Good afternoon,

In the wee hours of Saturday morning, FY2024 appropriations were finally complete. With that done, and no shortage of ill will, lawmakers wasted no time getting out of Dodge for a two-week recess. Hopefully their spirits rise again before they come back to D.C.

Some members of Congress, however, have lost hope – and resigned. The latest Congressional casualty was Rep. Mike Gallagher, who will leave the House in April and winnow the GOP's majority to just one singular vote. The party that was once famed for falling in line is now marked by high-profile fussing and fallings-out. The far-right House Freedom Caucus is punishing bipartisan efforts to merely keep the government running with motions to vacate the speakership. It's no wonder why some members want to take a permanent spring break – this House is messier than a frat house on a Sunday morning.

Here's what else you need to know this week...

ABORTION PILL ARGUMENTS HARD TO SWALLOW

• Despite saying that they'd leave abortion to elected officials over a year and a half ago, the Supreme Court is hearing arguments today regarding the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) approval of the abortion pill mifepristone, which could restrict access to abortion.

• Whereas Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, the case that infamously overturned Roe v. Wade and fifty years of precedent, gave states the power to restrict abortion, this case would limit access to mifepristone across the nation, regardless of states' individual abortion laws.

• The Supreme Court could decide to revoke access to mailed prescriptions – forcing rural women to travel great distances to visit a specially-certified doctor three times to be prescribed and pick up the medication. It could also reduce the window during which women can take mifepristone from 10 to seven weeks.

• Mifepristone has held FDA approval for 23 years and has been used in nearly two-thirds of abortions in the United States, providing decades of evidence of the procedure's safety. Abortion opponents in the case, on the other hand, are relying on distortions of science and two studies that have since been retracted due to conflicts of interest and flawed research.

• Limiting access to mifepristone would prevent doctors from providing the best possible science-based and evidence-backed medical care and restrict women from making their own reproductive health care decisions.

• Inserting politics into medical procedures has been proven to be politically unpopular. Since the reversal of Roe, women in Kansas, California, Kentucky, Michigan, Vermont, and Ohio have turned out to the polls to protect their abortion rights.

• Between this case and the House Republican's budget, which endorses a national abortion ban, the GOP is aiming to eliminate women's freedoms – but in doing so may very well eliminate their chances of winning key elections this fall. In the meantime, however, fractured state policies have divided small communities.

FLORIDA FARMWORKERS HEAT PROTECTIONS

• 2023 was the hottest year on record and this year is expected to be even hotter. For workers who earn their livelihoods outdoors – in construction and agriculture – these high temperatures can create deadly conditions. Heat has been the top cause of weather-related deaths for workers, killing dozens and sickening thousands every year.

• There are few heat-related workplace protections in the U.S. Last year, President Biden asked the Department of Labor (DOL) to issue the first-ever Hazard Alert that provides heat protections, but currently only four states – California, Washington, Oregon and Colorado – have rules that apply to farmworkers.

• In Florida, a coalition of farmworkers has moved around government regulations to create the Fair Food Program (FFP). The FFP has helped ensure that workers have water, shade, and breaks. Farms across 10 states have joined FFP, helping to protect 20,000 workers, and 30 more farms from an additional 11 states have applied to join – thanks in part to U.S. Department of Agriculture subsidies provided to farms with safe labor standards.

• Fourteen major food retailers – such as Walmart, Whole Foods, McDonald's, Taco Bell, and other grocery stores and fast-food chains – are participating in the program to buy from farms that have certified farmworker protections. The program helps provide transparency in companies' supply chains, guaranteeing health protections for their workers, and ensuring greater retention of farm employees.

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