Maryland is having to defend its permit for offshore wind development, having kinda let it slide for some years thanks to the good businesspersons of O.C. Now Trump's puppet feds are after them, along with anyone else nationwide who is trying to shift from fossil-fuel dependency. Not a good look. Another bad look: Trump's puppet House committees crashed housing availability to the tune of 400,000 fewer available Section 8 vouchers for low-income renters, making homelessness much more common and throwing big burdens on the states and cities -- that's becoming a clear trend for the Trump forces. 

And Trump wants to see the NFL Commanders change their name back to that racist original or he's promised to intervene in D.C.'s elaborate stadium deal. Maybe Gov. Moore will get to keep the team in Maryland after all. We can imagine how many people will be happy about that.

It's all News You Can Use, palatable or not. 

HERE IN MARYLAND

Trump Threatens To Hold Up Stadium Deal If Washington Commanders Don’t Switch Back To [That Racist Name] President Donald Trump is threatening to hold up a new stadium deal for Washington’s NFL team if it does not restore its old name of the Redskins, which was considered offensive to Native Americans. Trump also said Sunday that he wants Cleveland’s baseball team to revert to its former name, the Indians, saying there was a “big clamoring for this” as well. The Washington Commanders and Cleveland Guardians have had their current names since the 2022 seasons and both have said they have no plans to change them back. AP

Summaries from Maryland Reporter:

Maryland Stands By Permit For Offshore Wind Farm, Despite EPA: The Maryland Department of the Environment is defending the permit it issued to a wind farm proposed off the coast of Ocean City, after a challenge from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The Thursday letter from Maryland Secretary of the Environment Serena McIlwain also said the state would not be reissuing the permit, as the EPA requested, because the state had not made a mistake that needed correcting. Maryland Matters.

What Happened To Moore's Support Of Reparations Bill? Privately, Gov. Wes Moore had encouraged the work of a group of legislators working on a bill to begin addressing slavery reparations, Del. Aletheia McCaskill said. But then members heard whispers that Moore had something else in mind.  Baltimore Banner.

Moore Urges PJM Grid Operators To Choose Leadership Wisely: Gov. Wes Moore and a bipartisan coalition of other state executives urged the operator of Maryland’s electrical grid to select tenured leadership and to make policy changes to mitigate skyrocketing utility prices.  Baltimore Sun.

How A Daring Audit Sparked Reckoning Over Police Custody Deaths: This spring, an independent audit reached a stunning conclusion: Dozens of deaths in police custody reviewed by Maryland’s medical examiner should have been ruled homicides but weren’t. For its principal author, Towson U. psychology professor Jeff Kukucka, the audit was years in the making. He had spent his career toiling to shine new light on how the criminal justice system suffers from bias, including racial bias, that can affect the integrity of its work.  Baltimore Banner.

Trump To Release Funds For Before-, After-School Programs: President Donald Trump’s administration confirmed Friday that it’s releasing funds that support before- and after-school programs as well as summer programs, a portion of the $6.8 billion in withheld funds for K-12 schools that were supposed to be sent out two weeks ago. Advocates say the release would mean that as many as 25,000 Maryland schoolchildren will not lose access to after-school programming this fall. Maryland Matters.

Vice Adm. Davids' Short Naval Academy Tenure: Leading the U.S. Naval Academy was never smooth sailing for Vice Adm. Yvette Davids, the first female superintendent in the Annapolis military college’s 180-year history. After being nominated in 2023 by then-President Joe Biden, Davids had to wait six months to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate, her nomination held up with more than 250 others by a defiant Alabama senator angry over abortion laws. Baltimore Banner.

THE OTHER 49

WIN/LOSE/TIE? ECONOMY: President Trump’s efforts to cut the federal workforce have resulted in about 69,000 fewer federal workers since the beginning of the year, a force reduction of about 2.3%. But at the same time, state and local governments are adding more jobs; state governments have added 66,000 positions since January, while local government payrolls have swelled by 119,000 positions. (Pluribus News) (paywalled)

PA: Pennsylvania bill would require home sellers to disclose past flooding events | Pennsylvania Capital-Star via States News

GENTRIFIED BUT STILL MORE CATTLE-FIED: Despite the influx of remote workers stemming from the Covid era, 2.12 million: The number of cattle in Montana in early 2024, according to federal data. Cows still outnumber humans, population 1.14 million, by a nearly two-to-one margin. (Montana Free Press) via Pluribus

 NEXT-DOOR DATA CENTERS: A massive data center project could bring well-paying jobs to Delaware and raise the profile of the state for tech projects, but it comes with energy needs nearly double that of all the state's households, Spotlight Delaware reports. After recent issues with consumer energy pricing amid a supply crunch, regulatory officials specifically called out the growth of data centers as part of the problem. States News

GLOBAL, NATIONAL AND THE FEDS

The Economist’s detailed take on the health care effects of the OBBB includes: “Most important is what the bill did not do: extend the enhanced tax credits. During the covid-19 pandemic the federal government created more generous tax credits for the exchanges, which reach people earning up to around $60,000 a year for an individual. Without those enhanced subsidies on the exchanges, the CBO expects costs for this group to go up by more than 75% for most people and 90% for those in rural areas.”

