The Texan Podcast - Daily Rundown - May 21, 2024
Episode Date: May 21, 2024Want to support The Texan and help us continue providing the Lone Star State with news you can trust? Subscribe today: https://thetexan.news/subscribe/The Texan’s Daily Rundown brings you a quick re...cap of the latest stories in Texas politics so you can stay informed with news you can trust.Want more resources? Be sure to visit The Texan and subscribe for complete access to our in-depth articles, subscriber-exclusive newsletters, videos, podcasts, and more.Enjoy what you hear? Be sure to subscribe and leave a review!
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Howdy folks, today is Tuesday, May 21st, and you're listening to the Texans Daily Rundown.
I'm the Texans Assistant Editor Rob Lausches, and here is the rundown of today's news in Texas politics.
First up, after the U.S. Department of Justice proposed a new rule expanding Federal Firearm Lic license, or FFL, requirements, the Office
of the Texas Attorney General and Gun Owners of America filed a joint lawsuit challenging the rule
and on Sunday secured a federal court order blocking the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms,
and Explosives from enforcing the rule against certain plaintiffs. The DOJ claimed the rule was
to help implement the
Bipartisan Safer Communities Act authored by Senator John Cornyn. But critics, including
Cornyn, say the Biden administration violated the law and the Constitution in proposing the rule.
The rule has prompted Cornyn to file a resolution of disapproval in the U.S. Senate,
seeking to strike it down legislatively. Under the new rule,
gun owners would be forced to obtain an FFL and perform background checks before selling firearms in a wide range of new circumstances, including if they rented a table at a local gun show.
However, the court order by Judge Matthew Kazmarek compares the language of the Bipartisan
Safer Communities Act against the new rule,
highlighting how FFL requirements evolved from the original statute contained in the Firearm
Owners Protection Act of 1986 to the current statutory language in the BSCA, and finally
compared that to the new rule. Next, President Joe Biden has signed the Federal Aviation
Administration Reauthorization Act of 2024 into law.
Along with adding five additional flights into Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport,
allowing a direct route between San Antonio and the District of Columbia,
the legislation expands air traffic controller training,
requires flight carriers to provide a full refund upon request to passengers who hold a non-refundable ticket
for a canceled or significantly delayed flight, and updates to all safety standards.
The measure will reauthorize the FAA at $105 billion over five years, focusing on overhauling
aircraft certification and improving aviation safety. It increases authorizations for FAA operations to $66.7 billion over the term,
starting at $13 billion for fiscal year 2024, up from $11.5 billion in fiscal year 2023,
and reaching $14 billion in fiscal year 2028. An internal FAA memo from last year sheds light
on the significance of the legislation passing. The report states that an analysis by the Capital Access Alliance claiming DCA could
support additional flights is, quote, flawed and does not directly tie to the physical airport
capacity. In other news, Governor Greg Abbott and a bevy of high-ranking university officials
are facing a legal challenge filed by the Council
on American Islamic Relations following the issuance of Abbott's executive order addressing
anti-Semitism on Texas college campuses. Along with Abbott, members of the University of Houston
Board of Regents, the University of Texas System Board of Regents, and the president of UT San
Antonio are each named in the lawsuit. Filed in the Western District of
Texas, CAIR is representing the groups Students for Justice in Palestine at both the University
of Houston and UT Dallas and the Democratic Socialists of America. Abbott's executive order
was issued back in March as a way to address, quote, acts of anti-Semitism in institutions of
higher education. The order
addresses two student groups directly, the Palestine Solidarity Committee and Students
for Justice in Palestine, stating they will be, quote, disciplined for violating campus policies.
CAIR's lawsuit alleges that Abbott's executive order, quote, along with the campus-level efforts
to comply with it, are obvious attempts to
illegally suppress a viewpoint critical of one particular foreign country. Last but not least,
a nurse practitioner from Keller, who was fired by CVS Pharmacy without accommodating her sincerely
held religious beliefs about prescribing hormonal conception, has reached an undisclosed settlement
with the company. Robin Strader was represented by First Liberty,
a public interest law firm defending religious liberty.
She sought religious accommodation based on her belief
that certain contraception prescriptions function as abortifacients,
allowing conception but not implantation of an embryo.
Since 2015, Strader had worked in a CVS minute clinic.
For six and a half years, she operated under an
accommodation that allowed her to not prescribe hormonal contraception. Then, in August 2021,
CVS announced that it would no longer provide accommodations to Strader or other employees
who had a religious objection to providing hormonal contraception. She was terminated in
October 2021. Thanks for listening. To support The Texan, please be sure to visit thetexan.news and subscribe to get full access to all of our articles, newsletters, and podcasts.