th hard deadline. But while that means a lot of haggling is still to be done on many fronts, it seems assured that roughly 600,000 Golden State health care workers will divvy up around $933 million as a bonus for their work during the pandemic.
Details are pending, but state health officials said the incentive pay would be exempted from taxes. Bonuses are expected to be $1,000 for full-time workers and $750 for part-time workers. (SACRAMENTO BEE, SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS)
In the wake of a mass shooting at an Uvalde elementary school that left 19 students and two teachers dead, Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan (R) proposed redirecting more than $100 million in state funding to mental health and school safety programs before school starts again in the fall. Lawmakers are out of session until January, so shifting the dollars will require undertaking a special process called budget execution. (TEXAS TRIBUNE, DALLAS MORNING NEWS)
Hawaii Gov. David Ige (D) signed legislation (HB 2405) that requires Aloha State health insurers to cover gender-affirming care. The law also applies to mutual benefit societies and health maintenance organizations. (HAWAII NEWS NOW)
--Compiled by RICH EHISEN