Most US adults think the GOP tax bill will help the wealthy and harm the poor, AP-NORC poll finds -- Republican officials are promoting their recently passed tax and spending bill as a win for working Americans, but a new survey shows that Americans broadly see it as a win for the wealthy. About two-thirds of U.S. adults expect the new tax law will help the rich, according to the poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Most — about 6 in 10 — think it will do more to hurt than help low-income people. AP

And wisdom from this morning’s POLITICO Playbook “Attention is the most valuable commodity in American politics right now. And for years, an 'attention gap' between the two parties has drastically shaped our politics to Trump’s advantage. But with Trump now seemingly unable to control the narrative — just for the moment, which will undoubtedly change — and with Democrats beginning to learn from their own failures, that attention gap is closing.”

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> 

Here is Megan E’s DC report plus opportunities to push back

Last week, People’s Action Institute brought a delegation of leaders with our Homes Guarantee campaign to Washington, DC to advocate against cuts to housing funds proposed by the Trump administration and for increased funding for housing to address the current housing and cost of living crisis. We attended the markup of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development where Congressman Quigley (D-IL) shared One Northside leader Tamara Clark’s story of how Section 8 vouchers have kept her and her grandchildren housed, which Tamara shared with his office earlier that morning as part of our lobby day. On Tuesday, we held a press conference in front of the HUD building to protest HUD Director Scott Turner’s request for a 44% budget cut to the agency where Congresswoman Jayapal spoke alongside our leaders. Watch a clip of Elizabeth Mackey’s powerful speech (with VOCAL-NY). 

The House subcommittee passed the THUD bill along party lines with all Democrats on the subcommittee speaking out against it. The full committee passed the bill later in the week. While the bill doesn’t go nearly as far in cutting housing funds as the President requested, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimates that if it is signed into law, 400,000 fewer people will receive section 8 housing vouchers next year which help them pay the rent. Public housing funding would be reduced by 17 percent over this year when there is a terrible repair backlog in public housing across the country. 

Also last week, the House passed and Trump signed the Senate-passed GENIUS Act, a light regulatory system of stablecoins, which the crypto industry has been advocating for since they funded Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign. Top Democratic banking regulators, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) vehemently opposed the bill , which allows for Trump to make a fortune on his stablecoin, warning that the proliferation of stablecoin without sufficient regulation is likely to cause the next financial crisis (not to mention its use in trafficking arms and avoiding tax liability). Many Democrats in both Houses supported the bill. 

The Department of Education announced Wednesday interest accrual for student loan borrowers on the Saving on Valuable Education (SAVE) plan will restart Aug. 1.

Immigration Enforcement and Health Care

The Department of Health and Human Services will begin handing over Medicaid data on individuals to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Federal law has long protected access to emergency medical care regardless of immigration status and 14 states and the District of Columbia offer coverage to eligible children regardless of status (using state dollars). This violates longstanding policy and ethics around the privacy of health care data and could discourage undocumented people from seeking medical care -- which threatens their health and public health writ large. Several states have sued and are seeking a court order blocking the data sharing.  

The Trump administration is also directing community health centers to do immigration status checks or risk losing federal funding. Community health centers receive some 80% of their funding from the federal government as part of a compromise when undocumented immigrants were left out of the Affordable Care Act. They are a primary way that uninsured people, including many people without immigration status, receive preventive and nonemergency care. This policy puts all of our health at risk. 

In other bad news, U.S. measles cases have reached the highest level in 33 years. 

ACTIONS TO TAKE: ASKS: What You Can Do This Week

.

Wednesday, July 23 at 1PM ET: Join the Progressive Caucus Action Fund, Indivisible, Popular Democracy in Action, People’s Action, and Social Security Works for Accountability August: Tell Congress What the Megabill Means at Home! Register for this free livestream here: bit.ly/congresscomeshome 

Saturday, July 26th People’s Action Institute is endorsing the Families First Mobilization with nationwide events. On July 26, Americans in every corner of the country will come together in peaceful marches, rallies, and actions to say: our families come first—not billionaires, not authoritarians, and not corrupt politicians. From rural towns to major cities, Families First actions will bring people together to collectively demand an end to policies that harm children, seniors, and our families. We reject the Administration's actions that have gutted essential programs like Medicaid, FEMA, food stamps, school lunches, and more, all so a handful of billionaires can get tax giveaways. The national day of action follows a 60 day-24 hour vigil where people will share Medicaid stories on the national mall. The vigil will be livestreamed. 

Wednesday, July 30th, —5pm PT // 7pm CT //  8pm ET Join People’s Action Institute and the Organizing Revival National Networks for a Livestream event on Budget Reconciliation fight and to commemorate the 60th Anniversary of the creation of Medicaid and Medicare titled, the Big Betrayal and How We Fight Forward. General registration link: ppls.ac/fightforward

Megan E is Federal Affairs Director for People’s Action, which is Progressive Maryland’s national affiliate.