The Tap: Wednesday, May 11, 2016

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The Tap covered election news, public policy, and other noteworthy events from February 2016 to February 2022.

Review of the day

The excerpts below were compiled from issue #16 of The Tap, which was published on May 14, 2016. READ THE FULL VERSION HERE.

Federal

• Ballotpedia’s Federal Desk Editor, Sarah Rosier, spoke with NPR’s Here & Now about the history of independent and third-party candidates, and the likelihood of a competitive third-party candidate this year.
  • See also: ‘Small Window’ Remains For An Independent Run and Ballot access for presidential candidates
  • “It takes a strong organization in every state to pull these required signatures, so we have a few weeks here where candidates can get organized, but a lot of upcoming deadlines and a lot of signatures to collect in the meantime,” said Rosier.

• House Republicans met with Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) to discuss his planned meeting with Donald Trump. Several congressmen, including U.S. Reps. Raul Labrador (R-Idaho) and Mark Amodei (R-Nev.), called on Ryan to support Trump in order to bring unity to the party. Others expressed a desire for Paul to pin down Trump’s positions on budget issues, abortion, and entitlement reforms. Following the meeting, Ryan said, “To pretend we are unified without actually unifying means we go into the fall at half-strength. This election is too important to go into an election at half-strength."

• In an interview with the Associated Press, Donald Trump said that he did not believe that he was obligated to release his tax returns before the general election. He added that there was “nothing to learn from them.” Trump later commented on the story, tweeting on Wednesday, “In interview I told @AP that my taxes are under routine audit and I would release my tax returns when audit is complete, not after election!"
  • Former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney criticized Trump in a Facebook post for his unwillingness to release his tax returns now. “It is disqualifying for a modern-day presidential nominee to refuse to release tax returns to the voters, especially one who has not been subject to public scrutiny in either military or public service. Tax returns provide the public with its sole confirmation of the veracity of a candidate's representations regarding charities, priorities, wealth, tax conformance, and conflicts of interest. … There is only one logical explanation for Mr. Trump's refusal to release his returns: there is a bombshell in them. Given Mr. Trump's equanimity with other flaws in his history, we can only assume it's a bombshell of unusual size,” he wrote.
  • Hillary Clinton also criticized Trump. She said during a campaign event in New Jersey, “What about his taxes? We will get around to that too. Because when you run for president, especially when you become the nominee that is kind of expected. My husband and I have released 33 years of tax returns, we've got eight years on our website right now. So you have got to ask yourself, why does he not release them?"
  • CNN reported on Wednesday that Trump released tax returns under audit in 2006 as part of an effort to develop casinos in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

• President Obama signed S1890 - the Defend Trade Secrets Act of 2016 into law. The legislation “authorizes a trade secret owner to file a civil action in a U.S. district court seeking relief for trade secret misappropriation related to a product or service in interstate or foreign commerce. It establishes remedies, such as an injunction and damages.”

• The Senate rejected Sen. Tom Cotton’s (R-Ark.) proposed amendment that would have prevented the Obama administration from buying heavy water from Iran as part of the nuclear deal by a vote of 57-42. The vote cleared the way for the Senate to vote on HR 2028 - the Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2016. It was the fourth time the Senate voted on the measure.
• The House passed HR 4641 - To provide for the establishment of an inter-agency task force to review, modify, and update best practices for pain management and prescribing pain medication, and for other purposes by a vote of 412-4. The legislation proposes creating a task force to create national guidelines for doctors when prescribing opioid medications to patients in an effort to prevent opioid addiction.
• The House unanimously passed HR 4843 - the Improving Safe Care for the Prevention of Infant Abuse and Neglect Act. The legislation proposes providing increased protections and services for infants born with an addiction to illegal substances
• The following legislation was passed by voice vote in the House: HR 4976 - the Opioid Review Modernization Act of 2016; HR 3680 - the Co-Prescribing to Reduce Overdoses Act of 2015; HR 4978 - To require the Government Accountability Office to submit to Congress a report on neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS) in the United States and its treatment under Medicaid, and for other purposes; HR 3691 - the Improving Treatment for Pregnant and Postpartum Women Act of 2015; HR 4969 - the John Thomas Decker Act of 2016; HR 4599 - the Reducing Unused Medications Act of 2016; HR 4982 - the Examining Opioid Treatment Infrastructure Act of 2016; and HR 4981 - the Opioid Use Disorder Treatment Expansion and Modernization Act.

State

• The Delaware Department of State released new proposed regulations for the prescribing of opioids. According to the press release, the regulations have three major provisions. First, when treating a patient for an acute injury or procedure, physicians would be limited to prescribing an initial supply of opioids to last a maximum of seven days. Second, after the initial prescription, the physician would be required to use the state’s prescription drug monitoring program to look up the patient’s prior use of prescription drugs and obtain informed consent of abuse risk from the patient before extending the prescription. Third, patients taking opioids for chronic pain would be required to undergo drug screenings twice per year and sign a treatment agreement. Physicians would also have to discuss alternative treatment options with and conduct risk assessments on such patients. The proposal has received a mixed response from medical providers in the state.

• The Colorado General Assembly adjourned its regular session. Regular sessions are limited to 120 calendar days. Colorado is one of 20 states that are under divided government. Democrats control the governor’s office and the state House by three seats, while Republicans control the state Senate by one seat. Both chambers of the state legislature have been included in Ballotpedia’s 20 battleground chambers to watch in 2016.

• Supporters, including the California Teachers Association and Service Employees International Union, submitted one million signatures for the California Tax Extension to Fund Education and Healthcare Initiative. The measure would extend personal income tax increases—approved in 2012—on incomes over $250,000, and it requires the submission of 585,407 valid signatures in order to qualify for the November ballot. Currently, nine ballot measures are certified for the ballot in California and 61 measures are being circulated. The California secretary of state's recommended deadline for signature submission was on April 26, 2016.
  • Due to low voter turnout in 2014, California has the lowest signature requirement for initiatives since 1982. Over 120 initiatives were filed with the secretary of state targeting the election in 2016. In 2014, a total of 89 were filed.
• New Jersey Assemblyman Patrick Diegnan, Jr. (D) was appointed to the New Jersey State Senate. He was appointed to replace Peter Barnes (D), who was appointed to the New Jersey Superior Court.

Preview of the day

The excerpts below were compiled from issue #15 of The Tap, which was published on May 7, 2016. READ THE FULL VERSION HERE.

State

• The Colorado General Assembly is projected to adjourn its regular session. Regular sessions are limited to 120 calendar days. Colorado is one of 20 states that are under divided government. Democrats control the governor’s office and the state House by three seats, while Republicans control the state Senate by one seat. Both chambers of the state legislature have been included in Ballotpedia’s 20 battleground chambers to watch in 2016.