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Oversight Project Files Multiple Lawsuits After Biden Agency Obstruction - The Oversight Project announced new lawsuits Thursday in response to the Biden administration’s failure to comply with Freedom of Information Act requests. The Oversight Project filed suit against the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) for failure to comply with FOIA requests related to its issuance of an unlawful “technical assistance” document and meetings with far-Left outside groups and individuals. The FOIA requests concern communications related to the agency’s development of an unlawful guidance document that sought to enforce woke rules for employers. This guidance would force Americans to comply with wishes of the radical transgender community. The EEOC claimed it did not need to comply with the Administrative Procedure Act because the guidance was nonbinding. However, a federal judge disagreed with this interpretation and recently issued a temporary injunction halting the EEOC’s guidance. Heritage Expert: Mike Howell
Biden at United Nations is just another clown show – Biden was there. He spoke on the theme: "democracies vs authoritarians." Thankfully, it was nothing like last week’s prime time speech where he declared the big threat to American democracy to be anyone who disagrees with him. This time, he focused on actual bad guys. He rightly condemned Russia for trying to obliterate its neighbor, reaffirmed that Iran should not be allowed to field nuclear weapons, and chided North Korea for being obstinate. Unfortunately, the speech sometimes veered off on tangents that did not make sense, such as his suggestion to expand the UN Security Council. This very unlikely to happen. Not much upside there. Heritage Expert: Jim Carafano
9 Key Cases Supreme Court Will Hear in 2022-23 Session – It will be tough—if not impossible—for the Supreme Court to top the 2021-22 term when it comes to both drama and results that pleased the conservative legal community (not to mention conservatives in general). As I wrote elsewhere in July at the end of the term, “[t]he three words that best describe the Supreme Court’s decisions this term are text, history, and tradition. If that’s one word too many, try this: Originalism Rules! And that’s a good thing.”But for SCOTUS fans—and who isn’t one?—there will be plenty of excitement during the term that begins on Oct. 3. On Sept. 27, my Heritage Foundation colleague Zack Smith will host our Supreme Court preview of the 2022-23 term with former U.S. Solicitor General Paul Clement and former acting U.S. Solicitor General Jeff Wall. You can register for the event here. Although the Supreme Court will no doubt agree to hear more cases following its “long conference” when it considers the certiorari petitions that were filed during the summer, there are already several big cases on its docket for what promises to be another blockbuster term. Here’s a brief description of a few of them. Heritage Experts: John Malcolm and Zack Smith
Two plus two make five in Biden’s student loan handout – The rationale behind this transfer of student-loan debt does not even pass the smell test. It is being sold as a device to aid the less fortunate, but it is really a transfer of tax dollars from lower-income earners to higher-income earners. If the higher-income earners need this handout, then surely the lower-income earners need an even larger handout. Instead, those with less will be forced to give to those with more. How much more? The pause on interest alone, which has been in place for more than two and a half years, will cost the taxpayer $170 billion before any “forgiveness” even takes place. Meanwhile, the White House hasn’t even bothered to calculate the expected cost of its student-loan handout, which multiple empirical models peg at more than $500 billion. The White House’s plan also reduces how much new borrowers will have to repay and guarantees future handouts. The cost to taxpayers will only escalate as time passes, especially since colleges and universities now have an incentive to charge even higher tuitions, with the knowledge that larger loan balances will be assumed by the taxpayer. President Biden’s student-loan handout is an incredibly inefficient use of tax dollars and is entirely unnecessary. High-income earners should not be bailed out of debt into which they willingly went to fund educational opportunities that enabled them to earn their higher income. Heritage Expert: EJ Antoni
Biden’s Food Conference Should Put People First, Not Environmental Extremism – When announcing how the Biden administration is going to transform the food system, the USDA focused extensively on “reducing carbon pollution” and “emphasizing equity.” So, not only does the Biden administration want to centrally plan how farmers produce food, what food farmers produce, and what food people eat, it also appears far more concerned with environmental outcomes than efficiency, productivity, and affordability. America’s food system is the envy of the world, from our farmers to our truckers to our grocery stores. The last thing policymakers should do is increase government meddling, especially meddling that is less concerned with the main purpose of a food system (to feed people) than with unrelated objectives that very well could undermine this critical purpose. Heritage Expert: Daren Bakst
How congressional Republicans can force Biden to cut $130 billion in spending - In the lame-duck session after the election, Mr. Biden will ask Congress to ignore the rules once again and give his spending a “get out of jail free” card. But waiving the Statutory PAYGO budget rule requires 60 votes in the Senate. With the Senate split 50-50, Republicans hold all the cards. Mr. Biden’s preferred hand would increase government spending – and inflationary pressures – by more than $100 billion above what is required by current law. That would be terrible policy, and also terrible politics for Republicans who are attempting to make the case that they would be better stewards of the economy than their Democratic counterparts. The Statutory PAYGO rules give lawmakers two options for paring spending. Congress could enforce Statutory PAYGO and let the automatic cuts prescribed by the law happen; or Congress could enact different, targeted cuts equaling the required amount on a bipartisan basis. To be sure, the big spenders won’t like either of these options, preferring to keep spending high. But Mr. Biden is only in this situation because he and his allies in Congress went on an irresponsible spending spree, triggering the PAYGO rules. Heritage Expert: Matthew Dickerson
Judiciary Democrats just voted to support NON-CITIZENS voting in our elections – The vote by House Democrats to allow aliens to vote in U.S. elections is a fundamental betrayal of the rights of citizens to participate in the democratic process and choose their elected representatives. Allowing aliens to vote effectively disenfranchises citizens by diluting their votes. Aliens who have not made the commitment to the U.S. Constitution, U.S. laws, and our political and cultural heritage by becoming citizens should not be allowed to participate in elections that affect how Americans are governed. Heritage Expert: Hans von Spakovsky
EXCLUSIVE: Hawley Accuses Google of Joining ‘the Far Left’s Campaign to Punish Pregnancy Resource Centers’ - Sen. Josh Hawley is calling on Google to explain why it has reportedly “throttled” the online outreach of pro-life crisis pregnancy centers, expressing concerns that Google is “deliberately limiting pregnancy resource centers’ outreach efforts.” In a letter first obtained by The Daily Signal, Hawley, R-Mo., tells Google that the pregnancy research centers in his home state “seek to reach women considering abortion, in order to offer both alternatives to abortion and support during and after their pregnancies.” “That outreach takes a number of forms, including online ad campaigns focused on a number of abortion-related search terms,” he continued. “But recently, your company appears to have throttled that outreach.” Pro-life crisis pregnancy centers have faced a slew of attacks since the May leak of a draft opinion indicating that Roe v. Wade would soon be overturned. According to a Catholic Vote tracker, at least 72 crisis pregnancy centers have been attacked or vandalized since the leak. Heritage Expert: Mary Margaret Olohan
Martha’s Vineyard Isn’t The First Time Democrats Failed To Live Up To Their Empty ‘Sanctuary’ Promises – Much of the national media are happy to play along with this deliberate deception. The same corporate media that last year blithely ignored the federal government’s mass, midnight airlifting of illegal immigrants to New York; Jacksonville, Florida; and points beyond are now obsessed when a southern governor flies 50 Venezuelans to swanky Martha’s Vineyard. In their eyes, when the administration ships tens of thousands of illegal immigrants under cover of darkness, it’s no big deal. But if the Post spots 50 people flown into Martha’s Vineyard, somehow, it’s a “crisis.” The media never accused the administration of using migrants as pawns or being inhumane, yet the latter is doing exactly what Texas and Arizona are on a vast scale. Heritage Expert: Simon Hankinson